I've been thinking a lot about why I'm so terrible at blitz, when my slow games are going better all the time. What is it that I do so differently in blitz? Well one thing is extremely obvious: I miss a lot of simple 1-movers. Meaning I drop material in every game, sometimes even missing obvious mate-in-ones. I don't miss those almost ever in slow games anymore.
One thing I've come to suspect is my thought process in blitz. Do I really check if a move drops a piece? Not really. I just make a move that looks intuitively good. There's some checking of course, but it's more unconscious, and obviously not very efficient judging by my score.
So this got me thinking about how to exercise my blitz thought process. I could obviously do it on CTS, or even in real games. But somehow that gives me the nagging feeling that it's just my laziness trying to get way without dealing with any real, and inherently uncomfortable, change. "Just carry on dude, it'll all blow over in time." - Then I suddenly remembered someone mentioning some kind of a capture training mode in fritz, so I fired it up and took a peek at the thing.
It's called 'attack training', and the basic idea is to click every piece that can be taken, regardless of color or the result. If the capture is legal, click the target. You can set a time limit for a session, and fritz automatically selects new positions from the database, as soon as you've found all the captures correctly. When the time runs out, it displays your number of found captures in that session, the average score between sessions, and the highest score. "Sounds like child's play, this must be so easy it can't possibly be useful" I thought. "There's not even looking for the simplest tactics involved, just captures."
So I set the session timer for three minutes and started clicking. And after a few sessions, it turns out my average scores were horrible!!! There was always a simple capture or two escaping my eye, and finding those simply took a lot of time! My average score for 3 minutes was 10 captures found!?! That just must be incredibly weak. I also found it surprisingly hard to concentrate on finding my opponent's captures in an orderly fashion. Which indicates that I indeed have the bad habit of just ignoring my opponent's threats.
So it seems like there's yet another element of board vision I wasn't aware of. One which is possible to disregard even while doing a huge amount of tactics. And even though it can be argued that most of these captures are irrelevant, as they simply don't have any possibility to work out, I still think I should be able to find them fast or immediately. There's clearly a lot of work to be done on that area, and I think this weakness might actually be the very reason why I play so badly in blitz.
From now on, I'm going to do a couple of 3 minute sessions daily, also focusing on the thought process I use. Nothing complex, just conduct the search in orderly and complete fashion. First search for my opponent's captures, then my own.
I would also be extremely interested in how others do on the attack training mode. So please try it out with a batch of 3min sessions, and leave your result as a comment on this post, complete with your blitz rating. I'm hoping we'll see some kind of meaningful differences between blitzers of different level.
my stats:
3min sessions
average: 10
highest 17
ICC 5-minute 1100
update: I've just been told that the 'attack training' mode wasn't introduced until Fritz 9. I'd still love to hear about it from those of you who have it. Whether you do well or not doesn't matter, I'd just like to find out if seeing those captures faster is a property that good blitzers have. A bad blitzer doing well on it would also be very interesting, as it would pretty much prove me wrong and close the case as irrelevant to blitz training.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Monday, April 30, 2007
Bad Times In Blitz
I guess I should record the bad things too, so the 'diary' wouldn't give too optimistic picture of my progress.
A couple of weeks ago I hit a bad day in my blitz project. I was just about to cross over 1300, when I got stuck into a huge losing streak. And like an addict I thought "just a couple of games more, and I bet my luck turns around again." No need to say, but it didn't. I just kept losing more, and after three days I was down to almost 1000 in ICC 5-minute. I tried taking a couple of days off, but it was no use. I just couldn't do anything right anymore.
The reason was the same as always, having trouble sleeping. When you sleep 3 hours a night, it's best to step away from the board. To make a long story short, it's taken me two weeks to get into any kind of shape. Still a couple of proper nights-of-rest shy from being fully awake, but hopefully I'll get more sleep this week.
So, I've been playing just for fun, completely ignoring the horrible results. Even CTS went from 1650 down to 1580, and would've gone lower had I not stopped doing it. I was losing about 15-16 out of 20 games every day, so that's what kind of a slump we're talking about.
To get some benefit from the 'down time', I've been spending it getting used to the Dutch Leningrad variation and it's white mirror image, the Polar Bear. Both openings give very lively and tactical games, at least with my suicidal attacking tendencies. And as I've never played the Dutch before, all the positions looked just confusing and random at first, but it's all slowly making more sense now.
I've also started gathering data on my time managment, as I realized losing on time is still my worst problem in blitz. The idea is to track the amount of games I finish down on time, and hopefully reach at least a 50-50 level, the bare minimum to keep statistically up with my opponents. So every time I finish a game considerably up on time, I'll give myself a big pat on the back, even if I lost the game. So far I've even won a couple of games on time, which is a good start. But I'm still just way too slow usually.
A couple of weeks ago I hit a bad day in my blitz project. I was just about to cross over 1300, when I got stuck into a huge losing streak. And like an addict I thought "just a couple of games more, and I bet my luck turns around again." No need to say, but it didn't. I just kept losing more, and after three days I was down to almost 1000 in ICC 5-minute. I tried taking a couple of days off, but it was no use. I just couldn't do anything right anymore.
The reason was the same as always, having trouble sleeping. When you sleep 3 hours a night, it's best to step away from the board. To make a long story short, it's taken me two weeks to get into any kind of shape. Still a couple of proper nights-of-rest shy from being fully awake, but hopefully I'll get more sleep this week.
So, I've been playing just for fun, completely ignoring the horrible results. Even CTS went from 1650 down to 1580, and would've gone lower had I not stopped doing it. I was losing about 15-16 out of 20 games every day, so that's what kind of a slump we're talking about.
To get some benefit from the 'down time', I've been spending it getting used to the Dutch Leningrad variation and it's white mirror image, the Polar Bear. Both openings give very lively and tactical games, at least with my suicidal attacking tendencies. And as I've never played the Dutch before, all the positions looked just confusing and random at first, but it's all slowly making more sense now.
I've also started gathering data on my time managment, as I realized losing on time is still my worst problem in blitz. The idea is to track the amount of games I finish down on time, and hopefully reach at least a 50-50 level, the bare minimum to keep statistically up with my opponents. So every time I finish a game considerably up on time, I'll give myself a big pat on the back, even if I lost the game. So far I've even won a couple of games on time, which is a good start. But I'm still just way too slow usually.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
ICC 5-minute Blitz 1202
Another hundred broken, and it's going better all the time. Slow but steady improvement, less and less panic, less braindead blunders, less losses by getting flagged in a won position, better endgame, more reasonable openings. And I'm getting more and more sure that reasonable is the magic word here. simple, reasonable moves, avoid crazy complications, don't shy away from exchanges unless it's a really bad one.
But I'm still lousy at staying out of trouble, always drawn to that excellent crazy but very difficult move instead of the practical one. I think I should probably aim for getting into endgame as fast as possible, playing that simple, solid chess. Let the opponent trip with the complications.
ICC 5-minute: 1202, 215 games
CTS: 1643, 82692 tries, 77.6%
RHP: 1840, 223 games, wdl 152-12-65
But I'm still lousy at staying out of trouble, always drawn to that excellent crazy but very difficult move instead of the practical one. I think I should probably aim for getting into endgame as fast as possible, playing that simple, solid chess. Let the opponent trip with the complications.
ICC 5-minute: 1202, 215 games
CTS: 1643, 82692 tries, 77.6%
RHP: 1840, 223 games, wdl 152-12-65
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
ICC 5-minute Blitz 1100
Okay, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this blitz thing. Just broke 1100 for the first time after starting 5-minute blitz on ICC. That's +200 points from where I began. Now it seems I can actually win most of those 'won' games, and I don't panic nearly as much either (although there's still a lot to do on that area). From the last 20 games I've won 15 and lost only 5. Starting out it was around 15 losses for every 5 wins, so clear improvement there. And what's more important, is that none of the losses were flagged in a won position.
ICC 5-minute: 1101, 185 games played.
ICC 5-minute: 1101, 185 games played.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!
I just had a revelation: Blitz is about speed. Yeah, I know. "Who would've guessed that..." :-/ Sometimes I'm so incredibly stupid.
I keep ending a queen up, two minor pieces up, with a crushingly won endgame etc. only to lose on time. I either get flagged or throw the win because I have only 20 seconds to my opponent's 1 to 2 minutes, but those are both essentially lost because of time. I just play too slow, pure and simple.
I've tried to keep telling myself "Faster! Faster!" but I can only keep that up in the opening, and slow down right after that. I spot these Good Moves, nice combinations, and work them out. And surpisingly often I can also pull them off, winning that piece or the position. But I end up 2 minutes down on time, hence essentially lost. Often even that extra queen won't be enough then.
So, I need to stop using more time than my opponent. Before I can manage to do that consistently, it doesn't matter how much material I'm up. Move faster, take the practical move instead of complications, exchange a lot. - And after I can keep up with the clock, only then start worrying about playing better chess. Fast, basic, safe moves.
Here's a game I luckily won, but it's a perfect example of what happens. After a couple of moves I push the complications until all hell breaks loose. And I was supposed to be trying to keep it simple. How's that for a "quiet, passive 1.d4 game" by the way?
[White "wormwood"][Black "mhf"][TimeControl "300+0"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 c6 5. Nf3 d5 6. cxd5 cxd5 7. e5 Ne4 8.Qb3 Qa5 9. Bd3 b6 10. O-O Bg4 11. Nxd5 Be6 12. Bxe4 O-O 13. Nc7 Bxb3 14.Bd2 Qa4 15. axb3 Qxb3 16. Bxa8 Qxb2 17. Rfb1 Qc2 18. Rc1 Qb2 19. Rxa7 Nd7 20. Nd5 f6 21. Rxd7 fxe5 22. Nxe7+ Kh8 23. Bd5 h6 24. Nxg6+ Kh7 25. Nxf8+ Kh8 26. Ne6 Bf6 27. Be4 Qb5 28. Rc8+ Bd8 29. Rcxd8# 1-0
I keep ending a queen up, two minor pieces up, with a crushingly won endgame etc. only to lose on time. I either get flagged or throw the win because I have only 20 seconds to my opponent's 1 to 2 minutes, but those are both essentially lost because of time. I just play too slow, pure and simple.
I've tried to keep telling myself "Faster! Faster!" but I can only keep that up in the opening, and slow down right after that. I spot these Good Moves, nice combinations, and work them out. And surpisingly often I can also pull them off, winning that piece or the position. But I end up 2 minutes down on time, hence essentially lost. Often even that extra queen won't be enough then.
So, I need to stop using more time than my opponent. Before I can manage to do that consistently, it doesn't matter how much material I'm up. Move faster, take the practical move instead of complications, exchange a lot. - And after I can keep up with the clock, only then start worrying about playing better chess. Fast, basic, safe moves.
Here's a game I luckily won, but it's a perfect example of what happens. After a couple of moves I push the complications until all hell breaks loose. And I was supposed to be trying to keep it simple. How's that for a "quiet, passive 1.d4 game" by the way?
[White "wormwood"][Black "mhf"][TimeControl "300+0"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 c6 5. Nf3 d5 6. cxd5 cxd5 7. e5 Ne4 8.Qb3 Qa5 9. Bd3 b6 10. O-O Bg4 11. Nxd5 Be6 12. Bxe4 O-O 13. Nc7 Bxb3 14.Bd2 Qa4 15. axb3 Qxb3 16. Bxa8 Qxb2 17. Rfb1 Qc2 18. Rc1 Qb2 19. Rxa7 Nd7 20. Nd5 f6 21. Rxd7 fxe5 22. Nxe7+ Kh8 23. Bd5 h6 24. Nxg6+ Kh7 25. Nxf8+ Kh8 26. Ne6 Bf6 27. Be4 Qb5 28. Rc8+ Bd8 29. Rcxd8# 1-0
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
First Week Of Blitz
It turns out there's a special 5-minute variant of blitz on ICC, with automatic opponent selection (closely rated) and automatic flagging & disconnection forfeit. It also has it's own rating, which seems to be a bit harder to obtain than the regular blitz rating. At least at the lowest level where I currently am. -I was just crossing over 1200 playing far inferior blitz compared to this moment, when I discovered the 5-minute automatic player pool (It's just really handy), and I sunk like a rock to the 900's. 890 was probably the lowest point. Today I finally clawed my way back to 1000+, and it took days to accomplish. The 5-minute pool players seem to also know their openings better than players in the regular blitz pool.
Anyway, it's been a constant battle against time. In the beginning I couldn't handle it at all, scrapping openings, middlegame, endgame, and almost never beating the flag. Huge blunders left & right, and the rare game I "won" I then lost because I panicked in the haste. Now, I can mostly keep my game together up until the endgame, but often fail to end it even with a straightforward win. Missing obvious mates etc. But it's all gotten a lot better during the week, and I feel quite optimistic that I'll soon get the hang of it. I now "win" about 80% of the games, and finish about 50% of my games to an actual win. There's definite progress, but still way too many games are lost just for panicking in a won position. "Won" as in having huge material lead in the endgame, not merely positionally winning. It still doesn't matter much how well my opponents play though, the losses are almost exclusively my huge blunders.
It's a rocky road learning to survive in blitz controls. Nothing like slow chess. Nothing like CTS either.
ICC 5-minute: 1021, 83 games.
Anyway, it's been a constant battle against time. In the beginning I couldn't handle it at all, scrapping openings, middlegame, endgame, and almost never beating the flag. Huge blunders left & right, and the rare game I "won" I then lost because I panicked in the haste. Now, I can mostly keep my game together up until the endgame, but often fail to end it even with a straightforward win. Missing obvious mates etc. But it's all gotten a lot better during the week, and I feel quite optimistic that I'll soon get the hang of it. I now "win" about 80% of the games, and finish about 50% of my games to an actual win. There's definite progress, but still way too many games are lost just for panicking in a won position. "Won" as in having huge material lead in the endgame, not merely positionally winning. It still doesn't matter much how well my opponents play though, the losses are almost exclusively my huge blunders.
It's a rocky road learning to survive in blitz controls. Nothing like slow chess. Nothing like CTS either.
ICC 5-minute: 1021, 83 games.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
5 0 Blitz On ICC
I've been giving a lot of thought to my inability to survive in blitz games. From slow games I already know that it's not the strategical understanding that kills me, and I also know that tactics is my strongest point. And on CTS I outclass strong blitz players both on rating and accuracy, so it's not whipping out tactical moves fast either. What the hell can it be then?
One thing that comes to mind is experience. I've played about 200 blitz games ever, and maybe 95% of those were with time controls of around 15 minutes. Which is so slow it's almost not blitz at all. Also, when I think about how my progress has gone on CTS, slowly inching my way up through tens of thousands of problems, I begin to wonder if the same would've happened playing similar amount of blitz games.
So, now that I've subscribed to ICC I decided to test that hypothesis there. And as the regular tournament play blitz control seems to be 5 0, that's what I'm going to play. Getting used to the time control will no doubt be my biggest problem starting out, but I'm sure it'll work out after a while.
Yesterday, well last night to be exact, I then plunged into the 5 0 pool. And just as I expected, I can't handle the 5 0 control to save my life, and got massacred. I lost a lot of games on time, got mated out of the blue a couple of times, dropped a lot of material, missed wins, blundered openings, the works. Ended up with a pathetic but totally deserved rating of 1060. So, now I'll try to keep 5 0 blitzing, and we'll see if I can claw my way up as I would expect. Coincidentally, that's exactly the same rating as on CTS when I started out 1½ years ago. Hopefully there will be a similar improvement after thousands of blitz games.
RHP: 1848, 218 games played, wdl: 149-12-63.
ICC 5 0: 1060, 14 games.
One thing that comes to mind is experience. I've played about 200 blitz games ever, and maybe 95% of those were with time controls of around 15 minutes. Which is so slow it's almost not blitz at all. Also, when I think about how my progress has gone on CTS, slowly inching my way up through tens of thousands of problems, I begin to wonder if the same would've happened playing similar amount of blitz games.
So, now that I've subscribed to ICC I decided to test that hypothesis there. And as the regular tournament play blitz control seems to be 5 0, that's what I'm going to play. Getting used to the time control will no doubt be my biggest problem starting out, but I'm sure it'll work out after a while.
Yesterday, well last night to be exact, I then plunged into the 5 0 pool. And just as I expected, I can't handle the 5 0 control to save my life, and got massacred. I lost a lot of games on time, got mated out of the blue a couple of times, dropped a lot of material, missed wins, blundered openings, the works. Ended up with a pathetic but totally deserved rating of 1060. So, now I'll try to keep 5 0 blitzing, and we'll see if I can claw my way up as I would expect. Coincidentally, that's exactly the same rating as on CTS when I started out 1½ years ago. Hopefully there will be a similar improvement after thousands of blitz games.
RHP: 1848, 218 games played, wdl: 149-12-63.
ICC 5 0: 1060, 14 games.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
1650 On CTS
Another milestone reached. I just did about a hundred problems staying on the 1645-1650 level, even though I had slept only three hours last night. My eyes felt weary, but it was like the pins, skewers and double threats were flying at me, and I solved a lot of them in less than three seconds. Still, I got only 6 wrong of the last 50 problems. That's a solid 88% success rate. Weird.
I had been forcing myself to look for my own king safety first for a couple of days, which felt very awkward and difficult to maintain. It also slowed me down quite a bit, and didn't seem to make that big of a difference. So now I just went with the feeling, mostly not concentrating on the king safety. And I just flew through the variations, spotting all relevant aspects in the positions like they had big, red lights blinking on them. I hope this isn't an isolated incident.
Feeling quite tired with my CC games. I divided them in three and now try to force myself to run through a group on most days. But I've clearly overdone it, and I'll need to cut my gameload down. Once again. There's also the 7/14 Clan Leagues starting in a week or so, which will apparently land me another 18-20 games playing board two. Which will probably mean the opponents are rated 1600-2000 depending on the clan.
I don't even have much energy for the 30 30 games, so I've slowed that down as well. Not to mention CT-ART and PCT. No sense in doing them until I have the necessary energy back.
Started going through Kasparov's KID games though, which seems nice and interesting. Taking maybe 30-45 minutes a game, not trying to wreck my brain or anything. Just getting some easy fun. I'll probably be trying KID out myself on 30 30 games soon.
CTS: 1650, 77546, 77.6%
RHP: 1822
FICS standard: 1623 (1662), wdl 28-2-16
I had been forcing myself to look for my own king safety first for a couple of days, which felt very awkward and difficult to maintain. It also slowed me down quite a bit, and didn't seem to make that big of a difference. So now I just went with the feeling, mostly not concentrating on the king safety. And I just flew through the variations, spotting all relevant aspects in the positions like they had big, red lights blinking on them. I hope this isn't an isolated incident.
Feeling quite tired with my CC games. I divided them in three and now try to force myself to run through a group on most days. But I've clearly overdone it, and I'll need to cut my gameload down. Once again. There's also the 7/14 Clan Leagues starting in a week or so, which will apparently land me another 18-20 games playing board two. Which will probably mean the opponents are rated 1600-2000 depending on the clan.
I don't even have much energy for the 30 30 games, so I've slowed that down as well. Not to mention CT-ART and PCT. No sense in doing them until I have the necessary energy back.
Started going through Kasparov's KID games though, which seems nice and interesting. Taking maybe 30-45 minutes a game, not trying to wreck my brain or anything. Just getting some easy fun. I'll probably be trying KID out myself on 30 30 games soon.
CTS: 1650, 77546, 77.6%
RHP: 1822
FICS standard: 1623 (1662), wdl 28-2-16
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Kicking Ass Threshold
Another motivational post. TommyC just posted this link on RHP, How to be an expert, and the relevance of 'talent' and starting young in it. I've never believed in the concept of talent, and it now appears there's some scientific evidence to back that up. I find the graph especially hilarious.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Concrete Chess
I ran into something Rashid Ziatdinov has said about chess. It's pretty much what I've been thinking, when I've seen people analyse games far more convincingly than I ever could, yet they're rated hundreds of points lower than I, so I thought I'd post it here.
"Students sometimes lament that they cannot apply their knowledge during a game. They cannot apply their "knowledge" because they really don't have any knowledge! What they have instead are shortcuts to chess language, what I call "chess magic spelling" (like "open the position if you are more developed", "the two bishop advantage", "don't move the queen out too early", etc.). These shortcuts are useless generalities. Chess can only be expressed with concrete variations. This often-ignored concept is so crucial to mastering chess that it bears repeating with emphasis: chess can only be expressed with concrete variations!
Imagine a musician who had never heard music, only descriptions and theories of music; Imagine a dancer who had never physically performed a pleat or twirl, only read instructions on how to dance. How is a chess player who relies on ideas expressed in words and theories any less ridiculous? A musician makes music, a dancer dances, and a chess player calculates variations!"
Although Ziatdinov seems a bit, umm, 'passionate', even crazy, I do think he has a strong point here. Procedural knowledge instead of theoretical knowledge. And the only way to get there is to get your hands dirty, sweat blood, and slam down variations. It doesn't matter if you were born a Kasparov or a Fischer, hard work for a decade or two is the only way to get there. Talk is cheap, 'BAM! BAM! BAM!' is what counts. :)
Now I'm gonna go eat a raw, bloody steak, chug some beer, burb, and get back to slamming down endgame variations. BAM! BAM! BAM!
"Students sometimes lament that they cannot apply their knowledge during a game. They cannot apply their "knowledge" because they really don't have any knowledge! What they have instead are shortcuts to chess language, what I call "chess magic spelling" (like "open the position if you are more developed", "the two bishop advantage", "don't move the queen out too early", etc.). These shortcuts are useless generalities. Chess can only be expressed with concrete variations. This often-ignored concept is so crucial to mastering chess that it bears repeating with emphasis: chess can only be expressed with concrete variations!
Imagine a musician who had never heard music, only descriptions and theories of music; Imagine a dancer who had never physically performed a pleat or twirl, only read instructions on how to dance. How is a chess player who relies on ideas expressed in words and theories any less ridiculous? A musician makes music, a dancer dances, and a chess player calculates variations!"
Although Ziatdinov seems a bit, umm, 'passionate', even crazy, I do think he has a strong point here. Procedural knowledge instead of theoretical knowledge. And the only way to get there is to get your hands dirty, sweat blood, and slam down variations. It doesn't matter if you were born a Kasparov or a Fischer, hard work for a decade or two is the only way to get there. Talk is cheap, 'BAM! BAM! BAM!' is what counts. :)
Now I'm gonna go eat a raw, bloody steak, chug some beer, burb, and get back to slamming down endgame variations. BAM! BAM! BAM!
Thursday, February 08, 2007
CT-ART Level 20 Complete
After the initial enthiusiasm about CT-ART, I haven't been much on it. Today I just finished level 20 after a break, that makes it 396 problems solved. I've tried to do it only when I'm not tired, concentrating on exhaustive calculation, but even one tired session brings the success percentage down quite a lot. It's really hard to fight the natural laziness and jump the gun when you're tired. But I'll try to do better again on level 30.
first round:
level 10: 96%
level 20: 88%
rating: 2007
I've also looked into the basic endgame modules of Personal Chess Trainer, which seems quite nice. Of course the interface is crap as usual, and its inability to understand anything but the one pre-set 'correct line' annoys the hell out of me. But at least there's a nice set of basic endgame problems to drill and get the theoretical knowledge transformed into procedural knowledge.
Otherwise I've been playing 30 30 games on FICS almost every day. Mostly it's been going well, but yesterday I messed a game like a total idiot. First I declined material on the 10th move because I got greedy trying to pressure his king in the center, then got into trouble because of the previous retreat of the pinning g5-knight which gave him a pawnstorm. I was looking for the flashy win, of course, the cardinal sin in a winning position. Then a long period of adequate defending, only to succumb into a fork, only to insanely drop the queen right after. Although the end was humiliating, I'm even more pissed off about allowing that kingside pawn storm. My only hope is that the painful mistake will burn into my brain, never to be forgotten. Here's that miserable excuse for a game:
[White "wormstar"]
[Black "Versiano"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1628"]
[BlackElo "1575"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Bg5 Bg7 5. e4 d6 6. Qf3 Nc6 7. Rd1 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9. Bg3 Nd7 10. d5 Bxc3+ 11. bxc3 exd5 12. cxd5 Ne7 13. Bc4 Ng6 14.Bb3 b6 15. Ne2 Qe7 16. O-O Nc5 17. Rd4 h5 18. h3 g4 19. hxg4 Bxg4 20. Qe3 h4 21. Bh2 O-O-O 22. f3 Bd7 23. Ra1 h3 24. g3 Rdg8 25. Kf2 Ne5 26. Ke1 Qf6 27. Nf4 Kb7 28. Bc2 Qg5 29. a4 a5 30. Bd3 Nb3 31. Rb1 Nxd4 32. Qxd4 Nxf3+{wormstar resigns}0-1
Let that be a lesson for me.
first round:
level 10: 96%
level 20: 88%
rating: 2007
I've also looked into the basic endgame modules of Personal Chess Trainer, which seems quite nice. Of course the interface is crap as usual, and its inability to understand anything but the one pre-set 'correct line' annoys the hell out of me. But at least there's a nice set of basic endgame problems to drill and get the theoretical knowledge transformed into procedural knowledge.
Otherwise I've been playing 30 30 games on FICS almost every day. Mostly it's been going well, but yesterday I messed a game like a total idiot. First I declined material on the 10th move because I got greedy trying to pressure his king in the center, then got into trouble because of the previous retreat of the pinning g5-knight which gave him a pawnstorm. I was looking for the flashy win, of course, the cardinal sin in a winning position. Then a long period of adequate defending, only to succumb into a fork, only to insanely drop the queen right after. Although the end was humiliating, I'm even more pissed off about allowing that kingside pawn storm. My only hope is that the painful mistake will burn into my brain, never to be forgotten. Here's that miserable excuse for a game:
[White "wormstar"]
[Black "Versiano"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1628"]
[BlackElo "1575"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Bg5 Bg7 5. e4 d6 6. Qf3 Nc6 7. Rd1 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9. Bg3 Nd7 10. d5 Bxc3+ 11. bxc3 exd5 12. cxd5 Ne7 13. Bc4 Ng6 14.Bb3 b6 15. Ne2 Qe7 16. O-O Nc5 17. Rd4 h5 18. h3 g4 19. hxg4 Bxg4 20. Qe3 h4 21. Bh2 O-O-O 22. f3 Bd7 23. Ra1 h3 24. g3 Rdg8 25. Kf2 Ne5 26. Ke1 Qf6 27. Nf4 Kb7 28. Bc2 Qg5 29. a4 a5 30. Bd3 Nb3 31. Rb1 Nxd4 32. Qxd4 Nxf3+{wormstar resigns}0-1
Let that be a lesson for me.
Monday, February 05, 2007
"The Harder I Practice, The Luckier I Get"
This was one of those days when you can't do anything wrong, and your opponents get the karmic counterpunch. The race is long, and it all evens out in the end, but today was my day.
[White "BTAT"]
[Black "wormstar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1821"]
[BlackElo "1562"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. f3 e6 3. e4 c5 4. Be3 Nc6 5. Bb5 cxd4 6. Bxd4 Qa5+ 7. Nc3 Bb4 8. Ne2 Qxb5 9. a3 Bxc3+ 10. Bxc3 Qg5 11. g4 O-O 12. Qd6 Ne8 13. Qd3 d5 14.h4 dxe4 15. Qxe4 Qd5 16. Qe3 b6 17. Nf4 Qc5 18. Qd2 Ba6 19. O-O-O Rd8 20.Qh2 Rxd1+ 21. Rxd1 Qe3+ 22. Kb1 Qxf3 23. Bb4 Qxd1+{BTAT resigns} 0-1
update:
I just hammered 1646 on CTS, with a 85.7% session. This is getting ridiculous.
FICS standard: 1620
CTS: 1646
[White "BTAT"]
[Black "wormstar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1821"]
[BlackElo "1562"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. f3 e6 3. e4 c5 4. Be3 Nc6 5. Bb5 cxd4 6. Bxd4 Qa5+ 7. Nc3 Bb4 8. Ne2 Qxb5 9. a3 Bxc3+ 10. Bxc3 Qg5 11. g4 O-O 12. Qd6 Ne8 13. Qd3 d5 14.h4 dxe4 15. Qxe4 Qd5 16. Qe3 b6 17. Nf4 Qc5 18. Qd2 Ba6 19. O-O-O Rd8 20.Qh2 Rxd1+ 21. Rxd1 Qe3+ 22. Kb1 Qxf3 23. Bb4 Qxd1+{BTAT resigns} 0-1
update:
I just hammered 1646 on CTS, with a 85.7% session. This is getting ridiculous.
FICS standard: 1620
CTS: 1646
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Standard Games On FICS
I've finally started playing standard games on FICS, after endless procrastination. It's been a full year since I played a couple of them, in my 'chess infancy' around christmas 2005. It didn't go very well, and I never got rid of being provisional.
After a couple of miserable first games, during which I played just as if I had never seen a board before, I started to get used to the pace. I've been playing 30 30 games, which seems to be a good compromise between using the whole day to a game and blitz which is just too fast for me at this time. It feels very good, and finally feel like I can fully apply the skills I've acquired playing CC for a little over a year. Nothing like the humiliating implosive disasters my blitz games have been. Today I even got past the 1500 mark, although I'm still provisional. But the people & games I've played seem to indicate I should have no problems reaching 1600's. I'll try to keep playing a couple of 30 30 games every week, and we'll see just how it turns out.
And it's also really refreshing that games start & end in one session, compared to the weeks and months of correspondence chess. You also get a better feel for the game as a whole.
RHP: 1834, 217 games, wdl 144-11-62.
FICS standard: 1518p
FICS blitz: 1226
After a couple of miserable first games, during which I played just as if I had never seen a board before, I started to get used to the pace. I've been playing 30 30 games, which seems to be a good compromise between using the whole day to a game and blitz which is just too fast for me at this time. It feels very good, and finally feel like I can fully apply the skills I've acquired playing CC for a little over a year. Nothing like the humiliating implosive disasters my blitz games have been. Today I even got past the 1500 mark, although I'm still provisional. But the people & games I've played seem to indicate I should have no problems reaching 1600's. I'll try to keep playing a couple of 30 30 games every week, and we'll see just how it turns out.
And it's also really refreshing that games start & end in one session, compared to the weeks and months of correspondence chess. You also get a better feel for the game as a whole.
RHP: 1834, 217 games, wdl 144-11-62.
FICS standard: 1518p
FICS blitz: 1226
Sunday, January 21, 2007
1805 On Red Hot Pawn
Wupee! Finally there. Well, at least for a while. No doubt I'll fall back under 1800 soon, but the first time you break an even hundred is always a cause for celebration. The mental barrier has been broken, and now I'll just have to establish my rating above 1800 for good. It took me 1½ years, 202 rated CC games and 73 882 problems on CTS to get there. It's time to set the sights for 1900.
CTS has been going extremely well also, after I stopped daily training. During the last two weeks I've hit another bumb, and risen up to around 1630 (1639). I think it's because I've been at it really hard the last six months, averaging at about 200-300 problems a day, so now that I've taken it easy I'm more alert and less exhausted.
I've been slacking a bit with CT-ART, mainly because I don't want to do it tired. I would just start guessing, which is the exact opposite of what I'm trying to gain from it. Which is exhaustive and complete calculation training. But I'll get back to it as soon as I feel more alert.
RHP: 1805, 202 games, wdl 134-11-61.
CTS: 1621 (1639), 73 931 problems, 77.7%
CTS has been going extremely well also, after I stopped daily training. During the last two weeks I've hit another bumb, and risen up to around 1630 (1639). I think it's because I've been at it really hard the last six months, averaging at about 200-300 problems a day, so now that I've taken it easy I'm more alert and less exhausted.
I've been slacking a bit with CT-ART, mainly because I don't want to do it tired. I would just start guessing, which is the exact opposite of what I'm trying to gain from it. Which is exhaustive and complete calculation training. But I'll get back to it as soon as I feel more alert.
RHP: 1805, 202 games, wdl 134-11-61.
CTS: 1621 (1639), 73 931 problems, 77.7%
Sunday, January 07, 2007
The Year 2006 And Goals For 2007
I guess it's time to make a quick summary on the year 2006. Looking back, chess improvement went reasonably well, although I didn't get around to playing standard games. Other than that, I pretty much reached my goals for the year. broke 1600 on CTS, 1200 in FICS blitz, and would've even broken the 1800 on RHP without the 40 swindled points I mentioned in my previous post. So, all in all, things went pretty well.
For the year 2007 I'm making some minor changes in my training program. Tactics will no longer be the primary training I'll be using my efforts on, instead I'm concentrating on endgames. I'll still be doing some CTS just for fun and CT-ART for calculation exercises, but the bulk of my time will be devoted to mastering the material in the 3 Karsten Müller endgame dvds I acquired. I have watched through the dvds 1&2, and now I'm drilling all the examples against fritz until I can instantly recognize and perform the necessary procedures. I'm now drilling the pawn endgames, and needless to say but it has made all the difference. I'm pretty sure all of my explicit knowledge of the related theory was almost useless, as in reality I had to actually calculate K+P vs. K. Now I recognize the critical squares etc. instantly, and can tell with great certainty if the situation is won/drawn in 20 moves, and what needs to be done to make it so. Suddenly, the deadly boring endgames have actually become fun! It's almost like magic when you know the theory, and know without calculation that no move exist for the opponent to break the theory, no matter how he answers.
Goals for the year 2007: RHP 1900, FICS blitz 1500, and let's say 1600 for FICS standard if I (hopefully) get around to playing standard games. I realize the standard goal isn't exactly on par with the other goals, but I'm going to work first on my blitz, and only then standard if there's time/energy.
For the year 2007 I'm making some minor changes in my training program. Tactics will no longer be the primary training I'll be using my efforts on, instead I'm concentrating on endgames. I'll still be doing some CTS just for fun and CT-ART for calculation exercises, but the bulk of my time will be devoted to mastering the material in the 3 Karsten Müller endgame dvds I acquired. I have watched through the dvds 1&2, and now I'm drilling all the examples against fritz until I can instantly recognize and perform the necessary procedures. I'm now drilling the pawn endgames, and needless to say but it has made all the difference. I'm pretty sure all of my explicit knowledge of the related theory was almost useless, as in reality I had to actually calculate K+P vs. K. Now I recognize the critical squares etc. instantly, and can tell with great certainty if the situation is won/drawn in 20 moves, and what needs to be done to make it so. Suddenly, the deadly boring endgames have actually become fun! It's almost like magic when you know the theory, and know without calculation that no move exist for the opponent to break the theory, no matter how he answers.
Goals for the year 2007: RHP 1900, FICS blitz 1500, and let's say 1600 for FICS standard if I (hopefully) get around to playing standard games. I realize the standard goal isn't exactly on par with the other goals, but I'm going to work first on my blitz, and only then standard if there's time/energy.
Monday, December 18, 2006
CT-ART 3.0 And A Status Summary
I finally got CT-ART, and have been starting with the level 10 problems. As usual with any chess programs, the interface is quite amateurish and has a lot of room for improvement. But I'm getting used to it, and I guess it gets the job done... The problems are quite easy, of course, but I've still managed to get 2 wrong from the first 79. I'm going to concentrate on calculation with them, an area that I'm having serious problems with, despite the extensive drilling on CTS.
I also ordered Karsten Müller's endgame dvds 1&3, and will start drilling them as soon as they'll arrive. I'm also continuing the daily dose of blitz, and hopefully get the hang of it at some point. Now, I just keep doing ridiculous mistakes I didn't even think I was capable of anymore, and the embarrassing rating in the 1100's descibe exactly how much I suck at blitz. In CC I got swindled out of about 40 points by a 1900-2000 rated guy who mass resigned around 100 games at once, leaving me with a whopping 10 points for the two games I won against him. I would've hit 1800 otherwise, but the 40 missed points combined with a typical missplayed ending against a 1600 have dropped me back down to 1735. Well, live & learn.
CT-ART update:
day 1: level 10: 96%, level 20: 90% 61/286 done.
I also ordered Karsten Müller's endgame dvds 1&3, and will start drilling them as soon as they'll arrive. I'm also continuing the daily dose of blitz, and hopefully get the hang of it at some point. Now, I just keep doing ridiculous mistakes I didn't even think I was capable of anymore, and the embarrassing rating in the 1100's descibe exactly how much I suck at blitz. In CC I got swindled out of about 40 points by a 1900-2000 rated guy who mass resigned around 100 games at once, leaving me with a whopping 10 points for the two games I won against him. I would've hit 1800 otherwise, but the 40 missed points combined with a typical missplayed ending against a 1600 have dropped me back down to 1735. Well, live & learn.
CT-ART update:
day 1: level 10: 96%, level 20: 90% 61/286 done.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Mating With KBB vs. K
This one I never even tried until a couple of days ago, as I thought it would we quite trivial to line up the bishops and force the king out of space. But now that I've actually drilled it, I realize there was a good chance to stalemate in time trouble, and that the efficient mating sequence actually demands some technique.
The general idea is to drive the defending king into any corner, and mate him. It's easiest done setting the bishop pair side by side as close to the defender as possible, confining him into a triangular area against the edge. Then you just move your king up, take a couple of squares and squeeze a diagonal off every time the defender retreats, until it's against the edge. Then you pick a corner, and force the king towards it by blocking it from behind with the bishops.
In the corner, confine it against either edge, line up the bishops to take the final squares with check, lose a tempo if needed, then check and mate.
A blitzed example against Chessmaster 9000:
[White "wormwood"]
[Black "Chessmaster"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Setup "1"]
[FEN "7K/3B4/8/8/8/2B2k2/8/8 w - - 0 1"]
1.Be6 Ke4 2.Bf6 Kd3 3.Kg7 Ke4 4.Kg6 Ke3 5.Kg5 Kd2 6.Kf4 Kd3 7.Be5 Ke2 8.Bd5 Kd3 9.Kf3 Kd2 10.Be4 Kc1 11.Bd4 Kd2 12.Kf2 Kc1 13.Ke3 Kd1 14.Bb2 Ke1 15.Bc2 Kf1 16.Kf3 Kg1 17.Bc3 Kh2 18.Bf5 Kg1 19.Kg3 Kh1 20.Bd3 Kg1 21.Bd4+ Kh1 22.Be4# 1-0
The general idea is to drive the defending king into any corner, and mate him. It's easiest done setting the bishop pair side by side as close to the defender as possible, confining him into a triangular area against the edge. Then you just move your king up, take a couple of squares and squeeze a diagonal off every time the defender retreats, until it's against the edge. Then you pick a corner, and force the king towards it by blocking it from behind with the bishops.
In the corner, confine it against either edge, line up the bishops to take the final squares with check, lose a tempo if needed, then check and mate.
A blitzed example against Chessmaster 9000:
[White "wormwood"]
[Black "Chessmaster"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Setup "1"]
[FEN "7K/3B4/8/8/8/2B2k2/8/8 w - - 0 1"]
1.Be6 Ke4 2.Bf6 Kd3 3.Kg7 Ke4 4.Kg6 Ke3 5.Kg5 Kd2 6.Kf4 Kd3 7.Be5 Ke2 8.Bd5 Kd3 9.Kf3 Kd2 10.Be4 Kc1 11.Bd4 Kd2 12.Kf2 Kc1 13.Ke3 Kd1 14.Bb2 Ke1 15.Bc2 Kf1 16.Kf3 Kg1 17.Bc3 Kh2 18.Bf5 Kg1 19.Kg3 Kh1 20.Bd3 Kg1 21.Bd4+ Kh1 22.Be4# 1-0
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Mating With KNB vs. K
I thought I'd make a separate post on all cases I'm going to tackle, so here is the first one. Maybe it'll even help someone else, although I'm probably not going to get overly detailed where the matters are trivial to myself.
I've tried to learn KBN several times before, so I was not completely new to the ideas behind it. Drive the enemy king to the edge, force it to the corner the color of your bishop, and mate it. Sounds simple, but in practice the king just kept slipping away before I could get it into the right corner. Once in the correct corner, the mate is pretty straightforward after some thinking.
Also the driving to the edge -part is relatively easy, just 'oppose' the enemy king with your king, restrict with K&B until it has no legal moves but to retreat towards edge, and invade all the files/ranks it gives you until it's against the edge. It helps to remember that the enemy king's best defence is to first stay in the middle of the board, and that failing to retreat towards the wrong coloured corner. So these are the directions you want to block. In practice this also means that it's usually easiest to drive it towards the wrong corner to begin with. Another tip is to avoid placing a piece between the kings (sometimes it works though), so that you'll be able to snatch the files the enemy gives you without letting the him slip away. I didn't memorize any specific patterns for this phase, but after some drilling against Chessmaster it became instinctive and easy, and I'm now able to do that in a bullet game with no thinking whatsoever.
The thing that kept me baffled until I got some tips from Dragon Fire and Varenka on RHP, was the part where you drive the king towards the mating corner along the edge. The beginning is pretty easy, you just keep the enemy king against the edge with your king, build an additional 'wall' with the knight when needed, and block from 'behind' with the bishop so the king can't return. At some points you'll also need to lose a tempo with the bishop to get the enemy king where you want it.
But around the middle of the edge, you need to let the enemy king slip off towards the centre to herd it into the right corner. A sort of 'leap of faith' is required, which of course turns out to force the stray king back against the edge, when properly executed. The trick is to form a mating net from the king onward, only it's not possible to close the gap all the way to the edge, just up to a single square shy from it. It also looks like the net leaks badly at first glance, so it's a bit hard to visualize, but the bishop has time to block the remaining escape squares even farther to the middle, forcing the king back towards the edge. After that, it's again relatively easy to complete the journey towards the mating corner. -All this I pretty much worked out by myself, but there was one final trick that's needed for the net to hold: You need to start building it the knight one square from the edge, instead of moving it to the centre as seems intuitive. So Nb5! instead of Ne6 if you're driving the king from a1 to a8. After that, the king might try heading towards c8 which looks like a way out, but the bishop pounces over to the opposite flank to block it just in time. The net is still a bit sparse, and the king can turn back and try another break for the freedom via c6, but again the bishop is on time and the net closes up permanently. Nowhere to go but back towards the edge with all hope lost.
There is one more final little 'leap of faith' where you hang the knight for one move on Nb7+ to force the enemy king up, but it's easy to see and the attacking king simply moves one square up to defend the knight as the enemy king gets on striking distance.
Then it's only the mating itself left, so you just restrict the enemy king into two final squares, position the knight so that you can take the second to last square with check at will, lose a tempo with bishop to avoid stalemate if needed, then check and mate.
I personally like to set up a fixed position in the wrong corner to start the cattle drive, so I'll have a nice fixed series of 20 or so forcing moves up to the mate that I can blitz through. It's not the fastest way, and requires losing a tempo here and there, but it's systematic and reliable. There's really not many points in which the defending king has a choice, so it's pretty easy to master after the initial learning phase. maybe an hour or two of continuous drilling.
Here's an example I blitzed against Chessmaster, moving immediately after it did. It's not the fastest way to do it, but it works.
[White "wormwood"]
[Black "Chessmaster 9000"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Setup "1"]
[FEN "8/3B4/8/5K2/3k4/8/8/5N2 w - - 0 1"]
1.Ng3 Ke3 2.Bc6 Kd4 3.Kf4 Kc5 4.Bf3 Kd4 5.Nf5+ Kc3 6.Ke3 Kc2 7.Nd4+ Kc3 8.Be2 Kb4 9.Ne6 Ka3 10.Kd3 Kb3 11.Nc5+ Kb4 12.Kd4 Ka3 13.Kc3 Ka2 14.Bd1 Kb1 15.Nd3 Ka2 16.Bc2 Ka3 17.Nc5 Ka2 18.Nb3 Ka3 19.Bb1 Ka4 20.Nd4 Ka5 21.Kc4 Kb6 22.Nb5 Kb7 23.Bf5 Kc6 24.Be6 Kb6 25.Bd5 Ka5 26.Kc5 Ka4 27.Bc4 Ka5 28.Bb3 Ka6 29.Nd6 Ka5 30.Nb7+ Ka6 31.Kc6 Ka7 32.Bc4 Kb8 33.Nd6 Ka7 34.Kc7 Ka8 35.Bb5 Ka7 36.Nc8+ Ka8 37.Bc6# 1-0
I've tried to learn KBN several times before, so I was not completely new to the ideas behind it. Drive the enemy king to the edge, force it to the corner the color of your bishop, and mate it. Sounds simple, but in practice the king just kept slipping away before I could get it into the right corner. Once in the correct corner, the mate is pretty straightforward after some thinking.
Also the driving to the edge -part is relatively easy, just 'oppose' the enemy king with your king, restrict with K&B until it has no legal moves but to retreat towards edge, and invade all the files/ranks it gives you until it's against the edge. It helps to remember that the enemy king's best defence is to first stay in the middle of the board, and that failing to retreat towards the wrong coloured corner. So these are the directions you want to block. In practice this also means that it's usually easiest to drive it towards the wrong corner to begin with. Another tip is to avoid placing a piece between the kings (sometimes it works though), so that you'll be able to snatch the files the enemy gives you without letting the him slip away. I didn't memorize any specific patterns for this phase, but after some drilling against Chessmaster it became instinctive and easy, and I'm now able to do that in a bullet game with no thinking whatsoever.
The thing that kept me baffled until I got some tips from Dragon Fire and Varenka on RHP, was the part where you drive the king towards the mating corner along the edge. The beginning is pretty easy, you just keep the enemy king against the edge with your king, build an additional 'wall' with the knight when needed, and block from 'behind' with the bishop so the king can't return. At some points you'll also need to lose a tempo with the bishop to get the enemy king where you want it.
But around the middle of the edge, you need to let the enemy king slip off towards the centre to herd it into the right corner. A sort of 'leap of faith' is required, which of course turns out to force the stray king back against the edge, when properly executed. The trick is to form a mating net from the king onward, only it's not possible to close the gap all the way to the edge, just up to a single square shy from it. It also looks like the net leaks badly at first glance, so it's a bit hard to visualize, but the bishop has time to block the remaining escape squares even farther to the middle, forcing the king back towards the edge. After that, it's again relatively easy to complete the journey towards the mating corner. -All this I pretty much worked out by myself, but there was one final trick that's needed for the net to hold: You need to start building it the knight one square from the edge, instead of moving it to the centre as seems intuitive. So Nb5! instead of Ne6 if you're driving the king from a1 to a8. After that, the king might try heading towards c8 which looks like a way out, but the bishop pounces over to the opposite flank to block it just in time. The net is still a bit sparse, and the king can turn back and try another break for the freedom via c6, but again the bishop is on time and the net closes up permanently. Nowhere to go but back towards the edge with all hope lost.
There is one more final little 'leap of faith' where you hang the knight for one move on Nb7+ to force the enemy king up, but it's easy to see and the attacking king simply moves one square up to defend the knight as the enemy king gets on striking distance.
Then it's only the mating itself left, so you just restrict the enemy king into two final squares, position the knight so that you can take the second to last square with check at will, lose a tempo with bishop to avoid stalemate if needed, then check and mate.
I personally like to set up a fixed position in the wrong corner to start the cattle drive, so I'll have a nice fixed series of 20 or so forcing moves up to the mate that I can blitz through. It's not the fastest way, and requires losing a tempo here and there, but it's systematic and reliable. There's really not many points in which the defending king has a choice, so it's pretty easy to master after the initial learning phase. maybe an hour or two of continuous drilling.
Here's an example I blitzed against Chessmaster, moving immediately after it did. It's not the fastest way to do it, but it works.
[White "wormwood"]
[Black "Chessmaster 9000"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Setup "1"]
[FEN "8/3B4/8/5K2/3k4/8/8/5N2 w - - 0 1"]
1.Ng3 Ke3 2.Bc6 Kd4 3.Kf4 Kc5 4.Bf3 Kd4 5.Nf5+ Kc3 6.Ke3 Kc2 7.Nd4+ Kc3 8.Be2 Kb4 9.Ne6 Ka3 10.Kd3 Kb3 11.Nc5+ Kb4 12.Kd4 Ka3 13.Kc3 Ka2 14.Bd1 Kb1 15.Nd3 Ka2 16.Bc2 Ka3 17.Nc5 Ka2 18.Nb3 Ka3 19.Bb1 Ka4 20.Nd4 Ka5 21.Kc4 Kb6 22.Nb5 Kb7 23.Bf5 Kc6 24.Be6 Kb6 25.Bd5 Ka5 26.Kc5 Ka4 27.Bc4 Ka5 28.Bb3 Ka6 29.Nd6 Ka5 30.Nb7+ Ka6 31.Kc6 Ka7 32.Bc4 Kb8 33.Nd6 Ka7 34.Kc7 Ka8 35.Bb5 Ka7 36.Nc8+ Ka8 37.Bc6# 1-0
Basic Endgames
Now that I have reached 1600 on CTS, I'm finally redirecting my main efforts from tactics to the area I have neglected most since I started chess 1½ years ago: The basic endgames. -The plan is to work my way up from the very basics to at least the fundamental rook endings, and probably a bit further. The study plan is to go through Karsten Müller's endgame dvds I, II and III, and drill the cases against fritz until I can blitz them through from any relevant starting position with no problems.
I'm not completely sure I'm going to get the first dvd though, as I already know a lot of the material. But not all, and there's probably quite a lot of useful commentary on it as well, so maybe I'll get it after all. But for now, I'm just gonna seek similar free material and work on that.
I'm beginning with the basic mates/draws I haven't yet mastered. KNB, KBB, KR vs. KN etc. The first one being the KNB, which may be quite irrelevant to practical endings as I might never face it, but I think of it as part of the craft and a useful lesson on piece coordination and board vision.
I'm not completely sure I'm going to get the first dvd though, as I already know a lot of the material. But not all, and there's probably quite a lot of useful commentary on it as well, so maybe I'll get it after all. But for now, I'm just gonna seek similar free material and work on that.
I'm beginning with the basic mates/draws I haven't yet mastered. KNB, KBB, KR vs. KN etc. The first one being the KNB, which may be quite irrelevant to practical endings as I might never face it, but I think of it as part of the craft and a useful lesson on piece coordination and board vision.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Blitzkrieg Pop!
I finally started playing blitz on FICS to get more experience and routine. I'm trying to play at least one 7 10 game (that's about 14 minutes total) a day, and go through them with light analysis. As before, I suck at blitz like an army of nuclear powered vacuum cleaners.
The openings go pretty well though, I usually get good activity and all the proper development moves seem to come quite instinctively. Clearly playing CC and using databases pay off. - Middlegame, I tend to reach crushing positions, only to throw it all away with horrible blundering. Endgames, well, I suck. But then again, I suck at endgames in CC as well, and get killed by people 200 pts lower, so that's not a big surprise. Actually I've done better than I had imagined in the few endgames I've had so far.
But it's all slowly coming together. After a couple of days blitz feels a lot less chaotic, and I've actually risen 100 points in that time. I even broke 1200 for the first time today. Got all bigheaded of course and took a couple of games against some 1400's. Needless to say, I got my ass swiftly handed back to me. It was clear those guys just had way more mileage under their belt, there really wasn't much of a contest there. But I also drew a 1300, with lots of missed opportunities to win. It's not like they played better chess, they're just making less idiotic blunders. So I'm sure it'll be okay after I've played some 100-200 games and gotten used to the fast pace.
No more 'fear of success' either, and I also think the losses have done wonders to the way I handle defeats.
FICS: br 1193 (1205), sr still 1380p as I haven't played standards this year.
The openings go pretty well though, I usually get good activity and all the proper development moves seem to come quite instinctively. Clearly playing CC and using databases pay off. - Middlegame, I tend to reach crushing positions, only to throw it all away with horrible blundering. Endgames, well, I suck. But then again, I suck at endgames in CC as well, and get killed by people 200 pts lower, so that's not a big surprise. Actually I've done better than I had imagined in the few endgames I've had so far.
But it's all slowly coming together. After a couple of days blitz feels a lot less chaotic, and I've actually risen 100 points in that time. I even broke 1200 for the first time today. Got all bigheaded of course and took a couple of games against some 1400's. Needless to say, I got my ass swiftly handed back to me. It was clear those guys just had way more mileage under their belt, there really wasn't much of a contest there. But I also drew a 1300, with lots of missed opportunities to win. It's not like they played better chess, they're just making less idiotic blunders. So I'm sure it'll be okay after I've played some 100-200 games and gotten used to the fast pace.
No more 'fear of success' either, and I also think the losses have done wonders to the way I handle defeats.
FICS: br 1193 (1205), sr still 1380p as I haven't played standards this year.
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