Results

Back home from my tournament, and I am wiped out.

Four games, G/60. Coming in, my rating (based on 20+ yr old results) was 11245. My results were:

1: loss as white vs. a 1900+ player. Blundered a piece for a pawn in an opening trap, and succumbed to a withering attack down the center.

2: loss as white vs. a 1300+ player. This should have been a draw, but for one minor mistake I made in the ending that ended up costing me the game. It was a knight vs. bishop ending with a couple pawns left. If I had sac'ed my knight for his last pawn, it would have been a draw. Instead, I exchanged the knight for the bishop and he ended up queening his pawn and winning.

3: draw as black vs. a 1500 player. Tight rook + pawn endgame. I think he missed a win - still need to analyze it. I feel the best about this particular game out of the four.

4: win as white vs. an unrated player. I had a win, then turned it into a loss, then salvaged a win as he ran out of time. It was a nasty opposite-colored bishop endgame with the queens on the board for a long, long time.

So, 1.5/4. And, given the opposing ratings, the performance estimator on USCF's website says I pretty much did exactly as expected given my rating. I'll take that for the first time out.

Games will be posted as I have time. I'm "anno-fritz"-ing them right now. I feel pretty good about my thought process - I didn't blunder away a piece (except for that opening trap), though I'm sure I played a lot of sub-standard moves. And I NEED endgame practice...

Nervous

Okay, so my tournament's tomorrow. No, I don't feel adequately prepared, but we'll see how it goes. I'm feeling a tad nervous. I know that'll go away after the first couple moves, but it's been a LONG time since I've done this...

I do feel, however, like I understand how to think my way through a game much better than before. Tonight, I'll do some more tactics exercises, go through my openings one more time, and try to get a good night's sleep.

It's a four-round Swiss, G/60, so the games are dual-rated normal and quick. The Portland Chess Club does this once a month, and they seem to have between 20-26 players every month that's not around the holidays. Ratings are all over the map (2100+ to below 700, most in the 1300-1700 range.) 

I'll post all my games here in a couple days once I get a chance to go through them with some annotations.

Fascination

This morning, I watched a good chunk of the 3^rd game in the Kramnik/Aronian match.

Absolutely fascinating. I believe the net effect was Aronian sacrificed a queen and two pawns for a rook and two minor pieces. (I'd have to go back and look up the game to be sure.) In any case, the tactics were so deep and involved, both players came close to running out of time. Aronian had the worse of it, and blundered during severe time pressure (6 moves left in 15 seconds or something close to that) giving the game to Kramnik (who, admittedly, was winning from about the 15^th move on or so) and tying up their “friendly” at 1.5 each. One can only hope tomorrow's game is anything close to that. Many have called it the best game of 2012 to date, and it's probably close.

I had the live commentary running on my computer this morning before the kids went off to school, and my daughter watched for quite a bit. I have no idea how much of it stuck in her head, but just the fact that she was interested in watching it go on was fine by me. Kids just seem to absorb information by osmosis.

Right now, I'm feeling a bit frazzled before my first OTB tourney in forever. I feel like there's just so much I need to study, but I'm trying to stay calm, and focus on two things: tactics practice (260 CT-ART problems solved in 8 days) and general familiarity with my openings. That, and working on my thinking process. Dan Heisman's material is fantastic for this. If it was feasible for me to hire him as a coach, I would.

Anyway, that's today's thought. More later as my tourney draws closer.

Weekend activities

It was a gorgeous weekend here in the greater Portland area, so there wasn't much time over the board. The kids played another G/30 tournament Friday night, and still lost all their games (which wasn't a surprise.) However, Megan had managed to get herself into a winning endgame (Knight + 5 pawns vs. 5 pawns, no passed pawns for either side) but let her opponent queen, and ended up losing. She's tasting it, and really wants to win her first game, so she's pretty motivated to study more. I told her that endgame combined both of the fun games we've played, but I don't think she was able to translate those fun games to the board. Yet.

Meanwhile, Jack has stated he's tired of being checkmated. Now, he needs to learn a few basics to keep his pieces around. We'll get those sorted out straight away. He asked early Sunday morning to play a game (I now give them time odds of 30-minutes to 5) and then do the pawn game afterwards. I really need to work on the latter myself, as they keep beating me.

It's a few weeks until their next tournament - they won't start back up until they open up qualification for next year's scholastic championships, so we've got time to learn a few things before heading back into the fray.

Both kids have progressed on the Fritz & Chesster program as well. Megan's made it into the "Heavyweights" on disk 1, and Jack's one trophy away from getting into the "Middleweights." I like the frequent reward system in that app.

On my side, I'm still working through tactical problems (about 30-35/day in CT-ART 3.0) and playing the occasional game against the chess engine. I'll play a few more games this week, though, as I'm back over the board all day Saturday.

My goals for the weekend: not drop any pieces, and win at least one game. Afterwards, I'll certainly be going over those games for educational purposes. You'll see the results right here. I'm really curious where my skill actually lies right now: I feel like I know more about how to play the game than I did 20 years ago, but how that translates into a rating/performance result is anybody's guess.

Meanwhile, my DGT board is en route across the Atlantic (I think it's already here, but DHL tracking seems to stop after it reaches the states) and my wife keeps shaking her head at the sudden obsession with chess in the house. Who knows... maybe someday she'll try to play.

Studing Chess Made Easy (brief review)

I just finished devouring Andy Soltis' Studying Chess Made Easy. It arrived yesterday, I finished it this morning. Here's my capsule review as posted on Goodreads:


A stellar guide to using the information that's out there in a coherent way. The biggest problem with trying to improve your chess game is, after the fundamental basics, there's a whole lot of "now what?" Soltis' book answers that question.

Chapter 1 ("Chess isn't school") introduces and reinforces the idea that how you go about learning chess is rather different than other subjects.

Chapter 2 ("Cultivating your chess sense") gives a methodology on how to make your chess understanding more innate than rote.

Chapter 3 ("The biggest study myth") presents the idea that succeeding at chess isn't determined by how well you think, it's how much you know without thinking. Pattern recognition is key here.

Chapter 4 ("The right way to study an opening") explains how to familiarize yourself with an opening, investigate it deeper, and choose the right books once you've decided on the one you want to learn. Without having to know all the variations to move ten right up front.

Chapter 5 ("Two-and-a-half move chess") explains, and demonstrates how you rarely have to think further ahead than the chapter title indicates. It's evaluating what you see when you think ahead that's the key.

Chapter 6 ("Overcoming endgame phobia") explains how to go about learning endgames. There's a lot fewer of them you need to know cold than you'd think. The rest can be managed by guiding principles.

Chapter 7 ("Learning to live with TMI") confronts the issues involved in selecting moves. So often, all the guiding principles you've learned in the fundamentals come to odd here, with no real set of priorities. This chapter simplifies that thinking process. (Coupling this chapter, alone, with chunks of Heisman's "Guide to Chess Improvement" is probably going to increase your rating 200-300 points, assuming you're sub-1400 right now.)

Chapter 8 ("How to learn more from a master game") explains how to actually benefit from the advice everyone receives: "play through the games of the masters!" A list of good compendiums is offered, and how to use those books is thoroughly covered.

I expect this book will have diminishing returns the higher your rating is above 1700 or so, but for those of us in the lower eschelons, it's a must for cutting through and understanding the great heaping mounds of chess information that's available these days.

ICC Daily Standard G/20 Game 4

In this one, a win is blundered to me (why didn't he take the bishop with his rook on move 28?) and I managed to not blunder it back.

ICC Daily Standard G/20 Game 3

I completely botched this game. Totally.

ICC Daily Standard G/20 Game 2

So, this is my draw. once I get my queen to the 8th rank (around move 28) I get lost in the analysis and can't figure a good way out. Around move 15 is where I saw the bishop check on the king, so I knew that avenue was there, but when the black queen got in the way, well, that was gravy.

ICC Daily Standard G/20 Game 1

Here's my first game in the Apr 18 G/20 tournament on ICC:

Rust, removed

Well, I finally got off my butt and played a competitive game. Tournament, actually.

I played in the Daily Standard (G/20) on ICC yesterday. I came into the game the lowest rated player out of 30 and scored 1.5/4. Not too bad, if I do say so myself, particularly since I had black three times. I finished off with a rating in the mid-1300s.

I can already see where the tactics training is helping. Both my non-losses involved pinning the opposing queen in non-obvious ways. In my draw, I subsequently couldn't figure out a convoluted attack with my queen alone on his back rank, ended up surviving a counter-attack and forced a draw by repetition with 13 seconds left on my clock.

I'm noticing my thought patterns slowly moving towards what Heisman recommends in A Guide to Chess Improvement. Though, I'm still not doing the full scan for checks/captures/threats like I should be. At least I'm sporadically doing the “what are all the things his move does” exercise.

How I played was having a tournament set in front of me, and I duplicated what was going on with the set. Yes, this slowed me down a bit (and I was consistently using more time than my opponents), but I do think it helped a lot. I don't see the game as well on the computer as in person.

Thank goodness my DGT electronic chess board is on the way. Oh, didn't I mention that? I'm getting one for Father's Day, and I had the money early from a couple large boardgame and book sales, so I went and placed the order. It hasn't left Germany yet, but I'll be watching its progress like a kid watches the calendar near Christmas.

BTW, I recommend Doska Chess if you want to order a board. After shipping, it was well over 10% lower than anywhere else I could find before shipping.

As I would really rather play the game over a real board, the ability to link the DGT up to ICC is perfect. I get to play any time I can on a real board. Now, to just make the time for slower games – I hate blitz chess. G/15 is as fast as I want to go.

Getting the rust off felt good. Getting a win felt even better. I only really botched one of the games (3rd round), and fought a 1700+ rated player to a long loss that Fritz felt was within a pawn of even for most of the game.

What I found most interesting was, as Black, neither opponent who led 1.e4 followed the standard Scandinavian line beyond the 2nd move. Neither player played the “obvious” 3.Nc3 designed to chase the queen away. I'll certainly have to pay attention to the early deviation lines.

My first tournament is just over a week away. I'm going to try getting in two or three more ICC games before then, to be sure. Last month, the Portland Chess Club had 26 players in their monthly G/60 tournament, with an average 1544 rating, and 11 players under 1400. So, there's certainly opportunity there to score a win or two.

So, lots of practice between now and then. Oh, and the kids have their second tournament tomorrow night. I have a hunch Megan might just get her first win.

Survival

Okay, the kids survived their first tournament.

Were they ready? Megan, probably. Jack – no. But he's so damn eager, there was no way he was staying home.

Both kids lost all their games, but it hasn't seemed to phase them. And that was what I was hoping for. I was fully expecting them to lose all their games, but I was watching for the attitude afterwards. Megan seemed a little down that night, but she perked up the next morning and wanted to play (and even more encouraging – headed right to her workbook when our game was over.)

Talking to the director, he mentioned he had Megan play up a quad from where she should have been as he didn't want to pair her and Jack together their first time out – a nice touch, even though it pretty much guaranteed Megan finishing last. (Megan beats Jack every time they play, so had he lined things straight up, given the numbers, Megan would probably have finished 2nd in the bottom quad.;)

Megan can suffer from a lack of confidence, so her even making this step was big. On the way there, she was saying how she was less shy than the week before when we headed over there for a drop-in visit.

We'll have another lesson tonight, and we'll see how she feels about things during the week. As of right now, they're both wanting to head back on Friday.

As far as my progress is going, I picked up a copy of Rapid Chess Improvement by Michael de la Maza from the library over the weekend and quickly churned through it. Most of the book reads like an infomercial, so there's about 40 pages of real content in there. And it's quite eye-opening. It has certainly changed my intended curriculum.

Right now, I'm reading Heisman's Guide to Chess Improvement and will be summarizing the book into a bunch of maxims after I've gone through it. I'm really liking the way Heisman approaches improvement – I'll be digging up copies of his other books whenever possible. I've also downloaded the entire Novice Nook archive (from which the above book was derived) off ChessCafe, and I'll be organizing that material over time. I'm also starting round one of the Seven Circles mentioned in the de la Maza book, doing 45 tactical problems a day this week using the CT-ART program.

My first tournament in 21 years is looking to be the Portland Chess Club G/60 the last Saturday of the month. 12 days from now. If I can just focus on safe play, I should do better than I used to – I've found my old score books, and the number of blunders in my games is staggering. I've signed up for the 4-day version of the US Open, and the Wednesday G/30 quads. I figure I'll get maybe four small tournaments in before that, plus some online and club play, so I'll have most of the rust shaken off by early August. I expect I'll still be Class D at that point, but one can always hope, right?

I've sort of picked the openings I'll try to play, and they're the standard “don't have a lot of time to study, but want something mostly safe that can still be tactical” type. Colle (or London) with the occasional Trompowsky as white, Scandinavian and Main Line Slav as black. I'm trying to spend less time on opening prep than I used to, but those books are so damn addicting.

So, as of right now, my toolset looks like this:

• ChessBase 11 Starter Package, Chess Database Management Software
• Fritz 13 - Chess Playing and Analysis Program in stock and shipping!
• CT-ART 3.0 (Get 3.0. Reports are 4.0 doesn't allow you to sort the problems by difficulty.)
• Rapid Chess Improvement (Everyman Chess) – de la Maza
• A Guide to Chess Improvement: The Best of Novice Nook – Heisman
• How to Build Your Chess Opening Repertoire - Giddins
• FCO: Fundamental Chess Openings – Van Der Sterren
• The Slav: Move by Move (Everyman Chess) - Lakdawala
• The Modern Scandinavian: Themes, Structures & Plans in an Increasingly Popular Chess Opening
  – Wahls, Mueller, and Langrock
• Zuke 'Em - The Colle-Zukertort Revolutionized: A chess opening for everyone. Phoenix Attack Edition – Rudel
• Starting Out: The Trompowsky Attack – Palliser

Opposition...

How have we gotten to this point?

Mostly because I've been here before.

I can flatly state without any hesitation that the reason I have any interest in competitive chess whatsoever is because of Bobby Fischer.

I was six years old when he and Spassky went at it in 1972. My great uncle Ed (RIP, and thank you) was a pretty good chess player, and we went through every game together as they appeared in the newspaper. He taught me the rules, the moves, and the Ruy Lopez. (And maybe also the Giocco Piano – can't remember now.)

I remember spending a lot of time with Fred Reinfeld's Complete Chess Course.

My mom believed that, if nothing else, there were four things a child should learn to function in society: chess, bridge, golf, and I frankly can't remember the fourth right now. I did play bridge a bit in college, (we actually had eight guys in our dorm that could play – go figure) but dropped that. Chess stuck with me for a while, but I didn't really get serious about it until after high school. My fondest memory was playing in the 1985 US Junior Open in Berkeley. That, and hanging out for an afternoon during that tournament with Alexey (Rudolph) Root after playing way over my head and losing a tight game to a friend of hers rated something like 800 points higher than me. I remember her as a very friendly person – obviously it made an impression if I still remember it 27 years later.

Anyway, I remember the enjoyment I got out of chess, and I'm glad my kids are getting a kick out of it as well.

Once I realized the kids really did want to learn, and they were looking to me to teach them, it was clear I needed to find some materials to help out. I'm a technical writer for a living, so I'm used to writing tutorial-style information, but teaching kids is a WHOLE different kettle of fish.

Among my trove of old chess books (those that hadn't been sold off, at least) was a copy of the 2nd edition of Comprehensive Chess Course: Learn Chess in 12 Lessons (Fifth Enlarged Edition) (Vol. 1) (Comprehensive Chess Course Series) and Comprehensive Chess Course, Vol. 2: From Beginner to Tournament Player in 12 Lessons. It even included a hand-signed note from GM Alburt offering coaching opportunities should I be interested. Personal service like that is sadly lacking these days.

Anyway, I fired up Google and looked around for reviews on that book, and other possible training material for kids. I came across the Step-by-Step method I mentioned in my last post, and the reviews were good. Also, as the kids love playing on computers, I got a copy of Learn to Play Chess with Fritz & Chesster: Chess Complete 3-Pack for cheap on Amazon.

I let the kids loose on F&C while going through the Alburt course for our first two formal lessons. By then, the Step-by-Step material arrived, and we've switched over to that.

First clue I got that my daughter was “getting it”? We're playing a game one evening (w/ Queen odds) and we're in the endgame. I move my king up into opposition, and Megan says “Opposition...” I just looked at her, and said “Where on earth did you learn that?” “Fritz & Chesster!”

Okay, it's working.

My rule was, the kids get queen odds until they beat me, then they get rook odds, etc. They've now both beat me with queen odds, which means I obviously have to be paying better attention. I have a tendency to leave pieces hanging against them, and they're starting to see this and take advantage.

They're making good progress, and they're still very interested and enthused. Tonight, they'll be playing in a tournament for the first time – scholastic quads, G/30. They both wanted to play this morning, and they hadn't experienced a clock yet, so I had them play each other with my old analog clock. They got into the swing quickly.

Things I'm using to teach the kids:

Fritz & Chesster
Step By Step
Lev Alburt's course

The latter is good if you're teaching yourself. It takes you literally from “this is the chessboard” up through (allegedly) a Class C player or so by the end of volume 2. I know I'll be going through these lessons ahead of the kids as I re-teach myself the game while I'm teaching them.

In the next post, I'll go over the material I'm using to re-teach myself. The world is a much different place, now, and there's a TON of material out there.

The pieces are the same, but everything else has changed

A long time ago, longer ago than I'd care to admit, I used to play competitive chess. I never was very good, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. My rating, when I stopped playing, was 1245. Which, I guess, means that's still my rating. ("Once rated, always rated!" is the USCF motto.)

I put the books and game away, and moved on to other things. Role playing games, collectible card games, miniatures games, eurogames, and wargames have all graced my table at various times. The game-playing itch is a persistent part of my life, but I've certainly scratched it in a variety of ways.

After I became a father, I hoped I'd be able to pass on this love of gaming to my kids. I think the sorts of games I play are great for improving the way you think about things, solve problems, etc. Plus, they're great social devices, and teach a good sense of fair play.

So far, so good. The kids (ages 8 and 5.5 at the time I write this) have taken to games quite well, and frequently want to play something. It's been a very good thing to see.

Last year, we picked up a copy of "No Stress Chess." This is a standard (cheap) chess set with a deck of cards included. They claim this is an easier way to introduce the game of chess to kids, as they're not overwhelmed by choice - you can only move a piece matching what's on the card you drew. Yeah, it's pretty random, but the kids loved it. Soon, my daughter (the older of the two) was asking to play without the cards. And doing rather well, given her age. Both kids are very enthusiastic about the game. If you've got kids interested in learning the game, you could do a lot worse than picking up a copy.

This experience has triggered my re-interest. Of all the games I'd played over the years, I'd avoided abstract board games (things like the Gipf series, etc.) as I could feel myself starting to head down the analysis thought patterns I used when I played chess. And, for whatever reason, I just didn't want to go there.

Now, I think, it's time. I've gotten a bit frustrated with the poor shape wargame rules writing has fallen into, and I'm just ready for a switch. So, my kids and I are embarking back into the world of chess together.

I'm currently holding the role of coach for them, and we're using the Step-by-Step method used by the Dutch Chess Federation. The kids are really liking it so far. It's a bit of a challenge as there's a large difference in cognitive ability between ages 8 and 5.5, but my boy (the younger) is doing quite well for his age.

What has happened, though, is it's triggered my tendency to obsess with things. I've pulled out my old chess books (which have been in storage for years) and am re-teaching myself the game.

And, can I say, the entire chess world has completely changed in 20 years. The internet and computerized databases have revolutionized the way things work. It's a bit disorienting in many ways, but exciting. The amount of material available electronically is staggering. And, of course, it's changed the way you study as well. Servers like the Internet Chess Club can get you games at the drop of a hat, and you can sit in on GM-level tournament games an exhibitions.

It doesn't hurt that the US Open Championship is being held this year in my backyard. Gives me a target to shoot at.

I'll be using this blog as a diary chronicling our family's journey over the chessboard. How I go about re-teaching myself the game at age 46, and how I help my kids enjoy the game the way I know they can. Hopefully you can find something here to keep you coming back for more.