2012 Round Turkey Pairings & Results

Congratulations to ChessAdmin for winning the 2012 Round Turkey!

Round 1 - should be finished by Nov 21

Rocky v Timmmmm (1-0) link to game here.

tomgtro v ChessAdmin (1-0) link to game here.

Round 2- should be finished by Nov 23

ChessAdmin v Rocky (1-0) link to game here.

Timmmmm v tomgtro (1-0) link to game here.

Round 3 - should be finished by Nov 25

tomgtro v Rocky (0-1) link to game here

Timmmmm v ChessAdmin (0-1) link to game here.

Standings
ChessAdmin 2.0
RockyRook 2.0
Timmmmm 1.0
tomgtro 1.0

* format: white v black

Other Logistics

If you would send me your email address at rockyrook at hotmail, I will pass along to everyone else, so you can schedule your games via email.  Also, let me know your FICS handle when you send me your address.

Always offer times in FICS time zone - this makes negotiations easier.  Feel free to schedule your games immediately.

I'll provide updates and links to this post.

Feel free to post questions or suggestions in the comments.

Have fun!

Chess64

Looks like the Chess Pistols have returned; this time named Chess64.

I've updated my side-bar.

Need One More for Round Turkey Chess Quad

We had four, but one dropped out at the last minute to close the deal on his new home.

So, we're back to three.

Anyone else out there who wants to play?

Details:
- Round Turkey (i.e Robin) style (4 players)
- Starts November 18/19; ends November 24/25
- About 1 game every two days
- 60 5 format
- All games on FICS
- Looking for someone 1500-1700 (standard) rating
- Winner to receive at least $10 Amazon gift card (possibly $20)

Let me know in the comments section if you want to join.

Round Turkey Chess Tournament? (on FICS)

Out of curiosity - how many of you, dear readers, would be interested in a either:

1. a 4-week (one game a week) chess tournament; every week of November, starting the week of November 4 and have all 4 games completed by November 30.

2. or perhaps a week-long tournament during the Thanksgiving holiday - November 20-23

It would have to be 4 players to accommodate either 4 weeks or 4 days.  Everyone plays everyone else (round robin style, although I'm calling it round turkey :-))  I'd propose a G 60 format ... or maybe a 60 5 format.

Participants would have to play all the other players in the given period of time.

Any takers?  I'd only need 3.

And to give some extra incentive, I'll offer a $10 gift card (to Starbucks or to Amazon or something like that) for the winner.

I'd want the tournament to be somewhat competitive - don't want any grandmasters or beginners playing, so the bottom cut-off rating would be 1500 and the top cut-off rating ... let's say 1700 (using FICS standard rating).

If I get a lot of responses, I'll take the first 3 who meet the criteria.

image source: NBC:SNL

'12-13 Game 10 and MAJOR slump

Well, with less distractions, I still managed to go down a rook in my 2nd game with "Eric."  With my losing streak at two (along with a few other losses (rated blitz) games in Chessmaster) my rating has dropped  ... so much so that the top of the allowable personalities for me to play is "Lacey" who is 1309.

I've been in a major slump on ChessTempo too.  For the first time this year and for the first time in a long, long time, I've been struggling to get out of the 1630's and 1640s (blitz level tactics).  Usually I will drop down to the 1640's and 50's but then I'll pop right back up to the 1660's and higher.  But this week has been an absolute struggle.  I'm missing 1400, 1500 rated problems and even the occasional 1300 problem!

I don't know what's going on, but this is brutal.

'12-13 Game 9

While lounging around this weekend and watching TV, I decided to play a game against the next ChessMaster opponent - Eric.  It didn't turn out too well.  I thought I could concentrate well enough, but after a moment of distraction, I returned to the board and saw his hanging knight and I captured w/ my queen.

On his next move, he took my queen - with his bishop.  It wasn't really a hanging knight - it was well defended.  I could have just not counted this game, but I decided to stay honest with myself and my 52 game effort.  I intended the game to count (when I began the game) and so need to count it.

I'll try again against Eric, perhaps tomorrow ... my focus should be a bit stronger.

xkcd: Think Logically

I think someone else in the chess blogosphere has mentioned xkcd before.  The latest is about chess and even a mention of a chess community on-line (see the green "mouse-roll-over" text box).

Link: http://xkcd.com/1112/

*update* - it was Robert who mentioned xkcd before.

'12-13 Game 8

Moving on up the Chessmaster ladder, I played Griffin.  Griffin's passions are oil painting and chess.  He made a career out of his oil painting by becoming a graphics artist in Silicon Valley - and I can see why he chose that route :-)

He made an unsound sacrifice on move 9 (is there such a thing as an unsound sacrifice?  Maybe I should just call it a bad move.  He did get a little tempo and had me on the chase a bit.  My king was unable to castle because of his exchanging a pawn for his bishop.  But I was able to get through it and then eventually scored a nice tactic and went up another piece.  From there, I offered piece exchanges and he accepted.  I was able to gobble up his pawns, make one of my own into a queen and then mated him.

Next up is Eric.

'12-13 Game 7

I suspect I'll be playing more games against Chessmaster personalities this year and that's ok - I want to see how high I can climb the "personalities ladder" in CM.

Today I played against "Shaun" who favors an attacking style of play - since he plays football, rides dirt bikes, is learning to kickbox and is a very active teenager.

As is I've said before, some of these personalities will drop pieces early on, but then, latter in the game, kick it into high gear and play some tough moves.  Sometimes, as was the case with Shaun, they spring a very surprising attack on you.  And if you're not careful, you will be promptly mated.

I was able to defeat his wiles - especially since I was up three pieces.  The endgame was a bit tricky as I had to finish him off with two bishops and a knight - but that was a useful exercise nonetheless.

'12-13 Game 6

Game 6 of my 2012-2013 52-Game quest was my round 7 game in the Southwest Open in Dallas.

I was paired up against a gentleman I had previously played back in July in the NAS-NAJ tournament.  I won that game in July, but lost against him yesterday.

Here is the game - I was black:

I got off to a good start - went up a pawn, but then couldn't turn that 1 pawn advantage into a win.

Both of us were under a bit of time pressure ... had about 1-2 minutes per move until we hit move 30.

I think I need to let Fritz analyze this one first.  It feels like I missed something.

So I finished with a 3.0 / 7 ... in reality, it was 2.0 / 5 since I took two byes.

'12-13 Game 5

I took byes in rounds 4 and 5 and relaxed with my wife and kids; went to church; took a long nap; ate dinner at our friends' house and played lots of card games (including Spot It!) and Wii games.

That night, I got a good sleep.  I woke up this morning, gassed up the car, went to the store to get some food supplies for the games today and then came to the hotel.

Round 6 was the most unusual game I've ever played in these tournaments.  I played w/ the white pieces.

He showed up a couple of minutes late.  When the game started, he gave a bit of a half-hearted handshake.  I moved a bit quickly.  His first two or three moves were average length in think time, but then after that, I would make my move, hit the clock and then he just seemed to mentally check-out.  He was looking off in space, sucking on the tag of his jacket, coughing, sniffling, rubbing his nose ... anything but looking at the board.

After I pinned his queen, I started getting up and walking around while waiting for him to move.

Not much to see here ... other than I had a mate earlier ... would have ended the game 7 moves quicker.

I should have played Bc7+ instead of taking the rook w/ my queen.

It is about 12:45pm now ... the next round is at 3:15pm.  Ivan won his game and is sitting here at the same table in the skittles room going over his win.

A few other thoughts

Maybe a few gentle readers can explain something to me.  Why am I not paired with more 1500-1600 rated players?  I am either paired against a 1800 or a 1300-1400 player at these Swiss tournaments.

This has been the noisiest tournament I've played in.  The playing hall is smaller than most places I've played in.  I swear, half the people are either sick or have allergies ... there is a sneeze or cough every 15 seconds.  People were constantly going in and out of the playing hall.  They finally tweaked the doors to make it a bit quieter.  LOTS of parents are hovering over their kids.  They finally started making them watch from the sides of the room in round 6.  I may have to start using headphones.

This is the first tournament I've played 30/90 SD1 w/ a 5 second delay.  Getting to 30 moves in 90 minutes was a bit stressful for me.  Especially when around moves 26-29, the positions are somewhat critical and I've got just 10 minutes on the clock.  Then after move 30, that extra hour is a relief.  But it doesn't help much if you've messed up on move 28 or 29!

Anyway - 1 more game to go.  I'll post that game when I can.

'12-13 Game 4

Round 3 was at 8:00pm.  My head was pounding and I just wanted to attack.  Not really a good combination when you're playing a player rated 1800.

There's not much really to see ... I played quite poorly.  Here's the full game - I was black.

'12-13 Game 3

Round 2 was against a player rated 1425.  This was a long game; going 73 moves.  I think this was my 2nd game I've played against a 1400+ player.  The first one I played against a 1400 player, that game went about 60 moves.  Against 1500 players, my games go into the 30-40 move range, but against 1400 rated players, the games go longer.

Anyway - here's the game.  I played with the white pieces.

The game was pretty equal; the queens game off the board fairly early; he went up a pawn at about the same time we swapped queens ... again, I failed to count well and he went up a pawn.

I kept seeing ways he could win against me, but he didn't choose those moves that would have given him an advantage.  Instead, he let me off the hook a few times and I took advantage.

I was able to equalize again by taking his pawn that was one row away from queening.

Then we came to this point.  He was threatening Ne2 forking K and R.  I responded with Kf1.  I figured he would take my bishop, then I'd have doubled pawns, thus giving him a slight advantage.  But he played f5 after which I played a5 ... I had in mind that I could take his c pawn, the knight and bishop would come off and then perhaps the rooks would come off and I'd have to figure out a way to queen a pawn without him queening first.  Now that I'm thinking of it, not sure a5 was the best move.

Anyway, after a5, he played Kf7 and then I played Bb7, he moved Rc7 and I then defended the Bishop with a6.  From there, we eventually swapped rooks.  My bishop and a-pawn stayed put and I was able to go gobble his pawns with my king and eventually queen a pawn and win.  He offered me a draw after I played a6, but I suggested we played a few more moves ... I felt pretty good at that point that I had good chances of winning.

'12-13 Game 2

Round 1 of the Southwest Open was against fellow blogger Ivan (1863).  As I type this post, he has won his first three games, lost his fourth, won his fifth ... and when I left the playing hall after my round 6, he was up in his game.

This was the first OTB game in a month for me.  I felt pretty good in the opening, even went up a pawn, but then he outplayed me in the end.  I played w/ the black pieces.  Here's the full game below.

On move 21, he took my bishop (Bxb7).  I did a bit of miscalculating and retook with my rook instead of my queen.  I was a bit concerned about him playing Nxg6 fxg6 Bxd6 (forking my rooks).  But I didn't take that line one more move ... instead of playing fxg6, I would play Bxh2 Nxf8 followed by me responding with Bd6 ... I would have been ok with that.

But instead, after Bxb7, I played Qxb7 and that allowed him to get the pawn back.

After that, I tried to expel his bishop and then get an attack going with my queen and knight, but his rooks and queen came barreling down my queenside ... and along with his bishop, he delivered a nice tactic by sacrificing his queen for a mate.

This was the first round of the 4-day and as such, it was played on a Friday night, with the playing hall about 1/4th full and with mostly adults at that.  This was the most quiet round of the tournament.  Rounds 2-7 were quite noisy for this smaller playing hall with lots of scholastic players.

12-13 Game 1

My 2012-13 52 Game Quest "season" started in earnest last night.  I played the next person up the ladder from Seb in Chessmaster (Grandmaster edition).  You may recall I was 0-3 against Seb before I finally beat him.  This next person up was Andy - rated 1294 in CM.  I was rated 1193 or something going into this game.

We played a G/60 and as is typical with these computer personalities, he dropped pieces fairly effortlessly.  I willingly gobbled them up and then waited for the CPU to go into overdrive which could lead to my defeat.  But it never happened.  I went up two knights, then a rook and then I eventually forced a mate.

I need to get a game in next week and the week after.  Let me know if you want to play.  Then over Labor Day weekend (Aug 31 - Sep 3), I'll be playing in the Southwest Open in Dallas.  Then the Class Championships will be Sep 21-23 ... so lots of OTB in the next few weeks.  Lastly, I just found out that my office is being relocated from downtown to north I-45.  This means I may be able to start going to the SMC CC Friday nights - their club is just a skip and a jump from where I work.

52 Game Quest (2011-12)

So the 2011-12 quest to play 52 games failed.  I played 41 games.  I could have gotten (maybe) a few more games in, but after the NAS-NAJ Tournament, the wind spilled out of my sails.  The tournament didn't cause all of that - rather, it was a combination of the tournament and other events that culminated in a lack of desire to do just about anything.

But, I'm picking the pieces up and the desire is coming back and I'm ready to kick off the 2012-13 quest to play at least 52 games.  I'm not going to be so stringent about the time controls I play.  I will probably end up playing more G/60 games than any other type.

As usual, leave a comment, send me an email or message on FICS if you want to play a single game or a series.

People-Watching Observations and Thoughts on Chess

This post is a mish-mash of people observations as well as some thoughts on chess - particularly chess as it pertains to me (I had a lot of time for both when I lost that round 2 game so quickly.)

First off - the picture.  That board that no one is sitting at (w/ the oj bottle) is where I lost the round 3 game.  There are several people in the picture, who I've played.  Most of them are really nice folks and easy to talk to.

Also in this picture is the kid, with the use of his dad and his dad's computer, got a bit of help in the 2010 Class Championships (see this post).  Another father and son duo were playing in this tournament.  I played the kid in a side-game and he was a really well-behaved kid.  I mention this because I wish one of my kids would get addicted to chess and we could go to tournaments on the weekend.  Right now, they all like playing checkers with me - it's all about fun.

And now a few random observations in the form of a question to the people I observed.

"Why do you have to wear your PJs to the tournament?  Have you really given up that much on life?"

"Sunglasses?!  Are you freaking kidding me?  Maybe if you were playing for $10,000 stakes and for some weird reason your thinking-threads could be seen streaming across your eyes, it might be a good idea to wear shades.  But at a tournament like this?!"

"Have you people heard of Kleenex?  Clearing your nose by snorting - not once, not twice, but several times - is not the way to clean house."

"I love the Asians - Buddha bless them!  Sometimes I wonder what kind of person I would have turned out to be under the tutelage of a Tiger Mom."

Anyway ... chess.  I need to figure out why I'm playing it.  I hit on some reasons in my post "I Play Hope Chess".  To get good and decent at chess requires a tremendous amount of time and effort.  It's a game of "inches" ... sometimes you win or lose by an inch  Several hours or even years of studying and practice yields only a few inches in progress.

Is it a worthwhile endeavor?  Or should it be considered a pastime?  Relatively speaking ... compared to watching TV, chess is better.  Compared to video games, in my opinion, chess is better.  Compared to playing in sports leagues such as basketball or football, chess is not better.

And to go off on a tangent - how many calories does one burn in a 3-4 hour game of chess?  Does the brain really burn that many calories?  I just googled that ... it does burn calories, but not much when compared to physical exercise.

Off tangent - back to message ... Better than reading?  Maybe better than reading a comic book.  Maybe not better than reading a book like Carnage & Culture.

I love doing tactics at ChessTempo.  I love playing long games.  I love playing blitz.  Studying can be fun at times too.  But I don't think I'm prepared to pour more than a max of 7 hours a week into the game.  And then when I do pour time into the game, it must be consecutive hours - especially for a game.  10 minutes here, 10 minutes there doesn't really work too well.

So that leaves me at just calling it a pastime and simply enjoying the game - realizing that I should work to improve, but that the gains will be small and that I should focus on enjoyment more than results.

I'm ok with that.  Life is about balance and spending time on worthwhile efforts.  Chess certainly has its utility, but it is not a big rock.

Game 41

Round 3 wasn't too pretty either.  I was paired with an 1810 player.  When the games began, my opponent was not there and I didn't have a clock (at least one w/ 5 second delay capability).  So I scrambled to borrow one and then got it ticking.

He showed up about 10 minutes later.

Then half way though the game, the power/lights went out for about 30 seconds.  That brought some excitement to the place.

So, I lost this game at about the same number of moves of that previous game, only in this game, I was able to last to just over 50 moves.  I did a bit better at using more of my clock ... had about 10 minutes left when I resigned.  He only used about 20 or 30 minutes on his clock.  I could tell he was bored.

I had the white pieces and tried the same sctick as last game.

I didn't play on Sunday, so I ended up going 1-2.

Closing thoughts on this tournament to come ...

Game 40

With my win in round 1, I was "lucky" enough to be paired with player rated 1820 in round 2.  He is a chess coach out of Brownsville.  It wasn't too pretty.  Of course, my sloppy play didn't help much either - nor did the fact that he set the clock for 1 hour 20 minutes (thinking he had set it for 120 minutes).  About a half hour in the game, when I noticed I only had 53 minutes left to play, we stopped the game and sorted out the clock issues.

Anyway ... here's the ugly game.  I played the white pieces ...

In the post-mortem, he was at least gracious enough to give me a few tips.  But his comments made me chuckle ... after going over the first 8 moves or so, he said flat out the game was over for me.

After that, two of his students were sitting around, so we played a bit of blitz - I was smoked easily.

Game 39

Four weeks left in the 52-game quest ... I've got until August 10 to finish up 13 games.

Game 39 is from Round 1 of the NAS-NAJ Open at the Hobby Marriott in Houston.  As I said before, I'm a bit doubtful my real USCF rating is 1617.  But as it is, I had no other option but to play in the U2000 division - missing the U1600 division by 18 points.

These tournaments are typically at the Hobby Hilton.  I think the Marriott is much, much nicer.  The place was nicer, newer and cleaner.  There is also much more lobby room at the Marriott for people to hang out and play chess.

Before going into the hall, I was able to talk to Dan.  He and I were in the Unrated section of the Class Championships a couple of years ago.  It was good chatting w/ him again!

We played Round 1 in the same room as the scholastic kids.  I showed up w/ no board or clock.  So when my opponent didn't show up immediately, I had to borrow a clock so I could get the time moving.  He showed up about 5 minutes later and we played.

Here is the game - I had the black pieces ...

The guy I was playing is rated 1749.

After I went up two rooks to one bishop, he decided to resign on move 24.  We both had about 44 minutes left on our clocks (G/120 5 delay).

So this was a pretty good win for me - my 2nd best win in my USCF career!

Round 2 and 3 are tomorrow.  I'll be taking byes for rounds 4 and 5 on Sunday.