Getting to 2700 at least - Page 3 - Chess and Board Game Strategy

QuantumCage · 07-25-2012, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwtaylor

Giri is 18 years old! It's one thing to surge like that when you are a teenager, a bit more rare in your early 20s. Your recent gains into the 2400 band are quite impressive. That kind of improvement in the late 20s is very rare.

I could only find a couple people who broke through 2700 after 25 years of age. Luke McShane just broke 2700 and he is 28. He reached 2600 in 2003. Laurrent Fressinet reached 2700 in 2010 when he was 29. He reached 2600 in 2001 when he was also around 20.

It'd be a much less bleak question if you had asked your chances of making grandmaster. That seems like a reasonable lifetime goal for you, given where you are.

Well the ratings are now about 200 points higher than they were 40 years ago. Some guy might have been able to get to 2500 late in their career. But I just now calculated that in 1972 the average age of the top ten was 40 compared to today's 30. Kinda suspicious.
I btw dropped two or three points in a weak 9-round tournament two weeks ago. Too many blunders.

QuantumCage · 08-06-2012, 08:56 AM

Last weekend was the Finnish team blitz championship. There were over 160 4-men teams. Our club had won it three times in a row, but now we only came in third place. I can not believe our second team's first board player did not flag GM Hammer. Hammer had a rook against a pawn. But with only 4 seconds left he threw his rook somewhere and offered a draw. If my club mate had declined we would have come in second place.

Now I am in Riga, Latvia. As I was entering Stockmann some young fellow approached me and wanted to shake my hand. First he uttered something foreign and then "please do not misunderstand two seven". He also started to move his fingers to make it real sure I understand him. Yeah, bye bye, no money to you. Anyway the first round will start in one hour. Gotta learn some openings quick. http://www.sahafederacija.lv/?p=3645

QuantumCage · 08-06-2012, 03:40 PM

Pretty interesting win today. King's indian is always scary to face even though comp almost always likes white. After a quick analysis at least 19.Na3 27.Nc4 and 30.Bd2 are bad moves. Especially Bd2 which allows Nh4. I just assumed g3 would be ok but Qg6 is annoying. http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=69015
Tomorrow a 2200 WGM. I somehow forgot my pin number to my phone, so I can not even take any pictures. Getting the puk code from here is practically impossible. And now it is raining hard. Hopefully it will be ok in the morning. I do not even have a jacket with me.
Edit. And a lightning just set a car alarm on.

The Yugoslavian · 08-07-2012, 11:45 AM

Nice attack down the middle!

Looks like this will be a really exciting thread to follow since you seem like you will continue to update it,

.

pinks85 · 08-07-2012, 12:35 PM

Hi QuantumCage,

I just registered here to be able to post in this thread :P

First of all, congrats to the progress you've made so far, and I have my fingers crossed so you achieve your goal... would be awesome for sure!

There's one thing which I'm very much curious about and would very much appreciate a (somewhat detailed if possible) response - what did your training look like in the period when you got from cca 2070 to where you are now? what do you feel helped you the most? what was a waste of time? etc etc....

I'm 2079 FIDE rated myself now and have been around 2100 since I was 18... As I'm turning 27 this month, I have an even later "starting point" than you had, but my lifelong dream in chess has alwas been to get the IM title and to a level of ~2450 FIDE...
So you can imagine that reading your thread here and at the chesspub forum, and then checking out your FIDE profile was inspiring for me

Please forgive me if I'm hijacking your 2700 thread a bit, but... how do I get from 2070 to 2430?

Any insight, advice etc. is greatly appreciated.

By the way, I wish you all the best at the Riga tournament! you might clash with two of my countrymen there, GM Markos and FM (soon to be IM) Petenyi...

Thanks

ohsnapzbrah · 08-07-2012, 02:14 PM

Looks like he lost rd 3

But seems like he had a pretty good position throughout the opening and middlegame. (I quickly glanced over the game on the playchess server) Question: There may be something obvious I'm missing, but why did you play 20. b3 instead of 20. Bxd6? It seems like, at least to me, once he gets 20...d5 in those pawns just sort of hinder much of the play that you can generate.

wlrs · 08-07-2012, 02:19 PM

brag: drew with a future 2700 in said blitz tournament

QuantumCage · 08-08-2012, 07:26 AM

Somewhat easy win against the WGM. Some analysis:

At this point I was already cursing the french. Impossible to win with it. But she decided to play 1.g4 which kind of weakened her position. I can strike with f5. If she then plays g5, I can hope for some b5 b4 thing.

What should black do?

Spoiler:

1...Qa5! 2.Qd2 Ne7 with Ng8 Nh6 to follow. I played Ne7 right away but then Qb1 would have been strong. The queen is surprisingly annoying on b4. If 1...Ne7 2.Qb1 a5 then 3.Qb2 Kb8 ( to stop Rb1,Qb6) 4.Rah1. The queen would have gotten out of the first rank without losing a move.

The whole game http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=69049

The game against Ehlvest was a tough one. He had an odd habit. After almost every move, he walked down the stairs out of the playing hall who knows where. He of course did not use a computer. But he also could not have made it any more suspicious. Some interesting moments I found in my analysis:

There are actually many winning moves here but the best one is

Spoiler:

Rd2!

I played 1.e5? which just helped my opponent. After 1...Nd7 (Nh5 is also good) 2.exd6 cxd6 black has gotten rid off his doubled pawns and has the possibility to play Qb6. Though admittedly at some point white has to come through, now was not the time.

My move choice 1.Bd4 has the problem of not getting a rook to the e-file. So 1.Bf2 or Rfe1 was better.

Can white take on d5?

Spoiler:

1.Nxd5? Qd8! 1.Rxd5? Ne3!

Crazy attack starting with 1.g4 did not really work. I should have just gone back to b4 with my queen.

I had a chance to get to this position, which comp evaluates as 0.1 for black. But as I was living with only the increment, my brain was not quick enough to understand the drawing chances. Ne5 possibility keeps the black king at bay.

The game in full http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=69048

QuantumCage · 08-08-2012, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pinks85

Please forgive me if I'm hijacking your 2700 thread a bit, but... how do I get from 2070 to 2430?

I believe there are many ways to get there. But all have played and analysed many otb games. If you want to get there quick play at least 60 games every year. I myself also used chesstempo.com a lot. Those super difficult problems at least taught me patience. The main thing is just to think for yourself. One trick when analysing your games with an engine is to hide the moves. So you can only see the evaluation. If the evaluation suddenly changes think!

QuantumCage · 08-08-2012, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ohsnapzbrah

Looks like he lost rd 3

But seems like he had a pretty good position throughout the opening and middlegame. (I quickly glanced over the game on the playchess server) Question: There may be something obvious I'm missing, but why did you play 20. b3 instead of 20. Bxd6? It seems like, at least to me, once he gets 20...d5 in those pawns just sort of hinder much of the play that you can generate.

Qb6 would have won two pawns. Comp does see some compensation but certainly not easy for me to understand.

TexAg06 · 08-08-2012, 05:55 PM

QuantumCage, thanks for taking the time to post that analysis. Really interesting stuff, both games.

And yeah, give up playing the French haha

ganstaman · 08-08-2012, 07:08 PM

I agree, that was interesting to read. However,

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuantumCage

At this point I was already cursing the french. Impossible to win with it.

you take that back!! And be careful, the French might hear you!

QuantumCage · 08-10-2012, 08:01 AM

Time to update again. In the fourth round I made so many small mistakes against a 2292 rated youngster. He often took these 5-10 minute breaks away from the board. Maybe he played bughouse or fooled around with his gf Bivol Alina.

Where to put the bishop?

Spoiler:

Bb6 might be the best move. My game move Be7 is of course very passive. I just could not find a good reply to Bg5. But there appears to be some tricks after Bb6. After 1...Bb6 2.Bg5 h6 3.Bh4 Nc6 4.Re1 g5 5.Ne4! black has f5 tricks. This does not work in case of 1...Bd6 because white could exchange the bishops.

What is the most natural move? This "problem" is just for me.

Spoiler:

1..Qa6 is normal. I played f5 and got into small annoyance after Qf4.

The full game http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=69103
Later rounds later.

TexAg06 · 08-10-2012, 09:07 AM

Thanks again for the games and analysis QuantumCage, keep it coming. Really good stuff.

Over · 08-10-2012, 01:01 PM

Hey Quantum!
one of my first posts in chess part of the forum.

Great to see your games (full) with some analysis coming with it. The small problems are really good especially since you explain the solutions.

I hope you achieve your goals and I hope even more you keep updating the topic