This week I played my first game in the ICC 45/45 team league and unfortunately lost my game. Analysis of the game can be found here:
viewtopic.php?t=9619

On the plus side I absolutely smashed a 1900+ player to move to another new high rating: 1820-something! You can see the game here:

In other news, I will be working under the guidance of CVTV's very own Dennis M, probably from mid-December. I really hope he can help me to improve my chess! By the time I go back to England in 12 months' + time I hope to be strong enough to hold down a regular position on a county team. That will enable me to play more chess against high-quality opposition. Probably I want to be at least 2000 ICC to achieve that- so I've got quite some way to go! Still, I know my chess is heading in the right direction.

I won my second round game in the ICC 45/45 league this week and have done a bit of work on my tactics. Here's the game:


This week my opponent (white) has an elo of around 2000 and we'll be playing in about 4 hours. A good test of my new repertoire! I am going to try to prepare my openings now, but I'm not sure if he'll play 1.e4 or 1.Nf3 as he seems to play both!

Ah yes, I also wanted to say that my ratings on ChessTempo are now at 1775 blitz and nice 1850 standard (another 50 elo in the last 2 weeks)! This represents an improvement of about 150 elo in "standard" problems over the past few months and I think it is really helping my chess.

This year I want to put together a strong classical opening repertoire, so I'm ready for returning to England in Dec 2012 which I think will be have my next tournament. I also want to study tactics and endgames between now and then and am aiming to improve as much as possible by that time!

This week I passed the 1850 milestone on ICC. My rating is still going up, long may this trend continue! I also played my league game against a 1950- I will post the video soon.

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So, next year's London Chess Classics gonna be your tourney

[quote="gentlewhisper"]So, next year's London Chess Classics gonna be your tourney
/quote]

I did offer to play, but they said they didn't want me to make all of the so-called "pros" look bad. Their loss! Hopefully I will be playing at the more prestigious event in Coulsdon instead.

In the past couple of weeks I have won my latest game in the 45/45 league, watched a few chess videos and flicked through a couple of master games in the Yugoslav Attack in the Sicilian Dragon. I am expecting to face the Dragon in next (and probably final) game in the 45/45 league. Our nearest rivals were 0.5 board points ahead of us going into the final round and are already 2-0 up, winning both of their games with the black pieces. Looks like no playoffs for us unless something dramatic happens!

Still, looking forward to using the Yugoslav tomorrow. My opponent is rated ~100 points lower than me, but has vast experience in the line (which I don't!) We shall see...

I managed to win my final round, missing a great tactic from my opponent (but so did he) but otherwise dominatingthe encounter. This gave me a total score of 3 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss for a rating performance of around 1800. I could have done even better if I hadn't blundered a rook to lose my round 1 game!

Gentlewhisper gave me a good idea: I AM going to play in the 2012 London Classic! Well... in the Amateur Challengers section anyway. This year it was restricted to 160 ECF (~1950 elo, I guess), which will be a perfect way to check whether I've improved over the course of 2012 (I was 140 when I left England a few months back). Having a tournament to aim for will help me focus on my improvement this year, I hope.

Up next is the final round of the December Dance 60/60 tournament on ICC where I'm at 2.5 from 3 rounds (but R2 was a bye against a much higher-rated player becasue we couldn't arrange a time). I guess I'm in with an outside shot of winning this thing if I get lucky in my final round!

In addition, I've updated my wiki to include this tournament.

I wonder if the game I have just opened in the other tab is your won final round game ..hmm? spoiler alert I guess =P
See, I sometimes do have good ideas ^^
Actually, I am thinking about visiting the tourney next year, too...the FIDE open that is.
Realized / Noticed it too late this year to think about it but I mean...London is just 1-2 hours away, so would actually be a nice reason to travel a bit.

Anyway, let's check the vid...

GW, I'm also considering the FIDE open, but the competition is extremely stiff in that section- most players under 2000 didn't score very well. I think the Amateur Challengers section is more suitable for me- who knows, if I play great I may even win a prize! Then again, to test myself against top competition would be good. I could aim to score 50% or something.

Chicken

Haha, there are more GMs there than players under 2000 elo! Still, if you're game, I am! It'd be great to meet a reknowned forum member such as yourself in 'real life' regardless *tips hat*.

On the 6th of November (about 7 weeks ago), I posted this:

Well I have now achieved an ICC rating of 1870, a ChessTempo standard of 1900 and a CT blitz of 1800. It looks like I need some new targets

If I needed more proof that my work on Chesstempo is helping my chess then this position serves as an example. I am black against an 1870 in a 45/45 game and already have a better position:


Here I played 19...g5! trapping white's queen. Several months ago, the chances that I'd see this are slim-to-none!

Here is the game in full, in case you are interested.


There's still some way to go. In fact, I could have won a piece for a pawn with ...g5 earlier, and could have played several better moves along the way. Still, things seem to be going in the right direction!

Ish

Congrats. I like your straight ahead, smash-mouth style. Dr. Tarrasch would be proud.

A "straight ahead, smash-mouth style"? Yeah
That's what I like. Chess should be fun-a fight, a battle!

I played another few games this week, and despite making some quite bad mistakes have managed to pass another milestone- a 1900 rating! How long this trend will continue I'm not sure! I still have gaping weaknesses in my opening play, my play in closed positions, my calculations, a blind side for my opponents' ideas and play endgames badly! Overall I feel like the better I get, the more I appreciate how bad a player I am! Still... I can cuddle the thought of my online rating for comfort. The aim is to be over 2000 by Dec 2012. We'll see!