Hiddie,

FYI, someone else went thru all the trouble of inputting the Black Explained Dzindzi repertoire moves into CPT.

http://community.chesspositiontrainer.c ... ry286.aspx

Hey Katar, Thank you very much for the link, I might be using that one in the future. Thanks.

Thanks for the comment Jwhis

I've been sucking lately, real bad. I didn't play during the holidays, but now that I started playing again my FICS blitz rating dropped to 1370.
I'm not sharp at all, I'm not thinking clearly, I'm hanging pieces all the time and playing stupid moves .

I'm starting to like CTS more and more. Weird thing is my rating on their is still the same.

For the teamleague I got 20 games in, I had to rush almost all my games, so I'm very underrated atm. But I'm happy I can just play and my rating will get back to normal eventually.

I changed my training schedule around, i'm going to keep it real simple for now. Also made some small adjustments to my goals

new training schedule:

50-100 problems on CTS (30-45min) daily
few blitz games on FICS (30-45min) daily
work through a tactics book whenever I feel like it
work through an endgame book whenever I feel like it
go through a strategy book whenever I feel like it
go through annotated grandmaster games whenver I feel like it
analyze all my long games (otb & teamleague)
play as much OTB as possible


I'm going to try and look if I can get my hands on that Mammoth book. In the meanwhile I've found some other books that've been lying around here with grandmaster games and two books about strategy in chess. Any other good books or training tools/tips I'm missing out on?

I posted in the other forum, but here is a good book in pdf form that has enough games to get you studying for months!

http://books.google.com/books/download/ ... mGJlBpqA4g

I'm back!

Sorry for letting the CV.TV team down with teamleague in the past.
I'm low on time at the moment, but if any members of the team see this, please send me a PM so I can send a message to the entire team.
Thanks for reading!

I'm finally back at my old level

FICS blitz rating is over 1500

I've beaten my best CTS rating (which was more than a year old) by more than a 100 points and I am now rated 1530 with a best of 1557. And I've only solved 1500 tactics since I started again.

Both have really improved my play I've noticed. I now have a OTB TPR of 1800+, but my rating needs some time to catch up.
I'm starting to play some really cool games.

I have been trying to play as much games as possible and do some CTS if I had some study time. I will try to study a bit more in the future. Right now I'm planning to read the Silman books (amateurs mind, HWTYC and his endgame course).

My tactics have improved, but my endgame technique still lacks (especially in blitz)

Well that was the good news. I'll update my journal whenever I have something interesting.

keep up the good work & happy holidays

So I played a lot of blitz today and noticed the quality of the games declined after a few games (and so did my rating). Next time, I play online, I'm going to try to limit myself to fewer games and forcing myself to take a look at them. If I want to play for giggles, I'll just play faster time controls.

I'm trying to improve my endgame skills. So I'm going through Silman's endgamebook right now, I'm halfway class D and I'm hoping to master everything up to class A in the coming weeks.

Instead of just reading and studying, I'm going to play all the positions against the computer and try and fully master them in practice.

I should also get back to CTS, since that really helped me improve and the blitz really isn't doing much for my improvement.



TY. Same to you

I had a fairly long CTS session today, after not having done it in a while (last time was 2 weeks ago). The first few tactics my rating dropped to about 1500, and then after that I started jumping up, I had a few ups and downs near the 1550's and then I hit 1561! Beating my old record of 1557

I'm going to try to finish up Silman's endgame course class D and C this week, since I'm familiar with the book up to that point.

I should also edit my first post btw.

I'm getting closer and closer to my ideal opening repertoire. I'm playing lots of blitz to improve my opening knowledge and it's getting better. I'm still having trouble with the nimzo-bogo. It's something I want to learn but it's not the type of positions I've played before and therefore they don't feel that natural (yet). So still needs some practicing in those lines. Other than that I'm just fine with my hyper-accelerated dragon, though there are a few lines where I think white gets some edge. With my 1. e4 repertoire I've recently switched to the Italian, but that still needs a lot of work. I'm focusing on Ng4 and the Evans gambit. I don't understand all the subleties in the position yet, but it's getting better. The only thing I'm really having problems with is the sicilian with 2. e6. I usually play the rossolimo/moscow. I'm trying to learn a sideline with 3. b3.

That was that. Openings are just that, tactics and endgames are more important. So I'm off to my CTS session.

New CTS highest rating of 1572!

Still finishing up Silmans Endgame Course class up to class C. I hope I can finish it this week. And I also have some otb games I still have to analyze.
Important league game coming up this week, which I have to prepare for.

Overall, I think I have really improved since I started doing CTS and filling up the gaps in my opening repertoire. Hope to improve my endgames with the Silman book and I've also ordered fundemental chess endings & how to play chess endings by Muller and after that, improve my calculation, thinking process and strategy with some other books.

Happy holidays

Yeah, you too!

Have been having a bad streak the last 2 months, where I couldn't even cross the 1500's. Lucky for me I'm really starting to play well (this is all 5 minute I'm talking about). Had a bad otb tournament, but except for that my otb games have been really good and I will play some experts and even a few masters the coming months otb (slow time control). I'm really not a good blitz player. I will easily get into class A the next rating list, and hopefully expert isn't too far away either. My improvement has been very fast this season.

Also my black repertoire has been getting really good lately. Need some more practice in the nimzo/bogo lines, as almost no one plays that against me. But my hyper-accelerated dragon is pretty good. I still need to make a choice and settle on a few lines in the nimzo-indian.

I might try to learn e4 e5 next season, and if the nimzo-bogo goes well I want try some queen's gambit stuff (tartakower with Be7, and Ragozin against early Nf3), also c4 e5 is something I want to learn eventually, though it's not nescescarry at the moment and I decided a long time ago I don't want to jump openings, so I'm going to stick to c4 c5 and the nimzo/bogo until I've really got the hang of it.

Some minor quibbles in the nimzo-indian are:

in the Qc2 line, I don't know if I want to play d5. In the early a3 line, Ne4 is the only good chance for black, and white has a few very drawish continuations which I don't like. Also cxd5, Qxd5 is drawish, and exd5 is very theory intensive, though I like the positions. The other option is to play 0-0. e4 is not that dangerous I think, though I will need to look it up. My idea was to play the romanishin-vitolins gambit with a3 Bxc3 Qxc3 b5. I don't know how good/playable it is and how to play it precisely. Anyone reading this knows something about it?

I'm pretty happy with the e3 nimzo. I used to play b6 (which is recommended in the chess openings for black explained book), but I don't like the Bd3 lines for black there. My choice now is c5, going into a huebner with nf3/bd3 and going into the romanishin variation with b6, against Ne2.

In my white repertoire I've been trying to learn some lines without much theory as a back-up, and only later learn some mainlines.
For example in the Sicilian I play b3 against e6 and Bb5 against Nc6 and d6. And the Worral in the spanish. I will try to learn the mainlines one at a time, and currently I'm focusing on the french mainlines. Next will probably be the sicilians, and when I play e4 e5 as black, I will try to learn to play it with white as well. (the ruy lopez is one of the few openings I probably wouldn't mind playing from both sides)

So that was my rant. Also I have about 20 otb games which I still need to analyze, but I haven't had time yet and I will do ASAP, but currently I'm playing in too much leagues and tournaments and very busy with work/school also.

There is another Romanishin gambit that i've been looking into:
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d5 5.a3 Bc3 6.Qc3 c5

This is quickly becoming more popular. Mainline if there is one is 7.dxc5 d4 8.Qg3 Nc6. There is also the rarely played but fascinating line 6...Ne4 7.Qc2 e5!?.
See L'Ami vs Nakamura, Tata Steel 2011. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1604454

BTW both of the abovementioned gambit lines are treated in Dangerous Weapons: Nimzo. This is a great book that i've just recently purchased.

Yes!, I got the idea from L'Ami - Nakamura!

I'll look into that other romanishin gambit. Some minor issues could be the cxd5 line. I'm not that excited about either exd5 and Qxd5, but I'll look into the lines and try to find something I like. The other possibility is 0-0 and playing the other romanishin gambit. I will look into all the lines and then decide what I like and stick with it.

The ne4, e5 idea isn't to my taste.

There is nothing from wrong with b6 after e3, as recommended by chess openings for black, explained. It gives the extra option of Ne2 Ba6 (instead of c5) which is equally good I think, just a different type of position, and I could always transpose with c5 to the romanishin variation. The problem is Bd3, where the dzindzi book gives some hedgehog mainline. I think it's playable but I don't like those types of positions. Curtains has some games in it, and I'm not that excited about it (the mainline/hedgehog position that is, the sidelines are fun for black).

That's why I'm going to try c5 and play the romanishin variation against Ne2. The positions have a lot of play in them, for both sides, that's why I like it. I'll try the huebner against Bd3/Nf3, the positions are very strategic and I don't mind playing that with black. Annoying is Bd3 followed by Ne2 which leads to some boring position. I'll just go along with that, most pieces are still on the board, so still chances for both sides even though the position is very quiet.

The bogo is very solid. I looked into the Avrukh book which covers the most critical line for white. The funny thing is that the move order given by Dzindzi is completely overlooked. Just shows what opening/repertoire books are.. Just manuals/guidelines. It's nice to use as a base for building a repertoire or learning a bit more about certain positions/openings. But you just can't use them as the final word on everything, no matter how good they're supposed to be. You definitely need to look into it yourself.

Thanks Katar for your post. Again I will look into the lines (and the book you mentioned) before deciding what to play.

Also, since I want to keep up with my improvement and get into that famed expert class, I will be training a bit more seriously. Some training goals and idea's I will make for myself (in order):

-Analyze all my prior otb games, which I haven't analyzed yet. This is top priority.
-Go back to some tactics training again. Haven't done this since the last time I posted about it.
-Hurry up and finish the Silman's Endgame course to class A, which I stopped doing some while ago.
-Play a max of 3 5-minute games a day. If I play too much, I really don't learn anything from more (as I have been doing lately) and my play and rating will suffer as a result.
I will only play a max of 1 game a day until I've finished the above goals.
-Put the finishing touch on my (back-up) opening repertoire, it's close to finished pretty much. I'll try and enter everything into chessbase, which I have done for some lines already.
-Find some good players who play the lines I play and really analyze their games deeply. I've never really analyzed master games deeply. Only just glanced at them and or watched someone else analyze in a video. I think doing this myself will help me get into expert terrority, but the above goals have priority. Some contenders for this are:


Black
Nimzo:
Karpov

Bogo:
Tomashevsky
Parma
Rashkovsky
Rogers
R Antonio
Amin
C Berczes
Haba
W Harper
E Torre

Hyper-Accelerated Dragon:
Malakhov
Tiviakov
Rogers
Velimirovic
Perelsteyn
Guseinov
J Donaldson
M Hoekstra

English Symetrical:

White
Sicilian d6, Bb5 Canal-Sokolsky:
Rublevsky
T Oral
Ni Hua
G Kasparov

Sicilian Nc6, Bb5 Rossolimo:
Svidler
Vasiukov
Bologan
Sutovsky
Vachier-Lagrave
R Mamedov
I Glek
J L Hammer
Timman
T Oral
Romanishin
G Kasparov

Sicilian e6, b3 Westerinen Attack:

a4 Ruy Lopez:

Petroff Nc3:

French Exchange, Monte Carlo Variation (3. c4):
Miezis

Accelerated Panov (2. c4):
Miezis

Scandinavian Qxd5 with Nf3, Be2, c4:

Scandinavian Nf6 with 3. c4:

Pirc/Modern with Bc4:

Alekhine, exchange variation:

I will try to update this list whenever I can.

I will start after getting at it a bit more seriously after this weekend, since I will be playing in a tournament.