Sunday, May 29, 2005

 

Disaster on the seventh rank

Down to 60 percent last bunch = (.

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TCT Circle 1
Result step 1: Average score 97 %
Result step 2: Average score 93 %
Result step 3: Average score 93 %
Result step 4: Average score 80 %
Result step 5: Average score 83 % [6-17 left]
Finished circle 2 of book problems 204-218

Posted at 12:49 AM. Click to see this post's 3 comment(s). -=-=-=-=- Click to leave a comment

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

 

Hello, my name is guest

I got on the ICC and played some blitz last night. It sort of is a treat for me, and I rarely visit there or play blitz. I am about to busy for another couple of weeks, so what the heck.

I did poorly but enjoyed myself. I got a win because of a tactic which I will present here with my moves in the comments. That was an upper, and certainly more fun than winning on time, drawing, and losing 4 times.

My opponent as black has just played ...Rc3, pinning the Bishop. I frequently have difficulty seeing things that aren't there, but not this time!

White to move.

-=-=-=-=-
TCT Circle 1
Result step 1: Average score 97 %
Result step 2: Average score 93 %
Result step 3: Average score 93 %
Result step 4: Average score 80 %
Result step 5: Average score 86 %
Finished circle 2 of book problems 204-218

Posted at 10:27 PM. Click to see this post's 4 comment(s). -=-=-=-=- Click to leave a comment

Friday, May 20, 2005

 

Lost and Found

After severely crashing Windows I had to reinstall everything from CD. Back into TCT...
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I am finding level 5 just as tough as level 4. Not too easy, and not too hard.

TCT Circle 1
Result step 1: Average score 97 %
Result step 2: Average score 93 %
Result step 3: Average score 93 %
Result step 4: Average score 80 %
Result step 5: Average score 87 %

Posted at 11:58 PM. Click to see this post's 3 comment(s). -=-=-=-=- Click to leave a comment

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

 

TCT Step 5...

... is starting off well. Knowing a few Polgar problems helps here.
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TCT Circle 1
Result step 1: Average score 97 %
Result step 2: Average score 93 %
Result step 3: Average score 93 %
Result step 4: Average score 80 %
Result step 5: Average score 91 %


Finished circle 2 of book problems 204-218

Posted at 10:47 PM. Click to see this post's 1 comment(s). -=-=-=-=- Click to leave a comment

Monday, May 16, 2005

 

Finished TCT step 4

Kind of a relief... they do a good job of catching lazy evaluation by supplying patterns that sort of look good but are not.
-=-=-=-=-
TCT Circle 1
Result step 1: Average score 97 %
Result step 2: Average score 93 %
Result step 3: Average score 93 %
Result step 4: Average score 80 %

 Finished circle 2 of book problems 204-218

Posted at 12:29 PM. Click to see this post's 2 comment(s). -=-=-=-=- Click to leave a comment

Thursday, May 12, 2005

 
This is getting challenging...
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TCT Circle 1
Result step 1: Average score 97 %
Result step 2: Average score 93 %
Result step 3: Average score 93 %
Result step 4: Average score 80 % 17 left

 Finished circle 2 of book problems 204-218

Posted at 10:45 PM. Click to see this post's 0 comment(s). -=-=-=-=- Click to leave a comment

Monday, May 09, 2005

 

Rusty

I am sneaking in a few mate in two problems and I am getting stumped much more easily than I did several months ago. Arg.

It will be awhile before I get into those more seriously, but TCT is going well. I like it even when I get the answer wrong, as it the pattern usually becomes fathomable right away.
-=-=-=-=-
TCT Circle 1
Result step 1: Average score 97 %
Result step 2: Average score 93 %
Result step 3: Average score 93 %
Result step 4: Average score 80 % 16-17 left

 Finished circle 2 of book problems 204-218


Posted at 10:56 PM. Click to see this post's 2 comment(s). -=-=-=-=- Click to leave a comment

Saturday, May 07, 2005

 
I got to take the day off and got in a bit more chess. It's clear; chess is a treat! 5534, opening books, tactics tactics tactics..., reading through not one but 2 Marshall games with annotations, and finishing with reading and blogging. I feel lucky!
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TCT Circle 1
Result step 1: Average score 97 %
Result step 2: Average score 93 %
Result step 3: Average score 93 %
Result step 4: Average score 81 % 14-17 left

 Finished circle 2 of book problems 204-218

Posted at 12:05 AM. Click to see this post's 3 comment(s). -=-=-=-=- Click to leave a comment

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

 

How Not to Play Chess

For anyone not familiar with Znosko Borovsky, he wrote a little book by the above title. It was first published (I believe) in 1959.

The overall style of the book is alot like The Amateur's Mind, which appears to draw from it here and there. It's kind of tough reading stylistically, and certainly not aimed at the beginner, but has some pearls of wisdom. I especially like how he acknowledges how difficult it is to avoid mistakes.

The Amateur's Mind is larger, more comprehensive, and slightly easier reading, but for anyone who collects chess books it might be worth looking for.
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TCT Circle 1
Result step 1: Average score 97 %
Result step 2: Average score 93 %
Result step 3: Average score 93 %
Result step 4: Average score 80 % 13-17 left

 Finished circle 2 of book problems 204-218

Posted at 11:48 PM. Click to see this post's 0 comment(s). -=-=-=-=- Click to leave a comment

Sunday, May 01, 2005

 

Time for Review

I have been spending the extra time I had this weekend reviewing problems from Seirawan's Winning Chess Tactics and I am very, very rusty on the tough ones. The famous position from Adams v. Torre is going to need more work again someday.
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TCT Circle 1
Result step 1: Average score 97 %
Result step 2: Average score 93 %
Result step 3: Average score 93 %
Result step 4: Average score 79 % 12-17 left
Finished circle 2 of book problems 204-218

Posted at 8:51 PM. Click to see this post's 0 comment(s). -=-=-=-=- Click to leave a comment

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