Through I hadn’t played chess in over a year, I decided to enter this year’s office G15 tournament. Not surprisingly, I finished last (in the A bracket) with only a single draw in my column after 10 games. A couple games I lost quickly, but for most of them, I kept it close until I lost my patience and tried to make things happen.
The exception was this game (interactive player) in which I was a piece up as White, but ran out of time. In the first shown position I’ve already given Black the advantage with some minor mistakes, but he let me back in with Qd6. That allowed me to force his bishop back with f4 and then to fork the bishop and queen with e5 (second position). I got a bishop for two central pawns, and the computer rates the game as even. Black should have pushed his pawn to d3 with a discovered attack on my rook.
Black made good use of his passed center pawns, but ran out of steam when I seemed to have them immobilized (third diagram). Qd4 might have been a good move to try to kick my blockading queen and get his pawns moving again. Instead he tried some flank attacks with his rooks. Meanwhile I pushed my b pawn to remove his c pawn that was anchoring the central pawns and then I was able to put my extra piece to use and capture his menacing pawns.
After that, it was obvious I was going to run out of time, so Black played safe moves while I pointlessly made small gains, though I didn’t record the moves after the final shown position.
After winning the first game, I was able to relax a little for the 
After the smoke cleared, I had taken his rook and pawn at the cost of a knight. Not enough of an advantage for a clear win, but certainly an nice advantage, nonetheless. After some regrouping of pieces on both sides, White started to bring his king into the action to reach the next shown position. However, it turned out to be a blunder since the tactical reply Rd2+ won his bishop.
Now I had a comfortable lead, and in the final diagram I found a move to improve my overall position while giving back a little material. After Rxc3 Rxc3, Bxe5 I was a piece up with three strong passed pawns, and Black soon resigned.
My opponent for the fourth round had beat me twice in last year’s G15 tournament, but the games were close enough that I had hope of getting 1 out of 2 points and making a respectable showing in the A bracket.
If I took the pawn, he would take my bishop reveaing an attack on the rook. I calmly castled instead, and he traded bishops anyway.
After taking the pawn, we had a rook stand-off, and I took the opportunity to trade them all away since I often run into time trouble. After symmetrical knight invasions and threats, we reached the next position. Black could have traded knights while winning a pawn and leaving both sides with fractured pawn formations, but he had his sights on my king, thinking he might get a killer knight fork on f2.
However, the attack did not pan out, and after getting my knight back on the kingside to counter any further threats, I offered to trade queens before seeing a better use for my queen. Black refused to trade, and I had to offer again to get my queen back into position for the attack (this time I didn’t want him to take the trade). After he declined the trade again, we arrived at the next shown position. Now it was time for the attack.
With his forces away, I was able to invade his king’s position starting with Qg6+. Taking two pawns gave me a strong position in the final diagram, but how to finish? With less than two minutes remaining on my clock, I was fortunate to see a combination to trade queens and win a pawn and knight to boot. After Qxc7+ Kxd7, Nxd5+ produced the fork to win back his queen. From there it was simple to promote pawns and win.
I lost both of my round 3 games against another top player. In the 
The second position shows the quick penalty for my mistake. Not only is he going to get the pawn back, but I will lose more material, too. Luckily, Black didn’t find the very best moves, and I was able to parry the attack being down only a knight for a pawn. But further mistakes by me allowed him to quickly convert the advantage into a win.
I played Black in the 
Unfortunately, this is where I blundered, not noticing that the e7 pawn was attacked twice. Once he broke up the pawn chain, I couldn’t keep the remaining pawns all defended and soon lost.
Round 2 brought my first (and probably only) wins in the tournament. We played these games on Yahoo, which worked out well. (Not only does is keep time and record the game, but it also prevents me from making an illegal move, like moving into check.) I was White in the 
In the 
For the Fall chess tournament, we play two 15 minute games per match instead of one 30 minute game. I got bumped up to the A group this time and started out against the club’s strongest player. [I’m trying to set-up a JavaScript PGN player, but I don’t have that ready yet.] The first position is from late in the first game with me playing black. It’s black to move, what do you do? Most moves, including the one I picked lead to quick death, but there is one move that keeps the game going.
I played white in the second game and started out a little unusual by getting my queen out early and breaking up his fianchettoed bishop. I didn’t know if it was sound, but thought it best to do something strange since I don’t know openings that well and may fall into a trap. Computer analysis doesn’t show any problem with the position. Black was worried about a kingside attack and quickly arranged to trade queens. After more trading and a lost pawn, I ran out of time in a poor position with a knight and rook and a few scattered pawns.