Smack my bishop (into shape!) - The training log

Lucena

@macinalli

Well, I've started working through the end of chapter problems, so I'll finish them and then move on to the rest of the book, and then come back to that chapter again once the book is finished. If it hasn't stuck by then, so be it.

It's strange though, working through the problems, I'm not sure if B + N is just incredibly complex, or there's something that I just don't 'get'.

cdeb

macinalli wrote: »

I used to know the B&N ending, but to be honest I've been playing chess on/off for over 30 years now and have never had to play that ending!

I've had two games where I've threatened to swap off into the ending; both times, my opponents admitted after they didn't know how to win the ending, and one accepted a draw rather than go in for it.

So yeah, it's not very common, but it'll turn half points into full points.

Though I'll admit I don't know it...

Valmont

I think I should probably learn two bishops and king versus king before I even think about the knight and bishop.

Lucena

That's probably wise, Valmont.

I took the night off, so to speak, by ploughing into back rank mates (Chapter 3). Fairly easy in comparison!

Lucena

Last game of the year tonight. We were supposed to play this Saturday but my opponent has an arbiter training course that day, so I've accepted to play tonight. So it'll be straight out of work and over to the guy's house (no club rooms available). I was on the phone to him twice to see what time, what address etc, and he kept saying "Oh, I'd better clean up before you come over". Hopefully I won't be playing in a pig-sty with weird smells and unidentified stains.

I've white against him and he's a mere 1850 or so, so I've a decent chance of getting a result (as they say in football). Also had a look at the guy's repertoire against e4, he plays only the Sicilian which I feel prepared against. Also the games of his that I looked through contain a lot of tactical errors, so if I'm alert the chances are there. Hopefully the game won't go on too long (it's 1h30 + 30secs/move, plus 30mins after 40 moves), don't want to arrive home at midnight!

Prediction: Lucena 1 - 0 Dirty House Guy

Just for fun, here's a game I played in the last round of a weekender in September, when I was already out of the running for any prizes. See if you can follow the entire game in your head!

1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 d6
3. c3 Nf6
4. Be2 Nxe4
5. Qa4+
1-0

My prize for winning this game was getting to go home early!

Lucena

Lost the game. I had a good attack that petered out after a few piece exchanges and ended up in a losing endgame.

Lucena

A recent game of mine (last weekend):

http://www.chess.com/blog/Binouzenours/fighting-chess

I felt like Tal, at least until Fritz had a look at it!

Valmont

I like that, I think I'll try it next time I face 2.c3 in the sicilian (which is quite common)

Lucena

Yeah, it's an interesting line, and despite playing the c3 from the white side for many years, I never knew what to play with Black before this. Your opponent's barely just got settled into his seat and straight away you're attacking him, taking him out of his comfort zone. Of course, it's not without risk for Black, but at least Black will have prepared beforehand and be aware of the pit-falls, whereas for White, he'll just have to work it out over the board!

cdeb

I think white's general plan is Nd2, Bc4 and Be3 (threatening to take the pawn).

It was played against me recently in Kilkenny; got a draw out of it although I played Be2, which is just weak.

I thought black had gone wrong in the opening to be honest (Bg4 is more common); didn't realise it was a new line.

sinbad68

reunion wrote: »

Reviewing games can be good but I find it time consuming with little practical value (plus I typically try to go over my game with my opponent after it's played).

@reunion. I always considered this statement to be the most ignorant statement you've ever made. Reviewing and analyzing a game afterwards is very important , so you can learn from your & opponent mistakes and become a better player.Anyway, good news for both of us is that once I start posting on my facebook account in 2-3 weeks , we won't have to see much of each other here, if at all

Lucena

I've hit an four-year low, dropping down to 1682 after some poor results. Funnily enough, I feel my play has improved, but it just takes a while to show up. A bit like when a new manager comes into a football team (à la Klopp), things improve on the pitch without the results coming straight away. Hopefully I'm not being delusional! I've been doing at least one chapter of Yusupov every week, and feel my calculation is better and my play more dynamic.

Doing a 7-round tournament over 4 days starting tomorrow morning, so I'll soon find out!

A recent game where I blundered on move 16, see if you can spot the tactic:

https://www.chess.com/blog/Binouzenours/give-it-away-give-it-away-give-it-away-now

Lucena

Round 1: Had the black pieces against a 2436-rated opponent, so the result was never in doubt! Still I didn't hang any any pieces and managed to defend for about 30 moves before cracking, so happy enough.

Lucena

Waaaayy! Win with White against a 1441 in an opening variation I'd revised only yesterday. I love it when a plan comes together!

https://www.chess.com/blog/Binouzenours/capablance-v-adams-1909

Lucena

Black against a 1950 this morning. Only found one game of his online, so not much to work with there! Probably end up in another anti-Sicilian that I haven't worked on.:o

Lucena

Lost! Not surprising considering the rating difference, but I just mucked up the opening (didn't know what I was doing) and my pieces weren't developped. Managed to drag it out for a bit, or defend well, I'm not sure which!

Lucena

Well, tournament long over, and I had the unfortunate experience of yo-yoing between very strong and very weak opponents all the way through. I also had the black pieces against the strong opponents, and white against the weak opponents!

Round 1: Lost against 2450
R 2: Win (1440)
R 3: Loss (1960)
R 4: Win (1566)
R 5: Loss (2000)
R 6: Win (1401)
R 7: Win (1849)

So 4 out of 7, a 1810 performance and around 25 rating points heading to my account!

The last-round win really made the difference, as otherwise I would have felt that I'd participated for nothing as the results were foregone conclusions. I 'should' have lost as I had a bad position in the game for a long time, but I managed to defend long enough for my opponent to hang a piece with no compensation, leaving me a piece up in the endgame. The rest was just a matter of technique, as they say! :cool:

I suppose I should be happy as well about beating the lower-rated opponents, as this proves I'm solid against weaker players.

Overall, I felt I was calculating better, and I generally was able to anticipate what my opponent was up to, even if I wasn't always able to stop it! Thank you, Mr. Yusupov!

Lucena

Here's my last-round win that left me a happy camper!

https://www.chess.com/blog/Binouzenours/miraculous-win

Valmont

Great game, Lucena! I tried to find a way to play the freeing ...c5 several times but it just never worked. You exhibited some great patience in the face of a powerful attack and by then I'd forgotten that ...c5 was on the table again after the dust had settled with Rc2. I'm not sure what white was thinking sacrificing that knight - I can only assume he got carried away looking for mate and neglected the basics!

Lucena

Thanks Valmont, I was fairly pleased with myself. I was fairly curious myself as to why he left the knight en prise, and I wanted to ask him during the post-mortem, but his mate was leaving and he had to go, so I never found out. He felt the major error was taking with the rook on move 24, but I said to him that I thought he still had time to bring his two rooks around, I was still in a cramped position, and he still had lots of space to manoeuvre.

Lucena

Well, end of the season already! Played our last league match today, it was basically a dead rubber as we were safe from relegation and out of the running for promotion, so it was nice to be able to just play, no pressure for a result.

Nice long game which ended in a two rooks and four pawns v two rooks and four pawns with end up as a draw. Felt nice that the last game of the season was a hard-fought affair that went to the very end. Also my game was the last to finish, so lots of people around the board watching. I just love an audience!

In other news my rating is now back up to 1691, so compared to when I started this training log, not much difference! Still, happy enough with the fact that I'm getting through roughly a chapter a week of Yusupov. Currently on chapter 19 of the 2nd book, hopefully finish the book by the end of April.

Lucena

Played in another giant Swiss system Open last weekend. Getting sick of these to be honest, too much of a difference in strength between players, especially for players ranked in the middle.

R1: Lost v 2362
R2: Won v unrated player in ten moves or so after he fell for a well-known trap in the Advance French. A 3-hour return trip to play 10 minutes of chess, yeah!!!!
R3: Lost v 2042
R4: Won v 1451
R5: Lost v 2000
R6: Won v 1591. In fairness, there was a bit of play in this one, so one interesting game in the tournament.
R7: Lost v 2080

French organisers don't seem to be aware that there are other ways of organising a tournament than a Swiss pairing system. So I've decided I'm going to stop playing in these, there's just too much time and money going into these tournaments and I'm not enjoying them. It's also very difficult to tell if I'm progressing or not, which would be easier if I played players within 200 points or so of my rating. I'm very tempted by a future e2e4 event, possible the one at the end of October.

In other news, I'm now up to 1695 elo and am on Chapter 23 of Yusupov's 2nd book, should finish it this weekend!

Lucena

Finished Chapter 24 this afternoon, just the final test left and I'll have finished the second book!

sinbad68

Lucena wrote: »

R1: Lost v 2362

You sure he was rated 2362 and NOT 2091?

Lucena

For rating calculation purposes, the maximum gap between players is 400 points, so seeing as I was 1691, my opponent was considered to be a 2091, even though his real rating was 2362.

Lucena

A game I played in the local individual league (Div 1):

https://www.chess.com/blog/Binouzenours/relegation-battle---second-last-game

sinbad68

Lucena wrote: »

A game I played in the local individual league (Div 1):

https://www.chess.com/blog/Binouzenours/relegation-battle---second-last-game

1. e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bc4... then you say

You know what's great about this opening? No-one knows it, they're scrabbling around in the dark, whereas I've a rough idea what to do.

Strange comment, as four knights Italian game is a very common opening and Not particularly good for your side ( white) .

Lucena

I've only been playing it for a short while, but most opponents don't really seem to know it very well. On the internet, there's either a pause after the second knight comes out and/or they play substandard responses. Over the board it has been the same, so until I reach 2300 (!), I might stick with it.

Lucena

Playing a 5-round weekender starting tomorrow afternoon. Once again it's with Swiss pairings, but as it's limited to under 2200s hopefully the opponents will be of similar-ish strength to myself. Based on players already signed up I'm 15th out of a field of 44, so a win-loss-win-loss-win cycle is fairly likely. Hopefully can break that cycle by beating a stronger opponent at some stage.

With all the work I've been putting in on tactics and Yusupov, I feel I'm on the cusp of a breakthrough, although more realistically I'll probably grind out decent results and gain a few points in every tournament as opposed to suddenly turning into Tal and gaining 50 points overnight!

Anyway, for no reason other than the fact that I felt like it, here's some (French) music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV65tWCZALI

sinbad68

Lucena wrote: »

I've only been playing it for a short while, but most opponents don't really seem to know it very well. On the internet, there's either a pause after the second knight comes out and/or they play substandard responses. Over the board it has been the same, so until I reach 2300 (!), I might stick with it.

I play the two knight defence against the Italian game and come across this opening numerous times, The opening is itself is regarded as substandard by some top players and doesn't score very well for white on data base,It is simple and uncomplicated and definitely NOT a secret weapon as you have made it out to be, and Just because opponent pauses,.... it doesn't mean he doesn't know what to do, he may just be considering his options, I regularly haves pauses in lines I know well so that my opponent thinks I don't know the line well and he may try something dodgy.