Diary of a Patzer

Valmont

My second season of club chess will be starting shortly and I think it would be interesting if I post the games up as I play them. I'll be studying Yusupov's first book this year also, and I'm hoping that in March there will be a noticeable difference in my play. I'll start by posting my 'best' game - a draw at the Leeds Chess Congress last July. I consider it my best game because I didn't do what I usually do and blunder away a decent position. In fact after this game I notched up a few wins in my old club's summer tournament and have been playing slightly better overall. My ECF grade is a very paltry 67 and this game was against a 102 (I have the black pieces):

The Boring Immortal

EnPassant

I copied the game into Rybka and it thinks you are winning if you play g5 on move 29 instead of Rg7.

White's rooks are completely stuck - the a2 rook has no moves and if the a1 rook moves then the a2 rook is en prise, and white cannot even try to swap off queens because after c x b3 then the a2 rook is lost.

Rybka's idea seems to be to
- swap off the black g and h pawns for the white f amd h pawns, leaving a white pawn on g3
- swap off the bishops
- double rooks against the g pawn
It's hard to see how white can defend against this plan - white is completely passive.

Good luck in the league!

Valmont

I've just finished the second chapter of Yusupov's Build up your Chess 1: The Fundamentals which was on various mating motifs. I'm finding the examples and quizzes very difficult but I've scored 'Good' on both so far. I haven't played any competitive classical games lately but I've been able to apply these motifs in a number of blitz games, so I suppose that's evidence I'm learning something. The trickiest question on the second test was from this game played between David Bronstein and Paul Keres, white to move.

Ciaran

Valmont wrote: »

The trickiest question on the second test was from this game played between David Bronstein and Paul Keres, white to move.

Does Rf4 win? With Rh4 and Qh6 in some order to follow.

namenotavailablE

My guess of the correct move from Bronstein-Keres:

White plays Rf4 (intending Qh6 Rg8; Qxh7+! and Rh4++). It doesn't look possible for Black to play Qc2 (in response to Rf4 since the threat to the rook is ignored by playing Qh6 anyway). Similarly, Black doesn't get anywhere with Qc6 as e5 protects the pawn and the Qh6 threat remains

Valmont

Rf4

would have got you the full three points (and after which Keres resigned). I had the idea but wanted to play

Qh6

beforehand; I had anticipated

g5

but didn't see far enough ahead that f2 would become fatally weak.

EDIT: I have my first club game this Friday coming so I will be studying as much as possible this week.

Valmont

My first win of the season! Our team won by one point and if you look at the game I was extremely lucky. I was up on material but when my opponent lost on time the tide had turned in his favour. I haven't played against the King's Indian Attack before and I have to say I found it uncomfortable.

Lucena

Congrats on starting your diary, hopefully it will help you become a little less patzerly.

Regarding the game you won (congratulations!), I just had a quick look through it, so take what I say with a pinch of salt.

You took a lot of time to castle, maybe this could've been done earlier, perhaps ...Be7 instead of ...d4 and then 0-0. I think you mentioned that your ECF rating is in the 60s, and I've noticed that a lot of beginners/low-rated players get into all kinds of trouble by not castling earlier. Of course, there will be exceptions, but until you get stronger, concentrate on getting the king out of danger.

On average, on what move did you castle in your last five games?

Valmont

I've looked at my last five competitive and I castled on average at move 14. Psychologically, I know I start thinking 'if I castle now I will lose the initiative and give him the opportunity to mount an attack'. The other problem is that my king is never in too much danger when I should be castling but it just makes problems for me sooner or later. I will make a resolution to castle before move 10 on my next league game (Nov 3rd).

Lucena

Just had a quick look at my 5 most recent games available in an online database (my computer I use for chess is playing up) and I castled, on average, on move 6.4

In one game I waited until move 10 to castle, but that's because I was waiting to see what my opponent would do, and when I castled on move 10 I had the option of castling short or long.

Generally speaking, you won't lose the initiative by castling as your opponent has to do likewise. Generally speaking.

I'd imagine if one did an analysis correlating number of moves before castling and playing strength, there would be a dip as the players got stronger, with possibly a small rise towards the GM end of the spectrum (vaguely U-shaped)

Valmont

Another win on board four tonight. It was an extremely ugly game where I should have really lost twice but my opponent failed to convert their advantage in the middle and end-game. My competitive record since July is now five wins, two draws, and zero losses.

As usual I have been frightened into studying more - I sort of gave up on chapter 3 of the Yusupov book. The questions are just too hard and too time-consuming but I will get through them tomorrow evening hopefully.

eclipsechaser

Valmont wrote: »

Another win on board four tonight. It was an extremely ugly game where I should have really lost twice but my opponent failed to convert their advantage in the middle and end-game. My competitive record since July is now five wins, two draws, and zero losses.

As usual I have been frightened into studying more - I sort of gave up on chapter 3 of the Yusupov book. The questions are just too hard and too time-consuming but I will get through them tomorrow evening hopefully.

I think you played that one very well bar move 28 which was a giant clanger. 28... Nc3 looks like the natural continuation. It forces him to trade his bishop into a completely lost endgame. You have to give up d2 but pick the pawn back up straight away and you're a piece up. Since the pawn on d2 is dead anyway, that's a good way to use it.

Other than that, it looked very nice. Well done.

Valmont

28...Nc3! That was the move - Thanks.

Valmont

I am having a dreadful week of chess. My blitz rating is down one hundred points, as is my chesstempo rating. I am also into the third week of the chapter three of the Yusupov book and for the first time ever I experienced a strong urge to flip my chess board over and fling it out the window. Yusupov says the test at the end of the chapter is difficult but there are so many lines to consider for each position it is taking me an eternity to get even close to what I think might get me two or three points at the end. I hope to finally finish it off tomorrow but I have a mysterious headache that develops just when I sit down to analyse. I may just do my best in an hour or two and move on regardless of my score - rereading the chapter is no use because it is just a mind-bogglingly complex sequence of variations from a very sharp game played by Morphy.

Lucena

I understand your frustration, Valmont. Working on Chapter 8 ‘Centralizing the Pieces’ and so far I’ve only got one problem correct out of eight!

For the first few problems, I looked at the board with no idea what to look for, nothing for my mind to grab hold of. It reminded me of trying to study maths for my Leaving, and not even being able to start on the problems, not even being able to have a stab at it. I definitely understand your frustration!

I think the problem is the subject matter, which is very broad. If you look at the tactical chapters, it’s all fairly straight-forward, you work on (say) the pin, and then you solve some problems related to that. Ok, there might be some difficult calculation involved, but you know what you’re trying to do, even if you don’t manage to do it.
Other chapters, which are more strategic in nature, such as Chapter 3 on openings and Chapter 8, can’t really teach the player all they need to know on that theme in one short chapter. So failing the end of chapter test isn’t really a sign that the player didn’t study the examples properly, but a sign that the subject is complex. Therefore, I’ve decided to ignore Yusupov’s advice (study the chapter again) for these strategic chapters.

What I will do, however, is come back to do the problems again when I get to the end of the book. Even looking through the answers I got wrong so far though, has been interesting, and I feel I’m learning, but like learning a foreign language, it’s going to take a loooooong time before I see any real progress.

Valmont

It's gone from bad to worse this week but I finally have a game worthy of the thread title. Valmont's patzer challenge of the week: I was playing white and resigned after my next move which was extremely stupid - can you guess what I played?

eclipsechaser

Valmont wrote: »

It's gone from bad to worse this week but I finally have a game worthy of the thread title. Valmont's patzer challenge of the week: I was playing white and resigned after my next move which was extremely stupid - can you guess what I played?

My guess would be Bxd6 but I wouldn't have resigned after c4.

Valmont

No my move was even more startlingly stupid that that - I inexplicably played Bxb5 and resigned once I realised how crap it was. I could have played on but I'm sick and tired of grinding out games that are difficult only because my own blunders! My rushed calculation had me picking up four pawns for the bishop but god knows how I came to that conclusion.

Although I set the chess.com blitz setting to find players who are sub 1000 so I feel better after whooping a bunch of super-patzers for the last hour.

Valmont

I finally finished chapter three of Yusupov's Build up your Chess 1: The Fundamentals. Despite the pain and suffering I absorbed studying this chapter I scored a tidy twenty one points out of a possible thirty one on the end-of-chapter test. Considering one of the best hallmarks of real learning is struggle and difficulty, I think I've picked up a proper appreciation for punishing an opponent who leaves his king out too long, and to generally ignore going too out of the way to win a non-central pawn.

Here is the problem I took longest to solve but what is interesting is that one of Yusupov's winning lines is in fact losing. The line I predicted from the game is

1. d5...Bxd5 2. Nxd5...Qxd5 3. 0-0-0...Kd8 4. Be4...Qxd1 5. Raxd1+...Kc8 6. Bf5+...Kb8 7. Rd8#

.

However the best response to the correct answer of

1.d5

I properly found to be

1...Bg4

and I think Yusupov's reply to this is way off (of course I could be wrong, what do you think?): after

1...Bg4 2. Qe1+...Ne7 3.Ne5+-

. I don't see how white is ahead in this variation at all.

Valmont

Cycled half way across the city tonight only to find out at the venue (after a pint was purchased) that I had been given the wrong date for the league match. :mad:

EnPassant

Valmont wrote: »

I finally finished chapter three of Yusupov's Build up your Chess 1: The Fundamentals. Despite the pain and suffering I absorbed studying this chapter I scored a tidy twenty one points out of a possible thirty one on the end-of-chapter test. Considering one of the best hallmarks of real learning is struggle and difficulty, I think I've picked up a proper appreciation for punishing an opponent who leaves his king out too long, and to generally ignore going too out of the way to win a non-central pawn.

Here is the problem I took longest to solve but what is interesting is that one of Yusupov's winning lines is in fact losing. The line I predicted from the game is

1. d5...Bxd5 2. Nxd5...Qxd5 3. 0-0-0...Kd8 4. Be4...Qxd1 5. Raxd1+...Kc8 6. Bf5+...Kb8 7. Rd8#

.

However the best response to the correct answer of

1.d5

I properly found to be

1...Bg4

and I think Yusupov's reply to this is way off (of course I could be wrong, what do you think?): after

1...Bg4 2. Qe1+...Ne7 3.Ne5+-

. I don't see how white is ahead in this variation at all.

I think

after Ne5 forking the Queen and Bishop, the threat is that after the queen moves to c8 to stay protecting the bishop, then after N x g4, Qx g4, white can play Q takes e7 mate with the B on a3 protecting the queen. Or instead of N x g4 maybe white could play B x e7 and if K x e7 .. Ng6 double-check with Qe7 mate next move no matter what the king does. And if black plays K d8 after Q e1+ then Ne5 attacks the queen and N x f7+ will be on the next move

Valmont

My reign of terror on the bottom board in Norfolk's third division continues unabated. My loss last week was in an internal club competition. I played the Caro-Kann because I have not lost any of the four games when I used it (3 wins, 1 draw). I'm particularly happy with this game because I won my first rook and pawn end-game (I've lost the three I've entered on equal footing). I knew I had a slight advantage after 20...Rc3 and my opponent guided me towards the point with a number of blunders but there you have it.

Valmont

I just calculated my ELO: 1352 up from 1003 this time last year. So I'm all set to beat Carlsen in about four or five years.

Valmont

Sitting down across from a ten-year old who says 'I've been playing chess for five years!" is enough to strike fear into any player. However, we're both sitting at board four in division three of the Norfolk club league for a reason.

My opponent played dreadfully and allowed me to build some nice winning tactics, which I feel are definitely improving from all the chesstempo.com puzzles I play. At one point he put his hand under his armpit and actually made a fart noise, to the delight of his friend on board three (who was also smashed). He didn't seem too interested in the game after move ten and I suspect it was more of his parent's desire that he play chess.

If I win my final game on board four tonight (playing as white) I suspect I should really be bumped up to board three but the ordering is strictly by rating only. I think I'm getting ahead of myself though, we're playing the club's own junior team tonight and my opponent beat me in a rook and pawn end-game friendly in October. I've almost finished Chapter four of Yusupov's book but I've been playing through Logical Chess: Move by Move again which I really enjoy a lot more so I'm not feeling too guilty.

Lucena

As you're playing in England, the gradings come out twice a year. The new list is in January, so if your results have been decent, you should be able to move up a board, assuming your board 3 isn't 100 points above you.

On chesstempo, what's your standard rating?

Having had a quick look at your game:

Regarding White's 'backward' pawn on d4, for it to really become backward, you should have taken on c4 straight away. Otherwise White can play either c x d5 or c5.

Couldn't you just have taken the white Knight when it moved to g5?

On White's Qd6, you should have played ...Nxf3+. Ok, in either case (...Nxf3+ or ...Nd3+) you win the queen, but the advantage of ...Nxf3+ is that you force the exchange of a further piece, as generally speaking the side ahead on material should exchange. White didn't have to play Bxd3.

Regarding Chapter 4 of Yusupov's book, stick with it. I find the endgame chapters quite tough, but luckily they're broken up by other chapters which are easier. Chapter 5 should be easier for you.

Valmont

I can't believe I missed that hanging knight! I supposed I assumed my opponent wouldn't have made a such a blunder so early on.

My rating in January would have been 115 but I lost to a much lower rated player (a nemesis who has somehow beaten me twice this year already) on Tuesday evening so I will be officially ECF 101 - still not enough for board three but I don't mind now that I was whooped on Tuesday.

I've done half of the chapter four final test and I'm not finding the simple pawn endings too much trouble. I'm back on the 'auld sod now for the Christmas season of playing various family members so I'll be back to it in January. All in all, a productive year of chess with a lot more work to do.

Lucena

Back to the aul sod meself tomorrow, only one week unfortunately. Enjoy the rest away from chess (not that it's work!) and make the most of Christmas.

I'll certainly not be taking Yusupov with me, he deserves a rest as well, and chess and food+drink don't really go well together.

Nollaig Shona!

Valmont

Well I shook off my rust last night with a draw against an opponent with an identical rating. I took advantage of his poor opening defence to gain a very strong position but after a series of wasteful moves and brainless end-game I frittered away my advantage. I find that often I'm playing my end-games with so little time I can't analyse the positions properly but I guess that is something to work on.

I haven't been doing any training other tactics puzzles as I'm very busy but I've another game tomorrow night against the local vicar who is double my rating so it should be interesting.

Valmont

Here is my game from last week against an opponent almost twice my rating (I'm 87, he's 150). I had a nice position out of the opening but took too long examining a lovely sacrifice that just didn't work and then missed a brilliant tactic along the lines of the one I thought I had the option to play a few moves earlier.

I finally finished chapter four of the Yusupov book which I failed and then passed but I'm happy I do actually understand the basic principle of the opposition in basic king and pawn endgames. I also finished chapter five on double attacks and the test was quite easy really.

Here is one of the tougher king and pawn puzzles - can you find the solution? I couldn't. White to play.

brilliantboy

12. Bxh7+ doesn't work but 12. dxc5 Bxc5 13. Qxd8 followed by Bxc6 picks up the e5 pawn. Note that it's important to trade queens before Bxc6 otherwise Black will trade and your f3 knight will still be pinned, this time to a rook.

No harm done though, those Bxh7 sacrifices come up a lot and the more you spend analyzing them the quicker you'll get at recognizing when they do and when they don't work.

Valmont

Suspiciously, while playing lots of online blitz since last October, my chesstempo rating slowly dropped 100 points to 1400. I'm sure it's subjective but I really find playing blitz damages my analytic capabilities - thinking and playing quick becomes reflexive and it takes a strong effort to slow down and play properly. I've cut back severely on blitz games and only play chesstempo now when I feel a blitz urge and surprise surprise I'm back at 1502! Does anyone else dislike blitz? When Botvinnik was asked if he ever played blitz, he said 'yes, once, on a train'.

Lucena

If you enjoy blitz, play blitz for fun, but it's not much use for improving, unless you're very strict in your use of it. Primarily it can be used for testing your openings, assuming you stop to look through the opening you played after each game. Otherwise, it's a waste of time.

Funnily enough, I'd say I've played maybe only three blitz games in the last two months.

brilliantboy

Agree that it's next to worthless in terms of improving your game, but no doubt you'll have many blitz heads who'll disagree. The only thing I can think of it has going for it is that people are more willing to play non-standard openings in blitz so you can sort out your responses to those in the rare case you'll meet them over the board. You'll see a lot of Center Games and Goring Gambits and Blackmar-Diemers etc. in blitz and it can be useful to be aware that these are options.

Valmont

I think it's a lazy-man's game; the allure is there of playing a brilliant game in just ten or fifteen minutes, without having to really analyse or strategise very deeply. I definitely think putting the twenty minutes I'd spend blundering about in a blitz game on three or four chesstempo puzzles to be a far more worthwhile use of my time.

I'm starting to keep an eye on my time on chesstempo now, conscious that my calculations are probably not very economic. For example, I'll look two moves deep on the most obvious move, then spend six minutes looking for other options, before going back to the third move on the first sequence I looked at to find it was the right one!

Valmont

I'm currently reading Yusupov's chapter on knowing the values of the pieces. He quotes Tarrasch who said that a rook and a minor piece with a passed pawn are equal to a queen if the play is restricted to one flank. For an example he used an amazing game he played with the black pieces against John Nunn in Linares in 1988. For the wizardry, start from black's forty-eight move (this is the puzzle in the chapter).

Valmont

Do people usually find that their tactics rating corresponds to their real rating? My chesstempo rating is 1515 and my OTB rating is now apparently 1420. I think it confirms my suspicion that you are only as good as the combinations you can find or miss! More chesstempo!

Lucena

Mine doesn't really correspond. I'm around 1700 in real life, but at around 1900 on Chesstempo. The site even estimates my Fide rating (based on time per problem AND normal rating) as around 1980!!!

brilliantboy

Valmont wrote: »

Do people usually find that their tactics rating corresponds to their real rating? My chesstempo rating is 1515 and my OTB rating is now apparently 1420. I think it confirms my suspicion that you are only as good as the combinations you can find or miss! More chesstempo!

I think the biggest indication of chess strength, at least below expert level or so, is calculational ability and not tactical ability. There are a lot of players around who are not familiar with many tactical themes but could still work a combination out at the board, while someone who is tactically knowledgeable might spot the idea but not have the ability or the patience to work out the solution correctly. This can especially be a problem because tactics training software doesn't exactly encourage you to take your time.

Lucena

brilliantboy wrote: »

This can especially be a problem because tactics training software doesn't exactly encourage you to take your time.

I've found that doing problems on a real board helps me to slow down and take my time on tactics training software. If I do just a week of chesstempo and nothing else, my performance tends to drop, so I think getting the pieces out is very important.

Valmont

Yusupov is quite serious about playing with an actual board and pieces. To be honest, I only occasionally play chesstempo with the board out as I find it a pain constantly setting up new positions. That said, I'll do a batch with the board later on and see if there's much difference.

Regarding calculational ability, I think I know what you mean. In order to arrest my chesstempo slide, I've been forcing myself to only make the move when I'm sure it's the right one, rather than thinking 'oh I've seen this set-up before' and then just having a wag at it. Considering I usually spot my own blunders OTB as soon as I make them--or even just see a better move--tells me I should calculate deeper; I definitely don't need more time, I use too much as it is.

Valmont

Here is a devilish puzzle from Yusupov's book. I'm not exaggerating when I say I've spent at least two hours on this today. I know the general theme is the strength of the pieces and that technically white has the material advantage with the queen versus play spread across two sides of the board.

After long consideration, I think 1.Qe3 is the best move. Now I know d4 is a central square but I think white is too much on the defensive after 1...g3. With 1.Qe3 the queen is covering the rook, the bishop, g3, and f4. The king can't move or the bishop is lost and the bishop can't move or the rook is lost. In fact, looking at it now, I don't think black has any good moves after this. What do you all make of this?

EDIT:

I cracked and checked Stockfish: 1.Qxf5...Rxf5 stalemate. I think I might cry.

Valmont

I played in a congress last April when I was rated 1120 and the nearest rating to me in that minor division was 1660 (which I didn't know at the time). He offered a draw when in time trouble which I gladly accepted considering I was two pawns down. So technically this is my best ever game!

checknraise

Surely it is a stalemate team and Qd5+ is the best move.

* note only looked at it for about 30 seconds.

Just seen the spoiler there and the queen starts on d3!

Valmont

I outrated my opponent quite a bit but nonetheless, I was quite happy that this was the first game where I had a definite strategy which helped me win. I feel that I only knew how to focus on a weak-point as a long-term strategy because of Chernev's guidance in Logical Chess: Move by Move.

Lucena

Valmont wrote: »

I outrated my opponent quite a bit but nonetheless, I was quite happy that this was the first game where I had a definite strategy which helped me win. I feel that I only knew how to focus on a weak-point as a long-term strategy because of Chernev's guidance in Logical Chess: Move by Move.

Nice game!

brilliantboy

I agree. Very nice pressure and you took your tactical opportunity when it arose.
16...Ne4 is a move I like a lot, foregoing the opportunity to capture with the queen so you can put the knight where it will be most effective.

One move I'd have a concern with is 5...Bg4 though. I assume the thinking is that 6.f3 takes away that square for the knight, but since White's LSB is already developed the knight has no issue going to e2, and the pawn on f3 takes away what can be a useful e4 square for you in this structure. So in my mind Bg4 only serves to strengthen White's position.
If these type of opening inaccuracies are all you have to worry about though then you're doing well.

Valmont

Thanks for that advice, Brilliantboy. The game would have taken an entirely different course (and not necessarily for the better) had my opponent played 6. f3. I guess f5 is where the bishop should settle in this position?

I often browse through chessbase on my phone trying to find exciting games I can learn from and I found this masterpiece by Akiba Rubinstein from 1908. I especially like 18. Bxh7!, which is a sacrifice I would really like to play at some point.

realdanbreen

Does anyone know if there is a chess club in Limerick city that would accommodate absolute beginners?

checknraise

I would be fairly certain that any chess club would welcome new members of all levels.

If you are a total beginner I would recommend understanding the rules and playing a few games online before you went to the club. That way you will get more enjoyment and improve faster.

The biggest weekender tournament of the year is taking place not too far away in Bunratty - well worth playing in even as a beginner.

www.bunrattychess.com/home/index.php

Chess_Coach

There are many clubs in Limerick for example Adare Chess Club just google it for contact

Valmont

checknraise wrote: »

I would be fairly certain that any chess club would welcome new members of all levels.

If you are a total beginner I would recommend understanding the rules and playing a few games online before you went to the club. That way you will get more enjoyment and improve faster.

The biggest weekender tournament of the year is taking place not too far away in Bunratty - well worth playing in even as a beginner.

www.bunrattychess.com/home/index.php

I played in a congress when I was rated -1000 and while I lost every game it was great fun and I learned exactly where I needed to improve.