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.

The Next Challenge

It is amazing how technology can be used so effectively in today's world. As anyone can note, I tend to be a bit slow in updating posts however I try to keep the content on point. So, as I sit here at the LAX airport at 7:41 AM waiting for my flight back home, typing on a laptop using a wireless Sprint card the main thought on my mind is the upcoming tournament that I get to play in. Part of this interest is sparked by the e-mail requesting early entries into a tournament with a unique format.

The upcoming event is going to be a sectional event where players are placed into a four man section based upon ratings. The overall impact is that I should be paired against players with similar ratings. When we play in a swiss event, I am pretty much ensured only one game with a player rated close to me so this will be a welcome change. The other interesting component is that this will be a double round robin so I will be able to face all my opponents twice. Once with the white pieces and once with black.

This event is going to be a great opportunity to put into play my old idea of starting the year with an opening and then sticking with it. (At this point, if you are someone who I'm going to play, please look away from the screen.) In each of my games as white, I'm going to begin with 1. d4. Yes, I'm back to the queen pawns opening. So, what will I play following that move? I'm not sure. I'm unsure, not because I am waiting to make the decision at the board but because I'm not studied up on any d4 opening. My goal will be to develop slowly and well. I'm going to follow some basic principles of the opening to just get pieces on solid squares. Can this backfire? Of course. Without some detailed knowledge of openings it is easy to walk into traps, to overlook the basic strenghts of the positions and to move strong pieces into weak positions due to unknown future developments. So, why not pull out some books and memorize some lines? Why not purchase some theory texts and review key elements of different positions. Well, time. I just don't have enough to do a full study.

Well, here it is. The two key elements. Players of my similar strength and a new opening to test it out. My goal, to see what similarly equipped players do against solid developing features. My commitment will be to get each game posted with some comments on this blog. I will strive to do so by the next week, (we play each game on Wednesday night). Well, those are my thoughts at this point, lets see how well they hold up. Have fun all, and keep pushing those pieces.

Small Achievements

It has been a while since I have posted.  It seems like I have more time during the holiday season then the rest of the year.  I guess this is why so few players become Masters after they reach the age of 30, life just gets in the way. 

Well, even though life gets in the way, I have been able to play few games and work my way up to a Class B player.  Given, a low Class B player but a Class B none the less.  I have had a few very good tournaments that have allowed me to reach this step on my way to becoming an expert including two wins to a 2100 but I still find it very very hard to defeat or draw a 1950 - 2050 player.  My weakness seems to have been shifting from my poor opening selection (which is still weak but decent for now) to tactics and miscalculations in the middle game.

Give those flaws I was able to find a few really good move combinations in a game this past week.  Here I am playing Kevin Geiss.  He is a newer player who has come a long way in the past few months of playing.  In the three games that we have played (each with me having the black pieces) we have fought to the end game and in two cases, I was able to control the final piece trade only when my pawns were in a much stronger position. 

Here is the game that I would like to show.  Now I have not hit this game with a computer so this is just some personal review so feel free to comment on what you think.

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The First Game of the Year

Hey Everyone,

I hope all had a good holiday season.  But not that all the presents are opened, family time had and everyone has returned back to their normal lives it is time to get back to chess.  Last week saw the first round of the 2011 Winter Swiss and as the first tournament of the year, I played the first ever Bird's Opening as White.  If you have read any of my other posts you will know that I have once again altered my openning selection including the Bird Opening.  I will only play this as White this year so hopefully I will be able to quickly learn the ins and outs of it.

I have my game listed below with my thoughts included.  I did not go through it with a computer yet becuase I find it important to look at the game and try to remember what I was thinking so that is what I did here.  I'm sure there is a lot that I missed but then this is how one learns.

If you have any feedback on my game, please let me know.  I hope you enjoy it.

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Another long break

I truly believe that so many adult players don't make their goals because life gets in the way.

Over the past few months I have moved across the country, found a new job and discovered that my second daughter will be born in March.  I'm back near family and even my nephews are starting to play the royal game.  So, all of these have built upon themselves and have taken away from my chess playing. 

I had started the year with a few goals.  I wanted to establish myself with an opening and I wanted to play 100 games.  Well, I didn't accomplish either.  I did learn that I don't like play 1. d4 and that my ability to play against 1.d4 is also tough.  I have, however, found that I do well with the French Defense. 

So, in the upcoming year, I have decided that I will once again try for 100 games.  I don't think that is an unreasonable goal so I will stick with it.  As for openings, I am going to only play the following:

As White.  1. f4.  I'm going to play Bird's Opening.  It isn't as weak as 1. b4, my favorite, but it still keeps me way from to two center pawns.

As Black, I will respond to 1. d4 with the Dutch.  Similar positions, with colors reversed are found with the Dutch and Bird's opening so I should be able to pull from both of these Openings to make help increase my knowledge of the positions faster.

To 1. e4, I shall continue with the French.  I have decided that I like the way this is played out so I will see what I can do. 

I am also going to make it a goal to post online at least once every two weeks with a hope of posting one of my games every week. 

My final and third goal is to join a postal correspondence game.  I played an e-mail tournament but I didn't do very well.

Well, there are my goals for next year.  I guess those are my resolutions.  I wonder how long I can hold on this year.

Have fun all.

Another Learning Point

Hey all,

Last Saturday I played in the 5 NCGP Points Today #1 tournament.  It was a four round G/65 tournament that only cost me a dollar to play in.  You can beat four rated games for a dollar.  The only prize fund were the rating points that you could earn and North Carolina Grand Prix Points.  I had a pretty good day drawing against a 2000 rated player, winning against a 1700 and 1500 player and only taking one loss against a 1900 rated player (who also tied for first in the event). 

Overall I gained 75 rating points to put me solidly in the Class B catagory with a rating of 1650.

I had two really interesting games.  My draw agains Dan Lie (2000) and my loss against Mike Williams (1950ish).  In my game against Dan (see below) I was able to get to a good position and had to settle for a draw becuase of some bad positional play but the key thing that I saw when reviewing this game was that we both failed to look at some major weaknesses in my king position. 

So, my learning point is that when a weakness is seen, even thought I cannot attack that weakness in one move I need to look deeper to see if there is a way to leverage it.  I have my notes in the game so please let me know if anyone sees anything better. 

I'm still looking at my other game that I lost due to a massive blunder.  At the time of the blunder I was able to get to a position where I had two bishops and a knight against my opponents queen.  Once I have that picked apart I might post it here as well.

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A Second Look At A Fun Game

Two posts ago I showed a fun game that I played.  It was a KID game that I lost but had a few great opportunities to pull out a win.  If you look back you can see how I commented on the game and you can see what I was thinking.

Well, since then I have purchased, installed and imported a few games into Fritz 12.  Just for fun, I plugged this game in to see how I did and it turns out that I missed a lot of stuff.  Well, make that my opponent missed a lot of stuff and I missed a few chances to better my position.  So, I guess I got lucky to have as interesting a game as I did.

That said, the important thing that I learned from going over this game is that even when a king is completely exposed you may not have a great attack against it.  But as long as your king is safe, the best move might be to attack the other side of the board.  In this game, I got lucky because Mike kept trying to attack my king.  If he would have attacked my queen side, he would have picked apart any chance I could have had to win. 

Just to show everyone the difference between my comments and what Fritz 12 has shown, here is the same game with the output from the program.

Have fun everyone...

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Fritz 12

Today, I finally broke down and purchased Fritz 12. 

I have been playing a game on Gameknot.com and worked my way into a pretty even endgame but one that I thought I could win and in the end I had a draw.  At one point I could have pressed the issue and both I and my opponent could have promoted a pawn each but I held on to the possiblity that my opponent would have placed his king on the 8th rank and allowed me to queen with check and some advantage.

He didn't put his king on the eight rank until it was too late and I had to settle for a draw.  The moral of the story, I would like to know if I had better moves to make in the endgame to see if I could do better.  I couldn't find any but it just feels like there should be something.  So, I purchased Fritz so I can get a better look into the game.

I guess it is only fair to show the game as well.  So, it is below.  Nothing really interesting happened in it so I don't have any annotations but who knows maybe there was something there after the exchange of the last rooks from the board. 

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A Fun Game

We all play an exciting game from time to time that sticks with us.  You know those games that you are extreamly proud of maybe becuase you defeated someone stronger than you or found that great move that stunned the crowd.  Well, at the last tournament that I played in I had a great King's Indian Defense game against a stronger player. 

I can't say that I didn't make any mistakes, becuase I did.  However I was able to keep fighting, keep attacking and work myself into a very fun and interesting position.  When I went down a pawn, due to a blunder, I kept playing.  When I dropped a piece, again to a blunder, I kept looking and found a way to stick in it.  Finally, I had a chance to draw the the game but overlooked an easy tactic and lost.  Yes, my favorite game of the year was one that I lost.

Well, here it is.  I'm trying a new way to display my games in this thread to see how well it works. 

I hope any readers out there enjoy this game as much as I did.

Have fun..

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Class B, Well Almost

Well it has been a few months since I have posted.  I guess life has just gotten busy.  My wife is finishing her Master's degree and my daughter learned to crawl so I have been chasing after one while supporting the other as best I can.  With all of that my chess playing has taken a hit.  I have only played in a few tournaments this year but at the Land of the Sky, one of the largest tournaments in North Carolina, I was able to pull out just enough wins to break 1600, the low end of the Class B.  Of course, I had a few losses which dropped me back to the Class C mark, but I have tasted the next level and I think I can move back up soon.

In January I made some very drastic changes to my chess playing to see if I can advance my level of play.  The first, and most drastic change, is that I no longer play 1.e4 as white.  That is right, I'm now a d4 player.  I don't know all of the theory behind that move so I'm just fumbling my way through but developing normally seems to work.  With e4 there is so much theory that I just don't have the time or books to research 20 lines deep in every one that is out there. It is strange for me to change over but I'm doing much better now that I'm starting to see how other people play against d4.

As Black, I have settled on two defenses.  I'm playing the French against 1. e4 and the King's Indian Defense against 1.d4.  The French is pretty solid and the one that I have been spending the most amount of time on while the KID is one of those exciting but difficult positions to play as Black.  I'm doing well so far in both.  In fact, one of my favorite games I have ever played was done at a recent tournament and was a KID game.  I'm going to post that here in the next week after I finish adding the rest of my annotations to it.  I didn't play it perfectly, but I had such great attacking options that it is worth looking at.

I'm not sure if anyone out there is even reading this, but if so, have fun and good luck in your own games!!!

Long Time

It has been a long while since I have posted.  I guess life just got busy but it is slowing again so I have some more time to spend on chess.  I have managed to play in one Saturday tournament a few weeks ago and went undefeated in my section.  However, the real test will come this weekend.

This Saturday and Sunday will see the four round G/120 Greater Charlotte Championship.  I hope to do well and hope to have lots to report on my games and how well I have played.

So, stayed tuned for some good reading to come.

The Queen's Gambit Lecture

Beginning last Tuesday night, the Queen City Chess Association began it's Fall Lecture Series.  This is a five week event where we have some of the higher rated members teach an hour long chess lesson.  This series even includes a few National Masters and a bunch of Experts so the quality of the lessons are pretty good.

The first lesson was about the Queen's Gambit.  (I guess that I should add that this lesson was geared towards 1200 - 1500 players.)  As an e4 player, the Queen's Gambit isn't something that I tend to play. However, I did ask a question about the basic structures and opening sequences of d4 over e4 and one thing that was agreed upon by the higher rated players at this lesson is that e4 openings tend to require more memorizaion while d4 openings are easier to reason at the board.  With this information, I'm strongly thinking of moving to d4 as my opening move.

So, as we worked through the lesson a number of key elements and chess theories were brought to light. The concept of "the space left behind" which is one of the biggest thing's that I miss.  In my game that followed this lecture, I hung a rook and allowed my bishop to be trapped.  I know, not very good play.  In fact, I think that this is still one of those major things that I will struggle with as I try to move up to the next class.  I need to make sure to double check all of my pieces right before I move.  I have also noticed that when I tend to drop these pieces are at the end of a long analysis.  Meaning that I see the hung piece in the begining, but then I think so deeply that I forgot that the piece is hanging and then I move something else.

I don't think there is a single silver bullet to keep from hanging piece, or every coach would teach all their students, however I still think that I'm making way to many game ending simple mistakes that shouldn't happen. 

Well, I plan to take better notes on Tuesday night and will share even more detailed information on the Lessons that I did here.  Although one thing that I do know, is that one hour isn't a lot of tie to cover the Queen's Gambit.

NC Class Championship

This past weekend I played in the NC Class Championship.  It was my first 'real' tournament that I have played in since competing in the Wisconsin Scholastic Championship back in 1997.  I know, I'm getting old.  This tournament also had the longest time control that I recall having ever played with a 30/90, SD 1.  Yes, I had one game that went from 7:30 PM until 12:15AM and only to draw.

Over all, I think I did pretty well, at the end of the tournament I scored three points with two wins, two draws and a loss.  But, I was way ahead in both draws before I decided to give it back.  Over all, my favorite and best played game was in the fifth and last round.  I entered this round with 2 points playing the second place player with three points.  To finish in second place I needed a win while a draw would have put my opponent in a clear second place slot.

Half way through the game, things looked like they could have been a draw so my opponent offered one.  Because I needed a win I had to decline and then to make counter play and to create some chances, I took his knight with my rook giving up the exchange but obtaining a strong attack.  In the end he lost the game because he missed a complicated mating situation but even if he didn't miss that mate, I think he would still have been hard pressed to win.

Overall, I think I preformed well because of a few simple rules.
1)  In the opening, just develop pieces to good squares and don't attack to early.
2)  Play slowly and gain as much space as you can.
3) Once you get the initiative, attack attack attack.

Here is my fifth game.  I still need to annotate it and I'm actually thinking of sending it into Chess Life.

Oh, so I took second place in the Class C division.  I'm very happy with that.

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd8 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. d3 Bg4 6. Nf3 e6 7. h3 Bh5 8. g4 Bg6 9. Ne5 Bb4 10. Bd2 Nbd7 11. Nxg6 hxg6 12. f4 Nb6 13. Bb3 Nfd7 14. Qf3 Qh4+ 15. Ke2 O-O 16. Be1 Qe7 17. h4 Nf6 18. h5 e5 19. f5 g5 20. h6 gxh6 21. Rxh6 Kg7 22. Rxf6 Qxf6 23. Ne4 Qh6 24. f6+ Kg8 25. Bxb4 Qh2+ 26. Ke3 Qf4+ 27. Qxf4 gxf4+ 28. Kf3 Rfd8 29. Rh1 a5 30. Be7 a4 31. Ng5 axb3 32. Rh7 bxa2 33. Rg7+ Kh8 34. Nxf7# 1-0