The Bluff (1997-03-24)

Last night I lost my first chess game against a human player since 1993-07-29, a lunch-hour game while contacting at ADRA in Chelmsford, MA. (The last time before that was 1987-05-12, in a neighborhood greasy-spoon in Ypsilanti, MI. :-)

A few nights ago, I beat Candy Man in five moves. Sportin' Life thought he could do better. He drew black, and resigned on his 16th move.

For the rematch, I played a vererse-color of the same opening ... fianchetto the bishop and castle as soon as you can, on the right-hand side of the board, i.e., king-side as white and queen-side as black. No big whoop.

But then Sportin' life gets in my face with his queen, calling "Check!" on his third move. I didn't take offense ... I just chased it to the other side of the board. While he wasted tempo moving his queen, I developed my minor pieces and castled queen-side.

Around the 15th move, I saw an opportunity to do something I would not have done in a tournament game ... I tried to bluff him. I'd offered to trade queens with him a coulple of times, and he'd declined, so I set a trap and offered him my queen for free.

      after  15. ... Rh8-f8 

	 . *-K-R .-R . *
	-P-B-P . * .-P-P
	 .-P . * .-N . *
	 * .-B . N . Q .
	-Q * P * . * . *
	 * . N . * . * .
	 P * . P P P P P
	 R . B . K B * R

He took a Very Long time considering the offer ... it smelled like a trap ... it was too easy. Had I made a mistake? No, I wouldn't let him take my queen unless I wanted him to do it, which meant that there had to be something else up my sleeve ... like I wanted him to move his knight from where it was.

Eventually, he decided to take my queen. Just as I had for the last 14 moves, I wrote down his move, put down my pencil, studied the board for a moment, wrote down my move, put down the pencil and made my move on the board ... instead of capturing the knight that had just taken my queen, one of my bishops swooped all the way across the board from the opposite corner, grabbed a pawn and called, "Check!"

Either he hadn't seen the move, or he thought I wouldn't make it ... he looked very surprised, and a bit green around the gills at the thought that he might have fallen into a trap by taking my queen. Whatever the reason, it was quite satisfying to watch him squirm for a little while longer.

After that, I lost interest in the game and blundered Real Bad. It was still pretty nip and tuck after that, but I took a chance he wouldn't see a move-and-mate position ... too preoccupied with saving his queen from my double-rook combination. It took him a while to belive that it was in fact the winning move, but he made it ... if he'd moved his queen back to the other side of the board, I might have been able to hold out for another five moves, or even win, but it was an Honorable defeat at the hands of a Worthy Adverary ... who didn't fall for my bluff.

	DATE:  1997-03-23
	WHITE: Sportin' Life
	BLACK: DAHarrod

	 1.	Ng1-f3 	 d7-d5 
	 2.	 c2-c3 	 b7-b6 
	 3.	Qd1-a4+	Qd8-d7 
	 4.	Qa4-d4 	Nb8-c6 
	 5.	Qd4-a4 	Bc8-b7 
	 6.	Nf3-g5 	 O-O-O 
	 7.	Ng5xf7 	Nc6-d4 
	 8.	Qa4xd4 	 e7-e5 
	 9.	Nf7xe5 	Bf8-c5 
	10.	Qd4-g4 	Ng8-f6 
	11.	Qg4-g5 	Qd7-a4 
	12.	 b2-b3 	Qa4-b5 
	13.	 c3-c4 	 d5xc4 
	14.	 b3xc4 	Qb5-a4 
	15.	Nb1-c3 	Rh8-f8 	      after 24. ... Rf8-f6
	16.	Nc3xa4 	Bc5xf2+
	17.	Ke1-d1 	Nf6-d7 		 . *-K * . * . *
	18.	Ne5xd7 	Rd8xd7 		-P .-P-R * .-P-P
	19.	 c4-c5 	Bf2-d4 		 .-P Q * .-R . *
	20.	Ra1-b1 	Bd4-e3 		 * . * . * . * .
	21.	Qg5xe3 	Rd7-f7 		 N * . * . * . *
	22.	Qe3-e6+	Rf7-d7 		 * . * . * . * .
	23.	 c5-c6 	Bb7xc6 		 P * . P P * P P
	24.	Qe6xc6 	Rf8-f6 		 * R B K * B * R
	25.	Qc6-a8#

That is all I have to say for now. -=DAH=- 1997-03-24

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