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| Posted by ccmcacollister ability-tw.com 1/11/2008 17:37:54 Play online chess |  Subject: What have you learned recently?Message: It would help if respondents would indicate their rating range, and I'll tell you why in a moment. We might then throw in also ... What do you Not Know but think you should? I had this GREAT IDEA (aka probably eccentric, possibly a bit weird?!) that wouldn't it be great to see a Chess Book that annotated games, that would be essentially three books in one. The game annotated for under 1400, 1400 to 1800, and over 1800. With a little doodad denoting which rating range the note is meant for ... the thought being It is Something that that range should know to advance, yet may not know. IMO very many skills come at certain ranges, as a generality. As a specific, well there are 1200 players for eg who lose to an B or higher because they do not know as much. Then there are those who Know an awful lot! But will drop a piece at some point whether oversight, impatience or whatever. But in general I think there are certain things players should know at certain levels. You cannot be a master if you do not know forcible line opening an be able (and do) spot such points on the board when attacking for EG. The thought occurred to me then, it might even be more appealing if the book had a person from those two lower note echelons help write it. Perhaps the 1400 has a question best answered by the 1700 for Eg, in an understandable way. Also what the 1700 Has learned since being 1400, is probably a lot of what Should be known to make that advancement. What do you think? More importantly What do you Know NOW that you didn't awhile ago? Thanks all! | ||||||||||||||||
| Posted by ccmcacollister ability-tw.com 1/11/2008 17:39:24 Play online chess | What i learned. Message: | ||||||||||||||||
| Posted by bhidragon ability-tw.com 1/12/2008 18:10:12 Play online chess | Recent Learnings Message: 1. Premature attacks hardly ever work ... and always leave you in absolutely bad positions. Don't count on your opponent to make a mistake in order to successfully attack. 2. Don't just memorize opening moves ... study the strategy behind your favorite openings and how the rest of the game unfolds from those opening positions. If you're studying opening books that are simply lists of moves ... toss them and study general principles. 3. Play at your speed ... not your opponent's. I learned this the hard way in OTB tourneys. Your tendency is to speed up against a fast player. Stay calm and take the time to study the position. Maybe this would be helpful for players in the 800 - 1200 range on GameKnot ——— When not seeing is believing — This week Toronto is hosting the 2011 Canadian Open Chess Championship, and although I was not able to participate in the tournament, I had the unique good fortune to be there for the weekend to conduct a blindfold simultaneous exhibition. This is not the first time I have played multiple games of chess while blindfolded, but this one upped the ante. My usual blindfold limit is five boards simultaneously, and I've played with this set up a number of times. But this time I was pitted against six people, a feat I have only accomplished once - and that was more than 25 years ago. Adding to the challenge was the strength of the chess players. Normally, I recommend my opposition to be ... Posted by doctor_knight | ability-tw.com 1/12/2008 21:01:22 Play online chess Message: 1) if your position is solid enough, the opponent will very likely make a blunder at my level. That seems to be how I have made most of my wins. It seems that at my level, if I don't let my pieces hang and establish an effective coorination between my pieces, the opponent doesn't really seem to know what to do and eventually tries something wild which usually ends up in him/her losing a pawn, piece, control of squares, and etc. Though at my level, the advantage given up is usually material and usually substantial enough to win almost easily. 2) don't be scared to live on the edge some. If you don't try a risky counter attack now, then you'll never develop the skills necessary to do one later in a more important game. Of course don't be reckless, but don't be scared to dive into the pool. It will force you to raise your level of performance to exercise your brain to work through the position. It will also help you to develop a sense of what types of moves and positions tend to crash your position and which ones will strengthen it. It will help to develop your "intuition". Now what I would like to know? 1) I haven't really though about this much, but I know one area where I need improvement is trading off the center pawns. This area of play seems a little mysterious to me. I would definately like some help with this (when to exchange, which pawns to exchange, which pawns to protect with what pieces, which pieces to recapture with, which pawns are really weak, how to identify an opponent's bad pawn capture, and how to punish it. Also to see which pawn captures are actually legitimate threats. The whole enchilada) 2) Time control. The root of most of my mistakes and failures in OTB play seems to be time control. Sometimes I have a really bad awareness of my time, especially while calculating combinations/exchanges. It's almost like I drift off into some fantasy world of board positions and pieces moving around capturing each other and become hardly aware that the clock is ticking down. ——— From the archive, 12 July 1972: Fischer's late opening gambit in Reykjavik — Originally published in the Guardian on 12 July 1972. Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer finally made it to the world championship chessboard tonight and there was an almost palpable sense of relief throughout the auditorium at the sports stadium here, that chess had at last taken over from the ballyhoo. Yet Fischer was characteristically late. Promptly at 5pm Spassky walked on to the stage accompanied by the West German referee Herr Lothar Schmid, who had raced back to Iceland from his son's car crash in West Germany. Spassky immediately played his opening pawn to Queen four, and the match was underway. Spassky sat for a while and then walked around the board. Five minutes later ... Posted by wschmidt | ability-tw.com 1/14/2008 11:57:21 Play online chess Interesting thoughts, Craig....Message: The second book is his latest, "Silman's Endgame Course" (or something similar). He doesn't set the book up by typical endgame book catagories like pawn endgames, rook endgames, etc. Rather, the chapters are divided into what he thinks a player needs to know as they increase their rating level. I don't own it, but it's gotten generally good reviews, I believe. What have I learned recently? Wow, 2007 was quite a year in that regard. I learned how to checkmate with the knight and bishop. I mean really learned it and practiced it, not just read about it and played through the moves once or twice. I learned, for the umpteenth time, that while there is a difference between memorizing moves in the opening and playing according to good general opening principles, there is also a difference between playing according to good general opening principles and actually looking at the board! That difference actually lasts into the middle and endgame as well. Understanding the concrete position on the board trumps general principles everyday. I learned (or developed) a method that works for me for analyzing/annotating my own games. I learned that Purdy's method of "try to guess the master's move" way of reading over an annotated game really works and is really quite fun. Over at the Chess Coaching Club, I've learned that some folks really are interested in being coached and others, well, not so much. This would be a good thread to revisit at the end of 2008! ws ——— On Chess: Frequent walks gave Fischer's brain a boost — Many stories concern Bobby Fischer's fondness for walking. On three or four occasions during the 1960s, I met him by chance as he perambulated around New York. He was always friendly and eager to talk. Late-night walks often took him to chess hangouts such as the Chess and Checker Club of New York, where he would frequently take on a player of master strength, offering up to 15-1 odds to his opponent and the gathering kibitzers. He seemed to tremendously enjoy the fun and hilarity provoked by the impromptu exhibitions. A champion boxer once described to me the difficulty of keeping up with Fischer's walking tours. There seems to have been a method to his locomotion. Rae Pica, author of ... Posted by marinvukusic | ability-tw.com 1/14/2008 14:13:19 Play online chess Regarding Mr. SilmanMessage:  www.jeremysilman.com
This is one of the best Web pages on the Internet for beginners and intermediate players. I recommended it to a lot of people. Anyone who is willing to put some time into digging around it will be rewarded :) ——— Teenager Cements His Status as the Best in the Netherlands — If there was any doubt about Anish Giri’s status as the Netherlands’ biggest chess star, it was put to bed by his showing in the Dutch national chess championship. He finished two points ahead of his nearest competitor, Ivan Sokolov, in the 10-player field. At 17, Giri is now a two-time Dutch chess champion, and he is ranked No. 40 in the world. In other chess tournament news: The Commonwealth Championship, which has been held semi-regularly since 1983, is an odd totem of Britain’s vanished empire. It has usually been played in India, but the most recent chess event was held in late June and early July in South Africa to coincide with the South African Open. In the 2004 chess tournament, the former ... Posted by cascadejames | ability-tw.com 1/19/2008 00:07:54 Play online chess Giving up a pawnMessage: clear purpose in mind. It doesn't always work, but sometimes the results can be gratifying when the sacrifice works out. Of course this does not mean that the loss of a pawn is not important, only that sometimes it is justified. ——— Dearth of UK chess tournaments forcing British grandmasters to look overseas — English grandmasters had a memorable few days last weekend, sharing first prizes in the US and South Africa. Such long journeys have become a professional necessity. Apart from the British Chess Championship and the London Classic, there is currently a dearth of major UK chess tournaments, so our best GMs have perforce to be globetrotters. They make a good job of it. England No1 Michael Adams is ranked world No21 but is now rarely invited to elite chess events, so he has made his own niche in strong opens. Adams scored an unbeaten 7/9 in sharing first with US chess champion Gata Kamsky in the World Open at Philadelphia. Kamsky won a speed tie-break, but the pair shared ... Posted by lighttotheright | ability-tw.com 1/19/2008 06:21:01 Play online chess Message: Strac has shown me that I'm not quite as good as I once thought. As soon as he played 18. a5 for the control of the pivotal square on b6, I knew my latest game with him was over. He had a critical bind upon my Queen-side position; there was nothing that I could do about it once it was played. It was a small advantage for him that was unfortunately for me game winning. I've known for a while, but it has never been so clear to me than now...about the difference between a strategic move and a positional one. A positional move is strategic; but a strategic move is not necessarily a positional one. A strategic move will maximize your chances, while a positional move will ELIMINATE your opponent's. Strac's move of 18. a5 shut down my entire position because it forced me to constantly adjust while he continued to advance. My chances were eliminated under best play. Posted by alice02 | ability-tw.com 1/19/2008 08:51:58 Play online chess not describing moves to myselfMessage: I don't drop as many significant pieces - though I still occasionally do so. When I started dropping pieces I decided to check every individual piece for the moves it could make. There is a knight - it can move there and there etc. I have now learnt to look at a knight's potential moves as a clock face. I have also learnt to see that two important pieces separated by either 1 or 3 squares is a potentially dangerous situation when a knight is around. I wonder if there is a chess developmental difference in thinking - this is a bishop's line vs a bishop can move to that or that or that square. A knight can move to that or that or that square vs a knight"s movement is like a clock face. Maybe you have to think in terms of individual squares before you can think in terms of lines. And I can only see lines when I am predicting one move. When I am trying to predict 2 or more moves I use square by square thinking. I think this type of thinking may be a stage in learning but also that it blocks me from seeing combinations. Posted by doctor_knight | ability-tw.com 1/19/2008 20:37:49 Play online chess Message: (3) How to make strategical moves as apposed to simply positional moves, though I'm thinking this may take a long long time. Posted by ccmcacollister | ability-tw.com 1/22/2008 08:11:43 Play online chess I learned Message: Much more economical than the unweildy Rook and Two-Pawns-in-the-middle King havens of my past ... ! |