Chess Training - 4

I have won another game by resignation - but under duress! This was my most recent game with Shira. She resigned - I didn't even realize it until tonight, duh, since once again the email notification from redhotpawn.com was not working. Damn! I was somewhat pleased with how this game was progressing and thought I had good battling chances. I thought Shira and I would be in for further battle and I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately for my training (selfish Jan), Shira is super-busy right now getting ready for the November 15, 2009 class with the kids at SOS Childrens Village of Illinois in Chicago for her Computer Labs for Kids Foundation, in addition to performing her current work assignment for her employer. Shira was distracted, not playing her best, and just didn't have the time to play this game. So - this was a cheap victory for me. [Event "Challenge"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2009.10.29"] [EndDate "2009.11.10"] [Round "?"] [White "shira"] [Black "Shakerjan"] [WhiteRating "1385"] [BlackRating "1167"] [WhiteELO "1385"] [BlackELO "1167"][Result "0-1"] [GameId "6842016"] 1. d4 d5 2. Ng1f3 Nb8c6 3. Bc1g5 Bc8f5 4. c3 Qd8d7 5. e3 O-O-O 6. Bf1b5 f6 7. Bg5f4 g5 8. Bf4g3 h6 9. Nb1d2 e6 10. O-O h5 11. h4 g4 12. Nf3e1 Ng8e7 13. Qd1e2 Ne7g6 14. e4 dxe4 15. Nd2xe4 Bf8e7 16. Ne1d3 e5 17. dxe5 Qd7e6 18. Bb5xc6 Qe6xc6 19. Rf1e1 Qc6xe4 20. Qe2xe4 Bf5xe4 21. exf6 Be7xf6 0-1 You know, I prayed recently for some chess victories - but I didn't expect victories this way. My new coach, Brian Wall, defaulted on TWO games we were playing at chessgames.com when he went for a long weekend visit out of state and missed the three-day time limit on moves. Great, just great! Now my rating is grossly inflated at chessgames.com and no doubt next Anand will be looking me up as a sparring partner. Ha! So, B and I arranged last night via email to play a new game. Except - before I had a chance to challenge him when I got home from work this evening (I don't make it a habit to play chess online while I'm working), he challenged me to not one, but TWO games. This time, I'm black in both games. At least the first time around I was white in one of our games. I could have rejected one or both of the challenges to play, but I accepted both. A sucker (me) is born every minute. So, I challenged B to a game where I would be white, except I didn't press the right button or something, so I now have no idea what color I'll end up being (three guesses - BLACK!) LOL!