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.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Friday, December 23, 2011
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.
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.
Play chess online
Sunday, January 9, 2011
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.
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.
Play online chess
Monday, November 29, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, April 2, 2010
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.
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.
Play online chess
Thursday, March 25, 2010
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...
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...
Play online chess
Thursday, March 18, 2010
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.
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.
Play chess online
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