Spring : signs of life...

Some time since I last posted, but no apologies !

There has been a lot going on with work- and personal- life, so updating the world on my lowly chess antics has dropped quite low down the list.

Definitely not forgotten, and things have been happening chess-wise, just not so much.

After a very cold winter ( my first experience of walking on frozen canals made me a bit apprehensive, to say the least ) Spring has been a long time fulfilling it's promises, but finally, in May, seems to have arrived properly and is re-invigorating me !

Seems to have done the same for Aronian and Kramnik, since they played some good games in Zurich, some of which even I could follow and enjoy, using the excellent commentary on Chessvibes, by Sergey Shipov : variation-light, and explanation-heavy is great.

A good appetizer for the World Championship with Anand and Gelfand in a few weeks.

The T52 Team League season ended with no playoffs on the plate, but some great games for me.

Great as in enjoyable, since overall I had a 3-3-4 performance, which is competent enough.

Take out the U1800 games ( ie those that are always against higher opponents for me ) and I have a fine 3-1-2 record, which is a great improvement on T51 ! Statistics, don't you just love them ?!

If I manage it, I will post a couple of them with some notes.

Similarly for the Candidates 2012, where, with the latest game a set draw ( time zone issues sometimes makes it hard to arrange matches ), and with the previous being , if I say it myself, a good win on my part, now leaves me facing a 2100+ player for my sins : A drop down the tournament table is predicted !

See you around soon...

Candidates 2012

Yes, while FIDE upsets various established tournaments with the announcements of the FIDE Candidates taking place later this year , the Candidates for the T9030 website kicked off last week.

As a former group winner ( although I think I only played about 3 or 4 games to qualify, as one of the 4 in my group 'dropped out' ) I was eligible to join, so this time around, I did !

The pairings meant that I ended up against a player significantly higher-rated than me ( some 300 or more points :) and quite honestly, having switched to a Friday night at my opponent's request, I wasn't really in the best physical and mental state to play after a week's work.

( As an aside, this reminded me of an observation from Nigel Davies, that his best 'improvement' advice to one of his students was not to play when he was tired, ie during the week, but rather on a weekend when he was rested and prepared : very sound and simple advice ! )

Regardless, after sacrificing at the altar of Caissa, I set down to play in as spirited and adventurous a style as I could. In my opinion, it would be pointless trying to play a defensive match, or for a draw.

...Continue reading...

Ups and Downs in T52

Four TL games in just over a week, means I haven't posted much recently.

These games were all good and I felt I played well in all of them, but came away with 2 wins and 2 losses.

Both losses as Black, both in U1800, and probably both through my mistakes.

Wins both as White, both in U1600 and both against the French !

Make of those what you will, but it leaves the team in a good position in U1600, and struggling in U1800.

Here's a few positions...

This was from a French Defence, which was an interesting positional game, with much manoeuvring until the exchanges started !

15. Ng5

I had played an early a4, and saw the benefits of that after Black played a less active Rf6 to protect his e-pawn, rather than Rxf4 or exf , either of which might have left things equal.

Although I went up 2 pawns, he played until I created the unstoppable passed pawn. A tough and enjoyable game.

 Next up I was Black against my only d4 opening, and it led to a long positional-type game, something I rarely play.

...Continue reading...

Obvious

I don't manage to keep in touch with all blogs that I follow as often as I'd like, but equally, with a blog as thought-provoking as Temposchlucker's, sometimes I am glad that he doesn't post every day : it would be just too much to cope with !

Catching up yesterday, I saw his post from a few weeks ago entitled "Precision" with an example of a problem from Chess Tactics of a 'crushing attack by White'.  ( see also the examples in the comments to his post).

I can't disagree with him, it was an example of a crushing attack and I did see it eventually, and didn't see it quickly for exactly the reasons he gives !

Coincidently, something similar, but much simpler, happened in a blitz game yesterday afternoon...

In the diagram below, White has just played Rf3 disconnecting his back-rank rooks. I felt I had the had the advantage, but it still took me too much time to see the move.

Black to play : a crushing attack

Sometimes, we try to look for the complex, when the simple and obvious is what we need.

Guardian Chess Column

I mentioned here that the Guardian's chess column had gone.

Well, its both true and false !

The Bennett/King column has ended, but the Guardian does have regular chess coverage here.

Apart from the occasional ( and usual ) reports on events such as Wijk-aan-zee from a stalwart of English chess. Leonard Barden ( he and Harry Golombek probably wrote most of the early chess books I borrowed from the library !) , they also have reportage on chess topics.

The latest  is a mention of how chess in schools has been launched in countries like Armenia, India and Norway, and the efforts by people such as Malcom Pein ( London Chess Classic organiser ) to encourage this in English schools. The comments on the article are varied and interesting.

I have to say that I played in my own school chess club, although I don't recall anything other than internal competitions ( for the "House Cup"  as Harry Potter would say ), and I carried on at my Sixth Form college ( pre-university ) when I was tutored by the County Champion.

Mind you the group there was so small, that we did lots of fun chess, especially Kriegspiel ( well spotted..a lot of the time there were only 3 of us ! ).  It was very enjoyable.

I have none of the games from that time, but I do have a few from when I took it up again as an adult, and played for the local town club, even competing in the County league !

Amusing to look through now, as I evidently didn't put much into ' study'. Club nights were held in a pub, so the social part was as important as the chess !

I should really look through them again and publish my youthful efforts !

Chess Carnival 2012

Get yourselves over to Robert Pearson's blog, where a new phase of the year-old Chess Carnival has emerged.

This is the first of a number of posts , featuring the " Best of" chess blogging.

First one is about openings.

I'm working my way through them now...

Enjoy.