Hahaha. The more you read, the worst that post gets. Hilarious.

New chess resolution: play every game like it's my last. I waste so much time, particularly online, playing a G/15, only to browse the internet or watch tv during my opponent's moves. It makes me play worse chess and also doesn't lend to deeper thinking, which is where you really learn when you play. No more distractions.

I think I'll have more time to practice/study chess now.

Of course, the realistic way to look at things is that I'm being laid off soon

i agree with b_dan

Agreed. That was really well done. Did you post it Rei? I mean, I'm going to assume it's intentionally funny, it ramps up too well.

Nope, it wasn't me.

Lol, this site is hilariously bonkers: http://yifanhou.net/blogenglish/.

Looks like Shirov lost to a 2268 in round 1 of some open tourney that started today?

I saw that too, he's playing in the Riga Technical University Open. Shankland drew a 2200 as white. Looks like they might be having a post-Olympiad hangover.

A non-threadworthy note to self: 1. e4 g6 2. f4 is 'refuted' by c5!, not d6? allowing d4 I've got owned in blitz-rapid so many times by 1300s who castled short and advanced to f5. To compound the mistake, I kept putting the knight on c6 out of pure panic, which is of course a terrible square for it in the Modern.

I see you had a run-in with the computers.

I decided to try out 5+0 with full-strength Stockfish. Was fun.

The chess.com computers (except Impossible) are very weird - they play quasi-optimal moves most of the time but hang pieces randomly.

I'm just too asocial and afraid of human opponents, especially with this terrible kind of clock management that takes people's time but results in me losing anyway (resigning just before my flag falls).

I miss two-move tactics and hanging pieces terribly even in 15|10 rapid and very often end up with 30 sec on the clock, surviving on the increment

c6 is not at all a terrible square for the knight in the Modern, for example 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.f4 Nc6 is perfectly playable. In setups where White avoids Nc3, Nc6 followed by e5 is also often Black's main plan. I even analysed 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 a6 4.f4 b5 5.Nf3 Bb7 6.Bd3 Nc6!? (as played by Bauer) once with a frien,d but it turned out to be a little too much if White just hogs all the space with e5 and d5.

Derp. I overlooked that, when pawns are on both d4 and f4, e5 doesn't shut the g7 bishop out because the e5 pawn will always have pawn to take

Low rated players also often play c3 to support the d-pawn, but after exd4 cxd4, the new d-pawn becomes a target.

Also in the Classical Pirc mainline after 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be2 Nf6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0, 6.-Nc6 has actually been somewhat fashionable lately and I've seen quite a bit of both 7.d5 Nb8 and 7.d5 Ne5 (I often transpose to the classical pirc after B goes 1.- d6/g6 after 1.d4 or Nf3). I guess both lines are slightly better for White, but it's an unbalanced position with a lot of stuff on the board. A Modern/Pirc player should be happy with that

Coon74- your opening knowledge is so impressive.

I'm always surprised how some people seem completely fascinated with certain areas of the game. I hate the opening as I don't like memorization. I like the ending because it seems more conceptual and I seem to do well at it. I can't hang with the big boys and I know it's supposed to be a ton of calculation, which is a weak point, but I like it. Nevertheless, I chose to study tactics and strategy because I think they are my weak points and the most important for my level to improve rating points. I suck at tactics for my rating and almost lost a crazy game in this weekend's tournament because of it (I will post when it's annotated).

My point is, it is obvious that some people are drawn to certain areas specifically. Rei is a tactician at heart. Coon74 is obviously an openings guy. I find this really interesting as I don't really care about any specific phase and just want to get better and become an expert'ish player (2000 CFC / USCF is my goal over the next year or so).

Bro,

Chess time should be devoted to be just that, Chess time.

Give the royal game the respect it deserves and your full attention at all times during Chess time.

Lol, MarkD, that I'm currently posting and thinking a lot about the opening doesn't mean I'm a specialist there; quite on the contrary, it means that it has been my leak area.

You must have noticed that I've posted a lot of middlegame 'puzzles' from my games. I can't really say how I'd do if I always faced equally skilled opps (my avg cc opp rating is 1668, 161 point less than mine), but weaker opps often miss some tactic and enter the endgame down in material already (if they don't wish to resign). I think I have problems converting a material advantage, but it still usually suffices for a win.

As I've said a few times already, I'm a rather tactical player too. I just don't understand positional factors as clearly as masters do. Positional musings of Youtube instructors are often revelations to me.

But all parts of a game are organically related, and playing a balanced repertoire (a thing I didn't have in puberty when my OTB performance peaked at like 1600-1700, I was playing random Sicilians, read in a book that I couldn't go further without a repertoire but didn't get a chance to implement it) allows to avoid glaring positional weaknesses the opp would pound on in the middlegame, and to set up scenery for a middlegame attack and tactics exploiting opp's weaknesses.

i just try not to suck for about 30 moves. if i'm successful, the game's already over and i've won. if i fail, the game's already over and i've lost. it's nice when most of your games are quick.

This position from my recent game (White to move) is very easy to solve (in terms of the most crushing move - meh moves keep the advantage too), just I love its geometry, rather rare for the endgame

^