US Game/60 Tournament

I had a little success this weekend in the US Game/60 Tourney scoring 3/4 to tie for third in the Reserve section (U1800). It's always nice to get a check at the end of a tournament. I went up to Illinois to visit the family and decided to spend a day playing. As a bonus I ran into a group of guys my age who spent some time reminiscing about all the old clubs and chess haunts of our youth. The tourney facilities were okay. I'm at that age where good lighting is getting more important. Right after the start of the 2nd round the folks in the banquet room next door to the tournament room started their "Tribute to Barry White" with a booming bass line. Perhaps the hotel personnel need a future reminder that chess tournaments and music festivals don't mix well. Best of all I picked up just enough rating points to sneak back over 1700 to 1701.

The Saturday before last I had played in the Austin Kids Tourney and flamed out badly. I dropped almost 40 points to 1690. Hopefully just an off day but they seem to be occurring more frequently as of late. Last year around this time I had just punched through the 1800 barrier and was sitting on 1803. My goal for 2011 is to play much more often, preferably in slower time control events and regain the 1800+ level.

I'm back to skipping between about half a dozen books and magazines instead of concentrating on my list. Time to buckle down and prepare for 2011.

Book Review: "Studying Chess Made Easy"

I finished "Studying Chess Made Easy" by Andrew Soltis covering the last 70 pages over the last four-five days. I really like the ideas communicated to the reader in this book. For the most part I had heard the advice on improving before in many different sources and many different forms. Here it was especially digestable.

• Chapter 1: Chess Isn't School
• Chapter 2: Cultivating Your Chess Sense
• Chapter 3: The biggest Study myth
• Chapter 4: The Right Way to Study Openings
• Chapter 5: Two-an-a-half-move Chess
• Chapter 6: Overcoming Endgame Phobia
• Chapter 7: Learning to Live with TMI
• Chapter 8: How to Learn More from a Master Game

The last chapter on "How to learn more from a master game" took advice I had heard--play over the game at least three times--and broke it down into the whys and wherefores. Play through the first time quickly (just the raw game score) to get a feel for the game (ebb and flow, crucial points, themes). Play through the second time looking at note commentary for ideas, look for points where you would have chosen a different move or didn't understand why a move was chosen. Play through the third time for detailed examination of the analysis notes and variations, do your own analysis sans computer to gain further understanding.

Soltis is also a believer of the every diagram is a lesson program. He talks about good authors of chess material choosing to use diagrams at critical/interesting/learning opportunity moments of the games they annotate. He expresses that improving players should have fun while studying. Although he knows that some areas of study will be hard and brutal work for the player that really wishes to achieve a high level he notes that choosing exciting games, practicing and analyzing with friends, and learning openings/endgames in  increments can be done without draining all the fun out of chess.

I really like several of the reviews on Amazon regarding this book and feel those reviewers are spot on with their key points. This is a strong candidate for "Book of the Year."

In addition, the working through the book, since my last  post I have finished the May and June issues of Chess Life leaving me July, August and September to work through. I have been playing on-line with some success and reviewing tactics diagrams daily. I just seem to lack the time for slow chess tournaments and weekend events. I will try to focus more on that over the next six months.

Mounting a Comeback

Last night I finished the book "Chess Duels: My Games with the World Champions" by Yasser Seirawan. I bought and started the book over the Memorial Day weekend and now 2 1/2 months later I have digested its 432 pages (414 prior to index). It is a tremedous book for any chess lover and highly recommended! Yasser takes you through some wonderful chess adventures both in the games and in the stories about the players and the chess world in general. This book has received some wonderful accolades in the reviews on Amazon I agree with the bulk of them. I have seen Yasser Seirawan twice in person, most recently at a National Open in Vegas about 10 years back where he was giving a lecture and almost 30 years ago in the '80-'81 time frame when I played in a local tournament in California. The details are fuzzy due to the time lapsed but I believe it was somewhere in or near Van Nuys. Yasser was already a chess celebrity having won the World Junior Championship in 1979. I believe there was one master at the tourney and a bunch of class players. In between rounds I walked out of the high school where this tourney was being held and playing basketball on the outdoor courts was Yasser. I had the impression he was "beyond" playing in a local tourney but loved to be around the game and chess players.

It's been awhile since I last posted, time flys, life goes on, and blogs always seem like we'll get to it someday soon. I finished DCS on April 23rd and I finished SOMCS on June 6th. I haven't been playing as much as I would like, often giving up my spot in the club tourney if there is a odd number of entrants. Therefore my rating has been somewhat steady in the 1725-1750 range. I have managed to add a number of books to the chess library, way more than I can possibly get to this year but nice for the collection. During the trip to Chicago over Memorial Day I also picked up several volumes of the Yuri Averbach endgame series in hardcover at half price books. I have acquired several other bargains at half price books during trips to Dallas and just recently placed an Amazon order for "Mastering the Chess Openings, Volume 4" to complete that set, along with "Play the Caro Kann" and "Studying Chess Made Easy" by Soltis. The book currently on the side of the chess table is "Starting Out: The Scandanavian" and I've been focusing on the 3.... Qd6 chapters.

Still playing some on-line blitz at playchess.com but not as much as I once was. I haven't been keeping up with games in Chess Life currently being about four issues behind. I'll try to rectify that the remainder of this month. I feel that if I could just improve a couple of hundred points to the high "A" low expert range my enjoyment of playing through the chess library would be greatly enhanced but I can't seem to spend the time I know is necessary to study tactics, tactics, and more tactics nor focus sufficiently at the board when wearing the dual player/TD hats.

For the immediate future I'll set the smaller goal of just trying to update this blog more frequently. To any and all readers out there play well and enjoy the game.

Plodding Along

Life does get in the way of chess study. But overall things are progressing abet slowly. I've moved the bookmark in DCS up to page 116 for a gain of 24 pages over the last month. In SOMCS I've advanced to page 118 for an additional 42 pages covered. I've progressed through several games in the April issue of Chess Life. I have played in the March Club Swiss finishing tied for first with a score of 3.5/4.0 including a .5 bye. Boosted my regular rating from 1718 to 1754 and QC rating from 1732 to 1760. Then played in the March 31 Quick Chess Quads and finished 1st with a 3.0/3.0 and added 25 more points to 1785 Quick. The Club Swiss for April is off and running but due to an odd number of entrants I took a 1st round .5 point bye. I turned 50 on April 3rd and my presents included "Knight Endings" by Averbach, GrandMaster Repertoire 1. d4 by Boris Avrukh, and an Amazon order including "The Improving Chess Thinker" by Heisman, "Forcing Chess Moves" by Hertan and "Starting Out: The Scandinavian" by Houska. My cup runneth over! I have played some on-line blitz over the last 30 days but less frequently than the prior month. I'll really have to work at carving out study blocks for chess in the future.

Depressing Update

The improvement program would be rated highly successful by government standards. My rating has fallen from 1806 on 11/4 to 1795 on 12/16 to 1714 today. The government official explaining this rating drop would say that by increasing my knowledge in a wider varitey of chess positions than I am normally accustomed to playing I'm increasing my overall chess knowledge and in the future this should begin to show a steady increase in rating which always lags the accumulation of knowledge. In addition, once I become acclimated to the wider variety of chess positions my intrinsic value as a chess player shall increase.

In reality, I have meandered through a few more pages in DCS up to page 82 and SOMCS up to page 76 which represents about 24 total pages in 8 days since the last update. I did play in one 3-SS Game/45 tournament on Saturday winning two games but losing to a 1672 player. The areas of book study included the discussion of playing Isolated Queen Pawn (IQP) positions which I normally don't get in my opening systems. However, after reviewing that section I had the chance to enter one in the tournament and didn't shy away from it. It's interesting to sit at the board thinking "The book says this is how I should play the position and that is how my opponent should play the position" and then watch somewhat helplessly as he achieves his aims while I barely hang on and eventually slip off.

Much less time for on-line blitz in this time period although I played a few sessions. My goal for the next week is to average at least 6 pages a day, spent less time on the computer and more time studying and, perhaps, not just playing through the moves.

Update

Too long between updates, I know, but here's where I'm at now. In "Dynamic Chess Strategy" I'm on page 72 and in "SOMCS" I'm on page 62. I have played some blitz on playchess.com almost every day and the regular Wednesday G/60 club contests. Also played through Game 24 in "Why Lasker Matters" (pp. 82-86).

Taught the kids class on Friday afternoons, last week's main lesson was Queen and King mate v. lone King. Tomorrow will be two Rooks vs. lone King and if successfully King and Rook v. lone King. I hope it's going well. Had several returning attendees and a few new ones.

Got hammered in the Club February Swiss sinking from 1757 to 1724. I will try to remain optimistic about the March Swiss starting next week. Good luck to all you chess players seeking to improve!

Progress Report

Four days in and here's what's happened so far. On Monday, I played about an hour of 3m3s blitz games on Playchess.com (GarGus). I received an ebay purchase of "The Black Knights Tango" read through the first 6 pages--bookmark inserted. I also managed to progress from page 34 to page 38 in SOMCS covering passed pawn and blockade info. Played through one game out of "Why Lasker Matters."

On Tuesday, perhaps 30-45 minutes of on-line 3m3s blitz games. A couple of pages in SOMCS and restarted "Dynamic Chess Strategy" covering the first two games of the introduction.

Wednesday, some more blitz at lunch (my default seek is 3m3s) then the club night OTB game at G/60. I was better out of the opening (white side of KID Samisch), soon up a piece for two pawns, added an exchange to boot, and then lost on time in a losing position having let my opponent advance the passed pawns and win back a pawn and piece in a time scramble. I had an easy draw in time trouble but wanted more and got less.

Thursday, I managed to progress to page 45 in SOMCS and page 17 in DCS..