Thanks guys

I had no idea it will turn out so well, although I am not very likely to repeat that! Wouldn't recommend it either

Yay for A's on tests that come so unexpectedly!

Thanks robo

I think I have come up with a decent idea: I allow myself playing blitz ( which I think is rather inconsistant with my wish to improve ) BUT and here is the big but, I have to analyze the game as deeply as I would a normal game. And I follow Pobble's advice of looking at one game a few hours rather than going through a couple of them in the same amount of time. It works damn well! I've learned a lot not only from chess perspective but when do I actually make bad moves. This way it's hardly possible to play more than 3 blitz games per day

When analysing one of my 5min blitz games I came up with something rather interesting. Here is a diagram


WHTIE TO PLAY

Where would you put your bishop?

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No one even bothered posting thoughts about the position I showed, oh well... Life is tough!

Anyway everything chesswise is just great. I've just finished exercises on the opening phase in Silman's workbook thus middlegame ones, here I come!
I've also started reading chesscafe puzzle book 2 the second part is on positional play, the first one on tactics. Since I have an awful a lot on tactics anyway I read only the 2nd one. Ooook, so... It's pretty good, I like it a lot actually. There are 15 motifs and for each one there are examples to explain the subject such as for example: domination, positional exchange sacrifice, counterplay and so on have a couple of examples to explain the theme and some of them are pretty complicated. Then there are about 5 exercises from each motif and finally there are 20 tests, each one If I am not mistaken has 40 exercises . So that's an awful a lot of material! I am planning reading this one after I finish Silman's book. In the meantime I'll just read the examples explaining various motifs. Originally I though I would post a starting position of the example as an exercise for you guys to solve, I hope someone will at least have a look at it

Another cool feature I've just discovered on chessbase is instead of notation window which sometimes makes it hard to think on your own when reading examples there is training mode when annotations only of the current move are shown. This way you can not only read the example but use it as an exercise by trying to figure out the moves as well since usually the first move of the example is special or something Actually this feature was in front of my nose all the time I am happy I've at last noticed it, having in mind it was only 1-2 cm away from the notation button...

Hey Armis. Remember, I read everything you put up, I just don't always comment because I might not have anything to say on the current topic. Like I told you in the chat, I think that your position above was a bit over my head to really get the full understanding of it. I understood the principles involved, but working out the actual practice sometimes eludes me.

The training feature in chessbase is great. I've been trying to get myself to go over master games there guessing the moves for each side as it goes. It kind of forces me to understand what's going on rather than just going through the moves and analyzing after the fact. Which I noticed is starting to show in my games. I made several moves and then analyzed the position after the move and told myself the move was horrible, when I should have been doing that BEFORE the move.

Thanks Rob I appreciate that

Yeah, happens to me from to time as well

So I've been reading chess cafe puzzle book 2 and found this rather interesting example


White to play

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Hi armis,

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you on this one. Like Robo, your journal is one of the ones I read regularly. I didn't have any deep insight into 1. Bh4 vs. 1. Bf4 -- and I still don't. Your explanation made sense, but it seems like the idea of pressuring h7 to force an eventual ...g6 would be a long time in coming; and then you'd need more prep to go after f6.

FWIW, Herr Fritz the 8th thinks that 1. Be3 is the way to go with the following continuation: 1... a6 2. Bxb6 Qxb6 3. Bxd7+ Kxd7 4. Nc3 Rc8 5. Qa4+ Kd8 6. Ne2 +/- 1.15/13:



Looks like what the silicon beast thought was most important was to get the Black knights off the board, get a knight to e6, and (a) neutralize the c-file with the queens on or (b) control the c-file with the queens off. Things look pretty grim for Black in the above diagram...

1. Bf4 was one of it's alternate choices. It gave this line: 1... Kf7 2. a4 a6 3. Bf1 f5 4. a5 Nc8 5. Qe2 Nf8 6. Qd3 +/- 1.06/12:



Here play developed quite differently. White kept his dark squared bishop on the kingside and pursued the alternate strategy of pushing Black's knights to the back rank. Black played 1... Kf7 which showed up in a lot of the lines in the analysis tree. I guess the beast thought that was safer than castling the king over to g8 -- probably worried about a White Kh1 and Rg8 sortie. I have no clue why it thought 3... f5 was good for Black; it seems like leaving that pawn on f6 would allow 4... Ne5 after 4. a5 which looks better to me. But what do I know? I can only analyze at 1/1,000,000 the rate that Herr Fritz can... Things look pretty grim for Black in this diagram too. Seems like it's just a matter of time before White breaks through somewhere on the kingside and Black appears to have zero counterplay.

L8erz...
=wild=

Wow, that's a really weird lookin' pawn/bishop structure, but it sure makes that Rook useless. Thanks, I had trouble seein' it, but now it seems obvious... I hate that.

That Polugaevsky-Torre game was something else. Thanks for sharing!

=wild=

Thanks a bunch Wildman for putting those on Fritz Some of the moves, especially in the Bf4 line seem so hard to understand Oh, well... I'll have to go other your notes in more depth once I be a GM after 127 years but I agree that black seems in trouble in both cases, I like Be3 more though as the advantage seems more obvious at least to my eye. That bishop on e7 is nothing compared to a knight which could land on e6

My Fritz10 prefers Bh4 by the way Stupid machines

Another day, another question under the theme of domination


White to play

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And I have just added a new goal in my training journal: NO MORE BLITZ!!

Another interesting position. While not finding the very subtle answer at least I understood why Nd7 was bad.

And I've said it before and I'll say it again. Blitz is just bad for chess training. Might be alright for play, but terrible if you're trying to get better. Even though that idea is extremely unpopular among many on this site, I know for me at least it's completely true.

I agree robo, blitz sucks if you want to get better. Yesterday after playing an absolutely horrible game I manage to win it though I decided that's it... I want every single of my moves to make sense. In blitz it's most often hardly possible unless you play as well as Curtains

A simpler exercise for today


black to play

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I have decided that this time I must read Silman's reasses your chess from cover to cover. Last time it was interrupted Starting now

Reading Reassess Your Chess from cover to cover is always a good decision. I've read it 3 times cover to cover (and many more reading only random bits and pieces), and each time, I've become a better player.

Thanks Josh. RYC is an awesome book, no question about it! I'm already 93 pages into it

Another simple exercise for you

white to play

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You asked about this position in one of your earlier posts. I don't like Bh4 because the bishop will have no scope there and f6 will never be a weakness that would require attacking from there, also from g3 there is really nothing going on as d6 will never be that hard to cover for black. I would play probably 1.Be3 with the idea of Nc3 and Bd4 to follow when white's position is harmonius and white is ready to use e- or g- files to harass black. Black really doesn't seem to have much counterplay.