I played an interesting G90/30 game last night, OTB rated game. My opponent was a bit dodgy when I asked his rating, he said he was new to rated OTB classical play, but disclosed that his chess.com rapid rating was 1800. If it’s any gauge, my chess.com rating right now is 1128, with a peak of 1147. So we settled on the idea that he has an unknown provisional rating. My rating is provisional too, but I do know the number. That should have been a red flag, but read on…

He started with d4, an opening that I still struggle with. But at 25, I began to think about offering a draw. Convinced he wouldn’t accept and toying with the idea that I could actually win, I decided to press on, but the question of a draw lingered in my head on each move.

As the game progressed, my tactics were working, I’d found a way to equalize materially, I believe I had shutdown any attacking chances he had.

Unfortunately at move 42 I had a choice to make. Stockfish post-game analysis said I have 4 options that hold 0.0. I had 5 analysis lines on screen and my poor choice eventually cost me the game at move 60, where I resigned.

He commented after the game that we had a draw until my blunder. We congratulated each other on a well-played game. I was disappointed in the outcome but proud of what I had demonstrated to myself, as it picked up my confidence since my loss on Saturday (1 week ago today) that I wrote about here.

I took the game to my chess club this morning and learned that I missed a knockout blow at move 21, I had mate in 3 that I just didn’t see- I looked at it, but the followup wasn’t clear in my mind. I will spend some time on Mate in 1, 2s and 3s puzzles for awhile to remediate.

After this, I decided to try and look him up on the USCF website. I quickly found him and learned that he does indeed have a provisional classical rating. It’s +700 my rating! I should have better informed myself about my opponent. Had I done so, I would have shot for the draw.

How can I prevent this in the future? Insist my opponent tell me? Ask the event organizer? I think it’s time I familiarize myself with the USCF rulebook.

FWIW- I’ve included the game here. I’m black.

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/pgn/2LxdSqQHXt?tab=analysis

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