Diary of a Patzer

Lucena

If you enjoy blitz, play blitz for fun, but it's not much use for improving, unless you're very strict in your use of it. Primarily it can be used for testing your openings, assuming you stop to look through the opening you played after each game. Otherwise, it's a waste of time.

Funnily enough, I'd say I've played maybe only three blitz games in the last two months.

brilliantboy

Agree that it's next to worthless in terms of improving your game, but no doubt you'll have many blitz heads who'll disagree. The only thing I can think of it has going for it is that people are more willing to play non-standard openings in blitz so you can sort out your responses to those in the rare case you'll meet them over the board. You'll see a lot of Center Games and Goring Gambits and Blackmar-Diemers etc. in blitz and it can be useful to be aware that these are options.

Valmont

I think it's a lazy-man's game; the allure is there of playing a brilliant game in just ten or fifteen minutes, without having to really analyse or strategise very deeply. I definitely think putting the twenty minutes I'd spend blundering about in a blitz game on three or four chesstempo puzzles to be a far more worthwhile use of my time.

I'm starting to keep an eye on my time on chesstempo now, conscious that my calculations are probably not very economic. For example, I'll look two moves deep on the most obvious move, then spend six minutes looking for other options, before going back to the third move on the first sequence I looked at to find it was the right one!

Valmont

I'm currently reading Yusupov's chapter on knowing the values of the pieces. He quotes Tarrasch who said that a rook and a minor piece with a passed pawn are equal to a queen if the play is restricted to one flank. For an example he used an amazing game he played with the black pieces against John Nunn in Linares in 1988. For the wizardry, start from black's forty-eight move (this is the puzzle in the chapter).

Valmont

Do people usually find that their tactics rating corresponds to their real rating? My chesstempo rating is 1515 and my OTB rating is now apparently 1420. I think it confirms my suspicion that you are only as good as the combinations you can find or miss! More chesstempo!

Lucena

Mine doesn't really correspond. I'm around 1700 in real life, but at around 1900 on Chesstempo. The site even estimates my Fide rating (based on time per problem AND normal rating) as around 1980!!!

brilliantboy

Valmont wrote: »

Do people usually find that their tactics rating corresponds to their real rating? My chesstempo rating is 1515 and my OTB rating is now apparently 1420. I think it confirms my suspicion that you are only as good as the combinations you can find or miss! More chesstempo!

I think the biggest indication of chess strength, at least below expert level or so, is calculational ability and not tactical ability. There are a lot of players around who are not familiar with many tactical themes but could still work a combination out at the board, while someone who is tactically knowledgeable might spot the idea but not have the ability or the patience to work out the solution correctly. This can especially be a problem because tactics training software doesn't exactly encourage you to take your time.

Lucena

brilliantboy wrote: »

This can especially be a problem because tactics training software doesn't exactly encourage you to take your time.

I've found that doing problems on a real board helps me to slow down and take my time on tactics training software. If I do just a week of chesstempo and nothing else, my performance tends to drop, so I think getting the pieces out is very important.

Valmont

Yusupov is quite serious about playing with an actual board and pieces. To be honest, I only occasionally play chesstempo with the board out as I find it a pain constantly setting up new positions. That said, I'll do a batch with the board later on and see if there's much difference.

Regarding calculational ability, I think I know what you mean. In order to arrest my chesstempo slide, I've been forcing myself to only make the move when I'm sure it's the right one, rather than thinking 'oh I've seen this set-up before' and then just having a wag at it. Considering I usually spot my own blunders OTB as soon as I make them--or even just see a better move--tells me I should calculate deeper; I definitely don't need more time, I use too much as it is.

Valmont

Here is a devilish puzzle from Yusupov's book. I'm not exaggerating when I say I've spent at least two hours on this today. I know the general theme is the strength of the pieces and that technically white has the material advantage with the queen versus play spread across two sides of the board.

After long consideration, I think 1.Qe3 is the best move. Now I know d4 is a central square but I think white is too much on the defensive after 1...g3. With 1.Qe3 the queen is covering the rook, the bishop, g3, and f4. The king can't move or the bishop is lost and the bishop can't move or the rook is lost. In fact, looking at it now, I don't think black has any good moves after this. What do you all make of this?

EDIT:

I cracked and checked Stockfish: 1.Qxf5...Rxf5 stalemate. I think I might cry.

Valmont

I played in a congress last April when I was rated 1120 and the nearest rating to me in that minor division was 1660 (which I didn't know at the time). He offered a draw when in time trouble which I gladly accepted considering I was two pawns down. So technically this is my best ever game!

checknraise

Surely it is a stalemate team and Qd5+ is the best move.

* note only looked at it for about 30 seconds.

Just seen the spoiler there and the queen starts on d3!

Valmont

I outrated my opponent quite a bit but nonetheless, I was quite happy that this was the first game where I had a definite strategy which helped me win. I feel that I only knew how to focus on a weak-point as a long-term strategy because of Chernev's guidance in Logical Chess: Move by Move.

Lucena

Valmont wrote: »

I outrated my opponent quite a bit but nonetheless, I was quite happy that this was the first game where I had a definite strategy which helped me win. I feel that I only knew how to focus on a weak-point as a long-term strategy because of Chernev's guidance in Logical Chess: Move by Move.

Nice game!

brilliantboy

I agree. Very nice pressure and you took your tactical opportunity when it arose.
16...Ne4 is a move I like a lot, foregoing the opportunity to capture with the queen so you can put the knight where it will be most effective.

One move I'd have a concern with is 5...Bg4 though. I assume the thinking is that 6.f3 takes away that square for the knight, but since White's LSB is already developed the knight has no issue going to e2, and the pawn on f3 takes away what can be a useful e4 square for you in this structure. So in my mind Bg4 only serves to strengthen White's position.
If these type of opening inaccuracies are all you have to worry about though then you're doing well.

Valmont

Thanks for that advice, Brilliantboy. The game would have taken an entirely different course (and not necessarily for the better) had my opponent played 6. f3. I guess f5 is where the bishop should settle in this position?

I often browse through chessbase on my phone trying to find exciting games I can learn from and I found this masterpiece by Akiba Rubinstein from 1908. I especially like 18. Bxh7!, which is a sacrifice I would really like to play at some point.

realdanbreen

Does anyone know if there is a chess club in Limerick city that would accommodate absolute beginners?

checknraise

I would be fairly certain that any chess club would welcome new members of all levels.

If you are a total beginner I would recommend understanding the rules and playing a few games online before you went to the club. That way you will get more enjoyment and improve faster.

The biggest weekender tournament of the year is taking place not too far away in Bunratty - well worth playing in even as a beginner.

www.bunrattychess.com/home/index.php

Chess_Coach

There are many clubs in Limerick for example Adare Chess Club just google it for contact

Valmont

checknraise wrote: »

I would be fairly certain that any chess club would welcome new members of all levels.

If you are a total beginner I would recommend understanding the rules and playing a few games online before you went to the club. That way you will get more enjoyment and improve faster.

The biggest weekender tournament of the year is taking place not too far away in Bunratty - well worth playing in even as a beginner.

www.bunrattychess.com/home/index.php

I played in a congress when I was rated -1000 and while I lost every game it was great fun and I learned exactly where I needed to improve.

Valmont

Well it was my lucky night: I played a friendly under normal time controls against a 1832 and won! Granted, he blundered and resigned outright but a win is a win. Unfortunately this won't be reflected in my official rating but I suppose the hard work is paying off. Come to think of it he resigned rather quickly but maybe he missed something? It looks like I was winning a piece in all variations but I haven't looked since the game.

I'm stumped with Yusupov's chapter on the value of the pieces but I'll grind through it this weekend.

namenotavailablE

Congratulations on the win but I'm wondering if your opponent could have tried Qd6 in the final position- if exf5, then Qxd5 might be holdable? Similarly, if Qxd6, Nxd6 also might be holdable?

Valmont

I think you're right. I thought the queen was lost after Nc5 in this variation but I can see now he just takes the pawn on f5 and is only in a slightly worse position - my opponent must have had a bad day at work!

Lucena

Valmont wrote: »

Well it was my lucky night: I played a friendly under normal time controls against a 1832 and won! Granted, he blundered and resigned outright but a win is a win. Unfortunately this won't be reflected in my official rating but I suppose the hard work is paying off. Come to think of it he resigned rather quickly but maybe he missed something? It looks like I was winning a piece in all variations but I haven't looked since the game.

I'm stumped with Yusupov's chapter on the value of the pieces but I'll grind through it this weekend.

I struggled with that chapter as well, and failed the test IIRC, so I wouldn't worry too much about finding it tough. I'm planning on redoing the tests on those chapters I failed before meeting the final boss at the end of the book (the overall test on all of the book).

Valmont

I won the grading prize at our club's blitz tournament on Thursday (3/5), a copy of Batsford's The Chess Player's Bedside Book. It has some short essays on chess and articles about curious positions such as one by Eduard Gufeld where he reached a winning position with white while all six of his pieces were en pris! Also, I've lost my estimated rating and am now officially 1412 (95 in ECF).

mikhail

Valmont wrote: »

I won the grading prize at our club's blitz tournament on Thursday (3/5), a copy of Batsford's The Chess Player's Bedside Book. It has some short essays on chess and articles about curious positions such as one by Eduard Gufeld where he reached a winning position with white while all six of his pieces were en pris! Also, I've lost my estimated rating and am now officially 1412 (95 in ECF).

Well done.

By my reckoning, 1412 is about ECF 102 (and 95 ECF is 1360 Elo). Is there a more sophisticated conversion than ((Elo-600)/8)?

cdeb

The conversion is now (Elo-700)/7.5, by which 1412 converts to 95.

Valmont

I outranked my opponent tonight by 200 ELO points but I think I built up a nice attack regardless. Ultimately he played far too passively and failed to take the initiative when I gifted it to him. This would have been a different game had he played e4 and not castled long. We are top of the third division now!

Still struggling along with Yusupov but I've been spending some time with My 60 Memorable Games which is very enjoyable. I've not read it for some months but I feel a bit more fluent with the chess language now and it's not so tiring to play through the annotations (not that I understand them).

In this position, Fischer (playing black, 1959 Zurich, against Walther) was about to resign but was curious to see how his opponent would finish him. What was white's winning move?

Re8! Then, as Fischer says, white strolls his King to e4 and black is in zugzwang. Black played Ra8 and Fischer fought back to a draw.

Mustafa Chess

Nice game

Valmont

I played a 1602 tonight and lost. I don't feel too bad as I was just generally outplayed. It's given me some perspective on how much I need to improve though - especially at endgames.