Friday, May 26, 2006

 

Slow Start

I have lagging behind in starting this sixth circle, getting in on average 10 problems in 10 minutes a day. It is hard to stay focused. At some point soon I hope to have both sharp mental focus and spare time, and then I will knock down these last circles...

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I just ran into this opening link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Chess_openings
It seems obvious that that site would have good chess info... I wonder why I never looked there before.


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Here's a position from an ICC blitz game between two over 2000 players:
White to Move


This is one of those then what situations for me, the kind of crucial decision points that I have routinely miscalculated. This time I did better. Rather than simply rescue White's threatened b4 Knight I was thinking Nxd5 was the winning move. Black's natural taking with ..cxd5 Bxd5+ would fork the King and a8 Rook. I couldn't see anything wrong with the move, and then White played Nd3. I couldn't stand it, so I copied the game locally and fed it to Fritz. It turns out that Nxd5 was winning and much better than Nd3, but slightly better was Nxc6! giving an even stronger attack along the h1- a8 diagonal. Sigh. I didn't even consider that.
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TCT Results

Circle 1Circle 2Circle 3Circle 4Circle 5Circle 6Circle 7
Step 197%99%99%100%r
Step 293%96%95%97%96%99%100%
Step 393%97%97%96%96%98%99%
Step 480%86%90%92%89%94%
Step 574%77%83%87%88%96%*


Monday, May 22, 2006

 

Circle 6, Step 4 Complete

I finished this circle with 94%. At this point I have done so many circles on getting dizzy! Forward and onward...

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My ICC standard rating just broke 1550. I would like to credit the circles, but frankly this had more to do with my opponents running out of time. Still, something that DLM wrote about has been borne out consistently; alot of my wins were gifts from my opponents.

There was one situation where the circles seemed to pay off.




I was Black here and had just played ...Re7 as a last-ditch effort to win. White saw the most natural move and played Nd5??, forking both the e7 Rook and the b4 pawn. It continued ...Rea7! threatening checkmate, c3 trying to get some luft (Fritz has c4 as best), ...b3 hemming in the King, Kc1 avoiding checkmate, ...Ra1+ skewering the Black King and the h1 Rook. To add insult to injury, White loses a tempo because after Kd2 Rxh1, Black threatens another skewer along the second rank with ...Rh2+, attacking the b2 pawn through the King on d2.

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TCT Results

Circle 1Circle 2Circle 3Circle 4Circle 5Circle 6Circle 7
Step 197%99%99%100%r
Step 293%96%95%97%96%99%100%
Step 393%97%97%96%96%98%99%
Step 480%86%90%92%89%94%
Step 574%77%83%87%88%


Sunday, May 21, 2006

 

Next 45/45

I am putting my hat into the teamchess ring again. I haven't played any OTB for awhile and I think I need to commit to something to keep the improvement process going.

I just played my first ICC rapid tournament and scored 2/4 with sloppy play. I don't really like 15 0 as it is neither blitz nor standard in my opinion, but I wanted to see what it was like.

Past halfway in TCT Step 4...

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TCT Results

Circle 1Circle 2Circle 3Circle 4Circle 5Circle 6Circle 7
Step 197%99%99%100%r
Step 293%96%95%97%96%99%100%
Step 393%97%97%96%96%98%99%
Step 480%86%90%92%89%95*%
Step 574%77%83%87%88%


Friday, May 12, 2006

 

Pay Off


Black to Move


.
.h
..m
...m
..m
.m
.


This position could have been right out of TCT. White just played b4. On the surface Black's Bishop and Queen are enprise, which makes his e3 Rook's protection shaky. My hard work paid off as I realized that ..Rxf3+ Ke1 Qf2 was mate. This is one of the sweetest finishes I have had in a long time :-).


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White to Move



Here is a instructive little blitz mistake I ran into. I thought "it's just Rxc8 Rxc8 36. Rxa3", right? This leads to ... Rc6 and the loss of a pawn. I didn't see it at the time, but it still looks winning for White. Chessmaster suggested immediately taking with Rxa3! DOH! I sure did not look at that. If Black takes either Rook, White captures the other Black Rook and gets to the back rank, possibly leading to a trade of minor pieces which White actually wants, not to mention it's much harder for Black to get the hanging e6 pawn.

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TCT Results

Circle 1Circle 2Circle 3Circle 4Circle 5Circle 6Circle 7
Step 197%99%99%100%r
Step 293%96%95%97%96%99%100%
Step 393%97%97%96%96%98%99%
Step 480%86%90%92%89%95*%
Step 574%77%83%87%88%


Thursday, May 11, 2006

 

Enter the Panther

Michael Goeller has done a nice series on this uncommon opening. I have always been keen on solid alternatives to familiar openings, especially if it has some shock value to the unwary. This line can lead to cramped positions for Black who must seek the right counterattack in the middlegame, so it's not for everyone. It reminds me of the KID.
http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/kenilworthian/2006/02/panther-part-one.html

http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/kenilworthian/2006/02/panther-part-two.html

http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/kenilworthian/2006/03/panther-part-three.html

Note that after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nc3 d6 4. Nf3 e5 White does have the choice to head towards a drawish position with 5. dxe5 Nxe5 6. Nxe5 dxe5 7. Qxd8+ Kxd8 8. Bg5. Definitely something one would want to be aware of.

I recommend Joel Benjamin's series before considering the Panther, as he covers White's choices of lines that lead to related lines.
http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_opng_shrtcts/01_black_knights_tango.html
others here:http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_opng_shrtcts/archive.html

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Here's a 2/12 win I had with Black starting with it, although I headed towards a KID. I don't think my opponent had ever seen this line... mission accomplished :-).

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nf3 d6 4. e3 e5 5. d5 Ne7 6. Nc3 g6 7. e4 Bg7 8. Bd3 O-O 9. O-O Nh5 10. Bg5 h6 11. Bh4 g5 12. Bg3 Nxg3 13. fxg3 f5 14. Qd2 f4 15. Ne2 Ng6 16. Qe1 Bg4 17. h3 Bxf3 18. Rxf3 c6 19. g4 Nh4 20. Rf2 Qb6 21.Kh2 f3 22. gxf3 Nxf3+ 23. Rxf3 Rxf3 24. Qd2 Qf2+ 25. Kh1 Rxh3# 0-1
Pgn Viewer
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TCT is going along fine, and I am doing 40 problems in 40 minutes 5 or 6 days a week.
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TCT Results

Circle 1Circle 2Circle 3Circle 4Circle 5Circle 6Circle 7
Step 197%99%99%100%r
Step 293%96%95%97%96%99%100%
Step 393%97%97%96%96%98%99%
Step 480%86%90%92%89%95*%
Step 574%77%83%87%88%


Monday, May 08, 2006

 

Circle 5, Step 5 Complete

Hooray! The end is near :-)...
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TCT Results

Circle 1Circle 2Circle 3Circle 4Circle 5Circle 6Circle 7
Step 197%99%99%100%r
Step 293%96%95%97%96%99%100%
Step 393%97%97%96%96%98%99%
Step 480%86%90%92%89%
Step 574%77%83%87%88%


Wednesday, May 03, 2006

 

Considerations

White to Move


1.Nf3 Nc6 2.g3 e5 3.d3 d5 4.e4 d4 5.Bg2 Bg4 6.O-O Bd6 7.h3 Bh5 8.Kh2 Nf6 9.Nbd2 h6
10.Qe1 O-O 11.Nc4 Bc5 12.Nfxe5 Nxe5 13.Nxe5 Nd7 14.Nxd7 Qxd7 15.f4 Rfe8 16.Bd2 c6
17.Bb4 Bd6 18.e5 Bxb4 19.Qxb4 f6 20.Rae1 fxe5 21.fxe5 Bf7 22.Rf4 Rad8 23.Ree4 Qc7
24.Rxd4 Rxd4 25.Rxd4 Rxe5 26.Qd6 Qxd6 27.Rxd6 Bxa2 28.Rd8+ Kh7 29.Be4+ g6 30.Rd7+
Kg8 31.Rxb7 Bb1 32.c4 a5 33.Ra7 Rc5 34.Bxg6 Bc2 35.d4 Rxc4 36.Bf7+ Kf8 37.Bxc4
1-0

This is one of my best 2/12 blitz games this year. I had the White pieces and played a kind of Barcza opening which my opponent countered rather well. There are a couple of mistakes that I made in the middlegame under time pressure, but quite a few solid moves I am proud of, too. Anyway, I guess I am posting it in part as evidence that the circles have helped my game, in part to show an idea about thinking process.

Although I consider blitz to be just for fun, I do think it is instructive in revealing what you don't think of. By the time I reached the position (above), I felt that I was sitting pretty and there wasn't much potential for Black unless I screwed up. My attitude was to just play solid and grind it out, perhaps finding a conversion to a more simple endgame. I saw my Bishop taking the hanging g6 pawn and absolutely nothing else. In fact, I felt that the Bishop was cemented to the protection of the d3 pawn which really was keeping the c4 pawn safe. The discovered double attack on the Black Bishop and Rook with d4 just didn't occur to me. It was like the opposite of having a tactic pop-out. Perhaps having the Black Bishop behind the White pawns was so unusual I ignored the possibility, not remembering that tactics can happen in the endgame. I don't really like d4 better than Bxg6; d4 makes for many pawn losses/trades and opens lines to the White King. It certainly was worth considering, though.

Since chess is a mistake oriented activity, my opponent had the decency to also not fully consider his next move, and after 34.Bxg6 Bc2?? I first saw the f7 check, then the decoy/discovered attack idea, and finally played 35.d4. After Rxc4 Black had protected both of his pieces from the immediate threats, but this walked into the fork 36.Bf7+ Kf8 37.Bxc4.

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TCT Results

Circle 1Circle 2Circle 3Circle 4Circle 5Circle 6Circle 7
Step 197%99%99%100%r
Step 293%96%95%97%96%99%100%
Step 393%97%97%96%96%98%99%
Step 480%86%90%92%89%
Step 574%77%83%87%87%*


Tuesday, May 02, 2006

 

Andersen

I decided to switch from the McDonald book back to Seirawan's tactics book to review those annotated games. I got through both the "Immortal" and "Evergreen" games, which has inadvertently confirmed what I was struggling with in the last post. These are highly tactical in style, and even with annotations many of the moves are beyond my thought process. I find the opening in the "Immortal" especially unattractive, and Fritz 8 says it is filled with "??"s for both sides. I can follow the tactical conclusion at the end of them a better than the last time I went through them, so that is a "+" for the circles. Still, I am questioning just how useful it is to go through games like this, rather than games that are going to actually be parallel to my opening tendencies and style.

I would be curious if anyone else had some opinions about these two games.
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TCT Results

Circle 1Circle 2Circle 3Circle 4Circle 5Circle 6Circle 7
Step 197%99%99%100%r
Step 293%96%95%97%96%99%100%
Step 393%97%97%96%96%98%99%
Step 480%86%90%92%89%
Step 574%77%83%87%87%*


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