Back from Paris. I loved it. It is a great city and I was impressed by the many beautiful buildings and tourist attractions like the Arc the Triomphe and the Tour d'Eifel. I definitely want to revisit Paris in the future.

Back to chess. I haven't posted in like a week so here is an update:

I played on CTS again today and went down a lot (again) from 1543 all the way down to 1509. I made many tactical mistakes in move orders etc. It's the first time I have played there this week, so I guess I shouldn't worry to much. I got my RD down to just below 30.

Today my tactics went a lot better than yesterday. I climbed to a rating of 1555, making up for my terrible performance yesterday. I got my RD below 25.

After taking a look at my goals I noticed that I still had to learn the Giuoco Piano (love that name). Learning it right now.

Just did another session on CTS. Climbed up and down and eventually came back at 1555.

Edit: Did a second session, improved to 1571.

Hi everybody (or at least the people that are reading this),

I haven't posted the last days. The summer vacation started here in the Netherlands (I don't know how that is in other countries) and I just didn't feel like posting. I haven't done any tactics the last week, again, because I didn't feel like doing them. The only thing I really did was playing blitz games on FICS.

In about a month I will be playing in the Open Dutch Youth Championships in Enschede. I will be playing in the B-section, which is for players up to 16 years old. My last year performance at this tournament was really bad, I finished at the 49th place in the C-section (is this correct English?) with a TPR of 1446, which was at that time a +113 performance. I hop to do much better this year.

I will probably be the 30th-rated player in my section. Last year I was the 53th rated player in a lower section, but since then I have improved more than 300 rating points. My goal is to end in the top 5, which maybe is highly optimistic, but I want to end in the money. There is quite a large prize pool this year, varying between 150 euros for 5th place to 600 euros for 1st place.

To finish that high on the rankings in my section I need to win quite a lot, also as black. Right now I play the Slav and the Caro-Kann as black, so I will need to play new openings. I decided on the Sicilian Najdorf/Scheveningen (I will play 5...e6 first and play a6 later to avoid 6.Bg5 lines) against 1.e4 and the Dutch against 1.d4. Besides that, I also need to find a good variation as White against the French Defense. I never get a good position out of the opening.

So I am going to learn some openings first and I will temporarily play less on the Chess Tactics Server.

I guess I told you enough for today Please post a reply if you have tips for me or just want to write some crap

Hey^^

Deciding to change the opening repertoire a month before a tourney is a pretty brave decision
Ok...on the one hand you will get some valueable experience in that new openings when you play it in a tourney but on the other hand you will probably have a hard time as you are unfamiliar with it.
If you are focussing on the results maybe it is better to stick to your current ones and improve a bit on them...something like: study some endgames for the Caro-Kann or so.

Whatever you decide...gl hf ^^

Hey gentlewhisper,

You're absolutely right in that it is pretty hard to play an opening so short after you have learned it. In my defense: I have played the Dutch in some blitz games and had some good results with it; and I have played the White side of the Sicilian Najdorf/Scheveningen many, many times.
Still, I think you are right, but you must understand that it is hard to play for a win with the Caro-Kann. And there will likely be some must-win situations in this tournament. There are about 80 people playing in my section and there are only 9 rounds so in order to finish in the top 5 I am going to need an opening which you can use to play for a win.
I am not saying you're wrong though.
But anyway... thank you for your reaction. I am not getting many I guess this is the third reaction I have had since starting - your second one. I just like getting reactions so I know I am not doing this for nothing

Just saying, maybe the Najdorf is too much in this short time period. The first thing everybody who plays the open Sicilian does is pick a line against the Najdorf. You'll probably be at a massive disadvantage because of the deep main lines and then there are so many tricky sidelines, not to forget all the Anti-Sicilians you need to know too. Maybe you should go for a different Sicilian, like the Scheveningen or the Classical, less theory and players usually know less about them (especially the Classical) then the Najdorf. If you were playing CK up to now you'll probably need a little time to figure the Sicilian style out anyway, doing that with the Najdorf could be dangerous.

My original plan was to play the Scheveningen - but I have found that many Scheveningen lines transpose into the Najdorf, and the ones that don't give Black a cramped position, not something you can play for a win with. But by playing 5...e6 first you can avoid the heavily analysed main lines of the Bg5 lines (6.Bg5?! is not so good against the Scheveningen: 6...Be7 7.Qd2 h6! 8.Bh4? Nxe4!). And the Anti-Sicilians are not so much to learn, you can just play that on general principles.
But I guess you're right, I probably should avoid the Najdorf for now. Do you perhaps know any Scheveningen lines that give Black a good position but don't transpose into the Najdorf?

The Anti-Sicilians aren't that much work, but I made the experience that they add up when I tried to create a Najdorf repertoire a few months ago. I guess that's subjective though.

I'm not that familiar with the Scheveningen (yet, I plan on trying it out in the near future, so your experience is quite interesting for me), but if you don't like the positions you shouldn't play it. The Sicilian I would recommend is the Classical. Its biggest practical advantage is that lots of players have a repertoire with Be3 or f3, lines they play when faced with the Classical too. But Black gets a good game relatively easily. In all the other lines you need to know a little theory, but if you're familiar with the themes you shouldn't have major problems, which means you're going to be familiar with the opening quickly. I wouldn't call any of the Classical lines I play passive, there's always play for both sides, although you need to have a look for yourself of course. Yermolinsky's book on the Classical is pretty good if you're interested in learning it.

Of course, if you absolutely want to play the Najdorf do it, but personally I wouldn't try to learn it shortly before a tournament.

I play the Be3 and f3 lines against the Classical .

I will take a look at the Classical and Scheveningen lines and decide which is better for me. Thank you for your suggestion.

I know exactly what you mean

Hi to everyone!

Sorry for not posting for such a long time. I have just gotten back from 3 weeks vacation in France. I haven't done any chess there, so I really have a lot to do this week
Today I have spent most of my time watching videos here that I have missed and studying the Najdorf. I still have a lot of preparation to do for my tournament next week.
I have decided not to play the Najdorf/Scheveningen as black. I want to thank gentlewhisper and Hitchhiker for making me realise that you can't learn this opening in a week or so.
But I have to get back to studying now. I'll post again soon.

Here in Holland (or the Netherlands, which one is correct English?) the new chess ratings have just been announced. I improved my rating with 72 points reaching 1719, a new all-time high for me. Just getting a little closer to master level

I will be leaving tomorrow for the Open Dutch Youth Championships and in effect I will be unable to post for the coming week.