Since the arrival of my chess playing colleague, Mr. Antonio Umali, late this 1st term 2006-2007, I finally have someone to play chess on a once a week basis, usually on a Wednesday.
Sir Tony, as what we usually call him in school, wanted to become a Lawyer when he was younger but instead, he ended up teaching students on the subjects of Human history, Politics, Humanities and World History. Presently, he is a PhD student in UP Diliman, taking on Public Administration.
The first time we were introduced, there were a lot of common ground to start with. Same grad school, same network of people (arrggh!) the academe is simply filled with the same personalities, same path different strokes. But there's one fact that we can't not deal with, we are both chess playing addicts! But he would always say "wala na ko, tagal ko nang di naglalaro..." (I'm way pass my time) whenever we are about to start our game. He told me that his dad introduced them into chess and that they were given tremendous amount of tips on playing chess which made one of his brothers become an Ateneo Chess Varsity.
When we had our first game, we set the clock at G/10 and later on at G/30 and for the past 2 games, it's clock-less. He reminded me that chess is a game of deep thinking and not a game of speed. Somehow, I met him during my transition phase from Blitz Addict to Long Game Fanatic.
As of yesterday, December 6, 2006, our lifetime score is 6-1. Yes, I've 6 and him one. I'm not so happy with this because I'm sure that he has not reached his former playing strenght as he used to be. He's got deep moves, really deep ones. He needs to play more games, read up more books and practice. By then, it's the end of my domination against him. Family life will always be number one, career second and maybe, just maybe, Chess third.
I am posting here the position we arrived at from yesterday wherein he resigned after letting go of my queening pawn. I was disappointed and asked him why he resigned, but all I got was, I committed an endgame boo boo!
Fatigue! Fatigue! We played for around 2 hours. No chess clock.
So guys, here it is. Please comment on the possible outcome of this game and the moves black could have played. I believe my only chance (white) in this game/position is a draw.
1...b4!
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