Well school just started so probably a bad time to start a journal but reading other peoples have motivated me to do my own.

So I've broken my training down into the following: short term and long term goals.

My short term goals to be done by the end of senior year:
1). play an hour a day on the chesstactics server whenever possible, eventually reach and maintain a 1800 rating there (currently topping out in low 1600's with average rating somewhere in the mid-1500's).
2). Try to focus on quenpawn openings (in particular systems against the KID and QID) until i can score over 50% at tournaments with it.
3). Read John Watson's Gambit Guide to the Modern Benoni until i can score 50% with it against 1. d4 at tournaments.
4). Study a bit more theory on the French Defense, get unto the point where i can play the Winawer Gambit confident that no matter what line my opponent throws at me i"ll be able to at least equilize (already can in most lines so this one should be relatively easy).
5). Move up into the U1800 division and score 50% or higher (currently in the U1600 division and scoring erratically, but overall around 50%).

Long term goals to be acheived whenever:

1). Win a tournament
2). Become a 2200 or higher
3). Start my own free chess school once i get good enough to and try to train part of the next generation of players.

I will also be playing many games on FICS, which i will try to post on here as well.

Wish me luck guys !

That's an interesting set of goals. Does the interest in 1. d4 against the KID and QID mean you're going to fly the coop on Bird's Opening...

Go for it and good luck!

L8erz...
=wild=

Not at all, I fully intend to continue playing 1. f4.

I've always liked playing the Queen's Gambit Declined and used to play 1. d4 all the time, then i moved up a level and people always started playing either the KID or QID which i know like zero theory. Other than those two responses i like 1. d4 and do quite well with it, so i want to be prepared for that as well. I already know 1. f4 very very well and now if i can become really good at 1. d4 then i'll have i think a full repertoire for white, a solid, good opening that should normally garuntee white at least a slight edge (1. d4) and a risky and double-edged opening that i shouldn't have anything worse than equality. I'll probably use the Bird's more for when i need to win a game or feel like an exciting game and the queen pawn when i just want a solid, slightly advantageuos position, or when I'm ahead and want to avoid losing, etc. In addition to those, i also play 1. e4 (know a ton of theory, but have real trouble against the Caro-Cann and Petrov so i don't play it as much as i used to), and 1. c4, 1. Nf3, 1. b3, (know enough theory to get by in all of these) and when i want a tactical showdown (probably only in just for fun games) 1. g4

Thanks!

Hi themofro,

You might want to take a look at Starting Out: 1 d4! by John Cox. He's a really good writer and explains what's going on in the various 1 d4 openings. I think he also wrote the Dealing with d4 Deviations book Josh and I both have which I also really like. Starting Out: 1 d4! is a repetoire book, so if you don't like his recommneded lines you'll have to look elsewhere, but it might be a good kick-start to get you going since you get a survey of all the Black replies to 1 d4 along with a handful of recommended lines as White.

Timothy Taylor (author of a book on Bird's Opening, I believe) has a new book out called Challenging the King's Indian and Gruenfeld. I spent some time thumbing through it in a Borders's recently and I loved his attitude towards choosing lines to avoid theory and have fun. He recommends using the Four Pawns Variation to either blow Black away right out of the starting blocks (or get a transpositon into a Marcozy Bind against the Accelerated Dragon if Black plays the ... c5 instead of the ... e5 pawn break) in the KID. Obviously there must be some reason that doesn't work well at the GM level or the KID would have been discarded a long time ago, but I got the impression he feels like most club level KID players aren't up to the task against a well-prepared White.

I'm looking at switching over from being a life-long 1 e4 player to 1 d4. If I've got to start over with theory from the White side, I might as well learn something new to expand my horizons and overall chess erudition -- if such a word as erudition can be applied to a club level player's game... I'm very interested in seeing what you come up with!

L8erz...
=bill=

Thanks for the advice on the queen pawn book, I'll definatley have to try to get my hands on that.

Timothy Taylor is indeed the author of a most excellent book on the Bird's (one of my favorite books actually) and i might check out that book of his as i love his writing style. However i love playing against the Grunfeld and I am trying to learn something other than the Four Pawns Attack (which is what i currently play) against the KID as it transposes into a Benoni with f4 normally, which i think is fine for black and not what i want to be playing against. I mainly want to learn the Saemisch or Classical variation as i like them so far after doing a little bit of theory on them and they are pretty much recognized as some of the best lines. Because of that I'm not sure how helpful the book will be for me, although I'll try to check it out anyways as i love his style of writing. Thanks for the suggestions.

Well as for today, I did my hour of tactics training, rating still hovering around 1550 there. Then tried to play some games against members here but had server problems so ended up playing against some dude on the internet rated about 250 blitz points higher than me, here's the game:



[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2007.08.22"]
[Round "?"]
[White "erhardo"]
[Black "themofro"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1581"]
[BlackElo "1343"]
[ECO "C05"]
[TimeControl "120+12"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. c3 c5 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. Ne2 cxd4 8.
cxd4 f6 9. exf6 Nxf6 this is all standard theory, he reverses the order of the next two moves though.

10. O-O Bd6 11. Nf3 Qc7 now I'm happy with my position, has a nice battery towards the king, open f-file, and possibility of e5 break, overall I am quite fond of playing against the Tarrasch.

12. h3 O-O 13. a3 a5 14. Bg5 Bd7?? this i think is a mistake, i should have played 14...e5 immediately, as it is this gives him an opportunity to knock me out quick


15. Qc2 g6 16. Bh6 Rf7 17. Ng5 these are all nice forceful moves by white

17...Re7 and here i think that 18.Bxg6! would have been a killer but he missed it

18. Rac1?? missing the winning move

18...e5! taking advantage of the mistake, now Bxg6 doesn't work out well for white, i think it's the only move that saves the game

19. Bxg6?! material ends up even after this, but i think it's a mistake as i get the very nice g-file and probably better worth out of my share of the material

19...e4! this is the trap i had set with my last move, his next move is now more or less forced

20. Bf7+ Rxf7 21. Nxf7 Kxf7 now i am quite happy

22. Qd2 Rg8 i beleive the strongest move which forces the next 7 moves of play

23. Kh1 Qc8 threatenign Bxh3 and mate or massive gain of matieral

24. Nf4 only move

24...Bxf4 25. Qxf4 Bxh3! I think that this is quite a nice little combination, picks up two pawns and gives me a winning advantage i think

26. gxh3 Qxh3+ 27. Qh2 Qxh2+ 28. Kxh2 Ng4+! the point of the bishop sac, i now fork the bishop and win it, i now have two knights and pawn vs. rook

29. Kh3 Nxh6 30. f3 Ke6 31. fxe4 dxe4 32. Rc5 Nxd4 33. Rxa5 Nhf5! threatening mate, which he completely misses

34. Ra7 Rg3+ 35. Kh2 he had to sac the exchange to stay alive, although he's toast here no matter what

35...Nf3+ 36. Kh1 Rh3+ 37. Kg2 Rh2#
{erhardo checkmated} 0-1

that was a pretty precise checkmate

I thought it was pretty cool too!

It was a nice game, but you missed a pretty easy mate to be honest. The point of 25... Bxh3 26. gxh3 Qxh3+ 27. Qh2 shouldn't be 27... Qxh2+ 28. Kxh2 Ng4+. Although that also wins, there is a better move...

Oh, I guess there is: 27...Qf3 and mates, lol.

Here's my latest internet blitz game, except this time against someone rated the same as me:



While i don't normally emerge out of the opening like that, in all of my recent d4 games I've been able to push e4 like that and open up the position favorably (in this game it might have actually been a bit premature though, but i think I should have been fine regardless). Normally black plays dxc4 and that makes me waste a tempo or two but i still will generally successfully play a strong e4. Generally it's not a massacre like that either though .

Please feel free to leave your comments on the game, thanks!

Well I just finished playing a blitz game against a guy rated 150 blitz higher than i was that i lost. I came out of the opening allright i think, but somewhere along the way i got outplayed. I'm going to analyse it tonight (I think we learn more from our losses then we do from our wins) and will have that posted tomorrow probably, but thought it would be good to post it here so that you guys can see it and offer advice. Here's the game:



Thanks!

For some reason the last move 24...Bd4 isn't showing up in the replayer even though i put it in there. Anyways, that was the last move of the game.

Nice play in our tournament game

Thanks!

Well just finished about 1.5 hours on CTS, my rating there is now 1570, up about 25 from yesterday