I Need to Work On My Fighting Spirit

Last weekend I played in the 54th Northeastern Open. This tournament means a lot to me since it was the first one I played back in 2011 when I returned to chess after a 19 year absence.

That year I went 5-0 and won the Reserve Section.  Since then I have tried to play it.

In the first round I was paired up about 350 points, and overall I played a very bad game.

Yet if I gave you these two positions:

and said “find the best move for White” the odds are that  you would find the moves 24.h4! in the first position and 33.Nxe8! in the second.  Why?  Because you would be in puzzle mode.

However, when those positions appear on the board after several hours of defending they’re easy to miss.  Or at least they were for me.  This tells me that I need to work very hard on my fighting spirit.

Here is the entire game:

I hope to have my other games from this event up soon.

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

If you like this blog, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter. Any money I raise will go towards lessons and stronger tournaments.

If you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me achieve my dream.

3 thoughts on “I Need to Work On My Fighting Spirit”

  1. Wouldn’t “fighting spirit” include not resigning after 37…Qxe5?

    I have seen players of your opponent’s rating make incredible, hard to believe, blunders!

    I might try something like: 38.Qd8+ Kh7 39.Qxc8 e2 40.Qf5+, and if you are very lucky, you might just win.

    1. So? You are not playing Grandmaster chess. Guys rated just 2098 make unbelievable blunders!!

      I bet if the situation was reversed, he wouldn’t be Resigning against you.

      That’s one of the reasons he’s a 2098, is that he is probably a fighter who doesn’t resign so easy.

      My 2 biggest prize winnings were $700 and $800.

      In both cases my last Round opponents made absolutely mind boggling blunders.

      Also, I am the Co-Champion of the 2000 Racine-Kenosha Open partly because I didn’t Resign against a 2087 when I was obviously dead lost, and went on to win.

Comments are closed.