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

Lucena · 10-10-2014 9:47am

Analysing is massively time-consuming, unless I'm doing it wrong! It's funny, you're the first person I've ever heard say that analysing one's own games has little practical value.

I was chatting to Glenn Flear (ah! name dropping!) briefly at a local rapidplay tournament a couple of years back, and the question of improvement came up. His answer "Analyse your games".

To be honest, I'll do it for a while, but if six months down the line I'm not seeing a payback, I'll stop. I do also try to analyse with my opponent, if they want to.

Regarding the non-rating requirement spots, I'd imagine they're being held for improving juniors, and even if I could get one, I'd need to improve drastically, otherwise I'll spend a week getting pummeled!

reunion · 10-10-2014 10:32am

Lucena wrote: »

Analysing is massively time-consuming, unless I'm doing it wrong! It's funny, you're the first person I've ever heard say that analysing one's own games has little practical value.

Well you should analyze with your opponent immediately after, win or lose. Of course, there are games that are amazing and going through it can be quite beneficial. Analyzing your games has benefits, but I find a game of correspondence chess has a better reward (enjoyment and learning) versus time inputted ratio (plus you can try out new openings and research them while playing). Granted, I'm not a titled player and I don't commit that much time to studying chess and everyone has a different training preference.

Lucena wrote: »

To be honest, I'll do it for a while, but if six months down the line I'm not seeing a payback, I'll stop. I do also try to analyse with my opponent, if they want to.

Even if your opponent doesn't want to analyze the game, I'd recommend to analyze it yourself. If you are at a tournament and you finish early (say the round is 9 until 1 and you finish at 12), go over the game by yourself and play out different strategies. You'll remember what you were thinking and it's less time consuming (and you've already already committed to playing chess until 1 anyway and essentially have a free hour).

Lucena wrote: »

Regarding the non-rating requirement spots, I'd imagine they're being held for improving juniors, and even if I could get one, I'd need to improve drastically, otherwise I'll spend a week getting pummeled!

There is no set rules on them so in theory anyone can apply but they don't have to be used. You would have to make a good case which is a lot easier for junior players or players representing Ireland.

Tbh, the feedback from high rated players is worthwhile win or lose (or draw). Even the prep for games would improve your chess by quite a bit.

Valmont · 11-10-2014 11:08pm

Good to hear it's going well, Lucena. I've just moved to another part of the UK, and finally found a club with a free spot on a team. I've been studying Yusupov's first book for the past month but I really didn't know as much as I thought I did. I'm going to take the final test for chapter two tomorrow morning, which is on mating motifs. I had never come across many of them before, and trying to find each of them in different positions has been tough. That said, I've already worked them straight into my game, and my blitz rating has gone +200 on chess.com, some of which I put down to recognising more of these patterns.

My thoughts on chess after one year of playing are that tactics are very, very important. I studied a lot of openings and strategy when I first started but the positions I gained in my games were ultimately useless because I couldn't see the winning combinations, or spot when my opponent was about to unleash one. I played a few rapid games last Thursday over a couple of hours at the club last Thursday; when I went over the games with my opponent (ELO 1825) it was startling to see how many moves he was looking ahead. As we went over the games, I found we spotted the same general risks/opportunities but he simply went further than I did. I think I'm going to have to play more tactics puzzles than I have been to address the shortfall.

ps. I was in a tiny bookshop today and found a first edition copy of Reuben Fine's The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings which I will hopefully have a dip into from time to time.

Lucena · 12-10-2014 10:34am

Managed to get up at 6am at spend a couple of hours working on the QGD Tartacover variation on Saturday. Feel I should be ok if it comes up.

Unfortunately forgot we have a guest staying in the house this week, so had to spend this morning cleaning the house (needed to be done anyway). So I haven't much of a clue how to play against the Exchange Variation. Had a quick glance, apparently White plays for a minority attack in this variation, and while I know what the minority attack is, I haven't a clue how to play it, or against it.

We'll see what happens this afternoon (league game), I'm intentionally playing with Black. Chances are though my opponent'll play e4, which I get in possibly two-thirds of my games.

Lucena · 13-10-2014 8:45am

He played e4, so no QGD training for Lucena.

Still, got to practice my Sicilian, kind of. He went out of theory on move 7, with a pointless a3, followed by h3 on move 8. I open the centre, stop him from castling and exploit his weak pawn structure. Might stick it up tonight if I get a chance.

Lucena · 14-10-2014 9:26pm

My rotten tournament results have been calculated by Fide, I've got a whopping -25 points waiting for me on Nov 1st!

It's strange that I underperformed so much, possibly rushing to a tournament isn't ideal preparation.

Especially considering that my results in the last two weeks seem more 'normal' to me, with a draw against a 2020 player and Sunday's win against a 1810, with me having black in both cases.

Ah well, things can only get better.

Valmont · 15-10-2014 12:50pm

I've been cycling to my new chess club and I don't know what it is exactly, but I think jumping straight off the bike onto the board has done wonders for my game; maybe it's all the blood flowing! I definitely find I need to 'warm up' before a game with some tactics puzzles, otherwise I tend to play my opening moves without really thinking deep enough.

Lucena · 18-10-2014 9:27am

I wouldn't mind being able to cycle to my chess club, if it wasn't 20km away!

Lucena · 18-10-2014 9:32am

Well looking back over the log since I've started it, I see that I'm really getting very little done. Having said that, not all my fault, lots of other stuff going on in my life.

As of tomorrow, for example, I'll be in Toscany for a few days, having to suffer through the scenery and the local cuisine, and not getting any chess done!! I know, I know, you feel my pain!

I will keep the log going, at least until the end of the season, but I'm definitely starting to see that improvement at my age is very hard, requiring a will of iron to make time to train, such as at 6am on weekends!

Valmont · 18-10-2014 12:54pm

Don't give in! Post up some of your games so we can kibitz.

Lucena · 26-10-2014 9:15pm

Will post some games once I get my computer replaced, whenever that is.

I've decided I'm going to go directly to Yusupov's course, picking up where I left off, who knows how long ago.

I WILL study one chapter a week, starting now. The tactics and game analysis will occupy the rest of the time.

At the rate of one chapter a week, it will take me five years to finish everything, but if I do nothing, the time will pass anyway.

Besides, it's mean to be a complete course, so following it should fill any gaps in existing knowledge, and build on that.

Ok, I'm going to study some chess.

YEE-HA!!

Valmont · 26-10-2014 9:33pm

What book are you studying?

Lucena · 27-10-2014 8:31am

Build up your chess: The Fundamentals 1

I think it's the same one you're studying.

Valmont · 27-10-2014 9:20am

I'll be curious to see how quickly you get through it considering the gulf between our ratings.

Lucena · 27-10-2014 10:06am

I'll keep you updated.

Started on chapter 7 last night, did all the examples and will try to do some of the problems tonight. Looking through some of the earlier chapters, some of the stuff seemed ridiculously easy, and some other stuff more challenging. Hopefully that's a sign of gaps in knowledge being filled in, and not that the material is all over the place.

Lucena · 29-10-2014 3:49pm

Reasons why I don't train as much as I'd like to - Chapter 1 - The joys of being a captain!

Spent an hour and a quarter Monday night ringing different club members to try a get a team together for Sunday. I needed a mere THREE people, grand so, I'll ring X, Y and Z, they'll play, and I'll get back to doing more important stuff. OH NO YOU DON'T!!!

"I'm sorry, I'm invited to dinner that day"
"I'm sorry, taking my wife away for the weekend"
etc. each call taking 5-10 minutes between the small talk and discussing our chances for the season.

Must've rang 8 people, left messages, had one ring me back while I was on the phone with someone else, ring him back.

GMs don't know how lucky they are to not have to deal with this.

cdeb · 29-10-2014 4:17pm

I think my record is having to go through 22 players to fill an 8-man team.

It's kind of worth it when your two Bodley subs pick up 2/2 in a Heidenfeld match.

I did have another match where I had four Bodley players in a match against the eventual Heidenfeld winners that season. That didn't go quite so well...

Lucena · 31-10-2014 9:28am

Did six of the 12 end of chapter problems last night. Yusupov insists that you set up each problem on the board, and then play through the solution once you've written it down, including all relevant variations. I find setting up the position takes a lot of time, especially when on some of the easier problems, you could pretty much get the answer by looking at the diagramme in the book.

Still, Yusupov knows a bit more about training than I do, so I assume the fact of playing it out on the board 'burns' the information into your brain better than just glancing at the solution and going 'yep, got that one right'.

mikhail · 31-10-2014 12:39pm

Lucena wrote: »

Still, Yusupov knows a bit more about training than I do, so I assume the fact of playing it out on the board 'burns' the information into your brain better than just glancing at the solution and going 'yep, got that one right'.

It's not strictly necessary, but it's a decent attempt to avoid the pitfall of "reading and nodding", as Jonathan Rowson calls it (though I think he was quoting someone else.

Lucena · 31-10-2014 1:37pm

According to this site:

http://exeterchessclub.org.uk/content/learning-opening-lines

"Reading and nodding is not learning", says Jonathan Rowson (after Nigel Davies), and he's absolutely right.

Valmont · 01-11-2014 9:40pm

I'm finding the three star problems very time consuming. First I have to find several winning variations, calculate them all, and the write each one down. This one has me stumped at the moment (I'm thinking Bxf7) but I can't resist my urge to play e5, Nc3, or O-O. This is the chapter on openings.

checknraise · 01-11-2014 11:35pm

That is a line from the Giuoco Piano when black plays Bb6? instead of Bb4+. I usually play d5 in a similar position and hope black plays Na5, after Bd3 black has problems defending the knight. If black moves anywhere else we gain another tempo with e5. Everything looks good for white.

Lucena · 02-11-2014 10:02pm

Finished chapter 7 tonight. Just one point off full marks for the chapter. Hopefully I can keep up this 'one chapter a week' lark.

In other news, my divine punishment has finally arrived, with the loss of 25 points from that shocking tournament in September. New rating: 1702

Lost another game this afternoon (4-board team match) against an 1850. I had black against White's Catalan (didn't know it was a Catalan until after the game!) I just couldn't concentrate properly as I was also the arbiter. Usually nothing happens, but this time there was a semi-accusation of cheating 'I'd just like to point out that two of your team mates are having a long chat outside'. Created a bad vibe for a bit.

I also had two different people wander into the club looking for info on joining (which is good) but as the game was underway, I had to go outside with them and give them all the info on joining, opening hours, lessons etc. Which all took away from my concentration (and time on the clock).

Valmont · 03-11-2014 5:43pm

What's your chesstempo rating, Lucena? I'm starting to think tactics are what I'm really missing in my game at the moment. It would also explain how my brilliant looking positions tend to fall apart almost every time I manoeuvre into them.

Lucena · 03-11-2014 7:11pm

My standard chesstempo rating is 1787.

And yourself?

Valmont · 03-11-2014 7:45pm

1510. My average time to complete the puzzles is not healthy either but I can feel my tactical intuition slowly growing!

Lucena · 08-11-2014 12:40pm

Have done exactly nothing this week. Very busy at work, Monday and Tuesday finished at 11pm and 1am (8am starts) and then was too wrecked to do anything in the evenings. Am playing this afternoon in the local individual championship, the pairings were made two weeks ago, but I haven't done any prep i.e. don't even know what my opponent plays. Ah well, I'll just have to wing it.

Not really motivated either, had a lot of crap to deal with during the week on the chess organising front.

I'll get a bit of study done tomorrow hopefully, nothing else planned.

Lucena · 08-11-2014 10:25pm

A draw against a 1650 with white. He played the Berlin, I know nothing about this opening. Did ok, got into time trouble and even tried to play Ne4 to c2 (tiredness) but ended up in level endgame.

Lucena · 09-11-2014 9:54pm

Managed to finish the examples on Chapter 8 'Centralizing the Pieces'. It's the first chapter where I feel I didn't really learn anything, probably because the topic is a lot more complex than typical mating patterns. The examples were interesting, winning player organises his pieces, threatening stuff all the way.

Did the first two problems, or should I say, tried to. Spent at least 30 minutes on each, was completely stuck for ideas, had a guess but was miles off. Very depressing. If I spend this long on each problem, I'll be lucky to finish another couple of chapters by Christmas.

This book is meant to be for people trying to make it to 1500, and as a 1700 I'm struggling. Still, it was only two problems, we'll see how the rest of the chapter goes.

Valmont · 09-11-2014 11:43pm

Lucena wrote: »

Did the first two problems, or should I say, tried to. Spent at least 30 minutes on each, was completely stuck for ideas, had a guess but was miles off. Very depressing. If I spend this long on each problem, I'll be lucky to finish another couple of chapters by Christmas.

I'm having the same experience with chapter three. I have two A4 foolscap pages of lines I thought might be close to getting me the three stars for one or two of the problems but I only got one star for the most basic move. Even though it's slow progress with the book I think it's definitely educational - I think you force yourself into looking deeper than you usually would in a game or with a tactics puzzle.

I'm definitely not looking forward to chapter eight if you're finding it so tough!

Lucena · 24-11-2014 10:00pm

Finished Chapter 8 of Yusupov last weekend. I've never had my ego crushed so badly. Ended up getting 4 points out of twenty-something. Still, I've noted the ones I've got wrong and will do them again when I finish the book.

Finished Chapter 9 (Mates in Two) yesterday. How hard can that be? Tricky enough, most of the positions only had a couple of pieces and nearly no pawns, so a lot of different moves to calculate, especially the ones with queens. Got most of these right (yeah!) and feel my calculation has improved.

Played a terrible game two weeks ago (Black missed a win on move 23, see if you can spot it!)

http://www.chess.com/blog/Binouzenours/how-to-play-badly-and-still-draw

I'm probably not getting enough tactics in my diet.

brianhere · 24-11-2014 10:27pm

Bishop to f2?

Lucena · 24-11-2014 10:35pm

Just did a heap of problems on chesstempo, and gained 74 points!

Is that from working stuff out with a board and a Yusupov book? I hope so!

If you're reading this brianhere, I've changed the move number to 23 (I had it incorrectly as 26).

caissa007 · 24-11-2014 11:36pm

23____Qa7 24. Qd4 Bb6 ?

Lucena · 24-11-2014 11:40pm

caissa007 wrote: »

23____Qa7 24. Qd4 Bb6 ?

That's it. Needless to say, not the high point of my chess career.

brianhere · 25-11-2014 9:08am

Lucena wrote: »

That's it. Needless to say, not the high point of my chess career.

Yes I guess it's pretty obvious alright although we all make mistakes!

Valmont · 25-11-2014 4:57pm

Why did you draw? Could you have taken advantage of your pawn on f3? I took five minutes on black's missed win and did not spot it!

Lucena · 25-11-2014 9:10pm

Valmont wrote: »

Why did you draw? Could you have taken advantage of your pawn on f3? I took five minutes on black's missed win and did not spot it!

Short answer: I was rattled. I'd played an illegal move earlier in the game (N on e4 to c2!) and was very unsure of myself afterwards. It was probably my first ever illegal move in a long game. I'd also seen the tactic Bb6 at the last second ( 24. Qd4?? Bb6). So when the draw was offered, I took the practical choice.

Lucena · 06-12-2014 10:01pm

I'm really not making much headway. Read Chapter 10 this week, and have only had the time so far to do three of the twelve problems. I'm enjoying the work, but I just don't have the time to do enough. At this rate I should finish the book by Christmas 2015.

Played a competetive game today, did ok out of the opening even though I'm not very sure of the theory, having recently changed some of my repertoire. Managed to get to a winning ending and then made a complete balls of it. Will hopefully stick the game up tomorrow if I get a bit of time. It's only the second time in a couple of months that I've gone attacking with the king away from the centre when he should be staying in the centre and dominating from there. At least I'm detecting a pattern!

In other news, I dropped 6 points in November and am now down to 1696, an 18-month low, although this is probably just the bobbing cork effect.

Lucena · 25-01-2015 9:04pm

Well, haven't updated this in a while. Baaaad Lucena!

Have done five chapters of Yusupov's book since my last post, which considering Christmas was in the middle of that is pretty good! I feel definite benefits from working through the material. I'm definitely considering a broader range of moves than before, considering more possibilities, and my calculation seems to be sharper. Currently working on Chapter 16 (Queen vs lone pawn endgames) which I feared would be a bit dry, but I'm enjoying it. I'm also delighted by the realisation that I'm more than half way through the book, the end seems to be in sight. The important thing is, like most endeavours, to just keep going, work regularly, and eventually the goal will be reached.

Gained some points back, am now rated 1711 (the cork has bobbed back up again).

I really should post on here more often, keep me motivated.

Finally I provide, for your entertainment, a bad loss against a 1900 player.

http://www.chess.com/blog/Binouzenours/january-2015---a-bad-loss

I had planned to play a weekender this weekend, but the weather scuppered those plans, so ended up arbiting a schools championship instead.

mikhail · 27-01-2015 11:09am

Lucena wrote: »

http://www.chess.com/blog/Binouzenours/january-2015---a-bad-loss

I agree ...c4 was a mistake, but is ...dxe4 one too? You give the knights a lovely square in e4, and got your queen in trouble at the same time. After ...Nh7 instead, you can hide your king on d8, and white's king is drafty no matter where he goes - the e-file's open and you have ...g5 and ...b4 breaks.

...f5 was worse - a move borne of panic. You'll suffer the rest of the game after a move like that. ...b4 instead would scare the crap out of white, who then has to worry about king safety. Follow it up with ...Rb8, ...Kf8, ...Ne7, ...Bc6, and White will keep having to find good moves to stay on top.

EDIT: (I'm not using an engine here, so there may be tactical stuff I'm overlooking.)

Valmont · 27-01-2015 7:28pm

That's some impressive progress with Yusupov! I'd be very curious to see what one book from start to finish does to your rating.

Lucena · 27-01-2015 7:46pm

Valmont wrote: »

That's some impressive progress with Yusupov! I'd be very curious to see what one book from start to finish does to your rating.

I'll let you know next week!

Lucena · 31-01-2015 3:23pm

Just finished chapter 16 there now, passed with flying colours. I wonder how often Queen v lone pawn will ever come up in my games?

Team match tomorrow, if everything goes to plan i.e. the opposing team don't modify their board order, I'll be playing with black against an 1850 who plays the King's Indian Attack at the moment. Funny thing is, I'm paired to meet him next Saturday as white, so if everything works out, it'll be like a mini match.

The team match itself is a big game, our club and the opposition are joint top of the division, having won all our matches, with only two more matches left after tomorrow. If we win tomorrow, we're almost certain of winning the division, as we'll have played all the tougher teams, and even if we lose one of the two remaining matches and tomorrow's opposition win the last two, we'll win the division because of our result against them.

We'll see.

Valmont · 01-02-2015 11:34am

I'm playing black against a King's Indian Attack player on this coming Thursday; is there any way to force them into another opening and keep equality?

Lucena · 01-02-2015 9:54pm

Not really, Valmont. That seems to be the beauty of the KIA, you can play your first 6-7 moves without thinking against virtually any black set-up. Let me know what you usually play as Black against either e4 or d4, I'll see if it can be meshed into a suitable defence against the KIA.

Lucena · 01-02-2015 10:04pm

Just back from today's match against our top-of-the-table rivals. Unfortunately we lost 5-2, so our title chances are pretty much gone.

In my own game, I ended up playing against KIA guy, and he did indeed play the KIA. Apart from looking through a few games fairly quickly, I hadn't really prepared, so lost a bit of time in the opening. I thought I could win a pawn in the opening, but it turned out it was pretty much an illusion, and I ended up with a rubbish pawn structure and my opponent getting his pawn back. I ended up in an endgame 3 pawns down (!) but managed to find a bit of activity and my opponent slipped up, letting me get a perpetual.

I'll try and stick the game up tomorrow evening.

Valmont · 01-02-2015 11:52pm

Against 1. e4 I always play 1...c6 and go for a caro-kann game characterised by a c5 pawn break. Against 1.d4 I play 1...d5 and go where the wind takes me - usually a classic queen's gambit declined. I think I'll just pretend I'm white against KID and build up a big pawn centre.

brilliantboy · 02-02-2015 4:58am

Valmont wrote: »

I'm playing black against a King's Indian Attack player on this coming Thursday; is there any way to force them into another opening and keep equality?

Just a note on this. If you really want to avoid it you can try 1. e4 d5 and force White to think about the defense of his pawn. Basically don't give him time to setup methodically with d3, Nf3, g3. Bg2, Nd2 etc.
If he plays 2.d3 to defend the pawn you can just whip it off ...dxe4 because 3.dxe4 Qxd1+ 4. Kxd1 is pretty crummy for him.
Of course you have to be prepared to play the Black side of a Scandinavian after 2. exd5

Lucena · 02-02-2015 11:43am

I don't know if White necessarily has to play 1. e4 first. My opponent played 1. Nf3, followed by g3 and Bg2.

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

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