[Event "1 b3 Open - 1"]
[Site "SchemingMind.com"]
[Date "2013.02.08"]
[Round "-"]
[White "white bishop"]
[Black "John Hamer"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A01"]
[WhiteCountry "PHI"]
[BlackCountry "ENG"]
[WhiteElo "2139"]
[WhiteRD "107"]
[BlackElo "2012"]
[BlackRD "65"]
[GameID "326683"]

1. b3 e5 2. Bb2
{
white bishop: OlliY, also a member of The Chess Warriors, was the 1st to sign up in this tournament, and I'm the 2nd to sign up. We played and we waited for a long time for the 3 remaining slots to be filled up. 
}
{
white bishop: One day, they all came to sign up in this tournament. I call them "The 3 Magi". They are not the 3 wise men from the east, but the 3 Magi from England. They came, not together, by one by one. They came, not riding on camels, but through the information highway. They came not with gifts, but brought their varied experiences and valuable knowledge of chess.
}
{
white bishop: :) That was just a story I created! You can share it to your grandchildren. 
}
2... Nc6
{
John Hamer: interesting story I have been with the Chess Warriors for 2 seasons but I have had to curtail starting games owing to backlog 
}
3. e3
{
white bishop: Did you respond to the invitation of Pompey about a match with another team? I sent him a PM to include me in the team.
}
{
white bishop: In your profile with your photo, you looked like a very respectable English gentleman in your suit. I'll just address you as Uncle John.
}
{
white bishop: Well, yes, I also try not to involve myself in too many games all at once, as I may have difficulty managing my time and my games.
}
{
white bishop: Uncle John, aside from chess, what's been occupying most of your time?
}
{
John Hamer: call me john please 

}
{
John Hamer: yes I did respond   I am retired, so have plenty of time to play
}
{
John Hamer: all I have to do is ask Pompey not to include me if I have a back log of games. 
i think he has quite a few player's in reserve to replace me if necessary
}
3... Nf6 4. Bb5
{
white bishop: In Asia, it is considered disrespectful to call someone older by their first name, but I understand this is something very common in the west.
}
{
white bishop: Well, as you wish, I'll call you John.
}
{
white bishop: John, about the forthcoming OTB tournament I'm preparing for, up to now I don't have any idea how many players have signed up nor the ability and skill level of the players. I've tried asking the organizers if they will use round robin or Swiss system, but they informed me that they don't know yet, so I have actually no idea how many games I should prepare myself for.
}
{
white bishop: Since this year is the 50th anniversary of our church, we have a Sports Fest this year. I have signed up also for the Ten-Pin Bowling aside from chess. The chess tournament is open only to members of our congregation and those who belong to any of our 3 daughter churches and an affiliated church. I don't think there will be any titled players who will join, as I'm not aware of any from our church, daughter churches and affiliated church.
}
{
John Hamer: look at my game with Mr Swain i mated him in one game and just about to mate again in the other I dont think he should be in this tournament at all if he is going to  lose  games 
}
{
John Hamer: Roman Catholic I take it ? I dont go to church my self 
}
4... Bd6 5. Na3
{
white bishop: Yes, I see that both you and Ray have each scored 2 points easily. You were both very quick! I am about to mate Mr. Swain in one of my games, while in the other I had material advantage so far.
}
{
white bishop: Mr. Swain needs help badly with his chess! I'm afraid that if he suffers further losses, he'll get frustrated and drop the game forever. However, he can take his losses as a springboard to further improve himself in chess. I would have done something if I were him. 
}
{
white bishop: My User Name may have misled you to think that I'm part of the Roman Catholic clergy, but I'm actually Protestant! 
}
{
white bishop: I joined Scheming Mind last October 31st, during the Halloween season, & initially thought of using the name "White Lady", but settled for White Bishop instead as it wouldn't easily give away my gender in a world dominated by men. 
}
{
white bishop: You are actually playing with a "Daughter of Eve", a term used by C.S. Lewis in his book "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe". I don't know if you are familiar with the story which has been made into a movie.
}
{
white bishop: The child Lucy met a Faun and soon learns that his name is Mr. Tumnus, and he, just as surprised to see her, calls her a "Daughter of Eve". The Faun invites her to his home, and soon they are sharing a pleasant tea.
}
{
white bishop: Mr. Tumnus is not used to seeing humans in the land of Narnia. He even has a book on his shelf entitled "Is Man a Myth?" As this whimsical title indicates, Narnia is a magical world in which the typical  order of things is reversed. In our world, a Faun is considered a mythical creature: you would certainly be surprised if you ran into one tomorrow morning. But in Narnia, it is the humans who are the object of myth.
}
{
white bishop: C.S. Lewis is one of the great writers your country has produced. He was a literary scholar, a Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature, and was especially fond of classical mythology.
}
{
John Hamer:  I am church of England myself but I am lapsed dont think i have seen the inside of for nearly 30 years.
}
{
John Hamer: yes I have heard of C.S.Lewis and I have read the Narnia  Chronicles  over 50 years ago
}
5... a6 6. Bxc6
{
white bishop: John, is there any particular reason why you stopped going to church? I hope you don't mind my asking.
}
{
white bishop: Wow, you read The Chronicles of Narnia over 50 years ago! Let me try to guess your age. You must be anywhere from your mid-60's to 70. 
}
{
John Hamer: 67 years young and how old are you if you don't me asking I believe that there is a god but one does not have  go to church to be a Christian 
}
6... dxc6 7. Nc4
{
white bishop: Make a guess of my age, John.
}
7... Qe7
{
John Hamer: 30 to 40 i think and how long have you been playing chess ? This is my lot for tonight I must go to bed I am tired if i play too much I will make mistake's.
}
{
white bishop: In my case, I consider myself fortunate to be born into a Christian family. My paternal grandmother was the first from my side of the family to become a Christian. She was converted from Buddhism, after she attended an evangelistic meeting in which the late Rev. Dr. John Sung spoke.
}
8. Nf3
{
white bishop: 53. When I was still in primary school, I had learned about chess from reading an entry about it in  Collier's Encyclopedia. I found it interesting and quickly showed it to my only brother. 
}
{
white bishop: I got my brother interested also in chess after showing him the diagrams of the chess board, the chess pieces and how each piece moves.
}
{
white bishop: One day, when my mother brought my brother and I to a small store that sells some books, school and office supplies, we saw a chess set or a few on display, and we are both excited and eagerly requested our mom to buy it for us. When mom initially opposed, saying that we don't know how to play the game, we both replied that we already knew how to play the game, because we both read about it from the encyclopedia which dad bought. We told her that we just need a chess set to be able to play the game.
}
{
white bishop: That was the beginning of how I came to play chess. Throughout my student days and when I was just starting my first job, I still played chess, though not regularly, as long as I can find someone to play with me.
}
{
white bishop: Then I became preoccupied with other things and had other hobbies and interests, so I stopped playing chess, as not many people knew how to play it.
}
{
white bishop: After I married and had 2 kids, I found some of my old chessbooks like a book written by Fred Reinfeld of which I can't remember the exact title, but it was written for beginners, and another book entitled "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess", that I tried to teach them the game. It was only my youngest daughter who showed some interest in chess.
}
{
white bishop: After that I stopped playing for decades. When it was announced in our church that we'd be having a Sports Fest this year in line with our church's 50th anniversary, and I heard what sports/games are available, I quickly signed up for Bowling and Chess and paid the corresponding registration fees for each of them. After I signed up last August, I lost no time to prepare myself for the 2 tournament games which I signed up for. Last year, while figuring out how I should train myself and surfing online to see what resources are available, that I learned of the existence of Scheming Mind and that there is now such a thing known as correspondence chess. 
}
{
white bishop: After I joined Scheming Mind, the rest is already history.
}
{
white bishop: Sweet dreams, John! Maybe you'll dream of solutions to some of your difficult chess positions. :)
}
{
John Hamer: Thanks for all that info on how you started to play chess 
}
8... e4 9. Nxd6+ cxd6 10. Ng1
{
white bishop: My old chess books have a different standard notation. For instance, our moves in this game would be recorded as: 1. P-QN3 P-K4 2. B-B2 N-QB3 3. P-K3 N-KB3.
}
{
John Hamer: That is the descriptive notation I used that in the 60's but used the algaebraic notation in the 7o's 
}
10... O-O 11. Ne2
{
white bishop: Nowadays all chess books use the kind of notation we're seeing in this site.
Nobody uses the descriptive notation anymore.
}
11... Be6 12. O-O
{
white bishop: Up to this point, our pawns are still complete. We only lost 2 minor pieces each. 
}
12... Bg4
{
John Hamer:  I would retract my statement about 1 b3 you could use it as a surprise tactic deoending on your standing in the OTB tournament but I would not use it all the time 
}
{
John Hamer: as regards your age I would  say in your  60's  
}
{
John Hamer: and your gender female 
}
13. h3
{
white bishop: After my 8th move, I mentioned 53, which is my age. Please review the transcript of our communication exchanges in this page.
}
{
white bishop: Likewise, between my 5th move and your 5th move, I already gave you a clue to my gender, as my being a "Daughter of Eve", which was a term used by C.S. Lewis in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
}
{
John Hamer: sorry to have aged you a bit I should have taken notice of our earlier exchanges As regards the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe I seem to have heard a play based on the story on the radio in the 50's I was 13 at the time  
}
13... Bh5 14. Qe1 Nd5 15. a3 Bg6 16. Qd1 b5 17. c4 bxc4
{
John Hamer: Just won against Ray I think it is a race between me and you but Olli is a unknown quantity I don't know about him at the moment 
}
18. bxc4
{
white bishop: Yes, that is also how I see it, that it is a race between the 2 of us for the championship. The others seem to be far behind & not much of a threat.
}
{
white bishop: Like both of us, Olli is also a member of The Chess Warriors. It is through him that I first learned about our team. Since I saw that The Chess Warriors had a good track record in the SCL Season 7, I decided to join the team last December. From my experience of playing 4 games with him, I can say he is a strong player. He sacrifices his pieces to gain positional or material advantage, which really caught me by surprise at first. 
}
{
white bishop: Now we both have 4 games left. My 4 games are distributed as follows: 2 with you, 1 each with Mr. Swain and Ray. I saw that Mr. Swain went on to organize his own KO tournament for lower-rated players (800-1499 rating). I hope he'll be happy there and not continue to suffer losses, as it will definitely affect his rating. 
}
{
John Hamer: I am a bit concerned about Rays playing he seems to get checkmated early in the opening He need a experinced player to show him how not to lose so early in his games 
}
18... Nb6 19. Rc1 Rab8 20. Nf4
{
John Hamer: You still awake then ? I will going to bed after I made my nex couple of moves 
}
20... Bf5 21. Qc2
{
white bishop: After the kids left for school, I went back to bed to refresh my mind, then I got up to make my moves once again.
}
21... g5 22. Nh5 Nd7
{
John Hamer: There is nothing much in this game so can I ask you for a draw please 
}
23. Bg7
{
white bishop: Sorry, contrary to your opinion, this is not a boring game! :) It may have looked dull earlier for you but we continue maneuvering our pieces and positioning them where we think they should be. 
}
{
white bishop: Perhaps you are so used to checkmating other players in a few moves, that when games reached this far, you already find them dull.
}
23... Rfc8
{
white bishop: "I want to see the real John Hamer as a chess player!" Hope that will motivate you.
}
24. Qc3 Qe6 25. Nf6+ Nxf6 26. Bxf6 g4 27. hxg4 Bxg4 28. f3 exf3 29. gxf3
{
white bishop: Yesterday, I attended a British Council-sponsored event. It's called "Pathways to the World", in the 14th Education UK Exhibition. The University of Nottingham was represented, but when I went to the table with representative seated, I was informed that they represent not the main campus in the UK, but its branch campus in Malaysia. I also attended to listen to the presentation given by the Malaysian lady who's connected with the university's Malaysian branch.
}
{
white bishop: Did you have the opportunity to study and finish a degree in any UK university? Distance learning was not yet available and known during our younger years.
}
{
John Hamer: no sorry  I have not had the opportunity  to study at uni 
}
29... Bh3 30. Rfe1 Bf5 31. Kf2 Bg6 32. Rh1 Rb7 33. Rcg1 Kf8 34. Qd4 Ke8= 35. Qf4 Rb3 36. c5 Rxa3 37. cxd6 Rd3 38. Rg5 Rxd2+
39. Kg3 Rd5 40. e4 Rxg5+ 41. Bxg5
{
white bishop: Oh, Vermonty hasn't made any moves yet in our team challenge! Board 1 is still ahead in the most number of moves made. You can't say that Vermonty is too preoccupied with his other games, for he's in 11 standard chess games and 3 chess960 games for a total of 14 games, while you have more at 18 games. Still manageable?
}
{
white bishop: It will definitely be interesting to view your games with Vermonty! He is quite well-known in this site.
}
{
John Hamer: yes that comfortable for me have a look at my completed game with Vermonty
}
41... Kd7 42. Rb1
{
white bishop: I just returned from a 5-round OTB chess tournament. I had 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. Didn't win anything.
}
{
John Hamer: That's good for you only one loss are you going for any more OTB tournaments  then ?
}
42... c5 43. Rb7+
{
white bishop: So far, the event I joined is just a one-afternoon event. The top 2 slots went to the men who both earned five points each. I don't know how many points the 3rd placer got as there were no boards like the ones here showing the standing of all the players after each round. The tournament director just computed the scores and made the pairings each round manually on a few sheets of paper. 
}
{
white bishop: The top 3 scorers were given trophies.
I plan to join more OTB tournaments, but I still have to improve on my games. I made many blunders in my first game and it ended in a draw although I had material advantage. In my 2nd game, I lost as black because I wasn't prepared for a 1. d4 opening. The last 3 games were wins, as I played better and mated all my 3 opponents.
}
{
white bishop: The first game was already wasted as I could have easily won.
}
{
white bishop: I'll continue to improve my OTB games to join more tournaments. Well, I felt that because of the time pressure, I was always afraid that if I take more time to think more deeply, my time might run out, so I just kept moving my pieces as quickly as possible, sometimes without thinking it thoroughly, and sometimes I felt that I wasn't thinking anymore. After each of my opponent made his or her move and pressed their part of the chess clock, I immediately followed with my move and pressed the check clock.  
}
{
white bishop: Here in correspondence chess, I can still take my time. Whenever I looked at a position in one of my games, and find that I had a difficult situation, I can always check and do my moves in the other games first and return to the difficult one later or the following day, until I had the best solution for it. Since resources are allowed here, I can still research and look up on tournament games played by masters on the variations most often used in tournament play nowadays. I can browse and go through my old chessbooks during the course of a game, if there is anything useful, and if I still have the time, as I've got other things to do as well on a daily and weekly basis. In OTB tournaments, you are not allowed to do such things.
}
{
white bishop: What I like most in this site are the analysis boards which I make use of quite often in my games! :)
}
{
John Hamer: As  regards opening I use www.chesslab.com or www. Chessbase.du 
}
{
John Hamer: disregard Chessbase 
}
43... Kc6 44. Ra7
{
white bishop: Thanks for sharing the website you use. I refer to www.chesstempo.com and www.chessgames.com for the openings and games. Are you a member of, or play correspondence chess in other sites? 
}
44... h6 45. d7
{
white bishop: After my disappointing experience today at the OTB tournament, I think I should change my own personal training program. I will now focus primarily on tactics training, and will play not only correspondence chess, but also face-to-face and against computer. Do you think this is the right way to go? 
}
{
white bishop: Will continuously train in bowling and chess, so when another tournament comes up, I will be more ready for it.
}
{
John Hamer: i dont know too much about 10 pin bowling I used to play for fun in the 60's but not too good at it 
}
{
John Hamer: This is my only site here I used to on www.ChessWorld.net but there was too much tinkering around with the server  so I packed it in  and went on to this server
}
45... hxg5 46. Qf6
{
white bishop: Although I didn't win anything in the individual portion of the bowling tournament as there were many better bowlers, our group won in the group portion with the highest group score. Our group members (6 of us including myself) will get our medals on March 3.
}
{
white bishop: I've read before, when I was young, of a different type of bowling you have in the UK, which is outdoor bowling. That is different from 10-Pin Bowling, which is an indoor sport.
}
46... Qxf6 47. dxc8=Q+
{
John Hamer: sorry too good for me again so will give you the game. Thank you for the games. Hope to play you again soon
}
{
white bishop: I thought I was on the losing end before I made my 46th move! Thanks for the 2 games! I had a nice time playing and chatting with you. Thanks for sharing some chess sites as well. 
}
{
John Hamer: ok I would advise you to Download Chessbase light 2009 free version..  You can record your game with that and it has a database of games  as well 
}
{
white bishop: Thanks for the info, John! I have just sent you a long private message. Hope you do well in your remaining games.
}
1-0

