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| Posted by ccmcacollister blitzbrain.com 1/11/2008 17:37:54 Play online 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 blitzbrain.com 1/11/2008 17:39:24 Play online chess | What i learned. Message: | ||||||||||||||||
| Posted by bhidragon blitzbrain.com 1/12/2008 18:10:12 Play online 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 ——— The World Chess Hall of Fame — The World Chess Hall of Fame celebrated the 10th anniversary this month in a new location in St. Louis, Missouri. The history of the Hall and portraits of inducted chess players are available on the impressive web site. When it first opened in Miami in December 2001, I was inducted there together with five great chess players: the unofficial world chess champion Paul Morphy (1837-1884) and the official ones such as William Steinitz (1836-1900), Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941), José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942) and Robert James Fischer (1943-2008). I shared the same birth city, Prague, with Steinitz and as fate would have it, we both ended up in America. "The decision of Lubomir Kavalek not to return home from a foreign chess ... Posted by doctor_knight | blitzbrain.com 1/12/2008 21:01:22 Play online 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. ——— 2011 Year in Review — And what a year it has been! 2011 started with St. Louis’ own Hikaru Nakamura winning the 2011 Tata Steel chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Holland, against the world’s best chess players. It was the biggest tournament victory for an American since Bobby Fischer, and his performance catapulted him to No. 7 in the world chess rankings. Although he has experienced some ups and downs this year, Hikaru is currently holding onto the No. 10 spot in the world and is looking forward to an exciting 2012. World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, who turned 21 in December, proved he is worthy of his top spot as he turned in solid performance after solid performance all year. He is steadily climbing toward Gary Kasparov’s peak rating of 2851 and ... Posted by wschmidt | blitzbrain.com 1/14/2008 11:57:21 Play online 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 ——— Shooting the chess rapids for the holiday season — The holidays are traditionally a season of hustle and bustle, so what better time is there for holding a major rapid chess championship? Georgian GM Baadur Jobava emerged as the new European rapid chess champion, topping a high-powered field this month with a 9-2 score in Warsaw. Once something of a curiosity, the rapid Game/25 format is now firmly ensconced in international play, with the faster time control often leading to more combative and aggressive play while allowing an entire continent to hold an 11-round championship tournament over the course of a long three-day weekend. While not as chaotic (and random) as faster blitz chess play can be, rapid is clearly a different animal than chess played at ... Posted by marinvukusic | blitzbrain.com 1/14/2008 14:13:19 Play online 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 :) ——— Chess: Working the variations — Is there any way through Black's solid defence? How can he increase the pressure on Black's position? RB: If only my rooks were doubled on the e-file maybe I could put pressure on the knight on e7, but in the time it would take to get my heavy pieces lined up, Black would be able to deal with any threat – 1 Re2 Ng6 2 Rae1 Rxe2 3 Qxe2. I'm left in control of the e-file but how does that look? Not too bad, I suppose, but also not very exciting. Is there something better? I can't see any tactics, so maybe the thing to do is to try to take advantage of the weak dark squares on Black's queenside. If I could put my knight on c5 and my queen on d4, I'd be a very happy bunny. Trouble is, I don't ... Posted by cascadejames | blitzbrain.com 1/19/2008 00:07:54 Play online 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. ——— Chess: Tournament Life Isn’t Always Glamorous — Traveling is part of the life of a chess player. Sometimes the destination is glamorous — London or Gibraltar — but elite chess tournaments are often held in out-of-the-way places that do not top many tourist lists. The last four World Chess Cups have been held in the Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The Women’s World Chess Championship last month was in Tirana, Albania. And several top chess events have taken place in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia — a dusty Russian republic on the Caspian Sea. Sometimes the remoteness of the location is not the issue. In 2004, the World Chess Federation held its championship in Tripoli, Libya, and none of the Israeli qualifiers competed. The current ... Posted by lighttotheright | blitzbrain.com 1/19/2008 06:21:01 Play online 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 | blitzbrain.com 1/19/2008 08:51:58 Play online 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 | blitzbrain.com 1/19/2008 20:37:49 Play online 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 | blitzbrain.com 1/22/2008 08:11:43 Play online chess I learned Message: Much more economical than the unweildy Rook and Two-Pawns-in-the-middle King havens of my past ... ! |