Knightwiz

Chess Training Pocket Book

2005-12-09T16:57:00.000-02:00

I decided to take a break from CTS, and start working on some tactics the old way. For this I'll be using Lev Alburt's "Chess Training Pocket Book", which claims to have the "300 most important positions".

Although a small book, it seems to have a good mix of themes and ideias, including some key endgames positions.

After 10 thousand problems..

2005-11-23T16:16:00.000-02:00

I'm still using CTS, but decided to slow down. In the beginning I was doing heaps of problems, but seems like my improvement was more because I was doing problems, than because I was doing *many* problems. I decided to slow down from about 300 problems/day to 100 problems/day, and up to now, I'm still improving at an acceptable rate. (In points/day)

CTS Report, Pt 2

Starting rating: 1330
After 5k problems: 1450 (+120)
After 10k problems: 1490 (+40)

my profile.

After 5 thousand problems...

2005-10-29T12:16:00.000-02:00

Almost 3 weeks since I started training with CTS and it's already paying off. I improved more than 100 ratings points, and I'm sure my board vision has improved *a lot*. After the beginning ``boom'' my progress is now slower, so let's see what happens in the following weeks.

CTS Report

Starting Rating: 1330
After 5k problems: 1450 (+120)

my profile.

CTS

2005-10-19T12:57:00.000-02:00

Well, that's a long time since my last post.. but I'm back! heah
I took some time to read other knights blogs, and saw that many of them are now training with CTS. I do agree with the idea of doing simple problems "a tempo", so I'll give it a try.

I started with a rating of 1330, but I've been improving quite fast. Maybe cause I was so much time w/o playing, and didn't really deserve the 1330? Don't know, but I hope to continue improving. =)
(my handle at CTS is ``taerone'')

The chess player's mind

2005-07-12T00:15:00.000-03:00

How do we think during a game? Memory, Experience, Analysis, Inspiration? Sometimes seems like there are a lot of voices screaming inside our heads, and we can hear all of them here.

Polgar's Book

2005-06-28T18:05:00.000-03:00

I've decided to take a rest from TCT and start working with Polgar's Book. I'm right now at the "mate in two" part of the book, currently at problem 400.

The "mate in one" were all so easy that I could do most of them without thinking, but some "mate in two" are quiete challenging, specially the ones where the enemy kings lies in the middle of the board.

I don't know how it relates to the tactics I was training earlier, like forks, skewers, double attacks etc, but that's certainly helping me, and I could almost say they are helping more than the ones I was doing earlier. Working with this mate problems is very different cause I know what to look for, and thus I can consider less candidate moves, and work deeper on the variants. I think that's really improving my calculating abilities.

The training goes on..

2005-06-21T19:12:00.000-03:00

I got a little busy lately and didn't have much time for net and chess, but hey, it happens... sometimes real life call us! heheh

Anyway, I'm about to finish Step 4 of TCT and the "Logical Chess Move by Move" book. I'm not quiet sure what to do next, if I get another book to read, or just concetrate on tactics. I was also thinking about using Fred Reinfeld's "1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations", just need to see first if it fits my playing level(about 1500 FICS).

Between I found Mousetrapper's posts on "X-Ray vision" quiet interesting. I usually do it when looking for tactics, but just at this time. Will try to use it at every move, let's see if it helps. =)

Step 3 is finished.

2005-06-07T02:59:00.000-03:00

One less to go. Step 3 of Tasc Chess Tutor(TCT) is now finished. My success rate there was 88%, which I think is ok.

My plan for now is just to go through the whole TCT collection slowly, reading all the texts, and just once, no circles. When I'm finished with this then maybe I do a circle or some mini-circles through the Steps, I'm not sure yet.

Ideal time control

2005-05-27T16:43:00.000-03:00

Simple question: What do you think is the best time control to use in order to improve our game?

Certainly not blitz, but the point is, how slow should we play? In fact, that's exactly my problem, being slow. I can play reasonable well a G/45 using most of my time but get much weaker playing anything faster than this.

At first I thought about playing even slower games or stick with the G/45 but now I'm inclined to switch to G/30 and see If I can learn to play with less time.

Master games

2005-05-26T17:46:00.000-03:00

I've been reading the "Logical Chess Move by Move" lately, I'm about half way through the book and can say it's helping me a *lot*. The games are not too complicated, the victories are usually built on simple plans, and the "move by move" explanations help to get the ideias even more clearly on my mind.

So far I've finished the games on Kingside Attack(16) and will now start the ones on the "Queen Pawn Openings" section. I'm sure this is gonna be great, as I have(at this time) no ideia what to do on queen pawn openings. I never play them, and when people use it against me I just go on developing my pieces as If i were playing a king pawn opening. Most of the time I just feel my game is geting "clumsy", so there must be something I'm missing.

I didn't memorize anything from the book but it certainly brought more "harmony" to my game. It's interesting to see how masters can get all pieces to cooperate so well.

Knights Tourney

Pawnsensei, I've posted a comment to you on RomaLavrn's blog, don't know if you saw it. Anyway you may drop here the days/times that suit you better. I don't use ICQ for a long time(just msn now), maybe you could switch the ICQ group to the forum that is about to be opened. Would be an easier way to get everybody connected. (besides our blogs, sure)

Step 2 is finished

2005-05-20T01:48:00.000-03:00

Today I've finished Step 2 of TCT. I liked the software, althought some exercises(at least for Step 2) are so easy that leads to a blitz like mentality. When solving a lot of easy problems in a row you tend to go for the first thing you see because most of the time the answers *are* that simple.

I had a 91% success for this Step and will now start Step 3.

Not yet the circles...

2005-05-16T03:42:00.000-03:00

... but definitely the start of my tactical training!

I decided to use the TASC Chess Tutor but without a schedule, at least for now. TASC has a huge collection of problems(2150) and a lot of text. I think I can get more if I go the first time through it from "cover to cover", reading the instructions carefully.

Another point is that TASC is divided by themes, what, as stated by other Knights, maybe a better aproach for a begginer.

I'm already half the way through Step 2, although I've skipped Step 1 because it's too basic(even for me!).

Time!

2005-05-08T22:42:00.000-03:00

[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "freechess.org"]
[Date "2005.05.08"]
[Round "?"]
[White "knightwizzy"]
[Black "Talmaster"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "1504"]
[BlackElo "1667"]
[ECO "C30"]
[TimeControl "2700"]

1. e4 e5 2. f4 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. fxe5 Nxe5 5. Nf3 Nxf3+ 6. Qxf3 d6 7. Bc4 Bg4 8. Qg3 Qd7 9. O-O O-O-O 10. d4 d5 11. Bxd5 Nxd5

Here Crafty wants me to play 12. exd5 followed by 13. a4 and 14. Bf5 which of course, I didn't. I didn't want to double my pawns and this pawn center with a centralized knight(at least for some more moves) looked good for me.

12. Nxd5 f6 13. Bf4 Bd6 14. Bxd6 cxd6 15. Rae1 h5 16. Re3 Kb8 17. Ra3 Be6 18. Nc3 Rhe8 19. d5 Bg8 20. Qe3 b6 21. Qd3 Bh7 22. Re1 Qg4 23. Qa6 Rd7 24. Qc4 f5 25. Ra4 Rde7 26. Qc6 Qf4

Crafty gives me +4.81 with 25. e5! followed by 26. e6. The discovered attack on the queen gaining a tempo to advance the e pawn futher into black's camp would be nice, but I didn't see it.

27. Rf1 Qe3+ 28. Kh1 Qc5 29. exf5 Bxf5 30. h3

h3? I left my c2 pawn without defence to the bishop's attack.

30. ..., Qxc6 31. dxc6 Bxc2 32. Rh4 g6 33. b4 a6 34. Nd5

I had about 5 minutes on the clock against 25 to my opponent. Had to play the rest of the game under time pressure.

34. ..., Re1 35. Rxe1 Rxe1+ 36. Kh2

Crafty wants 36. ..., Be4 when I think Black could at least get my passed c pawn.

36. ..., b5 37. Rf4 Bf5 38. g4

The ideia was to get my rook into the 7th or 8th rank as soon as possible and play to queen the c pawn.

38. ..., Re2+ 39. Kg3 hxg4 40. hxg4 Rd2

Black offers to trade his bishop on my knight. After 41. gxf5, Rxd5 42. fxg6 I'd get one more pawn for free with two passed pawns on g and c files, so I thought the trade was pretty good. Crafty agrees with me, but he wouldn't play 42. fxg6, instead 42. f6, advancing the pawn in a file already controlled by my Rook.

41. gxf5 Rxd5 42. fxg6 Rd1 43. Kf3 Kc7 44. Rg4 Rf1+ 45. Kg3 Rf8 46. Kh4 Rg8 47. Kh5 Kxc6 48. Kh6 Kd5 49. Kh7

Black can't prevent the g pawn from from queening. The rook is sacrificed.

49. ..., Rxg6 50. Rxg6 Ke5 51. Rg4 d5 52. Kg7 d4 53. Kf7 Kd5 54. Kf6

Don't know why I played this moves with the King instead of going to the remaining pawns with the rook. Maybe because I had just some more seconds on the clock.

54. ..., Kc4 55. Ke5 Kxb4 56. Kxd4 Ka3 57. Rg2 a5 58. Kc3 b4+ 59. Kc2 a4 60. Kb1 b3 61. Rg3 Kb4 62. axb3 axb3 63. Kb2 Kc4 64. Rxb3 Kd4 65. Kc2 Ke4 66. Rd3 Ke5
{
knightwizzy ran out of time and
Talmaster has no material to mate
}
1/2-1/2

This is the first game I annotate so don't expect much. The main lesson I got from it was: I need to work on my time management! From a total of 45 minutes I used 40 to the first half(34 moves) and 5 to the other half(32 moves) which is, certainly, not a wise aproach.

A day of good games

2005-05-07T00:29:00.000-03:00

Yesterday I played some good games on FICS, lost most of them, but I don't really care as long as do *learn* something from them.

In one of them playing against the "Italian Opening" I got caught in a trap(the "Fried Liver Attack") and all of a sudden I was a pawn down with my king in a very vulnerable position. It took me a lot of time trying to "fix up" the position, but at least after the game Harmless showed me the correct line(Although I was not playing him). Thanks =)

I have also finished the micro drills but didn't start the circles yet. I'm still in doubt wether to use a set organized by themes to get the basics, or to use problems without knowing the specific theme as in a real game there will be no "hey, look for an x-ray!" or "time for a double attack!".

I should start the circles soon, just need a while more to decide exactly what to do.

What's next?

2005-05-05T00:13:00.000-03:00

I've finished the "Chess For Dummies" book and the micro drills this week. I'm looking now to start the circles, probably with the TASC Chess Tutor, just need to find a way to break it in parts as the 2150 problems seems way too much for a traditional circle.

Another thing I have in mind is to keep reading while solving the problems so I don't become too biased toward 'tactical play'. My 2nd book will be "Logical Chess Move by Move" by Irving Chernev. It has 33 master games commented "move by move".

Knights on FICS

2005-05-03T03:43:00.000-03:00

As suggested by other Knights I created an account on FICS recentely. My main objection to this was due to the winboard+telnet interface which I found really confusing, but after somebody pointed me the Babas Chess interface I decided to give it a try.

Before it I was playing on Yahoo! Games, but now I can assure FICS is *much* better. The people are more polite, you get a chance to talk(yes, I like talking about the games also), it's possible to put people on a notify list, get a list of your recent games and much more, besides the fact that I found it's rating scheme more reasonable(you get a different rating for lightning, blitz, standard etc).

I'd like to +notify all you Knights(and possibly non Knights), so, if you hang there, please let me know. =)

My handle there is "knightwizzy".

To play or not to play?

2005-04-28T04:19:00.000-03:00

That's the question(I've been thinking lately). When I started studying chess, mainly in the de la Maza's scheme(I'm still on the visual exercises), I believed something like 'the more I play, the better!', but now I'm wondering if that's really correct.

I feel like when I play too many games in a row I don't benefit much from them. I forget the mistakes of the earlier games, and probably start to repeat them. So, how much should I play? Once a week? Once a day? Many games a day? I'm inclined to play one(and just one) slow game a day, with futher analisys and reflection on my mistakes. Don't know if it's the best way to go, but I'll give it a try.

Between, I'm still doing the micro drills, and finishing the "Chess For Dummies" book. Hope I can get to the circles soon...

Still on the drills

2005-04-23T01:39:00.000-03:00

Almost 2 weeks since I started the micro drills, and I can already see some benefits. I don't think my capacity to spot forks and skewers has greatly increased, but looking all this time to an almost empty board has improved my general board vision, for sure.

When I started the drills I was really in doubt if I should spent 28 days with vision exercises, but now that I can do them (a lot) quickier and see the results, like a better vision of the connections on the board, specially seeing diagonals and files at the same time, I'll stick with them for another 2 weeks anyway.

I've also added two exercises to the ones proposed by de la Maza. After forking R/N/B in concentric circles, I then put a pawn and start to fork it the same way, but now with a Knight. I chose the pawn just to be different, as the knight can fork any two pices safely(except other knights, sure).

The other one I saw in a column by Dan Heisman, and also concerns the knight. A white knight starting at a1 moves to b1, then c1, d1 ... h1, h2, g2 ... a2, a3, b3 etc, in this zig-zag motion, until it covers all the board. The difference is that there are 4 black pawns at c3/c6/f3/f6 and the knight can't land on the squares occupied or controlled by them.

Yes, I know my teaching skills sucks, so if you didn't understand(I'd bet on it), the original article is here, under the section "Chess IQ Test".

Today I also managed to beat a player 100+ ratings points above me. I can say, this sensation is GREAT ;)

Yahoo! Games

2005-04-19T00:23:00.000-03:00

Since I started playing chess for serious, I've been looking for a place to play on the net. I see many of the knights play on ICC, but this telnet+winboard interface is confusing for me, so I decided to play on Yahoo! Games. They have a pretty interface, and many, many people to play(usually 8000+ online players).

I played there a while ago, under a different login, and got a rating around 1250, but I was losing most of the blitz games(1/0, 2/0, 5/0). Now I'll be playing just slow games, guess that's the best way to learn and improve. Nothing better than THINK ahn? :)

Player information for knightwizzy:

Rating: 1200
Games Completed: 0
Abandoned Games: 0
Wins: 0
Losses: 0
Draws: 0
Streak: 0

Chess For Dummies

2005-04-16T17:41:00.000-03:00

Almost a week of micro drills and I'm starting to feel more confortable with the exercises. My ability to spot queens forks has incresead greatly, and I can't wait to try it on real games. I've also created some more drills to complement my chess vision training.

As I'm getting quickier through the drills(around 30 minutes for both Concetric Squares and Knight Sight), that's time to start a book. My chess knowledge is so little that makes it hard to know where to start.

What upsets me the most now is my lack of opening knowledge. I know general principles like control central squares, do not move the same piece twice, develop knights before bishops etc, but that's not enough. When playing games different from 1. e4, e5, the whole situation seems strange to me. I lose a lot of time trying to figure out what are my opponents plan, and what I should play, but usually get nowhere. Openings, in special, is something I must study as soon as I get a better general understanding of the game.

By now, to build up this "general understading", what I need is a beginners book. A book that does not confuse me with a lot of variations and deep strategic issues, something that just passes basic ideias. I chose "Chess For Dummies" by James Eade, which I already had at home. This book seems to be an easy reading, just what I was looking for.

CT-ART + WinXP ?

2005-04-15T01:34:00.000-03:00

Today I installed CT-ART 3.0 on my Windows XP, but it doesn't work. When I run the program it gives me address errors like "Access violation at address 00559A46 in module 'Ct-Art.exe'. Read of address 0000000024" when I click the buttons, and sometimes "Runtime error 501(249)", which finishes the program.

Has anybody had a similar experience? Is this a XP problem? The cd has a patch, but it didn't solve the problem.

Hmm, seems like this was not my lucky day...

Day 1, First steps

2005-04-11T23:06:00.000-03:00

Today I started the MDLM's program with micro drills. I did both the Concentric Squares, forking Rook, Bishop and Knight, and the Knight sight exercise. I felt the Knight one to be easy, maybe because I already have a good vision on how it moves, but the CS was somewhat trick: that's easy to forget a fork here and there, so I had to do it carefully.

As this training aims improving chess vision, I was facing a dilemma: should I use my real board, or a 2D board on the computer screen? As I'm just playing over the net, I chose the second option.

The beginning

2005-04-11T00:07:00.000-03:00

Tomorrow I'll start Michael de la Maza's chess program "400 points in 400 days". His method is based on doing the same set of tactical problems over and over again(well, in fact 7 times!) in order to improve caculation ability and pattern recognition.
Before start solving the problems I'll do some visual exercises, as sugested by MDLM. My ideia is to occupy my time the next 14 days by doing Concentric Circles and Knight Sight exercises.