Temposchlucker's CTS

Anyone else notice that TS has the second highest number of problems attempted at CTS? With 31,011 problems he is right behind a FIDE Master. Dang, he owns that bad boy. They should hire him as the Jared of chess tactics.

"I gained 200 rating points in six months by doing 200 problems a day on Chess Tactics Server and you can too!"

3D Chess Pieces

Does anyone know how to get the fully rendered chess pieces for Chessbase 9? They show the pieces in the manual but they don't show up in the 3D board options. I think it would be nice to be able to play with realistic 3D pieces.

The Great Sancho

Set aside some time this weekend, between studying programming and chess, to fool around with chess programs.

On Saturday Sancho volunteered two and a half hours of his time to show me some of the myriad features of CB9. We went over downloading new chess games, how to merge them with my reference DB without incuring duplicates, setting up an opening book, importing games into critical positions, and more. Next time he says he'll show me how to use the training feature to do puzzles. If you guys have any questions on CB9, Sancho is your man.

The other program I dedicated some time to was CPT. After using it for half a year there were some things that bothered me about the program. Such as not being able to move around sub-rep tabs or renaming sub-reps, etc. So I fiddled around with the files until I learned how to do some of those things. It wasn't pretty. It kind of reminds me of the bit-twiddling with C++ casts that I am currently learning about. At one point I thought I had deleted some of my hard earned work until I figured out how to recover it. The program uses XML and it was my first experience with the language. Similar to HTML I guess, but Jim could probably tell you more about it.

In all a productive weekend. In the future I'll post any neat features I come across in CB9 in case it would help anyone with that complex program.

Bonus

Well, stayed up past midnight, playing with CB9. Jeez is it complicated. It shipped with three CB magazines that included WAZ '05, Linares '05 with Kasparov's last game and interview, and the 2005 World Championship in Sophia. Just the videos alone ate up most of my time. I'm planning to start on the Lopez articles tonight when I get home.

Chess Mentor

What happened to Chess Mentor? Oh well, glad I picked up my copy.

Still waiting for my CB9. Can't wait to open the package.

UPDATE:
Ask and you shall receive. When I got home CB9 was waiting on my doorstep. The install is running as I type this. So much for getting to bed early tonight.

Chessbase

Finally got around to ordering CB9 last night, Sancho convinced me to part with the cash. I can't wait until it gets here. Since I already have Fritz 7 I decided to hold off on getting a newer version for now. I also ordered a half-sized plastic set for my gf's cousin. The last set we bought him was one of those horrible glass sets you get from KBs at twice the price. Hey, it looked nice on the box. Anyway, he's getting a lot better since he started playing with the chess club at his grade school so I thought I'd get him a more serious set. Finally someone to play with! I can't wait until he's old enough to analyze games with me. Hopefully he'll still be interested.

I'm still playing at least two games a night. Rating fluctuates a lot, especially since I experiment with different ideas, but I feel like I'm learning a lot and slowly improving. Hope everyone else is having fun.

Good and bad news

First the good. Druss has a new addition to his family. With CD's new baby, that makes two new additions among the Knights this year!

The bad news is U1600 lost to Pawnmowers in the finals, thus ending the T28 season. With three out of three trips to the finals however, I think we can conclude that the DeLaMaza program does indeed work.

First successful e5 attack

I wasn't planning on posting another game so soon but I wanted to share my tiny triumph. Ever since I started playing e5 as White I haven't had a successful attack with the e-pawn. Most times it gets captured or traded. This game was the first time I could remember where I used it effectively.

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2005.11.04"]
[White "PawnSensei"]
[Black "Unfriendly Foe"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C44"]
[WhiteElo "1341"]
[BlackElo "1320"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 {The Scotch.} 3... Bd6 {Black leaves book. There is no good way to decline the pawn.} 4. dxe5 {I was debating between this move and d5. I chose dxe to see where it would lead.} 4... Nxe5 5. Nxe5 Bxe5 6. Bc4 {Open game with a central pawn. I hope to use it for an attack later in the game.} 6... Nf6 {I looked at f4 for a while but didn't see anything. Fritz says f4 wins material.} 7. Nd2 O-O 8. O-O a6 9. c3 {Squeezing the B and protecting b2.} 9... b5 10. Bb3 Bb7 11. Re1 c6 {Creates a bad B. I will take advantage of the removed attacker.} 12. Nf3 Qc7 13. Nxe5 Qxe5 {I used up a good chunk of my clock here. I eventually saw f4 leading to Qc5+ Be3 Qe7 e5.} 14. f4 Qc5+ 15. Be3 Qe7 16. e5 Nd5 17. Bxd5 cxd5 18. Bd4 {Taking advantage of the hole. With opposite colored Bs there is nothing that can move my B.} 18... Qd8 19. Qg4 Re8 20. e6 {And away we go.} 20... f6 21. exd7 Rxe1+ 22. Rxe1 Qf8 23. Qe6+ Kh8 24. Qe8 Kg8 25. Bc5 Qxe8 26. Rxe8+ Kf7 27. Rxa8 Bxa8 {f5 leads to mate.} 28. d8=Q Bc6 29. Qc7+ Kg6 30. Qxc6 h6 {With 2 minutes and change I don't want to take too much time thinking so I take material instead. If Black wants to play it out I can Q another pawn in a few more seconds.} 31. Qxd5 f5 32. Qc6+ Kh5 33. Qxa6 {Black resigns} 1-0

Recent game

Pretty straightforward.

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2005.11.03"]
[White "Unfriendly Foe"]
[Black "PawnSensei"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C59"]
[WhiteElo "1275"]
[BlackElo "1313"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Na5 6. Bb5+ c6 7. dxc6 bxc6 8. Be2 h6 9. Nf3 Bd6 10. d3 O-O 11. Nc3 Re8 12. O-O Qc7 13. Ne4 Nxe4 14. dxe4 Bb7 {Fritz doesn't like this move.} 15. Bd3 c5 16. b3 Rad8 17. Re1 c4 18. Bf1 Bb4 19. Bd2 Bxd2 20. Nxd2 c3 21. Bb5 Rxd2 22. Qh5 Qc5 23. Re2 Qxb5 24. Rxd2 cxd2 25. Rd1 Rd8 26. c4 Qc5 27. Qe2 Qd4 28. a3 Bxe4 29. g3 Bc2 30. Rxd2 Qxd2 31. Qxd2 Rxd2 32. c5 {Be4 prevents c6 and threatens mate on d1.} Nxb3 33. c6 Rd8 34. c7 Rc8 35. a4 Rxc7 36. a5 Be4 37. a6 Rc1# {White checkmated} 0-1