Correspondence Games- 8 in one blow!

Wow. I just spent the last 2 hours cranking out variations for 8 correspondence games I'm playing (6 IECG games and 2 in a forum championship). After awhile, all the lines run together and I start thinking that I've emailed the same person two different moves, or even the wrong game to someone.

The forum Championship is in the 'Finals'. We had 6 groups of 5-7 people play round robin. The group winners, runners-up and two wildcards are playing single elim matches. This round its 2 games, the next two are 4 games and the finals is a six game match.

The forum isn't a chess forum, but there are some very good players there. The group stage was a mixed bag. One game in an unclear middlegame was awarded to me by abandonment, another with me a rook up was abandoned, one I swindled my opponent (down a piece and he missed a mate in one) and the last (actually the first finished) was a legit mate. I think I won the exchange and just forced my way in from there...I forget.

The two games I'm in now I expect to win, and one of them I can't wait to share. I missed a move and thought I was going to drop a piece, but it turned out I could switch the subsequent move order and have ended up with the Bishop pair, a Knight, a Rook and a bonus pawn versus two Rooks and a Bishop.

I'm trying to visualize as much as possible without just pushing the pieces and saving all the variations. I'm still missing stupid stuff, but I'm checking myself fairly well and have avoided disaster so far. One of the IECG games does have a position I can't wait to get a computer to look at- I think my opponent missed a line winning at least the exchange, maybe even a piece.

Hopefully, the occasional frenzy of responding to 8 games at once will pay off :P

Holiday busy-ness

I've been stalled out for a couple weeks. I haven't made time for PCT or playing since all the stuff that needs doing at home (why did I let my wife convince me to repaint the bathroom in December, again?) and work (low income energy assistance, where every call is a crisis and there aren't enough dollars in the budget to solve them all!) has been kicking my butt.

I'd been planning on posting about the IECG, but right after they confirmed my membership, their site registration expired and it took a couple weeks to get back online. Tonight, the pairings for my first event, a 7-player class tourney, came in. 6-0 would be a nice start :P

I do have this game I'd like feedback on:



It was G30, my opponent about 120 points higher than me, I lost on time. I think exchanging the Queens when offered at 24. ... Qe6 would have kept a draw, but I didn't want to undouble his pawns; I felt they were my main advantage to me without the Queens on the board.

I let Crafty look at the game right away but it gave no imporvements, which surprised me, so I let it go again for a awhile longer. Still nothing, so I guess I missed no tactical chances.

I'm really stumped where I could have done better, other than 1) something other than the Exchange Variation or 2) maybe my Ne5 was premature.