1.d4 Kicks Ass

If you're one of those people who thinks 1.d4 always leads to dull, positional games, check out the following gem between Steinitz and Lasker at the 1896 St. Petersburg tournament. Annotations by Kasparov (this is from Chessbase's excellent DVD "Kasparov: How to Play the Queen's Gambit". If you play 1.d4, I highly recommend getting the DVD).

This is a very exciting game :)

Mighty Magnus Did It Again

I think I have a man crush or something like that. This kid is just so cool, I really hope he becomes world champion one day. For now, he continues to prove his strength with wins like this in the first round of the M-Tel Masters in Bulgaria, against Topalov.

Greek Sacrifice Miniature

Here's a cute blitz game I played tonight, with a Greek sacrifice. These sacs work particularly well when your opponent doesn't have much time to calculate :-)

NBA & Chess

Ok this is seriously cool:

Ah yes, chess blogging.

I almost forgot that I have this blog. Too many things going on in my life… I haven’t been playing much in the last 2 months except for the occasional blitz game and a few casual games against friends and family, without a clock. Not much happening in terms of studying…

So I did manage to go to my chess club last night for the first time in months, and I actually played pretty decently. Here’s a position from a casual, untimed game that stuck in my head:



I am black, and it’s my opponent’s move. I had gotten my rook into an unpleasant spot on e4, but there were some tactics looming that I thought would keep my opponent from trying to chase the rook with Nf1-d2. Well, he played 1.Nd2 anyways, which allowed me to play the cute 1…Nxd4, threatening to take his queen. Play continued 2.cxd4? Qxd2, and white seems to be lost in all lines. I’ve got a mate threat on e1 and plenty of other options. If, for example, 3.Bc3, I can simply take the knight with Qxf4.

That was fun :)

Weekend Tournament

I played in another small tournament this weekend. I felt like I played pretty shitty, I wasn't happy with the quality of most of my games. I still managed to get 2.5/4 though so the result wasn't too bad. My main problem this weekend was impatience. I just didn't feel like taking time on my moves... Time control was G/45, but in most games I was 10-15 moves into the game after 10 minutes. Anybody have any suggestions as to how to train against impatience? :)

Will try to post a game later.

I want this chess table!

From TI's music video, "What you know"

I wish I'd studied chess as a child

Got my butt kicked twice at the club last night, from two brothers - one aged 9, the other 8. Arrgh.

Must... improve.

Duh.

I was playing a blitz game earlier today against a guy rated about 200 points higher than me. I'm white and we reached the following position after he just played Qe4, with each about a minute and a half left on the clock:



I'm thinking about my move, and after about 5 seconds he offers a draw. Here's what went through my head, all within a few seconds: "I can't castle to protect my rook on b1 since he will just take my queen with his bishop. Ne7+ obviously doesn't work. Oh he's offering a draw? Well he's higher rated and probably doesn't see any win for either side. Screw it, just take the draw." Duh. Stupid blitz. I'm such a patzer.

Questions of Modern Chess Theory

Last week I listed my resolutions for 2009. So the first book I will be going through, from cover to cover, is Isaac Lipnitsky's "Questions of Modern Chess Theory". The back cover says it's “the lost masterpiece of Soviet chess literature … Russian experts say it is one of the most influential chess books of the 20th century.” Boy, this has to be good right?

Well, I just saw that Chess Cafe posted a review, and reading it got me all excited about the book. I will be posting impressions as I go through it, but since I am just getting into it, I will quote a piece of the review for now. I chose the following partly because of the recent discussions on BDK's blog (and other places) about Watson vs. Aagaard, rule independence etc:

Chapter 7 (“The Concrete Approach”) is only seven pages long, but it may be one of the most important sections of the book. Lipnitsky demonstrates how dogmatic adherence to general principles can lead a player to defeat without his realization of what actually happened. “In any particular position,” he states, “the rejection of some laws (directives) merely makes way for the affirmation and success of others.” A player must be able to accurately assess, Lipnitsky states, “which laws – maxims, principles, rules – are valid in a given, specific case.” Here’s an excellent example, a practical case faced frequently:

It is White to move, and Lipnitsky addresses two opposite approaches regarding how White should capture the bishop on b3:

(a) The superficial, dogmatic decision: White must capture towards the centre with a2xb3, since c2xb3? would open up the king, which is on the same file as the black rook. Besides, after c2xb3? Black would be left with an easily won king-and-pawn endgame if all the pieces were exchanged. Therefore, a2xb3!.

(b) The concrete, creative decision: in this position the chief, determining principle is the all-out attack on opposite wings. In the event of 13.axb3? Nb4!, threatening Qd8-a5, Black obtains an extremely strong attack. On the other hand after 13.cxb3! Black’s attack is very hard to develop, despite the placing of the rook and king opposite each other (For example: 13…Nb4 14.Kb1!).

White for his part will be able to continue his successful storming of the opponent’s kingside. In these circumstances Black’s extra pawn in the centre has no special significance.

Thank you Chess Cafe for this detailed review. I am really looking forward to sinking my teeth into this classic and posting my own impressions. Stay tuned!

Chess Stud

I spent some time on the Playchess server last night, and the mysterious player "Raffael" was playing 4+1 blitz against some other GM. Many believe that Raffael is Kasparov. Well, I would not question it after seeing his performance. I saw four games, and he just took the other GM apart. It was awesome to watch. Ahhh must be nice to be that good...

Tournament Game

Ok so I finally had some time to go over one of my tournament games... I looked at my last round draw. Right after the game, I felt like I had given away the full point. However, looking at it now, I think I should be happy with the draw. This is definitely not my best game - I fell asleep in the middle game and made some bad moves, which should have allowed black to win the game. He allowed me to regain a small advantage, but in the resulting endgame my edge was not as big as I thought that day. A draw is not a bad result here.

Chessaholic tourney game.pgn

Resolutions for 2009

1. No more than 3 ICC blitz games a day, and at least 4 games per week with time controls of G/30 or longer

2. Renewed focus and discipline in doing tactical drills daily – I’ve been a real slacker on this one. Shame on me, as it was the reason to start this chess blog.

3. Stop jumping from chess book to chess book without really finishing. Focus on one book at a time and get through it, no matter how long it takes. In other words, cure my chess ADHD :)

That’s it for now. It may not sound like much, but I believe it won’t be easy to pull this off - it’s hard to break certain habits :)

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, Quanza, Festivus, or whatever else you may or may not be celebrating. Hope 2009 is full of love and happiness for all of you! And maybe some chess success as well :)

I meant to analyze and post my tournament games, but it's been a very busy month so I haven't found enough time for adequate analysis, and I don't want to post some half-assed attempt. I promise I will get to it once my Christmas vacation is over :)

See you all in 2009!

Weekend Tournament

So I played in a small tournament this weekend, my first tournament in quite a while. I was afraid I was going to be rusty, but I did OK. It was a four round Swiss (G/60), but I had a bye in the first round so I only got to play three games. In those three games I went +2 =1 which I am happy with, even though I should have won that drawn game as I had a slightly better position in the endgame. I will post that game shortly with some analysis.

Thinking Machine

Ok, this is pretty cool. In case you were wondering what it all means:

"When it is your (White's) turn to move, the chess board will gently pulse to show the influence of the various pieces. in the left image below, you can see waves over the squares around the king and (very lightly) over the squares where the pawns might capture. When the machine (Black) is thinking, a network of curves is overlaid on the board; see image at right. The curves show potential moves--often several turns in the future--considered by the computer. Orange curves are moves by black; green curves are ones by white. The brighter curves are thought by the program to be better for white."

More info here.

Dilemma

Chess is too serious for a game, but too much of a game to be taken seriously.

-Moses Mendelssohn

Rybka Wins World Championship

Hardly surprising, Rykba won the 16th World Computer Chess Championship. I watched some of the games live on the Playchess server, and most of them were spectacular. You can download the games in PGN format here. Check out the game against Hiarcs (2nd place winner) - awesome.

Simple But Beautiful

I love this position (number 165 in Alburt's Chess Training Pocket Book). It's white to move - what would you play?

Highlight between the brackets for the solution.
[ 1.Bg5! And black resigned. He can't take the bishop with the h pawn, as Qh5 will be mate. If black's queen takes the bishop, white wins with Qg8# ]

Alekhine Gone Bad

Ok, I have to do something before LEP puts me on his infamous Zombie list. Hmm how about a mindless yet fun blitz game from last night. Ah, quality posting.

alekhine.pgn