Chess At Work And Live Games

First day at work, I decided to play a couple of chess games with one of my colleagues, Szabo over lunch and after working hours. Szabo is a recreational player and his chess skills is a tad lower than mine (around 1200+ according to my BIL - brother-in-law).

We played 3 games over our lunch hour (chess is normally our fav activity over lunch). I played 2 games as White (one with Queen's Gambit Accepted, the other with Ruy Lopez - Closed), the other as Black (Closed Sicilian) - winning all 3.

At the end of the day, I decided to try again. This time out of 4 games, I lost one, won two, drew one. But I was less than satisfied with the results this time. Against a tougher opposition I would have easily lost the drawn game and drew one of the two won games. The only game that was of particular significance was this game. I had placed my Queen and my King on the same file and Szabo attempted to pin me, allowing me to setup a skewer with my rook, resulting in a mate in 4.

I had just played ... Qe7-g5 (See diagram). White moved:
1. Rg2?? Rc1+
2. Kf2 Rc2+
3. Kf1 Qxg2+
(with mate on next move)

Against more experienced opponents, this ploy would most certainly have failed.

When I got home, my BIL called and asked me to go over to his place for dinner tomorrow, and naturally, a game of chess awaits me. I'm dreading it already.....

Onto other chess news, I've been following the Russian Championship Superfinal on http://www.chessgames.com as well as the Australian Junior Championship at http://www.ozchess2006.com/

Do take a look if you can spare the time. It's past midnight now but I'm following the Evgeny Bareev vs Peter Svidler game.