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| Posted by ccmcacollister playcomputerchess.net 1/11/2008 17:37:54 Play computer chess |  Subject: What have you learned recently?Message: It would help if respondents would indicate their rating range, and I'll tell you why in a moment. We might then throw in also ... What do you Not Know but think you should? I had this GREAT IDEA (aka probably eccentric, possibly a bit weird?!) that wouldn't it be great to see a Chess Book that annotated games, that would be essentially three books in one. The game annotated for under 1400, 1400 to 1800, and over 1800. With a little doodad denoting which rating range the note is meant for ... the thought being It is Something that that range should know to advance, yet may not know. IMO very many skills come at certain ranges, as a generality. As a specific, well there are 1200 players for eg who lose to an B or higher because they do not know as much. Then there are those who Know an awful lot! But will drop a piece at some point whether oversight, impatience or whatever. But in general I think there are certain things players should know at certain levels. You cannot be a master if you do not know forcible line opening an be able (and do) spot such points on the board when attacking for EG. The thought occurred to me then, it might even be more appealing if the book had a person from those two lower note echelons help write it. Perhaps the 1400 has a question best answered by the 1700 for Eg, in an understandable way. Also what the 1700 Has learned since being 1400, is probably a lot of what Should be known to make that advancement. What do you think? More importantly What do you Know NOW that you didn't awhile ago? Thanks all! | ||||||||||||||||
| Posted by ccmcacollister playcomputerchess.net 1/11/2008 17:39:24 Play computer chess | What i learned. Message: | ||||||||||||||||
| Posted by bhidragon playcomputerchess.net 1/12/2008 18:10:12 Play computer chess | Recent Learnings Message: 1. Premature attacks hardly ever work ... and always leave you in absolutely bad positions. Don't count on your opponent to make a mistake in order to successfully attack. 2. Don't just memorize opening moves ... study the strategy behind your favorite openings and how the rest of the game unfolds from those opening positions. If you're studying opening books that are simply lists of moves ... toss them and study general principles. 3. Play at your speed ... not your opponent's. I learned this the hard way in OTB tourneys. Your tendency is to speed up against a fast player. Stay calm and take the time to study the position. Maybe this would be helpful for players in the 800 - 1200 range on GameKnot ——— Big Surprises in Europe — Europe has been a center of chess activity over the last month with a series of major open tournaments. The first was the Gibtelecom Chess Festival in Gibraltar, which ran from Jan. 26 through Feb. 4. Among the world-class chess players who competed were Etienne Bacrot of France, Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia, Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain, Michael Adams of England, and Gata Kamsky of the United States. The chess tournament ended in a nine-way tie for first, with Adams winning a four-person playoff to take the title. The Moscow Open, which overlapped with Gibtelecom and ended on Feb. 7, was divided into four sections — A, B, C and D — with ... Posted by doctor_knight | playcomputerchess.net 1/12/2008 21:01:22 Play computer chess Message: 1) if your position is solid enough, the opponent will very likely make a blunder at my level. That seems to be how I have made most of my wins. It seems that at my level, if I don't let my pieces hang and establish an effective coorination between my pieces, the opponent doesn't really seem to know what to do and eventually tries something wild which usually ends up in him/her losing a pawn, piece, control of squares, and etc. Though at my level, the advantage given up is usually material and usually substantial enough to win almost easily. 2) don't be scared to live on the edge some. If you don't try a risky counter attack now, then you'll never develop the skills necessary to do one later in a more important game. Of course don't be reckless, but don't be scared to dive into the pool. It will force you to raise your level of performance to exercise your brain to work through the position. It will also help you to develop a sense of what types of moves and positions tend to crash your position and which ones will strengthen it. It will help to develop your "intuition". Now what I would like to know? 1) I haven't really though about this much, but I know one area where I need improvement is trading off the center pawns. This area of play seems a little mysterious to me. I would definately like some help with this (when to exchange, which pawns to exchange, which pawns to protect with what pieces, which pieces to recapture with, which pawns are really weak, how to identify an opponent's bad pawn capture, and how to punish it. Also to see which pawn captures are actually legitimate threats. The whole enchilada) 2) Time control. The root of most of my mistakes and failures in OTB play seems to be time control. Sometimes I have a really bad awareness of my time, especially while calculating combinations/exchanges. It's almost like I drift off into some fantasy world of board positions and pieces moving around capturing each other and become hardly aware that the clock is ticking down. ——— Topalov Closes In on Linares Title — After eight rounds, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, the top seed, holds a one point lead in the annual Ciudad de Linares chess tournament in Spain. Alexander Grischuk of Russia, the defending champion, is in second place after beating Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan in Round 8 on Sunday. Levon Aronian of Armenia is in third, having managed, like Topalov, not to have lost a game in the chess tournament. Unlike Topalov, who has won three games, Aronian has not won a game either. So far, 25 percent of the games have been decisive, but that does not mean that the other 75 percent have been dull. Quite the contrary. The games have mostly been hard fought and exciting, even ... Posted by wschmidt | playcomputerchess.net 1/14/2008 11:57:21 Play computer chess Interesting thoughts, Craig....Message: The second book is his latest, "Silman's Endgame Course" (or something similar). He doesn't set the book up by typical endgame book catagories like pawn endgames, rook endgames, etc. Rather, the chapters are divided into what he thinks a player needs to know as they increase their rating level. I don't own it, but it's gotten generally good reviews, I believe. What have I learned recently? Wow, 2007 was quite a year in that regard. I learned how to checkmate with the knight and bishop. I mean really learned it and practiced it, not just read about it and played through the moves once or twice. I learned, for the umpteenth time, that while there is a difference between memorizing moves in the opening and playing according to good general opening principles, there is also a difference between playing according to good general opening principles and actually looking at the board! That difference actually lasts into the middle and endgame as well. Understanding the concrete position on the board trumps general principles everyday. I learned (or developed) a method that works for me for analyzing/annotating my own games. I learned that Purdy's method of "try to guess the master's move" way of reading over an annotated game really works and is really quite fun. Over at the Chess Coaching Club, I've learned that some folks really are interested in being coached and others, well, not so much. This would be a good thread to revisit at the end of 2008! ws ——— Weekend of Fun and Friends Between Battles on the Chess Board — The highlight of the year for many chess players is Washington’s Birthday weekend, when four amateur team championships are held across the country. There are no cash prizes, but the chess tournaments are popular because of the camaraderie. Players walk back and forth chatting before, after and even during the games. Some renew friendships with competitors they see only once a year. The World Amateur Team East tournament in Parsippany, N.J., the biggest and oldest of the chess events, celebrated its 40th birthday this year. There were 1,150 players and 271 teams, down from 283 teams last year, said Steve Doyle, the tournament’s director, who ... Posted by marinvukusic | playcomputerchess.net 1/14/2008 14:13:19 Play computer chess Regarding Mr. SilmanMessage:  www.jeremysilman.com
This is one of the best Web pages on the Internet for beginners and intermediate players. I recommended it to a lot of people. Anyone who is willing to put some time into digging around it will be rewarded :) ——— At Halfway Point, Topalov Leads at Linares — The annual Ciudad de Linares chess tournament in Spain began earlier this week, and after five rounds — or halfway through — Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, the top seed and No. 2 chess player in the world, is leading with 3.5 points, a point ahead of the field. Linares has been among the world’s elite chess tournaments since the early 1990s, when Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov were regular competitors. This year’s tournament has only six players, though they are all among the world’s best. The format is a double round robin in which each chess competitor faces all the others twice, playing once with White and once with Black. Aside from Topalov ... Posted by cascadejames | playcomputerchess.net 1/19/2008 00:07:54 Play computer chess Giving up a pawnMessage: clear purpose in mind. It doesn't always work, but sometimes the results can be gratifying when the sacrifice works out. Of course this does not mean that the loss of a pawn is not important, only that sometimes it is justified. ——— The f-pawn, part 1: cheap, crude and obvious? — Is an f-pawn advance the chess game's equivalent of route-one football? RB For some time I've been nagging Dan to do a series of columns on the f-pawn advance. He's been resistant, partly, I suspect, because pushing the f-pawn is a bit like route-one football, the long ball punted down the park in hopes of a quick goal. The advance can sometimes be crude, obvious and speculative, but, like the infamous route-one game, it can also produce results, and, as we will see over the next few weeks, some very classy chess players have used it. We start with one of the classiest of all time, Botvinnik, in a chess game played in the decade before he became world chess champion. Having ... Posted by lighttotheright | playcomputerchess.net 1/19/2008 06:21:01 Play computer chess Message: Strac has shown me that I'm not quite as good as I once thought. As soon as he played 18. a5 for the control of the pivotal square on b6, I knew my latest game with him was over. He had a critical bind upon my Queen-side position; there was nothing that I could do about it once it was played. It was a small advantage for him that was unfortunately for me game winning. I've known for a while, but it has never been so clear to me than now...about the difference between a strategic move and a positional one. A positional move is strategic; but a strategic move is not necessarily a positional one. A strategic move will maximize your chances, while a positional move will ELIMINATE your opponent's. Strac's move of 18. a5 shut down my entire position because it forced me to constantly adjust while he continued to advance. My chances were eliminated under best play. Posted by alice02 | playcomputerchess.net 1/19/2008 08:51:58 Play computer chess not describing moves to myselfMessage: I don't drop as many significant pieces - though I still occasionally do so. When I started dropping pieces I decided to check every individual piece for the moves it could make. There is a knight - it can move there and there etc. I have now learnt to look at a knight's potential moves as a clock face. I have also learnt to see that two important pieces separated by either 1 or 3 squares is a potentially dangerous situation when a knight is around. I wonder if there is a chess developmental difference in thinking - this is a bishop's line vs a bishop can move to that or that or that square. A knight can move to that or that or that square vs a knight"s movement is like a clock face. Maybe you have to think in terms of individual squares before you can think in terms of lines. And I can only see lines when I am predicting one move. When I am trying to predict 2 or more moves I use square by square thinking. I think this type of thinking may be a stage in learning but also that it blocks me from seeing combinations. Posted by doctor_knight | playcomputerchess.net 1/19/2008 20:37:49 Play computer chess Message: (3) How to make strategical moves as apposed to simply positional moves, though I'm thinking this may take a long long time. Posted by ccmcacollister | playcomputerchess.net 1/22/2008 08:11:43 Play computer chess I learned Message: Much more economical than the unweildy Rook and Two-Pawns-in-the-middle King havens of my past ... ! |