FIDE Grand Prix Standings, Post-Thessaloniki

The 4th round (of 6) in the FIDE Grand Prix series concluded today, with Leinier Dominguez Perez a clear winner with 8/11, half a point ahead of 2nd place finishers Gata Kamsky and Fabiano Caruana. Kamsky was leading going into the final round, but fell to Caruana while Dominguez beat Topalov in a R+P ending that initially looked drawn. This might be Dominguez' best result ever. Will have to track that down. His strong performance propelled him nearly to the top 10, as he's now just 6 ELO points behind Kamsky in 11th on the live list.

Standings are a bit complicated, as each player can participate in four tournaments, but only their best three finishes count. So, I'll add a couple columns to this table to indicate maximum and minimum possible scores.

The top two overall finishers qualify for the Candidates Tournament in 2014, along with the loser of the Carlsen/Anand match, top three finishers from the 2013 World Cup, and the top two rated players in the world that haven't otherwise qualified.

Place	Name	Rating	London	Tashkent	Zug	Thessaloniki	Berlin	Paris	Total	Min	Max
1	Topalov	2752	140	-	170	45	x	-	355	355	480
2	Caruana	2773	-	80	100	125	-	x	305	305	395
3	Mamedyarov	2729	140	80	20	-	x	-	240	240	410
3	Morozevich	2770	x	140	75	25	x	-	240	240	385
5	Ponomariov	2734	-	50	100	85	-	x	235	235	355
6	Dominguez	2725	35	20	-	170	-	x	225	225	375
7	Nakamura	2778	15	-	140	60	-	x	215	215	370
8	Kamsky	2746	x	10	75	125	x	-	210	210	370
8	Hao	2726	70	140	-	-	x	x	210	220	480
10	Karjakin	2785	-	140	50	-	x	x	190	200	480
11	Kasimdzhanov	2684	35	80	20	70	-	-	185	185	185
12	Leko	2737	80	80	80	-	x	-	180	180	330
13	Grischuk	2763	90	-	-	85	x	x	175	185	430
14	Gelfand	2738	140	30	-	-	x	x	170	180	480
15	Svidler	2749	-	50	-	45	-	x	95	105	265
16	Giri	2711	15	-	50	-	x	x	65	75	390
16	Ivanchuk	2769	55	-	-	10	x	x	65	75	395
18	Adams	2722	55	-	-	-	-	-	55	55	55
19	Bacrot	2788	-	-	-	25	-	-	25	25	25
20	Radjabov	2788	-	-	20	-	x	x	20	40	510

Notes:

• Adams substituted for Svidler in London, and is unlikely to play for the remainder of the Grand Prix.
• Ratings are from the December, 2012 list right before London.
• '-' means the player either didn't play, or isn't scheduled to play, in that event.
• 'x' means the player is scheduled to play in that event.
• Min score is what that player would have if they finished solely in last place in all remaining GPs.
• Max score is what that player would have if they finished solely in first place in all remaining GPs.

FIDE Grand Prix Standings, Post Zug

The 3rd round (of 6) in the FIDE Grand Prix series concluded today, with Vaselin Topalov a clear winner with 8/11, a full point and a half ahead of clear 2nd place finisher, Hikaru Nakamura. This is probably Topalov's best result since San Luis in 2005.

Standings are a bit complicated, as each player can participate in four tournaments, but only their best three finishes count. So, I'll add a couple columns to this table to indicate maximum and minimum possible scores.

The top two overall finishers qualify for the Candidates Tournament in 2014, along with the loser of the Carlsen/Anand match, top three finishers from the 2013 World Cup, and the top two rated players in the world that haven't otherwise qualified.

Place	Name	Rating	London	Tashkent	Zug	Madrid	Berlin	Paris	Total	Min	Max
1	Topalov	2752	140	-	170	x	x	-	310	320	510
2	Mamedyarov	2729	140	80	20	-	x	-	240	240	410
3	Morozevich	2770	x	140	75	x	x	-	215	225	480
4	Hao	2726	70	140	-	-	x	x	210	220	480
5	Karjakin	2785	-	140	50	-	x	x	190	200	480
6	Leko	2737	80	80	80	-	x	-	180	180	330
6	Caruana	2773	-	80	100	x	-	x	180	190	440
8	Gelfand	2738	140	30	-	-	x	x	170	180	480
9	Nakamura	2778	15	-	140	x	-	x	155	165	480
10	Ponomariov	2734	-	50	100	x	-	x	150	160	440
11	Kasimdjanov	2684	35	80	20	x	-	-	135	135	285
12	Grischuk	2763	90	-	-	x	x	x	90	110	510
13	Kamsky	2746	x	10	75	x	x	-	85	95	415
14	Giri	2711	15	-	50	-	x	x	65	75	390
15	Adams	2722	55	-	-	-	-	-	55	55	55
15	Ivanchuk	2769	55	-	-	x	x	x	55	75	510
15	Dominguez	2725	35	20	-	x	-	x	55	65	375
18	Svidler	2749	-	50	-	x	-	x	50	70	390
19	Radjabov	2788	-	-	20	x	x	x	20	40	510

Notes:

• Adams substituted for Svidler in London, and is unlikely to play for the remainder of the Grand Prix.
• Ratings are from the December, 2012 list right before London.
• '-' means the player either didn't play, or isn't scheduled to play, in that event.
• 'x' means the player is scheduled to play in that event.
• Min score is what that player would have if they finished solely in last place in all remaining GPs.
• Max score is what that player would have if they finished solely in first place in all remaining GPs.

Endgames

Yes, I know it's been a while since I posted. More on that in a bit.

In the meantime, here's some endgame rules to keep in mind. (B or F indicates whether the rule came from Ruben Fine or Pal Benko)

1. Think about the endgame in the middlegame. (B) 
2. Exchanges. Someone gets the better deal. (B) 
3. The King is a strong piece. Use it. (F) 
4. If you are a pawn or two ahead, exchange pieces. (F) 
5. If you are behind, exchange pawns, not pieces. (F) 
6. If you have an advantage, do not leave all the pawns on one side. (F) 
7. A distant passed pawn is half the victory. (B) 
8. Passed pawns should be avvanced as rapidly as possibly. (F) 
9. Doubled, isolated, and blocakaded pawns are weak: Avoid them. (F) 
10. The easiet endings to win are pure pawn endings. (F) 
11. Passed pawns should be blockaded by the King, the piece that is not harmed by watching a pawn is a Knight. (F) 
12. Two Bishops, vs. Bishop & Knight constitute a tangible advantage. (F) 
13. Bishops are better than Knights in all except blocked pawn positions. (F) 
14. Do not place your pawns on the color of your Bishop. (F) 
15. The easiest endings to draw are those with bishops of oposite colors. (F) 
16. Rooks belong behind passed pawns. (F) 
17. A rook on the 7th rank is suffiecient compensation for a pawn. (F) 
18. Not all rook endings are drawn. (B) 
19. Perpetual check looms in all queen endings. (B) 
20. Every move in the endgame is of the utmost importance because you are closer to the moment of truth. (B)

(h/t to Malbase on Chessforums.org)

Compliments

A new chess club started up at a local (rather quiet) mall. Every Monday night, and it seems the focus is on a rated, G/25 tournament each week. $3/week, so that's not a bad deal. 

Though, I have to admit not a huge fan of G/30 or less.

I showed up last night, and was just setting up to go through a game from Formation Attacks when a former state champ and Fide Master asks me if I'm up for a game. (The guy doesn't know me from Adam.)

Well, yeah. Like I'm going to turn down a game from a FM.

We don't use a clock, just casual, and I'm actually hearing a grunt of surprise from him every now and then. Of course, he wins both games, but I make him work for it.

We're in the third game, and a friend of his shows up, and he starts pulling out the bag of tricks. He swindles a piece off me, and we call things as the TD is getting things started.

As we're cleaning up, he asks me what my rating is. "In the 1200s" I reply. He says "You play way better than that. 1700s or so." I thanked him for the kind words. 

If I can only get the results when the clocks are running... I know it's in me, but it's just not coming out when I need it. Naturally, I lost both tourney games after that, with a massive blunder in each game.

Still, it's compliments like that, from players like that, that keep me going. If I was basing my desire off results, I'd probably be back playing wargames by now. 

I can do this, but I've just got to fix the way I think during timed games. What I currently do doesn't work. I've been going through the Igor Smirnov course "The Grandmaster's Secrets." It's good. It teaches you how to find moves, how to approach the game, and how and what to calculate. You just have to get used to his voice.

Disaster

Well, that certainly didn't go the way I wanted it to.

I pretty well botched my way through the US Open. I blew both games in the Wednesday Quad with tricky endgames in time trouble against players I felt like I should beat. I've come to really dislike Game/30 as a time control. I just don't think that fast. Yet.

In the Open proper, I played really well the first two rounds, but lost to players 600+ and 400+ points higher than me. Both say I played much higher than my rating. Felt good. Then I blundered my way into a mate-in-two against a player I should beat, pulled off a draw and a win on the 2^nd day out of four games, then didn't win again until the last round. 2.5/9. NOT what I was looking for. Ended up losing nearly 100 ratings points over the week. Twice, I lost "won" positions. (points in a game where Houdini gave me a +2 advantage or better) I couldn't find the winning move.

So, obviously, what I've been doing for training wasn't working. Or, it was working 85% of a game, and the other 15% were losing it for me.

I seem to play really well in correspondence games, when I don't have the time pressure going. So, I'm thinking there are three things I need to work on in OTB play.

Calculation, a more consistent thought pattern, and my method of move selection. I'm pretty happy with my openings, for the most part.

Most of the time I've spent over the weeks since the Open ended have been in re-evaluating my study method. I could charitably describe it as “scatterbrained” or “oooh! Shiny!” I need to pare things way down.

So, my method will now be this:

• Work, slowly and steadily, through Yasser Seirawan's series. I skimmed through Play Winning Chess at the open, but that's mostly stuff I've grasped. We do have a copy of it checked out from the library, though, for my wife (who keeps saying she should learn how to play beyond the basic moves, but hasn't yet made the leap), so I'll try the tests in it to see how I do.
  
  Right now, I'm 1/3 through Winning Chess Tactics. Going pretty well. After I finish that book, I'm going to go back through Silman's Endgame course up to Class D (or maybe C), and learn that cold. Then on to Winning Chess Strategies.

• Igor Smirnov's course “The Grandmaster's Secrets” I've seen a couple of Smirnov's free videos on YouTube, and there's good information there. This is supposed to be sort of the starting point for his program, so we'll see how it goes. Don't let the affiliate-style, “this looks like an expensive load of crap” website design fool you.
  
  One of the primary skills taught in that course is how to analyze games (both yours, and other players'). I picked up a handful of books at the Open, and among those were a couple books by CJS Purdy. He's pretty well known for his annotation style (Fischer raved about one of his books when he was younger), so I'm going to combine that with the methods Smirnov teaches. The methods happen to be nearly identical, thankfully. (Walk through a game from the winner's perspective, and try to guess the moves while using a typical time control. Try to establish why the winner made the moves he made, using the principles Smirnov describes – which happen to be very similar to what Dan Heisman teaches. Synergy. It's useful.)

• Continue working through the Yusupov series. I've only completed five lessons of the 24 in the first book, but my scores are improving.

• Play more games. I'm simply not playing enough timed chess. I've got 20 or so games going on Red Hot Pawn, but that's like twitter compared to a novel. While I need to revisit how I'm using RHP, I need to play more. My goal will be two 45-45 games per week. Either on ICC, FICS, or Playchess. Haven't decided. Most of the games I'll be playing OTB will be Game/60, so that's a level I need to focus on. Then, analyse the heck out of the game.

I think that's it for now. Plenty to keep me busy. I'm sure I'll wander off into another book or three at some point, but I've at least got a plan in place. I'm happy with my openings - it's the thought process and move selection I need to improve.

Stagnance

I haven't written much on here lately, that's for sure.

Things are progressing, slowly, in our little chess world. My kids haven't been interested in playing tournaments, but they have been playing Fritz & Chesster. My daughter's graduated on to disk 2, while my son seems to be stuck at the pawn game. He still hasn't grasped the concept of getting his pieces to work together, and he sends out one or, at most, two pieces at a time, they get captured, then he tries again. He does this in Memoir '44 as well, so I'm not surprised. I need to figure out how to get the point across to him, but hey – he's not even 6. There's time.

I've now played in three OTB tournaments since returning to chess, with 12 total games. I'm at +4 -6 = 2, and I've picked up thirty points on my rating.

The average rating of the six players I've lost to is (post-event) is 1749, the average of those I've beaten is 1043, and my average draw is 1255. This fits, given my current rating is 1275.

Starting on Saturday is the US Open. It's only 25 miles away, so I pretty much have to go. I'm playing in two tourneys: the Wednesday Quads, and the 4-day Open (U1400). That means I'll have three games Wednesday, three on Thursday, four on Friday, and one each Saturday and Sunday. That will double the number of rated games I've played since returning.

I've been kind of spread out in my preparation/study lately, and I definitely need to become more focused.

For tactics, I've switched to ChessTempo over CT-ART. I'm also taking advice I saw elsewhere that doing tactics study for more than 15 minutes at a time is counter-productive. Not that that's stopped me from spending over an hour on there at times. I seem to hit a wall at getting my ChessTempo rating over 1300. I'll get to 129x, then miss one or two. The misses seem to have a bigger rating penalty than the hits, so it's five hits to gain the points back.

I'm through the fifth lesson in the 1^st Yusupov book, and I've barely been scoring above the “pass” level in each lesson. The 1st-level books in the series are supposed to take you to ~1500. So, that fits as well.

I'm pretty set on my repertoire: Grunfeld, Scandinavian, Veresov. Of course, the Veresov frequently morphs into a French, so I've been studying the relevant lines of that as well.

The books I'm currently reading are: A Ferocious Opening Repertoire, Starting Out: The Scandinavian, Play the Grunfeld, and Winning Chess Tactics. I'm also occasionally going through games from the Alekhine autobiographical collection and Chernev's Logical Chess, and occasionally reading Chess Words of Wisdom by Henebry (this latter one needs to be taken in small doses – there's a TON of good information in there, but it's dense.)

I'll try to post reports after each day of games in the Open, but we'll see. It's a pretty brutal schedule.

Opening Categories

Just picked up the new Mastering Opening Strategy by Johan Hellsten. Judging by the first half of the first chapter, it's quite good.

One thing it has, in the back, is a section on building an opening repertoire. In that section are two tables which I will take the liberty of reproducing here. If you like this - go buy the book. It covers what you need to know about the openings - HOW to conduct them, not just memorizing a crapload of variations.

So, first table: Openings with structural similarities.

Openings and defences	Factors in common
Slav, Caro-Kann, Scandinavian, Torre, London	Pawn Structure, queen's bishop outside the chain
Dutch Stonewall, French, Open Spanish	Pawn structure, opposing pawns in the center
Benoni, Pirc, Closed Spanish	Pawn structure, dark square play
Nimzo-Indian, Queen's Indian, Bogo-Indian, Sicilian Scheveningen, Taimanov, and Kan	Pawn structure, queenside fianchetto
King's Indian, Pirc, Modern, Sicilian Dragon	Pawn structure, kingside fianchetto
Queen's Gambit Accepted, Petroff	Pawn structure, open game
Grunfeld, Catalan (some lines)	Pawn structure, kingside fianchetto
Sicilian Dragon Accelerated, English w/ g3, Symmetrical English (as Black)	Pawn structure, kingside fianchetto
Sicilian Rossolimo, English w/ 1...e5 and ...Bb4	Pawn structure
Colle, Semi-Slav	Pawn structure
King's Indian Attack, King's Indian, Pirc, Old Indian	Pawn structure
Tarrasch, Petroff, Sicilian Alapin, Queen's Gambit Accepted, Caro-Kann Panov Attack	Pawn structure

Okay, that groups the openings together by their typical pawn structures. Now, openings with similar "styles."

Openings and defences	Factors in common
Queen's Gambit Accepted, Petroff, Spanish Berlin, Sicilian Alapin, Spanish Exchange, French Tarrasch	Solidity, piece exchanges, endgame perspective
King's Indian, Sicilian Dragon, Dutch Leningrad, French 3 Nc3, Open Sicilian	Aggressiveness, closed or semi-open positions
Semi-slav, Spanish Marshall, Archangel, and Schliemann, Car-Kann w/ 3f3, Open Sicilian	Aggressiveness, open or semi-open positions
French, King's Indian, Czech Benoni	Closed positions, pawn chain battle
Queen's Gambit Declined, French	Solidity, closed positions
Dutch Stonewall, Sicilian Sveshnikov	Weak points, activity
Sicilian Najdorf, Grunfeld, Sicilian Dragon, Semi-Slav Botvinnik	Theoretical battle, sharp play
Nimzo-Indian, French Winawer, Sicilian Rossolimo, English w/ 1...e5 and ...Bb4	Surrender of the king's bishop, doubled enemy pawns
Catalan, Benko Gambit, other gambits	Pawn sacrifices, activity
Sicilian Scheveningen, Kan and Taimanov, Alekhine, Pirc, English Hedgehog	Space disadvantage, flexibility, few piece exchanges
Trompowsky, Chigorin	Surrender of the queen's bishop, imbalanced play
King's Indian Samisch, Classical Nimzo-Indian	Space advantage, slow

So, if you're looking for a new opening, choosing something within the same group might prove easier to learn and play effectively.