46. ...Bc6 47. c5

Once again, little to say. I will check in again for the next move on Sunday.

45. ...Rd8 46. Kh2

So, looks like this is the next to last move of the year. Not a whole lot going on here at my end. I will see you all again on Thursday with the next move.

44. ...Rc8 45. Bb3

Hello once again everybody. The endgame rolls on with Bb3. Next move is coming on Monday.

43. ...Rh8 44. Kg3

Well, I finally got an interview scheduled with a legitimate company. Still not going to happen for another two weeks or so. Anyway, next move will come on Friday.

42. ...cxb4 43. axb4

Endgame is really moving right along. Next move comes on Tuesday, be sure to get your votes in!

41. ...Rb8 42. b4

Woo!!!!!!!!!! Pending final grades coming out I am a college graduate now! Still no luck finding work that doesn't involve door-to-door sales or being on the road 50+% of the time though. Next move comes on Saturday.

40. ...Bh1 41. g5

Working on writing papers and studying for finals this week. Next move on Wednesday (after I finish my last final!)

39. ...Bb7 40. Re7

Just finished my last day of classes. Now only 2 papers and 2 finals stand between me and my degrees. Next move is coming on Sunday.

38. ...Ra8 39. Re1

Looks like this is going to be a pretty drawn out endgame. Anyway, I will be entering my last week of classes this week, to be followed by Finals week. Once my grades are in, I will officially have my two Bachelor's degrees in Mathematics and Anthropology, and I will have my minor in Computer Science. Hooray! Next move is coming on Thursday.

37. ...Kg7 38. Ba4

Don't really have much to say about this move. I have 2 papers and 2 finals left in my collegiate experience over the next two weeks, then I will have my 2.5 degrees. Unfortunately, however, the job hunt is still going rather slow (as it is for most people I imagine). Anyway, I will see you all again on Monday with the next move.

36. ...Rxe8 37. Rxe8+

Still forcing. Should be obvious what black should do here, clearly resignation is forced. Just kidding, or am I? Next move is coming along on Friday.

35. ...Ra7 36. Re8+ and a game by request

This felt rather forced, so luckily I didn't have to think much about it. Next move is coming along on Tuesday. Now, since a game from DSM or Ames was requested, I dug around and managed to find an actually instructive game from the Des Moines Fall Classic. It is my round 1 game against Gerald Hawkins, in which white relentlessly attacks and black quickly finds himself unable to defend. The game reminds me of looking through old games from the 1800s where one player never really sees their impending doom until it is already too late. Please let me know if you like seeing the games in this format or if you prefer my previous method of using diagrams once in a while.

34. ...Bh1 35. g4

I have finally played g4, usually it comes much earlier in the game from me. I have not annotated any recent games, but I am actually not in Iowa City with my games right now, but I can probably get up one or two games/positions with my next post on Saturday.

33. ...a6 34. h4

I guess I will continue running you out of moves. *evil laugh* Next move on Wednesday.

32. ...Bb7 33. a3

Almost to my last Thanksgiving break of college. Still hunting for a job, but then again, so is everybody else. Next move comes on Sunday.

31. ...Kf8 32.Kf2

I decided to move my king as well. Next move comes on Thursday.

30. ...Rfd8 31. Bd7

Guess I will block that open file. Getting ready to go home for the weekend. See you all again Monday.

29. ...Bxf3 30. Re7

So here we are, another 3 days, another move made. Next move coming Friday.

28. ...Qxf3 29. Qxf3

I made sure to make my move nice and early today. Next move is coming Tuesday.

27. ...Qc6 28. f3

Well, technically nobody called the flag, so I would say the game has not ended on time. However, because of this, and since nobody voted in the usual time period (Hank voted after the black flag would technically have fallen) I think it would be best to just call it even and keep the game going. Anyway, the next move will be coming on Saturday.

26. ...Bb7 27. Bh3

Sorry I am slightly late delivering the move. Had quite the day today. Anyway, next move is going to come on Wednesday.

25. ...b6 26. Bf5!?

Since Hank was rooting for a trick or treat, I decided to play a trick. I will let you ponder it over the Halloween weekend and will give a response on Sunday.

24. ...c5 25. Qe3

Actually had to spend some time on this move, since most of the previous moves were fairly forced. Anyway, next move is coming on Thursday. Now off to work on a paper due tomorrow and a test to be taken tomorrow.

23. ...g6 24. Rae1

Heel still is hurting pretty bad, but not as much as before. Hopefully I will be back to badminton playing shape by next week. Anyway, this game is more or less playing itself from the white side, which is probably not what black wants to have happen. I will see you all again Monday with move 25.

22. ...Qf6 23. Qd3

Just going to go ahead and be nice and subtle with my threats :-p Anyway, tonight I am joining the University Badminton Club and completely forsaking the Chess Club. I also won in round 1 of the collegiate tournament currently being held on ICC, current standings are here. I am taking a bye in round 2 to play OTB in Ames this weekend. Also, I have a lot of free time on my hands now since I finished my MWF classes, so if anyone wants me to post anything chess related up, I have all the time in the world to prepare it. Next move is set to arrive on Friday.

**Edit: Wednesday Morning** So, after 15 minutes of playing at the Badminton Club, I seriously jacked up my heel and had to stop playing. It still hurts pretty bad, so I am just hoping I didn't do something serious to it. After that I stopped by the chess club and went 4.0/4.0 then went home.

21. ...Bxe5 22. Rxe5

Next move on Tuesday.

20. ...Qg5 21. g3

I decided to avoid the Bishops of opposite color resulting after Qxf3 Bxe5 when I am not sure my pawn will be enough. So I will just see what comes of this.

I passed my Tae Kwon Do final, so I am now the equivalent of a Yellow Belt. Woo! Today is also the last day of my Badminton class doubles tournament. I am currently in the lead at 11-1 in the tournament, hopefully I will be able to avoid losses today to come out #1.

Next move will be coming on Saturday, by which point I will be 22 (Birthday on Thursday :-))

19. ...Qh5 20. Be5

So you wanted to threaten a mate, huh? That's how it is going to be, eh? I'm going to have none of that! Also, don't question why I am up at 6am to post my move. Now on to unrelated business. So far 8-1 in the Doubles Tournament my class is having where you must switch partners every game. That is in the lead by 1 win over the next closest player. Monday I will pass my Tae Kwon Do final and be a yellow belt. Lastly, I recently got some tickets to the Iowa-Indiana game, hopefully Iowa will still be undefeated at that point. That about sums everything up.

P.S. I am toying with the idea of embedding some video posts in the near future so that my webcam and video editing skills (or lack thereof) will get some occasional use. Opinions?

18. ...Bxf3 19. Bxf6

So we are finally getting some more interesting voting going on, this time 2-1. I am going to be pretty brief today, since I still need to eat my first meal of the day, and it is 6 pm. Next move coming on Sunday.

17, ...Bg4 18. Bg5

So I think I'll just hold on to that pawn and assume nothing bad will happen. Anyway, next move is coming at you on Thursday.

16. ...Qc5 17. Bxh6. And so it begins.

Down goes the h6 pawn. I decided to go ahead and spice the game up a bit after ...Qc5's 2-1 victory. I think Jason's ideas were more or less right if I played the position slowly, but this just looks so much more enticing. I am really looking forward to the debate on this move (particularly what all of the world leaders' insights are), which will produce a response from me on Monday.

15. ...Qe7 16. Re1

Might as well harass her Majesty while I'm at it. So... how is everything going? Kind of have a lack of things to say today. Uh... well... I'll be back Friday with move 17.

14. ...Bc7 15. Qc3

After painstaking (read "nonexistent") calculations, I have elected to respond to 14. ...Bc7 with 15. Qc3. Looks like the character of the middlegame is starting to show itself. Now maybe once we reach an interesting position the votes will pick up? Anyway, I am getting ready after running errands all day to finally relax and watch the Iowa-Penn. St. game. See you all Tuesday with the next move!

13. ...Nf6 14. Rd1

Another incredibly close vote. Hopefully we can get some more votes sometime soon. Anyway, I don't have much to say at the moment, since I am battling a headache. Have fun with the current position and I will see you all again Saturday.

12. ...exd4 13. Qxd4

Ok, so once again a 1 vote margin of victory. I hope that by the end of the game at least one move will get 5+ votes. Next move coming on Wednesday.

11. ...e5 12. Re1

So here we are again, another move made. This time, ...e5 wins with a resounding 2 votes. Sunday will bring move 13 from me. In the mean time, I am waiting for my prize from winning a puzzle contest on Alexandra Kosteniuk's blog.

10. ...h6 11. Bc2

Once again the first move proposed wins. This time, however, by a 1-1-1 margin. Looks like my next move is coming on Thursday, so have fun contemplating your moves. On a badminton update, I have two broken rackets, but bought a third one, which is painted gold, that I claim rose from the ashes of my fallen rackets. So far still undefeated. OK, see you all on the day of Thor.

9. ...Nxe4 10. Bxe4 and the Iowa Open

Here is your new position:


My next move will come on Monday, so cast your votes early (especially to win tiebreaks)!

I had a decent Iowa Open, scoring 3.0/5.0, though in the last round I messed up a pretty easy draw. I had a couple games which were interesting, and what is more than that, I had some pretty cool tactics come up. I will post some of these tactical puzzles and the solutions below. If you want to see the whole games (the one against Kende is worth seeing, a really complex middlegame) then just ask and I will put them up too.

Tactic #1: vs Bullinga (Black to move), difficulty: 2/10 for the tactic, 6/10 for the underlying idea:


Tactic #2: vs J. Zhang (White to move), difficulty: 4/10:


Tactic #3: also vs J. Zhang (mostly here because it is cute, not because it is hard) (also white to move), difficulty: :-)/10 :


Tactic #4: vs Kende (White to move), difficulty: 7/10:



Solutions:

#1: 1. ...Bh3+! seals white's fate 2. Kxh3 Qxf3 keeps the white king permanently on the side of the board where it is vulnerable. Seeing just this far is fine, but here is the real threat: 3. Be3?! (white is lost anyway) Re5! (mate is threatened via Rh5#) and the game concluded: 4. Qa4 Rh5+ 5. Qh4 Rxh4+ 6. Kxh4 Re8! (same idea) 7. Rad1 Re5 (there are a lot of mates here, so just playing one that you can see is more important than finding the shortest one) 8. g4 g6! 9. Rfe1 Rh5+!! (mate in 2 by gxh5 Qxh5#) resigns.

#2: White is better and will probably be able to win this ending anyway, but... 1. Rxf6!! gxf6 2. Rg1+ Kh8 3. Bd4! (threatens Bxf6#!) Rfe8+ 4. Kf3 Re6 (giving back the exchange by ...Re5 is better, but it is a lost ending in any case) 5. Nh6! (threatens Nxf7#) Rf8 which leads us to the cute part of the puzzle, which is the position in #3.

#3: I smiled when I saw how tied down black is. That is also why I made the difficulty :-) out of 10. Here is the hilarity: 1. b5!! Zugzwang! At best, black is forced to give up the exchange, when the queenside pawns are already too far along to be stopped. Black played ...Bf5 and resigned 3 moves later.

#4: Here is a slightly more challenging position. White is up some material, but can't quite break through... or can they? 1. b4!! (kicks the queen away from defence of the d4 square, which will result in a devastating check) Qxb4 2. Qd4+ f6 3. Rxf6 (gxf6+! is technically more accurate, but my opponent had less than 30 seconds left at this point, so I just made the most complicated move I could find that I was sure was okay.) and black flagged searching for a saving resource that was not meant to be.

8. ...dxe4 9. Nxe4

Once again, a 1-vote victory. This time for dxe4. I had a pretty decent showing at the Iowa Open, 3.0/5.0, though I horrendously messed up an easy draw in my last round game. I had a couple interesting games, but it will be a couple days until I get around to looking at them and posting one, probably alongside my next move on Friday.

7. ...0-0 8. e4

Here is the new position for all of you to work on. I am currently a little busy getting ready for the day (Iowa Open is today and tomorrow), so I have nothing witty to say at the moment. I will see you all again Monday with the next move and hopefully something about the Iowa Open (I will put it all in one post to be less confusing).

6. ...Bd6 7. 0-0

6. ...Bd6 wins by the slimmest of margins, by 1 vote (since there was only one vote). I went ahead and castled. So since the last move I have managed to break both badminton rackets I have (I guess I just hit it too hard). On the plus side, I haven't lost a doubles match yet (haven't played any singles yet).

5. ...Nbd7 6. Bd3

No fanfare this time, just the move: 6. Bd3. 5. ...Nbd7 won by simply being the only vote (one vote can make a difference!). My next move is coming on the 2nd, so be sure to put in your 2 cent's worth by 11:59 pm on the 1st. Time to start programming in Ruby for homework...

4. ...c6 5. e3

By a 2-1 vote, 4. ...c6 gets the nod. I am responding with 5. e3. Here is a question for you to think about while considering the next move: Why did I have to buy a textbook for my Badminton class?


You have until 11:59 pm on the 29th to cast your vote, on the 30th move 6 will arrive.

3. ...Nf6 4. Nc3

So once again we had a tie, and the first tied move suggested was ...Nf6, so that is what will be played. For those of you who do not have an entire room at your house dedicated to the current position of this game (don't worry, I don't either) here is where we are:


All you voters have until 11:59 pm the 26th to vote, I will be posting my fifth move on the 27th at some point.

2. ...e6 3. Nf3

Looks like a simple majority won this time. And... we are up to 3 votes! If this trend continues, by the endgame this might be a semi-popular blog (2, 3, ..., 56, etc.).

Here is the current position:


You all have until 11:59 on the 23rd to cast your votes, the 24th I will post my move (on the first day of my last semester of college!).

1. ...d5 2. c4

Sorry to Robinson, but I have decided that in case of a tie (1 for d5 and 1 for Nf6) that the move which was originally suggested first will win the tiebreak. There really isn't much of another way to decide this without looking like I am choosing for you. Also thanks to Anonymous (*cough* Jason *cough*) for voting. Hopefully we can get more votes in the future so that we won't have to go through tiebreaks again. Here is the current position:


Anyway, my next move will be posted on the 21st, so you have until 11:59 pm on the 20th to vote.