Third place sounds pretty good to me!

Look forward to hearing how your next tourney goes!

Hi Crash, I saw a reivew you posted of Romanovsky's Middlegame Planning on chessforums.org . Have you read the companion volume Middlegame Combinations ?

No, I haven't read it but then again, I haven't seen it either. Is it as good as "Middlegame Planning"?

I haven't been doing much with chess of late. It seems I go to work, go home and then its time to go to sleep and get up and do it all over again. The kids are back for the Friday night chess lectures again in a week and a half and I will be playing again in an active tournament in Kitchener next weekend so I will let you know how bad the rust is. Work has prevented me from playing chess a couple of times but I seem to have gotten things running smoothly again and haven't had any late night support calls for over a month or so. I am going to start paying attention to chess again now so hopefully I will be less of a stranger here.

It was a pleasure to introduce you to some of my favourite authors and to converse with someone who likes them as much as I do. I am going to have to find a balance again where I have time to read and play chess again (and post to this site more frequently as well).

I didn't wind up going to that active chess tournament in Kitchener but I will go to the non-rated event on the coming weekend which is taking place about one kilometer from where I live. Active chess is not my favourite form of chess and the six hours of driving there and back to Kitchener just didn't seem to be worth it. Also I didn't have anyone to share the ride up with so I decided to take advantage of the last weekend of summertime weather. There are a couple of tournaments in October in the Kitchener and Guelph area which I will have to take some vacation days to travel to unless I want to take a bye in the first round of at least one which has a Friday night round.

I haven't had any legitimate weekend calls in a couple of months from work so it is probably safe to get away for a weekend now here and there. The downtown has really changed since I used to live in the area. Some of the changes have been for the better and some for the worse.

After I finished with the service call I went back downtown and had some Thai food which was quite good and spicy and hot, so I was a bit less annoyed than I might otherwise have been over an unnecessary trip on my day off. It is nice to have money again so that I can afford to eat out occasionally or even every day if I am so inclined.

Anyway I have to come up with some topics for my Friday night lecture. Probably an endgame or two, a middle game position or two and maybe some wild tactical position. Last year the lectures were an hour long but this year the organizer wants them to be 45 minutes so I have to excise some of the fluff.

Hi Crash, sorry for the late reply. Life(work, wife, dog) has been intervening in my chess lately as well. Until a couple days ago I hadn't even looked at board in almost 8 weeks.

I haven't read Romanovsky's Middlegame Combinations. I saw it on the http://labatechess.com site when I went hunting the planning book after reading your review of it. He was selling them in a package deal ($25US for both) so I grabbed them both. I haven't had a chance to crack them open yet. The planning book is next in line for my strategy books though. I will try to take a look at the combinations book this week and let you know what's inside.

Everything appears to be presented through either game fragments or complete games. It looks like it should be an interesting read.

Here are the contents:

Chapter 1: What is a Combination?
Chapter 2: Combinational Elements - Motives and Themes
Chapter 3: Aesthetics of Combinations. General Ideas
Chapter 4: Ideas and Technique in Combinations with the "Smothered King"
Chapter 5: More about aesthetics. About the Pseudo-Sacrifice. The Sacrifice of the Queen
Chapter 6: About the Theory of Combinations. Typical Ideas
Chapter 7: History of Combinations. The Immortal Game. Masterpieces of the end of the 19th Century
Chapter 8: Double Attack. Pawn Attacks
Chapter 9: Positional Weaknesses - Motive of a Combination. Combinations provoked by weaknesses in the castled position. Sacrifice of a bishop for the g3,h3,g6,h6 pawns.
Chapter 10: The combinational attack of the two bishops. Harmony of the rooks on the second and seventh ranks. The sacrifice of the rook on g7.
Chapter 11: Harmony of rooks and bishops. The theme of locked-in pieces.
Chapter 12: Methods of Interception and various combinational ideas.
Chapter 13: About the thinking of a chessplayer during the game.

I have been AWOL from this website for a while though I haven't been AWOL from chess. I played in two out of town tournaments in Kitchener and Elora, Ontario over the last two weekends. Prior to that I played in an event in the Detroit area. I hope to have a few of my games annotated over the next few weeks and will post them here somewhere...

I appear to have turned the corner on my rustiness. My first few tournaments back after my more than decade long retirement were okay and then the wheels fell off and I suffered a few setbacks including dropping 230 rating points in my Canadian Chess Federation rating over a series of tournaments. I have recovered about 100 points of that over the last few tournaments including 47 points over the last week and a half. I have adjusted to playing with diabetes and seem to have found the groove by being aware of my blood sugar and adjusting my play so that it has not been costing me points by just being aware when my judgement is impaired by high or low blood sugar. I have also switched to salads with a chicken topping as a lunch staple during tournaments and it has helped.

I still lack judgement as my inclination is to be too materialistic but when I suppress these urges to grab stinky bait like irrelevant pawns, my results have been quite positive.

In Kitchener, I was the lowest rated player in the over 2000 section and managed to finish in a tie for 6th through tenth and finished with 2.5/5 ahead of a couple of masters. I had two whites and three blacks and won both games with white and garnered only a half point with black. A win in my last round instead of the loss that I had and I would have tied for second. I had chances but did not capitalize. My losses were to players rated 2197 (FIDE) and 2300 CFC and came at the end of the day when the room we were playing in was extremely hot due to the sun and a malfunction in the heating system. I gained 32 points and was pretty happy with my play. I did not seem to get dead tired as I often do and found that my tactical sense was working fairly well though my judgement was not always up to snuff.

In the second tournament, I had four tough games and came out on top with two of them plus I beat a youngster who tried to beat me in the Hennig-Schara Gambit but I just remembered to retreat the queen to d1 after grabbing each of the pawns on offer and that was enough to give me the edge needed to win. I advised him to avoid such lines against stronger players (his rating was 1300) and he managed to beat two higher rated opponents (1550 and 1850) playing more mainline openings.

I played two members of the Canadian Women's Olympic Chess team on the last day and was .500 though it could have swung to .000 or 1.000 with a bit of bad or good luck.

Vlad Drkulec

Here is one of my recent games. I will be providing annotations once I finish them....

[Event "KW Octoberfest Ontario Open"]
[Site "Kitchener City Hall"]
[Date "2008.10.18"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Crash"]
[Black "NN"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2028"]
[BlackElo "2125"]
[ECO "B06"]
[EventDate "2008.10.18"]
[Annotator "Fritz 11 (120s) and Crash"]
[PlyCount "69"]

{B06: Modern Defence}
1.d4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.Be3
{Slightly premature. I was inspired by a recent lecture that I did on the 150 attack but I mixed up the move order... 3.Nc3 or 3.c3 are more common alternatives.}
3...c5
{The last book move according to Fritz.}
4.c3 Qb6
{This move justifies the White bishop on e3.}
5.Qd2 cxd4 6.cxd4
( 6.Bxd4 Bxd4 7.Qxd4 Qxd4 8.cxd4 Nc6
( 8...d5 9.e5 Nc6 10.Ne2 Bf5 11.Nbc3 Bd3 12.O-O-O Bxe2 13.Bxe2 e6
14.g4 Nge7 15.h4 h5 16.Nb5 Kd7 17.Nd6 f6 18.f4 hxg4 19.Bxg4 b6 20.
Nb5 Raf8 21.h5 fxe5 22.fxe5 Rf4 23.Be2 {Reichard,S-Mack,W
(2200)/Calvia 2007/CBM 120 ext/0-1 (34)} )
9.Ne2 d6 10.Nbc3 Nf6 11.f3 O-O 12.O-O-O Bd7 13.Nf4 Rfc8 14.Kb1 Kf8 15.
Nfd5 Ne8 16.Bb5 Nb8 17.Bxd7 Nxd7 18.Rc1 e6 19.Ne3 Ke7 20.f4 a6 {
Sandhu,M (2130)-Alvir,A (2355)/Vienna 1996/CBM 055 ext/1/2-1/2 (85)} )
6...Nc6
( 6...Nf6 7.Nc3 Ng4 8.Nd5 Qd8 9.Bf4 d6 10.h3 Nf6 11.Nxf6+ Bxf6 12.Bh6
Nc6 13.Nf3 Qb6 14.Be3 Qd8 15.Bc4 O-O 16.O-O Na5 17.Be2 d5 18.e5 Bg7
19.Rac1 Bd7 20.b4 Nc4 21.Bxc4 {Vives,G-Gomez,R (2059)/Olivos 2002/CBM
089 ext/0-1 (63)} )
7.Ne2 d5 8.Nbc3 Nf6 9.f3
( 9.exd5 Nb4 10.Nf4 Bf5 11.Rc1 {Black should be able to gang up on the
d5 pawn and gain at least equality.} )
9...e6
( 9...dxe4 )
10.e5 Nd7 11.O-O-O h6
{Black intends to castle by hand in order to preserve the h6 pawn.}
12.Kb1 a5 13.Nc1 a4 14.Nb5 a3
( {1.25 Fritz 11:} 14...O-O 15.a3 f6 16.exf6 Nxf6 17.Na2 Bd7 18.Nac3
Ne7 19.Bf4 Nf5 20.g4 Nh4 21.Qe3 g5 22.Be5 {[%eval 29,15]} )
15.Nd6+ Kf8 16.b3 Kg8 17.h4 Ne7 18.h5 g5 19.g4 f6 20.f4 gxf4 21.Bxf4
( {-0.62 Fritz 11:} 21.exf6 Bxf6 22.Bxf4 e5 23.g5 Qxd6 24.gxf6 Qxf6
25.Rg1+ Kf8 26.dxe5 Nxe5 27.Qd4 Ng4 28.Qxf6+ Nxf6 29.Be5 Kf7 30.Nd3 )
21...fxe5 22.dxe5 Nxe5 23.Ne8
{This is no doubt the move missed by my opponent. The defensive task
is made much more difficult with the removal of the g7 bishop.}
23...Nf7
( {0.21 Fritz 11:} 23...Nxg4 24.Nxg7 e5 25.Re1 Rh7 26.Bxe5 Nxe5 27.
Rxe5 Rxg7 28.Bd3 Bd7 29.Rf1 Qd6 30.Qf4 Rc8 31.Ne2 )
24.Nxg7 Kxg7 25.Qc3+ Kg8
( {1.14 Fritz 11:} 25...e5 26.Bxe5+ Nxe5 27.Qxe5+ Qf6 28.Nd3 Qxe5 29.
Nxe5 Rf8 30.Rg1 Be6 31.Re1 Rac8 32.Bb5 Rc7 33.g5 Bf5+ 34.Bd3 Bxd3+ 35.
Nxd3 d4 )
26.Qf6 Nc6 27.Bg2 ??
{Fritz: White has a king attack. White lets it slip away}
( {0.10 Fritz 11:} 27.Bd3 e5 28.Bg3 Qd4 29.Bh7+ Rxh7 30.Rxd4 exd4 31.
Ne2 d3 32.Nf4 Rg7 33.Nxd3 Bxg4 34.Nc5 )
( 27.Bd3 $142 e5 28.Qg6+ Kf8 29.Bxe5 Nfxe5 30.Rhf1+ Ke7 31.Qf6+ Kd7
32.Qxh8 Kc7 )
27...Ra4 ??
{According to Fritz. After 27...Rh7 I probably would have played Rhf1.
}
( {3.08 Fritz 11:} 27...Rh7 28.Rhe1 Qd8 29.Rxe6 Bxe6 30.Qxe6 Qe8 31.
Bxd5 Qxe6 32.Bxe6 Re8 33.Bd7 Re4 34.Nd3 Kg7 {[%eval 10,14]} )
( 27...Rh7 $142 $11 {and Black is still in the game} )
( 27...Rh7 28.Rhf1 )
28.Rhf1
( {1.53 Fritz 11:} 28.Qg6+ Kf8 29.Rhf1 Rxf4 30.Rxf4 Ne5 31.Qf6 Kg8 32.
Nd3 Qe3 33.Be4 Qe2 34.Rc1 {[%eval 308,13]} )
( 28.Qg6+ $142 {and White has triumphed} 28...Kf8 29.Rhf1 Rxf4 30.Rxf4
)
28...Rh7 29.Bxh6 Rxg4 30.Bh3 Rg3
{Fritz: Black crumbles in face of a dire situation}
( {6.92 Fritz 11:} 30...Qd8 31.Bxg4 Qxf6 32.Rxf6 Rxh6 33.Rxh6 Nxh6 34.
Bh3 Kh7 35.Ne2 Nf7 36.Rg1 Nfe5 37.Nf4 Nf3 38.Rg6 e5 39.Bxc8 exf4 40.
Bxb7 )
( 30...Qd8 $142 31.Bxg4 Qxf6 32.Rxf6 Rxh6 33.Rxh6 Nxh6 $18 )
31.Bxe6 Bxe6
( {8.99 Fritz 11:} 31...Qc7 32.Rxd5 Rhg7 33.Rd7 Qe5 34.Rxf7 Bxe6 35.
Rxg7+ Rxg7 36.Bxg7 Qxf6 37.Bxf6 Kh7 38.Bc3 Bg4 39.Rf7+ Kh6 40.Nd3 Kxh5
41.Rxb7 )
( 31...Qc7 {there is nothing better in the position} 32.Bxd5 Bh3 $18 )
32.Qxe6 Qd8
( {11.33 Fritz 11:} 32...Rhg7 33.Bxg7 Qc7 34.h6 Qe7 35.Qc8+ Ncd8 36.
Rxf7 Qxf7 37.Qxd8+ Kh7 38.Rxd5 Qg6+ 39.Rd3 Qf5 40.Qh8+ Kg6 41.Qe8+ Kh7
42.Qd7 Qxd7 43.Rxd7 {[%eval 882,16]} )
33.Rxd5 Kh8
( {17.19 Fritz 11:} 33...Rhg7 34.Rxd8+ Nxd8 35.Qe8+ Kh7 36.Bxg7 Rxg7
37.Ne2 Rg8 38.Rxf7+ Nxf7 39.Qxf7+ Rg7 40.Qf5+ Kh6 41.Nf4 Rg1+ 42.Kc2
Rg7 43.Qf8 b5 44.Qxa3 {[%eval 1132,16]} )
34.Rxf7 Qg8
( {#9 Fritz 11:} 34...Rxf7 35.Rxd8+ Nxd8 36.Qe5+ Rfg7 37.Bxg7+ Rxg7
38.h6 Ne6 39.hxg7+ Nxg7 40.Nd3 b5 41.Qxb5 Kg8 42.Ne5 Kh8 43.Qa6 Kh7
44.b4 Kg8 45.b5 Kh7 46.Qxa3 {[%eval 1493,19]} )
35.Qf6+
( 35.Qf6+ Rhg7 36.Rdd7
( 36.Rf8 Kh7
( 36...Qxf8 37.Qxf8+ Kh7 38.Bxg7 Rxg7 39.Qf5+ Kg8 40.Rd7 Rxd7
41.Qxd7 Ne5 42.Qe6+ Nf7 43.h6 Kf8 44.Qc8+ Ke7 45.Qxb7+ Kf6 46.
h7 Kg7 47.Nd3 Kf8 48.Ne5 Nh8 49.Qb4+ Kg7 50.Qxa3 Kxh7 51.Qe7+
Kg8 52.Qf6 Kh7 53.a4 Kg8 54.a5 Kh7 55.a6 Kg8 56.a7 Kh7 57.a8=Q
Nf7
( 57...Ng6 58.Qxg6# )
58.Qg6# )
37.Rxg8 Rxg8 38.Rd7+ R8g7 39.Rxg7+ Kh8 40.Rxg3+ Kh7 41.Qg7# )
36...b6 37.Rxg7 Rxb3+ 38.Nxb3 Qxb3+ 39.axb3 a2+ 40.Ka1 Ne7 41.Rdxe7 b5
42.Re8# )
1-0

Vladimir Drkulec

Last weekend I played in the London Christmas tournament and finished with 3.5/4 and clear second. Unfortunately the event was all one section so the ratings of my first two round opponents were quite low. They actually played quite well and in both games I had only a minimal positional edge but managed to ride it out into a win. I still managed to gain about a dozen rating points or so and that is the seventh Canadian event in a row where I gained rating points and am on the verge of breaking 2100 CFC again.

In the new year I am going to have to find a way to make it to Toronto for some of the events that are being played there but that will probably involve an extra vacation day because the four or five hour drive to make it there is more difficult to do on the day of the tournament.

Maybe I will make it to the Masters/Experts tournament in Michigan in January which I believe is in Flint this year. The weather has been pretty bad for driving around here lately so we will have to see.

My database shows that I have played 95 games (including active games) since September 2007. That's not too bad for 15 months.

Here is a game from the last weekend where I played a bit miserably to score 2/5. Annotations to follow.

[Event "Michigan Masters and Experts"]
[Site "Lansing, MI"]
[Date "2009.01.18"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Drkulec, Vladimir"]
[Black "NN"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2138"]
[BlackElo "2020"]
[ECO "E38e"]
[EventDate "2009.01.18"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2
{The Classical Nimzoindian.}
4...c5 5.dxc5 Bxc5
{More usual is 5...0-0 or 5...Na6}
6.Nf3 b6 7.g3
{A bit of improvisation at the board. I thought that I would oppose
his queenside fianchetto with a kingside fianchetto of my own.}
7...Bb7 8.Bg2 O-O 9.O-O Nc6 10.a3 Rc8 11.b3 Nd4
{This move unwisely offers white a pawn. He thought a long time before
making this move so I looked at the position carefully to make sure
that there wasn't something I was missing and then I played...}
12.Nxd4 Bxg2 13.Nxe6
{A zwischenzug that my opponent foresaw.}
13...fxe6 14.Kxg2 Ng4 15.f3
{My opponent only calculated 15.f4 and was clearly surprised by my
idea. I didn't even consider that move judging that my king was
relatively safe with the pawn on f3.}
15...d5 16.Bd2
{Connecting the rooks and completing development without taking my eye
off the e3 square where the knight can fork my king and queen. I
didn't even consider 16.fxg4 when it seemed to me that my king was
getting checkmated. The text move now allows the knight to be captured
since I can recapture with the rook after ...Rxf1}
16...Ne5 17.cxd5 exd5 18.Qa2
{Putting my queen on the king's diagonal can't be a bad idea.}
18...Kh8
{The king vacates the dangerous diagonal.}
19.Rac1
{Overprotecting c3.}
19...Qe8 20.b4 Bd6 21.Nxd5
{Winning a second pawn and centralizing my knight which becomes an
octopus.}
21...Rd8 22.Bc3
{Placing my bishop on the king's diagonal.}
22...h5
{At this point I was about an hour and a half ahead of my opponent on
time. This move smacks of desperation. Only my queen is unprotected
and black's plan of undermining g3 seems to be unsound as opening the
h-file leads to a swift mate against black.}
23.Rcd1 h4
{Black is letting the momentum carry him.}
24.Rd4 Ng6 25.Rg4
{After this move black's attempts to liven things up grind to a
complete halt. White merely has to be a bit careful and the two extra
pawns will decide the issue.}
25...Be5
{Black gives up on his g3 ambitions and is now hoping that white will
fall for one of the tricks left in his position.}
26.Bxe5 h3+
{A pleasant surprise.}
27.Kxh3 Qxe5
{Oh look! A free knight!}
28.Kg2
{No thank you. Taking the knight on g6 would lose the rook to Qh5+.}
28...Qe6 29.Rd1 Rf5
{It looks like that knight's days might be numbered unless we support
it with a pawn...}
30.Rxg6
{Lets trade some pieces off instead.}
30...Qf7



{Here my opponent had about three minutes left in this totally losing
position versus my hour or so and I found the amazing}




31.Nf6
{This position deserves its own diagram. Every one of my pieces is en prise and every one of my pieces is immune to capture.}



31...Qf8

32.Qf7
{This was being a bit too cute but he was down in the minute and a
half range. This forces a trade off into an easily won rook ending.}
32...Rxf6 33.Rxf6 gxf6 34.Qxf8+ Rxf8 35.Rd7 1-0

I have played 100 tournament games since September 2007. There is much to be happy about but also some disappointments in this pile of games that I have accumulated. There was a ten game losing streak in early 2008 where the wheels seemed to fall off of my game. I seem to have recovered from that, at least when I play in Canada. My outings in the U.S. have been somewhat mediocre, hovering around the .500 mark. My rating is at 2100 in Canada and in the same vicinity in the U.S.

I need to start working on chess again beyond preparing for the weekly lectures that I give to the youngsters most Friday nights.

I may play again this weekend in a one day game in an hour event. The next event after that will be a two and a half day event in February. I may sprinkle in a few well hidden events in the Detroit area. I have to spend some time going over my games from last weekend. And I'd better get my passport application sent away so that I can continue to play in the U.S. when the new rules for crossing the border kick in for June of this year.

Vladimir Drkulec

I just got back from playing in the Kitchener Waterloo Winter Open, a five round Swiss system tournament. I scored 4/5 which was good enough for a two way tie for first place. I played two masters (2240ish and 2275) in the last two rounds and won both games. I played a bit shaky on the first day and scored 1/2 but played more solidly on day two and three. I felt very sharp tactically and thought that I played fairly well. My performance rating was 2367 which was the best result that I have had since returning to chess in the fall of 2007.

I have tournaments scheduled for the next three weekends and maybe more depending on what is going on stateside in Michigan.

My hastily assembled team also won the team prize which was good for a book and $25 each.

Its been a while since I have posted here. I am playing lots of chess. So far I have 88 rated Canadian Chess Federation games in 2010 with another seven to come in the next eight days or so. I am Canada's most active adult player and am about to overtake the top junior who is just a few games ahead of me.

I have been playing way too much and sometimes it has shown in my results. When I am not dead tired though I have managed to play decent chess approaching my level of play from the early to mid 1990s.

Things are going quite well chess wise. I have found my groove. I have played 123 rated games so far this year though five have yet to be rated because they are part of a weekly tournament that hasn't finished yet. I expect that I should hit about 160 rated games in 2010 (all of them in Canada). I just cracked 2200 CFC again though it won't be official until they update the ratings on Wednesday. I am currently the most active player in Canada with a 14 game lead on number 2.

I just tied for third in the Toronto Labour Day tournament and tied for first in a local Windsor tournament yesterday which put me over the 2200 mark again.

Vlad Drkulec