A Change of Mind

Last night I played the fourth and final round in one in one of my toughest tournaments.  I was paired against two masters, on 2100 rated player and this final game against a very strong 1800 player.  Having scored 1.5 points so far, even a loss would still provide me the strongest performance rating in an event and earn me the final 2nd Category Norm (for whatever that means).

As the game progressed I really enjoyed my position.  It had a number of inblances, many to my liking.  I had some good attacking lines and had activated most of my pieces.  I had used that advantge to gain a really good attack on Black's king but then I failed at one thing, not "having a change of mind."

There reached a point in the game where I needed to convert the position to winning endgame but for some reason I looked at the move and then decided against it choosing a move that pretty much lost instantly.  Maybe it just takes a few of these close games to remember that when it looks like your main ideas are no longer working that you need to step back and take a clean look at the board.  Review what is infront of you now without taking considerations for the prevouse moves.

If I could have done that reset, if you will, I'm sure I would have found the correct move to make.

But my hat off to Aaron, he did well in teaching me a lesson that I hope not to forget.

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First Win Over a Master

Last week at the club I was paired against a Master.  This isn't uncommon for me as my rating falls into the middle of the pack so under Swiss pairing rules that gives me good odds of being paired against a Master in the first round.  I guess I could add that this was the third round of the event and the second Master I was faced.

Well here is the game with my notes.  Please feel free to add in any thoughts.  I didn't use a computer to evaluate the positions so these are just my thoughts.

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A Changing Point

It has been a long time since I have posted, but then there hasn't been a whole lot to post about.  Overall my play has been pretty weak and over the past six months my rating has done one thing, go down.

I have lost some games where I was up pieces and others where I just couldn't figure my way out of the opening and pretty much lost by the 10th move of the game.  Of all things, that bugs me the most.   All that said however, I am currently preparing for one of the most pivotal games that I have played all year long.  In a few days I will face off against Aaron Krause who is a very strong 1800 player.  If I manage to pull a draw I will conclude this four round event with 2.5 points but even more importantly, with the strongest performance I have ever had in a tournament.

I do believe that all three games that I have played in this tournament are more than worthy of being posted here and I will see to that upon the conclusion of the event, but I think it is worthwhile for me to consider my preperation at this point.  After all preperation is key to any successful endever.

So, to start I have done a few things:
1)  I pulled all the games that I have played against Aaron using 1. d4 (my chosen opening move).  This amounted to only one game.
2)  I contacted two other club players that I thought might be able to provide me similar games against Aaron.  This added one more game to my list.
3)  In both of these games Aaron played similar openings which leads me to the sequence that I will start to study.
4)  I pulled my copy of the MCO and "The Kaufman Repertoire for Black and White" off the shelf to look at.
5)  I ran the first ten moves of each game through Stockfish to see what moves and ideas come from that.
6)  Reviewed my past game with Aaron in detail.

The best I know of now is that I will be seeking a game that looks something like Kernes Defense: 1. d4 e6 2. c4 d5 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Be7.

So, if any viewers here use this opening and know of any major pitfalls or traps, I would love to hear them.

Have fun...

Tough Game

Hey all,

So this week the club started a new event.  In the first round I was paired against the highest rated player so I had limited hope but with but it has been my experience that this match up always ends with a good lesson. Bill is one of those players that after winning is more than happy to look at the game and provide some pointers on where I went wrong.  As I learn this is always a great chance for me to get in a game and get a learning conversation out of it afterwards.

Well, this game didn't get me the conversation, mainly because we were the last game to finish up and I lost in the end by dropping a rook.  Without that move I had some good chances to win.  That said, there were still many ways I could have improved my play and for once I played game against Bill that I was proud of, even given the massive blunder in the end.

If you have comments, please make them.

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Tough Game

Two weeks ago I had a chance to play a very tough opponent.  The start of the game went pretty well overall and then I started to fall apart.  It wasn't that I made massive blunders but I just didn't find the best moves and after going over the game I realized that my real issue was.

I never had a good plan.  I think this is one of the key elements I need to work on.  As I sit around and talk to other plays I always comment about my lack of Opening knowledge.  I often mention that I lose a game in the opening and then just play until I am completely lost.  My plans for work around this has been to purchase books in openings that I think I like and to work through them a bit. 

I have books on the French, King's Indian, general openings and standard theory.  But I think I realized that I'm working this from the wrong angle.  I think I need to determine where I want to get in the middle game.  What things are important to me?  I know that I prefer the Bishop pair.  I play best when fighting for the flanks then centering all my pieces on the center.  I have become more of a positional player than tactics meaning that endgames with a simple pawn advantage are where I end up most of the time. 

I need to start from the middle.  I'm not sure how to do that.   I think, I need a new plan for studying.  So I'm going to add something new to my training.  I have decided to use my Chess Master software and start a tournament and try to play an additional game there a week.  Try something new and learn something else.  I guess I will see.

Now, to get back to the beginning.  Here is my game I wanted to show this week:

Have fun.

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A Bad Game

This past week, I had the opportunity to play a good player who is close to my rating.  Given my current rating this isn't something that occurs that often in the club so I was pretty excited about it.  With the two hours per side, I was hoping for nice long game with a lot of complications, something I could really dig into and have fun with.  But, that was not the case.  Instead I resigned after 15 moves because I couldn't stand to look at the position any longer.

After it was over, Jim sat down and showed me that my second move was bad (1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Bg4??)  And from there it went down hill.  So, other than being complete annoyed at myself for two full days, I have decided on two main items.

The first will be to learn to play something against Nf3 so I don't lose so quickly and the second is to play ever game for the rest of the year out until either I get checkmated, it is a draw or I win.  This second item will be most difficult I fear as I tend to resign positions that I believe are completely lost but I think this is something that I need to do to become a better player.

I guess I will have to see about that.  But until then, time to hit the book and see what Larry Kaufman has recommended against Nf3 in "The Kaufman Repertoire for Black and White". This is my opening logic book as of now.

Have fun...
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A new year once again

So it is a new year which means that I will start again with my blog.  I'm not sure if anyone really looks at this but the best way to improve your game is to review the games that you play.

The game that I'm showing here was played last week.  It was the start of a new year and a new tournament.  This tournament is of the Swiss format and being the person right in the middle it meant that I was paired against the lowest rated player in the section.  Typically that means for an easy game however one of the main things that I need to work on this year is winning games that I'm supposed to win.

When I play a lower rated player, I tend to be a bit sloppy in my games.  Perhaps in the back of my mind I just think that they are going to blunder something to me so I can just move quickly until that happens.  From experience, this is almost never the case and I have been known to drop games against lower rated players just for this reason. 

So here is my game with some notes.

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As you can see I was able to pull this one out but this game is still a great instructional tool as it outlines a very key point that many lower rated players see, the key of developing your pieces.

Have fun all.