On the defense
Today I’m playing Jeroen again. It’s an annual tradition at our company to play the local chess-master, in a big simultaneous game. He usually wins at every board. It’s amazing watching him do it, it looks so easy.
This year I even came up with a strategy. I looked through his game record, and found that he lost most games (as white, which he gets to be at every board) against the Sicilian, which he normally tries to deny, by playing 2.Nc3, closed-sicilian variation. Sicilian has the added advantage (for me) of becoming quite complex, and since he doesn’t have a lot of time for each board, he won’t have the time to come up with powerplay strategies. At least that’s what I hope. The downside (for me) is that Sicilian is well-known among players of his caliber, and I’m a rank amateur.
Now for some social engineering, to get him to play 1.e4… I’ll update to write down how it went.
Update: I lost in 28 rounds. Instead of 2.Nc3, he played 2.c3: Alapin Sicilian. It looks like I already fucked up on the sixth move: 6. …a6. By round 10, I had already lost a Rook. Well, better luck next time…
