Steve Learns Chess » Steve

Goodbye?

Steve — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 20:41:50 +0000

Hi folks,

I’ve just about had enough of chess blogging. If this site disappears in a few days, you’ll know why.

MCC Independence Day Swiss Round 1

Steve — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 01:28:01 +0000

Overall: A long (four hours+), hard-fought, enjoyable game. I had some inaccuracies in the opening that resulted in awkward positions, but I managed the middle-game maneuvering reasonably well. A mistake at the first time control left me down a pawn in a rook ending with pawns on both sides. I did a good job increasing my king and rook activity, though, and I think I had good drawing chances. But I didn’t leave myself enough time for calculation at the end.

Game board

MCC Summer Solstice Round 4

Steve — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:54:39 +0000

Overall: A successful opening for me against the Two Knights Defense. After winning a pawn I forced an early transition to an endgame featuring a potential outside passed a-pawn for me, which eventually won the game.

Game board

MCC Summer Solstice Round 3

Steve — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:02:37 +0000

Overall: Not aggressive enough early in the opening. Awkward piece placement coming out of the opening. I think I had the right idea to play more actively in the center in response to Black’s queen-side expansion, but I didn’t execute it very well. Then I suffered a hallucination, dropping a piece and the game. But hey, it’s been six months since my last tournament game.

Game board

Back in the saddle … briefly

Steve — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:32:08 +0000

Tonight I played my first tournament game in exactly six months. I lost to a youngster rated almost 200 points higher. I let myself get steamrolled on the queen side.

“Moving Up The Ladder” in Chess Life Online

Steve — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 20:34:12 +0000

I saw an interesting article [via] in Chess Life Online called “Moving up the Ladder: A Class Player on Gaining 200 Rating Points” by Christian Glawe.

Here’s a bare-bones summary of the key points:

Study your own games with an instructor.
Study openings based on pawn structures and plans instead of variations. For example, study the Mastering the Chess Openings series by Watson.
When reviewing a particular opening line, use a games database to gather 50-100 GM games played in that variation. Play through them quickly. Make a note of the common ideas and motifs. Time: 30 minutes.
Analyze every blitz game you play.
30-45 minutes of tactical training exercises every day. (The author prefers chesstempo.com.)
Exercise to improve your stamina for those two-day weekend tournaments.

Latest pin-up picture in Chess Life

Steve — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:13:01 +0000

It continues to be a mystery to me why Chess Life keeps publishing pictures like this (from the January 2010 cover story):

Current play, study, and goals

Steve — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:47:44 +0000

As 2009 draws to a close, it looks like I’m going to finish with just 17 or 18 rated tournament games this year. This is about half of what I’ve done in previous years. Also, in previous years I’ve played in several Team 45-45 tournaments online, and this year I haven’t done any of that.

A combination of family and work factors have kept me from playing or studying as much this year.

So it’s really no surprise that my rating is sagging in the low 1600s.

Since my non-chess life looks like it’ll be about the same for 2010, I expect my chess play and study time to also be about the same. It isn’t realistic, therefore, for me to set a short-term goal of improvement. If I can keep my rating from dropping too much despite limited playing time, that will be an accomplishment.

But I am continuing to study and play as much as possible, because I enjoy both.

My current study activities include:

Intensive opening study
Problem-solving in the new book by Khmelnitsky, Chess Exam: Matches against Chess Legends, You vs. Bobby Fischer
Going over my own (few) games
Thought-process exercises of my own devising

OK, I know what you’re thinking. Why am I, a middling class player, doing intensive opening study?? I should be doing tactics, tactics, tactics!

Save your breath, at least for now. How and why I’m doing opening study will be the subject of another post in the near future.

When other aspects of my life calm down and I can start playing a lot more tournament games, I think it’s possible for me to move my rating up out of the 1600s. In meantime, I’ll just try to have fun.

The Mysterious Case of the Extra Pawn

Steve — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:55:12 +0000

Last month I won a game with an endgame that featured two b-pawns and two c-pawns advancing on a lone b-pawn. Later, when I was trying to get to sleep, I puzzled over the third extra pawn. I could remember winning two of those pawns earlier in the game, but I couldn’t remember how I picked up the third.

The mystery was solved in startling fashion when I tried to enter the game score into ChessBase the next day. I got to this position:

I was White and had just played b2-b4. Black’s next move is recorded on my score sheet as axb3 e.p.

So … how in the world did I end up with two b-pawns and two c-pawns??

Here’s my theory. I expected Black to play axb3 e.p., so when he moved his a-pawn to the b3 square I immediately looked down to write the move on my score sheet. When I looked back at the board I must have seen this:

In other words, I think he must have moved his a-pawn to b3 and forgot to remove my b4-pawn! And neither he nor I noticed. Naturally, I played axb3 immediately, resulting in this position:

That’s really bizarre!

Tinkering with themes

Steve — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:14:25 +0000

I’m doing some tinkering with themes, so this site may look funny for a few days.