FSC 13.1.17

Well, we had at least one person show up for FSC tonight: Jabarii, who I've played a couple of times, but have yet to beat.  I was in the middle of a game when he showed up.

If ever you want to join the club, just log onto FICS Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 18:30 server time (6:30pm Pacific time).  You can find the FSC in channel 111.  Ping me if you do log on at that time.

I was able to get a 60 5 game in tonight.  There's really not much to see or analyze in this game.  My opponent dropped a few pieces early on and later resigned on move 24.  Full game here.

FSC 13.1.15

No FSC tonight for me ... we had visitors that stayed a bit late and I have a very early meeting tomorrow, so I'm going to bed early.

But I wanted to keep the FSC updates going so as to get in the habit.

I should be able to fish for a 60 5 game Thursday night.

FSC 13.1.10

No pings or messages from anyone for FSC tonight.  I did get a 60 5 in ... if you can call it that.  I resigned 16 or so moves in.  I was Black and got off to a terrible start.  I moved all my pieces to the wrong places.  There was a bit of a blitz-bug in me too.  I'm not even going to bother to annotate this one.  Here's the ugly game if you're curious.

As always, ping me if you ever want to play.  I'll usually be on FICS Tuesdays and Thursdays from 16:30 server time.  And I can always schedule a weekend game.

25,000 Blitz Tactics on ChessTempo

• 25,000 attempts
• 18,059 correct
• 6941 failed
• 72.24% correct
• 1710.9 (with an RD of 34.39)
• 483/1210 is my active rank ... better than 60.13% of the active population

next update at 30,000

FICS Standard Chess Club

One of my resolutions this year, with regards to chess, is to simply play more.  A few years ago, I set up the FICS Standard Club (FSC) which is a virtual weekly chess club held on FICS from 18:30-22:00 FICS time (Pacific time) every Tuesday and Thursday evening ... check out the site here.

Some people have shown interest.  So in order to help it pick up steam, I'm trying to be more committed to showing up regularly.  We "meet" in channel 111 if ever you want to stop by.

I tried fishing for a 60 5 game tonight, but no bites.

Someone, however, did challenge me to a 15 0, so I obliged.

Here is a neat little tactic that won me the game ... can you spot it?

Black to move and win

'12-13: Game 14

My 14th game in the 2012-2013 52-game quest is from the Double-My-Egg-Nog 60 5 Tourney.

Before I begin, if you haven't visited and read Path to Chess Mastery, then I highly encourage you to do so.  ChessAdmin has some really good posts over there.  In fact, I have read over a few of his posts repeatedly. I'm taking to heart his post entitled "Game Analysis for Improvement in Play".  I really need to spend more time internalizing my games (after, of course, I begin playing lots more games!)  And so, I intend to practice analyzing my games much more than I have before.

In this game, there were a few themes, but two stood out in my mind: analyzing a position to quiescence and king safety.