Celeste is back !
Guess it's obvious that she has to star in every vid from now on.

Very nice and amusing - really like to listen to your commentary.

"If it's ok for mommy, it's ok for me" ... yea, I have given up on argueing with my gf, too




P.S.:
God, it drives me crazy....what did she ask ?
"Can I watch TV ? I have finished my ??????? practice..." @2:25

Heh heh - her flute and violin practice. She also works on her chess but not yesterday.

Much better balance between counting moves and general thinking from Kamus.

Regarding the calculation of variations throughout the game by both sides-

1. Although there are exceptions, generally ' two ' pieces are needed to deliver mate.
2. Attackers should outnumber defenders for an attack to work. The rule of three - sacrifice one piece and deliver mate using the remaining two pieces.
3. A tactic or mate is a local event, say covering sixteen squares at most. Simply count the attackers against the number of defenders in this area of the board. Knowing the number and make up of the pieces helps a lot to visualise the final position when counting a tactical variation. There might not be any pieces left to deliver the mate against your exposed king! The attacker might more easily see the need to bring up another unit before tactics could possibly work!


A simple example of the above would be that against four defending pieces around a king, the attacker would need six pieces! Method is just trades of four attackers for the four defenders which leaves two attacking pieces to mate the now bare king.

Although the above may seem incredibly simplistic, it is a method which helps a lot not only with making decisions but also in the calculation of variations. As my mother loves to say " think about what you have got first, before running off for anything new ".

Yup...got destroyed in this game! Too many nights of hard partying don't make for good chess playing. Kamus seized on my mistakes and used the gfile I'd so kindly opened to punish me nicely. Well played. But I do really reget that I didn't ask to play it at a later time when my brain would be functioning a bit better...the state I was in last night I was basically lost from move one. That's not to take away from Kamus' play at all though - I was aware he played some relatively specialist sidelines and figured he'd be in with a good chance regardless. Still, being aware that my calculation and forsight wouldn't be up to scratch, going for a sac was just plain stupid. I should have played solid and hoped for the best. The time situation was what really pushed me to do it though. I was so down on the clock I figure regardless of the objective merits of the sac, at least it would even out the time situation a bit. I completely forgot we had an incriment, haha

Anyhow, disappointing game for me as I think now my chance of 1st place is out the window...but you live and you learn. Thanks for the vid, and good luck with the rest of the tourney!

Edit: I just saw Detroitman lost to Chesser! So I can breathe a sigh of relief...still have some tough games to go against Sarci and GW, but at least my drunken antics didn't completely cost me tourny yet!

Sorry Flint- it would have been completely OK with me to postpone the game if you were tired- I certainly know the feeling! I appreciate you staying up late to accommodate my travel schedule but since it is a RR, I don't think it would have been a problem to reschedule. It should make you feel better (a little) that you had a clear win in this game, largely due to outmaneuvering me- I'm sure if you had been rested you would have spotted it without much difficulty. I clearly got lucky in this game. I looks like you still have a solid shot to win this thing anyway- best of luck to you!

Ah man I just looked over the game and saw that Nf6 was winning...most annoying is that I was looking at that move first, but then completely forgot about it and went for Bh6 instead. I think I prefered to remain ignorant, in this case! haha

True - although keep in mind that top 4 is the immediate goal. Don't forget you only have to make it to the playoffs

Oh I didn't realise that! I thought playoffs were only used as a tie break? Did this change or was it always like that?

Ah okay, I just misunderstood. Never been in a tourny before, and I thought Round Robin by definition meant no playoffs, or that playoffs were the same as tiebreaks. Cheers for clearing it up!

Indeed, GW- I believe that explanatory graphic you created with your blood, sweat and tears truly is your masterpiece!

Indeed. And like most works of contemporary art, I obviously failed to understand it!

(Unlike most works of contemporary art, however, it did contain something to understand).

Btw it could definitely do with a few more tears! The table is too much Reich and not enough Beethoven!