Going against good advice

By Steve | April 28, 2008

Two Russian Igors (IMs Foygel and Khmelnitsky), have both advised me against changing my opening repertoire, which has remained basically unchanged for several years. They both felt that changing my openings would be counterproductive, because as an adult with a “real life,” I have relatively little time for chess study and play.

But with the Team 45 45 League’s T37 tournament starting up this week, I found myself with no enthusiasm for reviewing any of my standard opening choices.

After some reflection, I decided that I’m ultimately in this hobby to have fun. And, therefore, deciding to try some new openings because I’m bored or frustrated with what I’ve been playing requires no further justification.

So there! :-)

Of course, in my Round 1 game (I was Black) my opponent opened with 1.f4, so neither my old nor my new prepared lines were much help. But I came out of the opening OK and was heading toward an approximately equal endgame when my opponent blundered it away.

3 Responses to “Going against good advice”

  1. Blue Devil Knight Says:
    May 2nd, 2008 at 1:57 pm

    You are a lot better than me, but as an ~1050 USCF player my coach told me to mess around with a lot of openings to build general chess experience, intuition about different pawn structures.

    I have found that at ICC (~1400) I can play pretty much any opening and do fine, or at least not lose because of the opening.

    The pathology is when people switch around, looking for a magic bullet, not realizing it is their middle and end game skills that are killing their game. I can’t remember where, but someone called it ’switchers syndrome.’ I definitely had it once.

  2. ZwaartePaard Says:
    May 27th, 2008 at 6:07 am

    Yes, its a hobby so changing openings is entirely up to you. Go for it !!!

    Personally, after returning to chess in the last year after 20-ish of chess inactivity, I am still searching for openings that I feel comfortable with ( and enjoy ! ).

    As Black I seem to have found a niche with the Pirc as it offers variety according to the White response ( and I have a couple of excellent books and a DVD to assist me ). I also fell in love with the Dutch on those occasions where I meet 1.d4 or 1.c4 ( or 1.Nf3 ! ). Flexible, is the word.

    As White I still struggle, having tried and rejected the Spanish ( too complicated and theoretical ), toyed extensively with the Bishop’s and found it enjoyable, but still not perfect ( though I admit, I enjoy the fact that it avoids the Spanish and sometimes surprises ). I still use it, but have now looked at the Bird ( so will enjoy your game, though I see it is a ‘Lenigrad Bird’ rather than the ‘Classical’ that I play ) where I can possibly re-use my Dutch knowledge.

    I have an inclination to try the English as well, and will at some time when I feel improved enough as a player, actually open 1.d4 and feel that I am a real chess player !

    One thing that is good about the Bird is that the middle-game positions are interesting. I feel I am extending mt ‘chess feeling’ when playing them, whereas sometimes 1.e4 e5 can feel ‘played out’or over tactical.

    Subjective, but its a hobby !

  3. Steve Says:
    May 27th, 2008 at 7:52 am

    Zwaarte—Thanks for your comments.

Comments

Life Detected at ChessBase

By Steve | April 14, 2008

It only took 25 days, but I finally got a response from ChessBase to my tech support query about what this dialog panel does:

ChessBase dialog panel -

Answer: It doesn’t do anything!

Here’s the e-mail I received:

The Publish option does not work in the moment. In the moment there is no other solution to transfer the HTML files of the script manually to your Server.

3 Responses to “Life Detected at ChessBase”

  1. Matt Says:
    April 14th, 2008 at 9:22 am

    Gotta love that English!

    (Grrr…)

  2. tanc (happyhippo) Says:
    April 15th, 2008 at 1:45 am

    I don’t know if I should laugh or cry.

  3. pawned! Says:
    April 19th, 2008 at 7:19 am

    So I’m wondering at what moment it will become functional… :-)

Comments

Phantom ChessBase Publishing Feature

By Steve | March 19, 2008

In ChessBase 9, when you output one or more games to “HTML + Javascript Replay,” you get a dialog box with several tabs. Most of the tabs have to do with color choices, frames or no frames, etc.

But one tab has me completely mystified. The tab is labeled “Publish” and it looks like this:

cb_screenshot.jpg

It certainly seems to me like this tab is intended to facilitate automatic uploading of the generated HTML to your web site. When I enter my server and access information into this dialog and press “Test,” it comes back and says something like “Connection open” after a few seconds.

But … I can find no way to actually get ChessBase to upload the game files! No combination of pressing buttons and selecting options on any of these tabs will make it do anything other than save the files to my local disk. I can find nothing in the documentation that even acknowledges the existence of the “Publish” tab.

Sheesh. I’m starting to think this tab has the same function as the push-to-cross buttons at intersections, or the door-close buttons in elevators—to make you feel stupid.

Can anyone solve this mystery for me?

6 Responses to “Phantom ChessBase Publishing Feature”

  1. Blue Devil Knight Says:
    March 20th, 2008 at 9:35 am

    I’m sure Chessbase will be very helpful if you contact them.

    LOL.

  2. Steve Says:
    March 20th, 2008 at 10:02 am

    BDK—Well, I decided to give it a try! I just filled out a support contact form at chessbase.com. We’ll see.

  3. Blue Devil Knight Says:
    March 20th, 2008 at 11:52 am

    I’ll be so surprised if they actually respond…that would be perhaps an Easter miracle.

  4. Steve Says:
    March 20th, 2008 at 11:57 am

    :-)

    I’ll be sure to post an update.

  5. Polly Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 5:11 pm

    Maybe it’s like the elusive “any” key from the DOS dark age. Press any key to continue. :-Þ

  6. Steve Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 6:43 pm

    :->

    It’s been 12 days since I asked ChessBase for information about this. BDK was right … not a peep.

Comments

Hall of Shame entry

By Steve | January 27, 2008

What is Black’s best move after 22.Nh5?

Fortunately my opponent in Round 1 of the Team 45 45 League’s T36 tournament didn’t figure out the answer.

4 Responses to “Hall of Shame entry”

  1. Navan Says:
    January 28th, 2008 at 8:55 pm

    Although Ne2 is probably better why is Nh5 hall of shame entry?

  2. Steve Says:
    January 28th, 2008 at 9:04 pm

    Hi Navan—Well, I guess “Hall of Shame” sounds a little extreme. That’s just the name of my database of my own tactical oversights. This oversight wasn’t a game-loser, though. When I played Nh5, I had decided that being “forked” by …g6 would be OK after Rxf6 gxh5. But the evaluation goes down by almost a full pawn when Black meets Nh5 with Nxe4. I wasn’t happy with myself that I missed that “desperado” possibility. It would have opened up the position in a way that gave Black more chances to find counterplay.

  3. Navan Says:
    January 29th, 2008 at 10:57 pm

    Hi Steve,
    I posted a comment yesterday. I can’t find it now. Yes, Nh5 gives unnecessary chances for counter play.

  4. Steve Says:
    March 12th, 2008 at 5:24 am

    There was a comment posted last night here asking me about a MetroWest Chess Club member. I’ve removed that comment since it contained personal, speculative information. I do not have any information about that member.

Comments

USCF Sales, e-mail, and passwords

By Steve | January 5, 2008

In the past I’ve generally been inclined to order chess books, supplies, etc. from the USCF. I want the organization to be successful, and I felt that purchasing from them was a tangible way to show that support.

Last month I ordered two DVDs online from USCF Sales. The online ordering process required creating a USCF Sales online account, which was kind of annoying but quite common. What really frosted me was that they sent me a plain-text e-mail with my online account information in it, including my password.

I replied, expressing my displeasure at their odious practice of sending plain-text passwords around in unsecure e-mail.

Their response? None, zip, zilch, nada, after several weeks.

OK, then. No more purchasing from USCF Sales.

4 Responses to “USCF Sales, e-mail, and passwords”

  1. Rich Dailey Says:
    January 9th, 2008 at 3:38 pm

    I’m with you on this… it’s ignorant. And USCF recently spent 50k on website redesign!

    Rich

  2. Michael Goeller Says:
    January 23rd, 2008 at 1:56 pm

    I have to agree — that’s pretty crazy. Maybe their server is not secure either? I also think their delivery charges have gotten outrageous — even if they have very speedy delivery — at least on the East Coast.

  3. Ken Ballou Says:
    February 26th, 2008 at 2:48 pm

    In no way do I mean to justify the practice of sending plaintext passwords in e-mail. However, one should note that the USCF Sales operation is actually run by ChessCafe, not the USCF. (The USCF outsources its books and equipment operation and has an arrangement with ChessCafe.) USCF has nothing to do with that server.

  4. Steve Says:
    February 26th, 2008 at 8:19 pm

    Ken—True indeed. But an organization can’t outsource responsibility for its name and reputation. Although I guess the USCF has much bigger worries at the moment regarding its reputation.

Comments

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