You missed a tactical shot on move 6: Bd2! (try to find the follow-up move after Black moves the queen).

You know, I took 3:27 on that move because I could feel the tactical shot there but just couldn't find it in the end. Bd2 was my candidate move for a good 3 minutes of that thought process but since I couldn't find the tactic, I wound up moving the knight out to it's natural position on c3.

I still can't find the tactical shot and neither can Stockfish lol. Where is it? After Bd2 he moves to Qc7 and then what?

The site founder of chesstempo believes that your blitz tactic rating has a better correlation with your FIDE rating, than the standard rating.

It very well may. I'm just hesitant to get involved with blitz of ANY kind right now because the simple fact is that when I play exclusively long chess and do standard tactics, I improve. When I start playing blitz and not sitting and analyzing positions until I see them, I stagnate.

With the standard rated problems I can control when I make my move. Some problems, I'll move relatively quickly to simulate how I would make the move in the game. Other positions, that are obviously complex, I'll take several minutes to really break it down until I see it. This process of visualization, I believe, helps amateur improvement like mine far better than aiming to find the tactic as quickly as possible. I just think blitz is a bane at my level. It fosters a totally, totally different thought process than when you're in the rhythm of playing several classical time control games a week. It's almost not even the same game.

That said...when I've done blitz problems on CT in the past, my score wasn't drastically lower than my standard problem rating.

As per Drahacik via the thread on the forums about the best way to improve:

"4) Take your time. Don't make a move until you really think it's the best move and after you considered several other moves too. Before making your move, ask yourself if your opponent will be able to check you, threaten mate, or take anything after you make your move. You have to look at all those kinds of moves by the opponent and think what the position will look like after your answer to each of those moves! Consider all of your opponent's possible defenses at every step in the line you plan to play, not just after your first move of the line. Consider the final position of the line you plan to play, and ask what your opponent can do to you in that position. Most problems are failed because you miss a good move by your opponent! I've seen problems where many people made a move that allowed Mate in One by the opponent! There's no excuse for that."

I mean he specifically stresses doing standard problems and making the board as big as possible to simulate an OTB experience.

Ridiculous as it is, I forgot to put up #1:

"1) At the start only do Standard. No Blitz. Your goal is to get the problems right and improve your calculation, not to do them fast."

7. Bc3

?? Still don't see it and neither does Stockfish. There's no tactic there after 6. Bd2 Qc7 7. Bc3. I mean, I'm looking but even after putting that line in Stockfish there's no tactical shot. A great position is there, sure...but I don't see the tactic you're referring to.

Could you post the line, please?

After a string of wins on FICS, I'm up to a 1396 rating there after 46 standard games total. This is the highest non provisional I've had on FICS. It's all a matter of seeing tactics both of my own and the opponent's and captilizing on/preventing them. Board vision has been everything. When I lose it's because of it, when I win it's because of it.

Study material right now is:

1) ChessTempo tactics. Tons.
2) Winning Chess Strategies (Seirawan)
3) Predator At The Chessboard (Farnsworth)
4) ChessGames.Com and other databases.

Played and won a 35/5 on ICC. Opponent resigned on move 25. It's amazing how much more competitive the player pool is over there than everywhere else. I hadn't played on there since February so my standard was 1208 and I played an 1175. The 1175 on ICC was better than the 1400's on FICS. Anyway, standard rating on ICC jumped up to 1222.

Not over extending myself and looking for the weak points in my enemy's camp, rather than simpy just attacking, has turned my game up a notch. I'm using my clock well, finding better moves each game, and eliminating blunders.

It's not necessarily a "tactical shot" that completely changes the tenor of the game (compared to your move), but my Stockfish evaluates 6. Bd2 around +4, and 6. Nc3 (second best move, and what you played) around +3. So there is something there. It also prefers 6. Qc7 7. Nc3 over 7. Bc3 though (both lead to crushing evals though).

I think the main takeaway is that your opponent played the opening really badly, and by move six you already had a multitude of options as to how to dominate the position.

Thank you for the analysis and explanation.

As for the main takeaway: Indeed. I had this game and then several runners in a row who just resigned after move 8-15 when I was up +1.5 to +2.5 already and it was obvious I was going to milk every second of the clock to find the win. As a result, I bounced over to ICC last night for that game against the 1175 and it gave me exactly what I needed: A sound opening, middle, and endgame.

I'm going to play there (ICC) a bit more tonight. I don't want to play games online that I win as easily as the game we're talking about because you and I both know that rated USCF games are simply not like that at all. ICC rarely serves up a cakewalk.

As we speak, I'm studying tactics on CT. I say studying and not "doing" because I'm not just completing the puzzles anymore. I'm studying the comments, the variations, the different analsyis boards people put up, the whole nine. I'm taking each and every problem this way. As a result, estimated FIDE is up to 1568.

At this point I've narrowed down my study material, my time controls, my opening repertoire, and the rated OTB games I want to play around the area. I am in a great spot right now and at this point am anticipating rapid progress overall this spring and summer.

Seems like you got a good mix of playing and studying going. When you get to 2000 CT standard, you may want to add positional chess puzzles. I started doing those this year and I was surprised at how badly I did on them at first.

Are you talking about on ChessTempo itself? If so, where can I find them? If not...well, where can I find them? In any event, I'm going to start doing some Guess The Move on CT as those look really interesting, too.

Played an unrated 35/5 OTB tonight and am doing more tactics. At this point I feel really comfortable about playing some more rated games OTB. I'll go play two 35/5's on Wednesday night at the local club and look for one of the 60/5 weekend quads that are scattered around the NYC metro.

I like playing a ton of games online like this, though. The experience is invaluable and a lot of the mistakes I'd be making OTB are being encountered online first so that I can live and learn from them. I've contemplated playing in the 12+3 USCF online quick rated games on ICC but that's a really fast time control and they're open tournaments. I don't think now is the time for that and am going to stick to the current plan of playing 35+5's as my fastest time control. I think sticking to entirely rapid and standard chess at this point, and for quite a while, is the best prescription here. I am somewhat contemplating playing in the 15/0 auto pairing pool on ICC now and then though because a) it's an instant game anytime 24/7 b) it's extremely competitive and c) 15+0 is a nice time control for me to get used to dealing with extreme time trouble in and work on a few tactical patterns in game conditions now and then. We'll see but as that still qualifies as rapid chess I won't go to any faster time controls at this point and probably not for quite a while. When it's time for a break from longer time controls I far, far prefer rapid games to blitz anyway. Far.

In addition to all of this study and play, I watch chess regularly now, too. I've been following the Gashimov Memorial and a few other team events on FICS and ICC and I'm reading different articles about who's who and recaps of the major games around the chess world. All in all, I'm just saturating myself with the game as much as humanly possible right now since I feel I'm in a place where I'm absorbing information like a sponge and my desire to study and play couldn't be any greater.

Yeah...I just played a game in the 15/0 pool on ICC as black and checkmated my opponent in 25 moves. He had 11:49 left and I had 3:40. Queen and pawn checkmate on his bank rank. I hadn't moved that fast in the last several weeks of playing but when I had to trust my intuition, it was good. I liked how I played.

For tactics, clock management, and repetition of patterns/opening/endgames, I'm going to keep playing in these. It's not blitz and it's long enough to manage the clock a bit. At the same time, with no increment, I think these are a great compliment to sprinkle in with all of the long games I'm playing OTB and online. Fact is, it's more chess each day as I can only play 3-5 long games a day, and those are marathon days. This pairing pool will work out really well for me.

As for long games, I have the 45/45 pool there, too so I'm going to start putting up a seek for a 65/5, 45/45, and have myself set in the 45/45 pool at the same time. Between these time control long games, along with the 35/5 and 15/0 rapids, I should start to really see some drastic improvement and prepare myself for OTB tournament play nicely.

One of the most important things here: I'm having a lot of fun. A lot. I really do love this game and now when I see other games...whether they be sports or strategy...I can't help but compare them to chess and find them inferior lol. This is definitely the game for me to be playing.

So I've played six games in the 15-minute auto pairing pool and won 4 of them...3 by xmate and 1 by resignation. The tactical work I've been doing on CT is paying off already much more so than I thought. I'm making intuitive moves that set up tactical shots and then seeing those quickly. My 15-minute rating went up from 1066 to 1135 in these six games. I was, previously, getting destroyed by 1200+'s in that pool and now I'm checkmating them in ~25 moves.

As said, I have a great plan now. 65/5's, 45/45's, 35/5's, and 15/0's. These time controls, my study material, and intensive review of my rapid and long games, and things should all keep moving in a nice direction. I also want to start working in one 90+30 a month, either OTB or online.

Regarding openings:

I have only opened with 1. e4 as white and that's all I will open as for a very long time. Several reasons for this. With black, I have tried out the Sicilian and French vs 1. e4 and the bottom line is that I get into complicated positions that eat my clock and present me with kingside safety issues at times when I open with these. As a result, I have gone back to replying to 1. e4 exclusively with e5. This is where I started and this is where I have the highest win/draw% as black. That said, I'm glad I've started to familiarize myself with other opening systems and I'm proud of myself for playing the French in my first OTB rated game. I knew it was something that I wasn't 100% comfortable with and yet I gave it a shot and learned a lot.

Vs. 1. d4 I use the QGD. Keeps things nice, simple, balanced and comfortable for me. Now and then I'll use or tranpose into the Semi-Slav but that's it.

When I'm opening 1. e4 as white, I almost always play the Scotch. It opens up the board, gets things going tactically, and promotes rapid development and kingside saftey for me. If they open the Sicilan against it, I still look to play 3. d4 and open it up. Against any hypermodern or obsure openings and it's 1. e4 2. d4 to just gain classic control of the center.

Yeah it seems like keeping your openings/defenses to a minimum is pretty smart. You will become very familiar with them and will get to where you will save a lot of time early in the game. It allows you to open fundamentally and then try to focus on tactics and just beating your opponent in the middle game or endgame (if he doesn't beat himself by playing a poor defense early). Down the road add in some more openings but for the time being I think it's wise to keep the openings simple and consistent and polish up middle/end game stuff.

Exactly. I should have ripped that 1450 apart in my first USCF game and I didn't because I used the French and screwed myself by not castling up to move 18 and getting the notorious bad bishop in the French just wedged in for eternity. The guy was trash tactically and I would have just rolled over him with e5. As said, lesson learned and I'm not going to go through that again. Against the guys I'm going to be playing against until my USCF goes up, I'm not playing games. Just e5 and go to work tactically.

That said, it's nice to be somewhat familar with black's objectives in the French and Sicilian.

I posted this in another thread but wanted to paste it here, as well:

"This has me once again questioning implementing blitz into my routine or not. I'm always in time trouble because I'm over calculating and not trusting my intuition. Do any more experienced players have any input on this? I mean, I use my clock wisely as in ...most of it. The simple fact is though that in today's faster time control games, being behind on time means having to attack and win via checkmate if there is no or only a five second increment or delay. That said, I typically answer the standard CT questions correctly in about the same time as the average if not somewhat faster. Should I work in some CT blitz and some online blitz vs other players to increase my intuition so I can calculate less? I'm already playing 15/0's but am concerned about playing 3/0 and 5/0 as I don't want to go too far the other way and stop calculating properly in long time control games ...which is what I'm most concerned about performing in."

Any input on this would be great. The fact is that a lot of the time controls for USCF games are between 30 and 60 minutes with a 5 second increment and if other players are moving faster than me on a regular basis, I think it's going to negatively effect my win rate. I think I could use a slight compensation the other way and sprinkle in some 3/0 and 5/0 for intuition. What do more experienced players think about my thought process here?

I'm not a more experienced player but I'm terribly slow at blitz and prefer longer controls where I can analyze more lines deeper. I seem to fare better in longer controls than in blitz.

I don't really think you need to worry about your opponent moving faster than you in 30 or 60 minute controls. I think it's far less of an issue. If a similarly-rated opponent is moving relatively quickly in 30 or 60 minute controls, I'd assume they aren't analyzing deep enough and are thus making sub-optimal moves. It's easy to get rustled and think "Wow he/she really must know what they are doing" but if they did then they'd be rated much higher than you, and they're not. And I don't really think playing blitz will help you "keep up" with your opponents in 30 or 60 minute controls.

One thing blitz did for me was make me recognize how much time I was losing to my opponents early in the game during the opening. Even though I was playing similar openings/responses, I was thinking about them way too much. So it forced me to get better at my moves becoming more automatic. Because I was losing games on time that I should have won. If you can get several moves in in like 10-15 seconds in the opening and be fundamentally sound that will help a lot in blitz. Thinking about stuff early is killer.

Thanks for the response. I agree with you in that blitz and rapid chess is beneficial for allowing one to construct and refine their opening repertoire. There's simply no other way to see that many live variations under game circumstances.

The interesting thing here is that I'm starting to grow a liking for low to non increment/delay chess as I'm playing it more. The impending nature of the clock really changes the way you need to play the game strategically. Of course, my favorite time control is still 45/45 but I can see how playing 15/0 and 30/0 is going to be a good thing for me in the long run. These OTB tournament games with 5 second delay also force me to manage my clock well and the online experience in these situations is invaluable.

I'm still not 100% on if I should start playing 5/0 again or not. I really do like rapid chess. 15/0 is a totally different game than 5/0, naturally. I guess I can throw a game or two of 5/0 on one night and see what kind of an effect it has. I certainly could benefit from making more intuitive moves than calculated moves and playing 15/0 and doing tons of CT problems has already helped tremendously in that regard.

The thing with blitz is that I'm trying to remain disciplined in not playing it so as not to allow it negatively effect my OTB game but the reality is that playing it is somewhat inevitable anyway since the first thing everyone does when they show up to clubs and tournaments is find someone to play blitz against. I'm never there more than 5 minutes before someone wants to play 5/0.

Aside from all of this nitpicking...I'm definitely improving a lot. I've worked through about 40% of Winning Chess Strategies now and continue to use ChessTempo and Stockfish more extensively each day.

Ok, so to update this a little: I'm only playing on ICC right now. I don't want games scattered all over five sites (tough to keep track of all of those ratings, games, etc) and the bottom line is that I get higher quality games over there than anywhere else. Period. As soon as I started winning a lot on FICS I encountered runner after runner. I spent one entire night just starting games and having guys quit as soon as they went down. That's not going to help me improve. There are other reasons, too. ICC's videos, coverage of live events (which FICS has, too in fairness), and how seamlessly engines can be integrated and used as a training tool in Blitzin, leave this as the place that's obviously going to do the most to help me get better. Playing on there and OTB is more fun, too. It's just more enthralling for me when the games are difficult and more strategic.

Anyway, I'm continuing to play the longer time controls I've laid out previously, as well as in the 15-min pairing pool and although I haven't yet, I'm going to go with what we talked about and add some 5/0 blitz now and then. The fact is that I'm playing so many long games a week that I don't think it's going to hurt my ability to calculate deeply. At all. As previously suspected, the 15 min games when they get down to severe time trouble for both of us, mimic a blitz game naturally and playing in conditions like this is absolutely boosting my board vision, intuition, and tactical ability. Additionally, it IS leading to me using far less of my clock in longer games...online and OTB. I use a lot of my clock but am rarely in "omg" time trouble. I can play out several moves in just 20-30 seconds now without committing a blunder.

Outside of that nothing has changed. I'm still focusing 90% of my efforts on play and tactical study while reviewing the books I've listed and reviewing my own as well as master's games. It really is all a matter of tactics at this point as the strategic elements of pawn structure, king safety, development, tempi, isolated pawns, basic endgames, the 7th rank, etc are all coming to me rather easily.

Brief update on things: There is absolutely no question now that playing blitz and rapid is helping my tactics out tremendously. Since I have been playing in the 15-min games over the last two weeks my CT rating has gradually increased but just over the last two days of throwing in 5/0 on top of it and I am now flirting with a 1500 standard (estimated FIDE well over 1500) and the 50 percentile on CT standard. My graph is just shooting up.

I'm going to keep playing 15/0 and 5/0 now on top of what I was already doing. My speed of play, tactics, pattern recognition bank, and experience is all positively effected by playing all three of standard, rapid, and blitz. They all serve a purpose and all seem to give me a lot to draw upon in the longer games. I'm happy with this discovery moving forward.

Things have also gone much better for me with the black pieces since I've gone back to e5. For now there is no question that this is what I'm playing the large majority of the time.