Where am I?

My current rating are:
Slow chess: 2457 ( I guess I am a correspondance chess master)
Gameknot: 1674 (Climbing a tough laddeer, 29/1/0)

I decided to be a more cavalier with slow chess games. I planned to be carefull with gameknot because I like their computer interface and unless I move up in the ranking, the opponent might not be challenging. So far, I have only 3 difficult games.

Starting again

Gosh!
Rook endings are so boring!
How many games I played that reached a lucena or philidor position. NONE!
Most of the time, I kill or I am killed in the middle game. My opening is not an issue because I only played email chess and the database are allowed. The middle game, that is where the action happens.
So,
I am taking an executive decision. I am stopping reading Mednis and move on into
an old love, "Modern Chess Strategy" by Pachman. I read this book several years ago
and it is time to read it again.

Never lose hope

Even when losing, the enemy might let you go. It is hard to substain the winning pressure. So I must be patient when I am in the wrong side of the table.

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I finished passing my notes into supermemo. Now I will continue with Mednis' "Practical Rook endings."

Keep track of our own chess understanding

I came to the conclusion that one of my problem in the past with chess was not having a fast way to review what I study. Several years ago, when I was active in OTB, I used paper flash card to keep my memorized opening moves. Later I found supermemo but I never use for chess but to study German. With supermemo I memorized up to 4000 german words. I suspect that supermemo could help me to break my chess understanding ceiling.

I began passing my chessbase notes into supermemo in the form of questions and answers. First supermemo presents the chess board and a question set,then after I answer it, it shows the right response. If I fail it will present it again on the next day and so on. It uses an incremental learning strategy. It shows only the flash card that have not been learned. It could be a lot of work, but after finishing my strategy and endgame studies, I will have a set to review while I focus my energy into regular tactical exercises and annotated master games.

Tony Kosten's Book complete

I just finished '101 Tips to improve your chess" by Tony Kosten. It is a great book to reflesh some chess wisdom after being away from the game for a several years. After the 85 tips, Tony ran out of steam and it was time to move on. It took me a while to work through the book. I relied on Chessbase 11 to help me along. Tomorrow I will take my notes and drop them into supermemo to review them.

A memory from Fischer days.

I remember that in the first Fischer v. Spasky match there was one poison pawn game. I have the opportunity of taken the white side of the position and played a pretty combination. This is my first unrated game at chess.com. I am not really sure that I could played in that server because slowchess.com and gameknot.com are probably enough.

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A Knight to the rim is a dog.

Finally I made to tip No. 50 of "101 Tips to Improve Your Chess" by Tony Kosten. I am using this book to systematically review what I know about chess. A refresher book that I love.  Here is what I found in Tip No. 50.

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Trapping chess pieces

A very niece strategical game.

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Study plan

1. Alternate study between strategy and endgame
2. Practice Tactics everyday: first 3 levels of CT-ART and Practical Chess Exercises
3. Play about 30 turn based games simultaneously

The analysis of own games will follow after finishing the current book in strategy because I want reflesh my memory about it.

Bishop pair for a drawing game.

I know that bishop pairs are good for winning a game. However, they are also good for drawing a game.(Tip #38 of Kosten's book)

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Knights prefer closed positions

A beautiful games of using the knights in a closed positions and a double rook exchange offer. That was twice rejected. A pleasure to study this game.

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Inflexible doubled pawns at endgame

Difficult to believe but black cannot use its queenside majority because they are doubled. This is good to remember because in the Spanish Exchange Variation black get also its double pawns.
What to do if fighting them? The closer we are to the endgame, the near we are to winning.

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Timman used this strategy in this game.

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A confusing day

Finally I got my first rating from gameknot (internet chess). I have not lost a game so far. I ended up in 1636; playing against people rate in the 1100 and 1300 range. What does it really means but that I won 7 games so far without losing a single one. All these games are pure tactical games with some complexity at times, but overall pretty weak. I have a couple games that are more complex and that might worthwhile to present here after their conclusion. Not strategical analysis tonight: too much wine!

The idea of collecting all my blunders and becoming really aware of them might be a good exercise. I will look into it.

Isolated pawns couple

Strategy.
Given that one of them move,
(1) Fixed them in place by controlling the empty square in front of the pawn left behind.
(2) Exchange that square bishop
(3) Use that square for tactical actions.
Here is an example from Kasparov himself.

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hanging pawns

I feel that there is more to hanging pawns that what we see here. We need to look further into this topic.Oh well. I am  not happpy on this about it....just readiness for a kingside attack? that is not enough for me.

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Defending against the IQP

A simple strategy.
1. Eye on the square in front of that pawn
2. Ocupy that square if possible
3. Exchange pieces to reach the endgame
Then the pawn is really weak and ready for destruction.

Here an example from my current reading book.

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The dynamic IQP

This is how to handle the isolated pawn.
(1) Control d5
(2) Advance when all pieces are ready for the attack.

Here is an example from Tip No. 15.

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Three lessons for one

1. Never play a gambit unless you know what you are doing. If found in one, 2. be extra careful to get your pawn back.
3. Do not forget king' safety. If you do, you will be punished. A draw sometimes is not such a bad thing.

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Center versus kingside attack

When castling in opposite side of the board, I remember, time is everything. Material then does not count but tempo, tempo, temp. That is something that computer, I think, cannot see.

This was an interesting and difficult game.

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How not to play against an IQP

Always confront the IQP during the middle game. If this pawn is dynamic, then we might have serious problem. In this example, tip No 15, black was destroyed because he did not take the threat seriously.

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Too many islands and then we are lost.

Tip 14 of the current reading list. Having too many islands? We might be in endgame troubles. The game below is an example. This is a beautiful ending from the beginning of the 20 century. Old but full of insights.

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101 tips to improve your chess

Tony Kosten wrote this book way back in 1996. I bought this book way back in the early 2000; I read most of its and I think it is time for another read. This time I am using chessbase to play the examples and to write my own notes about them. I found this approach efficient and confortable.

It is a great book for people like me that are returning as aging babyboomer, 56, to chess after a long hiatus without reading a chess book. I think that this book is for people rate C and above. (Maybe...I am not sure...I remember that I read all the Silman, Patchan and My system...so It is just a reminder...or relearning...I do not know anymore.)

Today I began using the book. The book contains 101 wisdoms to keep in mind while playing chess. The first tip reminds us to develop the pieces in the opening...Yes...silly!...but the second game shows  a GM that forgot doing it against Fischer! crazy!...Of course, Bobby ate him alive. I know we do it all the time...I went through 6 of the tips today. I am happy.

This is a great book to remember old lessons before jumping into master game studies.

Chess self improvement again.

After years of being absent from chess, I take the knights, the queen, and the king again. Why? Maybe seeking for a place where I have some control on my own fate. After all, chess is totally transparent. There are not tricks nor traps. We either see clearly what the board shows or not!

I begin this blog to track this new adventure into chess.

My OBR was/is 1675. I rediscovered it after checking the listing and renewing my membership to the USCF.  Well...I have not idea anymore about it...My rating at Net-Chess.com is 2335. What a difference!
To be honest, I did not stop playing chess but I took internet slow chess for the last 7 years. I played almost 600 games at the rate of 1 moves per days. Today I feel that I need more so here I am back, hitting the books with Chessbase 11 and Fritz as training tool.

What I want?
It is not clear.
I find tactical problems interesting.
I still enjoy going over master games.
I know...there is nothing to accomplish...I will never make it to GM...
but the pleasure of understanding a GM master game...
that is great...
You figure.

My training routine.

1. A morning session of tactics...about  1 hr of CT ART 3.0....(the best package for tactics training I have been able to find.)
2. An evening session with a current book...how long? whatever...until the wife says enough.and, of course,
3. 2 (20 min) games a week...in some internet site....FICS..GameKnot...Maybe
4. 2 tournments a year...I will start probably 6 months from now. I need to rebuild my confidence after so many years without facing anyone across the board! ...Or maybe not...who cares! I enjoy the internet thing a lot...even when I am losing. The position gives a lot to think about...I find physical tournaments to inconvenient. Of course, in the internet people could use a computer against you. So what? I could play the computer too...and that it so boring... The beauty of chess internet is that there is very little ego involved: Just the board and you...and surprises arise all the time...That is another topic of discussion as the blog evolves.