tried it again (this thread reminded me how much I like it) - actually did ok - some blunders but I was 1450 vs a 1600 - all that tactics training led me to a slightly unsound trade of rook for knight +2 pawns but my opponent traded queens, and I found myself with an endgame I could handle which was a sweet deal - was surprised post pc analysis to find my position essentially better after move 15, even though I thought I was down or barely even

[Event "Rated game, 15m + 0s"]
[Site "Main Playing Hall"]
[Date "2009.11.23"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Whiskeytown"]
[Black "xxxxxxxx"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A05"]
[WhiteElo "1372"]
[BlackElo "1589"]
[PlyCount "71"]
[EventDate "2009.11.23"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. g3 d6 4. Bg2 Nf6 5. d3 g6 6. O-O Bg7 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. Re1
Rb8 9. e5 dxe5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 Nh5 12. Rxh5 gxh5 13. Qxh5 Qd6 14. Ne4
Qg6 15. Qxg6 fxg6 16. Nxc5 Kh8 17. Bf4 e5 18. Bg5 b6 19. Ne4 Bb7 20. Re1 Bxe4
21. Bxe4 Bf6 22. Bh6 Rfd8 23. Re3 Rbc8 24. Rf3 Rd6 25. c4 b5 26. b3 bxc4 27.
bxc4 Bg7 28. Bg5 Rf8 29. Be7 Rxf3 30. Bxd6 Rf7 31. c5 Bf6 32. Bd5 Rd7 33. Be6
Rb7 34. c6 Rb1+ 35. Kg2 Bd8 36. Bxe5+ 1-0

cool game. I think that the rook trade is fine, the position after you trade queens looks really interesting with the queenside pawn majority just going to storm up the board. Plus his isolated e pawn is going to fall eventually (which it did in spectacular fashion in this game). GG.

one more BBV for a while - played a live quad tonight - twice I played 1900 players and even managed to maintain an edge for awhile - but lost when the first game got into an endgame situation I didn't know how to handle and panicked (look for the winning blunder RxB - probably feeling too invulunerable there - lost the rest of the moves after move 40 and made a couple up but think passed pawn vs tailgating king) -

[Event "Monday Night Quads"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2009.11.23"]
[Round "?"]
[White "1900 rated player"]
[Black "whiskeytown"]
[Result "1-0"]
[SetUp "1"]
[PlyCount "93"]

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. f3 g6 4. Be3 Bg7 5. Qd2 Nbd7 6. Na3 O-O 7. Bh6 e5 8.
O-O-O exd4 9. Bxg7 Kxg7 10. Qxd4 Ne5 11. g4 Kg8 12. Nc4 Nxc4 13. Bxc4 Be6 14.
h4 h5 15. Be2 hxg4 16. h5 Nxh5 17. Qe3 Qf6 18. fxg4 Qf4 19. Rd3 Qxe3+ 20. Rxe3
Nf4 21. Bd1 Kg7 22. Rf3 Nd5 23. exd5 Bxd5 24. Rfh3 Bxh1 25. Rxh1 Rh8 26. Rxh8
Rxh8 27. Nf3 f6 28. Kd2 Re8 29. Nd4 a6 30. Bf3 c5 31. Ne2 b5 32. Nc3 Re5 33.
Ne4 Rd5+ 34. Ke3 f5 35. gxf5 gxf5 36. Ng3 Re5+ 37. Kf4 Kf6 38. Bg2 d5 39. Bh3
d4 40. Bxf5 Rxf5+ 41. Nxf5 Ke6 42. Ke4 Kd7 43. c3 dxc3 44. bxc3 Kc6 45. Kd3 Kd5
46. Ne3+ Kc6 47. c4 1-0



2nd game I kept strategic pressure up till time pressure caused me to crumble - (basically I falied to protect the f2 square which is where the replay shoudl have ended - it's where I stopped writing moves but I wasted a few more trying to get a perpetual check) - - my time pressure was worse this game - missed a beauty on move 16 when I decided to finish development instead of spotting a nice tactical shot with Bxc7

[Event "Monday Night Quads"]
[Site "rb"]
[Date "2009.11.23"]
[Round "?"]
[White "whiskeytown"]
[Black "1850 rated player"]
[Result "0-1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[PlyCount "70"]
[EventType "schev"]
[EventRounds "2"]

1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. Nf3 dxe5 5. Nxe5 Bf5 6. Bc4 e6 7. O-O Bd6 8.
Re1 Bxe5 9. Rxe5 Nc6 10. Re1 Nb6 11. Bb5 Qd6 12. c3 O-O-O 13. Qf3 Ne7 14. Bf4
e5 15. Bxe5 Qg6 16. Nd2 Nbd5 17. Nb3 a6 18. Bc4 f6 19. Bxd5 Nxd5 20. Bg3 h5 21.
h4 Bg4 22. Qe4 f5 23. Qd3 Qf6 24. Qc4 f4 25. Bh2 Qxh4 26. Re5 Nb6 27. Qf7 Rd7
28. Re8+ Rxe8 29. Qxe8+ Rd8 30. Qe4 Qf6 31. Bxf4 Rf8 32. Be5 Qxf2+ 33. Kh1 Qxb2
34. Re1 Rf2 35. Nc5 Re2 0-1

I'm tired - tactics training is paying off but the time pressure/endgame situations need work

won 3rd game vs a 1300 player after hanging a knight on move 7

Is 6.Qf3 really strong here? Hits f5 and b7, and 6.-Qc8 7.Bc4 e6 8.Nxf7 doesn't look too bad either. Never seen 5.-Bf5, that might be the reason why

it is definately out of the book - shoot - I was out of my element by move 3 - I just know it's not smart to keep pushing pawns and chasing that knight - I don't think I've ever offically studied Alkenhine's Defense - all I remembered is what I've seen from master game replays -

it did seem to commit me kingside with that e5 pawn while my opponent runs queenside

6. Qf3 looks awesome. 6 ... Qc8? Qxd5 so 6 ... e6 7. Bd3 looks strong.

lol i'm the worst

how easily/quickly can you guys look at and interpret this information so you can imagine it on a chess board? Is it like when poker players look at unconverted hands or is it a lot more difficult? Obv it just becomes easier over time but it's fascinating to me that you detail things in a way that to me are just code.

I'm decent at chess and bad at poker. Looking at unconverted hh's is easy, accurately following chess notation for 20+ moves is almost impossible for me. Copying and pasting into a pgn reader or chessbase file is really quick

or if you dont have one of those you can always go here: http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-uploader.php

oh i see you're all cheats! haha yeh that seems a lot easier, but i presume some of the more savant-like players can just do it from memory

A little bit off topic, but I actually noticed a pretty interesting (IMO) phenomena. I am ~2300 USCF and a little lower in FIDE, but I do not find it hard at all to play a chess game blindfolded (which basically means imagining the board in my head). The most I've played were 3 simultaneous blindfolded games and I did pretty well, won 2 and drew one (weaker opposition of course), only making one illegal move in the very end of a last game. However, when I am just reading a game notation without a board, I often find it hard to imagine the board after a certain number of moves, ranging somewhere from 15 to 30 depending on the complexity of the position. And I know I am not the only chess player that does this. I assume that we are using different parts of our brain for these two tasks, or maybe it's just a matter of concentration - when we actually have to play blindfolded ourselves we are more concentrated and therefore can remember it easily.. Only my guess though, would be interested to hear other opinions

Everything is off-topic.

this is Chess BBV!

and Yes I've experienced something similar.

Well, a couple things I've noticed -

1. - if you're watching a Fritztrainer video, it is suggested (and I concur) that you turn off notation - you can leave the video of the guy speaking up, and the board of course - but turn off the notation - memorizing e4 d6 d4 Nf6, etc is less important then visualizing and keeping it in your spatial memory (did I do that right - is it spatial?) -

2. - When doing famous game replays, I have a choice between entering moves on my PC or pulling the game up in Chessbase and just clicking forward, but I found that pulling the game up and still making the moves on the PC with my mouse gets me more out of the game then just watching the pieces slide (and the chessbase game in training mode will stop me if I make a mistake) -

When I first started Networking (computers) - we did IP addressing and subnet masking - (that's stuff like 10.64.22.59 with a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask) - One of my first TCP-IP books taught subnetting which is a mofo for newbies looking for shortcuts - and the best recommendation was to ASAP, try to think in binary - don't look for quick fixes or cheats or memorize subnet tables - try to think in binary

I suppose another equivalent comparison would be a German speaker who learns English - as he starts, he thinks in German what the translation would be and translates it to English - but as my 6th grade German teacher pointed out (also the Principal of our school, good ol' Mr. Dekort) - after so many years he stopped thinking in German and began thinking in English

The act of translating algebraic or descriptive notation to spatial knowledge has to be an acquired and learned skill, I think - it doesn't come natural - it's much easier to memorize Sicilian moves as notation then as the visual on the board but as time goes on you'd probably stop thinking the notation as you made the moves and just know that "this piece goes here" without going "time for Nf6"

not entirely sure how to take the next step yet, but a suggestion is flashcards with board squares for starters to memorize colors and get used to finding say, f5, and what can get to it or attack it without having to look at a board

another technique I've heard is to replay famous games but go thru every 4-5 moves and THEN move the pieces which is supposed to improve visualization

that was a TLDR for sure - sorry

rb

Makes sense. You basically have to follow two separate trains of thought when reading notation and imagining the board.

I'm pretty lazy about doing them, but visualization exercises have been pretty useful for me. http://chesseye.alexander-fleischer.de/o/ is a free site where you can do what color is this square? and 10 or 11 other exercises. Then playing through short games blindfold (i.e. filter chessbase for <10 moves + no draws). At the last move, ask yourself questions like 'what is the white pawn structure?' 'where are the white bishops?' 'why did white/black resign?'

I'm thinking about playing in the Minnesota Class Championships this Sat and Sun - it means getting off work at 2am, sleeping till 8am, hauling over to register - these are G120 events (I presume that means 120 straight) from 10-3 Sat and Sun - and going back to work from 6pm - 2am - LOL

4-SS TL: G/120 RDS Sat 10-3 Sun 10-3.

I have NO IDEA how I'm going to use 120 minutes per game - LOL - but at least time trouble should be a thing of the past for me - playing vs. even players and with my rating kept somewhat artificially low I think due to mostly matching vs 1900 players, it seems to me I should have some fun

any ideas/suggestions

If you think you can get by with that sleep, go for it! As for 120 min per game, you'll get used to it. I get antsy so I need to stretch my legs every so often or listen to music while I play but I am a weak-willed pansy. I have no idea how good you are, but one thing that helped me slow down in the past and is now sort of ingrained is a very short checklist before I start considering my next move:

1. What's the short-term threat behind that last move?
2. (longer term) What's his plan?
3. Did that move create new weaknesses?
4. What's my plan?

No offense if that was all ldo.

i was pretty good at chess like 3-4 years ago (21xx) but basically gave up the game aside from the occasional 1 minute game

im thinking of getting back into the tourney circuit but am overwhelmed by all the theory in openings (specifically open sicilans). thoughts on picking up this book? not sure if its a bit simple, or even a decent idea. maybe i should be more concerned with getting rid of the rust?

http://www.amazon.com/Starting-Out-S.../dp/1857445473

Very good book. Gawain Jones has played the GPA at a very high level and brings that experience to the book. I have used the material he presents on 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bb5 to great effect (sort of a Rossolimo/GPA hybrid). It's a superb surprise weapon because black frequently tries to play normal Rossolimo moves and quickly gets a bad position.

+1 to what swingdoc said. It's a fun system for blitz/rapid, playing 1.d4 mostly these days so haven't tried it at longer time controls (i'm 2300)

First time i saw this system was when an IM played it against me, i had no idea what to do but still drew fairly comfortably, so i'm not too impressed

is G/120 60 minutes per player or 120?

I ask only because a bad game could go almost 4 hrs and it's a 5 hr day for the tourney so I'm wondering if I need to be ready for two hrs or 1 for my moves

120 each

two rounds in 5 hrs - they must be expecting games to run the course before then I guess - LOL - may not do it anyways - sorta feel like reserving two days off for the tough stuff

RB

WAIT - this is what the website says -

4-SS TL: G/120 RDS Sat 10-3 Sun 10-3.

Those are start times, aren't they - not 10am to 3pm - round two starts at 3pm - now I'm out - ah well

rb