Your opponent is a donk, shoulda played 35. Qa7 and appreciated the beauty of it all!

I'm quite proud of the sequence I found in this game I played last night. White to play.

Hey guys and girls,

Did I ever mention I love chess? It's seriously the best thing ever.

Anyway I have my next big tournament coming up, in Groningen, Netherlands over Christmas. Entry list: http://www.schaakstadgroningen.nl/festival/14/A/

Hopefully I can wrap up this FM title, I believe I am 2291 live, I did get up to 2297 briefly but then lost one game.

Good luck in the tourney man, looks like a great one. Certainly no shortage of rating points to steal, that's a really strong field.

I became a FIDE Master earlier last year and got to my highest USCF rating of 2320 in November 2013 but now I am down a bit to 2270. Honestly I haven't put in a ton of work on my own game in the past year due to starting up my own online chess coaching website. Now I help other people to improve but I am really trying to get back to personal improvement. It's just been a bit tough to find the time and bullet chess on Chess.com/ICC is addictive which isn't helping me haha.

I'm looking forward to following this thread and seeing what other strong players are doing to constantly improve their games and will chip in with whatever tips/advice I can offer :-)

Hey DaShizWiz,

Thanks for taking the time to comment in the thread. I really need to get back into posting more puzzles here (means I will have to do them myself too ha).

2.5/5 so far in the tournament, every game so far has gone according to rating except a draw with a GM which I should have won
Not played anyone within 200 points of myself yet, lol swiss yoyo.

Here was my glorious position as Black today

Is that a puzzle? I don't see anything for black except a long game of suffering.

Yeah no puzzle to see here

It's like a game where you have to arrange those pieces in the worst situation possible for black excluding forced tactics.

You're up a pawn right? Should be winning.

He probably wishes he wasn't up a pawn. Probably wishes he could just pick up the e5 pawn and hand it to white. White's position > Black's position even tho black is up a pawn for sure. White's knight is waaaay better than black's dead bishop

95% sure I hit 2300 today

And we don't get anymore details than that?

Congrats though man. Do you have to maintain the title through the tournament's end, or are you now an FM?

He qualifies for the title if his rating passes 2300 at any point, including mid-tournament, but the title application is much simpler if he has a publisher rating over 2300.

If he tanks the rest of this event, then to get the FM title he'll have to prove his rating exceeded 2300 at some point, which will mean needing signed documentation from the TD and stuff.

My recommendation is for him to win more games and make it a moot point

Thanks, BJJ. You always know this stuff.

No, I always find "this stuff" interesting enough to Google up an answer

Edit: I'm at an actual computer, instead of on my phone, now, so here's a full source.

BJJ, I have a related question...

Suppose I am playing two events simultaneously - a league that lasts for months, and a Swiss event that lasts for a week. The league is to be rated in May, and the Swiss event in January.

I am rated 2290, gain 5 points in my first games in the league, then gain another 5 points in the Swiss event, then lose back 5 points in the second half of the league, so my published rating is 2295 in Jan and 2295 again in May. Am I entitled to the FM title?

Conversely, say I lose 5 points in my first games in the league, then gain 15 points in the Swiss event, then lose 10 points in the second half of the league. My published rating is 2305 in Jan and 2290 in May. I think this one is pretty clear.

I believe FIDE tried to crack down on situations like this so that leagues would have to be rated month-by-month, but they still exist.

Haha sorry was celebrating pretty hard last night

In the tournament I had 3 shots at making FM against higher rated opposition, but didn't take any of them. My draw against a 2495 GM actually put me to 2299 and the fact that I should have won didn't make things better.

Finally closed the deal with a win against a 2169, I think I managed to play a reasonable game (with the usual hiccups in a winning position, I must be winning more easily after 28...h5)

http://chess.tuxtown.net/game-replay...6406ec15fa1bea

Today drew this position vs a 2420 IM



So yeah back to my old problems. I have some ideas about fixing this, and honestly I think once I do the IM norms will start coming. I'm dropping a ridiculous amount of half points at the moment.

RoundTower: As I read it, you should be able to get the title in both cases. Essentially, if at any point you have a live rating OR a published rating of 2300+ you can claim the title. There's just a strong burden of proof if you try to claim it via live ratings instead of "official" ones.

Published rating, like in your second case, is the easy one. Once they publish a 2300+, just put in your application and the title is yours. I don't think they'd block your application even if your live rating never got there (like if you started at 2290, lost 10 points in first half of league, won 15 at the swiss, then broke even in second half of league. Peak live rating is 2295, but a 2305 is published. You're an FM now, because published ratings are always deemed official enough for that purpose.)

The harder part is trying to claim the title when your live rating breaks the threshold but your published rating doesn't - like your first scenario. However providing a clear timeline of when each game was played should do it. You'd want a certificate from the arbiter of the league games, and you'd be able to show that the swiss event brought your rating up to 2300. In that case it's the league that you're "in the middle of", even though the relevant league games were played before the swiss.

And more importantly, congrats on getting there, goldaxe!

Thanks BJJ!

Today drew vs a 2350 IM as Black, game wasn't so pretty. I set up my pieces incorrectly to start off with, and had to grovel for a draw in a pawn down rook ending.

In the final round I got destroyed by a young Israeli GM. I haven't analysed the game yet, but the move Qb6 is incredible. (I bet it doesn't work, but it's not obvious why!)

http://chess.tuxtown.net/game-replay...417eb8ed7cc78c

2015 is a new year, so let's come up with some goals!

1. Work a lot on calculation and technique
1.1 Finish GM Preparation:Calculation, in 2014 I'm pretty sure I did less than 50 exercises from it
2. Make a first IM norm
3. Learn the Grunfeld, including finally working out what to do against 1.Nf3, 1.c4 and 1.g3 to make sure I don't get tricked.

Feel free to post your own goals here!

Well it's a good thing these titles are for life, otherwise mine would certainly have been taken from me last night. Played the worst game I can remember for a long time and got crushed by a 1900

http://chess.tuxtown.net/game/view/i...5dfc7ce7ed7374

That's some Anderssen-Kiezeritsky **** right there :O

1900 is going to print this one out and put it on a wall for sure