idk the thoery well but the line you suggest I think black plays a quick g6, bg7,0-0 and Bb7 in some order without committing to d6 and has plans of e6 to put pressure on d5 with play for both sides.

not sure its a antidote as black has same kind of pressures and plans as in most benkos and whites main plan is to play e5.

The thing is that White can induce d6 anyway:

4. Nf3 g6 5. Qc2 Bg7 6. e4 O-O 7. cxb5 a6 8. Nc3 Bb7 9. Be3 d6 (if Qc7, then e.g. Na4);

4... bxc4 5. Nc3 g6 6. e4 Bg7 7. Bxc4 O-O 8. O-O Bb7 9. Be3 d6.

If e6 dxe6 fxe6 then, White can exert pressure along the a2-g8 diagonal.

So let's see what YKW says, he must have taught you how to deal with White declining the gambit.

And, as I've mentioned, a downside of the Benko is that it doesn't contribute to the repertoire against 1. Nf3, whereas many other anti-d4 openings, like QGA, remain applicable.

E.g. 1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 (most played; 2. c4 d4 - the Advance Reti - is even more awesome for Black) Nf6 3. c4 dxc4 4. e3 (e4 would just lose a pawn now ) a6 5. Bxc4 b5.

I don't teach him silly little things like openings!

I probably should though, shouldn't I? :]

No, you shouldn't

I suck at endgames (the thing that shd be taught foremost), but so do my opponents so I convert them pretty often (not mentioning that I often enter them up in material)

But otoh, QGA can't be applied vs c4 There's hardly any universal opening for Black, except the ridic d6, c6, Qc7, Bg4, Nd7, e5, Ngf6, Be7 setup taught by GJ_Chess

http://www.beginnersgame.com/TheBeginner'sGame.pdf

'No refutation'?! How about Nakamura-style 1. e4 d6 2. Qh5 Nd7 3. Bc4 e6 4. Bxe6 Qe7 5. Bxd7+ Bxd7 6. Qe2 with an extra pawn and little comp? (Well, there is 3... Ne5, but we don't want to disrupt the development plan too early, do we?)

I also like 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nd7 3. d5 e6 4. Qf3 Ne7 5. dxe6 and mate is unavoidable (5.-b6 6. Qxf7#; 5.-g6 6. Qxf7#). The author of that book clearly oversold his claims.

So Tactics are improving but still pretty terrible, played a game today where got a crushing position out of the opening and then blundered queen to pin and fork sigh

Played a couple of interesting games against higher rated players this one against a 2100 was my first outing with the Benko

http://chess.tuxtown.net/game/view/i...061b5e91525d2f

I am winning basically started to go 29... Rb4. I thought long about N3f6 and didn't want to give him any chances after the annoying pin Bg5

Also even though I dropped the exchange I think I am still winning the endgame the c pawn is a monster and think 41...Rb4 is a mistake

Here is a game I lost on time versus a 2009 player again I was super happy with the position I got out of the opening. I was trying out the exchange french after seeing a short video on it on chess.com

Without the time pressure I think I am winning this game multiple times, I really really wanted to play b6+ at some point and think I might have been best

http://chess.tuxtown.net/game/view/i...0d753e14b37e88

Fairly happy in that versus guys rated 300/400 points higher than me (I am 1700 on ICC atm) I got really good positions and honestly didn't feel like I ws posed that many questions by them (just by myself)


Thoughts/views appreciated from anyone

I don't think 15/5 and 20/0 are good time controls, especially if you are trying to get better at calculating. Heisman's thoughts.

Thanks for that will certainly consider playing longer games for future.

Something like 30/30 could be better for sure

I purchased a new book called pump up your rating.

It got some great reviews and seemed perfect for someone who seriously wants to improve as a adult.

I have not started it properly yet but did read the chapter on the 'woodpecker' method for improving at tactics.

Main reason is that doing tactics on chess.com was getting frustrating tbh. Feels like 80% of the tactics are Queen sacs or often the problems have multiple solutions.

What's nice about this idea and book is that YKW independently brought up this idea/method and also felt this was an excellent book.

For those who don't know the woodpecker method is essentially as follows.

Take a tactics book with many many problems of typical and basic motifs.

Work through the problems (200-300 for an amateur, 1,000 for a professional). Time yourself, score yourself something like 1pt for correct answer in time, -2pts for a incorrect answer, -5 pts for a careless error. You must make a move as well before time is up as per a real game.

At the end total your score or whatever, then you do the exact same problems again. Trying to treat the position as the first time and calculate all variations.

Score as before total up and compare etc. Then rinse and repeat until you are solving at a very high %. I have read (somewhere else I think) repeating 7 times is a good start.

The idea is to really hammer the repetition of the tactical motiffs until they become ingrained into your subconscious.

I use a similar idea when coaching poker for certain spots either practicing hundreds of spots (push fold poker for example) or even playing in real time accomplishes this.

You then move onto a new set of tactical exercises and repeat etc.

The puzzle book I have atm (John nunns) is a little hard for this exercise right now and my kids lost the susan polgar tactics book I had which was perfect.

Luckily just happened to see in my kindle libary I had a old chesscafe tactics book which is perfect for this (approx 500 puzzles) and also bought 1001 tactics for £3 off amazon kindle to work with after.

I think it will be interesting so see if this is effective or not but (according to the author) strong players who he has coached and friends with saw large increases in elo in short time frames from this alone.

Can't recall exactly but one of his friends went from 2300 to 2450 is about 6 months. Which I think is pretty huge for that time frame.

The chesstempo.com tactic trainer is more versatile than that of chess.com (and its game DB is more informative too, as it provides performance ratings of variations - preciser stats than just win and draw %s). Keeping the score manually is just too tedious to my taste.

The only problem is you can't repeat problems online I believe. This is the key element of the method.

Also its not that hard to keep score tbh, I have a chess notebook and will take 2 mins to check and tot up scores at the end of session.

I will check out chesstempo as well though thanks as I may fancy solving some problems on my phone or something sometimes.

Have you seen the spaced repetition custom set option of Chesstempo? It looks like an improved woodpecker.

Thanks that also looks awesome and think I will use it as well.

I am kind of getting addicted to solving puzzles atm!

I just ordered Pump Up Your Rating. Had been put off by the name, I've spent too long telling kids not to care about their rating, just to get better at chess and their ratings will take care of themselves. Sounds like its not just a gimmicky book though, I've heard plenty of good things about it and this thread pushed me over the edge.

Who am I kidding anyway, I'd love to be 100 or 200 points higher rated without having to get better at chess understanding.

http://eplusbooks.com/complete-list-of-published-titles

any of these books recommended for me? (1400-1600 chess.com player who hasn't improved in years, watches chessnetwork videos, does tactics lately, has zero clue in the opening, plays 5 mins relentlessly)

(yeah all the bad stuff)

I think van perlo endgame tactics (supposed to be excellent) and silmans endgame course would be great.

I am going to be working on endgames and tactics almost exclusively to improve.

Honestly mate think if you played longer games you would enjoy them more (as discussed) and you would quickly get off the crack cocaine of chess!



Woodpecker method going ok got through 200 puzzles in 3 days scored about 175 correct but massive deductions for erros give me about 130.

Will give a days break and go back through same puzzles

I have also heard good things about Pump up your Rating but haven't seen it yet. Do you not feel you just remember the solutions to the puzzles using the woodpecker method? How long are you meant to wait between reps?

I'm not sure about van Perlo, it's a nice book but dunno if it's such a great learning resource. Silman's Endgame Course should be nice, probably the Grooten strategy book as well.

To be honest I am not sure how long before you try again. Talked with YNW and he said a few days break then start again.

The key is that you are supposed to calculate again as if its the 1st time. Even if you recall the answers a bit I don't think thats a issue.

Axel Smith (author of pump up your rating) uses the example of multiplication or simple addition. At one point you were at school made to repeat you multiplication tables until you knew them. At first you would work it out but after many practices it's ingrained in your subconscious.

Same with elementary tactics having basic motifs hardwired to your brain is the idea.

No idea if its effective as on the days rest before trying the set of 200 problems again. I will be doing this 7 times and then doing new ones.

Good shout I have not read it so prob a bad reccomend (since I am going by pure reviews) thought it would be good for tactics.

Lack of updates due to holiday, but I have been practicing the woodpecker method. It seems to be working as I am missing less and less tactical (simple) moves.

However, that could also be because I am playing longer time controls and have been working on my game.

I also played my 1st game in the team 45 45 league today. I managed to win (I think pretty comfortably), against as 1950 villain
My opponent played a offbeat line in the Ruy lopez, and I had checked out some of his games before so knew what to expect.

I was planning on playing a line used by carlsen and leko v him. On move 9 I expected Rb8 (which he had played before with a slightly different move order) and I was planning to take on b5 and play Na3 with a nice enough game.

10... 0-0 is just a nasty blunder which loses a pawn in the end to a nice little tactic and to be honest I missed that he could take on a4 with bishop and guess was a touch lucky it drops the bishop. I was expecting fxe5 and then Qxg4+ and assumed that bxd1 was bad a Kxc6 looks v nice for me. Guess tactics not completely solved, since it should be obvious that he can take on a4 (and obvious it gets trapped).

Here is the game below, YKW had a quick look and didn't like Nxb6, in hindsight I agree. The plan was to exchange down and win easy as he has shattered pawns. As YKW pointed out the bish is awful and I have a easy game to slowly improve at my leisure.

Any additional comments/thoughts really appreciated, I know I get a piece up so it’s kind of plain sailing but still want to look at the game with critical eye.

http://chess.tuxtown.net/game/view/i...47225dff42c068

Better link without annoying time stamp

http://team4545league.org/pgnplayer/...r.php?id=75291

edit: Villain offered me a draw at about move 41. What's the etiquette on this as he is clearly losing, doesn't seem right?