"Bad" Pawns Can Be "Good" (HTRYC 3rd)

Isolated, backward or doubled pawns are often weak; however it is also true that sometimes they are not - other factors outweigh their potential weakness.

Doubled Pawns
a doubled pawn gives its owner an extra open file for coverage of critical squares that would not be possible if the pawns were un-doubled and 'healthy'.

Said Brent Larsen of this game, "In this variation, many endings are won with the aid of the seemingly humble [doubled] center pawns."

A pawn is only weak if the enemy forces can get to it.

Isolated Pawns
an isolated pawn is potentially weak because no other pawn can help defend it.  Since now pawns can stand by its side, the square directly in front of it also tends to be vulnerable.  However, it can control squares that might turn out to be useful homes for your pieces; there are open files on either side of an isolated pawn - a place for your rooks which can strive for activity.

An isolated pawn doesn't have to remain on a sickly square; it can advance and become a 'battering ram.'

If you advance and subsequently trade an isolated pawn, then the supposed weakness was nothing more than an illusion.

The most common type of isolated pawn tends to be the d-pawn.

Piece activity is key when trying to make use of an isolated pawn.  Don't trade pieces when you have an isolated pawn - you need them to defend and advance the 'iso.'  If you have an 'iso' and no minor pieces, try to swap rooks and queens.

Backward Pawns
the weakness or strength of a backward pawn depends on the following questions:
1. It is sitting on an open file?
2. How well is it defended?
3. Is the square directly in front of it adequately defended by pieces?
4. Is it serving a useful purpose defending the pawns that have gone ahead of it?
5. Can it successfully advance, thereby ridding itself of the 'backward' label?

If a backward pawn can safely advance then its weakness will turn out to be more illusory than real.

Passed Pawns
passed pawns are usually thought of as huge assets, offering great chances in an endgame, but they can also be a disadvantage.

You don't want a passed pawn if it can be blockaded, unless you have play elsewhere and the passed pawn acts as endgame 'insurance.'  The best blockader of a passed pawn is a knight, since its strength is no diminished by having a pawn in front of it.

Center (HTRYC 3rd)

The first responsibility of the owner of the big [pawn] center is to make it indestructible.

Conversely, the responsibility of the player facing the pawn center is to apply constant pressure to it, and to try to prove it to be a weakness instead of a strength.

A center is only good because it restricts the opponent's pieces.  If it has to advance and give the enemy pieces good squares, then its whole purpose has been negated.

Game 31

I missed the last of our 4 games with tommyg on Friday night - it was a hectic day.  We are trying to work out a time to play that 4th game.

Tonight I played game 2 with gatoruss (replayed here).  The first game last week was pretty ugly.  I replayed that game a few times today and it was painful.  But tonight's game had a different outcome.  It was pretty interesting in the beginning and then he played 18...Nxe3?  I'm not quite sure what he was thinking.  But from then on, I just worked to try to trade pieces.  He made a second blunder with 24...g4.  My knight was pinned to my king by his queen and then he advanced the pawn attacking my knight.  But that left my queen to deliver check and then retake the pawn at g4.  At that point, I was up a bishop and knight.  He tried a few checks, but I secured the king and he resigned.

Game 3 with him may be next week, but being Memorial Day, we may delay game 3 until June 4.

Hey you Europeans ... check out my post on brunch and chess!  I'm up about the time you guys are having a late breakfast or early lunch - why not play a G/60 with me?

European Brunch May 21-25

So I had a thought on my 4-mile walk the other day ...

I need something to motivate me to get up and get going in the morning.  The answer: a G/60 game of chess.

But who plays chess at that unseemly hour?  The answer: Europeans.

So, each week, I'll post which days I can play a G/60 and people can sign up by posting a comment on that post.  I may not get much response, but it's worth a try.

If you're rated between 1500-1800 on FICS (standard rating), feel free to sign up for a game or two with me.

Monday: no games
Tuesday: open spot - G/60 at 02:45 FICS time
Wednesday: open spot - G/60 at 02:45 FICS time
Thursday: open spot - G/60 at 02:45 FICS time
Friday: no games

First come first serve - leave a comment to let me know which day you'd like to play.

Space (HTRYC 3rd)

Space, as defined by Silman, is the "player's territory usually determined by the positioning of one's pawns."  It's the area of property behind the pawns.

The reason it's important: if you have more territory, you also possess more room in which to move around.

1. the side with less space should initiate exchanges so that he will have more room in which to move around.
2. alternatively, the side with more space should avoid exchanges and instead focus on increasing the space advantage.

However, there is a "dark side of space"

1. the further a pawn advances the less space it can potentially control

Other rules

1. in closed positions with locked centers you must attempt to get open lines on the wings by breaking with pawns

Game 30

Game 30 was game 1 in a new series - this time with gatoruss.  Not much to see in this game - just total crap on my part.  I guess one shouldn't multi-task when playing a game.  On the bright side, I had a pretty good night on ChessTempo.  Once I knew the game was lost, I logged on to CT and got a small bump in my blitz rating.

Playing Chess Playlist

I've found that certain pieces of music enhance my concentration.  Over the years, my "Concentration" playlist has grown.  I've noticed that a few of the pieces are a bit up tempo than most, while the majority of them are slow or relaxing.  Here's my 107 minute playlist with links to the songs on youtube.

Bach's Persia by David Darling
Progeny by Hans Zimmer
The Wheat by Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard
Earth by Hans Zimmer
Sorrow by Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard
Zucchabar by Hans Zimmer
Esptesicus by Hans Zimmer and James Howard
Evenstar by Isabel Bayakdarian
Minas Tirith by Ben Del Maestro
The Long Night by Oystein Sevag
Egypt by Lakki Patey
Piece in the Old Style 1 by Henryk Gorecki performed by William Orbit
Piece in the Old Style 3 by Henryk Gorecki performed by William Orbit
Opus 132 by Beethoven performed by William Orbit
Anytime, Anywhere by Sarah Brightman
Our Breath Shall Intermix by Symbion Project
Instrumental by Rob Dougan
9999999 by Valve - Mike Morasky - Aperture Science Psychoacoustics Laboratory (Portal 2 soundtrack)
One Simple Idea by Hans Zimmer
Dream Within a Dream by Hans Zimmer
Waiting For a Train by Hans Zimmer
Time by Hans Zimmer

There are lots more tracks in my library that could be on this list.  I've noticed I can go through this playlist twice in one 75 15 game.

Game 29

Game 29 was the fourth with Nygren.  Full game here.

In our postmortem, he asked me what I was thinking when I moved 9...c5.  My thought, at that point of the game, was to try to open up the middle or move it along to c4.  I also wanted to get my rook on the c file.  He said that it wasn't a good move because it created an isolated pawn (on d5).  He was right.  I could not defend it well after.  He also noted that I should not have have been trading pieces with an isolated pawn; but that I should be supporting it and trying to advance it.  So, I was going about it all wrong.  But I really welcomed the feedback.  After doing a full analysis with Fritz 11, it didn't have any feedback for me on that move.

The next part I wanted to look at was 12...Nce4.  Fritz 11 gives me a =+, but I didn't quite pull off the pawn capture like I was thinking.  He responded 13. Rc1 followed by my Bg4.  Instead of Bg4, I should have captured his knight with 13...Nxc3 14. Rxc3 Rxc3 15. bxc3 h6 16. Bxf6 Bxf6 and I'd still be slightly better ... I could still attempt to capture the c-pawn with Qc7.  But instead of playing 13...Nxc3, I played Bg4 and you can see this resulted in the opening of my castled king as well as going down a pawn.  From that point on, I struggled to stay in the game.

The game continued - his rook and queen were playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with my king.  I was trying desperately to get my queen back into the thick of things.  It was looking pretty clear he was going to win, and so I decided to try to last for as many moves as I possibly could; even trying to get a perpetual check so as to draw the game.  He was able to trade rooks with me and win my other glimpse of hope - a pawn with a wide-open file ahead of him.  Now he had a pawn in the middle heading to be queened.  My king was stuffed to the side and I was trying to get a perpetual check.  After moving 37...Qc5, I was expecting him to play either h4 or Qh8+.  After that, His pawn could just saunter on down.  But he played g4+ after which I played fxg3+.  39. Qxg3 would have been fine, but he played Kxg3?? after which I finished it off with Qg1#.

I felt badly for him.  The game was his except for that blunder.  He was very gracious in the postmortem and I was very appreciative of him playing me those four games and going over them.

My pool of people to play is about to dry up.  I need more players to play!  I'd prefer to play a 4-game series of 75 15 games, but one-off games are perfectly ok too.  G/60, 45 45, G/90 ... whatever ... just that it's a longish game.  I'll play pretty much anyone ... I think I'd have to draw the line at 1875.  If you're around the 1875, give or take 25 rating points, I'm not sure I'd be of any use other than to be utterly humiliated :-) ... but if you're 1875 or below, I'd  be willing to take a shot.

Leave a comment if you want to play; or shoot me an email at hotmail dot com.

Game 28

Game 28 (replayed here) was against Tommyg again - our third of four.  I'm up 3-0 now.  It was a fairly even-keeled game ... no exploding fireworks.  I had a couple of long thinks on move 13 and 29.  But besides those, my thinking was fairly quick and concise.

Towards the end, I felt I had it wrapped up a couple of times, only for Tommy to pull out another move that made me pause and ponder.  He put up a really good fight.

I had to delay my game today with nygren ... my son's friend and his dad invited us to see the new stadium the Houston Dynamo are playing in.  We had to leave a bit early this morning and I wasn't sure if I started the game with nygren if we'd finish in time before we had to leave.  So that game is tomorrow morning.

Games 26 & 27

So far, the chess this weekend has not been aesthetically beautiful - blunders have abounded thus far.

Game 26 was against Tommyg - I had the black pieces.  The game can be replayed here.  The game was fairly even, but he had his queenside pawns ready for the attack.  This worried me the entire game.  But I was able to get the kingside opened up a bit and the slip my queen into his territory.  Then he played 34. Ra2?  As the rook sat on a1, it was already defended and in no danger.  So I was able to deliver check and then capture the rook.    38. Qxa7 also seemed like a mistake - taking another defender out of the picture.  This allowed for a quicker checkmate.  The Tommyg series is 2-0 now.

Game 27 was ugly.  This game was against Nygren and it was barf-o-rific from the start.  The game can be replayed here.  I probably should have resigned earlier, but this game only went 29 moves.  I had the white pieces in this game.  He played the KID.  I played the SOL opening.  9. h3 was wrong as evidenced by the game.  9. Bh4 is the better move.  When I was looking at this move, I saw him playing g5 and then possibly getting the knight and bishop forked, plus the possibility of the pawns fully storming the side.  On the other hand, with 9. h3, I saw my h-file opening up; my rooks doubling and a fantastic storming of his castled king - all delusions of grandeur.  By the 13th move, it was certain I would lose a knight.  I went into blitz mode, which in my state of mind was suicide and very low quality analysis.  So the Nygren series is now 1-2.  This one has the feel of the stevelco series - where I was lucky to come off with a win in game one and then get stomped the remainder of the games.

The only consolation for me is that the overall goal of getting in 52 games in a year is progressing.  I fell behind early on in the quest, but I've been cutting into the "games behind" stat.  I'm only 10 games behind schedule now.  I've now passed the mid-way point as well.

20,000 Blitz Tactics on ChessTempo

Today I hit the 20,000 blitz attempts mark on ChessTempo.

• 20,000 attempts
• 14,114 correct
• 5,886 failed
• 70.57% correct
• 1678.3 rating (with an RD of 34.48)
• 500/1095 is my active rank ... better than 54.39% of the active population

Here's to the next 20,000.

The Anti-Knight Technique (HTRYC 3rd)

The correct technique for battling knights: if you take away all their advanced support points, the knights will be ineffective and the bishops will have an excellent chance of winning out.  Because of this, you must make some decisions before you trade off into a B v. N position.  Ask yourself the following questions whenever you face the possibility of creating this type of imbalance:

1. Is the position open or closed?  If it's closed I may prefer to own the knights.  If it's open the bishops may be a good bet.
2. Will there be support points available for his knights.  If there are, then other questions arise:
• can his knights get to them?
• if the knights do get to these squares, does it matter?  in other words, if his support point is on the queenside but all the play is taking place on the kingside then you would actually encourage him to stick hi knight on that far away post!
• can the bishops reach similar or superior squares?

Be sure to answer these questions before the trade.

Game 25

The march to 52  games before the end of August continues.  I'm reaching the half-way point with my next game.  I may try to troll the FICS seek board tomorrow for a 60 0 or 60 15 game.

So game 25 was my second game with nygren.  You can review the whole game here (annotated by the FICS DB).  This game was a fight for inches.  I ran this through Fritz 11 and it appears that I did ok in the opening, but still lacking.  There were a few spots I could have done better on.  I should have played 4...Bxc3+.  Maybe that would have helped a bit. Alternatively, as nygren suggests, I could have played 4...Nf6.  So, as usual, there is plenty of room for improvement in the opening.

The center was in dispute up to move 15 or so.  His smooth play won him a pawn and allowed him to dominate the center.  I tried gaining some ground back with my N, but then he played 21. c4.  I withdrew with 21...Nb6 and then he played the correct 22. d5 getting a ! from Fritz 11.

The game was still not out of hand for me yet, but he kept constant pressure; traded queens and then gobbled pawns.  In the end, I tried a few tricks ... but they were just that - tricks and he saw right through them.  So then I went into "infinite resistance" mode to try to force him to checkmate me.  But his sly play was too good.  I would be forced to trade rooks after which he would queen.  At that point, I resigned.

This series is tied 1-1 now.

As always, please let me know if you want to enter a 4-game series with me (75 15 games on FICS).  I usually play on the weekends at 03:30 FICS and at 18:30 FICS on weeknights.  If 75 15 is too long for you, I'd be happy playing a G/60 or a 60 15.

Game 24

Tommyg and I started a 4-game series of 75 15 matches tonight.  The first game was a bit of a nail-biter.  You can replay the whole game here.  The opening was pretty good on both sides - no major slip-ups that I saw.  I was getting settled in when he decided to send this queen side pawns down the side.  I held them off pretty good, but then he played 12...Ne4; a real tricky move that could have gone disastrous (for me) quite quickly.  I had to take his N with my N, but then I could see I would be able to gain a pawn ... except for his playing 14...f6 which would dislodge my N and allow the game to remain even.

But I paused and pondered a bit.  I tried finding imaginary positions ... I found one.  I started working out the details and it would seem I could go up two pawns.  I played 15. Qg4 with the idea that I could get the e6 and b5 pawns.  It worked out; and we even traded queens.

Since I still had all my pawns and he only had 3, I needed to figure out a way to queen one of them.

So they started trudging up the side.  He tried to get some counter play going with his N, but inevitably, the N would be mine.  I kept constant pressure on until he resigned on move 33.  I took his B with one of my Rs and then one of my pawns was going to come out a Q.

So a good first battle.  We plan on playing next week at the same time.

Game 25 is only a few hours away (with nygren).   I need to get some shut-eye for the big match tomorrow morning.

10 YEARS ON FICS

Towards the end of my college years, I had a lot of time on my hands.  Classes were winding down; the work was getting easier; I was spending more time looking for work and grading papers as a TA than I was attending classes.  Since my evenings weren't filled with much homework, I would play personalities on Chessmaster ... this was all back in 2000.

I graduated in December of 2000 and landed a job in Texas.  We moved our small family and I started working in January of 2001.  My evenings were even more freed up with absolutely no homework, so I ramped up my time playing chess.  I eventually discovered that Chessmaster had an on-line community and I'd occasionally play someone on the CM server.  Then I discovered pogo.com and Yahoo! chess.  Soon I started reading chess forums and I frequently visited Chessville.com and their forums.  Then I discovered FICS and Winboard and my life has never been the same.

I came home from work on a Spring day in 2002.  Our oldest was a toddler and our friends who had kids the same age as ours were over for a visit.  The windows were open; the air was crisp and fresh and I was sitting at my computer watching the kids while downloading Winboard and registering my handle at FICS.

Soon I was blitzing on FICS most nights and then eventually playing in the OCL and the 45-45 Team League.

It's a bit surprising that I've only played 1129 blitz games.  I imagine I've logged into FICS many times as a guest so I could play wreckless blitz without affecting my rating too badly.

When did you log on to FICS or ICC or one of the other chess servers for the first time?  Do you remember the day?

Rules for Knights (HTRYC 3rd)

1. Knights need advanced support points to be effective.
2. Knights are very useful pieces in closed positions.
3. Knights are the best blockaders of passed pawns.
4. Knights are usually superior to Bishops in endings with pawns on only one side of the board (due to their ability to go to either color)

Rules for less experienced players (regarding Knights)

1. Knights on the first and second ranks are purely defensive and are usually on their way to greener pastures;
2. A Knight on the third rank is useful for defense and is ready to take a more aggressive stance by jumping to the fifth;
3. A Knight on the fourth rank is as good as a Bishop and is well poised for both attack and defense;
4. A Knight on the fifth rank is often superior to a Bishop and constitutes a powerful attacking unit;
5. A Knight on the sixth rank is often a winning advantage.  It spreads disharmony in the enemy camp to such a degree that the opponent will sometimes feel compelled to give up material to rid himself of it.

Note 1: Rule for Knights on 4th, 5th and 6th ranks means they are on unassailable points.

Note 2: A support point (for the Knight) is only useful if it is in an area of the board where action is taking place.

Misc. Items

Example of a plan involving Knights: You recognize you have Knights; you decide to make them better; you find or create weak squares in the opponent's camp and you get your Knights to these weak squares.

Game 23

The last of the 4-game series with silencehunter was quite a battle; lasting 47 moves before he resigned (link to game).

The game was fairly even most of the game.  By move 12, the center was opening up; 5 moves later, we exchanged knights; another 5 moves later we exchanged queens; then on move 29, I thought he blundered, by surrendering his bishop, but actually it was a pretty good move - I took the B and he was able to recapture my N 3 moves later.

By this point, we entered the end game.  By move 35, he had about 10 minutes on his clock to my 40.

I played 36...h5 attacking his N.  The idea was to push it to c2 and then pin it.  But then he played 37. e5? and I promptly played 37... Rd1+ and the N was mine.  He kept up the fight and was trying to do something with his remaining pawns.  But I was up in material and the clock was on my side.  He resigned on move 47 when my pawn was about to queen.

So I won the series 2.5 to 1.5.  We agreed to another 4-game series starting in a couple of weeks.

Also, tommyg has agreed to play a 4-game series as well.  Those games should start next week.

Game 22

I've started another 4-game match with a willing participant - Nygren.

This series started off with a win for me.  The game can be replayed here.

It got really wild in the opening and I figured I had messed up again.  It also started off really fast.  It was almost blitz speed.  But I was able to flush his king out of the pocket early and then was able to apply constant pressure with my Q and knight.

After he moved 16...Qb6 threatening Qxe3+ or otherwise trying to offer the exchange of queens, I took 23 minutes and 43 seconds trying to decide whether to pull the trigger or to continue adding pressure.  I wasn't sure which line was (if any) was safe.  I looked at Qf7+ quite a bit.  I figured the K would end up at b8 and it would be a tough fight trying to extricate him from that square ... plus, if the air went out of my attack, my own K was quite exposed.  So then I started thinking about other options and Bb5 came up.  It defended the e3 pawn, attacked his knight.  Plus, I figured I could get my rooks doubled up on the d-file and the odds of attack were pretty good.  But again, I was worried that his K would fully escape; that I'd lose pieces; that my K would be unsafe.  So I took a really long time on this move.  Not sure what Fritz says yet, but it'll be interesting to see what he thinks.

So after Bb5, he played the expected Ne5 and I followed up with Rd1.  Then he played Qa5+ ... I was actually happy about this move ... it would let my king get off the back rank to let the other R into the game.  Then he played 19...Kf6 attacking my N.  Another decision ... do I pull the trigger or defend the N?  I figured his K was essentially trapped at this point if I defended the N.  After h4, he had to defend against my Qe6#.  He played 20...Qb6.

I figured I needed another couple of moves to really set this up.  So I played 21. Rd7 - figuring if he took with the N, I could deliver check with my Q; my B is still attacking d7; I could swing the other R over to d and my N is still providing cover.  He responded 21...Rc2+ - caught me a bit by surprise.  I really had no choice but to play Kd1.  Afterward, he was analyzing the game and said that 22...Rc4 was probably better.  But instead he played to double the rooks and that left my N to finish the game.

Game 23 is tomorrow against silencehunter - for all the marbles (or a draw).  It's tied 1.5 to 1.5.

As always, if anyone still reading this blog wants to join a 4-game series (75 15) with me, let me know.  Message me on FICS, leave a comment, email me at hotmail (my handle at hotmail.com) and we can schedule.

j'adoube = the raptor?

so j'adoube has been out of sight for almost two years now.

then i see this headline today:

so i took a look at The Raptor's blog (link here).

the first thing i noticed was the 3 = E format in the url - j'adoube's url is the same.

then i started reading some of his posts - the tone is very similar to j'adoube's.

then i remembered j'adoube is a programmer.

i think i also heard that j'adoube is older ... like in his 50s or 60s

so all these added up leads me to believe raptor = j'adoube.

if that is truly the case, then i can see why he's not blogging so much anymore on j'adoube.

Game 21

Game 21 was against silencehunter (game 3 of our series).  I started my attack early ... unfortunately, the game ended early when my attack had no meat or supporting pieces or extra squares (do you ever wish there were 9th rank or an "i" file ... for your knight to jump to?)

Things were going so well in the opening ... especially when I played a4.  I could see the queen and rook flying down the side - chasing the king.  The white bishop providing sniper support ... it was a fantastic plan!!

But, not ... my opponent had to hunker down ... didn't take the knight ... developed his pieces.

Then I found myself floundering ... things weren't falling into place and by move 20 it was over.  My pieces were getting slaughtered - I sent them to battle un-supported.

Patience is what I needed here.  I had a 2nd knight and a 2nd rook that were still sitting on the sidelines.  I should have brought them into the game.

The rubber match is next week as we are all tied up now.