Hey guys, haven’t posted in a while. So I’ve been playing abit of chess but much studying. I was very busy with uni, but it’s holiday now so all good. I have a few games I would like to share, and I will also go through some of my plans as things get closer to the zonal.
So I played the
uni club semi final match against the favourite (same guy I mentioned in earlier post) in the uni club championship. He was an exchange student from Russian and went to chess school there and played a lot of 2600s. Definitely a tough opponent. He was a 2200 by the time he was a kid and he won the Russian junior championships of some age group (holy fk) and now prob very strong (he crushed the rest of the club with ease).
I lost the match 0.5-1.5. The match was rapid time control (15 minutes) In the first game (I was white), I got a superior position and was looking to upset him to make the finals (which I would likely be abit of a favourite in). He managed to survive as I went into time trouble and was forced to take a draw for the peppy. Here’s the game below:
http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game....php?id=106965
1. c4 c5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. e4 O-O 6. Nge2 d6 7. O-O Nc6 8. d3 Bg4 9. h3 Be6 10. Be3 Qd7 11. Kh2 Ne8 12. Qd2 f5 13. Nf4
13. ... Kh8?!
Perplexing decision for him to give up the bishop 14. Nxe6 Qxe6 15. Rae1 Nf6 16. Bh6 Bxh6 17. Qxh6 Ne5 18. Qd2 fxe4 19. Nxe4 Nxe4 20. Rxe4 Qf6 21. f4 Nc6 22. Rfe1 Rae8 23. Re6 Qg7
White is probably winning here already. Position is so dominant and flows naturally. 24. Bxc6 bxc6 25. Qc3 Qxc3 26. bxc3 g5 27. Rxe7 Rxe7 28. Rxe7 gxf4 29. gxf4 Rxf4 30. Kg3 Rf1
The endgame was winning but I was in time trouble and couldn’t convert
31. Rxa7?
(Rd7 was the winning plan) Rd1 32. a4 Rxd3+ 33. Kg4 Rxc3 34. h4 Rxc4+ 35. Kg5 h6+ 36. Kg6 Rg4+ 37. Kh5 Rf4 38. Kg6 Rg4+ 39. Kh5 Rf4
threefold repetition with mate threat for white. Draw ½-½
I would lost the second game as black against the minority attack in the exchange semi slav (?). Wasted too many moves drumming up kingside counterplay and was quickly got in time trouble. Game was messy and I actually had winning chances at the end but timed out.
http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game....php?id=106966
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 e6 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg5 Be7 7. e3 Bf5 8. Bd3 Bxd3 9. Qxd3 Nbd7 10. O-O O-O 11. a3 Ne4 12. Bf4 Ng5 13. Nd2 Ne6 14. Bg3 Nf6 15. b4 Bd6 16. Nb3 Bxg3 17. hxg3 Qe7 18. Rfc1 Ng5 19. b5
19. ... Rac8 20. bxc6 bxc6 21. Na4
Situation look bleak, I have the weak pawn and my kingside play is non existant Nge4 22. Rc2 Rfe8 23. Nac5 h5 24. Nxe4 Nxe4 25. Nc5 h4 26. gxh4 Qxh4 27. Nxe4 dxe4 28. Qa6 Rcd8 1-0
It was a decent performance, but I have still yet to beat him is blitz/rapid time controls :/ He’s back in Russia now. After the match, we ate chinese food. He told me a lot of the hardships in Russia and how glad he is to get out of it for a while.
A few weeks later, I would play my first classical time control OTB game in a year. It was for the club team matches. I did horribly and was losing 20 something moves in. My opponent was a much lower rated club player (he was U1700??). We didn’t analyse the game afterwards but I was very sure where I gone wrong. I was playing abit too fast throughout the game and he was taking his time every move. Obviously, I’m still in the blitz mindset due to my online blitz/bullet binge and I need to slow down with my play. Also, I haven’t really understood these lines of the sicilian as black, but it’s fine cuz I don’t plan on playing sicilian as black much longer, but switching to the caro
http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game....php?id=107098
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. Nc3 d6 7. Bc4 e5 8. O-O Be7 9. Bb3 O-O 10. f3 Qb6+ 11. Kh1 Be6 12. Bg5 Rad8 13. Qe2 Qc7 14. Rad1 Rd7 15. Rd2 Rfd8 16. Rfd1 h6 17. Be3 Qa5 18. Bg1
At this point, I felt I equalised fine, but didn’t know how to facilitate the d5 breakthrough (later I would find out it was probably not the correct plan in this line
18. ... Bf8??
Played this without much thought, got bored and decide to shuffle around, but forgot around tactics on e6 19. Bxe6 fxe6 20. Qc4 d5? I thought once I get d5 in, I must have something but tactically it does not work out 21. Qxc6 Rd6 22. Qb5 Qxb5 23. Nxb5 R6d7 24. Nxa7 Rxa7 25. Bxa7 d4 26. Bb6 Rc8 and I soon lost after, disappointed with my play.
It’s obvious that I got worse in classical time control and need time to get readjusted to the format. My chess.com and lichess.org blitz/bullet binge went average too, as I seem to stay around 2000+ most of the time, but rarely ever getting past 2100 bullet or blitz. I think once I get more overall knowledge, better tactics, opening and endgame understanding. I was pretty inconsistent overall but I did manage to score wins over quite a few NMs, FMs and IMs etc in 1 0 and 3 0. Some of them were instructive too.
Pretty nice win in an opposite side castling game against an FM:
https://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=1576685525
Lost a pretty close game v an FM, but I think I help the position decently and judged the endgame to be even. Forgot to play h3 when he was threatening Kg4 to penetrate. Would’ve been easy draw:
https://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=1570195126
Quick hax against an IM in 26 moves
https://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=1591365544
Not that these games are indicative of much as it is fast time control afterall, but I am technically beating strong players more consistently and should at least reflect an improvement in tactics.
Had a blitz match against a strong blitz player who was one of the “three kings” as I call them in central park. At his peak, he’s fast rating was 2400 OTB. I lost my games, but I was actually winning in them, but often ran out of time. He’s hands are lightning fast and he can somehow fit probably 15 moves in 5 seconds with freakish accuracy.
First game I played one of my prepped lines in the English, I timed out just before I could promote
http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game....php?id=107201
Second game, I played the dubious halloween gambit and put him under enormous pressure despite being heavily down in material. I ran out of time in this one too.
http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game....php?id=107202
Obviously these games aren’t as relevant as classical time control over the board long games, I will be playing more of these in the remainder of 2016
My old coach told me to take the
Elometer test on
http://www.elometer.net/ for fun. There’s a total of 76 chess problems on it. It supposedly gives you a chess rating estimate accurately. However from reviews, I have seen many club players having inflated estimates, on the other hand, an IM (and well known youtuber) that did the test got a score in the 2200s (here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiYlvB2Ig9E). The test was mainly tactically orientated and also a lot of endgame puzzles. I got an Elo estimate of 2230 which was likely inflated. Some of the solutions in the test are quite nice tho, and I recommend everyone take a look at it.
So I did do quite a few of some chess-related activities like turn up to analyse my friends games in tournaments. I also did quite a few chess videos/streams for my club members. I didn’t get much viewers or people interested but I did have fun. I might move on to twitch streaming chess soon. I also help organised (and participated) in some inter-club grade matches. I didn’t go a good job tho, not being able to find enough players for the U1500 and U1700 division. It is sad to see many people don’t have the time for chess during their studies.
I made a decision to not resume my next term as the vice president of the university chess club. Mainly because I haven’t got much time, nor was it helpful to my chess. I didn’t even managed to get the tournaments I wanted to get running to run.
My current plan for 2016 is to play up to 30 classical OTB games (I haven’t decided on the exact figure yet). I wanted to play Millionaire Chess this year but unfortunately did not have enough rated games to be allowed to enter (they have a minimum number of 60 OTB games required under one rating system to prevent sandbagging). I also don't have enough time to play that many game before the deadline which was august the 31st.
Study Materials
In terms of study material, this time I want to keep it simple.
1. Tactics
Do a few puzzles a day on sites such as chesstempo etc, easy enough. 15 tactics + some endgame studies a day is probably enough till the zonal.
2. GM repertoire books
Now I’m using Schandorff’s book on the Semi Slav and Caro Khan to prepare my entire black repertoire. I should have it done by 2017. Unfortunately the Canadian NM that promised me the PGN of the Caro Khan book couldn’t find it so I would have to enter it all manually. I will based on English Repertoire on the Main GM repertoire book as well as get some help from a coach. Will also learn some KIA lines for variety.
3. Books
I ended up giving a lot of my hardcover books away, leaving just a few of the important ones like Dvoretsky’s Endgame books, the Forcing Chess moves tactics book etc. I want to limit the amount of resources to focus on. Having heaps of books is pointless if you don’t study any of them in detail.
4. Videos
I think chessbase videos are very important for me, as I can watch them in my leisure time and learn passively, especially Muller’s Endgame series.
So It seems things are set for the 2017 Zonals, I better get cracking, especially after this holiday (July) when I probably won’t grind poker for a while.