Hi katar,

Argh!!! Obviously I didn't see that... And to think you were badmouthing your tactical ability to Robofriven the other day...

And while we're on the subject, after 40. Nxd8 Nf2+ 41. Kg1 Nxd1 42. Ne6+ if Black instead plays 42... Kh6 43. d8Q the White rook on c2 is untouchable (because if 43... Qxc2 44. Qh4#) and White is a rook up should win fairly easily. Also for all other king moves 42... K-any 43. d8Q+ K-any 44. Qxd1 and it appears the White queen didn't move at all and the Black rook disappeared if you blinked...

Since I'm capable of finding this sort of tactic fairly routinely (at least at CC speeds -- OTB is something else again...), what happened? I think it was a psychological issue more than anything else:

1. I have a tendency to resign too quickly in general (at least according to most people who feel like they're authorities on the subject).

2. I'd been feeling like this game had been lost for the last 20 moves, so I was playing with a what-the-heck-who-cares attitude. I guess if you're playing like you expect to lose, it has a way of becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy.

3. I let my CC game load get way too high and I was looking for excuses to just get games over and done with. Been giving out lots of draw offers and giving up lots of losses for the last month. I'm definitely a burnout case right now.

4. Not only was it a really pretty move, but it was a really shocking one that completely blindsided me. Instead of just taking a day and coming back and having a second look, for reasons 1, 2, and 3 above I couldn't hit the resign button fast enough.

Clearly my head is in a really bad place for playing good chess right now. Anyway, thanks for some good analysis and a much needed (virtual!) glass of cold water in the face!

L8erz...
=wild=

Hehe... it's very important to list all the candidate moves in a position to make sure you don't miss something! And don't resign until you're certain that all of your candidate moves are losing. Better luck next time!

W00t! 2194 Tactics Trainer rating!

How good is that tactics trainer? Is it better than the CTS and chesstempo?

Oh yeah, and congrats on the rating!!

It depends on what you're looking for...

chesstempo has lots of relatively simple problems and is good for a "warm up" or "light workout" sort of use in the unrated mode. My rating there was ~1900, but that was months ago and it looks like there's been a lot of rating inflation since then so I don't know what it would be there today.

CTS is chess as a first-person-shooter-type video game. I tend to hover in the 1500-1550 range there.

chess.com has lots of complicated (like 5-10 minute average solution time) problems mixed in with some relatively simple 1-2 minute ones at that level. Since I'm still very inconsistent, my rating wobbles around in the 1900-2200 range there.

Thanks! I'm considering using the chess.com trainer. I prefer tactics books, but I like the rating graph.

vs 1600 and 1800 rated players - three live games - took 2.5 out of 3 - my adrenaline was pumping, to say the least

pretty wiped - head hurts - analysis afterwards was inaccurate - will follow up perhaps in live videos or in the game analysis forum.

But suffice it to say, tonight this 1300 rated player beat an 1830 player, drew with a 1613 player and then beat the other 1600 rated player to take first place in his quad,

oh yah.....

and yes, I made mistakes - so did my opponents - I'll go over these in the analysis forum later but for bragging purposes, here is where I crushed my opponents - bwahahahahahahahaaaaa...

Good job! It's nice when the planets all align like that...

Nice play in the endgames! The real trick is how your king ends up halfway across the board while your opponent's king is still at home.

yah, I'm pretty psyched - barely fell asleep last night - had a headache and was just wooshhh - I'm sure my blood pressure and testosterone shot up a bit - LOL

I've decided to dedicate the next three Whiskeytown Wednesday videos to analyzing each game - kind of a nice way to fill out my obligations for that month since I'll be mostly busy doing other stuff and they're three of the best games I've played in some time - (rising up to the challenge, I guess)

did run them thru Fritz - found a couple unsound sacrifices but hey, such is chess at the 1600-1800 level -

pax
RB

1600-1800 level???
You know that the places where you play the ratings are at least 200 points higher than in reality?, meaning that the ratings are not realistic at all. But 1400-1600 is still pretty good.

No, these were official USCF 1600-1800 rated players that I played against in an official USCF rated quad, not Playchess or Chess.com opponents, but certified USCF rated opponents.

two 1600's and an 1800 - but I think the 1800 musta had an off night cause a 1600 player beat him once too

Stop trying to deflate my happy!!!!LOL

RB

[Quickling applying patch mode ON]

2.5/3 against 1800/1600/1600 = performance rating of ~1933. Not bad...

[Quickling applying patch mode OFF]

after 2 months of bad chess my rating has been restored!!!

I wasn't trying to deflate your happiness . But beating those three was very good. Congratulations! If the videos are good you should think about posting them in the intermediate/advanced section (unless they're game analysis videos off course). Nice. Oh, and off nights don't count. If he's 1800 you just beat an 1800 player, not an 1800 player with an off night. And it's very natural for a 1600 to beat an 1800. A lot of people don't have very up to date ratings plus following the elo system there is like a 25% chance (something like that) a 1600 can beat a 1800.