#22

I've not looked into this a whole lot, but on Susan Polgar's blog, they just posted a list of blogs. I was suprised to see my blog on the list at number 22 (out of 86). But I'm not too sure if this is a ranking per se. Judging from the picture on that post, it must have something to do with Blogshares.

Good Day

Tactics

I rebounded on Chesstempo. 5000 new tactics were added to the server and I got a dozen or so of them. I nailed a 2000+ tactic and overall had a pretty good session. I finished after 70 tactics with a rating just over 1800.

Play

I was able to get a game in tonight. I was rated 1657E on FICS and found a player rated 1657 as well. It went all the way to the end, but he blundered and let me queen a pawn and the game was over. It was pretty fun.

$93,803 for doing nothing

I just read this article about a state employee who gets paid to sit around. Apparently there is some discrimination going on and someone doesn't want this guy doing anything. He can't get fired. It is an interesting article.

He spends much of his workday at the State Insurance Fund donning headphones, listening to rock 'n' roll, blues or classical tunes and his superiors are cool with that. His work agenda involves placing his feet up on his desk, staring out his office window and counting cars on the New York State Thruway. He arrives at 7:30 a.m., leaves at 3:30 p.m., sees no one and talks to no one. He never does any work. It's been this way for Hinton for most of this decade.

Obviously the first thing I thought of was, "sweet! I could study chess all day long in that job!" He says he's been sitting there at his job for most of the decade!! He could be a GM by now. Doesn't it take about 10 years to become a master at something?

But the gentleman in the article has more gumption than I would in that scenario and he is actually trying to "rectify" the situation (after almost 10 years!)

Tactically Slaughtered

Tactics

I was slaughtered today at ChessTempo. I meant to work on just a few, but I felt some mojo or something after lunch and I just kept plugging away. Like an addicted gambler, I kept thinking things would turn around, but they never did. I went from a relative high of 1855 a few days ago to 1764 today. I did over 100 problems today and I was nickled and dimed down bit by bit. My vision just wasn't there. Sometimes I saw it, others times I'd be completely stumped.

Logical Chess

Game 18 was more on the Queen's Gambit. Again, Chernev emphasized the importance of c5. Black must dispute the center by pushing towards c5 and White must defend c5 at all costs. There is a lot of positional stuff going on. I kind of understand it, but there's no firm grasp for sure. There seem to be a lot of neuances that I would never get in a real game.

Chess Player Look-a-Likes: Tumnus-Aronian

Tumnus as in Mr. Tumnus from Narnia and Aronian as in Levon Aronian the Armenian

ChessTempo Beef

I think the benefits of ChessTempo far outweigh the downsides. But one big beef I have is when the server dishes out a really low rated problem and if I get it right I still get docked rating points!

Case in point: Just now I was served a 1490 and my current rating is 1773. The average time to solve the problem is 27.3 seconds. I solve it in 11. I didn't take any significant amount of time to think ... it just took about 10 seconds of moving my pieces and waiting for the computer to move its. I solved the problem correctly and still got docked .6 of a point.

Granted there are low rated problems I solve and still get positive points, but once in a while I solve the problem under the average time and still get docked.

That is really frustrating especially on a day where I and sucking big time.

Sleep Deprivation: The Enemy of Good Chess

Tactics

I'm working the day shift this week which means trying to go to bed early, getting up even earlier to go workout at the gym (3:30am) and then putting in 12 hours at work while trying to stay awake.

All that spells disaster when I try to work on tactics. I attempted 23 problems today and got 10 correct. What a train wreck.

Logical Chess

I read through game 17 today. I was dozing off while reading through it. I learned something about the need to defend the c-file if you are Black and White plays the Queen's Gambit. That's all I gleaned from that game.

Chess Memories

While surfing the Web trying to stay awake, I found my elementary school's website. The students there are participating in an after-school chess program. This reminded me of when I won the 6th grade chess tournament. It wasn't a very big tournament ... maybe 6 or 8 kids played. Well, I made it to the championship game. On the day I was to play the big game, I decided to break the unofficial record of drinking 13 pints (little cartons) of milk at lunch. I suceeded, but felt horrible afterwards. The game went on anyway. Although I had to excuse myself a few times during the game to use the restroom, I was able to pull off the victory. What fun memories!

Quickie

I didn't work on anything chess related Friday or Saturday. I spent my time with the family and trying to catch up on sleep.

Today I was able to make a few moves on Red Hot Pawn. I also did 10 tactics on ChessTempo and improved my rating to 1853.

I'll be able to do more chess stuff tomorrow and the rest of the week.

Good Tactical Day

Tactics

Trying to forget about last night's ordeal on ChessTempo, I picked up the broken pieces tonight rather well. When I started, I was at 1809. I nailed several in a row, including one 2000+ tactic and my rating shot up to 1855. Then I missed five in a row before I was able to redeem myself a bit. I finished the night after 30 tactics with a rating of 1848.

Logical Chess

I went over games 15 & 16 and finished off the section "The Kingside Attack." There wasn't anything particularly new that I learned. Both those games were pretty amazing. Chernev just reinforced previously stated ideas. In one game, Black moved his knight five times in the opening! Therefore his pieces weren't developed very well.

The only other bit of advice that was memorable was to those who are in cramped positions. Chernev says when you are in cramped postion, exchange pieces. That seemed pretty intuitive to me.

Play

I played one 15 30 game tonight on FICS. The player was a newbie to the server. I won handily. I might log on later tonight and play some blitz games.

Even More Ripping Open

Tactics

I was working the night shift last night when the huge ice storm that is sweeping the nation hit our area. It took me 5 minutes of hitting my doors, breaking the ice, to finally open the doors to my car. 15 minutes later, the ice was melting from my defroster. The company put us up in a hotel this morning so that we didn't have to fight the treacherous roads. There were hundred of accidents and I've heard of at least 6 deaths. So I slept all morning and into the afternoon while the cleaning maids kept knocking on my door ... I think I got enough sleep, but it wasn't very restful.

So when I worked on tactics tonight, I wasn't on fire. I was missing some easy mates and I was getting very frustrated. After doing 20 tactics, I dropped below 1800 to 1791. I was pissed. So I vowed to get my rating back up. I got several in a row correct and finished another 20 tactics with a rating of around 1810.

This reminded me of a time when I was playing this guy who I didn't particularly like. I beat him in a game of blitz and then he beat me two or three times. I was so ticked off. We played several more games and I demolished him. Is there something to it ... getting ticked off and then playing at a whole new level? Maybe I'm more like Rocky, the fictional boxer, than I thought I was. There's a whole other game going on up there in my head.

Logical Chess

Game 14 was, yet again, about ripping open the pawn structure in front of a castled king. I noticed a pattern going over the game tonight. The two bishops, the d4 pawn and the queen all were placed in similiar positions as in game 13.

Compare this to the previous postion in game 13.

Play

I played a couple of 15 5 games on FICS tonight. It was good just to get my feet wet again. I need to play a lot more 'standard' games. I lost the first one and won the second one.

Speaking fo 15 30 games, when is LEPers III? I'd like to get my butt kicked again.

More Ripping Open Castled Pawn Formation

Tactics

I did around 20 today. I encountered 4 tactics that were in the 1900-2000 range and I nailed them (to my suprise). My rating jumped up quite a bit. But it all went to me head and I flubbed a few 'easy' ones and my rating dropped back to the low 1800's. But it was a good session.

Logical Chess

I studied game 13 tonight. The theme was more about ripping open the castled pawns' structure. Here's how White did it.

Later on, White came to this critical position. Do you know how he continued? When I analyzed the postion, I got a little ahead of myself. I had the right idea, but didn't quite get it.

Ripping Open Castled Pawn Formation

Tactics

I wasn't hot today. I work a shift schedule and when I work the day shift, I lose lots of sleep. So today I was trying to stay awake while on ChessTempo. I managed to not drop below 1800.

Red Hot Pawn

I was able to make my moves today. I've got one game up to move 42. The rest have 14 and below moves in them. I drew one game today.

Logical Chess

I worked on game 12 this evening. Another theme in this book, so far, is about not disrupting your castled pawn formation. If you do, then your opponent can find ways to rip it open. The best defense against someone ripping open your pawn formation on your castled king is to create action in the center.

In game 12, White fails to make anything happen in the center. As a result, Black is able to infiltrate White's territory and rip open the pawn structure on the castled king.

White's mistake was h3 after Black placed his bishop on g4.

That's all for today.

Pawns in the Center

Tactics

Did my 20 today. I actually got a 2000+ rated tactic! I'm still in the low 1800's.

Logical Chess

I studied game 10. It was short and there wasn't a whole lot of content to the game. What I learned from the game can be summed up in one graphic (see below). I think Chernev's point of this game was "It is important to dispute control of the centre."

By not disputing control of the center, White was able to attack h7 after Black castled. White's knights also were well placed. Black had to disrupt his castled pawn formation. White was then able to decisively move in for the mate. Had Black disputed the center, he would have been able to defend the castled king and have a more open position with more options on the table.

I went over game 11 too today. This game reinforced previous ideas. The best thing I learned from this chapter was why we are to defend the center of the board. In all honesty, I've heard this advice many, many times, but have not heard many reason as to why. Chernev said,

"Anchor at least one pawn in the centre and give it solid support. Pawns in the centre keep enemy pieces from settling themselves on the best quares."

If we guard the center, our opponent cannot get a foothold with which to launch attacks on our king. If we control the center, we can launch our own attacks into enemy territory.

That is all for today.

Accumulate Small Advantages

Well, I'll see how long this lasts. Don't they say you need to do something for 21 days to make it a habit? So I'm going to try to keep this up for 21 days ... even if I have nothing to post.

Tactics

I did 20 today. I went on quite a roll and rattled off 9 in a row and moved above 1800 for the first time in a LONG time. The minimum goal is 20 blitz tactics a day at ChessTempo. I was up over 2000 (blitz rating) quite a while ago, but dropped dramatically after the admin updated the algorithm for rating adjustments. So getting to 1800 after being in the 1750's-1780's for the last several weeks is a good sign.

Logical Chess

When I started reading this book, I was updating a .pgn file with all the commentary Chernev wrote so that I could have the whole book in .pgn format. My reason for doing this is so that I can go back and read the book over and over again, but have it in .pgn file for easier reading. The downside to this is that it is so tedious. I'm up to game 9. But since I've been in this book for so long, I just want to get through it without putting pressure on myself to put it in .pgn format. So I'm just going to read the book and follow along in the .pgn file without worrying about typing it up.

Today I went over game 9. I would regularly ask myself what move I would make before looking at the next move. I've heard this is a great way to study GM games. I felt the cogs turning in my head and was much more into the book than if I had just read it.

I learned a couple of concepts from game 9.

Get the rooks out of their corners.

The other one is one particular paragraph. It says,

"Note that White has not embarked on dubious long-range combinations. His plan,
in most cases aimed at increasing his positional superiority, is made for a few moves only. Don't believe all those stories you hear of chess masters analysing intricate combinations with dozens of variations for thirty moves ahead. They don't do this because they don't have to! It is far easier and more to the point to look only a few moves ahead and try to maintain at least an equal game at every stage. Winning by accumulating small advantages is more consistent with a common-sense approach than to seek to overwhelm the opponent with bewildering combinations and venturesome sacrificial attacks. Strengthening one's own position gradually while undermining that of the opponent is more important than indulging in fruitless speculative fancies."

This is what the whole book is about ... how you go about identifying weaknesses in your opponent's game and how you can accumulate those small advantages.

That's all for today.

Keeping Track

I want to keep a regular update of what I am doing day to day on the chess improvement front. So I decided to start recording the tedious stuff I do every day which in turn will help me stay focused on the larger goals.

I'll comment on grandmaster games I'm playing over, any stuff I read from books, how many tactics I did that day, any interesting comments on tactics, exciting games or positions I've played, etc.. If I come up with any hot chess opinions or discussion-worthy stuff, I'll post it on this blog.

ChessForums.org

Back in the day when I first started to really get into chess, the Chessville forum seemed to be the place to discuss all things chess. Now that forum has all but dried up.

ChessForums.org is my new preference. The people who frequent that forum seem nice and respectable and the content seems relevant and useful. I signed up today so I could start posting there.

Stroll on over there if you get a few minutes.

General Factor of Intelligence: Chess vs. Painting

Half Sigma mentions chess a few times in his posts. His post today compares his thoughts about chess and painting. Be sure to read the comments too.

Chess Player Look-a-Likes: Carlsen-Damon

Here's another one.

Chess Player Look-a-Likes: Polgar-Livni

So I was at the gym the other day and was watching the TVs while I worked out. I thought I saw Susan Polgar being interviewed by CNN's Christiane Amanpour, but that didn't seem right. Then I adjusted my eyes and saw it was Tzipi Livni.

"Basic Instructions" Mentions Chess

I think Scott Meyer's comic is one of the best out there right now.

He gave 'chess' a mention today.