Chess Adventures

Much needed win

2011-03-20T10:00:00.001-04:00

I dropped a knight and a pawn, refused to exchange queens to have "chances" and ended up making the next to last mistake. Hadn't won a slow game for a bit, so this was much needed!

Slow Chess, Busy Schedule

2011-03-15T19:33:00.000-04:00

Playing in the STC Winter Blues, which is one game per week and had my last round of TL 45 action. 0-2 in STC so far, and pulled a draw in my TL game.

Getting some 5/0 games where time allows (got my bltiz rating over 1000 :p).

Still plugging away at Amatuer's Mind- finding time to just hammer it out is tricky with a family and other hobbies (fishing, Dungeons and Dragons), but I feel like I'm getting close to making a big jump. I have been feeling great when I sit down for my long games, and I enjoy looking over my games win or lose...I just feel potent right now and believe that I will see my patchwork study and practice coalesce into real improvement soon...maybe a steady 1600+ FICS standard rating.

Another lesson

2011-02-22T10:08:00.001-05:00

Here is the Watchbot for the game: http://mekk.waw.pl/mk/watchbot/game/2989161

Haven't run it through a computer yet, and haven't looked deeper than my notes above. I don't have a whole lot of time at work (:P) right now to add more comments.

I did my best to stay focused and not post a bunch of comments during the game. I stayed cool and focused, until I lost it zeroing in on the false winning of a pawn.

Tunnel vision killed me here. This week, I will go way back to de la Maza's board vision exercise- Concentric Circles. Wednesday and Friday I'll do those. Thursday will be for some reading from Amateur's Mind. Saturday or Sunday, I'll see if I have time to get a Stoyko (sp?) exercise in. Some practice visualizing and evaluating will be useful now.

Rough loss

2011-02-06T18:03:00.000-05:00

Dropped a piece on something like move 7 because I was playing like it was G 15/0.

Thoroughly drove home Heismann's point that intermediate length games hurt more than help.

I believe I fought well and vigorously, but my opponent did not make any mistakes and hanging my rook (vs rook and bishop) with ~5 minutes on the clock sealed things up.

In spite of that (or perhaps out of necessity due to a player being wholly unavailable), I will be playing next week.

I will not embarrass myself like that again.

Back to play, so post something

2011-02-03T19:41:00.000-05:00

Well, TL 45 is here and I'll be playing a match Saturday morning at 8 am east coast time, and combined with seeing someone publicly mention my blog, that means I have to make a new post.

I've been trying to plug away at The Amateur's Mind, but my father-in-law being hospitalized a couple weeks ago, me being sick for almost a week and now my mother-in-law in the hospital (and looking at a month or more of rehab and then assisted living) I haven't had terribly much time to focus.

I've been squeezing in game of 5/0 or 15/0 and some Chess Tempo when I can.

I think I need to spend a bit re-reviewing good thought process and go into the match playing fearlessly.

An interesting realization I've had is how useless it is to watch a match while running a chess engine at the same time. The often seemingly arbitrary numbers that the engine scores the game at tell nothing of the story leading up to the position and the PV it comes up is meaningless without knowing why those moves are chosen.

I've learned more running the engine on a position several moves back and have realized that what I thought was a safe position was loaded with losing missteps. I've also learned that many alternate paths aren't very different from each other in terms of concrete advantage.

Xmas presents

2010-12-25T22:01:00.000-05:00

I got Chess for Zebras and the 4th edition How to Reassess Your Chess.

With the holidays winding down, I hope to get back on the study wagon. Team League starting up again will help- having a purpose to study makes a big difference. Just an intangible "to get better" doesn't work for me. I need a constant prod, an accounting to others.

Hope everyone has had a great holiday :)

Unstoppable

2010-11-25T06:57:00.000-05:00

I jested to my teammates before my first TL game that Drive It Like You Stole It by The Glitch Mob was my fighter entrance theme.

I had their album Drink the Sea pumping for my entire second TL game.

Studying The Amateur's Mind this morning with Drink the Sea on headphones, I feel like Optimus Prime, Silver Surfer, Cosmic Spiderman...

I am unstoppable.

The groove on these tracks is amazing. I could hit the gym right now (something I'm a little overdue on) and go forever on cardio and weights!

What an amazing effect music has on the mood and mental state. If I wasn't studying, I'd probably go to Wikipedia for the next couple hours reading on research into how the brain reacts to music.

How much of the effect is due to cultural influences? Are there elements in Drink the Sea such that someone who'd never listened to electronic/dance/glitch would get the same mojo?

You can check the album out at Grooveshark. The Drive It track is duped because of the way they sort and show music (inefficiently, despite providing and otherwise pretty solid free music streaming site).

Birthday presents

2010-11-23T22:19:00.000-05:00

33 this past Sunday!

I got The Amateur's Mind and Lev Alburt's Comprehensive Chess Course Vol 2 (Beginner to Tournament Player) from the wife and child :)

Alburt's will be nice to go through with my daughter, and there are some nifty (pretty basic) square visualization exercises I like so far.

Amateur's mind already keyed me in to something I'd felt was a weakness- identifying plans in quiet positions without threats. Looks to be a fun read.

2010 Mid-Atlantic Girls Championship

2010-11-20T18:01:00.001-05:00

My daughter took 8th place in the Novice/U400 section today!

78 girls showed up and she went 4-1, losing only to the eventual champ in the 4th round (who told her she was the best she'd faced to the point :P)

We had an awesome time. She won her first tournament game, which was all I had been hoping for.

Here is her first tourney win:

The TSA

2010-11-15T19:18:00.000-05:00

I've been following the implementation of the TSA's new, aggressive pat down procedures for the last several days. A sampling for those that haven't:

Fines threatened for refusing to submit to assault and leaving the airport as directed

3-year old gets assaulted by the TSA

A mother with infant gets sexually assaulted

Soldiers at war prohibited from doing to potential enemies what we do to our citizens

I have some calls to make to Congress tomorrow.

The absurdity has to stop.

Image to e4: Surreal and thought provoking

2010-11-15T16:10:00.001-05:00

Chess by ~F31dak1n on deviant ART

While looking for an image for my woefully irregular Image to e4, this caught my eye.

In the moment I saw it and cocked my head, my daughter (looking over my shoulder) said, "I get it! They're like pieces!"

So something like this:

What do you think?

Second Team Leaue Game

2010-11-14T01:47:00.000-05:00

A bit of a swindle, this one:

Click to view the game

Never got around to adding more to that last one, so we'll just burn a little midnight oil to add some thoughts:

5. d5

Feel like this was the novice in me- Ooh! My pawn can attack a piece! Probably a little ahead of myself here. The subsequent exchange of light-squared bishops made me miss mine later in the game.

7. ... f5

Yikes! I thought I was playing myself for a minute- this was aggressive and a thorn in my side (as my in-game whispers reflect)

10. O-O

kosu mentions later that he thinks I should have gone O-O-O, and I considered it. Just felt too loose over there.

14. Be3

I need to look at g4. Not sure that was actually stronger or just better in the moment. When I later recapture with the f-pawn, I was looking for the open file, but think the Queen might have been more stable long term.

17. cxd6

I considered c6, but not hard enough. Need to come back and look at why.

On moving my Queen to the kingside, it was to get my e-pawn up and I was planning on sliding my Queen back to the queenside along e1. I ended up spending a fair amount of time looking for back-rank tactics through the next stretch. kosu was rightly concerned because there were some spots where I think a knight sac would get me in.

Once my knight stole the bishop, I figured two ways to draw, or maybe eek out a win. One was to trade my knight for the b-pawn while not also committing my King. Two was to get my king to the b-pawn and use the knight to trade for the k-side pawns.

Both ended up happening.

Both the king and the knight would need 4 moves to capture on the queening square. Once I had counted that, I was confident I had a draw. On 51. g4, the black king needs 5 moves to get my knight, assuming I don't move it. Like someone observed in game, the knight just pops out to f5 and the king is stymied.

At the end, I was very aware of stalemate possibilities (Hi Pat!) and was very careful, in spite of the appearance of playing quickly here (I think that is where the comment about playing too fast occurred).

A wild game. kosu was very gracious aftewards and we had a great chat. I look forward to crossing swords with him again.

Also- thanks to those who complimented Chess Adventures :) It's been slow around here lately, and the kind words should be helpful in sparking some posting!

Been blitzing

2010-11-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

Since my Team League game I haven't gotten any long games in, just a hadnful of 5/0s.

I need to start playing with some kind of increment because I get to some good spots with chances, but can't see fast enough where to go.

I've never won a game of blitz on FICS (that I can recall) and my rating is crazy low at like 722P. Half the games that start have people abort thinking I'm a pushover. My last opponent was kind enough to say I'm clearly much stronger than my rating.

This weekend I'll be warming up my daughter for her second tournament (first in 2 years). It's a 5 round swiss, G/30. I think we'll do 5 games of G/30, starting every hour like at the event, so she can sort of feel how the day will go and I can see at what point her attention will waver and get some ideas on how to help her re-focus.

First Team League Game

2010-10-24T14:50:00.002-04:00

Victory!

Here's the Watchbot version commentary by myself at points. Once run through Crafty and more review by me, I'll update this post.

Click to view the game

New Babas / FICS tips

2010-10-20T12:01:00.001-04:00

So I've learned a couple new things that might be of interest to people new and old to Babas. There are so many options that don't do anything at first, that it can take a fair bit of experimenting.

None of these are earth shattering, but simply useful and convenience oriented.

Timers:

I like to keep FICS up at work and home for long periods of time observing Team League games. At work, I often have to go into busy mode, so I may get logged out after 60 minutes. Babas can cheat this by going into File -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Scripts and then choosing Configure Timer Commands.

You can have 3 different timers; perhaps one to go AFK (like the default example), one to advertise something (like looking to start a Team League team) and a third to keep you logged in.

Check the "Enabled" box, set the interval to the time between running your command and enter the command in the box.

I have "date" set to run every 45 minutes. I like date because I always get confused about the time difference between local and server (I know it's Pacific, but I never remember when I'm looking at a schedule of events).

Clean Console:

I prefer to have my console show none of the crap that it default displays.

I uncheck the following items in Preferences/Console and Chat/Chat Windows:
1. Show Private Tells in console
2. Show Channel Tells also in main console
3. Show Shouts also in main console
4. Show superfluous server responses

Tabbed view:

I don't like having 18 windows overlapping and popping around my screen. Click Window -> Tabbed Documents. Boom.

Channels tab has tabs for each channel (like it normally does). Info Window has its stuff. The console and private chats get tabs. Boards get their own tab.

The one disadvantage is if you like to have multiple boards up at once or a board and private chat. Tabs gives you one thing at a time. If you like it, you will probably want to uncheck the following in Preferences/Console and Chat/Chat Windows:

1. Automatic Tab Switch (this one is in both sets of options)
2. Show chat window when new tell received
3. Show channel window when new shout received

Those 3 options will make sure whatever you are looking at doesn't flip away when those events occur.

For some people, Tabs will be a lifesaver and for others a hated inconvenience.

Chessloser?

2010-10-19T09:01:00.001-04:00

Anyone know why he wiped his site? I know he'd lost some content trying to clear out some spam a month or so ago...just moving or gone?

hardcore pawnography was (is?) one of my favorite chess blogs.

Life is always busy, huh?

2010-10-14T20:29:00.000-04:00

I've had some time for a few games on FICS over the last month (been aiming for longer games, although none have gone the distance), but haven't put down enough time for study.

Hoping to get a shot in the next couple weeks for ArchBishops_Artists U1600 team. Our captain had been eyeing a match against a team that had only 4 people and the 4th board was more closer to my rating than other likely mathcups, but I believe they added at leat one member just prior to the add/drop deadline.

I also got sucked into Civ 5 pretty hard the last couple weeks. My wife is so hooked on the game and has been staying up so late she had to go into work late one morning :P She didn't grow up playing things like Wing Commander, Pirates and Silent Service for 24 hour marathons and lacks the ability to will oneself through the next day like I can :D

After a frustrating day in the ER with her (she had severe stomach pains, no certain cause identified so she is making an appointment with her primary doc for tomorrow) I hope to get some chess in tonight.

Several updates for the Book

2010-09-18T07:14:00.004-04:00

EDIT: Finally figured out what was wrong with the PGN viewer, so now the games are visible.

In this first one, I drop a pawn (recurring theme) early by not counting out.

However, I counter-attack a little later when things are bleak and my opponent seemed to overestimate my chances and I cracked his position open. A dropped Bishop quickly becomes game.

The turning point is 15. ... Nxh5 when my pieces are allowed to sieze initiative and everything aiming at my cornered king becomes a target.

This next one I drop a pawn in the opening, but at least I saw the traps and pins I would have been subject to if I had tried to get it back. I should have played 7. O-O-O, but instead 7. Bd3 d5 and my Queen could get pinned by the Rook, or 8. ... d4 wins a piece.

I scrapped, but my opponent made no mistakes and gave no ground.

I'm not sure this next one counts as "dropping" a pawn...I end up with a complete lead in development (my Queen and no other pieces moved by either side except O-O :P).

22. ... a4 dooms a Knight to no escape, and then it is essentially clean up time as I scrape pawns off the board.

However...I missed a forced mate at 34. Kf5 and should have won a lot faster.

(34. ... Bc8+ 35. Re6 Kf7 36. g4 Bxe6#)

u1600 Team: ArchBishops_Artists

2010-09-13T12:58:00.001-04:00

I was successfully recruited by the ArchBishops_Artists u1600 team.

Negotiations were tense with me waiting for a spot to open up and saying "Sure!" when asked if I would be interested.

I'm on a reserve board, which suits me fine, as this will be my first run with the league.

If there's interest, I'd still like to get a u1400 team together, so we'll see what we get there.

Lost in the woods

2010-09-11T23:14:00.001-04:00

Chess, Renaissance Festival by ~HeartbreakerStudios on deviant ART

There's a little whimsy in there- playing against a plant today? Mostly a lot of sadness, though...fenced off, abandoned, tilting over.

Also resembles what it feels like whenever you look back over your shoulder after giving up the game for a while. Seems a lost cause, but...

Sweep away the leaves, clear off the chair and it's almost good as new.

Also, I wasn't digging the two mini columns- felt really cluttered.

Trying to make a 1400 team for FICS Team League

2010-09-09T09:18:00.001-04:00

In joining the FICS Team League, there are a couple teams that might be able to use me as a reserve in the 1600 section, and not many spots open at 1400.

I've messaged some other folks on the interested list to try and get a 1400 team together. We'll see how it goes!

I should probably read up to see if messages on FICS can be sent to multiple people, rather than copy-pasting as I did to each person...if so that would have made sharing info easier.

Yes- that's what they are.

2010-09-04T15:06:00.000-04:00

chess by ~b3njamin on deviant ART

Clever chess set. I feel like I've seen this picture elsewhere, recently.

Seriously? I missed that?

2010-09-03T18:18:00.001-04:00

Starting a book...of my mistakes

2010-08-29T19:49:00.000-04:00

Taking Dan Heisman's advice in Novice Nook 81 (item #12), I am starting a 'book' of positions where I erred. They will likely be flat out material losses in many cases. Until I improve, what else would they be- poor attack of an isolated pawn? Nope (see item #14).

The article was also a good bump for reinforcing why I need to do all the mate in ones in PCT...not so much for me to see them, but rather to see them in replies my opponent may have.

So- mistake number one.

Up a Queen for a Knight, I played 20. ... Rxc2. I still won, but it was a lot harder than it needed to be.

Should have played ... Rxe5, with threats of mates or getting another exchange.

Image to e4 returns!

2010-08-27T21:57:00.000-04:00

chess by ~xxlivingindreamsxx on deviant ART

I think dA has changed the way they provide sharing links...that or I forgot how I used to set them up.

This is a really cool pic, and livingdreams has many other cool pics in their gallery.

Having fun

2010-08-24T22:48:00.000-04:00

My daughter and I have read through a couple more games in Logical Chess and also played a few games the last few days. She has been having a good time, which is the main thing.

She was having trouble seeing knight moves, so I looked up some exercises for her to practice with. One puts a knight and king at opposite corners of the board, with pawns scattered about (a chess maze, essentially); the goal is to check the king without getting captured moving only the knight. She did it for a while and told me it was getting too easy, so I told her to start replacing a pawn or two with Rooks or Bishops, and she kept at it. Over 3 days she made significant gains and is able to point out knight moves a lot quicker.

Tonight I had her playing KNB vs K. I showed her how the mate would look with the king trapped in the corner, scattered the pieces and let her at it. I told her to make sure the Black king fought hard back and didn't voluntarily go to the "bishop's corner". About 30-45 minutes later she worked it out!

In our game last night, she actually had a pretty good attack, but let the initiative slip away and I won the game. I hope to review the game with her and see if we can't find spots she could have improved.

She's also really excited her middle school will have a chess club.

Fresh eyes, clear mind

2010-08-19T14:46:00.000-04:00

My daughter surprised yesterday morning as I was heading out for work- I asked what she had going on besides her chore list for the day and one of the things she mentioned was "practicing her chess"!

I was tickled and told her to either do Logical Chess game 1 again or do game 2 and make notes with any questions she had.

She ended up not looking at it, but I'm still tickled that she has some independent interest in chess right now.

Last night was the family 'No TV' night, which includes no computers or videogames. My daughter fell asleep at about 6:30 pm and my wife was working late, and after two games of Logical Chess Move-by-Move (LCMBM), I cracked and got on PCT. I only played a single ~10 minute module, but it was really cool to feel some of the old memory muscles waking up.

I had a realization while playing through the LCMBM games that in the past I wasn't really seeking to understand the material. Chernev will describe the negatives of some moves and attention is paid to the exploiting of them and capitalizing on opponent's errors, but I found myself several times looking at what moves would have avoided the trouble.

He described Black's 7th (iirc) move in one game as one a beginner would make quickly. Because it is so early in the game, and it wasn't an outright blunder, I know there might not be a clear "best" continuation, but I spent some time looking at possible moves, looking for tactics they walked into and settled on 3 possibilities.

Tonight I will un-shelve the NCO and see if the lines are covered. If not I'll probably pop it in Crafty to see if there is anything forcing I missed and if not go to Chess Forums to see what others can point out.

After LCMBM and a dab of PCT, I read Silman's criticism of de la Maza's 400/400 method, updated my future book list (there's a Morphy book that I was interested in before, Chernev's Most Instructive Games, and then Silman's Reassess Your Chess and The Amateur's Mind), and got info on a couple big tournaments coming up in Maryland January and February.

Change is good

2010-08-16T22:41:00.000-04:00

Fiddled with the new layout tools at Blogger. I like the way it looks, but I'll have to brush up on my html to figure out where to stick a center tag for the banner.

I finally got my daughter to play through the first game of Chernev's Logical Chess Move by Move. I read and she moved pieces. She was surprising vocal, and saw that 7. d5 was better than the text 7. a4. (Until I get a PGN viewer back in action, just nod and roll with it).

I couldn't immediately refute the move, so we made a note and stuck it in Crafty once we finished with the game. It lead to a much more complicated position, which is likely why Chernev didn't delve into it- the point was to show how to take advantage of mistakes.

She had a good time and said if I continued to work with her reading from the book and playing timed games, she'd give another tournament a go. She, too, hasn't really played much chess in the last two years. Part of her attraction is doing what I do, and before suggesting we play through the game, I deliberately did some things she wanted to do.

We've tentatively decided to look at 3-4 games from the book per week. It took about an hour, but that included me reading from the introduction. Her attention definitely wavered towards the end, but that'll improve as we practice. She liked the chessKids site I showed her earlier in the evening, so she might take off on her own a little!

Cleaning up, taking stock, looking forward

2010-08-16T13:03:00.004-04:00

Donnie was right- a number or folks around the last time I was active have faded out.

I removed blog links with no posts in 2010 from the 'roll. I'll be looking to clear any other essentially inactive links from there and other widgets shortly, and will then move forward adding new sites.

Chessimo customer support rocked it over the weekend and let me use my old PCT code- I had installed PCT on a computer that crashed, and couldn't get it to work on the Vista machine that replaced it. Now, with a Windows 7 laptop at home, I can use the software no problem, and they were hassle free in making it happen.

Found my old improvement thread at ChessForums.org. Blew me away...I have totally forgotten more about my training in the past two years than I recall!

I've learned a lot about real-world time-management the last two years. I have a better grasp of my limitations, and also my strengths. Once I have a routine planned, I know I need to work it for 21 days solid to make it a habit. Recording/sharing my progress will help make me accountable for it, so I'll have to incorporate blogging time to do so, as well as blog maintenance/reading time.

I'll get the weekly art feature back up and running shortly, as well. I really liked that.

Chess Bug

2010-08-13T08:46:00.003-04:00

Vanished off the face of the earth due to personal/work issues.

Got 30-day lay-off notice. Wife caught pneumonia. Missed two weeks of work. Told after returning to work and declining family offers to help take care of wife that all the time I had missed would be unpaid due to an HR error and that I should have been monitoring the accumulations myself.

Lucked into a new job starting a couple days after the old one ended.

Touched my chess set maybe 4 times in the last two years. Stumbled onto a chess game sign-up at a forum I hang out at. Downloaded Babas.

My apologies to everyone whom I had games with that I bailed on. I'd gladly play one with you in the near future :)

I'm just going to bounce along and try to enjoy myself.

Correspondence Games- 8 in one blow!

2008-02-18T00:03:00.002-05:00

Wow. I just spent the last 2 hours cranking out variations for 8 correspondence games I'm playing (6 IECG games and 2 in a forum championship). After awhile, all the lines run together and I start thinking that I've emailed the same person two different moves, or even the wrong game to someone.

The forum Championship is in the 'Finals'. We had 6 groups of 5-7 people play round robin. The group winners, runners-up and two wildcards are playing single elim matches. This round its 2 games, the next two are 4 games and the finals is a six game match.

The forum isn't a chess forum, but there are some very good players there. The group stage was a mixed bag. One game in an unclear middlegame was awarded to me by abandonment, another with me a rook up was abandoned, one I swindled my opponent (down a piece and he missed a mate in one) and the last (actually the first finished) was a legit mate. I think I won the exchange and just forced my way in from there...I forget.

The two games I'm in now I expect to win, and one of them I can't wait to share. I missed a move and thought I was going to drop a piece, but it turned out I could switch the subsequent move order and have ended up with the Bishop pair, a Knight, a Rook and a bonus pawn versus two Rooks and a Bishop.

I'm trying to visualize as much as possible without just pushing the pieces and saving all the variations. I'm still missing stupid stuff, but I'm checking myself fairly well and have avoided disaster so far. One of the IECG games does have a position I can't wait to get a computer to look at- I think my opponent missed a line winning at least the exchange, maybe even a piece.

Hopefully, the occasional frenzy of responding to 8 games at once will pay off :P

Babas/FICS tips and tricks for LEPers

2008-02-16T22:24:00.003-05:00

Glenn and I had a little trouble getting out game started for round 1, mostly because my formula was set to restrict my opponents to between 100 points below my rating and 200 above. Babas has a great little feature to make it easy to turn my formula on and off without needing to recreate it over and over.

First off- how to create a formula in Babas:

Go to the View menu and choose Formula Wizard. It goes through several pages of options letting you narrow down what kinds of games your looking for. Personally, I like ~30 minute, rated games with players about my level and no guests, computers or abusers.

Once you have the formula created, the wizard will display it. Highlight it all and copy it to the Clipboard. Click Finish if you'd like to turn it on right now.

Now, pop over to the Quick Commands menu and choose Configure. Click the New Command button. Name it something clever, like Formula On, in the Name field. In the Script to Execute field, delete all the text, type "set formula" and then paste the formula from the wizard. Make sure there is only one space between the word "formula" and the next character, or there could be syntax problems.

Click OK and bam! You can now turn on your formula whenever you like!

To get full use of the ability to turn your formula on whenver you like, you need to create a Formula Off command. Create a new command, as above (do not go through the Formula Wizard this time). In the Script to Execute field, simply type "set formula" and save the command. Choosing this new command will turn off the formula whenever you like.

If you play a variety of games, like blitz or bughouse or whatever, you could create several formula commands specific to each type.

The main benefit to using formulas is that the Seek Graph and list in Babas will only display people looking for what you want, and it prevents random people from poking you for a one minute game with 17 second increment. My graph is often empty with the formula on, because not many people play 30 minute games, but I rarely wait more than 5 minutes when seeking for what I want.

When you use the Action->Seek command in Babas, you can save your preferred time limits, choose to use the formula and get exactly what you want, generally improving the online chess experience.

The second big question Glenn had was about examining the game.

There are several ways to start an Examine session on the server. If you're doing a post-mortem, you should each automatically be examining the game on your own. As long as the other person (or anyone you want to be able to move the pieces and make circles and arrows and stuff) is listed in the Observers tab (under the board), go to the Console window (press F2 if you can't find it- that'll bring it to the top) and enter "mexamine USER" where USER is that person's name.

Now they can move stuff around. I've never done this, so I have no idea exactly how the variations are added and saved or how it works (like a Pushmepullyou, I'm sure). Using the Edit->Examine menu, you can see commands duplicating the arrows most people have below the board, but also the Circle and Arrow tools. These do exactly what they say they do. Go to the Actions menu and choose Examine last game and play around with it. Nifty stuff.

To customize the appearance of the Circles and Arrows (as well as everything else board wise), go to File->Preferences. Choose Board, then Piece movement and scroll the Move Input box almost to the bottom and you can change the color of your Arrows and Circles. If you have an examined game with stuff on it, choose a color and hit Apply and you can see what it'll look like without having to go through the menus again.

Some of this info is in the Babas Help files, some in the Fics files and some by just fiddling around. I hope this saves others a little bit of time, and I'll add other cool stuff as I learn it myself.

gorckat vs NoTB: LEPers 1, Round 1

2008-02-14T23:12:00.004-05:00

Since LEP has plans to run/coordinate more tournaments, I'm calling this inagural event...LEPers 1! Damn, I'm clever.

Here's a few positions from my Round 1 game with Glenn (he has a viewer with the game as well as his thoughts over at his blog, Houston Chess):

I think b3 and then Bb2 to support the d-pawn long-term would have been better than Re1. Maybe I'd push the f-pawn later, or need to get the rook to d1? I think the rook move was premature.

Crafty likes h3 better than my d5. I pushed to avoid dropping the pawn and/or getting the kingside ripped open (which happened anyway after 12. ... Ne5)

Played Qa3 to save the b-pawn. I missed that after 19.Rb1, my Queen was covered by the g3 Bishop and thought 19. ... Bxf3+ won my Queen. I often miss long Bishop moves, but usually in a way that drops a piece, not defends my own. Anyone know good Bishop move drills to make those long moves pop more?

I didn't give b4 enough thought, but it's about a pawn better than my Na4, according to Crafty. The line would not have been much easier as Crafty gives (with my own !s) 22.b4 Bxf3+! 23.Kxf3 Qc6+ 24.Ne4 f5 25.Qe3 Bh6!! 26.Qe2 fxe4+ 27.Kg2 e3+ and then there's a few ways to go, either trying to squirrel away the King or blocking with f3:

Nasty stuff.

This was my last shot, hoping for a "cheap" Mate in 2, but Glenn found one of several ways out with g5.

What moves should I study?

2008-02-13T10:47:00.003-05:00

Thinking about Sticky Chess, it just hit me: what moves would be best "taught" by repetition?

The Circles focus on combinations and winning moves. All the software and books that people use for repetitious study teach people how to win a won game, for the most part. The moves are forcing, with any deviation leading to less than the best result. The benefit is tangible- you will, most likely, not miss winning opportunities less often than before the course of study was begun.

But what about those moves that are sound, solid, "normal"- the moves that don't lose? I think this is what I've been reading on Tempo's blog, as well as in the writings of other people beyond Circles and hardcore tactics training.

In what I've read about chunking and GMs having familiarity with (iirc) ~100k positions, it seems the subconscious makes the normal moves, and only pings the conscious mind if something is there to be looked at deeper.

It's those moves that I think need their own training circles. I'm imagining a database of thousands of game fragments starting with "normal" positions and proceeding through a balanced move set where neither side wins or loses outright- no blunders. Watching the moves repetitively would instill the instinct that says it's time to move a knight back to the first rank and then across the board, to shore up a pawn, to open or close the center- whatever is called for.

Hmm...it looks like I'm asking for the mythical easy way out of chess study, but knowing how hard it is to complete the Circles, I doubt it'd be easy. I could only watch chess moves for so long before wanting to play :P

Sticky Chess

2008-02-07T14:50:00.000-05:00

I'm reading a book called Making Things Stick. Or maybe its Ideas That Stick. I forget. Its, shocker!, about ideas that are simple enough and profound enough that they, shocker again!, stick.

"A bird in hand is worth two in the bush" has parallels in like 50 different languages and cultures. The razor blades in apples parent's check for at Halloween never happened.

The ideas have similar traits that make them stick, and since my wife took the book back (its her's, really) I can't recall them concretely enough to make it sensible. I do recommend strongly that anyone interested in learning, teaching or in a position that needs to convey information to check out the book. (I'll get the right title tonight).

Reading it, I see so many lessons for a teacher to use when teaching someone chess. Concepts and methods.

Somewhere, yesterday, I heard, read or saw a report on scientists teaching toddlers words by showing them two pictures side by side and saying the name of one of the objects (like a picture of an apple and a pumpkin and saying apple). They think the kids' brains acted like computers processing the info and after a short while repeating the testes with a variety of images, the kids did something cool.

I can't recall if it was say the word when shown the picture, or pick the picture out of a larger set when the word was spoken.

My prowess at recalling variations over the board must be stunning you right now, huh?

Some people watch chess games movie style, and over time the positions get processed and they can use what they saw- chunking I often see it called. Perhaps there's a way to make a Baby Einstein-like DVD that teaches chess not by here's this and this is what it does, but the way Kasparov (iirc) says he learned it- watching and then just knowing.

If the game could be taught "indirectly" that way, then so could openings, endgames, tactics- the whole shebang. Maybe that's the mechanic behind the circles working, and maybe there's a better way.

UPDATE: Here's the authors website- http://www.madetostick.com/

Jaque mate

2008-01-29T22:49:00.000-05:00

Yeah- sometimes it's like that:

Jaque mate by InpuUpUaut

Dark and morbid: yes.
Brutal yet satisfying: indeed!

Remember folks:

Castle early and castle often!

Chess players are people, too

2008-01-28T20:05:00.000-05:00

Huh. Who knew a post about making FICS friends would give me reason to introspect and reflect.

Tom popped by to share his FICS handle and since I didn't recognize him (I now recall seeing him over at LEP) I popped over to his blog to have a look. Rather than chess, I was surprised to see a Christian blog.

I've had a tendency to skirt most personal details except as they relate to chess, directly and indirectly, on my blog, and then here I was saying to myself, "Woah...he's a Christian, and pretty devout as well (a Deacon, even!)...wonder if I should add him or not?"

I'm an Atheist.

I'm not gonna be burning any Bibles (I have two, actually, not counting my daughter's from her Christening), removing kids from devout parents (although I do agree with the sentiment that Richard Dawkins expressed that indoctrination is a form of child abuse) nor will I be waging war on xmas (well...not much- it has roots in pagan traditions pre-dating Christianity and blends with them, but don't quote me- I'm not the expert) or saying things like Satan Bless You when you sneeze (okay...maybe once in awhile :P).

I consider myself very open-minded and considerate of others views, no matter what I think of the views and beliefs themselves. I will challenge them in the appropriate venue (one forum I frequent and play games at has had several recent invigorating discussions of religion and morality with advocates of many creeds and religions and a good sense of camraderie). It shocked me that I would hesitate to add someone to a friend list based on their religon. I'm the minority at my workplace, by gender, race and religon (I'm not out at work), and here I was getting all xenophobic!

I wondered if I'd add Tom to a non-chess section of my blogroll that I've been contemplating (despite saying in the past that I wouldn't have a non-chess section), and how I'd respond if he hit me up for a game on FICS.

And really, there's nothing I should do but add Tom to my lists. Some people like me, some people don't. I can't change that and don't expect them to change my opinions of them. But at no point should I exclude people because of our differences...I'll be awfully lonely in short order if I do, and I'll be missing these opportunities to challenge my spirit of acceptance and openness.

Who plays at FICS?

2008-01-28T11:22:00.000-05:00

Reading a week old post at liquid egg product, I saw a number of bloggers dabbling at FICS. Doubting anyone would see a comment there, I'm advertising here.

I'm gorckat on FICS (and just about everywhere else online :P), so feel free to hit me up sometime. I'm gonna add anyone whose handle was in the comments at lep to my friends/notify lists. You'll be my very first ones...it's like first grade all over again!

Using the Examine options it'd be possible to get all jiggy with study sessions and stuff, as well.

First sighting of a chess dad

2008-01-26T20:12:00.000-05:00

I went 0-4 last night. Clearly the lack of PCT practice has hurt my danger sense. I walked right into a basic knight fork of rook and king, among other silly errors, but still had a great time. I got there early enough to play couple blitz games against a guy who beat me last time, sort of meet the former club president and champion, who once beat Fischer in a simul, and enjoyed the all male commentary and critique of top chess woman with big boobs (sorry Polly!)

My round two opponent was the son of the soon to be mentioned chess dad. By name and accent, I'm guessing they are from Eastern Europe or Russia. The son is about 12 or so (I really suck at judging ages- if i were every a carnie at one of those age guessing games, the age window would have to +/- 10 years or I'd be out of prizes in an hour) and handled me. Even though it was G/15, he got up a few times and walked around the room to glance at everyone's games.

Round three was his father. I had a tight, cramped position as white with a Bishop bound up playing super pawn on the queenside to prevent a rook intrusion. He brought his king out, since his kingside pawns had advanced, the center was open and there'd been a tit-for-tat on the queenside, and I was able to exploit a pin on his pawn to manuever my previously hopeless knight in the center to the rim with a few threats to his bishops, and was able to take a Bishop and get a rook deep in the center.

Unfortunately, I wasted a minute deciding that he did indeed have one more defender of a central pawn than I had attackers and ended up losing to a bank rank mate with less than 10 seconds left. I was hesitant to trade down to a minor piece ending, but I think I should have.

At the end of the night, the son was playing the last game, got in time trouble and flagged, although his opponent missed a skewer to win the queen and win by force. then the fireworks happened. The father jumped up his kid's ass like nothing I'd seen. The tourney I took my daughter too had a few school teams and one or two lone parents, and it was all touchy feely, give it your best kind of stuff.

I don't recall the boy walking around that game, but he may have early, and they disagreed over how much time was left at some stage. Everyone was like, "Dude- chill. Its a game", but he was hung up on how his kid was a spoiled American brat and plays the game of chess, not the sport.

I hope to crush the father if we play again. I had him, but couldn't close the deal. Not that he'd go easier on the kid. He'd probably vent any frustration on him.

Local Chess Clubs

2008-01-25T09:59:00.000-05:00

I added another link section dedicated to local clubs. Its a little rickety since the Fells Point Chess Club doesn't have a website and a fourth club's website (Loch Raven Chess Club) seems to always be down to bandwidth issues.

Both have additional info at the Maryland Chess Association's Club Directory. Fells Point is particularly active, with one or more events every weekend. I'm heading back to the Catonsville Club tonight for some G15 action. I figured out the delay settings on my clock, so no clocking out while up a knight :P

I kept the listings to clubs in the Baltimore Metro area since I consider myself a "local blogger". There's a half dozen or more clubs in neighboring counties, and their listings are also at the MCA site.

Moody

2008-01-24T11:00:00.000-05:00

I've strayed from the chess path the last few weeks. My desktop hasn't been able to get online since Xmas. My daughter has been generous with her new laptop so I've been able to keep up with things that way. I still haven't ported PCT over to the laptop (until I get a wireless modem, her laptop goes online in place of the desktop- too much hassle to switch back and forth), however, so I've been rusty there.

One of our dogs, an 18-year old Shih-Tzu, had been deteriorating since Xmas and passed over the weekend, so I'm even more apathetic towards chess. I'm trying to be the strong one for my wife and I know in a month I'll breakdown, but I need to get her through the next week or so.

I've played a few games out of Logical Chess when I had time over the last few weeks, but I haven't played so I'm not sure what I got out of them.

I was looking at the Polgar brick last night...it was a mate in two with two rooks and two knights versus a pawn. I was like, "Who gives a shit if its mate in two? With delay I can mate with the rooks no problem!"

I'm also struggling at my job, low income energy assistance...I'm sick of everyone else's problems, that every person coming in is a crisis and needs dealing with right away and gets bumped in front of the 1000 people who mailed their stuff in months ago to avoid crisis, that I haven't gotten a raise in 2.5 years and my income is the same as it was seven years ago even the moves I've made were supposed to be the next step up, that (as the Operations guy) I have to fucking do and fix everything, that the intake and data entry people stop for lunch at 12 on the dot leaving me to finish intake for people allowed to sign in until 12! Blah.

The only thing I've kept up on is my IECG games. I'm about to come out or just came out of book in most of them, so things should get spicey.

I haven't surfed chess blogs in awhile, and looking at the list of blogs here, I'm thinking I might feel better doing so.

And screw this damn post preview crap! There is no more- its all right there!

Tournament Etiquette

2008-01-15T22:16:00.000-05:00

I did a quick google to answere a few lingering questions I had and learned a few things in the process:

-I had no idea its not required to say 'Check'. Seems to me the proper thing to do is say it, but I guess not. That'll be news to my best friend who about bit my head of a few years back in a casual game!
-It is the opponent's responsibility to point out a flag fall- I resigned the game my time ran out (I had thought this the case, but it seems to be in my interest ot not point it out in the future)

The one thing I didn't find a clear answer to is what to do when my opponent doesn't push the clock?

In the game I resigned on time, there were several times my opponent didn't push the clock. He was not a beginner, which I have seen it advised to remind the opponent to push their clock. In a couple cases, I hadn't realized he didn't push it until I went to hit the button and discovered a free move. (Too bad I didn't make better use of the time!)

But in two instances, iirc, I noticed, pondered a bit and made my move anyway. I didn't wan to sit there and stew over propriety.

What's the correct response?

Finally played real chess!

2008-01-12T00:03:00.000-05:00

With real people! I played in the Catonsville Chess Club Friday Knight, a 5 round Swiss G/15 and went +1 -4.

One game, agaisnt the Danish Gambit Accepted I scrapped out to what could have been a win, but I haven't yet figured out how to program the delay on my clock, so instead of 12 minutes with a 3 second delay, I clocked out after 15 minutes.

My win cames against the Caro-Kan. c6 was abandoned by the black pawns, the center was blocked and I sent my c3 knight on a journey to get to the outpost, which would be created after a series of exchanges locked a pawn on d5 with c4 backup. I wish we'd recorded moves, because I think it was a really good idea. It was either really deep or really flaky.

I ended up dropping a knight on the kingside as my opponent mounted an offensive, and I ended up with a pinned Bishop and shaky foundations on the kingside. We traded rooks and each had about 3 minutes left. We both slowed down because I could feel things were on a tightrope for both of us. I got my chance and offered to take the Queens of the board, which would have left it possible to ecxhange down to a Bishop ending that I though I might be able to draw.

When he declined the Queen offer, I snatched his forgotten a8 rook with check and things spun rapidly. I think he lost his cool because pieces and pawns flew off the board until I was down to ~10 seconds (with delay, thankfully!), a Bishop and Rook and his king streaking (the naked kind) across the board.

I snatched a few pawns before month old stale tactics lessons took over and I made a half dozen moves on automatic and lined up my king, a pawn and the bishop and the rook slid over- checkmate on the h-file and adrenaline surging!

All in all, a great time. I have to go back with my camera because one guy has some awesome chess tatoots which would make a great post.

If thou must love chess

2008-01-08T12:33:00.000-05:00

If thou must love me

IF thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say
"I love her for her smile- her look- her way
Of speaking gently,- for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"-
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee,- and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,-
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(From Sonnets from the Portuguese)

That's number 14, iirc. My wife and I chose it for our wedding invitation; I'd written her an awesome letter with this sonnet in it during our courtship. My comment on Chessaholic's latest post and his mention of recent chess burnouts made me think of it, just now.

Look at how our chess knowledge grows and changes over time...if at any point we become convicted that we know chess and that chess only exists as we see it right now...poof! Her smile changes, she makes us think something we didn't before and if you can't go with her, forget it- you get burned in the fiery hell that is Qxf7#. Which really sucks.

For those who are burned out, sometimes you have to let it go to get it back. Remember what drew you in, accept her changes and love her as she is now.

And as she will be.

(Goodness, I think I have a new mistress...my wife is gonna be pissed!)

Pig on fire

2008-01-04T23:38:00.001-05:00

Here's a postition that blows me away. It has a sort of purity to it...the idea is right there, perfectly demonstrated. Its pretty.

At the risk of parroting Chernev 1. Rxe7 crushes black. The game went: 1. ... Qxe7 2. Qf3 Kg7 3. Nce4 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Qe6 5. Bxf6+ Kg8 6. Qf4 1-0

After playing it through, I also spent a lot of time looking at the board before 3. Nce4...I smiled at how, despite being covered by a pawn, queen and knight, it was so vulnerable an invasion point for black. The pinned knight, the king pulled like a moth to flame on g7...awesome.

And horrific as it sounds, given Yasser Seirawan's affection for calling rooks pigs (at least when paired on the seventh rank!), I have to equate the rook blowing up the bishop on e7 to the ancient practice of covering a pig in tar or pitch or whatever, lighting it up and sending it squealing and flaming into the enemy ranks, causing confusion and horror!

(My original title got lost in a browser reload, but I now have to tag any rook sacrifice with Pig on fire :P)

David Bronstein

2007-12-29T17:21:00.000-05:00

The December Chess Life has a really cool, previously unpublished, interview with David Bronstein in it. His Modern Chess Self-Tutor was the second chess book I bought as a teenager (the first was Burgess' Mammoth Book of Chess) and only after reading the interview did I realize he is very likely the source of my love for the game.

The way he talks about chess in the self-tutor is magical- its a war, a fairy tale, a battle of wills and intellect and imagination. I didn't realize, until I dug out the self-tutor a few days ago, that he influenced how I taught my daughter the game this past summer.

I described chess as a battlefield of soldiers and knights, of castles and archers, all marching and engaging at your, the king's, command. I told her she was responsible for the command to sacrifice pawns and pieces when its time to rip the other king out of his home, to smash that home down and leave it in ruins, or infiltrate it like an assassin and leave the queen weeping.

When I first started using the Polgar 5334 book for tactics, I was bemused by my own bemusement and wonder at the cleverness and beauty in some of the Mate in Ones. How can something found by process of elimination be beautiful, carry ingenuity and elegance within it? Now putting it to electrons, I Googled and found:

The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living.
Jules Henri Poincaré (1854-1912) French mathematician.

And there it is- if chess weren't beautiful, it wouldn't be worth it.

Between the self-tutor and the interview, which was done in 1992 and held back for political and personal reasons, I have a hard time telling how he felt about the "science" of chess. In the interview he laments the explosion of technique and book knowledge extending into the middle game stifling creativity, but in the self-tutor he describes a systematic approach to marshal you army and unseat the opposing king.

Part of the confusion may be that the self-tutor was translated from Russian, even though he was fluent in English. There may have been translation missteps that don't convey what he truly meant, and he does celebrate creativity and inventiveness in his book; its just couched in method and formula.

Either way- his love was infectious and I'm now a carrier (hopefully contagious myself!). Thanks, Dave!

8 Random Facts

2007-12-26T10:59:00.000-05:00

Rules:
1. Post these rules before you give your facts.
2. List 8 random facts about yourself.
3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them.
4. Leave a comment on their blog to let them know they’ve been tagged.

Like Edwin Meyer, I'll be letting the honor system tag the 8 people that I estimate might read this post :P

I've actually had a hard time deciding what to list. Random isn't conscious, and any 8 things I choose would be consciously chosen, so I'll do my best to do it off the cuff:

1. I like prime numbers and patterns. I think my grandmother said Asperger's Syndrome or something runs in our family. She and I have trouble not 'bouncing' our mind between the dashes on the road, guardrail posts, lightposts or anything regularly spaced. You know it if you have it, I guess.
2. I have to wear undershirts, even under casual t-shirts.
3. I was a Klingon in Shakespeare's Hamlet (for a Theatre Arts project). One person's line at the final bloodbath was "Dammit, Jim! I'm an actor, not a doctor!"
4. Pearl Jam is the greatest rock band ever. I've seen them in concert once and hope to see them many more times.
5. I like raw broccoli but refuse to eat it cooked.
6. I spent part of my childhood believing the spirit of an uncle I'd never met had possessed one of my hamsters.
7. I like ice water.
8. I have what I think is called an occipital ridge on the back of my skull. I think it's because I cracked my skull open when I was a kid (If there's one thing I've learned, its not to stand on a rocking chair that is situated in front of a brick fireplace and rock it back and forth really hard) and all the world will see it as soon as the forehead recession meets the crop circle out back.

Whew! And I didn't even talk about that time I was house sitting for my sister-in-law and went through her...uh...never mind...

A Rockin' Xmas and a Horrible Nightmare

2007-12-26T08:46:00.000-05:00

I got everything I wanted, chess-wise, for xmas!

-I got Chernev's Logical Chess, and the first two games got me fired up. Like chessloser, I love kingside violence.

-A review will go up at Chess Central later today for the bag, set and board combo I got.

-I also received my first clock. Until I can set it correctly and have used it, I won't be able to review it :P

My daughter really likes playing with a clock, so I'm hoping she and I get a lot of games in. She wants to play in the Maryland State Girls Championship and will probably play at least one warm-up before that.

My wife also thinks we'll be able to swing my entry in the Baltimore Open. Two days and five rounds of G120 will blow my mind. I'll have the chance to play out the endgames I'm getting in G30, and hopefully get to them in better shape!

Now the nightmare...

I was dreaming that I was playing in the Baltimore Open and my first opponent was at least a Master. He was trying to convince me to start off in some kind of symmetrical opening with the king bishops King's Bishop 3...very bizarre. After spending a few mintutes looking at the setup, I declined.

He got pissy and responded to 1.e4 with e6 and I got mated in like 5 moves! I woke up sweating, thinking, "Oh my god...I'm gonna be a lamb at slaughter there!"

And then it hit me...GPA! If I'm gonna go down, its gonna be like a Quentin Tarantino movie, dammit! Loads of action and plot twists :)

And lastly, here's a cool, IMHO, tip for handling vinyl boards in bags:

After sitting down and putting my initials on the bottom of all the pieces, contact info inside the bag and on the clock and putting my name on the bottom of my board (my wife thought I was cute doing so, like a kid getting his school gear ready at the end of the summer :D), I noticed that the velcro straps were 'biting' into the board and adding two unsightly creases down the board. A little ripple from rolling up ain't so bad, but these made it look like I kept the board crammed in my pocket.

And what do people probably have laying around in tatters right now? Empty and nearly empty rolls of wrapping paper! I grabbed a naked tube, measured it against the bag and cut it just a tad short, rolled the board, slid the board inside the tube, strapped it in and bam! No creasing action, and a sturdier package!

Holiday busy-ness

2007-12-22T22:17:00.000-05:00

I've been stalled out for a couple weeks. I haven't made time for PCT or playing since all the stuff that needs doing at home (why did I let my wife convince me to repaint the bathroom in December, again?) and work (low income energy assistance, where every call is a crisis and there aren't enough dollars in the budget to solve them all!) has been kicking my butt.

I'd been planning on posting about the IECG, but right after they confirmed my membership, their site registration expired and it took a couple weeks to get back online. Tonight, the pairings for my first event, a 7-player class tourney, came in. 6-0 would be a nice start :P

I do have this game I'd like feedback on:

It was G30, my opponent about 120 points higher than me, I lost on time. I think exchanging the Queens when offered at 24. ... Qe6 would have kept a draw, but I didn't want to undouble his pawns; I felt they were my main advantage to me without the Queens on the board.

I let Crafty look at the game right away but it gave no imporvements, which surprised me, so I let it go again for a awhile longer. Still nothing, so I guess I missed no tactical chances.

I'm really stumped where I could have done better, other than 1) something other than the Exchange Variation or 2) maybe my Ne5 was premature.

Maryland student wins his section in Houston

2007-12-15T22:44:00.000-05:00

From Baltimore Chess:

Shin Uesugi came in first in the 10th grade section of the K-12 grade Championships held in Dallas, TX on December 7-9, 2007. This is the second year in a row that Shin has won his section at the K-12 Grade Championships! Shin, the 2005 Sweet 16 winner, was on first board for the entire tournament and finished with a score of 6 out of 7. His two draws were to the 2nd and 3rd place finishers.

Kid seems to be a prospect! The Sweet 16 is a Maryland Scholastic Championship, so that's 3 straight years of state and national championships.

One of my daughter's opponents from her first tournament also went to Houston. Hopefully they'll cross paths again. My girl seemed to like her.

Image to e4 (Working Title for the Weekly Image)

2007-12-14T18:01:00.000-05:00

We're Playing Chess by ComeWatchMyArt

"You can go anytime during the day to Lindenhof (it's a little bit on top of Zurich, so you have a beautiful view over Zurich) and you'll see some old men, who are playing chess."

I think I've got the position worked out after the jump.

My guess is that it is White to move, given the way the guy is standing on c1.

Be sure to check out ComeWatchMyArt's gallery of landscapes. Some fantastic images there, especially Snowscape.

A man of my word

2007-12-10T16:11:00.000-05:00

When a man asks an egg to post seducteggly on a bed of green pepper, onion, ham and cheese and take a picture of eggself in eggschange for linkeggs in the man's sidebar, and the egg does it, the man must link the egg's blog.

Oh, yeah. There's more today!

So...aroungry!

Early Xmas Gift

2007-12-07T08:23:00.000-05:00

Thought my daughter had gotten something from the USCF in the mail yesterday, so I tore the envelope open. It was the membership my wife had purchased for me. Oops :P

Awesomely, they were able to renew the membership I had that expired in 2003. When I emailed her my Xmas list a week or so ago, I hadn't been able to find my USCF ID# on the website. I never played in any events, so I figured it was lost forever.

There is no more to read here now. I haven't had time to decide how to handle the Read More link. Apparently, based on Firefox showing what is being loaded each time I hit the blog, even though I'm hiding stuff it still has to load (like diagrams at Chessup and the PGN reader at Chess Publisher) so I'm not making the page load faster, just look cleaner. I guess that has its own advantages.

Now that there's enough to have used the Read More link, I guess that's how I'll waste my time today, rather than fiddle with borders for images I post.

There's still nothing to read after the jump :P

This feature needs a title

2007-12-04T08:09:00.001-05:00

Chess Globe v3

I chose this image by evilhomer145 as my first weekly image. Prints are available for purchase through deviantART.

I don't know if the images I choose will be limited to "art" or if they'll include other things I find like interesting player photos and stuff. Any suggestions on naming this feature is appreciated :)

And it only took like 15 edits of this post to get the thumbnail and links formatted correctly and displayed to my satisfaction :P

Any advice on improvement would be appreciated

2007-12-01T10:50:00.000-05:00

Did some PCT last night and fired up a G30 on FICS. Crafty has illuminated the error of my 34th move. Really obvious that I missed it in hindsight. I wouldn't have figured the whole line, I don't think, but that one move should have stood out to me.

I'm not sure where I could have done better in the middlegame. Crafty saw no tactical chances missed.

Crafty at move 34: 34. ... Kc4 35. a3 Kb3 36. Kd3 Kxa3 37. Kc3 Ka4 38. d5 a5 39. bxa5 Kxa5

I never feared for my King, really. My pieces had a good hold on the center and I was comfortable pushing his dark Bishop when I did. I feel like I might have missed something with either my dark Bishop finding a check on f2 and/or the knight that eventually took his Bishop on g3 finding a fork.

The Toolbox

2007-11-30T12:34:00.000-05:00

My code for Personal Chess Trainer was in my inbox when I got home from work yesterday! I gleefully fired up PCT, registered it, reinstalled it (everyone with PCT knows what I mean, from my reading :P), fired it up again and...fiddled with the options.

Unfortunately (for my chess, at least) my daily evening looks like this:

5pm through 6pm is for helping my daughter with homework and starting to cook
6pm through 7pm is for eating, dishes and cleaning
7pm through 9-10pm is for whatever the hell my wife says its for!
9-10pm through whenever I pass out is for chess and stuff

On days when my wife goes to around 9pm, I get a G30 in, some Novice Nook or puzzles and Google up 'chess babes in lingerie'. Last night when she was up till almost 11...By the time I got PCT going, I was wobbling in my chair taking 3 second naps between puzzles trying to complete a 45 puzzle series of Mate in Ones twice, since PCT makes you solve each problem two times. I kept thinking that I had to be getting close to the turn and coming down the repeats soon, but it felt like it never happened.

As my eyes fluttered, I started making moves on automatic and the only miss I had was moving the wrong rook the first time through. By 11:15, 90 puzzles down, I was toasted and fell into bed.

I have to break it to the wife that no later than 10pm, every night, I'm gonna go play with myself for at least an hour and she's neither invited nor allowed to interrupt. There's no way I can make progress if I'm not awake enough to understand what I'm doing.

A new sidebar block:

The Toolbox
PCT
FICS
Novice Nook

I hope to add Chernev's Logical Chess to that at Xmas. The Toolbox will basically be my current reading/study list. I need to get some annotated master games on there, as well. Any recommendations for Morphy and other early players?

Won't be running into GM Onischuk this weekend

2007-11-28T11:36:00.000-05:00

Cause he's, you know...in Russia playing some game called 'chess'.

But I still need to get my butt out to a real chess club, so I'll get down to the Fells Point club at some point. Somebody there should know if he ever graces mere chess mortals with his presence.

PGN Viewer Test

2007-11-26T16:33:00.000-05:00

So...I just killed some more time seeking out a decent, low maintenance, easy to use integrated PGN Viewer. I'm hoping a body or two will take a peek at the earlier post 'Sometimes winning feels like you heart will explode' and compare loading times of the 'Read More' to the integrated game after the jump here:

Does the viewer take too long? How's it look?

ADD: Duh. I should say, clearly, that its Chess Publisher's viewer.

A GM...in Maryland?

2007-11-26T14:42:00.000-05:00

Tooling around, I stumbled on the Top 100 players in Maryland over at Baltimore Chess. Not recognizing the name at #1, Alexander Onischuk, and seeing he's so far above #2 (144 points) I Google him.

Dude's the 36th highest rated player in the world!

I know UMBC has a solid chess team, and I've casually followed them in the USCL, but I had no idea we had such a powerhouse in my backyard.

From USCF: Since 1997, Alexander has worked on chess together with the 12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov being his second in many matches and tournaments. Over the last seven years, Alexander has invariably remained in the top 50 in the World. He immigrated to the US in 2001 and currently lives in Baltimore.

Shut. Up. He's been Karpov's second?

I so have to get down to the Fells Point Chess Club and find out if he hangs out there, if he plays in any clubs or whatever. I'd loved to get blasted away by a GM OTB. I imagine the experience to be invigorating.

Burning the midnight oil

2007-11-25T00:32:00.000-05:00

Whew! Got the banner completed! Please pop over to the ZOtherOne's gallery and take a look at his work. I can't say enough how thrilled I am that he let me use his picture.

I spent a good while scouring Deviant Art for the perfect image. His captured the sense of journey, fear, excitement, hopes and dreams that most of are moved by when we play chess.

The board in the picture belonged to his grandfather. My grandfather is probably the reason I keep coming back to chess as I get older. As a kid, we played a game and I stuck a Knight on f6, a Bishop on g7 and castled short. He called it an Indian defense, said it was good and that he had to work to beat me.

I'm sure he handled me better than he let on, but his words have stuck with me.

I haven't seen my grandfather in about ten years. My grandparents divorced and the family as a whole split for a little while. Deep down, part of the reason I play is the hope that I'll run into him. He was always ahead of the curve with computers. He set me up with a couple of chess games over a modem when I was a kid, so maybe he's on FICS. Maybe he's gonna be at the Baltimore Open in January.

A few years ago my mother gave me his first edition copy of Rueben Fine's Chess the Easy Way. She'd had it in a box of things she took from his farm before it was sold after the divorce. I never really looked at it- its in descriptive, after all!- until recently when I started to miss him.

He taught me about a lot more than chess- computers, electricity, radio signals, weather, deer tracking, that you don't have to hold everything inside. I just want another game with him, to show him I've learned and gotten better. I hope he'd be proud of me.

Improvements and Concessions

2007-11-23T12:37:00.000-05:00

Yay for a day off!

-I got the post previews to work- if anyone has any issues, let me know. The 'Read More' link may appear on posts without more content, which is a limitation of Blogger, I think. They have a tutorial, of sorts, on how to make previews work, but leave it "as an exercise for the reader" to figure out how to make 'Read More' go away when there is no more. Huh.

-I added a lot of blogs and sites to the sidebar. Right now, I'm just going to deal with some links wrapping. I don't want to force side to side scrolling for people who don't have a 1024x768 or higher display. Maybe in the future.

-I'm linking blogs by blog title, not blogger name. I've seen both ways on other blogs, sometimes a mix of both and I'm gonna try to be consistent this way. If I ever expand the sidebar, I'll add blogger names to the links if they'll fit.

Hopefully I'll update this later today with more done.

Blog To-Do

2007-11-20T14:50:00.000-05:00

Things I want to do with the blog:

*Hack the HTML enough to make the sidebar wider (or choose an alternate layout, but I kinda like this one) because links are getting wrapped and messy looking
*Figure out how to post just a preview of my posts, making the front page easier to read
-Once the layout is squared away, I've got an awesome picture create a nice banner/header with
*Explore PGN viewers for blogging, as well as Chessup's diagram creator (if it'll save my color settings, then I'll make the board look nicer and more fitting for the color scheme)
-Get the other 10 or so blogs I'm reading daily added to my sidebar and fill out the non-blog site list
-Add a box or section to the sidebar with my FICS handle (gorckat) and info
-Tags or no-tags? Better to decide on that now, rather than going back and tagging 100+ posts down the road!

*Any recommendations for stuff marked "*" would be appreciated. No need to reinvent too many wheels!

Feature Ideas I've got cookin':

-Interviews with random people. (This'll be a tricky one- I'm touched with a dose of Social Anxiety Disorder. Basically, I function very well with people when we stay in the roles the current social situation demands- waiter/diner, cashier/shopper, chess father/chess coach at a tournament. Asking people to be interviewed will push me out of the nest in a big way.)
-Chess pictures. I did some digging at Deviant Art to find the picture for my banner (the photographer was very gracious in giving me their permission to use it and their gallery will be linked as soon as I have it ready!) and want to link some of them, as well as taking my own casual pictures. I have several in mind involving one of my cats...
-Live blogging a major chess game. It could be fun to liveblog a game being shown elsewhere as an exercise in evaluation and commentary.

Sometimes winning feels like your heart will explode

2007-11-17T15:00:00.000-05:00

Wow. I really need to read some of that "Don't get to high on your wins" stuff because I am jazzed right now! Maybe it's because I haven't played since missing Mate in Two. Right now I feel like I can play chess.

Here's the game with off the cuff commentary and Crafty analysis (some of the diagrams have the White to move when its not- oops!):

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6

That's about all I know of the Spanish!

4. Bc4 Bc5

Hey- this is like the Italian Game!

5. O-O Nf6 6. d3 O-O 7. Re1 d5 8.
exd5 Nxd5 9. Nxe5 Nxe5 10. Rxe5

I spent about 3 minutes considering 10. ... Bxf2+ before deciding my opponent wouldn't play 11. Kxf2 allowing 11. ... Qf6+ winning the Rook. (Crafty liked Bxf2+, but with moves I hadn't considered! Need to look at that later...)

10. ... c6 11. d4 Bb6 12. c3 Bc7 13. Re1 Qd6

I've decided to gun for the Kingside with everything I've got. After forcing his Rook back, I realized he still hasn't activated 4 pieces. you'd almost think I dropped that pawn in exchange for the activity!

14. g3 Bh3 15. Bf1 Bxf1

Sweet! I get to exchange what was my worst piece for his best!

16. Rxf1 Rfe8 17. c4 Nf6

Sure- make me go to the Kingside.

18. Bf4 Qd7

Given how the game ended, I'm sure he wished he'd exchanged Bishops at this point. instead, he 'forces' me to centralize my Knight and score what I consider a badass finish.

19. Bg5 Ne4 20. Be3 Qh3
21. Nd2

21. ...Nxg3 22. Qf3 Ne2+ {Letto resigns} 0-1

I can't believe I found this win (even after Crafty tells me Nxg3 wasn't all that I thought it was :D)! I watched a few videos yesterday on the Grand Prix Attack, a system I'm thinking of using in conjunction with the Scotch Game, and reading the unmarked half of my Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess so I can only assume my brain was primed for assault and mate!

Here's the game in raw PGN:

[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2007.11.17"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Letto"]
[Black "gorckat"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1658E"]
[BlackElo "1475P"]
[ECO "C60"]
[TimeControl "G/30"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bc4 Bc5 5. O-O Nf6 6. d3 O-O 7. Re1 d5 8.
exd5 Nxd5 9. Nxe5 Nxe5 10. Rxe5 c6 11. d4 Bb6 12. c3 Bc7 13. Re1 Qd6 14. g3
Bh3 15. Bf1 Bxf1 16. Rxf1 Rfe8 17. c4 Nf6 18. Bf4 Qd7 19. Bg5 Ne4 20. Be3 Qh3
21. Nd2 Nxg3 22. Qf3 Ne2+ {Letto resigns} 0-1

I just let Crafty take a hack at it. Crafty never went over one pawn either way until 22. Qf3. Here's what he gave at that point: 22. hxg3 Rxe3 23. Nf3 Re7 24. Re1 Rae8 25. Rxe7 Rxe7 26. d5 a5 27. dxc6 bxc6 with a pretty even game, slight edge to Black.

At no point had I considered Qh5 by White which came up in several of Crafty's lines. If I had seen it and decided to make my moves anyway, then fine. Its a glaring weakness of mine- failing to consider all my opponent's moves. I can probably work on it better in G60, but it gets so hard to find two hours when I have the energy for it.

Fischer missed a mate in one! Or did he?

2007-11-16T22:54:00.000-05:00

This makes me feel not so bad missing that mate in two earlier this week:

Fischer's note with the puzzle's solution says he missed this posibility but won anyway. I Googled for the actual continuation but didn't find the game. What I did find was a game with a similar position and it looks more like Bobby missed a mate in 3.

41. Kf1 e4 42. Bf2+ Kh3 (Kh2 ends the same) 43. Rh7#

I had gone back to Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess because I was thinking it might be a good book to put in my daughter's hands (easily portable, has puzzles which she likes doing). Unfortunately, I used a pen to write the solutions for the first half of the book right on the diagrams.

Guess I'll have to buy it as a stocking stuffer for her.

Interview with a young chess player

2007-11-15T18:00:00.000-05:00

For kicks, to practice interviewing (since I do hope to be an occasional journalist here) and to get my daughter involved with something creative on the web, I am presenting a brief interview with her:

How long have you been playing chess?

A couple months. My dad taught me.

Is he any good?

Yeah, but I beat him sometimes.

Straight-up or did you get help beating him?

A little of both.

What's your best chess memory?

Beating my dad for the first time.

Do you study or practice regularly?

I do worksheets and my dad and I play each other.

Tell me about your first tournament.

I didn't win, but I got a trophy for the highest rated Unrated. I played the highest rated player and lasted a really long time. She can beat kids older than her in a snap.

What do you like about chess?

I'm not sure. I just enjoy it. I think it's fascinating and fun.

What do you think you need to do to get better?

I'm not really sure. Maybe practice more with my dad.

Anything else?

Bishops or Knights?

Both.

You don't have a favorite?

Nope.

1. e4 or 1. d4?

e4.

Why?

I just think its the best move. I just stick to it.

The greatest American player and former World Champion, Robert Fischer, once said, "Best by test: e4!" What do you think of that?

I don't know. Just...what?

He was saying the best move to start the game was e4.

Uh...okay?

(Both of us laugh)

Is there anything else you want to say about chess?

No.

Thanks for your time.

Sure. No problem!

She's tickled at that thought of somebody actually reading this. At some point she'll post as a guest contributor, once she thinks of something to say :)

Why?

2007-11-14T12:12:00.000-05:00

Skimming around a few blogs this morning, I was reminded of the reason most people play chess: it evokes emotions.

I love attacking. I love the feeling before a game that I'm going to crush my opponent. I love when I'm on the ropes feeling that I'm not going to give in and that my comeback will break my opponent's spirit for weeks to come. I like the camraderie of looking at a position with others in the hopes of understanding it.

I hate the things I do that put me on the ropes. I hate losing.

The loves are the reason to play. The hates are the reason to get better.

I've always been a competitive person, sometimes to a fault. My wife won't play chess since I obliterated her during the games we played as I was teaching her ten years ago. I almost did the same thing to my daughter before my wife talked some sense into me and I eased up. We played a few games talking every move over and my daughter won a few: hooked.

Probably the biggest reason I play is the beauty and elegance that can come forth in a position. Working through Lazlo Polgar's Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games has given me a few "Wow!" moments where I just marvel at the solution.

Someday I'll make my own moment OTB.

Proof I need more time on tactics

2007-11-13T11:49:00.000-05:00

I got the first move, but missed the second. It was about 11:30 pm last night, but still- this is basic!

I need to get a routine down where I look at tactics and forced mates for at least 20 minutes a day, each.

Purpose

2007-11-07T13:30:00.000-05:00

I've dabbled in several blogs that have gone nowhere, but lately the idea of a chess-centric one has taken root. I've enjoyed writing since high school where I 'became' a poet (aren't we all born that way?) but have not found the outlet I need to get creative and keep writing consistently since then.

Several things have spurred me to write about chess:

1) I taught my 8-year old to play over the summer
2) I started playing again after several years away
3) I haven't found any blogs about chess in Maryland

So here's what I've got on tap to get things going in the coming weeks and months:

-Last night my wife suggested a day-trip to the battlefields at Gettysburg or maybe Luray Caverns. Almost immediately I had the idea that whichever place we go, I should take my chess set and get a picture of me playing chess there...because that'd be kinda cool...I think :)
-I'm trying to consistently work an improvement plan and am looking to play in my first tournament December 8th and then the Baltimore Open in January (I'd estimate myself around 1100 USCF, perhaps? I'm about 1450 on FICS)
-My daughter played in her first tournament a couple weekends ago and wouldn't commit to playing another until I after I promised to help her get better

Welcome to my Chess Adventures!