April Fool's Night Punch- Drunk Berserkers

Sick to Death of It

A month into the March Madness chess matches and tournaments with multiple games against multiple  opponents around the world, and tired from the 12-hour Salt Mine work, which a couple times turned into 16
hours, I was heartily sick of it, and my Nemesis interrupted me by saying something is going on, maybe you shouldn't be playing right now.

What? Why not?

Because in my Fatigue, I Was Playing Like a Punch-Drunk Boxer, Like Rocky Trying To Go The Distance

It turns out I had forgotten what I said about a month ago about playing slower and more carefully, and reverted to my bullet-chess speeds or blitz at least, and was throwing away pieces in games that I was winning. Although my opponent was glad, even he could tell something was wrong. I wasn't watching what I was doing, at two in the morning.

I said well, I am sick to death of these games, they are taking over my life. Every time I wake up I am behind in another twenty or thirty games, and nine of them are the tournament. All of them count. It has been nothing but chess, chess, chess, for a month, and I forgot all about my Revolutionary War figures, and the bloody uniform books are due back at the library.

So We Kept Going Another Seven Hours After Discovering That We Had Gone Berserk

It turns out Patti D. was right, when she said 'well that is just insane,' (see comments last week)  but we did it anyway.

The record up to that point was 4 Wins for me, 3 Losses in the Match of 23 Simultaneous Games.
I was winning on the board, and in life, as my Nemesis took two extended time outs and couldn't handle all the pressure. Especially since I won more than he did, when he thought he could win 90 percent. Actually it was about 45 percent him, and 55 percent me I think, out of the first seven. I knew it was wearing him down. But it must have worn me down too. I didn't stop, oh no, I played 32 more moves per game on average, and handed him three of his seven victories that I should have won in the process.

It was even more insane to keep on going at the point of such fatigue as to be beyond caring, but we did. At least three full games that I was winning in at the time turned into lost games, because I was blitzing with just a quick glance for thirty seconds and hitting the first move that came to mind, without being careful.

I threw away Queens, Bishops, and who knows what. Some of it worked, and my Nemesis did it too, once or twice. I actually should have won three of the seven that I think he won after that. The score was 10-6 out of the 23 when I won one more game this morning around 6 am, as the sun started to come up.

That means sixteen down, and only seven left to go. But Now instead of on top, I am down 10-6 out of 23, with only seven left to go, which means I'd have to win all seven to still win the entire match. It's mathematical.

Out of those seven, there are two where if I were playing a Gentleman, I'd have resigned a while back, as they are hopeless positions and really not worth wasting our time on playing them out. However, I am not playing a Gentleman, I am playing against a Pirate, and there can be no quarter given in a fight to the death, with Pirates. If I resign those two games, then he will have won 12, and in a series of 23, 12 is the most. That means he will win the series...if I resign.

He Still Might Stalemate By Mistake
 
There is another possibility, that he will screw up the technique and on at least one of them there could be a Stalemate. That would be if he leaves me no legal move, but forgot to put me in Check. It could easily happen just when all hope seems lost. I almost did it to him in one game this morning, I think it might be game 10, in which I have the Black pieces. But I was watching for it three moves in advance, and he gets no such luck. I will win that game, in just a few more moves.

I just Queen-Kamikaze'd his last hope pawn who'd just been promoted to Queen, and then in three moves more I will have my pawn promoted to Queen, and then we will clean that board up in short order.

Of the seven left, I will no doubt win two where he should resign, there are two where I should resign, and three others I can't remember but that may still go either way.

The average chess game is only 30 moves, but these titanic struggles are still going at 68, 62, 64, 56, a couple at 41 each and one has only 35 moves done. The reason for the disparity is, he will only prefer to respond in games that he likes because he is winning those, while trying to ignore the games where I am winning as much as possible, and so those ones end up much less further along. It is part of psyching each other out.

All these berserk games are in the 23-game match-Not The Tournament

I was at least careful to stay away from the tournament games until after a twelve-hour sleep to recover some of my senses.

I have only lost one game there out of nine in Round One, and I am committed to play through a second set with the nine guys. One dropped out so I got two tournament wins by default. That leaves anther sixteen of those to go, but 'only' eight at a time.

In the game that I did lose, I had a huge Rook and Pawn advantage against the player from the Netherlands who is #3 out of the 100, but he tricked me at the end  and won. Because I was so tired from the sixteen hour work thing previously mentioned.

Empty Fish Hook Trophy
 
He sent me a Trophy shaped like an empty Fishhook, and thanked me for letting him off the hook, admitting that I had that game. It would have really been something if only I had won, since I was the bottom rung player and he is 3/100. I did hold his attention for about 6 1/2 hours, since if not for that last trap, I was crushing him.

I am actually behind in nine more games now, out of the remaining sixteen that I am still in, out of 29 I think it was, just from looking away.

It is clear that fatigue is a major factor with many of the guys playing, and we must find our own ways to deal with it. The Berserk April Fool's Night cost me this match, almost for sure, and I must try to remember to avoid doing that again like that.

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