Ford Memorial Update Round 6

Ever felt like a complete dufus?

I just did. Losing tonight to Sarkis Nabaldian (1734) sure did the trick on Round 6 of the Ford Memorial, and does little for my self-confidence.

Apologies to Vladimir and Steven who offered to have a look at my game but I declined as I didn't feel like having any post game analysis. Game was effectively over after 2 bad moves and knowing exactly where you went wrong was even more terrible.

Current score: +3-3=0 with 3 games left to turn the tide. When I first started out, my aim was to get 5 points and right now, that means having to win 2 out of my last 3 games.

Funny, I was in a bad mood so I logged onto freechess.org and proceeded to win 8 rapid games consecutively (hmm... a first for me... but it still didn't erase the self-recriminations from tonight's game).

There are times when you just want to throw your hands up in the arm and ask yourself why you would want to subject yourself to such mental torture. This is one of them.

I guess all chess players have to go through disappointments in order to improve but the journey is long, hard, laden with rocks and success only comes to those who want it bad enough.

I'll probably skip tomorrow's lightning competition at Ryde-Eastwood. I find that playing lightning and blitz chess is actually pulling my game down in the sense that I do not spend enough time working out the variations or analysing the position properly. The net effect is that it's making me make hasty moves. I didn't use to do that and I need to 'unlearn' blitz thinking and refrain from making a move too quickly. I reckon if I slow down, I would probably play a lot better.

Ford Memorial Signup

Last night, I turned up at the chess club at Manly-Warringah RSL with Steven. We got in a couple of 10 minute blitz games before the club's official/unofficial 15 minutes blitz games started.

I've also confirmed my participation in the Ford Memorial at North Sydney RSL which starts on August 26th and have paid Norman Greenwood the entry fees. Steven is participating as well and we've made plans to travel there after my work (I work in North Sydney so it's good that I can give him a lift to there and back to his home as well).

I found out how seriously out of shape I was when Tze Weng asked me to play for their blitz games. My first game was a drawn endgame. My second game was horrible. I was playing vs James Burt and lost my Queen due to a simple fork. My third and fourth game got on progessively better but it was nothing to shout about. Martin van Elmpt left his Knight en prise under time pressure while Jozsef Gonda also suffered a similar fate unfortunately.

I hope my performance at Ford memorial will be much better.

Les Mikolajczyk also emailed me informing Ryde Eastwood club members that the Fischer-like rapid competition's time format will be shortened to 20min+10sec increment to allow players to have 3 games a night. I lost against Ted Wong last week so I plan to play better tomorrow night.

Moving At Turtle Speed

And I don't mean ninja turtle speed (see inset).

I am just terrible at blitz. 5 minute chess just confuses the heck out of me.

Just how bad am I?

On Wednesday, my brother-in-law Steven and I (I usually give Steven a lift) had great fun at the chess club. To our surprise, we saw Vladimir and we proceeded to do a simul with him again in 5 minute chess.

First off, I like to say Vladimir is an exceptionally talented and great player. How many 2300+ players can you name, who is willing to sit down with you, even go through and analyse with you on your game (pointing out what you did right and wrong), converse with you like a normal human being and always willing to play in 5 minute blitz games with anyone?

Not many, I would say.

Vladimir is usually nice enough to give me a Rook/Knight advantage (which in spite of it, I will proceed to lose against him in record time). At one point, he stopped, gave me a look and said in a friendly tone,"Hmmm..... you like to think." (as in, I like to think long and hard before I make a move) and I replied in the affirmative. He's right. I usually get into severe time trouble in these lightning games because of this. My style of playing is just not conducive to blitz/lightning games.

This can be seen in my blitz games with Shane as well. Shane is an absolute livewire and a great guy to be with. He will always proceed to beat me the crap out of me because I tend to make stupid mistakes in my middlegame because my turtle brain just could not cope with the speed and intensity needed for lightning/blitz games.

How do people play fast games? I have severe problems trying to come to grips with recognising patterns and able to formulate a strategy/plan quick enough.

Every time my opponent, makes a move, I do the following:

Quick scan of board, identify own weaknesses, identify weak spots, look for undefended pieces, how to move my pieces to better squares......... bzzzzzt! Time's up!

I just can't do it in the space of a few seconds.

Shane does it because he sees like,"this move looks good, so I'll play it." Smirnov plays in a similar style. It seems that both of them acquire the necessary experience and from there, their brains draw on definitive plans or try to identify logical patterns and make them fit onto the board into a cognitive whole.

I watched my brother-in-law Steven play as well. He reacts faster than me but is able to quickly process all of this information much much faster than I could.

What does this mean for me? I guess, it means that I just need to train to see stuff quicker. And to do that, that means looking at more positions on the board and remembering more patterns.

Less someone else mistakes this, I had a great time with Shane and Vladimir. Thanks, guys!

Death Comes As The End

I'm sure some of our fellow chess bloggers have been wondering why I've blogged so much in the last couple of days. Well, that's because my studies are finally out of the way and I can now comfortably work on my chess.

I was particularly upset yesterday as I had just learnt that a family friend had passed away in the afternoon. He had been ill and was suffering from cancer for a year now. My wife and I were intending to visit him this weekend as we learned that his condition had worsened and was warded at West Mead hospital. We were very shocked to learn that after taking his X-Ray at half-past twelve yesterday, he suddenly couldn't breathe and just collapsed and was gone. Just like that.

The news knocked me out of my stride. While I turned up last night to play our scheduled games against Parrammatta, I told the U1400 team captain Greig that I was in no mood to play but if he cannot find a replacement at such short notice to play, I would fill in. I didn't really feel like playing but I didn't want to let the team down either. Unfortunately, there was no able replacement so I ended up playing. After all our games finished, Greig informed me that our U1400 team's 3-1 win over Parrammatta was enough to secure the final 4th place for the next round. Our team had garnered 12.5 points to Parrammatta's 10.5.

During my game, I was very surprised to see Weng turning up at the chess club with his son. Weng is my brother-in-law's Steven friend (we went over to his place a few times for a nice Christmas meal) who is also another chess fan. He's currently taking his Masters and is thus not available to play for the club. When my game ended, I had a good long conversation with Weng. Weng's concern was his son's chess progress. I offered to help him by passing him some chess materials which hopefully can be of some use to him.

Vladimir turned up (!) as well and he and Shane had a good conversation and were in a jovial mood. When Steven finished his game, Vladimir proceeded to do a simul against Steven, Shane and me in 5 minute blitz chess. He wiped us off all the board with me being the first to fall. In our second round, again, I was the first to fall, Steven resigned a few moves later after me and Shane kept talking to Vladimir and made him forgot his clock was still running and Vladimir lost on time. It was hilarious. Many thanks to Vladimir for being so gracious in taking time to play against patzers like me and to Shane for helping to lighten up the atmosphere of the game. I really needed that as their good nature helped lessened the impact of the news of the death.

The U1600 Team Captain, Les informed me that I would need to fill in to play the North Sydney chess club next Tuesday on Board 4. That's it from me for now.

NSWCA Grade Matches: I'm In The Under 1400 ??

Okay, much to my surprise, I got put into the Under-1400s group for the Grade matches (??). I know I am not rated but the looks on the faces of Shane and Joshua were priceless when I told them I got signed up to that group - which brought much reaction in the form of "what-the-heck" (?)

I've sent an email to Les asking if something could be done to move me to the under-1600s instead (although I doubt it'll happen). I had a quick look at some of the teams for this group. There's a couple of players in there whose rating is 1400++.

Van Elmpt, Martin (1448), Manly
Macgillivray, Ken (1421), Rooty Hill
Lee, Marco (1388), St George Saints
Sewell, Bob (1429), Parramatta
Keuning, Patrick J (1358), St George Dragons

I've a feeling that I'm certain to meet at least one of these players considering I'm on Board 1 and there's a very good chance these players have probably improved since their last rating.

Lately, I find my chess skills deteriorating (alarmingly) and have been putting up dismal performances.

Take for example, last night. That was a horror showing from yours truly, who played quite a number of 10 minute blitz games against Vasey (1029) and I lost approx. 9 games out of 10.

Subsequently, Steven and I got a few blitz games as well and I only got 1 decent win out of 4 or 5 games against him.

Dang, I am just terrible at blitz chess. Plain and simple, I play crap chess at 10 minute time controls. My brain starts operating at 1 ply mode and it became a game of I-see- a-move-I-make-a-move reactionary chess. Maybe I should dunk my head in water.

Steven reckons that I become too eager and have a tendency to make a mess of middlegame positions. Frankly, I'm not surprised.

Vince Chiara lost to Arthur Hunyh last night so that means I got into the playoffs with the 1700++ group for the Club Championship. I expect a +0-8=0 rout.

Don't Forget To Smell The Roses

It's funny how playing chess can teach you things not found in textbooks.

I've been working in the IT industry for more than 10 years and the experience I obtained from my job is fairly predictable and thus, rather mundane.

Lest it be misconstrued, I like my job. I've been extremely fortunate and blessed to be employed in a position where I thoroughly enjoy my work.

This is why I took up night studies, not to further my career but rather to learn something new, something different, something outside of what I normally encounter at work. It energises my mind and gives me something to look forward to and helps to remove part of the normality of my working life.

Chess is a different beast altogether.

Why waxing philosophical all of a sudden you may ask? This was brought about because of something my brother-in-law Steven wrote on my birthday card. In it, he reckons I will beat him very soon if I continue my rate of progress (I've only started to play my first tournament and my results have been nothing except ordinary IMHO) but I doubt it very much.

This got me into thinking:

Is chess really that important in my life? I confess that it's a hobby that I enjoy very much and thus, I tend to spend an inordinate amount of time on it - at times, way too much, much to the ire of my wife.

And that's the problem with chess. It requires your constant attention to keep it growing.

So why am I so infatuated with chess? I found out why.

Chess is ultimately a test of skills, or for that matter, mental skills. It combines all the mental abilities of alertness, intelligence, responsiveness to change etc. into one neat package.

I discovered that chess itself is not interesting enough to sustain me and keep up my interest over a long period of time. It's a very good puzzle solver, no doubt.

But I found that it is the experience I got from playing opponents over the board that draws me in. I got to meet really interesting people on my personal journeys in chess. Some good, some bad.

I realised that after my first tournament was over, what I liked about the tournament was not the result but the journey. In addition, over the course of those 9 weeks, I learnt something more about myself; about my character, my fears, my anger, my disappointment, my joy. This was something I could not get from other games, like playing Monopoly or solving my daily Sudoku puzzles.

I really could not care less about ratings - I'm destined to be patzer-boy and I know I would never make it to Master level or ELO 2000 because the amount of time needed to study and practice chess to make it to that level would extract far too much time from me than is possible.

Know thyself, as they say.

For now, I enjoy the journey. But because I have only 24 hours in a single day, I know that life is much more than just chess and that I should from time to time, stop and smell the roses. This is pretty much why of late, I've gone into a somewhat semi-recluse state, spending time away from chess and not putting as much drive as I did a few months ago.

Perhaps one day, my passion for chess will die but what does matter is that my passion for life does not. Life goes on and at that time, chess will be nothing more than a mark in my personal journey.

Not Outsmarting Your Competitors

The curse of being a chess player strikes again.

Yesterday afternoon, Steven and I went down to a local bookstore to pass some time. I walked past this book on the shelf and it caught my eye instantly.

Other than the smug looking idiot on the book cover, guess what's wrong with the picture?

Alert chess players will see it instantly.

On the cover, if you're having the dark pieces and the idiot is having the white pieces, on which side should your king be on and vice versa?

Maybe the book is hinting that one of the ways of outsmarting your competitors is to play the role of the fool.

My First Completed Tournament

The Ryde-Eastwood League competition has officially ended for me.

The competition has members being split into 3 groups of 9 rounds each.

The competition ran for 11 weeks. It definitely was not easy for me to juggle work, studies and fit in chess during this period．

In 9 rounds (including one bye and one forfeit), out of 7 games, my FIRST completed official tournament record stands at: +5-2=0 (5 wins, 2 losses and no draws).

I'll just give a quick recap of my games.

Round 1: Tan v Alan Marton (1366)
Result: 1-0
Summary: In attempting to trap my bishop, Alan missed a strategic idea and allowed me to create 2 passed pawns, namely, my e and f-pawns to march up the board.

Round 2: Vince Chiara (1389) v Tan
Result: 0-1
Summary: Vince had a slight advantage out of the opening. But he made a slip in the middlegame in attempting to drive out my Knight from its outpost allowing my Queen to invade the position. I did not choose the best moves in the position but did keep the advantage. Subsequently, Vince had to make an exchange sac or lose his Queen (R for N). From then on, Vince tried to create counterplay and defended like a tiger. However, after winning another pawn, I returned the exchange to win a second pawn to obtain a winning pawn endgame.

Round 3: Tan v Quinlan Vasey (1029)
Result: 1-0
Summary: Quinlan is a likable young lad but it is a mistake to underestimate him. His chess skills have made huge progress and I estimate his true rating to be well above 1400. He made me fight for the initiative but I managed to push his pieces back. His Queen fell after a tactical oversight and the game was pretty much lost from there on. This game was played out to checkmate.

Round 4: Argo Kuru (1716) v Tan
Result: 1-0 (forfeit)
Summary: I was hyped up about this game and I have made preparations for him. Kuru is a very strong player and I would have loved to match wits with him. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the tournament hall, I was informed by Bill Gletsos that he had forfeited. In fact, he only played one game (loss) and had forfeited the rest of his games. Bummer.

Round 5: Bye
Summary: Since it was a bye, I didn't turn up and besides, my final exam was the next day so I stayed at home to study.

Round 6: Dennis Hale (1591) v Tan
Result: 1-0
Summary: I should have believed in myself more. Out of the opening, Dennis made a move that I had not expected and my first thought was to play a more dangerous but highly tactical line (which would have put me on a slight advantage) but I turned down and from that point on, I was struggling. I tried to fight back but it was in vain. I resigned after allowing his Rook to take one of the pawns holding my position together. This was a great learning lesson from Dennis.

Round 7: Arthur Hyunh (1837) v Tan
Result: 1-0
Summary: I was feeling terrible on that day and was not in the mood to play chess. I wasn't making moves, I was shuffling pieces. Arthur won in a canter. It was a nice attack by Arthur. I should have pulled myself together for that game.

Round 8: Douglas Eyres (no rating) v Tan
Result: 0-1
Summary: I was initially wary of players with no ratings. However, after Douglas made a slip, his King was suddenly trapped in the center and unable to castle as both my Bishops sliced through his position making his defence difficult and it was only a matter of time before I invaded on another front and his defence unfortunately could not cope.

Round 9: Tan v Ray Kitchen (1456)
Result: 1-0
Summary: Ray made a slip in the move order of a Closed Ruy, losing a pawn in the process. He subsequently miscalculated and lost a minor piece and it was downhill for him from that point on unfortunately.

This result put me on 7 points (counting the bye and the forfeit) and currently 2nd on the board behind group leader Arthur Hyunh in my group. A few other players still have some postponed games to wrap up and it won't be till another 2 weeks before I know the final placings for my group.

The top 2 players for each group go on to play the other top 2s from the other groups.

My brother-in-law Steven has finished the top of his group with a few people currently vying for 2nd so there's a fairly good chance I would play him for the later stages if I retain my 2nd position. I played a couple of quick games with him this afternoon and the aftermath wasn't pretty (for me, that is). But it was plenty of fun, fun, fun!!!

On to not so good news, my studies have re-commenced and it's another final slog of another 7 weeks before I finally finish my course.

Mobile Phones And Chess Don't Mix

Yesterday evening, I fetched my brother-in-law Steven to the chess club after both of us had grabbed some dinner at my place. We arrived early at the Ryde Eastwood RSL and met Joshua Christensen and Shane Burgess at the cafe downstairs and had a little chat.

One of the interesting topics that cropped up in our conversation was the apparent lack of continuity at the club. There are currently a lot of elderly players at our club and not enough young members. The only active young member currently in the club is Vasey, not a particularly good sign.

Ryde Eastwood RSL desperately needs a fresh injection of new, young players if this club is going to survive 5 years later. Without new players, the chess club is going to suffer and might ultimately face disbandment. In addition, the quality of chess at the club is not very good with a huge proportion of players in the 1500s region.

An interesting event happened during the competition last night. It was a bit of a horror show for one player. After about half an hour into the game, a mobile phone rang (and quite loudly, I might add) and everyone's heads immediately lifted up above the board to see who was the unfortunate player who was going to be penalised.

It turned out to be my brother-in-law's opponent, Sotarduga Sitompul. The game was subsequently declared lost by Bill Gletsos.

The funny part was that after the game was declared lost, some 10 minutes later, his phone rang yet again (!), leading to a few chuckles around the room.

My opponent, Douglas Eyres was late but rather than starting the clock on time, I decided to wait for him to show up. Bill Gletsos told me he would turn up and he did, some 15 minutes later.

We settled down, I asked him if he needed some time to compose himself, grab a drink etc. before starting but he said no. We proceeded to shake hands and promptly started the game. My game concluded after roughly 50 minutes.

After the game, I walked over and consoled Sitompul who went on to tell me that he had set one of his phone alarms (either the ringer or the SMS alert) to silent but forgot to do the same for the other. Bummer.

Seeing that I was available, Steven and I started playing some blitz games (ok, a LOT of blitz games) and I kept playing the defence that I've been learning the last week. This time, my outing wasn't so good. I ended up +1-4=0. I found that in blitz games, I don't think rationally, going for risky and unsound play which Steven naturally went on to exploit and win.

Next week, I have one final game against Ray Kitchen while Steven is facing his toughest opponent of the round, Lorenzo Escalante.

After this competition is over, Steven and I would be overseas for a week to visit my father-in-law (it is his 80th birthday) - which would be a nice break for both of us.

Ratings And Ramblings

Do you ever have problems trying to beat some opponents? No matter how hard you try, you always seem to have a minus score against them or end up on the losing side?

I have 4 players at my club who I am forever having problems with at my level (I'm talking about 1400-1500 levels) during my last year of playing on-and-off chess are.

The funny thing was that during my games with them, somehow I seem to falter or play terribly worse when facing these players. They're like Kryptonite to my Superman (see picture on right) and sometimes it seems like their very existence on earth was to annoy and beat me.

What is it that makes some opponents particularly difficult to overcome?

In all, it seems like I am psychologically beaten whenever I face these opponents over the board. This pattern is hard to explain but I notice that during my games with these players, I seem to fall into one of the 3 bad habits:

a. Underestimating my opponent's threats
This normally happens when I make moves but fail to see the nuances of the position including critical positions where exact calculation is of utmost importance. There's a reason why tough opponents are tough. They know how to exploit the weaknesses in your position and work to their advantage.

b. Losing patience, making hurried moves
Sometimes, our opponents tries to make moves that seems to do nothing but shuffling about, trying to lure you in and this is usually where I suffer. It is the result of trying to avoid 3 fold repetitions (hoping to win) that tends to backfire in my face.

c. Loss of consistency due to psychological factors
Be it time pressure or failing to overcome other psychological factors resulting in performance levels much less optimal than the norm. It is important to attempt to have a clear mind when facing tough opponents.

Unfortunately, overcoming these hurdles is easier said than done. Right now, the best way I can think of is to concentrate on the board, not on the opponent.

Oh, by the way I would like to clarify something, my last rapid ACF rating is 1450 according to decrap.txt (hmmm... decrap?). My recent Rapid tournament as Ryde Eastwood has ended with me scoring 5.5/9 (with a +5-3=1 score) which is a pretty decent result. My only losses were to Thomas Hartmann (1828), Arthur Hyunh (1889) and of course, my brother-in-law Steven Liu (1774). My only draw was with Joshua Christiansen (1691).

My classical rating still stands at 4g and no rating. I expect my classical/standard rating to be around 1200s-1400s at the moment, probably worse if I'm having a bad day at work. You won't believe the number of times where I walked into a mate in 1. Usually, I finish work at 7pm and my competition starts at 7.30pm and there is a distance of 20km(?) between my office and my chess club. Don't ask how I manage to jump into my car, make it through Sydney traffic, find parking space at the club (it's usually close to full) and rush in to play.

The Art Of Analysis

I popped over to the chess club at Manly-Warringah RSL last night to watch my brother-in-law Steven play. Anyway, while I watching his duel with Michael Morris, I was asked if I could give a very nice lady a game so we proceeded to play. Unfortunately, in the middlegame, she missed a tactical shot and lost a Knight in the process which was enough for me to convert to a winning R+N+2P v R endgame. I even missed a simple tactic (which I should have spotted) towards the end. She was very gracious and congratulated me for my game and we exchanged pleasantries. I noticed one change in my play. I am starting to play very very slowly in the endgame, sometimes, taking four times as long as I normally would, carefully calculating and analysing, playing prophylactic moves to make sure I don't blunder or lose the win. This was a surprise to me. Previously, when I am a winning endgame, I used to "rush". Now I play slowly, cautiously and taking my time to calculate lines when I normally don't when I see the win in sight. I think that is the most heartening thing to see.

As the saying goes,"It is of no use to have a winning advantage if you cannot convert it."

I've managed to acquire Alexei Suetin's book, 3 Steps To Chess Mastery. It's now my favourite bathroom reading material *grin*.

In the section "The Test Of Mastery", Suetin comments:

"....how, by what means, does one learn to analyse correctly?"

"A player must first master various principles, schemes, and characeteristic tactical and strategic devices. At the same time, the development of one's thinking is preceded by the acquisition of combinative vision. This is also a complicated process. At first a player notices only simple threats, then he begins to see all sorts of double attacks, and finally, that harmonic interaction which leads to combinations. Only after going through such a schooling does a player obtain the nececssary basis, which allows him to use flexibly his knowledge and skill. The analysis of complex positions, where strategic and tactical factors are closely interlaced is first and foremost very hard work. For the unprepared, it may even be beyond their strength.

Therefore, don't try to take too many steps at once. Get to know your true capabilities, each time, of course, setting yourself new problems. Along this path there is much disillusionment, causing annoyance and dissatisfaction. Without these bitter feelings you cannot get by. But remember that if you are dissatisfied, it means that you are searching. This is one of the fascinations of the art of chess."

The above note definitely struck a chord with me.

I continuously get dissatisfied with my chess skills OTB. I get frustrated from making analytical mistakes, not thinking "correctly" or mis-evaluating the nature of the position. And usually after games, when I reach home, I fire up Fritz only to be told what I really should have played and I learn. As a result, I fall down, get up, fall down, get up .... ad infinitum, striving to improve my game. I acknowledge that I might never be able to reach master level or even attain a 2000 FIDE rating but that doesn't mean I can't try for it.

In the meantime, I just have to work much harder on my analytical skills. Botvinnik once wrote," What does the art of a chess master consist of? Basically - in the ability to analyse chess positions. Anyone wishing to become an outstanding player must strive for perfection in the field of analysis."

Someone once asked me,"Why are you so hard on yourself?"

The simple answer is,"Because I want to improve."

The Hunter Becomes The Hunted

I just got back from a Rapids (25 min time controls) competition at the chess club at Ryde-Eastwood RSL.

My first game was torrid. I had put on a huge amount of pressure on my opponent Thomas and was clearly better, then suddenly, one wrong move and my advantage started slipping and in the end, I lost. Think Quinn in the movie, Jaws and you get the picture (see inset).


My brother-in-law Steven could only shake his head in disbelief that I threw away a winning advantage.

My second game was largely forgettable when I blundered a whole Rook!

Stay tuned for more of my misadventures next week when the Rapid competition continues, folks!

Right now, it's past midnight and I need to sleep.

GM Antic To Coach Manly Chess Club

Now for something Australian... :)

My brother-in-law, Steven, is at the Manly chess club who now has a GM to coach at their club.

I hope Antic's residency is approved. It would be very sad as Australia has a severe shortage of good GM trainers and it would be a mistake to let him slip by.
____________________

"PRESS RELEASE

TOP GUN TO COACH MANLY CHESS CLUB

The Manly Chess Club has hired Australia's leading player, Grandmaster Dejan Antic, to coach its members.

Club president Chris Dimock said the appointment would "add to the armoury of our players" in matches against other Sydney clubs and be an attraction for new members.

Antic, 39, who won the Australian Open Championship in Sydney this month, is one of only two active international grandmasters in Australia and is a registered trainer with the world governing chess body FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs).

Antic, one of Serbia's top players before moving to Australia in 2006, believes the key to success is learning the endgame before studying opening tactics and strategies.

"There are so many good young players in Australia, but they don't want to learn the endgame," Antic said. "So I say, I'll show you how to win in 60 moves instead of 20, and you'll win more often."

The Manly Chess Club meets every Monday night at the Manly-Warringah Leagues Club and Antic will be conducting coaching sessions for the next three weeks, with a view to extending on a more permanent basis, Mr Dimock said.

Antic's initial application for a resident's visa was refused because the Australian government does not recognise his teaching skills, even though the world chess body does. With his wife and two children still in Serbia, Antic has appealed to the Immigration Review Tribunal with a
petition signed by a host of Australian chess players who want him to stay and the support of his local member of Federal Parliament.

For further information

Club president: Chris Dimock: 9221 8390
Dejan Antic: Mob: 0423 368 980
Publicity officer: John Radovan Mob: 0403 888 015"

A French Exchange

Jumped onto FICS this morning, and started playing a relatively innocuous game. And yes, folks, it's another French Exchange variation! :)



In all fairness, it appears my opponent didn't know what to do after the pawn exchange. He wasted far too many moves and didn't develop his pieces properly while I slowly build up and went for his throat.

I am also happy to report that I've beaten my brother-in-law Steven on Monday night (woohoo! this event is so rarely seen that it is akin to ... errrm... errrm... having Harrison Ford star in an Indiana Jones movie - see pix on right)

He played a 1.d4 opening and we quickly moved into King's Indian Defence territory and he tried a Minority Attack ala Bayonet Attack on the Queenside which amounted to nothing (I actually have no knowledge of how to effectively handle the Bayonet Attack in the KID well - I definitely need to reinvestigate this line).

Despite his best attempts to break my kingside, with 2 bishops, a Knight, a Rook, a Queen and a White pawn on h6 (My king was tucked away safely on h7 hiding behind his h-pawn in all irony), his attack floundered when I managed to force him to trade all of his attacking pieces.

It was only after the smoke had cleared that he realised he had a slight problem. In the ensuing B v B endgame, we had light-squared bishops and all his pawns were stuck on light squares and all of mine were on dark squares. He resigned a few moves later.

Blowing Hot And Cold

The rapid competition at my chess club started tonight. They were essentially 25 minute games. I won 2 but lost my third and final game to Les Mikolajczyk(a middlegame miscalculation *tsk tsk*). Les and I played the Bb5 Sicilian main line and I ultimately paid the price for a rash pawn move to e5 as I didn't take the time to calculate. Ouch!

I am not totally happy with the other 2 games I won either. I didn't really have to do anything special except not blundering and slowly improving my pieces to better squares. In my first game, my opponent erred and trapped his own Queen and it was pretty much downhill all the way for him from there onwards leading to a winning Q+R v R+N endgame. In my second game, I could easily have lost and my opponent missed the tactical shot and blundered his Rook and resigned. If I had been playing my brother-in-law, I would've got whacked easily.

I notice a dangerous pattern appearing in my play. I would take my time to calculate and then spot the move I AM NOT supposed to make but 3 moves later, I had totally forgotten about it and blundered just the same.


At the same time, I looked over my brother-in-law's play. He was White and played the Nimzo Indian (albeit his opponent missed a winning tactical shot that would have won him a piece). Bill Gletsos won his game in a French Exchange. The endgame was reached as shown.

It looked tricky and curiously enough, Steven, Bill and I couldn't find a way for White to win from this position. However, things are now more apparent with Fritz and indicates White can win but he has to be precise. The familiar theme of zugzwang raises its head again. The quickest way for White to win is 1. Bb8 (blocking off the crucial b8-h2 diagonal for the Black king) then h5! (to first crimp the Black g7-pawn) and subsequently play Bc7 and once the Black King moves to e6, then f4 followed by Be5.

One thing for sure, I learnt a lot about this endgame play from Fritz.

Anyway, next week. It'll be another issue and I'm already looking forward to it. I'm not entirely happy with one of the players tonight. As soon as she finished, she started to talk loudly, disturbing other players. I can understand if you want to raise an issue but I would really really appreciate if you can at least whisper or take it out of the playing hall. Silence is golden. :)

Exams Are Over!

With a monumental sigh of relief, I've cleared my Finals Exam for the first semester with a flying score of 88% and I can now finally look to getting back to chess training again!

The Ryde Eastwood is organising some kind of rapid competition tomorrow night so it looks like I'm going to be there. My brother-in-law Steven is heading there and it'll be great to see him again.

Recklessness On The Board

Yesterday, while I was playing against my brother-in-law, while in the midst of an extremely messy situation, I suddenly found that because of the position of our pieces, tactics were flying all over the board with pins, counter-pins, exchange sacrifices and skewers. No doubt some of the moves were less than optimal, but overall, it was a very fun game and we enjoyed it very much.

It was after this game that I noticed my preference for unbalanced sharp positions are heightened where I can strive for dynamic positions. While I used to worry about losing pawns and all that, I find that if I can create enough headaches, unless my opponent is a better tactician than me, he/she is going to encounter problems. Some players I played with are happy to take the pawn that I sacrificed and then spend the remainder of the game trying to defend an extra pawn - which kind of works for me.

I also noticed one more thing, the players at my club are a real conservative lot. They want to move slowly, positioning pieces, not being aggressive etc. I am more aggressive (and reckless), if something looks good, I go for it rather than miss the window of opportunity. Of course, I would not do this in real competitions (I will be calculating far deeper) but for 5 minutes blitzes, they are just pure fun.

I also noticed that 5 minute blitz games are terrible for my chess and I usually end up in inferior positions (that's because I normally don't play my opening repertoires in 5 minute blitz games as I see no point in them as I could do that by playing on the Net instead to sharpen my opening repertoire).

Hmmm.... my endgame technique is still not much better these days after going through Convekta's training set. One of my games, I failed to see a drawing line for an endgame. Hopefully, this would improve as I'm now working my way through the 2nd training module.

Patzers Anonymous

That was a fun night. I basically lost all my games due to carelessness and horrible endgame technique. Okay, half my brain was on my studies and trying to recall how to reset the ARP cache for a router and how Ethernet frames get processed on a network. The other half of my brain wanted to get it over and done with (which is surely no way to play a game).

I basically lost my head. Played an opening I didn't know and promptly got thrashed. I deserve it, actually. Oh well, live and learn.

Is there a support group for Patzers Anonymous? I'll be the first to sign up, that's for sure. :)

Steven, my brother-in-law surprisingly got beaten (well, considering he flew in from Melbourne, I give him that).

If this game was a proper standard game instead of a rapid game, I'll gladly burn my scoresheet than let someone else see it. It was that bad.

I want to have good memories. Sort of like Arnie in Total Recall.... does anyone know where I can get the number for Rekall?

Not Very Manly

I didn't participate in the end for the Manly Springs Tournament as the arrangements have already been made. Steven arrived late as my nephew was having rehearsals and his match had to be postponed. I may not be attending Manly Chess Club in the future as it's too far and takes half an hour to drive home to my place.

Overall, it's a nice little club but the distance is proving way too much for me to overcome.

I also have this matter of studies that I need to do.

Dufus

Tonight, I went to the Manly Warringah Chess Club to watch my brother-in-law Steven play in the rapid (25 min time controls) tournament. While I was there, Steven encouraged me to sign up for the last 4 games anyway so I did.

How did I do? Okay, I guess. I got extremely lucky against the lower rated players (around 1200-1300 ELO rating) and ended up with a score of +3-0=1 or 3.5/4 in the Rapid tournament.

In the only game I drawn, I should have lost that game but my opponent missed the winning move in time pressure and allowed me to draw comfortably. The fact I managed to get a draw is of no consolation for me. I know that against higher rated opponents, I would have lost without batting an eyelid. I was practically kicking myself when I saw I had a lost endgame!

In my final game, I managed to win but it was a horrible, horrible way to win. See the position in the diagram. Black played Re8+. White of course should play Bxe8 but nooooooo.... I played Kf7 and after I played that move, I saw the Rook was en prise. Talk about a mistake of humongous proportions.

I'm still can't believe I didn't see the immediate win. What a dufus I am.