I'm primarily a chess player and only a recreational poker player. When I read about this bet today I thought the goal is to become a 2100 FIDE elo player in a year which is clearly impossible for anyone. But beating someone who's never been really strong and stayed out of the game for 10 years or so should be feasible, especially in a "blitz" game (more difficult with longer time control). Such person will surely make a lot of tactical oversights. tactics is what decides most games up to 2300 level. Unfortunately there's no substitute for experience, there's a certain amount of games one just has to play before he improves. Playing against strong opponents, going over your games to check tactical errors and studying tactics should take up most of time devoted to chess in first year or two I believe. Rest should be spent on things like studying masters' games (those with annotations are most valuable) and endings (Knowing how to checkmate with 2 bishops is a must. Also, analyzing Kings + pawns endgames is good for developing calculation skills). And last but not least, playing in live tournaments from time to time helps you to check your progress and gives motivation to try your best. But that's just my point of view. Getting some advice from an experienced chess coach would be more helpful prolly. I know a guy who's a chess Grandmaster and a poker pro. I might ask him to share his wisdom here. Anyway, good luck and have fun.

I was going for the chess rather than the prizes. In the final two games I lost I turned down a draw offer and a three time repetition when a half point would guarantee me a share of first in my division. Playing out those games cost me over $1500! (of course I was hoping to win anyway)

The next prop bet should be with Dan Harrington or Ylon Schwartz...provided you reach your ELO goal!

Could I get in on that? I was also at the US Open and about 3 boards from Allen in one of the rounds :-\

Sick collection and I can vouch for jontsef being a good guy.

Really? I don't think I've ever reached such an endgame in the 10 or so years I've been playing seriously.

He must have meant B+N since 2B mates pretty automatically. Not that it happens very often either, never in a tournament game for me (a few times in blitz).

Lol, even better! I kinda get the feeling it is a good time to "back up the truck", just like Williamson III did on the Lederer vs. Gordon bet. If we take into consideration that you came with a 1571 rating and were placed between 2200 and 2100 players after round 6, you look like a clear favorite against Howard.

I meant 2B actually, knowing how to mate with N+B isn't necessary and I've even seen one Grandmaster who couldn't do that. Although it's basically memorizing the pattern and following it. 2B is automatic but not as automatic as Q or R so I thought I'd mention it

I think endgame studies are important not only for specific situations, but more so for understanding how pieces work together to control vital squares. I'd recommend figuring out B+N own your own and then include known ideas. A GM that didn't get the mate simply made a mistake or two that the 50 move rule came into play.

Knowing how pieces work together in endgames translates to where to put your pieces in other phases of the game to maximize coordination.

The blunders:

1 - easy to overlook, wouldn't worry about it too much
2 - awful, this should never happen
3 - not as bad as #2 but still pretty bad

Conclusion:

Agree with whoever posted earlier about tactics being the most important thing for you to get better at. Eliminating blunders such as in the second position should be much easier to accomplish and will have a much greater impact on the outcome of your match then picking up some endgame nuances or WE.

#3 looks to be a standard error of only calculating one move order in a tactic (always try it backwards!) or possibly forgetting that the bishop on d7 is hanging at the end of the sequence since it is currently guarded.

The depressing thing about this game is that later in the skittles room, my opponent couldn't last 10 moves against me after the obvious 0-0...Qxd4 or 0-0...a6. This mistake was mostly a case of losing confidence that my position was totally crushing, over thinking and forgetting parts of my earlier analysis. The punchline is that after 1.Nxc6? my opponent played ...Nc2+? 2.Kd1... bxc6 3.Qe2...Kxf7 4.Qf3+...Kg6 5.Kxc2...Rf8 6.Qg3 and I later lost on time thanks to too many OCD moments.

And lovinvain: although I agree tactics puzzles are extremely useful, I doubt doing more of them would help eliminate mistake #2 as much as simply playing more OTB games (the board is just too big and 3-d compared to the little diagrams in my books/screens).

Oh yeah I agree completely, forget puzzles and play a ton. And play a bunch of games with time controls between say 5-15 minutes. Or even 30, anything is better than playing just 2 games a day in a tourney format in order to achieve the goal of greatly reducing the simple tactical mistakes. Playing a ton of shorter games whould help in this regard and is much more likely to be beneficial in your game with Howard. Would suck to prep for a year and then overlook some 1-mover (not to mention embarrasing).

And of course, with slower time controls (anything slow enough to allow you to record your moves) the old ploy of writing your move down, covering it up and giving it a last look for obv. blunders before playing is always a good idea.

Oh and GL! I think it's really cool that you're doing this.

(The player must first make the move, and then record it on the
scoresheet - USCF and FIDE rule)

"Before this was the rule, Mikhail Tal and others were in the habit of writing the move before making it on the board. Unlike other players, Tal did not hide the move after he had written it – he liked to watch for the reaction of his opponent before he made the move." - Timman

Just thought it was a funny anecdote, although in the USCF they don't care too much as long as you keep your scoresheet visible and don't constantly cross off moves before playing them.

This reminds me of the story of a player who liked to write a blunder on his scoresheet, just to psyche out his opponent, and then change it just before playing a strong move. It worked until one opponent called the arbiter and claimed touch move, saying "look, he even wrote it on the scoresheet!"

Wow! I haven't played a tournament game in probably 20 years or so therefore I was unaware of that rule. Pretty LOL rule is my first reaction but WE. Didn't mean to give sir Cunningham advice that went against the rules LOL again.

Yea that rule is a hot topic especially because so many people are used to writing down their moves first. But the advice of giving the move a last look is still good, even if not written down first.

Someone said "look at the move again with beginner eyes" which basically means to look for all the checks, captures, and moves that make a threat. Had he done that, he would've spotted his opponents' responses in the first two positions instantly.

I haven't seen the official wording but apparently it's been changed a little. The USCF rule now explicitly allows TD's to ignore this rule for everyone NOT using an electronic scoresheet - which makes sense. This can be done with no advanced notice (like in the TLA). Anyway, apparently the USCF people are coming to their senses.

This is rule 15A:

15A. Manner of keeping score.
In the course of play each player is required to record the game (both the player's and the
opponent's moves), move after move, as clearly and legibly as possible, on the
scoresheet prescribed for the competition. Algebraic notation is standard, but descriptive or
computer notation is permitted. The player must first make the move, and then record it on the
scoresheet. See also Chapter 3, Chess Notation; 13C3, Filling in moves with flag down; 13I,
Refusal to obey rules and 35F6, Scorekeeping options; 43, Scoresheets.
TD TIP: While this rule brings the USCF in alignment with FIDE procedures and sooths
many of the fears surrounding electronic scoresheets (see new rule 43) it is a huge change for many players. TDs are advised to first (and possibly second and third) issue
warnings to players that do not comply with this revised rule before enforcing any time
penalties (1C2a. prescribes adding two minutes to the opponent's unused time).

As you noted though, there's also a variation of that rule:

15A. (Variation I) Paper scoresheet variation.
The player using a paper scoresheet may first make the move, and then write it on the
scoresheet, or vice versa. This variation does not need to be advertised in advance
TD TIP: TDs may penalize a player that is in violation of 20C. "Use of notes prohibited"
if the player is first writing the move and repeatedly altering that move on their
scoresheet before completing a move on the board.

Ah, thank you very much, jontsef. I just recently found out about the variation and hadn't had a chance to search for it.

When you notice that someone intentionally writes a blunder on his scoresheet, you write it down also. Then you stand up and flip over the chessboard "by accident", then you say "oops" and and ask how to proceed. When the arbiter arrives you tell him that you are sorry, but you got so excited about the bad move that you opponent just played, so you overreacted or something. They will reconstruct the game from the notation and there you go....

gold. nothing like turning the tables (pun unintentional) on an angle-shooter.

The point of doing puzzles is to recognize the tricks before they matter.

As a (now retired) 22xx player, I immediately noticed the Rxf7+ trick in #1, simply because I have seen this idea a few times before.

You mentioned back a while that, as poker player, you're not especially keen in spending more time in front of the computer (which I get), but I really recommend spending time with CT-ART to increase your tactical pattern recognition.

Pierre.

Or maybe a book like this, if the idea is to stay away from the computer:

http://www.amazon.com/Combinative-Mo.../dp/1889846694