Oooo Shiny!

Everyone loves a good picture. For us chess players an embedded game we can follow is nice too. But if you go back in my blog history you can see nearly all of my pics have vanished. Oh well. Back to the breach. Here we go kids.                                               

Five things to do to play well in chess.

1.Play the same opening for a year. As White play 1.e4, or 1.d4. As Black against 1.e4 play e5, e6, or c6. Against 1d4 play The Queen's Gambit Declined (All Purpose System) Tartakower Variation, or The Tarrasch defense.

2. Deal with mistakes. Stop making simple piece drops. Notice and capitalize on the mistakes of the other player.

3.Make moves that matter. Get your pieces off their starting squares and into the game. Get Knights into the center, and Bishops on good diagonals. Get those rooks onto the open files. Get more space.

4.In an endgame after the Queen's are off and the game will be won by a pawn promotion, get your King into the center. The King is a fighting piece that does not need to hide any more.

5.Stay tough. Play the strongest moves you can find from the start to the end of the game. If you are losing, fight for your life! If you are winning, keep making strong moves.

Daniel Narodisky, Under 12 World Champion.

Our kids only have club once a week. We went to a tournament in Columbus and took second place. We entered a local Toledo tournament and were first in the k-5 section. We are holding most of the top boards in the GLCA when we have our little meets. I am so proud of them.

We are not Daniel Naroditsky, and I am no Elizabeth Vicary. But we are doing what we can with what we have.

Looking at these beautiful capable young people I am so sad for the loss of those twenty children in Connecticut today.

I want to do something for those families. But what can be done now? All I can do is pray. And I will.

Colle Queen's Gambit Declined French

To heck with long term purity. Lets get down and dirty with quick success.

Let the purists rage that I should take months to teach them endings and tactics and never restrict their growth by doing such a horrible thing as teaching openings.

Bullocks!

We only play once a week. We only have an hour. We are ordinary kids who probably will not go on to play competitive tournament chess as adults.

I will teach them the fastest cleanest way to win right now. I call Cecil Purdy as my witness. Let them learn one simple opening that will get them into the middle game and then play on from there.  Colle as white, Queen's Gambit Declined and French as Black. Over and Done.

Let the other schools do better. We will do the best we can with who we are and what we have right now.

Of course I wish I had time and they had the inclination to master endings they would be lucky to reach.

But what they need is tactical vision!

And as for the opening, think about football. Even pe-wee league has a few basic plans. Just because it is not a pro-set does not mean they can do without some organization. Openings are our Football plays. We cannot continue to pretend they don't matter.

Let purist snobs lift their noses and sneer. I hope our kids push their kids off the board.

Gesu Chess 2012

I love volunteering as a coach for the Gesu Chess club. Almost everyone who is in the club this year already has a year of experience.

The room is more difficult than last year. Last year I could go in early and set up the room. This year I rush in with the students as school ends. Last year I could set up the desks into an order that simulated a tournament. This year the desks are in a more clustered configuration suitable for small groups, but not ideal for chess. Last year I had access to the white boards where I could put chess quotes, piece valuations, and game scripts up. This year there is no space.

But I have dreams! These are wonderful children. They learn. They are stronger than they were last year.

I think that I can facilitate some order into the chaos, by initiating an internal tournament.

Part of the joy of chess comes from winning games. Part of the joy is the pleasure of mastery that grows with study. Part of the joy is participation in chess culture which transcends time and space. And part is the camaraderie of fellow chess players.

I dream happy dreams for our kids.

Been Busy

I have been fairly busy in my life apart from chess.

Even so I dream of playing one game a day on Chess.com, or is it 365 chess.com. And I want to continue the exercises on the tactics server.

But it is hot. People have died. I have projects with deadlines.

I really don't expect to come up for air till the second week of August.

Kiss me Caissa.

Foolish Virgin!

In the New Testament, Jesus reportedly tells a story of ten wise virgins and ten foolish virgins. In the tale the women are waiting for the bridegroom. He is delayed and half of them do not have enough oil for their lamps. The wise ones cannot share, so the foolish virgins have to go find more oil. While they are gone the bridegroom comes. The party begins without the 10 foolish virgins. And they cannot get in. They are left out in the cold.

 :wise virgins 

  : foolish virgins

Now the Revised Caissa Version

One day Casisa spoke thus, There was once a tournament with twenty chess players. They all were deeply prepared for their first ten moves. They were even deeply prepared for twenty moves. But the game dragged on and the pieces diminished greatly upon the face of the board. And lo the endgame had come. The foolish chess players had neglected their endings and cried out to the wise ones, "Help us! Share some of your endgame knowledge with us." But the wise ones replied, "There is no time for that now." And behold the tournament ended and the trophies were handed out, and applause was given upon the bright raised stage. But none of the foolish players were there to be seen. They were sitting in the outer darkness of the audience wailing and gnashing their teeth.

Have mercy on me Caissa. I am a sinner. My Kaufman and Cox are warm and worn, while my Silman's Complete Endgame course, my Dvoretsky, My Karsten Laprecht lie cold and nearly virginal.

 Kiss me Caissa. Kiss me anyway.

The Vacillator!

 Onward minnions! The super villian subpatzer "Vacillator" plays all the openings at once! Mu ha ha ha ha. Not only will you not know what he is doing, even he will not know what he is doing!

But he is no Taimanov, thinking for a half hour before making his first move. He is no Nakamura taking 30 seconds in blitz in a well known variation of the Slav Geller Gambit.

No he is the subpatzer! Ringleader of the evil ring of evil. Tremble (with joy) before his onslaught!

But he is well rounded!

Like Sysyphus Mark II, (Johnathan Glover) he wants to roll the whole stone of opening theory up the hill.
 Except where he gets stoned by theory.

An inch deep and a mile wide.

Kiss me Caissa!

Onward Subpatzers!

Notes from the Vacillator...

I am dreaming of playing the French Rubinstein and Queen's Gambit Declined Lasker Variation as my Chess Opening foundation. The reason is their wonderful expandibility. I am taking my cues from Vatko Kovacevic.

Today I scripted Chapter 13 of Vitugov's The French Defense Reloaded  into Bookup and on to paper. (I want a hard copy of my own script.) Then I used Bookup's training function and practiced it.

I like that training a single chapter does not take to long. Furthermore this goes more with Bent Larsen's idea to learn one thing really well, before learning more.

This goes against my mile wide and inch deep habits as an openings vacillator.

"One day at a time" says the opening junky.

Here is a candle for Rubinstein.


God bless you Akiba.

Kiss me Caissa!

Caissa Does Not Lie

Ramblings of the Subpatzer...

One of the strtengths of chess is that the truth of chess strength is evident.

Talk is nothing. I can call something the King's Indian Defense. I can blather on about ranks, files, and color complexes. I can claim an advantage by posessing the two Bishops. I can use terms like Philidor's or Lucena's position. But it only means I am literate, not strong.

I can own great equipment and have hundreds of chess books. That does not make me strong.

I can know great chess players. If I had breakfast with Carlson, lunch with Aronian, and dinner with Anand, it would not make me a strong chess player.

Only good moves matter.

So when I overlooked my Queen en-pris, it is not a problem with the French defense. It is a problem with me.

Caissa will not flatter me. Instead she flattens me.

And I have no one to blame but myself!

Kiss me Caissa!

Rolf Wetzell's Way

Rantings of the Subpatzer!

Before ROFL there was ROLF, Rolf Wetzell that is. He wrote Chessmaster at any age. I think it is one of the best books describing the evaporation of chess strength versus the aquiring of chess strength.  He has a comprehensive study plan that makes sense.

It is really nothing new. Learn one opening and the resultant shots and strategic themes. Know the endings. Learn to manage your time. And most of all understand the ammount of work necessary to acchieve master level play. He spoke of memorizing openings in quints or 10 ply at a time.

So last night having finished scripting Larry Kaufman into Bookup, made a file just five moves deep and trained it. Even 5 moves is a lot to study. And it does not go far enough into what an opening is doing. Just the same it was a great practice.

Now I want to go deeply into particular lines. This would be more like Bent Larson who said that the way to get better in chess was to learn one thing really well, and then learn another thing really well.

An inch wide and a mile deep.

Kiss me Caissa!

Chess is Just a Hobby

Ramblings of the Subpatzer...

Yesterday, I don't think I did any chess stuff. I didn't have time, and I didn't feel like it. I have days like that. Sometimes I have weeks and even months like that.

I read. I work on my music hobbies, clawhammer banjo, and fiddling. I warch TV, go camping or just take a nap.

There is much more to life than chess.



Not now Caissa!

Too Old to be a Jedi

Loading embedded chess game...

And so it goes.
Collectorboy01 was better than me.
I should have lost, but was saved by the clock.

I must learn to use the force!

Kiss me Caissa.

Larry Kaufman's Repertoire

Rantings of the Subpatzer...

I imagine things about myself that are not true. I imagine that as an older player I should play solid end game openings. I imagine that I am an endgame guy. Ulf Andersson is my hero. But all this could be so much fiction and self deception. Part of my disease is to think of myself as an endgame guy but to spend most of my time messing around with opening choices.

I wish Cyrus Lakdawala would write a minimalist version of his ideas of solid play. Would it be like Purdy's 24hour repertoire?

For now I am working through the White side of Larry Kaufman's book.

The Kaufman Repertoire in Black and White.

When given the choice I am taking the least difficult path. In a way this is a step down from Larry's philosophy of riding the edge of opening preparation before the mountain of diminishing return sets in. But it is not all the way down to Purdy or Lakdawala's simple scripts.

It is the middle path padawan.

Something Larry Kaufman does really well is script out the opening plan within a small enough size to make preparation look doable.

Unfortunately for me, when picking, his second choice, coverage is even more minimal. This means that the book is simply a good starting place and my own studies must compliment the book. But this is true even for Avrukh.

I dream I am like Ulf Andersson, but I am more like Colonel Moreau.

Kiss me Caissa!

An Inch Deep and a Mile Wide

More ramblings of the subpatzer...

I am supposed to learn and play just one opening and specialize for maximum effect. I am supposed to play a variety of openings to broaden my chess education. I should not play openings like the Colle because they are not sustainable in the  long run. I should play main lines. But I should  not play main lines that are above my chess understanding.

I should study tactics until I no longer fall for any two or three movers. I should study endgames in order to understand the power of the pieces. But it is not practical to study endgames that will practically never turn up in a game. I should understand the pawn structure and how that leads to correct piece placement and coordination. I should come up with the correct strategic plan.

With advice like this, is it any wonder that a casual adult hobbyist, has picked many flowers in the garden of chess. Who cares? The experts may be right, but I buy their books and dvds! Flowers for Caissa!

Right now I am scripting out Stuart Kaufman's latest repertoire book into Bookup. I have brought my % up to 91.2% in the Chess Tactics server. I have misplaced my 1001 beginning chess exercises again. My Reassess and Endgame Silman books are getting dusty.

Chess is a journey of self discovery.

Kiss me Caissa!

Hallelujah! I am Borged!

Loading embedded chess game...

Kiss me Caissa!

Chess Microbase Implant: Not Yet a Borg

[Event "g 15, 10"]


[Site "Chess.com"]

[Date "2012.06.13"]

[White "pawnhack"]

[Black "hdti"]

[Result "1-0"]

[WhiteElo "1669"]

[BlackElo "1476"]



1. Nf3 e6 2. c4 d5 3. e3 c5 4. g3 Nc6 5. Bg2 dxc4 6. Na3 Na5 7. O-O Rb8 8. Qc2

b5 9. b3 cxb3 10. axb3 Nf6 11. Bb2 Nd5 12. Be5 Nb4 13. Qb1 Rb6 14. d4 Nbc6 15.

dxc5 Bxc5 16. Bxg7 Rg8 17. Qxh7 Bf8? 1-0
 
 
I cannot figure out how to embed this game from microbase.http://chessmicrobase.com/g/pvh0bs3s
 
Anyway, I am trying 1.Nf3. Straight away 1...e6 puts me out of the book. But I hoped that after 2.c4 Nf6 I  would be back in. The problem is that I did not want a Queen's Gambit Declined, or Stonewall Dutch. I played 3.e3 in order to discourage a reversed Benoni. If I liked playing against the Benoni I would have opened 1.d4 2.c4. After 3...c5 I figured "hdti" whoever that is, had equalized. My problem is that I want to put my bishop on b2, but until her knight comes to Nf6 there is the problem of Qf6. So I gambited the pawn with 4.g3 Nc6 5.Bg2 hoping yet again for Nf6. She took it. And she held on to it for all she was worth. I on the other hand worked on speed. I worked to get all my stuff into the game and get back some of my own from there. It was working. Then she blundered. End of story.
 
I am still doing poorly at the chess tactics server where my name is "anotherpatzer" if you want to look me up. The speed factor causes me to lurch forward with the first tactic I see. So I might go for winning a pawn with a fork instead of a back rank mate.
 
I am committing myself to slow down and get them right. The heck with the rating.
 
Kiss me Caissa!
 
 

Ramblings of the Subpatzer

The hill of chess is steep. No matter how much I study, and how hard I  try, I will not leave the foothills of chess. Yea I even walk though through the valley of the shadow of chess.

But still I play  on. I am like the weekend golfer who is always dreaming of that next plateau. And like golf where every shot counts, in chess every move counts. One bad move can cost the game.

"Like a turd in the punchbowl!" as a friend of mine used to say.

Fortunately for me there are things that are worse than losing in chess. And there are things that are better than winning at chess.

I am like the mature Boris Spassky, only without the talent or titles.

Kiss me Caissa!

Kiss Me Caissa!

More mumblings from the Subpatzer...

There are maximizers and satisficers according to Jonathan Haidt in his book the Happiness Hypothesis. And Kaufman in his repertoire books suggests that there is a point of diminishing return in chess opening studies. Silman does not teach the Knight and Bishop mate in his endgame course. And Irwin Kulla in his book Yearnings suggests that even God is a satisficer, and at the creation of the world the saying, "It is good." means "It is good enough." or even, "This one will do."

So here is to me and all the other amateur patzer chess hobbyists. We are the majority. We buy the books and DVDs on improvement. We will never nail the opening, see every shot, squeeze the maximum out of every position, or flawlessly conduct our endgames.

Kiss me Caissa! I am a chess player too.

Captain's Log Stardate 6 12 2012 EarthTime

I am going to use this blog as a sort of diary. We'll see how that goes.

Yesterday I watched about a quarter of Lubomir Ftacnic's Chessbase program on 1.Nf3. So far I am liking it very much. He is suggesting lines that cut down on theory without going straight for a dead draw. He seems to be seeking calm waters rather than stormy seas.

I have been going to the chess tactics server practically every day and sometimes a few times a day. My rating is not that great see "anotherpatzer". It is about 1250. And my success rate is about 91%. Apart from a few bugs and glitches that might account for a few of my mistakes I think this is accurate.

I believe these exercises are very good for me. In addition I am going through 1001 tactical exercises for beginners. I misplace this book often and start over at the beginning of the marked page. But I don't care. I'm not going anywhere.

As usual the chess dream is to play an opening that is both enjoyable and successful, be sharp on tactics, accumulate positional advantages, and culminate the game by taking  advantage of a tactical oversight by the opponent or grinding out an end game win.

Does this blog need a pretty picture? Think about what you want... Got it? Good.