Qh5 drops a queen to Nxh5. So I did Rxf6 first.


Thanks for subbing

What you described about chess players sounds a lot like poker players and Magic The Gathering players...

Fair point, same type of people I guess.


Not sure if I'll play chess on monday.

I was allowed to join the final rounds of a rapid tournament on Tuesday (15th) so I might as well go. Unfortunately, I have to start at 1/6 points so I will probably be paired with some lower rated, so I dunno...



So I will play:

Norths Rapid Tournament on the 16th and Purdy Blitz on the 23rd instead of the 3 weeks St George quick play tournament at a club thats hours away from my house(16th/23rd/30th)

Will also play an open (classical time control OTB chess) on the 27th and 28th.


Not sure if I want to self ban this period to study or not...

Didn't play the Norths Rapid tournament on Tuesday, too tired (no sleep poker session) and I only playing lower rateds (starting at 1/6 at round 7).

Was gonna play blitz tournament at another club today but changed my mind and went to play poker instead. I realised blitz is bad for your chess, and probably should stick to live OTB chess. Therefore, I'm probably not playing the Purdy Blitz next week either (unlikely at least).


I have the August Weekender on the 27th and 28th, so I have less than ten days to prepare for them. I might update the study I do everyday before a tournament here.

Also, I might take a bye/forfeit for last two rounds for a poker tournament.

More that classical time controls are bad for your blitz, imo.

Stellar contribution




Guys, check this game out.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1069170

A very complex and instructive game by Karpov. The recurring theme is of him shuffling his pieces back in the first and second rank and building positional advantages. The ideas are complex and interesting. Everything thing seem fine for white, maybe even better, then suddenly boom, he loses?!

Feel free to post your analysis here guys...

I like my posts ITT like I like my chess. Very short, poorly thought out and probably able to be completely refuted given time to think about it.

GM Iuri Shkuro approves (he's inactive in classical controls, last played under them in 2010).

I don't have any pubmed articles to back me up but I'm pretty sure playing classical/longer is the best way to fundamentally improve one's blitz strength. There is obviously quite a bit of specificity to blitz so maybe at a certain level playing classical won't help it any more (since you have essentially stopped getting better at chess).

I realize the statement was likely somewhat tongue-in-cheek but for some reason I can't help mentioning something at this point.

One thing I have somewhat wondered is if Nakamura was actually helped by his bajillion bullet/blitz games he's played or if it was in spite of that "wasted time" that he became a top player in the world. I do think there could be something to be said in simply seeing 2564654354 positions in one's own games in terms of structure and other stuff that maybe is valuable in a different way than simply bulleting through as many GM games as possible over the same amount of time.

I think playing exclusively blitz would be bad for your long form chess but mixing some in is unlikely to hurt, as evidenced by Nakamura, Carlsen etc.

I tend towards the view of IM Greg Shahade (Im on phone but google for his articles on the subject) that the chess world's obsession with long time controls is unhealthy. It's based on the empirically false idea that the best players dont retain their advantage at shorter time controls. Also the idea that classical time controls produce classic games. There is a reason Tal's games are still all time classics despite many being flawed when tackled by engine defence. Meanwhile Stockfish has produced very few classic games.

I don't think curtainz really discusses in any of those articles whether biltz helps longer time controls. I certainly don't think it should be bad for longer time controls. When people say "blitz hurts your chess" I think a big part of it is that one is possibly wasting all of their chess time doing something that isn't making them better at chess overall.

I do strongly agree with curtainz that chess time controls needs to shorten for both entertainment purposes and convenience. That doesn't necessarily mean a ton of blitz since rapid or a bit longer than rapid controls seem like they could be a sweet spot.

One thing, though, is that there can be quite a disparity between a player's chess strength across time controls. They can adapt to improve at all of them but there does seem to be some indication (again, just imo) that there can be ~top 10 blitz players who really shouldn't be considered top 10 chess players, if that makes any sense.

But, yeah, if there is a clear #1 chess player, he likely should be #1 or almost #1 across pretty much all time controls. I guess you could get a scenario like Nakamura who, arguably (although his rating at different time controls doesn't really indicate this) could have a much easier time contending for the WC if blitz affected his chances.

This will always remain a controversial topic, unless some wide scale empirical study can help us come to a conclusion. Intuitively, I think while Blitz help you get quick “practice”, it promotes superficial thinking/analysis of a position, shallow calculation and general impatience. I do think focusing on OTB long time control chess is the way to go.

Speaking of which, I haven’t studied much chess the last few days which is a shame as the tournament is during the weekend. Furthermore, I would only be able to play 4/7 rounds. On day one, I have to take a bye on the 4th round due to my long times friends farewell party, as well the 6th and 7th. A rival of mine is also playing, I think he will be a motivating factor for my improvement in 2016.

I did purchase Bologan's Caro Khan series on chessbase as well as a KIA and semi slav course. Will continue on them after end of the tournament.

So I played the weekender, 4 rounds of it anyway and I scored 3/4 which was alright.

On the last round that I played one of my best attacking games ever, a 25 move miniature against a talented junior who was having a good tournament (he busted a couple of 1800s and drew with a 2100, impressive for a kid).

In this game I did a crushing kingside attack and sac-ed a bunch of pieces to drag his king out from safety.


Full game is here, I was white: http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game....php?id=107957


1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e6 3. g3 c5 4. Bg2 Be7 5. e4 Nc6 6. Nge2 d6 7. O-O O-O 8. d3 a6 9. h3 Qc7 10. f4 Bd7 11. g4 Rab8 12. Qe1 Nb4 13. Qg3 Rfc8 14. a3 Nc6 15. g5 Ne8 16. f5 Bf8 17. g6 pawn break fxg6 18. fxg6 h6 19. Bxh6! The first sacrifice to weaken f6 (gxh6 20. Rxf8+ Kxf8 21. Qf4+ now Nf6 doesn’t work) gxh6 20. Rxf8+!!





20. ... Kg7 accepting the sac inevitably leads to the promotion of another queen (20... Kxf8 21. Qf4+ Ke7 22. Rf1 Kd8 23. Qh4+ Ne7 24. Rf8!) 21. Qf4 Ne5 22. Ng3 Kxg6 23. Nh5!! There were alot of ways to win at the end but this one is nice





23. ... Kxh5 (23... Qd8 24. Rg8+ Kh7 25. Qf8 the king will fall) 24. Bf3+ Nxf3+ 25. Qxf3+ 1-0



On a less well played game, I missed a theoretical drawn position against the eventual tournament winner from overseas (he was rated near 2200). I misplayed the opening and dropped a pawn early on, dug hard to trick my opponent into an opposite coloured bishop endgame. Unfortunately, under time pressure on the critical position, I played the one losing move! This is a huge leak of mine in chess. When I’m unable to evaluate the variations accurately, I sometime just go with my gut and this time it was wrong.





The position was reached after move 32. Both 33. a4 or 33. f4 holds and creates a fortress. My thought process was about 1. How I can keep the black king out of the queenside – defend the light squares with my bishop? 2. How I can hold on to prevent the black king from getting in the kingside 3. How do I keep an eye on the d2 pawn. Post mortem analysis suggests that I didn’t need to deal with the d2 pawn at all by taking it. But due to having like 2 minutes lft on the clock I had to go with intuition.

Despite intending to play a4, which would have drawn, I panicked in time trouble (and having bystanders) and played 33. a3?? So so bad… I was worred about the d2 pawn holding me up but in reality I would get the bishop to defend the light squares on the queen side while holding up the kingside with my king if the black king tries to enter that way. But now 33. a3 Bxa3 34. Kxd2 Bb4+! (I thought I could get Bb5 if he goes a4 because the bishop is in the way but he checks with tempo and) 35. Ke2 a4! 36. e4? a3 37. Bc4 fxe4 38. Ke3 b5 39. Ba2 Bc5+ 40. Kxe4 Bxf2 41. g4 Kg6 42. Bxe6 Kg5 43. h3 and I go on to lose in time trouble. Just kept making mistakes one after another. I was pretty unhappy about losing this game after working so hard. Shows that my calculation still needs work to be efficient with time constraints.

This game signifies the importance of time management, especially in defending positions. I made so many mistakes in time trouble. Part of practical strength in chess also include practicality, time management skills, nerves.

My rival also competed in the tournament, well hes not exactly my rival right now, because he’s a far worse player atm since he quit for over a year now, but he was the one that got me into doing chess again in uni (and hence somewhat responsible for this thread), he was also my rival in poker, unfortunately for him, he’s lost all his money playing it and since fallen behind me in that too. But he was someone who had a lot of ego and that pushed my competitive drive. He got back into chess recently. This tournament he didn’t perform so well, getting ran over by stronger players and barely escaping with draws against weaker players, and forfeiting a round or two. He proceed to tell me he’s taking a break from chess and that it’s full of unattractive and unsuccessful losers and old people. The guy is salty as f**k about it, and while it laughable, it is a shame that he has so little grit despite having big ambitions. That means I lose a rival which could serve as a source of motivation to improve. Nevertheless, I will continue with my study. Why did I decide to write about this on the thread? It is because I think a big part of success on and off the chess board, involves having the right mental attitude.

I have another big open event on Oct 1st so I will have a month to prepare for that.

Re the game against the junior, although the engine has 16 ... Bf8 as the losing move, his moves 12 and 13, Nb4 and Rc8, are bizarre, especially Nb4. Is there some point to Nb4 that escapes me? It's especially strange given that he prepped the obvious b5 and then didn't play it. Stockfish wants b5 on both move 12 and move 13.

Also I assume you looked at this with an engine yourself, but there's a M4 at move 22 with Rf1, the threat being the quite pretty Rg8+ and Qf8#. Game is over by then anyway.

Nice attack in the first game!

Yeah, I analysed with the engine afterwards. Pretty surprised by Nb4 and his other moves. Queenside expansion against a kingside storm leads to a pretty dynamic position and some of his move choices were bad considering his d7 bishop blocked everything out from defending his kingside. Even good players get into position they are unfamiliar with and therefore proceeds erroneously.

So I headed up to uni and played blitz/bullet chess for 6 hours nonstop after not having slept for over 24 hours (long poker session at the casino) and met alot of old friends. I end up losing heaps of games against my friends and random weaker players alike. Although my lack of sleep definitely affected my play, it was no excuse to my losses. Alot of those losses were because a misunderstanding of the position or the opening. It was still embarrassing losing the way I did and somewhat acceptable, I don't remember much from those game cuz I was very tired and I guess sleeplessness affects memory. But some of the games I lost in was in this particular line:






I was losing to casual fun players in lines that are in my preparation! This is simply unacceptable. It was either from some bad move choices in dynamic positions or tactical oversights. I feel pretty bad about it and it was definitely a moment of humility.


Decided to put myself in lock down to study for a month. I didn't even play a club rapid today because I think playing, while it's good for improvement is nowhere near studying where you are gaining new knowledge about your openings and positions. So going to self ban myself for a month or so because even posting for this thread is a time consuming process that takes away valuable study time and attention.

Yeah I mean I don't even see how Nb4 and Rc8 qualify as queenside expansion, except in a very slow sense. The goal of b5 is less queenside expansion and more undermining the centre, which seems like the obvious strategy given how many pawns you've advanced.

Will do a monthly report when I'm back from the self ban. Will also limit blitz/bullet online play and use it only for study (my blitz fell below 2k for the first time ever which was unacceptable so I have to do serious work working on my openings). I have a open tournament right after the month of September on October the 1st also, so I will be preparing for that too.

How much of your one month lockdown involves getting on a consistent sleep schedule?

Are you white or black in this crazy line? I can see the appeal for white in a blitz game, or maybe as a tournament surprise, but white has taken on much risk. You definitely don't want a strong opponent preparing for you in this line (probably from either side)!

Yea hard to say need some more work on this lines. It's been played by 2600 GMs so can't be too bad.

September report

Kinda a bad month for chess. I didn't really fix my sleep schedule. Played too much poker in the beginning then got abit addicted to league of legends and asian dramas series.

I was gonna play a 3 day open tomorrow but I changed my mind because I haven't studied chess at all. Wanted to work on some stonewall lines for black as well as do some endgames with Muller's courses. Ended up doing none of that so was pretty bad. I feel no point playing a tournament when I'm not in the mood, also no point playing games in my old lines since I won't be playing them much in the future either.

Also been playing OTB blitz as well as online blitz/bullet and been doing badly overall losing alot of games, I'm at all time rating low across all catergory on both lichess and chess.com. Hopefully this will change once I work on my new repertoire...

Got a round 2 uni champs game next week and I want to pretty a stonewall line for my opponent if I happen to play black. One with a simple attacking plan like f5-f4

I was offered to be one of the first paid coaches in lichess when my friend whos one of the main mods on the site gave me a form apply for a position. So I prob should remind myself to check into that.

Will make another post in a day or two. Hopefully I don't mess up this month.

I lost the uni championship series in the 2nd round 0.5-1.5. The time control was 15 0. I was upsetted by a 1900. On the brightside I was winning badly in both games. But in fast time controls sometimes miracles happen...

I'm writing these games from memory, they were played a few days ago...


Game 1 (I'm black)

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game....php?id=108312

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 h6 7. Nf3 Nf6 8. h5 Bh7 9. Bd3 Bxd3 10. Qxd3 e6 11. c4 Bd6 12. Bd2 Qe7 13. O-O-O Nbd7 14. Ne4 Nxe4 15. Qxe4 Nf6 16. Qe2 O-O-O I decided to castle long because I think I'm slower in a opposite side castling game and will lose to the hack first, also his h5 pawn will be a liability in the endgame 17. Bc3 Bb4 18. Bxb4 Qxb4 19. Ne5 Qe7 20. Rh3 Nd7 21. Rg3 Rhg8 22. Kb1 Nxe5 23. Qxe5 Qf6 24. Qxf6? Trades into a losing endgame gxf6 25. Rf3 f5 26. g3 Rg5 The rest of the game was a time scramble so I barely remember itbut this is winning for black, but rook endgames take time to convert. I even managed to get to the philidor position and went into a K+Q v K but my hands were too slow and I timed out so since he had no pieces left it was a draw.



Game 2 (I'm white)

I was tilting from letting him escape in the last game and so decided to crush him here.

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game....php?id=108313


1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 d6 5. e4 My trusty noob crusher system the English Botvinnik with plans Be3-Qd2-Bh6, then f4-f5 and profit O-O 6. Nge2 e5 7. d3 Be6 8. O-O Qc8 9. f4 Bh3 10. f5 Bxg2 11. Kxg2 c6 12. h3 d5 13. g4 similar position to the game I had in the grade matches in post 272 dxe4 14. g5 exd3 15. Qxd3 Rd8 16. Qe3 Nfd7 17. Ng3 b6 18. Nce4 Na6 19. Nd6 Qc7 20. Nxf7! I didn't spend alot of time on this move but intuitively it has to be good (20. ... Kxf7 21. fxg6+ Kxg6 22 Qe2 is already winning)






Rf8 21. Nh6+ Bxh6 22. gxh6 Nac5 23. b4 Nb7 24. Qg5 Qd8 25. f6 Kh8 26. Ne4 Rf7 27. Bb2 Qf8 We both have like <1min and this is where the time scramble begins. 28. Rad1 Rd8

How do I lose a position this good? After Bc3 none of his pieces can really move




29. Qg4 Qxh6 30. Bxe5? Nxe5 31. Rxd8+ I thought this wins a rook but we were playing at 7pm outside in the dark so I couldn't see his knight in during the time scramble even tho I should know it's on b7. Nxd8






It's always sad to lose these games but we just have to move on.

I'm starting a 100 day challenge for chess and today will be day 1 I will make up for todays study by doing it at near midnight and tmmr morning, will make a post very soon after...

100 day challenge


So in 100 days I will be playing the Oceania Zonal and hopefully score 6/9 to secure a FM title. It will be hard and probably require a 2300 performance elo regardless. I don't have a set structure atm and I'm just seeing what works for me and what doesn't. Last time around I put alot of pressure on myself to fulfil a very tough study schedule and lost motivation. This time hopefully it will be more realistic and achieveable in terms of what I want to study.