The Morning After... and I Need A Good Black Repertoire

Funny, last night I went to bed after losing to Dennis and slept quite soundly.

And this morning after waking up and doing my normal routine, I wasn't even depressed. Sure I had pangs of regret that I blundered about the game last night but other than that, nothing.......

The better player won. Simple as that. And it's time to move on. Fritz also kindly let me in on where I went awry and how to grab the initiative out of the opening which would have given me good counterplay.

Was I angry? A little, at myself but I chose to tell myself that I blundered because of improper time management. Had I taken a bit more time and calculate, I would have given Dennis a run for the money. So I definitely need to manage my time better.

2 weeks from today, I am up to face an even tougher player, Arthur Hyunh (a 1800++ player) and I desperately need to prepare an opening repertoire.

My opening knowledge is terrible. I need to choose suitable repertoires more akin to my playing style.

I am an attacking player and love to attack. I have no problems sacrificing pawns to gain an intiative or to open lines if it means gaining a long-term advantage.

Any ideas for a good opening repertoire for Black geared towards a player who loves attacking and dynamic play, anyone?

The remaining list of players I need to play against are as follows:-

02 Apr 2008 - Bye
09 Apr 2008 - Black v Huynh, Arthur (1837)
16 Apr 2008 - White v Kuru, Argo (1716)
23 Apr 2008 - Black v Kitchen, Ray (1456)

Lost To Dennis

As expected, I lost my game to Dennis Hale, who basically held the advantage all the way to the near endgame where it's just losing and to play on would have been meaningless.

Despite putting numerous problems to Dennis, he was in no danger of ever losing. I made an error near time-control and got into a losing position on the 34th move and resigned one move later.

A great performance by Dennis.

I've also put my name in for the Grade matches that I mentioned in my earlier posts. So hopefully, I can garner more games under my belt.

It's near midnight now and I am exhausted and at the same time relieved, because I can now start to prepare for my exams next week.

Cheerios!

The Sydney International Open

Just a quick note.

The Sydney International Open is now in its second day.

You can view the live results from here (only 2 DGT boards are available for transmission - many thanks to the organisers for arranging all of this - they did a good job):

Sydney International Open

The Open field is very strong with over 10 GMs participating.

Les Mikolajczyk just emailed me informing all club members that the grade matches are starting soon. I'm not sure if I should go for it. I would love to, definitely.

I've reproduced his email below:


Dear Members,

The above competition starts on 19 May and will continue until 24 July, if you would like to play in a team for Ryde-Eastwood please let me know by return email or talk to Dennis Hale on Wednesday night. You must be a member of NSWCA to play in this competition.

Les Mikolajczyk
Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Chess Club


Tonight is my game with Dennis Hale, I've decided that no matter what happens, I'm going to play as normal with no special preparation on my part and play actively.

It's a bit scary. I nearly lost to Vincent Chiara the last time I played as Black (did I mention my opening repertoire is just plain lousy?).

My "First" Classical Competition

Up and until now, I've been keeping a very very low profile on my own chess competition running at the chess club at Ryde Eastwood RSL every Wednesday night.

This is actually the "first" chess club competition that I'm participating. Officially, according to the March list, my classical ratings currently stand at... *drum roll*.....

4g NSW Tan, C

Doesn't really clarify things, does it? :)

The 4g means that I need only to play 5 more rated games to get my rating off the ground and running (according to Bill Gletsos, playing 9 rated games is the requirement)

Before this, the records show that I've only played in 4 (??) games in the last 2 years although for the life of me, I can't remember what those games were about. I think they were all losses which means my current classical rating is probably <1200s at the moment, if not lower. I seem to recall losing to Theresa in one game but that's about it.

Anyway, my next opponent this week is Dennis Hale (ACF rating: 1591) . And I have the Black pieces.

Dennis is a gracious elderly gentlemanly chap who plays chess very well. When I first started playing at Ryde Eastwood, he regularly crushed me..... no, make that, obliterated me ..... like kicked-my-ass real good, if you know what I mean. :)

The reason I happen to know this is because last week Bill Gletsos gave every player in the room a list comprising the schedule/rounds/pairings (many thanks to Bill for making the extra effort!).

One thing that has worked out in my favour is that the week after that, I have a bye round which is welcome news to me because the very next day (4th April) is my finals exam for my studies! The bad news is that I've not studied for my final exams which is now less than 2 weeks away and that means that I've no time to prepare for my game against Dennis on Wednesday.

In last week's game, Dennis had a draw with Arthur Hyunh (ACF rating: 1837) so he is definitely improving. I've no doubt Dennis is going to open a can of whup-ass on me this week, metaphorically speaking. *laughs*

A Nice Endgame By Michael Adams

I apologise for the lack of updates. I've been busy on my end with work + weekend work to catch up on the blog.

Good endgame technique is one of the hardest skills to learn and an even harder one to put it into practice in tournament conditions (where the pressure is enormous).

To understand endgames means to understand the concepts of opposition, triangulation, shouldering, passed pawns, the increased value of the pawns, rule of the square and so on and so forth. And not just to understand but to understand them well enough to apply the appropriate principles as when you need it.

Why is endgame literature so hard to fathom? Because there is no one rule that fits all cases.

GM Dejan Antic who is now playing at the Doeberl Cup gave this advice on his chess lectures,"There are so many good young players in Australia, but they don't want to learn the endgame.... So I say, I'll show you how to win in 60 moves instead of 20, and you'll win more often."

Unfortunately, acquiring endgame skill is an extremely laborious process. I've spent hours trying to learn a particular endgame technique and I hope that it shows up in my game play. For example, How often do you have to employ Karstedt's rule?

And the funny thing I've noticed is that once I've started to learn the endgame (I love endgames and I never have the problem of going into an endgame even if I am in a disadvantageous position), a whole new world opens up. Accuracy is of the utmost importance and missing a tempo can mean the difference between winning, losing and drawing.

Out of the whole plethora of possible endgame positions, Mark Dvoretsky reckons that rook endings are the ones which requires the most careful study (in his book, Technique for the Tournament Player). This is primarily because firstly, rook endgames tend to appear in half of the endgames in practice and secondly, rook endgames has a well-developed theory with little material. It is this theory that must be learnt and mastered.

Some of the endgames just blow my mind. Take a look at this game played between Michael Adams vs Mikhail Gurevich - two very strong GMs.

49.... Rg3 (see first diagram on right)

Michael Adams is White, Mikhail Gurevich is Black.

White to play. How should White proceed?

Think about the following position and have a go before continuing.

In the game Adams played 50. Bd3! A very surprising move, sacrificing the h3-pawn.

This move actually accomplishes 3 aims.

1. It blocks the White king from any hidden checks on the 3rd rank should the Bishop move.
2. It occupies a more active diagonal.
3. Adams also has a particular winning idea in mind as we shall see in the next few moves.

50...Rxh3

51. a5! (see 2nd diagram on right)

Very clever. Adams had counted that his a-pawn cannot be stopped so in turn he sacrificed a 2nd pawn. The a5 pawn is of course poisoned because 51... Bxa5 is countered by 52. Rf5+ winning the dark bishop and the game. This brings to mind another wonderful endgame technique: Always maximise the full potential of your pieces.

51... Rxh4 (Gurevich has no choice but to take the remaining pawn)
52. a6 Rh8
53. a7 Ra8
54. Rxf7 (now White takes the pawn on f7 at his own leisure. It is interesting to note that Fritz thought that taking the pawn on f7 should be the first move on move 50.)

54... Ba1
55. Re7+ Kd6
56. Be4 (see final position on right)

The a-pawn cannot be stopped without sacrificing the Rook so Black resigns.

1-0

And for the last point of the day, it looks like wonderboy Magnus Carlsen is picking up a few "tips" from ex-champion Garry Kasparov. In a rapid game against Aronian, Magnus played a blunder and tried to take back the move. Kasparov of course, infamously, took back a move against Judit Polgar and wasn't punished. *tsk tsk* Magnus. You can't do that these days, not with cameras on you all the time.

This is what his father has to say of the event:

In the second game Magnus got a small but comfortable advantage as white and was trying to make progress in the rook and bishop endgame when the unfortunate incident took place.
Magnus moved his rook to a3 and discovered immediately the blunder (due to Rg3+). He mind was so occupied by registering the blunder and instinctively correcting it that he did not really notice whether he had released his rook at a3 or not.

Aronian immediately took exception to the corrected move and the arbiter was involved.
Magnus was somewhat surprised when the arbiter said that the video footage clearly showed that Magnus had released the rook on a3 before moving it to c1. He has not seen the video but of course he accepted the ruling of the arbiter, and duly resigned. 0-1.

After the game Magnus has emphasised that he did not intentionally try to cheat and he has apologised to Aronian for any disagreement he may have felt during the episode.

.......[snipped]

Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, March 19th 2008.