tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62142684364721857482024-03-14T07:59:17.980-07:00OMGChessAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-33096976819555857332016-03-18T14:23:00.005-07:002016-03-18T14:23:39.769-07:00Arkansas Open This Weekend<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tomorrow is the annual Arkansas Open chess tournament in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I will be finally updating this blog with some chess content. While we wait, here are some pictures of my finished chess boards since I never posted any!</span><div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-30462917007033841922016-01-06T19:09:00.001-08:002016-01-06T19:09:40.682-08:00Progress Part 3!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho3ZdyD1PruDwzcCXoeWQB0gX9zmVnyn5xyeoL9L0wqVhgNcE6BJhu3-IbQ7VwL2P2Kz7u-hgUHRutBh0cx-oCkwefncW_sVWVUra0-WPxxOFVwMiSJIvwuyVTb78yijlnpQYpskARL0dn/s1600/IMG_20160103_193021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho3ZdyD1PruDwzcCXoeWQB0gX9zmVnyn5xyeoL9L0wqVhgNcE6BJhu3-IbQ7VwL2P2Kz7u-hgUHRutBh0cx-oCkwefncW_sVWVUra0-WPxxOFVwMiSJIvwuyVTb78yijlnpQYpskARL0dn/s320/IMG_20160103_193021.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Thrilled with the red one. There are a couple of minor paint bleeds, but they are pretty easily fixable. I've already fixed one and after the paint dries, I will fix the other one. Then onto the protective coating of polycrilic.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-91295606091235765102016-01-01T18:54:00.001-08:002016-01-01T18:58:25.477-08:00Progress Pics Part 2Finished up the white squares portion of the paint job on the green and the red boards. No time to do too much since I was leaving town to visit family and barely got this done. Threw some pieces on the boards and didn't notice until too late that I had both(!!) boards oriented incorrectly. No time to fix it so just snapped the pics and then had to run. Literally barely got these taken at all so don't be too hard on me for being an idiot and setting them up wrong.<br />
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Really happy with these so far. The black borders should improve them a lot, too.<br />
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The green board (2.25" squares) will have a thicker black border I think.<br />
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If the orientation really bugs you, here is a mirror image!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-23201884398467843602015-12-31T11:15:00.001-08:002015-12-31T11:15:14.353-08:00New Chess Board ProjectI've been kicking this idea around for awhile, now. Last night I bit the bullet and went to Home Depot for a few supplies to get started. My last chess board project featured a tabletop with two chessboards painted on, detailed earlier on this blog. I wanted to follow it up with something a little more useful, but still unique. I hit upon the idea of a chess board on both sides, top and bottom, of a piece of wood. The chess boards would be different colors so that before a game, one could choose what colors to play with.<br />
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I recently got a chess set for Christmas that turned out to be a little larger than what I like to be comfortable on a 2.25" square board. It still works ok, but I think it would be better on a 2 3/8" board. I didn't want to make my new project that size because that would mean only that one set would work with it. So I decided to compromise. I would make two separate double boards, one with the pair of boards having 2.25" squares, and the other having 2.375" squares. I also decided that I wanted to try a red color with my new set, so one of the two colors on that board would be red. I would decide on the color to go on the bottom of that board based on which of the two other colors on the other board I liked best. I had decided on a green and a blue for that board. Below are the mock-ups of the layout and approximate colors for the boards. Board one would have 2.25" squares on both the top side and bottom side. One of the sides would be the blue and one would be the green. Board two would have 2.375" squares on both the top side and bottom side. One of the sides would be the red and the other side would be decided between either the green or the blue.<br />
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So, again, last night I bought all the supplies and put a couple of coats of the main colors on one side of each board. I chose green and red to start. After drying all night, I got out a yardstick and pencil and started making the grid for the board. 2 3/8" squares on the red and 2 1/4" squares on the green. I have to wait until tonight to tape it up and start painting the light squares, so here is my first progress picture. Here is the red board. The grid is drawn on lightly in pencil, and I put my new Zagreb 59 chess set on it to preview the color contrasts and spacing. I'm really happy with the way it looks so far and can't wait for the next step!</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-73940208473945693042015-09-27T16:22:00.001-07:002015-09-27T16:22:18.152-07:00More Chess Board AestheticsSome of my music students "discovered" I had a blog and a Tumblr account this weekend. They were laughing at me for posting pretty chess board colors. I had a short discussion with them about the importance of chess board aesthetics, after which two things were confirmed to them: 1) I actually do care a lot about chess board aesthetics, and 2) they have a really strange music teacher. I'd like to think they had confirmed that chess board aesthetics are important, too, but I'm not as sure of that one.<br />
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I brought up my "nightmare" chess board to them and told them I had a picture of it somewhere, but I wasn't sure where. It's a stock photo of an absolute abomination. It ticks all the boxes of horrendousness for me:<br />
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[x] Solid black pieces on solid black squares<br />
[x] Solid white pieces on solid white squares<br />
[x] Pieces way too big for squares<br />
[x] Vinyl board curling up on the edges<br />
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If the vinyl board were curling up inside the playing area, it would be even worse, but this photo doesn't have that. I <i>have</i> seen a photo that had that, too, but I instantly closed all the tabs, uninstalled my browser, slammed my laptop shut, and punched the person sitting next to me instead of saving it.<br />
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Anyway, I told them I would write a short blog post if I found where I had saved that nightmare chess set photo. So here it is. And, here is the photo:<br />
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<i>Gross!</i></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-88170793011873329422015-09-05T23:09:00.002-07:002015-09-06T12:11:36.225-07:00Chess Board Color SchemesIf you are new to, well, me, you may not know that I'm quite passionate about chess board aesthetics. In an earlier post I detailed how I made my own board with colors I chose because the combination of blue and gray on a chess board is the most pleasing to me. I have a particular set of preferences for light square/dark square combinations. I suspect most people do, too, they just may not spend as much time thinking about it as I do.<br />
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On other blogging sites, I have posted some of my favorite color schemes for others to use. It's time for another one of those. These color schemes are actually not exactly in my wheelhouse, but they are definitely suitable, and I find them attractive. I'm posting them here so that others can either use them or base their own color combinations off of these ideas.<br />
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<b>Coral</b><br />
Dark 112,162,163<br />
Light 177,228,185<br />
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<b>Dusk</b></div>
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Dark 112,102,119</div>
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Light 204,183,174</div>
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<b>Marine</b></div>
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Dark 111,115,210</div>
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Light 157,172,255</div>
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<b>Wheat</b></div>
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Dark 187,190,100</div>
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Light 234,240,206</div>
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<b>Emerald</b></div>
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Dark 111,143,114</div>
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Light 173,189,143</div>
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<b>Sandcastle</b></div>
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Dark 184,139,74</div>
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Light 227,193,111</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-36869390591636861562015-09-02T08:34:00.001-07:002015-09-02T08:34:54.122-07:00Joplin Summer Open, Round 1 Annotation<div><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" width="100%" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value='orientation=H&tabmode=false&light=f4f4fF&dark=0072b9&bordertext=494949&headerforeground=ffffff&mtforeground=000000&mtvariations=FF0000&mtmainline=000000&mtbackground=ffffff&pgndata=[Event "Joplin Summer Open 2015"] [Site "Hotel Joplin"] [Date "2015.08.29"] [Round "1"] [White "DK"] [Black "Me"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A00m"] [EventDate "2015.08.29"] 1.e4 d5 {I would finally get to try out my new defense. I’ve found something to play that gives me positions I am comfortable with, but also isn’t ridiculously heavy on theory.} 2.Nc3 {I know I studied what to do against this move, but not as much as other moves. I actually couldn’t remember what to play here and made a move that wasn’t in my repertoire.} 2...d4 3.Nd5 {I had to decide between e6 and c6 here. Both have minor drawbacks. e6 blocks the light square bishop and c6 blocks the knight from its natural square. I chose e6 because Nf4 is the only realistic response and I would get to play e5 next. Sure, this allows Nd5 again, but if necessary, I can then chase the knight again with c6.} 3...e6 4.Nf4 e5 5.Nd3 {Here, I made a pretty big mistake. My mind blanked on the fact that my e-pawn was hanging.} 5...Nf6 {At least this move counter-attacks the e-pawn, but after Nxe5 Nxe5 Qe2 Qd5, the game might continue Nd3 Be7 Nf4 Qc6 Nf3 Bg4 h3 Bxf3 gxf3. Black is probably still somewhat better, but there are problems to solve.} 6.f3 {It’s not easy for white to defend his e-pawn. Qe2 might be the only other option. f6 is a dangerous move in general. A typical trick is Nxe4 fxe4 Qh4%2B g3 Qxe4%2B followed by Qxh1, but here white has Nf2 in place of g3, preventing Qxe4%2B.} ( 6.Nxe5 Nxe4 7.Qe2 Qd5 8.Qb5%2B ( 8.Ngf3 f6 9.Nc4 Be6 10.d3 ) 8...Qxb5 9.Bxb5%2B c6 10.Be2 ) 6...Nc6 7.a3 Bd6 {Simply over-protecting e4 and developing/preparing to castle.} 8.b4 O-O 9.Ne2 {White is developing towards a c3 break.} 9...Nh5 {Preparing f5. White’s king is stuck in the center and his development is poor and uncoordinated. Breaking open in the center should yield great results. Note that g4 just creates holes due to Qh4%2B Nf2 (Ng3 Nxg3 hxg3 Qxh1) Nf4.} 10.c3 {Trying to create some play on the queen-side but it is too slow and not enough. Opening the center is likely to help black, anyway.} 10...f5 11.Qb3%2B Kh8 12.c4 {White wisely elects to not open the center, but black is ready to do that himself.} 12...fxe4 13.fxe4 Qh4%2B {It is impossible to save the e4 pawn (Nf2 Qxf2%2B)} 14.Kd1 Qxe4 15.Ng3 {This loses a second pawn.} 15...Nxg3 16.hxg3 Qg4%2B 17.Be2 Qxg3 18.Rf1 {Black was threatening e4 Nc5 Qxb3 Nxb3 d6 Bf1 Bg4%2B Ke1 Bg3#} 18...Rxf1%2B 19.Bxf1 e4 20.c5 {Here, black has just exd3. If cxd6, black mates with Bg4%2B. Right after white played c5, no joke, the fire alarm went off. All the players paused their clocks and headed towards the exits. Sadly, I was so out of the zone from this I missed this obvious line and played Bg4%2B first.} 20...Bg4%2B 21.Kc2 exd3%2B 22.Bxd3 Be5 23.Qd5 {White is attempting to gain some activity via Qe4 and possible Bb2, Rf1. To stop this plan, black might look to Qf4, but this might run into Rf1 later. Instead...} 23...Rf8 {Preparing to meet Qe4 with Bf4.} 24.Qe4 Bf5 {Attempting to pick up rook and bishop for queen is a poor option: Qxf4 Rxf4 Bxf4 d3%2B Kb1 Bxa1 Kxa1 Qe5%2B Kb1 Qxf5} 25.Qf3 Bxd3%2B 26.Qxd3 Qxd3%2B 27.Kxd3 Rf1 {Black paralyzes the white bishop and rook. Of course, the bishop can go to b2 safely, but this would initiate a piece trade that white desperately needs to avoid.} 28.Ke2 d3%2B {My opponent triumphantly gathered in my rook here and was a bit deflated with I captured on a1.} 29.Kxf1 Bxa1 30.Kf2 Bd4%2B 31.Kf3 g5 32.Ke4 Bg7 33.Kxd3 Ne5%2B 34.Ke2 h6 35.d4 Nc4 36.d5 Kg8 37.Kd3 Ne5%2B 38.Ke4 Nf7 39.Kf5 Kf8 40.Be3 Bb2 41.c6 b6 42.a4 Nd6%2B 43.Ke6 Ke8 44.b5 Nc4 45.Bf2 Bc1 46.Bg3 Bf4 47.Be1 g4 48.Kf5 Ne3%2B 49.Kxf4 {Again, my opponent was far too happy to gobble up that bishop, thinking he was right back in the game. I was not doing this to him on purpose, I was just playing what I thought were the right moves.} 49...Nxg2%2B 50.Kg3 Nxe1 51.Kxg4 Ke7 52.Kh5 Kd6 53.Kxh6 Kxd5 54.Kg6 Nd3 55.Kf6 Nb2 {Here, I absolutely thought my king was on d6 and I had his king boxed out. My heart sank when he played Ke7. I got very serious about calculation at this point and surmised that I probably had a draw still.} 56.Ke7 Nc4 57.Kd7 Ne5%2B 58.Kxc7 {I stopped writing moves down at this point because my clock was getting short. Basically I managed to put my knight on d6 to stop the c-pawn. My opponent had at least a draw in the bag. When my clock reached 11 seconds, he backed his king off and let me capture his c-pawn thinking I would lose on time. With 5 seconds of delay per move, there was no chance of that happening. I gobbled up his a and b pawns with my knight and marched my a and b pawns towards promotion. When my b pawn reached b1, my opponent resigned with 6 seconds still on my clock.} 0-1 '/><p><iframe width='100%' height='350' src='http://kvchess.com/joo/latest/showpgn.html?tabmode=0&boardonly=1&orientation=H&tabmode=false&light=f4f4fF&dark=0072b9&bordertext=494949&headerforeground=ffffff&mtforeground=000000&mtvariations=FF0000&mtmainline=000000&mtbackground=ffffff&pgndata=%5BEvent%20%22Joplin%20Summer%20Open%202015%22%5D%0A%5BSite%20%22Hotel%20Joplin%22%5D%0A%5BDate%20%222015.08.29%22%5D%0A%5BRound%20%221%22%5D%0A%5BWhite%20%22DK%22%5D%0A%5BBlack%20%22Me%22%5D%0A%5BResult%20%220-1%22%5D%0A%5BECO%20%22A00m%22%5D%0A%5BEventDate%20%222015.08.29%22%5D%0A%0A1.e4%20d5%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A2.Nc3%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A2...d4%203.Nd5%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A3...e6%204.Nf4%20e5%205.Nd3%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A5...Nf6%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A6.f3%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A6...Nc6%207.a3%20Bd6%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A8.b4%20O-O%209.Ne2%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A9...Nh5%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A10.c3%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A10...f5%2011.Qb3+%20Kh8%2012.c4%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A12...fxe4%2013.fxe4%20Qh4+%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A14.Kd1%20Qxe4%2015.Ng3%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A15...Nxg3%2016.hxg3%20Qg4+%2017.Be2%20Qxg3%2018.Rf1%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A18...Rxf1+%2019.Bxf1%20e4%2020.c5%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A20...Bg4+%2021.Kc2%20exd3+%2022.Bxd3%20Be5%2023.Qd5%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A23...Rf8%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A24.Qe4%20Bf5%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A25.Qf3%20Bxd3+%2026.Qxd3%20Qxd3+%2027.Kxd3%20Rf1%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A28.Ke2%20d3+%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A29.Kxf1%20Bxa1%2030.Kf2%20Bd4+%2031.Kf3%20g5%2032.Ke4%20Bg7%2033.Kxd3%20Ne5+%2034.Ke2%20h6%2035.d4%20Nc4%2036.d5%20Kg8%2037.Kd3%20Ne5+%2038.Ke4%20Nf7%2039.Kf5%20Kf8%2040.Be3%20Bb2%2041.c6%20b6%2042.a4%20Nd6+%2043.Ke6%20Ke8%2044.b5%20Nc4%2045.Bf2%20Bc1%2046.Bg3%20Bf4%2047.Be1%20g4%2048.Kf5%20Ne3+%2049.Kxf4%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A49...Nxg2+%2050.Kg3%20Nxe1%2051.Kxg4%20Ke7%2052.Kh5%20Kd6%2053.Kxh6%20Kxd5%2054.Kg6%20Nd3%2055.Kf6%20Nb2%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A56.Ke7%20Nc4%2057.Kd7%20Ne5+%2058.Kxc7%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A0-1%0A' border='no' seamless='seamless'><a href='http://kvchess.com/joo/latest/showpgn.html?pgndata=%5BEvent%20%22Joplin%20Summer%20Open%202015%22%5D%0A%5BSite%20%22Hotel%20Joplin%22%5D%0A%5BDate%20%222015.08.29%22%5D%0A%5BRound%20%221%22%5D%0A%5BWhite%20%22DK%22%5D%0A%5BBlack%20%22Me%22%5D%0A%5BResult%20%220-1%22%5D%0A%5BECO%20%22A00m%22%5D%0A%5BEventDate%20%222015.08.29%22%5D%0A%0A1.e4%20d5%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A2.Nc3%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A2...d4%203.Nd5%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A3...e6%204.Nf4%20e5%205.Nd3%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A5...Nf6%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A6.f3%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A6...Nc6%207.a3%20Bd6%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A8.b4%20O-O%209.Ne2%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A9...Nh5%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A10.c3%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A10...f5%2011.Qb3+%20Kh8%2012.c4%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A12...fxe4%2013.fxe4%20Qh4+%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A14.Kd1%20Qxe4%2015.Ng3%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A15...Nxg3%2016.hxg3%20Qg4+%2017.Be2%20Qxg3%2018.Rf1%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A18...Rxf1+%2019.Bxf1%20e4%2020.c5%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A20...Bg4+%2021.Kc2%20exd3+%2022.Bxd3%20Be5%2023.Qd5%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A23...Rf8%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A24.Qe4%20Bf5%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A25.Qf3%20Bxd3+%2026.Qxd3%20Qxd3+%2027.Kxd3%20Rf1%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A28.Ke2%20d3+%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A29.Kxf1%20Bxa1%2030.Kf2%20Bd4+%2031.Kf3%20g5%2032.Ke4%20Bg7%2033.Kxd3%20Ne5+%2034.Ke2%20h6%2035.d4%20Nc4%2036.d5%20Kg8%2037.Kd3%20Ne5+%2038.Ke4%20Nf7%2039.Kf5%20Kf8%2040.Be3%20Bb2%2041.c6%20b6%2042.a4%20Nd6+%2043.Ke6%20Ke8%2044.b5%20Nc4%2045.Bf2%20Bc1%2046.Bg3%20Bf4%2047.Be1%20g4%2048.Kf5%20Ne3+%2049.Kxf4%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A49...Nxg2+%2050.Kg3%20Nxe1%2051.Kxg4%20Ke7%2052.Kh5%20Kd6%2053.Kxh6%20Kxd5%2054.Kg6%20Nd3%2055.Kf6%20Nb2%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A56.Ke7%20Nc4%2057.Kd7%20Ne5+%2058.Kxc7%20%0A%20%20%20%20%0A0-1%0A'>PGN</a></iframe></p></object></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-37162628659959868132015-08-31T16:08:00.001-07:002015-09-01T15:08:13.491-07:00My First Tournament Win!This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of playing in the Joplin Summer Open in Joplin, Missouri. The tournament was four rounds of game in 60 with a 5 second delay. This time control is a little quick for me, but I'm happy for any chance at over-the-board play. This was an hour drive from me, but since it's a one day tournament, driving up and back on the same day is no problem.<br />
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I arrived at about 8:20 am and checked in with the tournament director. The word was that we would have about 16 players play in the tournament with any more than that being just people that didn't notify the director they were coming. Still, there might be 20 or so at the start of the tournament with a little luck.<br />
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As it turned out, we started off with 17 players. I was paired with a player rated in the low 800s in the first round. <br />
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It was a shaky start for me as I inadvertently left my opening system early on. I improvised a pretty solid opening, though, and I'm pretty sure I was better from the outset. Then I forgot my e-pawn was hanging. <br />
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If he took my e-pawn, I still would've been better, but I would've had to fight harder to maintain that edge rather than immediately trying to capitalize on the edge I already had. </div>
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Luckily, he didn't take it and I got to work improving my position. Once we were into the middle game, I cracked open the position with his king in the center and pieces awkwardly placed. </div>
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I wound up winning a couple of pawns and later on a full piece. </div>
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However, I stupidly threw my advantage completely away by letting his king invade in the endgame when I got short on time. I thought my king had his blocked out, but it wasn't. </div>
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I had to fight to even hold a draw, but my opponent pressed too hard. Afterwards, he told me he thought I would lose on time if he didn't take the draw, so he allowed me to capture the dangerous passed pawn that I was struggling against. However, I had no problem converting the position, even with 11 seconds on my clock. The 5 second delay was what I lived on. I used a few seconds double-checking that I wasn't stalemating him, and he resigned with 6 seconds still on my clock. Disaster averted!</div>
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In the second round, I played a very solid player who was very near my rating. I felt I played extremely well in the opening and again obtained a decent edge. As the middle game began, we wound up castling to opposite sides and my attack was much faster. I had my opponent against the ropes and only had to play the most obvious check on the board on multiple moves in order to finish him off. For some reason, I convinced myself that continuing to build up before finally crashing in was the right move. I managed to get myself into a pickle and had to give up my queen for two rooks, but I was surely still winning. I wound up going up a full piece by the time the proper endgame rolled around. This time, I did manage to toss away the easy win and only escaped with a draw as his king gobbled my last pawn (my lone knight was not going to be enough).<br />
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As I headed to grab a quick lunch, it was hard to be either happy or disappointed with the way the morning went. I had 1.5 out of 2 points, but I should've easily won both games. I had to tighten my play up for the second half of the day.<br />
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In the third round, I was paired against a young man I had played about a year ago. We played to a draw, though I'm pretty sure I tossed away a win in that game, too. In this game, I blitzed out one of the main lines of my Scandinavian Defense, while he struggled with each move. I managed to have a time advantage after the opening for once. I had a feeling I knew exactly when and how he was going to deviate from my opening repertoire and started mentally preparing for my guess before we got there. I knew I didn't have a response prepared for what I thought he was going to do, so I needed to start thinking about it now. It was actually a little funny to me that he was analyzing a position several moves behind the one I was thinking about. I was exactly right, too.<br />
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I took a few extra minutes when he deviated to try to devise the correct plan. I did decently, getting the first few moves of what I should be doing right, but I didn't find the right longer term plan. I know now exactly how to handle what he did. If I'd looked at that idea before-hand I would've gotten a very strong position right out of the opening. As it was, I think I had just equalized. A few moves later, though, I think he had created some weaknesses and I had solidified my position enough that I had a small edge. I was feeling pretty good, and that's when I completely under-estimated one of his ideas, allowing him to win a pawn and get a pretty good position. I fought as hard as I could, but I'm pretty sure I was completely lost. However, he blundered and let me get some counter-play. Finally, at the end, he blundered into a mate in two. I think he thought he was going to checkmate me, but the position was actually a draw if he makes the best move. However, the move that threatened to checkmate me allowed the mate in two. He jumped on it without considering my reply, and he was devastated. I felt pretty bad for him, but I'm now sitting at 2.5/3 and one game away from winning the tournament (nobody had 3/3), though I didn't really even know that at the time.<br />
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In the final round I was paired with another 2.5/3 rated almost 400 points higher than me. Talk about a back and forth game! In this game, I got an advantage out of the opening (A Queen's Gambit Accepted), missed a clear game-winning tactic that I knew was there but just couldn't find, still managed to get a winning position, tossed it away back to basically even by missing a tactic, then incorrectly sacrificed a piece for a pawn (thinking it was back rank mate if he took it, but it wasn't!), and regained the piece through some tactical bluffing, finally emerging to a two rooks and four pawns vs. two rooks and three pawns endgame (I'm up a pawn). Ridiculous! He offered me a draw since we were the last two playing and all rook endings are drawn, but I was having none of it. I managed to play a pretty darn good endgame for once and hammered home the win.<br />
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After everyone left (except the tournament director, who I am friends with), I collapsed into the floor exhausted and very happy. I asked if I happened to win prize money, and he looked at me like I was crazy. "Uh, yeah, you just won the tournament!" I honestly didn't even realize it at the time. I helped him carry his equipment back to the car and got in my car for the hour drive home.<br />
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What a great day! I had been waiting for everything to finally come together in one tournament for me, and it finally had. My rating shot up 91 points, and I moved up from Class C to Class B.<br />
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I will post the games themselves soon, but I'd like a chance to add my thoughts before I do so. If you'd really like to see them, here is a link to the raw pgn:<br />
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<a href="http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/7/2/2/17221082/joplin-open-games.pgn">Games</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-43055569708281193382015-08-24T18:21:00.000-07:002015-08-24T18:21:12.587-07:00TIL #2Today I learned a position in the Lev Alburt <i>Chess Training Pocket Book</i> has an incomplete answer. The position, which I was checking out during a break in action at work today, is shown below:<br />
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As a tactical problem, the solution jumped out pretty immediately. Rxd6 Rxd6 e5 seems obvious. I felt, however, that the next couple of moves were also very important. For instance, after Rxd6 Rxd6 e5 Ke6, it is extremely important to capture the rook with the pawn and not the bishop. If Bxd6, after f6, the game is drawn! Instead, white <i>must</i> capture with the pawn, exd6 after which the win is trivial.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-65725963026983834472015-08-23T14:25:00.000-07:002015-08-23T14:25:37.493-07:00Photo-Blog on TumblrI've started a separate blog for just the image stuff in my chess world. Pictures of projects, study setups, equipment, and maybe some of me playing in tournaments (though those are difficult because I'm usually by myself at tournaments and nobody else cares to take pictures of me playing or at least share them with me if they happen to catch me in a shot. We'll see how that aspect goes.<br />
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Here's the link: <a href="http://omgchessblog.tumblr.com/">http://omgchessblog.tumblr.com/</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-47148700800651184192015-08-23T13:45:00.002-07:002015-08-23T13:45:25.472-07:00Three Coats of Polyurethane LaterAnd, I'm finished! I didn't ruin anything, but I think I did sand through the finish a little bit after trying to smooth out the raised paint edges after two coats of polyurethane. It's ok, I'm still really happy.<br />
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Also, I discovered that lowering the leaves of the kitchen table allows this table top to fit right over the top and around the kitchen table, basically converting it into a dream chess table. I'm still going to take it to school and use it there, semi-permanently, but having the kitchen table option at home is pretty awesome.<br />
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Works great for Sinquefield Cup viewing, too!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-37347003037053221182015-08-19T16:41:00.002-07:002015-08-19T16:47:43.989-07:00First game on hand-made tabletop!I took the tabletop to school today to kind of show it off and try a few games on it. I told everyone to be very careful since I hadn't applied a protective layer to the surface yet, but I played a game with one of my students.<br />
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The best part is I realized that if I sat the board down on top of two old bookshelves I had sitting in my closet, it is a perfect height to play on and very stable. The boards around the bottom rim of the tabletop keep it in place nicely, too. This would be perfect!<br />
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I took black so I could try out my new Scandinavian Defense line. I got a nice game and eventually won a piece and my opponent resigned. I took a photo of the first ever game on it.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-1761946627126571662015-08-18T17:48:00.003-07:002015-08-21T19:57:29.831-07:00Dual-Chessboard Project (DIY!)I found a piece of wood in my garage that used to be the bottom of a baby crib. We had gotten rid of the baby crib a few months earlier (trash!), but apparently had forgotten to throw out this bottom board. When I noticed it, I immediately thought it would make a very attractive table top with two chess boards painted onto it. It's just how my mind works. I've been looking for some sort of a fun project with wood and paint that I might even get some use out of, and this seemed to be perfect.<br />
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I wish I had taken a picture of the board before I started on it, but I didn't think to do it. There were some warning stickers glued all over the board, so the first step was to figure out how to remove those. It was much harder than I thought it would be. Peeling and scraping was just not going to work. I tried just directly sanding them off with very little success. Finally, I thought to use google. Apparently, the trick is to warm a little bit of vinegar and rub it on the target area. I was amazed as it came off with just a light brushing almost immediately. First problem solved. This might actually work.<br />
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I went to the store and picked up a few materials. I still expected something to cause this whole project to grind to a halt. I'd never done anything like this, and I had no idea what to expect. I picked up all the sandpaper I needed, some wood stain and a brush, and the three colors of spray paint I'd chosen.<br />
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I sanded the board down with each of the different grits of sandpaper until it was very smoooth and brought the board outside to apply the wood stain. I actually have tried to use wood stain before, but that was a disaster because I didn't even read anything. This time, I at least knew how to do it. It seemed to go pretty well, though I don't think I wiped the stain off as thoroughly as I should've. It was here that I started taking pictures of the project, so here is the board after the wood stain went on:<br />
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The coloring didn't turn out to be as consistent as I'd like, but that got better as the stain dried. Next, I measured out two 18" x 18" squares and centered them on each half of the board. I taped around the board and covered everything but the squares and spray painted them gray. I was pretty happy with how the board areas looked after I removed the masking:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkgKpaini8x_pQpln2XLD9jjZOkECMeQXOovVObwioNRxipEXYn5jMI1D_UCB_pJ8FyiGBNqfF1DR10ZZ3P1flQpiyYfxhFi5f-_RmCxhUIY_kmTiBZ__vcwBfy3_-FvLXxUE7nopQnMJG/s1600/20150811_200637.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkgKpaini8x_pQpln2XLD9jjZOkECMeQXOovVObwioNRxipEXYn5jMI1D_UCB_pJ8FyiGBNqfF1DR10ZZ3P1flQpiyYfxhFi5f-_RmCxhUIY_kmTiBZ__vcwBfy3_-FvLXxUE7nopQnMJG/s320/20150811_200637.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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After I waited a couple of days for the paint to dry, I drew light pencil lines to mark where the chess board's light and dark squares should go. I taped over every other rank and file of each of the chessboards, leaving 16 of the dark squares exposed. I painted the exposed areas oxford blue.</div>
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There was a lot more bleeding under the tape from the spray paint on these last two steps than I would like, and I kind of resigned myself to the fact that none of my lines would be as clean as I wanted them to be. After the first set of dark squares dried, I covered the other set and painted the final 16 dark squares on each board.</div>
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Peeling off the masking tape after this last step revealed I'd made an error and had made one row of dark squares too big! I'm not sure if I took a strip of tape off to reapply it and then never did, or what. I really do not know how the error happened, but it clearly did! I was pretty pleased with the rest of it, though.</div>
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I had to take a little extra time to fix the mistake, but it wasn't too bad. All I had left to do was the 1/2" black border to really set things off.</div>
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When I peeled the paint off of the last bit of the black border, I was a little disappointed because there was even more bleeding than usual. Then I realized that it didn't matter that much, because this board really popped! I brought it inside and put it on a table and started setting up two sets of chess pieces on it for a little photo session.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEMOKN5R9w48iRhbwIoT9LjZENSH5_MKqDpDb8uUGKA9A3UNRQKjWYEmYsEJaIEOe_rkTiSwYVAe3GJUQWRMfRr2JCIvPHccz8mProiWaFkxNjjpwKmuCXae4eX_nKTYCKezoOM4pBme6X/s1600/20150817_203927%25280%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEMOKN5R9w48iRhbwIoT9LjZENSH5_MKqDpDb8uUGKA9A3UNRQKjWYEmYsEJaIEOe_rkTiSwYVAe3GJUQWRMfRr2JCIvPHccz8mProiWaFkxNjjpwKmuCXae4eX_nKTYCKezoOM4pBme6X/s320/20150817_203927%25280%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Sitting down at the table for the first time with all the pieces set up was an almost surreal experience. I had made something that looked really nice with my own hands, sure, but another part of the feeling was that the colors of this chess board had only existed on my computer screen before now. I don't think there was any way to get these two colors on a real chess board before. I have used this blue and gray chess board online for years. Having a nice, real version of the chess board in front of me felt so incredibly <i>right</i> to me. It was like being home for the first time in a way.</div>
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Technically, I'm not done with the project. I will be putting a few coats of polyurethane on it to smooth the surface and to protect it. However, the current state of this dual chessboard is quite satisfying, and I'm going to enjoy it for a day or two first just in case I ruin it with my first ever attempt at applying polyurethane!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-44192618444836174172015-08-05T20:04:00.001-07:002015-08-05T20:04:30.428-07:00Training Diary #2<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Since my last entry, a lot has changed. First of all, I've decided I just really don't like How to Reassess Your Chess. I cannot get through it. The more I tried, the more I remembered I just really don't like it. I could get into the reasons for this, but that is probably better for a different blog entry or article. I have spent some time looking for other things and settled on a course I had forgotten I even owned. Igor Smirnov's Your Winning Plan, which was suggested to me by a very strong player a few years ago. While sampling all the resources I had trying to find something to replace How to Reassess Your Chess, I found myself riveted by this one. So, that is my new tome. Hopefully, I won't be getting into the rut of starting book after book without finishing. I will try not to do that. So far, I like this one so much I'm committing to finishing it without even alternating weeks with the endgame book! I've also got pages of notes I've taken on this course alone. Those are definitely good signs.</div>
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I have been plugging away with tactics and openings, also. In my last post I mentioned that I would be trying to find a way to detail my progress with the basic tactics that I drill for speed and recognition. I use Anki flashcard software for that purpose. I have a set of 1001 tactics from a popular tactics book called "Tactics Time" that I am converting into flashcards. So far, I have 250 of them converted and I'm drilling those using spaced repetition in Anki. If you are familiar with Anki, these stats may make sense. If not, it may be gibberish, but here they are so far, current as of today:</div>
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The other side of my tactics training has to do with Chess Tempo. I solve problems there daily, but I don't have a set routine of how many or anything. Basically, I just go do some problems whenever I feel like it. I should improve this by making some sort of schedule or quota, but so far, I haven't. It's somewhat easier to track my progress with that, because the rating graph will make more sense to more people. The thing to remember with these is that I do not focus on speed here. I focus only on accuracy--calculation/visualization, etc. The pattern recognition I build up with past Chess Tempo problems and the Anki flashcards should help as well, but I do not use Chess Tempo to assist in building patterns primarily, it's just a side-effect.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/images_users/tiny_mce/PossibleOatmeal/phpAvvy74.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></div>
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I have been playing long games as often as I can, both online and over-the-board. I have committed to analyzing at least one game per week as fully as I can. Sticking to this one isn't hard because it's something I like doing, anyway. Some examples of the analysis I've been doing:</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/images_users/tiny_mce/PossibleOatmeal/php4CNgDF.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></div>
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<img alt="" src="http://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/images_users/tiny_mce/PossibleOatmeal/php7didpl.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></div>
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Just snippets of the full analysis. I'm still working out how I want to format the analyses for actual publication. The latter example is a pdf created with Open Office. It looks very nice, but it is very time-consuming to make. Analyzing in Scid vs. PC is fine, but it doesn't look as nice and there's no way to publish it without just pasting a PGN file somewhere (not ideal if you want people to actually read it). Still working on this problem.</div>
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As always, comments and encouragement are appreciated!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-6739673755445632902015-08-05T20:03:00.003-07:002015-08-05T20:03:56.891-07:00TIL #1<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Today, during an online (not chess.com correspondence) chess game, I learned that a typical tactical trick must always be carefully calculated before executed. The typical tactical trick, from this position:</span></div>
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<img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/c7OuxPZ.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">is simply to play Nxe5. Of course, if white inserts the tempo-gaining capture, Bxd7+, the knight can hop out of the danger to capture the bishop. If white just takes the en prise knight on e5 with Nxe5, the bishop is now hanging, so Bxb5 takes back a piece, resulting in the net of the originally captured e5 pawn.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: 'andale mono', times; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">...Nxe5</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: 'andale mono', times; font-size: 1em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Bxd7 Nxd7</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: 'andale mono', times; font-size: 1em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Nxe5 Bxb5</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: 'andale mono', times; font-size: 1em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The issue? After the latter line (Nxe5 Nxe5 Bxb5) there is Qb3! This forks the bishop on b5 and the f7 square. After Qb6, attempting to defend and create an escape hatch, Qxf7 Kd8 Qxf8, white regains all the material with a tremendous attack. Black is completely lost.</span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Luckily, my opponent did not spot the winning continuation and simply played Bxd7. I went on to win the game in about 20 moves. Maybe this is unfortunate, because the lesson will not be as painful!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-43087714855178578032015-08-05T20:03:00.001-07:002015-08-05T20:03:32.840-07:00A Great Hidden Feature in Lucas Chess<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There are probably dozens of things that fit that description, but I want to focus on one feature I've really been using a lot lately. The feature is simply called "Moves Tree" and is buried in the Utilities menu of the main game windows. It is both more powerful and more useful than it initially appears.</span></div>
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Let's start out by making a new game from scratch using the menu items "Tool - Create Your Own Game." Now, for the purposes of this article, let's just pick a random opening position.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/q9BMfAT.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></div>
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Now, if you go to the menu item "Utilities - Moves Tree" you will get a new window with a list of every possible move from that position. The first move of the list is on the board because it is highlighted by default. You can single-click any other move in the list and that move will appear on the board.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/vlyZN8s.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></div>
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Well, that's useful, but we don't want to look at every possible move. What we should do instead is narrow it down to candidate moves. There are two good ways to do this. One is to just select the moves you want to assign a rating yourself. Another is to let the computer assign evaluations to some or all of the moves and rate the moves according to that. If you wish to do the former, just leave out the computer analysis step and go ahead and manually assign the ratings. For this article, I will be allowing the computer to evaluate the moves for instruction's sake.</div>
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To start, click the yellow rectangle icon (fourth from the left) in the icon toolbar above the move list. The tooltip for this icon is "Analyze." You will want to set the engine to a strong one and decide how long you want it to "think." Also, you should decide how many moves you want it to evaluate for you. I chose 60 seconds for the time and maximum for the number of candidate moves to evaluate. </div>
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<img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/kM3w87G.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></div>
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Again, great information, but not what we really need. Our goal was to pare down the list of moves to a reasonable list. Based on the data the engine gave us, it appears there is one good move to make with several others that are speculative at best. For simplicity's sake, I'm going to rate the top two moves. Highlight the top move and then click the purple square icon in the icon toolbar whose tool tip is "Rating." Here, you choose a color-coded square icon for each move to describe the quality of that move. For the first move, I just selected the blue "Good move" rating. For the second move in the list, I called it a "Speculative move." How you rate the moves is really up to you. The main idea is that the moves you want to keep for the future you give some rating to.</div>
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Finally, click the light bulb icon on the icon toolbar whose tool tip is "Show/Hide." Select the menu items "Hide - No rating." You are left with a much more manageable list of candidate moves for the position. Click back on the first move in our list and click the plus icon in the icon toolbar whose tool tip is "Open new branch." This is where you will start to see the power of the feature.</div>
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You will see a new list of every legal move from the position after that first candidate move was made. If you pare this list down to a few candidate moves and repeat the process a few times, you will have the first branch of a move tree. If you go back to our original branch and click the plus icon, you can make an entirely new branch off of that moves. Of course, anywhere along the way, you can make new branches for each move in the move list of your branch.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/GUqMmzF.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></div>
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But wait, there's more! Click on one of the moves in your tree and then click the speech balloon icon in the icon toolbar whose tool tip is "Comments." You can add a description, annotation, evaluation, or whatever you'd like for each node in the tree with this function. It will display in the tree in the "Comments" column. </div>
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<img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/22yubck.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></div>
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Now, click "Save" in the top left corner of the window, and you're done. The craziest part is any time you come back to that position, even when analyzing a totally different game, that moves tree will show up for that position. Try it! Close the created game you were making and start a new one without saving the previous one. If you make those same moves again and open a new moves tree window, you will see your previous moves tree with the branches closed. </div>
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To re-open a branch, just click the plus sign while highlighting the move. In the saved tree view, you can see if a move has a branch hidden under it by the "up arrow caret" symbol next to the move.</div>
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I hope you find this feature as useful as I do!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-87705776706610622552015-08-05T20:02:00.002-07:002015-08-05T20:02:48.794-07:00More on Learning Openings<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
In an earlier post, I went into some detail about how to use Lucas Chess to help learn openings. Two other tools are very useful in learning openings for me: Chess Position Trainer and Scid vs. PC. The latter is free, the former is not, but has a pretty useful demo version (though it is well worth buying!).</div>
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Today, I am working on the Benko Gambit as white. I have entered some variations I want to study into Chess Position Trainer.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/images_users/tiny_mce/PossibleOatmeal/phpuI0zo8.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></div>
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The beauty of Chess Position Trainer is that entering the moves and variations of an opening is as simple as making moves on the board. A tree of variations is created and saved to your repertoire database as soon as you make each move. I have selected one particular line (shown above) to use as an example. You can see how many distinct lines are in your opening by navigating through what are called "Leaf Nodes" (you can see I have selected to navigate by leaf nodes in the top left corner). Leaf nodes are basically the ends of your branches. If I hit the arrow to go to the next leaf node, it will move to another position that is at an end of a branch. It will tell you how many leaf nodes you have in your opening in the status bar as you navigate through it this way. Going to a leaf node lets you see one distinct line of your opening.</div>
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What I like to do is take one leaf node and enter the moves into Scid vs. PC for comparison with my main database of chess games. I use the "GorgoBase," which is a collection of just over 2.5 million games. It is compiled from all of the games ever released by TWIC and all of the games compiled at the PGN Mentor website. The goal was to get a mix of both modern and historical chess games. You can download this database for Scid or Scid vs. PC for your use at my website,<a href="http://gorgonian.weebly.com/pgn.html" style="border: 0px; color: #0a5689; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a><a href="http://gorgonian.weebly.com/pgn.html" style="border: 0px; color: #0a5689; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://gorgonian.weebly.com/pgn.html</a></div>
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Once I have the moves entered into Scid vs. PC, I filter for all games that reached that position by going to "Search - Current Board."</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/images_users/tiny_mce/PossibleOatmeal/phphkkjWb.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></div>
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This leaves me, in this case, with just over 100 games to look through. From here I just select the first game in the list and step through it quickly using the right arrow key. When I reach the end, I hit "ctrl+down" to load the next game in the list and step through it, too. I look through as many of the games as I can this way, hopefully all of them. This gives me a good impression of where pieces belong, typical pawn breaks, what the endgames usually look like, etc. I may select a few games for deeper study if I find a game by certain players or if a particular game catches my eye for one reason or another.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/images_users/tiny_mce/PossibleOatmeal/phpNd3vvt.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></div>
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After doing this, I will use Lucas Chess to play a weakened computer opponent from the position I'm studying and analyze it. Sometimes, I will play several games this way (if I do this, it's usually some blitz games). After doing this, going back and re-reading the book (or re-watching the video) the line originated from should help you gain even more insight.</div>
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After all that work, it's time to check out the next leaf node!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-8826950793510213262015-08-05T20:02:00.000-07:002015-08-05T20:02:10.197-07:00Lesson with an International Master and Training Diary #1<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i>Note: This article was originally posted on June 29th, 2015 on chess.com</i></div>
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After taking a lesson from <a href="http://www.chess.com/coach/attila-turzo" style="border: 0px; color: #0a5689; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">International Master Attila Turzo</a>, I have decided to begin making blog entries detailing my goals and what I've been working on to achieve those goals.</div>
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My studies will be divided into several distinct areas. First, I will be doing tactics training every day. I divide that into two areas: adding patterns to my "instant-bank" (tactical patterns I can recognize as close to instantly as possible), and using those patterns in combination to calculate harder tactical problems. The first area I train by solving simple problems using spaced repetition to build up the pattern in my "bank." The second area I train by solving problems at chesstempo.com that are appropriate for my ever changing tactics rating there. This week so far, I have improved my standard tactics rating by about 130 points! (I haven't done serious tactics training at chesstempo in a while, and my rating was languishing at some absurdly low 1500 rating, so this is rise is just correction-related and not indicative of some hard work paying off, most likely)</div>
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I will detail the "instant bank" side of training that I do in a later post, as I work out a good way to track it statistically.</div>
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Mr. Turzo recommended I pick out a set of books for each phase to concentrate on, and commit to them and finish them. The idea we agreed on is to alternate the three books by week to avoid one book getting stale. I have thus committed to:</div>
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1) How to Reassess Your Chess - Silman</div>
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2) 100 Endgames You Must Know - Jesus de la Villa</div>
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3) Chess Openings for White Explained - DPA (Roman D, Perelstyn, Alburt)</div>
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I have since decided that I'm going to study a different source for the opening phase based on some feedback from others and a review by John Watson. The book is consistent with a lot of openings I like, which is why I chose it, but the content isn't the greatest. This also coincides with a desire I've had lately to try out 1.d4. Therefore, I'm going to be learning a whole new d4-based repertoire. I'll be leaving my black repertoire alone for now, and revisiting that later.</div>
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I have read a lot of How to Reassess Your Chess in the past, but never systematically studied and finished it. I have committed now to studying it thoroughly and 100% finishing it. Well, the 100% is slightly wrong, because I'm going to skip the random section on the endgame thrown in at the beginning, since I already have a source for that. So far, starting at the beginning, I have worked up to pg. 42. </div>
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Finally, I will be practicing visualization by training for blindfold chess. One intriguing idea Mr. Turzo recommended to me was to place a knight on a chessboard in my head and try to move it from one square to another, of course, only in my head. Initially, I didn't know how to select a start and end square for this journey, so I wrote a little script to pick two random squares. This worked when I was sitting at my computer, but I found that I would be out somewhere waiting in a line or something and realized it would be nice to practice it right there and then! I then decided to do it systematically. I put a knight on a1, mentally, and tried to move it to b1. Then a1 to c1, etc. When I finish with a1 to h8, I'll change the start square to b1 and do it again (starting with c1, not a1--I'm not going to do it backwards until I do it forwards all the way). I can, of course, do this with other pieces, but the knight work has really helped me build up that "mental board." </div>
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I also do some blindfold play on the computer from time to time. I found something interesting when I tried this for the first time. After 15 or so moves, I had a pretty decent idea of what the position was, but I decided to turn the display back on and look to see how I did. When I did, I was blown away by how chaotic the position looked. It felt like there were twice as many pieces on the board when I saw them visually. It was a stark contrast from the empty board I had been looking at. It was almost as if my mind was much more calm when I couldn't see the pieces. It was much harder, of course, and calculating and evaluating while blindfolded is a skill I have almost none of, but it was the first time I'd ever thought of seeing the pieces being something like a "distraction."</div>
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I'll conclude my first entry with some goals. First, I would like to attain a 1700 rating in the USCF rating system by June of next year. I would ultimately like to achieve a 2000 rating some time in my life. Second, I would like to make one training diary blog entry per week, and annotate at least one long time control game of my own per week, also in this blog. My last goal is to finish the books I have started, no ifs ands or buts. If you have any suggestions or comments, let me know!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-70824432686259558842015-08-05T20:00:00.002-07:002015-08-05T21:35:47.720-07:00On Calculation, Visualization, and Positional Analysis<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i>Note: This article was originally published on April 13th, 2015 on chess.com</i></div>
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One of the most critical skills a chess player can have is actually a combination of three other skills. Let's look at a practical example to demonstrate the concept:</div>
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This game of mine played at the 2015 Arkansas Open featured a Scotch Gambit (declined). On the seventh move, white allowed a common tactical idea, the "center fork trick." If black captures on e4, white's knight and bishop can be forked with d5 after the recapture. One question we could ask about this position is "should black play Nxe4?" However, let's look at this from white's perspective by asking two related questions:</div>
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1) Should white have allowed this?</div>
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2) If white just missed the idea and black plays it, how should white respond?</div>
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Our "most critical chess skill" must be put to use here. First, we have to calculate white's possible responses to Nxe4. In this example, there are three main options which preserve material equality (black captures a pawn with Nxe4 so white must regain a pawn to stay even materially). If you want to play along, try to figure out three separate main ideas that do this.</div>
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Once, we have discovered our options, the second critical skill must be utilized. The lines must be played out mentally to "quiessence" and the ending position visualized.</div>
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Finally, the ending positions of each of these lines must be evaluated positionally and compared to each other. The line that leads to the best position for white would then be played. Or, if possible, if the best option for white is worse than other options available, white should not allow the tactic.</div>
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So, let's look at the result:</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A</strong> 7...Nxe4 8.Nxe4 d5 9.Nxc6 bxc6 10.Bxd5 cxd5 11.Nc3 c6</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">B</strong> 7...Nxe4 8.Nxe4 d5 9.Nxc6 bxc6 10.Bd3 dxe4 11.Bxe4</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">C</strong> 7...Nxe4 8.Bxf7+ Rxf7 9.Nxe4 d5 10.Nc3 Nxd4 11.Qxd4 c6</div>
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These were the three main lines to be calculated. Is one of them clearly better than the other two? One clearly worse? Is the best one good for white or black? Why? Let's look at the positions.</div>
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Position after <strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A</strong></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" src="http://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/images_users/tiny_mce/pawpatrol/php78FP6p.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></strong></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong>White has a slightly better pawn structure, but black has a better center and the bishop pair.</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Position after </span><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">B</strong></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" src="http://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/images_users/tiny_mce/pawpatrol/phpx8xnCb.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></strong></div>
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Black's structure is critically weak. The position is otherwise even.</div>
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<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Position after </span><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">C</strong></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" src="http://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/images_users/tiny_mce/pawpatrol/phpIBGNXe.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Black has a slightly better center, two bishops, and a rook activated by the half-open f-file. White has a slightly safer king and a slightly awkward knight on c3.</span></div>
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In my opinion, the ranking of these three positions for white would be B, A, C. In fact, white would probably be pretty happy to have the position after line B. </div>
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In order to make the correct decision in a game situation, all of this must be done mentally while looking at the first position (or after Nxe4 has been played, depending on the situation). To review, this requires three separate skills used in succession:</div>
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1) Calculate the possible responses. Here, we calculated three lines that retained material equality.</div>
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2) Visualize the resulting positions accurately.</div>
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3) Positionally evaluate each position and compare the evaluations.</div>
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If you had trouble with this procedure, hopefully this exercise helped diagnose the problem. Improving in these areas should help your chess skill immensely. Be on the look out for errors in this type of procedure in your games to monitor your progress.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-73465750304774252082015-08-05T19:59:00.002-07:002015-08-05T19:59:51.252-07:00Learning Openings Thoroughly with Lucas Chess<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i>Note: This article was originally published on April 9th, 2015 on chess.com</i></div>
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Studying openings is, for some reason, a very controversial subject online these days. I feel strongly that learning a solid, consistent opening repertoire is part of becoming a strong chess player. Some will tell you to ignore openings until you are (variously) 1600, 1800, or even 2000. I've even seen one person say not to touch them until you are a master. To me, this is just silliness. I'm not going to get into that topic here, but suffice it to say, you should be learning openings.</div>
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Your first step should be to select a system to learn and grab some detailed resources about it. For my example here, I have selected the Hyper-accelerated Dragon (Sicilian) system and the book <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Chess Openings for Black Explained. </em>The resource you choose should have recommended moves, of course, but should also include as much detail about why the moves are being played and what plans are being acted upon and should be put into action for the middle game as possible. A simple tree of variations is not really enough to learn a system for most people.</div>
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For this article, I am focusing on one of my favorite under-rated pieces of chess software Lucas Chess. Within Lucas Chess, if you go to Tools, Openings, Personal Opening Guide, you will find an excellent tool for organizing your opening repertoire. </div>
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First create a new opening with the "New" button on the top toolbar. For this, I named mine "Black - Hyper-Accelerated Dragon (CO4BE)." Next, go through your resource slowly, taking notes as you go. Make a tree of variations by making moves on the board. Make comments, annotate moves, mark positional evaluations, etc. </div>
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<img alt="" src="http://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/images_users/tiny_mce/pawpatrol/php4VOtho.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></div>
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You can draw on the board by using the "Director" feature (right click on the chessboard's border and choose Director). This visual annotation really helps me, but I also include a text explanation.</div>
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Now, I have gone through an entire chapter of the book, inputting a tree of opening choices along with lots of notes and evaluations. I see many people recommending that that is all that you do, if that. "Don't memorize lines!" they say. Nonsense. Even after I did all of that, if someone sat down and played the white side against me, I would be clueless. You have to study something to truly learn it. Imagine yourself in a tournament 3 months from now needing to recall the information in this chapter. Not happening without study and practice. Luckily, Lucas Chess makes this pretty painless.</div>
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Click the "Training" button near the top right. There are lots of options here which you can explore, but here is what I do, and it works great. First, click "black" for the "Play with" option, because this is an opening you are learning for black. Next, we are going to limit the depth we start with for practice. I recommend a value of 19 (odd numbers work best for black, even numbers work best for white). So, change depth to 19. For name, I also just call it 19. Click accept, and we are ready to start practicing.</div>
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Exit the Personal Opening Guide feature of Lucas Chess and go to Training, Learn Tactics by Repetition. From here, find the opening you are studying, and select it. Each different training depth (you just created one for depth 19, next you can move it up to 21, etc.) will appear here. Select the one you want (here, we just have 19 to choose from). Click "New" to create a new training session. Select manual configuration and ignore all the options except "Blocks" near the middle left. Change the "Order" from original to random and click Accept. Now, try to recall the correct moves from the chapter for black. If you make a mistake, you can finish the line, but you will have to do it again immediately afterwards. It will work its way through all the possible lines you have entered. Once you are done, you can see how you did. The important stats are "Working Time" and "Errors." Just keep creating new training sessions (New, Copy configuration from current register) and practicing until you get your "Errors" down to 0 and your time down to whatever threshhold you want to set for yourself. Here's an example:</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/images_users/tiny_mce/pawpatrol/phpqcC9SQ.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom;" /></div>
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You have completed the first stage of learning your repertoire. What I do next is go back to the Personal Opening Guide and create another training module at depth 21. It will appear right under your 19 depth module under Training, Learn Tactics by Repetition. Practice that one until you get your errors down and your time down and move on to a deeper level. Eventually, you will be able to do it in your sleep.</div>
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The final step before implementing the system in actual games is to go back and re-read the chapter. You should feel much more comfortable with the positions and moves since you have commited the whole thing to memeory. During this and subsequent read-throughs, concentrate on the hows and whys the book is presenting. My experience is I understand so much more at this point than the first read-through.</div>
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Don't forget to come back to this opening and run-through the variations periodically to keep them fresh in your mind!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-24819760665963264592015-08-05T19:40:00.003-07:002015-08-05T19:42:33.131-07:00Blitz at the Fayetteville Chess Club<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDYG_sIKkj-7K4q8bnmULqvDOBFYkdjCfwX273e6Tv7ZSvOeMDvaq6KlrcC05tiRSok9K258ODnNlHC8iRCxCYzSrJ0ZqTBa9y4I6-n4Yn5m6d3pY3YOToDz1oKMUrNc34Qd6BbeLNH3Ls/s1600/FCC-RichardNoah-112909.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDYG_sIKkj-7K4q8bnmULqvDOBFYkdjCfwX273e6Tv7ZSvOeMDvaq6KlrcC05tiRSok9K258ODnNlHC8iRCxCYzSrJ0ZqTBa9y4I6-n4Yn5m6d3pY3YOToDz1oKMUrNc34Qd6BbeLNH3Ls/s1600/FCC-RichardNoah-112909.jpg" /></a><br />
<i>Note: This article was originally published on March 29, 2015 on chess.com</i><br />
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Today I visited the local chess club in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The club meets at 1 p.m. every Sunday afternoon at the Atlanta Bread Company. I played three blitz games with a gentleman named Richard (pictured in the cover photo on the left, but that's not me on the right). Richard described himself as "about 1400" in strength before we played.</div>
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I tried to reconstruct the three games from memory when I got home. I got two of them, but my recollection of the middle one was not complete enough. I had a look at the first of the three games and included some comments below. The third game is basically a miniature (and an example of what can happen if you try to make up a way to play against the Scotch Gambit on the fly if you aren't super careful), and it's included without comment below.</div>
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After the three games with Richard, I asked the resident master, (NM Bill Orton, kind of a local legend) if he would be up to looking over a couple of games from last weekend's tournament with me. I showed him the two games I drew and learned a lot. After we looked over these games, I decided to call it a day. It was a fun experience, and I will definitely be going back.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214268436472185748.post-52775296715578147922015-08-05T19:25:00.000-07:002015-08-05T19:42:57.837-07:002015 Arkansas Open Trip Report<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i>Note: this article was originally published on March 25, 2015 on chess.com</i><br />
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This past weekend I played in the Arkansas Open in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The location for the tournament was atop Mt. Sequoyah, basically a large hill located on the east side of town. The venue for the tournament was changed a few weeks before the start date, so it was questionable how big the turnout would be. It turned out to be one of the bigger player lists in recent memory for this particular event, and the tournament started with 38 players.</div>
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We got started a little late so that people could find their way to the top of the mountain for the new site. Once we started, though, everything was normal. I was above the midline, barely, and was thusly paired down. I played a player rated about 600 in the USCF for my first game. This player played very well for his rating and even gave me a couple of scares. The game is below:</div>
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<object data="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" height="350" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"><param name="movie" value="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value='orientation=H&tabmode=false&light=cccccc&dark=777777&border=0&bordertext=cccccc&headerbackground=0&headerforeground=ffffff&mtbackground=cccccc&pgndata=[Event "Arkansas Open 2015"] [Site "Mt. Sequoyah Retreat/Convention Center, Fayetteville, AR"] [Date "2015.03.21"] [Round "1"] [White "Phillip Watts"] [Black "John Taylor"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B03a"] [EventDate "2015.03.21"] 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 {Alekhine’s Defense. I have studied some of the lines and tactical ideas in this opening somewhat recently, so I have a good idea of where the pieces belong, at the very least.} 2...Nd5 3.d4 g6 {This move was not one I had looked at. At first glance, it does not look like a good idea to position the dark square bishop on that diagonal because of the pawn chain. Could this make c3 a better place for my c-pawn than c4?} 4.c4 Nb6 {In pretty much every line I studied, black had played d6 by now. So, at this point in the game, I was not sure how to proceed. I considered ways that g6 would change things. I recalled some tactics that would no longer work (like black taking the d-pawn to a Bxh7%2B sacrifice/discovery). The issue I wasn’t sure about was that the king-side knight sometimes goes to e2 instead of f3. Here, Nf3 looks like quite a natural looking move. I decided to retain the option of putting it on e2 in case the position more or less transposed.} 5.Nc3 d6 {Finally, the position starts to look a little more familiar. I still don’t recall a king-side fianchetto in these positions, so I wasn’t sure it was still possible to transpose fully.} 6.exd6 exd6 {In my study, I found that the way black recaptures on d6 determines a lot about white’s setup. Here, I went with the setup that was familiar based on exd6 even though the g-pawn has moved.} 7.Bd3 N6d7 {This move breaks some opening principles. I’ve always disliked Alekhine’s Defense on principle, but also for what it does to that knight. However, moving it again certainly isn’t going to help things. Black is neglecting development in a major way, here.} 8.Nf3 {With black being slow to develop, I wanted to do the opposite. Originally, the setup I was aiming for in this opening called for the knight to go to e2. One reason for this is to avoid Bg4 pins. Since black has blocked in his light square bishop, even temporarily as it appears to be (my feeling is he wanted to transfer his knight back to f6), the pin isn’t as big a concern. With the extra tempo, I could always play h3, anyway. A knight on f3 is much aggressively posted, which I feel was called for given black’s reluctance to develop.} 8...Qe7%2B {The check develops the queen with tempo, true, but it is not too annoying for white to deal with, and this will almost certainly not be the best place for black’s queen long term. Really, anywhere on that file is probably going to be a problem, and e7 doesn’t allow the queen to pivot to a new set of squares other than the e-file. For these reasons, I don’t feel this move helped black’s cause, much, if any.} 9.Be3 {Several pieces could’ve blocked the check, but I chose this one to assist with protecting the d4 pawn, since Nc6 would be putting pressure on it with normal development later.} 9...b6 {Fianchettos are slow developing ideas. They take two moves to complete. Black is lagging in development pretty badly at this point and has chosen a slow plan to develop his next piece. While red flags had already been raised in my head, this move set them to a frantic wave.} 10.Nd5 {This move forces the queen back to d8, undeveloping (threat of Nxc7%2B). I began to see ways to exploit the cramped black position. Without fully calculating a win of material, I knew that placing my pieces well at this point would bring about lots of tactical ideas. Surely a clear win was near.} 10...Qd8 11.Bg5 {The only response here is f6. Be7 just loses immediately to Nxe7, and Nf6 obviously just hangs the knight. My eyes lit up when I saw that I could follow up with Qe2%2B forcing even more discomfort.} 11...f6 12.Qe2%2B Be7 ( 12...Kf7 13.h4 fxg5 14.Nxg5%2B Kg8 ( 14...Kg7 15.Ne6%2B ) 15.Qe6%2B ) 13.Nxf6%2B {Even though it looks like there are three pieces defending f6, two of them are effectively shut out by the e7 bishop being pinned. The other option, Bxf6 looked less concrete (ie Bxf6 Nxf6%2B Kf7). White is surely still better, but I felt more comfortable with the line played.} 13...Nxf6 14.Bxf6 Rf8 15.Bg7 Rf7 16.Bh6 Qd7 17.O-O {Castling ensures the king is safe and opens up the idea of doubling or tripling on the e-file.} 17...Bb7 {Black puts pressure on the f3 knight with this developing move. I must act quickly to capitalize more on the pressure I’ve built up or risk losing the advantage of development.. One idea I had was dominating the e-file, but I also saw that I could shut out the b7 bishop and create a strong outpost for my knight on e6 instead. I chose the second plan because it dealt with the pressure on f3 simply.} 18.d5 c6 19.Ng5 {I originally thought that Ng5 won the exchange here, but during a double-check, I realized I was overlooking the f4 square for the rook. I spent a lot of time trying to find a way to trap the rook, but settled on just gaining two tempi with Ng5 and then if Rf4 (otherwise I do win the exchange) Ne6 attacks it again. This gives me time to complete the maneuver and still play Be4 reinforcing the important d5 pawn.} 19...Rf4 20.Ne6 Rf7 21.Be4 Bf6 {I spent a long time on my next move, because I had fooled myself into thinking I was winning material. This is one of my patented blind spot moments. My thought process was if I play dxc6, he has to take back with the bishop. Then after trading bishops, Nd4%2B wins the exchange (Re7 Qxe7%2B Bex7 Nxc6 Nxc6). If instead, he takes on e6, then cxb7 and black is in real trouble on a8. Bafflingly, I complete overlooked Nxc6 as the obvious and best response. For some reason, some of my biggest blindspots are the most obvious moves. It’s something I really have to work on. I think it has something to do with getting caught up in the excitement of a concrete tactic that wins material.} 22.dxc6 Nxc6 ( 22...Bxc6 23.Bxc6 Qxc6 24.Nd4%2B Re7 25.Qxe7%2B Bxe7 26.Nxc6 Nxc6 ) ( 22...Qxe6 23.cxb7 ) 23.Bd5 Re7 {I actually was starting to feel a little bit back on my heels now. I was reeling a little bit from missing the obvious Nxc6 earlier, and now my knight looked to be in some trouble. I tried to calm myself down and hold onto the knight on his outpost.} 24.Qg4 Ne5 {Again, the knight makes a surprising jump to me. The knight had been out of play for so long, maybe my mind was just not used to considering it. I had another moment of panic as I realized how well posted his knight was suddenly, with tempo! I had to settle down and stop overlooking his super-obvious moves. After catching my breath, I saw that Qh3 isn’t bad at all and I could even boot the knight away with f4 if I needed to.} 25.Qh3 Bxd5 26.cxd5 Qb5 {I didn’t get the feeling my opponent realized the precarious positioning of his king, queen, and rook. Sure, he was forking a couple of my pawns, but I didn’t have to respond right away, since Rc1 essentially comes with tempo.} 27.Rac1 Qxd5 {I might have slapped my knight down on c7 too quickly and/or too firmly. I don’t really know. I knew I was likely out of trouble against an opponent I should be handling without difficulty and was starting feel a little bit of relief.} 28.Nc7%2B Rxc7 29.Rxc7 Qxa2 {f4 certainly jumped out at me. In fact, I’m not sure why I didn’t just play it. It may have been that I felt the line I chose was less risky, or less complex. Either way, I’m sure I’m still winning, but f4 is clearly the best move, I should’ve just played it. } 30.Rc8%2B Rxc8 31.Qxc8%2B Bd8 {I was certainly thrilled to see this move. Now, I knew there would be no trouble mopping up.} 32.Bg5 Nf7 33.Re1%2B Kf8 34.Bxd8 Nxd8 35.Qxd8%2B Kg7 36.Qd7%2B {Here, I wanted to keep the king corralled on the first two ranks, so if he ran to h6, I wanted to check him on h3 to bring him back, then bring my rook in with tempo. Obviously, I had to be careful of backrank mate, so the tempo with the rook was important.} 36...Kh6 37.Qh3%2B Kg7 38.Re7%2B Kf8 {I was disappointed to realize that just the tempo with the rook wasn’t enough to finish the job, but I decided to keep it simple. I also, deep down, wondered if I gave my opponent a little glimmer of hope with my next move, only to realize it was fool’s gold.} 39.Qe6 Qa1%2B 40.Qe1 Qxb2 41.Rxa7 d5 42.Qe7%2B Kg8 43.Qe8# 1-0 '/><p>
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I patted my opponent on the shoulder and told him I thought he played pretty well. Lunch time! I had an hour or so before round two began so I hopped in the car and drove to Subway. I know you are dying to find out, so six inch cold cut combo on9-grain wheat, toasted, with american cheese, lettuce, pickles, light mayo, and mustard. Yum. I think I took the photograph above after I finished the sandwich at the tables outside the playing hall.</div>
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Second round, I was paired with a 1920 rated player. Yikes, for me, since I am most decidedly nowhere near that strength in USCF terms. For me, I feel like I can compete with up to 1800s, but above that, I have real trouble. Also, black pieces. I shook my opponent's hand and started the clock. For some reason, it didn't start right. I might have thought I hit the button and actually didn't. My opponent noticed and said something about it. I fixed it quickly and on the game went.</div>
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<object data="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" height="350" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"><param name="movie" value="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value='orientation=H&tabmode=false&light=cccccc&dark=777777&border=0&bordertext=cccccc&headerbackground=0&headerforeground=ffffff&mtbackground=cccccc&pgndata=[Event "Arkansas Open 2015"] [Site "Mt. Sequoyah Retreat/Convention Center, Fayetteville, AR"] [Date "2015.03.21"] [Round "2"] [White "Milton Lee"] [Black "Phillip Watts"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B34q"] [EventDate "2015.03.21"] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.f3 {I decided to tackle the Sicilian Defense as one of my main weapons as black for many reasons. One of the big reasons is I enjoy opening theory, and in the Sicilian Defense, there is a lot of it. I am still early in my chess career, though, and my theory has been neglected for a long time. For that reason, when going against a very strong opponent, and this one out-rated me by about 400 points, I was a little trepidatious. I knew any inaccuracy in the opening would be punished. I am committed to learning this stuff, though, so I’m jumping in with both feet. I may have to learn a painful, two hour plus lesson, but I’m down for it. Bring it on.} 7...Qb6 {Oops. I mixed up some stuff in my head. I know this move is good, but not in this line, at least not yet. This move works if I’m castled and white has played Bc4. For some reason my brain was remembering this move as a response to f3 instead of just being in the f3%2BBc4. I did look to make sure it looked right, and it did, but I just missed Nf5, which wins immediately. I tried to make a game out of it, but being so far behind the eight-ball right away against a player rated so much higher than me, there just wasn’t much of a chance. I settled in for the pain, determined to try my best.} 8.Nf5 Qxb2 {I wasn’t convinced I was going to be totally down a piece, yet because I had this trick in reserve. It just almost works, but not quite.} 9.Nxg7%2B Kf8 10.Na4 Qb4%2B 11.c3 {Ugh, ok, I was pretty convinced, here. If only all his escaping moves weren’t with tempo, I could at least recapture the knight. Unfortunately, he has Bh6. I couldn’t find any way to get over there and even challenge the bishop’s protection of the knight. Qa5 looked the most flexible in that regard and kept the c3 pawn pinned, at least, so I went with that.} 11...Qa5 12.Bh6 {For any hope, I felt like I needed to move out of the discovery. A piece up, dark square domination, and no problem pieces, as well as severe development issues for me was just resignable territory. I wanted to at least try to put up a fight. Moving the king was the best bet.} 12...Kg8 13.Qb3 {Here my opponent got a little sloppy. Nd4 is a move because of the pin, and it causes him to retract his thrust. I was hopeful that he might slip and leave something unguarded, but I was not going to get lucky today.} 13...Nd4 14.Qd1 e5 {At least here I have something to write home about. I have a piece of the center! Maybe I can play a well-timed d5 and open things up while his king is still in the middle.} 15.Kf2 {I could find nothing better to do with my knight than return it to c6.} 15...Nc6 16.Qd6 {It was here that I knew I was simply dead. The f1 square, and really most of my back rank is in a shambles. Time to call back the queen to help out.} 16...Qd8 17.Ne8 {Here, I almost resigned, but found a cute way to at least make my opponent have to work a little harder. Note that Nxe8 Qf8# and Qxe8 Qxf6 and Qg7# are both dead ends for me. } 17...Nxe4%2B {Surprise! I win a pawn. I actually have two pawns for the piece, but my position is still completely horrible. I didn’t have much hope, but I was happy to find this combination, at least.} 18.fxe4 Qh4%2B 19.g3 Qxh6 {The immediate mate threat averted, I still saw no way to deal with my severe development issues. White, however, has easy development and easy targets. I explored perpetual ideas thoroughly, but none even began to show themselves.} 20.Qf6 {Now, my queen is tied down to the defense of f7. My rook is entombed, my bishop can’t move, making my other rook entombed. Also, my knight has no useful squares that it can move to. This is an all-time disaster, folks. Get a good look.} 20...Qf8 21.Nd6 {Oh, and my opponent has a beautiful square for his knight, too. The f7 square is now an easy target. I should develop my pieces. I want them to see some daylight before meeting their destiny.} 21...b6 {Note that even now, my bishop can’t move.} 22.Bc4 {Three pieces on f7. Ok, let’s just resign. Oh, wait, I can defend it one more time. Let’s do that.} 22...Nd8 23.Rhf1 {Welp.} 23...Ne6 24.Kg1 {Ok, I give up. Black resigns.} 1-0 '/><p>
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This game took a little over an hour. I didn't have to be back until well over two and a half hours, so I headed home (about a 25 minute drive for me). I was upset at myself for messing up the opening, so I actually made some flashcards to review my repertoire choices for the Sicilian and ran through them several times before my evening game.</div>
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I arrived back at the site about 15 minutes before start time. I hung around chatting with some of the friends I've made that were also there. The times between rounds just hanging out with chess people are some of my favorite times during these tournaments.</div>
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My opponent was the last person to arrive for round 3. All the games had started. I made my first move and started his clock and waited. He did finally come in about 10 minutes late. I waited until he made his first move and then offered a handshake. Here we go again.</div>
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<object data="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" height="350" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"><param name="movie" value="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value='orientation=H&tabmode=false&light=cccccc&dark=777777&border=0&bordertext=cccccc&headerbackground=0&headerforeground=ffffff&mtbackground=cccccc&pgndata=[Event "Arkansas Open 2015"] [Site "Mt. Sequoyah Retreat/Convention Center, Fayetteville, AR"] [Date "2015.03.21"] [Round "3"] [White "Phillip Watts"] [Black "Peter Shirley"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C16a"] [EventDate "2015.03.21"] 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 Bxc3%2B {I have always just assumed this move was not good. Black has discarded his only good bishop for not much compensation. White could choose from two good plans: 1) open the position up with two separate c4 pushes for the two bishops or 2) close the position up and entomb black’s terrible light square bishop.} 5.bxc3 Nd7 {My assumption was that black was preparing c5 with this move. Black is very cramped.} 6.Qg4 {With no dark square bishop, black has problems on the king side now. The most natural response is g6, but it further weakens black’s dark squares.} 6...g6 7.Bg5 {Ne7 and f6 were two responses I had to consider. f6 might be playable, but black has to avoid exf6 Ngxf6? Qxe6%2B and instead play Ndxf6, which is more awkward.} 7...Ne7 {I’d like to plant my bishop on f6 and disrput black’s kingside further. After something like Bf6 Rg8 Qh4 even more squares would be weakened after h5. In order to accomplish Bf6, the d7 knight will have to be dealt with. This brings Bb5, pinning the knight, to mind. However, black can just play c6. Castling is something that needs to be considered at some point, but the king might be just fine on, say, d2, particularly if the position closes fully.} 8.Bd3 c5 {For black to stand a chance, he had to make this move at some point. Allowing the queen to move will break the critical pin on the e7 knight, allowing it to possibly hop to f5, and black’s position starts to appear more reasonable. However, c5 also weakens the a4-e8 diagonal, allowing the second pin to happen.} 9.Bb5 c4 {Black closes the position up himself, making his knights good, but his bishop horrific. Also, white’s light square bishop will not be returning home after this move. A simple a6 at any time forces it to take on d7 immediately.} 10.Qh4 h5 11.Ne2 {Where to place the knight was a tricky decision for me. There didn’t seem to be any great places for it, despite the fact that the position calls for it to try to reach its potential by finding a great place. From f3, I didn’t see a lot of potential on the kingside. There was the idea of Nf3-d2-b1-a3 to get to the queenside, but I thought even then, it would be easy to keep at bay with a6, which was probably going to get played soon, anyway. A knight on a3 wouldn’t be doing anything. The e2 square seemed to me to have more of a future on the kingside.} 11...a6 12.Bxd7%2B {Forced.} 12...Qxd7 {It was here that I gave away my advantage. I was concerned that the knights I had been pinning all game were no longer pinned. The e7 knight could now jump to f5 easily. Playing g4 to dislodge it was now difficult because of the h5 pawn, while g4 hxg4 Qxg4 just opens a file for the rook. Bf6 first might just lead to Rh7 instead of Rg8, keeping the rook on the potentially half-open h-file. My decision, then, was to trade minors and queens on e7 and then shut out his bishop. Lock the position down tight and let my knight and king do the work. The problem is that his rooks. I think my plan was winning if all rooks were deleted. This was just a conceptual error, probably due to fatigue.} 13.Bxe7 Qxe7 14.Qxe7%2B Kxe7 15.Kd2 {The first step in my plan was to connect rooks and shore up the only weak points (c pawns).} 15...b5 16.Rhb1 Bd7 17.a4 {This was probably a mistake. I thought in my head that if he took, I would just jump on the b-file and probably blockade his pawns easily with knight/rook. After bxa4 Rb7, Rhb8 seems to end that idea quickly. I noticed this basically right after I played it.} 17...Rhb8 18.a5 {Unsure of how to fix my previous mistake, I felt like I needed to just lock this up the best I could and try to force play to the other side of the board.} 18...Rb7 19.Rb4 {I thought I could stop the bleeding here with one rook and shift play to the other wing. The rook wasn’t going to be doing a lot anyway, and if I needed it later, Maybe I could swap the knight for the rook on the blockade job somehow.} 19...f6 {f6 was a move I had created a plan for. I wanted to let him either take it or close it up. If he takes on e5, I would take back and then fill in the d4 square with either the knight or king, closing it up as much as possible. The knight wants to move forward anyway, so Ke3 seemed to be most flexible since it gave me the choice of filling d4 with either the knight or king.} 20.Ke3 fxe5 21.dxe5 Rf8 22.f4 {Continuing the plan of closing up the board.} 22...Be8 23.h4 Kd8 24.g3 Rbf7 {The rooks are impotent on the f-file, so I felt this gesture was useless. I’m not sure what other plans he could reasonably create, though.} 25.Kd4 {Time to try to infiltrate with the king. I could’ve also put the knight there, but my idea was that the knight could go to g5 and maybe f6 via h7 some day. The f6 idea seemed far-fetched, but hopefully making his pieces stop lots of ideas at the same time would become impossible for him. I kept an idea of sacrificing on b5 and ramming the a-pawn down the stretch in reserve if I could get all his pieces busy and inflexible enough.} 25...Kc7 26.Ng1 Rg7 27.Nf3 Kd7 28.Kc5 Kc7 29.Rd1 {I don’t remember what the plan was for this rook. It may have just been a bluff, trying to get him to do something weakening. Obviously, I’m not going to take on d5 or something.} 29...Kb7 {Is it time to infiltrate with the king? Black has rolled out the red carpet. Kc6 Rd7%2B Kxe6 Kc6 Nd4%2B Kc5 was pretty terrifying. Maybe it was time to admit how badly I botched this and offer a draw. } 30.Ng5 {Let’s see how he responds to a threat on e6 first. Maybe he will allow some tactic.} 30...Rc7%2B {Alright, now it is either do or don’t. I calculated Kd6 again to see what might be subtly different this time. Kd6 Bf7 Nxf7 Rfxf7 followed by Rc6# was enough to make me retreat my king and offer a draw. My opponent immediately accepted.} 31.Kd4 1/2-1/2 '/><p>
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Well, not a bad first day, but not a great first day. Only real mis-step was the draw in round 3, but I guess that could be worse. I headed home hopeful for a solid night's sleep.</div>
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When I arrived the next morning, I was feeling pretty good. I checked the pairings and saw I had another lower rated player (this one in the 1200s). He's actually a player from a club I play at in Ft. Smith a lot, so I've seen him around. Before the game I was talking to a friend from that club, and he said he's way stronger than 1200 something. He guessed he was probably 1600. Great. I don't mind playing stronger players, but why do I have to play them when they are 400 points under-rated?!</div>
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I set up for the game and waited for my opponent to arrive. He arrived on time; we shook hands and got started.</div>
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<object data="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" height="350" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"><param name="movie" value="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value='orientation=H&tabmode=false&light=cccccc&dark=777777&border=0&bordertext=cccccc&headerbackground=0&headerforeground=ffffff&mtbackground=cccccc&pgndata=[Event "Arkansas Open 2015"] [Site "Mt. Sequoyah Retreat/Convention Center, Fayetteville, AR"] [Date "2015.03.22"] [Round "4"] [White "John Colucinno"] [Black "Phillip Watts"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B23w"] [EventDate "2015.03.21"] 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.f4 {The Grand Prix Attack. Of course, I suspected this was coming after my opponent played Nc3. Much better than last time I faced this opening as black. At last year’s Arkansas Open, I faced an unrated player who I stupidly assumed didn’t know many openings. It was several moves later before I woke up and realized that he was playing a textbook GPA against me and I was already in trouble.} 3...Bg7 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Bb5 {I have made repertoire choices for playing against the GPA, but I haven’t studied them. Therefore, I’m pretty much winging it. The good news is I at least have some experience playing the GPA--some as white, and some playing it reversed as black. My winging it won’t be totally clueless, at least.} 5...e6 {I feel like the most dangerous GPA plans involve white playing f5. One of my goals will be to make playing f5 as uncomfortable as possible. The trade-off is a little bit of swiss-cheese on the dark squares.} 6.Bxc6 bxc6 {I don’t mind this trade so much. One of my goals will be to get counterplay on the queenside and/or counter-punch in the center. More center pawns and an open b-file could very well help with one or both plans.} 7.O-O Ne7 {More protection for f5. Also, if he switches gears and plays e5 (shutting down the long diagonal), the knight might have some central squares (d5/f5).} 8.d3 O-O 9.Be3 {This appears to be a reasonable move. It comes with tempo, attacking the c5 pawn. However, this was my first indication that my opponent may not play the GPA often or know some of the attacking ideas. It’s still possible he does, but this raised a little flag in my mind about the possibility. The deal here is that the bishop doesn’t necessarily need to move for a long time. It’s ultimate goal is usually h6, so anywhere along that diagonal is fine if white intends to play f5 (again, one of the main ideas of the GPA). This move seems unnecessary. Since it comes with tempo, though, it could still be fine.} 9...Qa5 {A bit of tempo of my own, here, though. Qa5 protects c5 and attacks c3. Queenside counterplay is getting started a little early.} 10.e5 {As expected, e5 shuts down the long diagonal. This puts the brakes on the f5 plan, though. It will now be much tougher to play, though it could still happen. If black is dead set on getting that bishop down to h6, a pure sacrifice could be made. As noted earlier, e5 gives the knight some temporary squares, at least.} 10...Nd5 {Tempo on the dark square bishop. Bd2 is probably forced here.} 11.Bd2 Qb6 {This was a mistake. After I made the move, I considered Na4. The queen cannot keep defending the c5 pawn, so it will be lost to Nxc5 on the following move. Attempting to regain the pawn via Qxb2 (so, for instance, Na4 Qb7 Nxc5 Qxb2) will lose the queen after c4 Nc7 Rb1 (Qxa2 Na4 followed by Ra1) Qa3 Bb4.} 12.Rb1 ( 12.Na4 Qb7 13.Nxc5 Qxb2 14.c4 Nc7 15.Rb1 Qa3 16.Bb4 ) 12...Ba6 {Ultimately, I’d like to crack open the center for my bishop pair. I have two c-pawns with which to undermine d4 and a d-pawn that can attack e5. Activating my bishops should earn myself a nice advantage.} 13.Re1 c4%2B {Was hopeful he would play Kh1 here, allowing me to win the d3 pawn, but even after d4 I still have c5 in reserve.} 14.d4 Rfd8 {I was concerned about c5 immediately running into Be3, so I switched gears and played for d6 first.} 15.b3 {My opponent played this move and immediately got up and walked quickly out the door of the playing hall. He did it with enough purpose that I glanced up and watched him go. Once he was outside, he didn’t stop walking quickly until he was out of sight, towards the parking lot. I actually asked the TD if there was a rule about leaving the playing area. I might be paranoid, but I’m not super comfortable with my opponent just leaving like that. The TD went outside to look for him. He didn’t see him and didn’t really appear to know what to do. Eventually, he came back and continued playing. With his move, I suspected he wanted to jump on the open b-file with his rook, meaning if cxb3 he would reply with Rxb3. I couldn’t see any other reason he would allow me to trade this weak pawn. I wasn’t worried about him getting on the file, since that could be challenged fairly easily. I didn’t hesitate long before trading.} 15...cxb3 16.Rxb3 {As suspected.} 16...Qc7 17.Nxd5 cxd5 {This might have been my opponent’s idea. My queen and bishop are suddenly a bit awkward. The bishop has nice scope over there, but it’s unguarded. The queen is also unguarded, but more importantly, it doesn’t have many safe files to flee to. Ok, but I’d still like to play d6 and that would solve that problem. If I have time. Also, important to notice the Ba5 half-threat.} 18.Bb4 {More insight into his plans here. This one isn’t dangerous, though. Clearly, he wants to put his bishop on d6. Obviously, I don’t want to allow that, but it isn’t hard to prevent. I can trade-off a problem piece in the process. Ideally, I’d like to keep that piece because it has potential if I can ever open the center, but it’s not done much for me lately.} 18...Bf8 19.Ree3 {This rook lift is a nice maneuver to swing over to the c-file. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get there fast enough.} 19...Bxb4 20.Rxb4 Rdc8 {Backwards pawns are only weak if they can be attacked. This one is quite vulnerable.} 21.Ra3 {c4 is a nice outpost for the bishop. It would be a great outpost if his knight had any trouble getting there. Sadly, he can be there in a couple of hops. I had to make sure that a NxB trade would not lose me any positional advantages.} 21...Bc4 22.Nd2 a5 {This was what I had in mind. Getting the rook off the 4th rank allows me to recapture with a piece and keep it there, preferably the rook. One more subtle maneuver is required to pull that one off.} 23.Rb2 Qa7 {This move prepares for Rxc4 and keeps the queen quite active.} 24.Nxc4 Rxc4 25.c3 {This move was required.} 25...Rac8 {Here, I was quite happy with my position. I felt like I’d outplayed my opponent on the queenside and obtained a nice positional advantage, which I was prepared to press. Maybe Qc7 to protect a5 and further pressure c3. I still had d6 ideas if I needed to attempt to create a second weakness. I wasn’t sure if the a-pawn would qualify or not, but I was optimistic that I could break through somehow.} 26.Qc1 {While waiting on my opponent to move, I was assessing some of his options. I remember clearly thinking in my head "well, he definitely can’t play Qc1." I’m not entirely sure why he did. I realize he wanted to add protection to c3, but what made him choose this move over say Rbb3 or Qd2? This move is a disaster, and as soon as he made it, I started to relax. I wouldn’t need to create a second weakness. My opponent handed me a pawn and a way into his position on a platter.} 26...Rxd4 27.Qe3 {I think he lashed out after his blunder, because this move doesn’t lose a little, it loses a lot. The first move of the finishing combination is practically forced. The second one I saw fairly quickly, but had to check over thoroughly, because it’s the type of move that will lose a won game if you are wrong on.} 27...Rd1%2B 28.Kf2 Rf1%2B 29.Kxf1 {Wisely, my opponent chose to accept losing his queen for my rook over playing Ke2, where Re1%2B wins his queen for nothing. Just mop up from here.} 29...Qxe3 30.Rxa5 {Well, this nullifies his wise decision from earlier. } 30...Qc1%2B 31.Kf2 Qxb2%2B 32.Kf1 Qb1%2B {Ok, this wasn’t most efficient. I didn’t care.} 33.Ke2 Rxc3 34.Ra8%2B Kg7 0-1 '/><p>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">I was extremely happy when this game was over. I was sitting there with 2.5 out of 4 points and one more round to play. I had already bested last year's terrible performance at this tournament by half a point. I drove back to Subway and grabbed a sandwich again. When I got back, after finishing my sandwich from the outside tables, I went back in to check the pairings for the final round. No such, luck. There were still two games going as the scheduled final round time approached. Board one was still going with a knight vs. bishop and three pawns each, painful looking endgame. I was glad I wasn't playing that one. It ended maybe 5 minutes before the final round was scheduled to begin. Most of the games were started on time, but the games involving the players of that game (and one other) were delayed slightly to accomodate lunch for those players. My game began on time. I had a final round crack at an 1800 rated player. Let's do this!</span><br />
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<object data="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" height="350" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"><param name="movie" value="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value='orientation=H&tabmode=false&light=cccccc&dark=777777&border=0&bordertext=cccccc&headerbackground=0&headerforeground=ffffff&mtbackground=cccccc&pgndata=[Event "Arkansas Open 2015"] [Site "Mt. Sequoyah Retreat/Convention Center, Fayetteville, AR"] [Date "2015.03.22"] [Round "5"] [White "Phillip Watts"] [Black "Frank Berry"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C50f"] [EventDate "2015.03.21"] 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4 Be7 {Against my Scotch defense, generally any move that is non-threatening I just respond with Nxd4. So, I have prepared systems for Bc5, Bb4%2B, and Nf6. Bc5 isn’t "threatening," but it prevents Nxd4. Once I play Nxd4, the position is pretty standard and development seems comfortable.} 5.Nxd4 Nf6 6.Nc3 O-O 7.O-O {This move seems fine to me. I was expecting my opponent to respond with Ne5 here. Normal play for me would be some combination of Bb3 and later f4. My opponent threw me a curveball, though.} 7...Nxe4 {Ok, I’ve seen this idea enough to immediately recognize what’s happening here. This is the center fork trick. If I take on e4, d5 forks two pieces. I also know that it’s not usually a loss of material, so I will just have to choose the correct way to deal with it that leads to the best position. I saw two major options that retained material equality. Nxe4 d5 Bxd5 Qxd5 and Bxf7%2B Rxf7 Nxe4 (probably d5 Nc3). I honestly didn’t see too much difference between the two, but I’m pretty sure I chose the wrong one in retrospect.} 8.Bxf7%2B ( 8.Nxe4 d5 9.Nxc6 bxc6 10.Bd3 dxe4 11.Bxe4 ) 8...Rxf7 9.Nxe4 d5 10.Nc3 Nxd4 11.Qxd4 c6 {I think one of my errors in evaluation was not continuing to this position in my head. I think I had some dreams of Nxc6 and doubling up some pawns as compensation for the two bishops. However it came about, my evaluation of this line seemed poor, because this position isn’t comfortable. For a plan, I had basically "develop and put your rooks in the middle" in mind. I had concerns about where to place my minor pieces. Bf4 seemed difficult to play at first glance, but after looking a bit, I realized I would probably be fine doing it. Fianchettoing seemed the only other real option, but I didn’t want to be slow in this position.} 12.Bf4 b6 {I had a feeling this move was coming. A bishop on c5 would work nicely with his open f-file. I didn’t want him to get this move in with tempo.} 13.Qd2 Ba6 {I was definitely surprised with this move. It appears to be a developing move with tempo, but my rook wants to be on e1 anyway. I was happy playing Re1. I feel like this is not an optimal place for his bishop, also. Bf5 made a lot more sense to me. } 14.Rfe1 Bd6 {Another surprising move from my opponent. In fact, this move basically let me back in the game. I have a feeling he overlooked what I had in mind.} 15.Bxd6 Qxd6 16.Ne4 {A big problem with my position was that my knight was out of play, much like his bishop now appears to be. I now have to tempo moves to get it aggressively posted.} 16...Qc7 17.Ng5 Re7 {A third surprise from my opponent. I expected a simple Rf6 or something. Maybe even Rf8 (though f6 seems to make more sense, much more active in a position that demands activity). My opponent seemed to realize he’d messed up because after a minute or so he verbally offered a draw. This was actually very tempting. Much higher rated opponent, in contention for prize money with just a draw (though nearly guaranteed it with a win), and out of it with less than a draw. I hemmed and hawed for quite awhile and finally decided I couldn’t accept a draw and respect myself.} 18.Rxe7 Qxe7 19.Re1 Qd7 {White clearly has all the activity now. This position was why I didn’t want a draw. I don’t think white is winning, but white is clearly better.} 20.Qf4 {My idea here was to induce weaknesses in his kingside that I could possibly exploit. I wanted to press the initiative since his bishop and rook were out of play.} 20...Rf8 21.Qh4 {This was my idea to induce weakness. Either h6 or g6 are required. In hindsight, this plan was probably not best. Maybe doubling on the e-file and playing Qe6, attempting to a get my rook on the 6th or 7th rank was better.} 21...h6 22.Nf3 {I had originally hoped I could play Ne6 in here somewhere, but at this point Re8 would make that a disaster.} 22...Re8 {At this point, I felt my initiative was fizzling, so I tried to find an aggressive response. I was beginning to wonder if I could get away with offering a draw back to him.} 23.Ne5 {There are some pinning issues with this move, but I felt like I could cement it in with f4. Getting him to play g5 might even be worth some loss of material. Probably not, though. I did feel like if he had to ever play g5, at least things would be fun for awhile.} 23...Qd6 24.f4 Qc5%2B 25.Kh1 Qxc2 {I can’t really blame him for grabbling material here. It was actually a bit disturbing to me at the time. Like Deep Blue pawn grabbing in the face of an attack. My opponent knew I had nothing. Let’s keep the pressure on. It’s all I had.} 26.Qh5 {My intuition told me I could have some tricks, but as hard as I looked, I found nothing. Now, I started turning my attention to ways to secure a draw as well.} 26...Re7 27.Qh4 {I made this move and offered the draw. He didn’t respond right away, so I got up and checked on some of the other games that would affect my class standing. When I got back, he nodded at me and accepted. We looked briefly after the game at things like Qd2, I proposed wild g4 ideas, etc. We did all this silently since many other games were still going on.} 1/2-1/2 '/><p>
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I checked the standings on the wall before I left. 3 points out of 5 might be enough to tie for the class C money prize. There was one player with 3 out of 4 going into the final round. He was playing a higher rated player. If he even draws, I'm pretty sure he would have top prize to himself. There were a few other players with a shot at 3 out of 5 if they won, and at least a couple that had already achieved 3 out of 5, so if I do win prize money, it will probably be only a small portion of it.</div>
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Sadly, since I left immediately after my game, I have no way of knowing, yet. The tournament hasn't been submitted to USCF for rating, yet, so I can't look it up online. The results have not been published anywhere that I know of. I'm waiting for the USCF report or a check in the mail. I'll update when I know!</div>
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Overall, I was pretty pleased with how I played. I felt a lot stronger at this tournament than at any tournament I've played to this point. I'm going to keep plugging away and hopefully keep improving. If you were at this tournament, I'd love to hear your stories, see your pictures, whatever you've got!</div>
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The analysis of each of my games here was just the quick "get down what you were thinking at the time as soon as possible" style analysis. I will be revisiting each of these games over the course of the next week or two. I might pubish results here, so if you are interested, stay tuned. If you have any insight into any of the games, please make a comment!</div>
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Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.</div>
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update: USCF finally pubished the event, and I did not win prize money.</div>
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PS: please forgive my calling the "Scotch Gambit" the "Scotch defense" in game 5. I have no idea what happened there.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13448588854381079460noreply@blogger.com0