Tuesday, May 3, 2011

a game that made me cry


This is Danny Feng's last round game against Tip Wolfe from Junior High Nationals. Danny hangs a pawn in the opening, but then plays so well and slowly slowly fight his way back, goes into a rook ending with a small plus, trades one advantage for another, and finally wins a theoretical position! I start crying while he's showing us, some combination of admiration for his game, his fighting spirit, his obvious confidence in himself, and my own exhaustion and relief at the end of the tournament and year. The other kids are a bit amazed by this (I normally try not to cry in front of them), and one says to Matan later in the elevator "Was Ms. Vicary really crying over Danny's game?" and he awesomely replies, "Of course. It was a very beautiful game."
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7 comments:

  1. JimioMay 3, 2011 at 1:33 PM

    Fantastic endgame. Nice job pushing the enemy king away so the white king can get f8 square for now the pawn Marches Onward!

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  2. AnonymousMay 3, 2011 at 3:04 PM

    this game is pretty terribly played by white, the only consolation being that black played the crazy blunder Bb6 instead of rc8 (follow up w/ d4 and black is close to winning).

    I can understand you crying though, teaching kids is draining as hell. You definitely are overestimating white's play in this game-- as it looks like black just gave the game away.

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  3. AnonymousMay 3, 2011 at 4:02 PM

    After your suggestion of RC8, fritz suggests Be5 with a completely even game. The rook is too active.

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  4. AnonymousMay 3, 2011 at 4:05 PM

    Yo anonymous genius, he's like an 8th grader rated 2000 in a relatively fast time control playing a 60 move game at the end of a tournament. Wtf do you expect, should all the moves match Rybka? It's a given that basically all games with kids are going to have a bunch of mistakes at some point, the question is how well will they fight and how much composure will they have at the end of the game.

    The kid played a very nice endgame for such an inexperienced player.

    - Greg Shahade

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  5. AnonymousMay 3, 2011 at 9:10 PM

    right ok, it's a nice game and everything but if there is equality for white after Rc8, Be5 all that means is that Qd5 is a blunder. Black is just clearly better and in no danger.
    The point is that running a program/team like this is exhausting and difficult so that is likely the reason she cried, not because of some rook endgame.
    Also, the fact that she is a woman ( just kidding heh!)

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  6. AnonymousMay 5, 2011 at 1:37 AM

    The pawn hanging on move 5 is pretty bad for a 2000 player , but the rest of the game was really well done, played solidly, did not panic, waited for his chances, and capitalized...

    Anonymous IM

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  7. AnonymousMay 8, 2011 at 5:04 PM

    I would have thought that the pawn was sacrificed.

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