This morning, I watched a good chunk of
the 3rd game in the Kramnik/Aronian match.
Absolutely fascinating. I believe the
net effect was Aronian sacrificed a queen and two pawns for a rook
and two minor pieces. (I'd have to go back and look up the game to be
sure.) In any case, the tactics were so deep and involved, both
players came close to running out of time. Aronian had the worse of
it, and blundered during severe time pressure (6 moves left in 15
seconds or something close to that) giving the game to Kramnik (who,
admittedly, was winning from about the 15th move on or so)
and tying up their “friendly” at 1.5 each. One can only hope
tomorrow's game is anything close to that. Many have called it the
best game of 2012 to date, and it's probably close.
I had the live commentary running on my
computer this morning before the kids went off to school, and my
daughter watched for quite a bit. I have no idea how much of it stuck
in her head, but just the fact that she was interested in watching it
go on was fine by me. Kids just seem to absorb information by
osmosis.
Right now, I'm feeling a bit frazzled
before my first OTB tourney in forever. I feel like there's just so
much I need to study, but I'm trying to stay calm, and focus on two
things: tactics practice (260 CT-ART problems solved in 8 days) and
general familiarity with my openings. That, and working on my
thinking process. Dan Heisman's material is fantastic for this. If it
was feasible for me to hire him as a coach, I would.
Anyway, that's today's thought. More
later as my tourney draws closer.
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