Thursday, February 23, 2006

Finished tactics unit 24 (module 1)


...

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Finished tactics unit 23 (module 1)


Finished unit 23, moving on to 24...

Monday, February 13, 2006

Knight (me) vs Knight (Satish) Challenge 2-0

I've won both Knight challenges against Satish (which were also the very first Knight challenges i took up). I do not take pride in the wins, because the games never finished. Satish forfeited them both on time. Moving on to the games, as black, i tried to play the Ruy Lopez classical defence after having seen some introductory moves to it, played by Capablanca. At the time i started the games (were talking turn-based games), i was just coming out of a phase in which i wanted to try out each and every opening i layed eyes on. Even though i had no knowledge of it whatsoever. So i decided to try out this classical defence as black. It wasn't going very well...
Moving on to Satish, i think the guy is a pretty solid player. He made me feel that he knows his way around on the board. Too bad we didn't get to finish the games. I would've probably lost my game as black, since white's position (before forfeit) was clearly better.
Anyway, i'm off now to see Jarhead

Knight (me) vs Knight (Satish) Challenge 2-0 (click to replay)

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Woohoo! I earned a title! A SchemingMind title that is...

From now on, i am a SchemingMind Chess960 Expert. SM Expert for short :-)
Ain't that amazing? And i only played 3 games!
Anyway, i think it is kinda cool that SchemingMind hands out it's own titles as a server... There are 3 titles which you can earn, which are; SchemingMind Expert, SchemingMind Master and SchemingMind Grand Master. The title goes with the territory, meaning you can earn one at playing standard chess or a variant.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Finished unit 21 & 22 and working on 23


Finished unit 21 & 22 of tactics module 1, and currently working on 23. Progress has been kind of slow due to an increased difficulty and playing live games jitters. I got very inspired by watching the stuff (untill so far) on the Andrew Martin and The Basics of Winning Chess DVD, and really felt the need to go on a playing streak. For some reason the DVD inspired me also to try out different openings. Though the beginning of the new year also played a role in it. Anyway, i just wanted to try out and play, relying purely on basics. As in; Take the centre, develop your pieces, get castled... That sort of stuff. But also in an action and reaction kinda way. Inspired by an article i read quite a while back, in which a GM told a player that chess was actually very simple. That it was only a matter of "you make a move, your opponent makes a move, your opponent makes a move, you make a move" or something like that. I cannot exactly recall it. But i believe it was David Bronstein who said it. Naturally the player thought to himself that if it was really that simple, then everybody would be a master at the game. But if you look real closely at preferably a classic game, and dig into it deep, the simplicity which the GM tried to get across, really starts to appear. Well, to me it did... Anyway, i am going to show you some games now (little or no analysis/annotations) which i tried to approach with that same simplicity. Games in which i am using openings which i played when i just started out, and had very bad results with at that time. In the first place because i had a lack of knowledge, but i also feel i took a far too complicated approach to playing them. For about a year now i have been trying to avoid playing those openings.

Two Knights game as black (click to replay)
Nothing much to add, other then the fact that (with all due respect) my opponent probably was not that good at chess yet. Not that i consider myself good at it, but i was probably better :)

Closed Sicilian as white (click to replay)
Here i would like to add, that i never knew about the existence of this King's Bishop Sicilian fianchetto variation. I just played 3.g3 because it felt natural. Turns out it existed allready. For a very long time. So much for finding an opening renamed after me...

Sicilian Najdorf as black (click to replay)
Nothing much to add, other then the fact the Najdorf isn't really suitable for blitz games. Too complicated. Atleast, for me that is...

Sicilian Moscow Variation as black (click to replay)
Nothing much to add.

Ruy Lopez as white (click to replay)
I would like to add here, that after having watched a game from Fischer which is used as an example on the Andrew Martin DVD, and having listened to the commentary in which Andrew Martin explains that Fischer was always looking to keep it simple in a game, i felt that the exchange of Knight for Bishop right away in the opening, was the simplest way of dealing with the Ruy.

Ruy Lopez as black (click to replay)
I always hated playing the Ruy as black, untill i discovered the existence of a fianchettoed Bishop variation in which you fianchetto the King's Bishop early on in the game. And i like it. I really do... Come to think of it, i must have somekind of fianchettoed Bishop fetish :)

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Strong player yes, titled player no

I got a chance to talk to the Grandmaster i am currently playing through MSN. When i asked him if it was possible for me to become a strong player he said, strong player yes, titled player no. When i asked him why it wasn't possible to become a titled player it basically came down to memory capacity. Not that i expected to become one...

Sunday, February 05, 2006

The Beginning

So ya'll think you know how chess started, right? Well, maybe you'll think differently after reading this amazing story...

By the way, i know some of you ain't into Hip Hop and all, but i've just finished watching the movie Hustle & Flow, and for those of you that liked 8 Mile... This is better. Now, ofcourse that is only my personal view :)
But i also like Terrence Howard as an actor very much.

Oh, and make sure ya'll catch that chess video link i put on my sidebar, way down below, for some great chess video's! For instance, Korchnoi, who is defeated by a cow in a chess game :) And much more!

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Grandmaster vs Amateur (this time we playing turn-based baby)

Remember that Grandmaster vs Amateur (miniature) game i posted about? Well, that same Grandmaster was willing to take me up on some turn-based games :)
Even though there's a 99.9% (considering everybody is a hero in their lifetime once) chance i will get my butt kicked (most likely 100%), it is a great honour. I will surely post the games once they're done. Probably take a while though :)