Circle 4.3 Done
Performance is slowly improving. I no longer feel like I'm in over my head with these problems. I've finally realized that what makes this group of problems harder is the large number of decoys and deflections involved. It isn't enough just to see a one-move pin anymore. It is required to think, "Hmm, if his queen were moved here, then I could capture a bishop while forking his queen and king, winning a Bishop." There are lots of problems like that.
Also, I am starting to keep a list of all the King and Pawn endgames in this section so I can later go through them all in Fritz and list all the errors therein. There aren't many errors, but I'd like to create a list for future Knights. There are about 25 such problems (out of 300+).
Blitz is chugging along. I decided I don't like the Dutch Defense, and am going back to the Queen's Gambit Accepted. I have started playing the King's Gambit as white, which is really just insane. Some lines leave white's kingside awfully porous (even with 'optimal' play according to Gallagher). We'll see how long I last with this before going back to the Ruy. I'll probably just play both depending on my mood and on how important the game is (important games: Ruy!).
Also, I am starting to keep a list of all the King and Pawn endgames in this section so I can later go through them all in Fritz and list all the errors therein. There aren't many errors, but I'd like to create a list for future Knights. There are about 25 such problems (out of 300+).
Blitz is chugging along. I decided I don't like the Dutch Defense, and am going back to the Queen's Gambit Accepted. I have started playing the King's Gambit as white, which is really just insane. Some lines leave white's kingside awfully porous (even with 'optimal' play according to Gallagher). We'll see how long I last with this before going back to the Ruy. I'll probably just play both depending on my mood and on how important the game is (important games: Ruy!).
| # Circles | Percent Correct | |
| Problem Set 1 | 14 | 98-99-100-100-100-100-100 100-100-100-99-100-99-98 |
| Problem Set 2 | 15 | 90-93-96-99-99-99-99-99 99-99-99-99-99-99-100 |
| Problem Set 3 | 8 | 85-93-97-99-99-99-99-100 |
| Problem Set 4 | 3 | 73-87-93 |
| Problem Set 5 | 0 |
NOTE: Circles undertaken with CTB.
posted by Blue Devil Knight at 6/21/2007 01:01:00 AM
16 Comments:
There are a lot of optical illusions of white looking bad in the KG. But when you learn what the biggest assets are for white you will grow over your fear. It will give you nerves of steel!
If you have questions about a certain position, feel free to ask.
suddenly, it seems the photos are now fashionable? even tempo has women now, as does david glickman! but let us not forget dogs, spirols, circles, and wild untamed nature, mildly deranged or disturbed folks, and devotional votives.
"woman" is not the first association witch comes to mind when looking at Anne Robinson:)
Tempo: I'll post one of the positions that looks quite scary for white tonight (it's in the Kieseritzky variation, Game 19, after 7 Nc3 d6 (p 60), his suggested alternative to the game's 7 Bc4).
Are you guys aware that in 1905, as a corollary of the Theory of General Relativity, Einstein demonstrated that as the rate of chess moves approaches the speed of light, the size of the chessboard increases without bound.
This presents practical problems for any attempts to go beyond bullet chess.
FF: that's why we need quantum computers.
I left a post mocking your opening flip-flopping, but Blogger ate it. Curse you, Blogger!
The one patzer sin I've never suffered from is hopping between openings on a whim. Usually I keep an opening for a year at least. In the worst case (sicilian) I used 4 approaches over 13 years. It was incredibly hard for me find the guts to play 1...e5 after 13 years of the French.
But hey, if it's only in blitz, knock yourself out. I just felt compelled to give a Stephen Colbert-patented "Wag Of My Finger".
This blitzing is a time to mess around with openings. At my level, approximately 0% of my games are decided in the opening, so it doesn't matter. I should start playing 1. a4 to test this theory.
We talked a little about the 'dangers' of being a switcher a while ago.
Blue: i am in inveteret 1.d4, 1.c4, and 1.Nf3 player. My coach last year had me playing 1.e4, which i did for months, often both getting slaughtered to slaughtering, as a means of forcing me to play for the initiative. while e4 is not my cup of tea, it is nice to be able to pull it out of a bottle.
My response to 1. ...e5? 2.f4. Many a swashbuckling fued.
oddly, i could reply to the Ruy Lopez fairly well, and of course Caro and French, my 70% and 30% responses as black, but the sicilian is the one i never seemed to find an acceptable way to meet, and of course, with all my prior years outside 1.d4 tybia nexus et. al, never wanted or want to spend time learning the book.
this is what i did when switching from YEARS of 2/12 games, to 3/8 games it was another world, and many lost on time, probably not unlike what you are or were going through on blitz, or wormwood is on 5/0.
and, lastly, if i can play 1.e4, you can play 1.d4!
Blunderpone, when i took my last (not long hiatus), i was writing an epicly long gothic comment to like forests, when google ate it. it was heart breaking. i was copying and pasting, but, inexplicably, amidst the many spelling queries to google, paged back too many times on the wrong tab. google might be a big innovator, but they dont have this comment thing down at all!
i was upset for days, and thwarted all efforts thereof for weeks.
i NEVER refresh without copying first, or write big posts in outlook to store them.
There is a bad way to be a switcher and a good way to be a switcher. When you hear someone say "my opening made me lose, From now on I'm playing the [Famous guy's last name]" you're listening to a bad switcher.
On the other hand, I think it's a great idea to have a variety of chess experiences. Play all kinds of openings! You may be reading annotated games one day and see one you really like. Well, now you know the first couple moves in the opening and some middle game ideas. So you go to have some fun and bang out some blitz games with that opening, getting positions unlike the trusty dusty positions the opening you've been playing for 8 years gives you. You look up where your games deviated from theory and bang you know a couple more moves. Now when you're looking for something "a little different" you bust out your 'second' opening.
Another cool thing if you're just playing blitz is to play an opening that a friend plays. This gives you some more common ground with your chess friends. I'd give 100 rating points for any of my chess friends.
Chess has more possibilities than we can imagine and to ignore so many of the fun ones for the sake of sticking with our opening repertoire simply isn't my optimal way to enjoy the game.
My coach has said that I shouldn't worry about being a switcher, that I need to gain experience right now with lots of different pawn structures.
I just switched to 1.e4 this month after decades of 1.d4.
I challenged an expert-rated player at 30 5 time, who played the black side of the Caro-Kann. I know very little about the Caro-Kann, but the guy still managed to lose a pawn in the opening.
Still he got a positional advantage, but we both fell into time trouble.
He deliberately sacked a piece for zero compensation, I got two connected passed pawns, and I ran out of time while he had less than a minute left.
Great fun!
Actually, playing different openings in order to get more experience with different structures and middlegames is not a bad idea in itself, but personally I would have a hard time playing something and not getting sucked in to studying theory. If the theory becomes a time-suck it can be counter-productive.
That being said, I have this horrid temptation right now to play 1.d4 online and blame any poor results on my mouse-hand being in a cast. Just for absolute shits and giggles. Normally my online games are completely faithful to my repertoire. Damn your corrosive influence, BDK! What do you think chess is...a GAME?
My preference, if you're going to actually maintain a repertoire, is to choose a repertoire that in itself will result in a lot of different pawn structures and middlegame plans. Thus my abandonment (or at least back-burnering) of the French after over a decade of service. Still, I mourns mah French Defense like a walrus mourns his bucket.
Blue, I look forward to it.
BTW I played a few blindfold games today and I can say the KG isn't the best opening to learn to play blind:)
temposchlucker: "BTW I played a few blindfold games today and I can say the KG isn't the best opening to learn to play blind:)"
Or drunk.
Or sober, for that matter.
I keed. Actually, reading through Marin's repertoire book, even though his rep move is to decline the gambit, he includes enough background material on the gambit accepted that I start to understand White's compensation.
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