Thursday Knighter I: Femi wins!

Because of conflicting schedules between Melissa and me, I have to take off the third Thursday of every month when I'm participating in a Thursday Knighter. I miss out on an opportunity to play, but it is usually exciting to come in to find out any surprise results.

Well, this month was no exception. Last week, Femi (White) played Steve (Black) in a Sicilian. Steve, our resident Expert, described that Femi had a strong advantage by move 12. Femi went on to win the game.

Dave, who I lost to in round one, played Femi to determine this month's winner. Their game got finished before my game against Norm, and Femi won with a score of 3.5 out of 4. Congratulations, Femi!

My game with Norm was interesting. To me, this was one of those games that demonstrated that winning a won game is difficult. We started out fairly evenly in a Closed Ruy Lopez. On move 16, however, I retreated my Knight without protecting a Pawn adequately, and I lost my Pawn. I repeated my error at move 33. In fact, I was three Pawns behind by move 36. However, as we were running lower on time (Norm had less than 8 minutes by move 44), I presented him with a series of difficulties with my Knight and Rook. I'm sure there were simplifications in the position, but they were not found during the game. I offered a draw at move 46 or 47, but Norm played on. He made his last seven moves with 11 seconds left, and during the intense time pressure, hung the Queen with four seconds left.