160

Finished problem 160 in Polgar's book. I notice the problems become easier once I recognized the patterns of the one move checkmates. I really like the format and this should help me with my attack and defense. I was especially intrigued with the two Knights and Queen and two Bishops and Queen scenarios. Got rid of that book cover because it was getting in the way. I plan on taking it with me wherever I go so it will probably get busted up. In any case, I hope they don't discontinue the book because I plan on re-purchasing it if this one falls apart. Now if they could only publish more hardcover versions of MCO-14......

Lost my U1800 match but won my U1600 match. In my U1600 match my opponent made a mouse slip and asked for a takeback. Good thing I knew the rules because if I had agreed I would have drawn the game instead of won it.

I have decided to try and attend the local club meetings from now on. What brought this about is quite a long story but the gist is, I got a used car from my Grandfather's friend for free and was about to trade it in when I thought about using it to drive to the meetings. I figured, might as well until the car breaks down. So I'll let you know how that goes.

Finally, I still haven't found my mojo yet. I've been on a solid losing streak since the end of April and it doesn't seem to be letting up any time soon. The good thing about it is now that my rating has dropped significantly I can practice spotting and taking advantage of weak moves as well as my mating attack.

Local Quads

Finally got around to visiting another chess club. Quite a drive from town. Got there around 7p and left after 9p. There was quite a few people there.

The president of the club also asked me if I was interested in joining their Go club. Oh man, I told him I didn't have two lifetimes to work on improving at intellectual games, and I hear Go is even more complicated with more possible scenarios.

Don't foget to vote for USCF if you haven't done so. I followed Susan Polgar's recommendations and voted for Mr. Randy Bauer, Mr. Joel Channing, Mr. George John, and Mr. Robert Tanner. See her blog for more details.

Hump day

Did 40 problems from Polgar's book on Monday then another 42 problems last night, which brings me up to 82.

Still losing more than winning. I'm dropping down to G15 to give me more flexibility on playing games. I know it's not ideal and I miss a lot of things because I am rushing but playing is more important for me right now than playing at my best. In the last month I've only clocked about 2 or 3 games a week so that has definitely got to change. My rating is currently fluctuating between 1210 and 1250, which sucks, but I'm hanging in there.

Opening study has paid off tremendously so far. I am much more comfortable with the different opening positions and I am starting to get the feel for seeing when someone leaves book and how that affects the position. It speeds up the time it takes to find tactics in the opening. I am also learning which moves are natural moves and why they are normal compared to other, not so natural ones.

Hiatus

An IM I consulted has recommended I not use CT Art at this stage in my development. Instead he recommended Polgar’s book. Spending about 30 minutes a day on doing problems. Primarily, however, he said the main thing to improve my game right now is to play more games. He said my weaknesses stem from my lack of experience. Therefore I am going to take his advice and put CT Art on the shelf for now, right beside Soltis’ book. I am still going to finish Chess Mentor because it offers a lot of good advice like “Logical Chess Move by Move”, but that will take third behind playing games and doing problems from Polgar’s book.

Even though I will still be posting, I won’t be doing Don’s Inferno anytime soon. Please feel free to put me on your hiatus list if you feel it is more appropriate. Hopefully I will get to the level where I can tackle the problems soon.

Knightwiz and Harmless

I was forced to agree to a game time for the both of you since neither of you posted anything to the forum.

Knightwizzy - Sunday, 11:00 FICS

Xeones - Sunday, 9:00 FICS

If you want to reschedule I suggest you start doing it soon or else you will have to show up at that time. Here is what the handbook says about rescheduling:

Rescheduling. Once a game time has been offered and accepted, it is considered to be binding on both players. However, up to the end of the 30-minute grace period, a player may ask his opponent to reschedule the game. The opponent may either agree to the request or not, and does not need to give a reason.

T27 Round 1

Lost. Man, what a way to start the tourney. I hope you guys did better.

[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "freechess.org"]
[Date "2005.06.15"]
[White "PawnSensei"]
[Black "clarinetref"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1422"]
[BlackElo "1494"]
[ECO "B34"]
[TimeControl "2700+45"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Nxc6 {Blunder. Normal was Be3 followed by Nf6. Equates to trading a d pawn for a b pawn.} 6... bxc6 7. Bd2 e6 8. Bd3 Ne7 9. O-O O-O 10. Qc1 Re8 11. Bh6 {Putting a strong B on h6.}11... Bh8 12. Qd2 d5 13. f3 {Loses a pawn to Qb6+. Forgot to check all of my opponent's threats. I was dreaming of opening up the f file.} 13... Qb6+ 14. Kh1 Qxb2 15. Ne2 Qa3 16. Qc1 Bb2 17. Qe1 {The R on a1 is safe. If Bxa1 then Qxa1.} 17... a5 18. Bc1 Bxc1 19. Qxc1 Qd6 20. a4 Ba6 21. Bxa6 Rxa6 22. Rb1 f5 23. Rd1 Ra7 24. Qe3 Rd7 25. Qb6 {Wastes a tempo.} 25... Ra8 26. Rb3 Qe5 27. Qd4 Qxd4 28. Nxd4 {Loses the N to a disc attack.} 28... dxe4 29. fxe4 e5 30. Rdb1 Rxd4 31. exf5 gxf5 32. g3 Rad8 33. Rb8 Rxb834. Rxb8+ Kg7 35. Rb7 Kf6 36. h4 Rd1+ 37. Kg2 Rd2+ 38. Kf3 Rxc2 39. Ra7Rc3+ 40. Kf2 Rc5 41. Kf3 h5 42. Ke3 Nd5+ 43. Kf3 e4+ 44. Kf2 Rc2+ 45. Ke1Rc5 46. Kf2 e3+ 47. Kf3 Nc3 48. Kxe3 Nxa4 49. Kd4 Rd5+ 50. Kc4 Nb2+ 51. Kc3Nd1+ 52. Kb3 Nf2 53. Ra6 Rd6 54. Rxa5 Ne4 55. Ra4 Nxg3 56. Kc4 Re6 57. Kc5Ne4+ 58. Kc4 f4 59. Ra1 f3 60. Kd3 Kf5 61. Rf1 Kg4 62. Re1 f2 63. Rc1 Kf364. Rc5 Nxc5+ 65. Kd4 f1=Q 66. Kxc5 Qc1+ {PawnSensei resigns} 0-1

Out of stock

Wow. Just checked the Chess Mentor Comprehensive Course on Wholesalechess and they are out of stock until June 17. Glad I got my copy before they ran out.

Looking For

1. Good opening encyclopedia. I only used MCO14 so far but no one seems to carry a hardcover version. The paperback versions are just too flimsy for 700 pages. Who's idea was that anyway? Does anyone use ChessBase instead of a paper based encyclopedia? What are your comments?

2. Method for storing OTB clock times electronically. I have Fritz 7 and use Winboard but can't figure out how to do it with either program.