Still here

So, we are half a month in the new year, and I'm still here. I've noticed that the chess blogosphere that I used to follow and try to become a part of is dead. Some moved to chess.com or other blogs, but there appears to be some fresh blood as well, there appears to be a shift from North-America to Europe, that is most promising, timezone-wise.

A. What I have been doing so far
1. At January 1st I became a member of chess.com and I've played 3 games there;
2. I've been doing 25 tactics a day at CTS and am proud to say that I've reached 78,9% correct;
3. For my chess education I've started at square one, or, to be more precise, at Step 1 using TCT and S1.

What I've noticed so far is that playing chess is very different than training chess. My former approach would be to train chess so I would understand it better and only then perhaps switch to playing. It seems to me now that to learn and understand chess at a basic level playing is very important.

B. What I will be doing for the remainder of January
1.Playing slow games, that is G30/5, G45 or slower, at least one a week and analyse for blunders;
2. 25 Tactics a day at CTS, aiming eventually to reach past 80% and stay there;
3. Daily puzzle at chess.com and 3 tactics at least 5 times a week;
4. Finishing Step 1 with TCT and S1.

C. What I plan to do after January for a couple of months
1. Playing two slow games a week and analyse them;
2. 25 Tactics a day at CTS;
3. Doing some tactics, using SCT and SCM for starters, every day later using other material for instance Predator at the Chessboard;
4. Going through Step 2 with TCT and S2, maybe getting some extra material to do that as well.;
5. Reading LC and DCO

This should get me a solid start and after a few months of playing an idea of my playing level.

It appears not all abbreviations are explained here, I'll fix that.

How've y'all been?

Did some tactics at CTS today, intend to give chess another shot; that would include blogging.

ooops

I did some work on CTS today...

Tasc Chess Tutor - report

I'm going to use this post to keep my score while I make my laps trough the Steps Method using Tasc Chess Tutor (TCT).

There will be a link to this post at the sidebar.

Last update: Wednesday, 21 October 2009.

The Steps Method, TCT Plan
Round 01: Step 1 & 2
Round 02: Step 1, 2 & 3
Round 03: Step 1, 2, 3 & 4
Round 04: Step 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5
Round 05: Step 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5
Round 06: Step 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5
Round 07: Step 2, 3, 4 & 5
Round 08: Step 3, 4 & 5
Round 09: Step 4 & 5
Round 10: Step 5
notes: The plan may be subject to change and will be put on hold every once in a while for other chess study (SCT, SCM, LC). I have to find a way to also fit the Steps Method books in here.

Report
Round 01
First lesson: Friday 05 September 2008
Last lesson: Sunday 18 October 2009
Result step 1: Average score 96 %
Result step 2: Average score 82 %
notes: I had a decline in scores at the end of step 2, this was most likely caused by the time between the lessons and the repeat exercises. That time increased due to a break from chess.

Round 02

First lesson: Monday 19 October 2009

CTS at 78%

Hi everyone,

I've been taking a break from chess for a couple of months due to other priorities, but I'm slowly becoming active again and I've started reading blogs as well, soon I'll drop you guys a line at your blogs.

At the moment I'm working on TCT and CTS. The plans are unchanged, I'm still working in Step 2 and after I finished Step 2 I will work my way from Step 1 up to Step 3 in TCT. As for CTS, I still want to reach a succes rate of 80+%.

Today's result are promising, after a session of 25 exercises with only one failure, these are my results.

Handle mentat
Country Netherlands
Rating 1153
Current RD 46.6
Highest Rating 1247
Date of HR 2008 Jul, 03 - 10:38
Tries 3775
Success 78.0 %

Latest action 2009 Oct, 12 - 15:38
Latest RD 46.6
State active
Until 2009 Nov, 17 - 20:30
Pieces standard

It was quiet on the Kingside, but boy did I win

The story

A few days ago after a lousy session on CTS and after some fine training in Tasc Chess Tutor, I decided to give the easy mode of online shredder a go.

The first game I not just lost, but I was really shot to pieces, but to my astonishment I won the second game. This is the first game I ever won a game against this engine!

Quite unfortunately the web page doesn't save your moves and I didn't keep notes. I tried to recreate the game, using the take-back button, but that didn't work either. So I'm afraid this achievement won't be more everlasting than bronze, but just forgotten.

The game

What I do remember is that I opened with 1.e4 and the program responded with 1... e5, this allowed me to start playing with basic opening principles. However, soon I found myself pausing my development and start attacking the engine with threats and tactics, this kept Black busy and allowed me to continue development with threats. This fully stopped Black's development and crippled his Queen-side: it lost its Queen, some pawns and some minor pieces. Its King side was just as it was when the game started, my back rank was empty with the exception of my Rooks and uncastled King. Instead of also taking its Rook, I mated Black on the 7th or 8th rank.

The lessons

1. I should play more often. This will also show me with trial, error and analysis how to deal with different opening moves;
2. I actually do stand a chance in simple low level games, just play "real chess";
3. I should follow opening principles, but if I can win material and stop the opponent from developing that can work as well.
4. Attacking (overwhelming and crushing) the opponent is fun! Maybe I should do it more often but it's also a bit of a risk.

The meantime

1. CTS at least 25 problems a day, 5 times a week, My focus is still on a
   80+% score, today I had only 2 mistakes;
2. TCT at least a lesson a week, currently working on Step 2.

The plan

1. Getting CTS above 80% and either keeping it there while my rating should rise* or changing to Chess Tempo, Chess Tactics for Beginners, Chessimo, Back to basics: Tactics;
2. Finishing TCT's Step 2, and then repeating Step 1 & 2 and starting with Step 3. (In the Steps method books I have I've almost finished Step 3);
3. Playing at least one game as White and one as Black a week, against easy machines, human opponents or on FICS, but with a not too fast time control (at least G15/15), no doubt slower is better, and analyse those games;
4. Some sort of analysis of 3 games a played a while back;
5. Continuing the game on my phone;

The longterm

1. Getting better and better, (success and rating) at CTS
2. Working trough Gillam's Tactics and Mates books (SCT, SCM).
3. Finishing growing "circles" of TCT and doing shrinking "circles"
4. Playing at least two games a week and analysing them

The order in all but the Lessons-list give some indication of the order of importance to me. I used the "numbered list", but somehow the numbers aren't displayed and we have to do with some chrysanthemum like bulleted lists.


* I will be focusing on correctness rather than rating, but I have found that focusing on correctness doesn't need to have a negative effect on my rating, although there is not the steep rise one gets with playing on time.

Hester Mofet's games 2008, 1 of 4.

Before I took some time off from blogging (and chess) I played some games on FICS. Today I started with an attempt to annotate them.

Here's the first of four games I played.

(show chess board)(hide chess board)

Suggestions on this game, it's annotation or annotating your own games in general are more than welcome.