AArgh !

Ouch!

First tournament -November 12

I play in my first tournament November 12th in Manchester New Hampshire. I intend to play in the under 1200 category it being my first one. I also plan to have a little slice of heaven cheeseburger poutine!

Conspiracy Theory

I am wondering if my sudden run from 1450 to 1620's is due in part to the introduction of Fritz 9. All of a sudden there is a influx of new players that
start out with an introductory (and artifically high)rating of 1500. hmmm. It was a
fun run !

Water and my chess play will seek it's own level. I have since been fluctuating between 1550 and 1600 .

Yes I am still doing some tactic work . Doing my 5x5 flashcards will return soon to level 3 Ct-art.

Also does anyone have recommendations on a good book on Gambits?

Channeling Morphy

I seem to be channeling Morphy during the past few days. at least Morphy at age 9 anyway 8).Played through a number of pre 1900 games and seems to have helped me. Of the last eleven games I am 8-2-1 mostly against higher rated players. I had started playing the Traxler Gambit and makes for exciting play.Some interesting king hunts and mating nets.

How do you think Morphy would do with ct-art ? 8)

Hail Morphy


14 l30 57%

Current tactical training

I started Level 30 of CT-ART3 and it has been slow going. I decided to work on the basic tactics. I have flash cards of the 5X5 squares of CT-ART and have seperated those that I find tougher. I am going to do circles of them all but may do extended circles of the harder ones.

I have also been reading a chess tactic book by Littlewood. This is a nice little book. I may post some positions from this book in a later blog.

Last night I went through the first game of Reti's Master of the Chessboard. I read through the anotations,played on the board as well as did the interactive thing. I played the winning side trying to guess the next move. This I find helpful.

Why I like the Giuoco (a Dan Heisman Game)

Games like these are why I like the Giuoco Piano. Greediness loses to Initiative.
10 Ba3!!!!!!.
This I have to remember.


http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1290121

Occurrence of Mating Patterns

In tactical training, I some times wonder how often in game situations do certain mating patterns occur. Do the opportunities to play a Bodens Mate, Arabian Mate, Anastasia Mate, Legals Mate, Fools Mate,Smothered Mate occur regularly and I miss them? Or are these fun novelties that rarely present themselves?

I think the opportunities to play them are more available than I realize. By studying them, being able to recognize the pattern,actively looking for them, creating the conditions, I greatly improve the chance of me being able to play them. One of my goals in tactical training is reach a level of play where I will quickly see the pattern within the position: the skeleton of a mate and reduce the position to it and win.

I saw a positive effect of my tactical training while playing the other day. I quickly saw the pattern for the classic smothered mate and played it to win. The conditions for smother mates occur frequently as all one needs is an attacking Knight and Queen and your opponents King behind a wall of pawns(normally).Often times the defender is trying to protected themselves from other frontal mate threats and the attack focus shifts to boxing in the king and placing the knight in a final mating position.

Example of a classic smothered mate

collection of smothered mates games