15 years already?! WOW!! Time really flies... Wish I was there...
Allan C Ong | 11.11.09 - 9:09 pm | #

Oh Mike, congrats on the 2nd place finish!!
Allan C Ong | 11.11.09 - 9:27 pm | #

Grettings Alan!

Where are you now and are you playing any chess?

Best Regards,

Mike
Mike Griffin | 11.12.09 - 9:12 am | #

I played in my first (and last--but read on to find out why) BU Open in 2006. I must admit, it was fun, and the setting was very nice, as you describe in your post. However, I don't play at BU anymore because G/60 is too fast for me.
Blackburne | 11.13.09 - 1:06 am | #

This year Paul Mishkin and I were the last game to finish. With the time delay, we blitzed out close to 50-100 moves, landing in a knight and rook vs. rook endgame.

I knew that this was a draw with best play, but I was under the impression that it was very hard to defend with the lone rook, so I played it out.

My experience (with less than 2 minutes of clock time), was that it was actually quite hard for the R+N to make any progress. Eventually, I did trap the king, but probably overstepped the 50 move rule.

Looking over the endgame with my tablebases, there are many positions in which the defender makes a critical error, but even then the path to victory is tricky. When you get close to the mate, there are sneaky stalemate tricks, for example.

This was one of my most memorable, if deeply flawed games of the past few years. Thanks Paul, and thanks to the BU Open, the best local event of the year.
Jason | 11.13.09 - 9:22 am | #

Mike, I live in Manila, Philippines now. The only chess I play is on chess.com...
Allan C Ong | 11.13.09 - 7:45 pm | #

Allan --

I'll look you up in Manila some time. I go there about every few months for business. Let me know how to get in touch.

Mike Henroid
mike henroid | 11.19.09 - 9:29 am | #