The Brushway

Today was a long but interesting day. I'm not really sure where to begin, so how about the beginning. This morning I watched "Knights of the South Bronx" on my TIVO. I had recorded it from earlier this week when it was on A&E. It was a made for TV movie starring Ted Danson based upon a true story. I hate to admit it, but yes, tears fell from my eyes. If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to check it out.

I talked with Kip this morning. He's back from Foxwoods and taking some time to recover. I won't go into details, that's his story, so let's hope he decides to tell it.

I slept for a few hours this afternoon. It's probably because I couldn't get myself out of bed at 5am to go workout with Donna. I have to say that I've really been feeling much better again since I've been getting back to the wellness center. The toughest part is knowing that it's a long road ahead. The good news is, it gets easier every day.

Pam was expecting me at around 3:30 today. I'm pretty sure it was shortly after 4:30 when I finally showed up. We did some work on her laptop, ate some pizza that she had orderred from Joe's Cafe, and then I rushed out to the Chess Club to play in the tournament at 6pm. I made it with a minute to spare.

It was an unrated game in 30 event with Larry Williams at the Helm. We had 9 players to start with and there was a $5 entry fee to play. The pairings for Round 1 were pulled out of a hat, with Jesse Cross-Nickerson (and I may have totally hacked up his name because I don't really know it) getting a 1 point bye since we had an odd number of players. I pulled out Antonio Laudati and as we drew for colors he picked White. I won a piece early on in the game and soon blundered it away, followed by my winning of a pawn, almost losing it again, and finally winning on time. Though at that point I had a win on the board as well. At some point during the 1st Round Paul Sarrazine showed up, so we gave him a bye and put him in for Round 2.

Round 2 I was paired against JC (Jesse whose name I don't know how to spell). Without getting into too many details, I played a solid game and won. I think I've talked about this in the past, but I've never been able to fully comprehend the phenomenon of why so many players with lower ratings or no ratings at all are certain that they are better than me. Last time I checked, I really don't suck that bad. Anyway, after the game JC says to me, "Guess that's what happens when you stop playing for a month". Although I wasn't convinced that a month would have helped him so much, I decided to pull a "Brushway" and keep my mouth shut.

After round 2 I was tied with Larry Williams for 1st place with 2 points. Paul Sarrazine had 1.5, and there was a big group with 1 (yes, some with 0 too). In Round 3 Larry and I drew our game which left us tied for 1st place, waiting on the results of Paul Sarrazine and Tom Smith. Paul and Tom ended up drawing an exciting game, which left Larry and I alone at the top. The last round produced some exciting games, most notably Paul and Tom which had a 3-pawn vs knight and pawn ending, and Dave Hall vs Enrique McDonald with a kingside slugfest of tactics that finally brought Dave Hall a very nice win.

So a big thank you to Tom Smith for organizing a small but fun event, Larry Williams for directing, and JC for taking a month off so I could win. For your enjoyment, here's the game I played against JC:

[Event "PVCC G/30"]
[Site "Northampon Burger King"]
[Date "2005.12.10"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Borowski, Edwin"]
[Black "JC"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. d4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Bf4 Nf6 4. e3 c5 5. c3 Nc66. Bd3 h6 7. Nbd2 cxd4 8. exd4 Bd6 9. Bxd6 Qxd6 10. Qe2 Bd7 11. Ne5 O-O 12. O-ORac8 13. f4 Ne7 14. g4 Nh7 15. Rae1 f5 16. Nxd7 Qxd7 17. Qxe6+ Qxe6 18. Rxe6Rce8 19. Rfe1 fxg4 20. Rxe7 Rxe7 21. Rxe7 Rxf4 22. Bxh7+ Kxh7 23. Rxb7 h5 24.Rxa7 h4 25. Re7 g3 26. hxg3 hxg3 27. Re2 Kg6 28. Kg2 Rg4 29. Nf3 Kh5 30. Re5+Kg6 31. Rxd5 Kf6 32. Re5 g5 33. Kh3 Rh4+ 34. Nxh4 gxh4 35. a4 Kg6 36. a5 1-0

Until next time,

Ed.