Takchess Chess Improvement

A Novice chessplayer works to get better at chess using an improvement program based upon the methods of Michael de la Maza and the teachings of Dan Heisman

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Taking pleasure in others misfortunes 8)

I thought you all might enjoy this game where I was totally destroyed.Nice tactics by white.

[White "Arthur bach"]
[Black "Takchess"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C44"]
[WhiteElo "1700"]
[BlackElo "1436"]
[PlyCount "49"]
[EventDate "2006.07.24"]
[TimeControl "1200+10"]

paste games into this viewer

1. e4 {3} e5 {3} 2. Nf3 {1} Nc6 {4} 3. d4 {2} exd4 {3} 4. Bc4 {1} Bc5 {9} 5. c3
{1} dxc3 {26} 6. Bxf7+ {13} Kxf7 {5} 7. Qd5+ {2} Ke7 {23} 8. Bg5+ {12} Nf6 {3}
9. e5 {2} d6 {15} 10. O-O {42} Be6 {6} 11. exf6+ {3} gxf6 {4} 12. Re1 {1} Qd7 {
11} 13. Nxc3 {34} Nb4 {26} 14. Qf5 {9} Rhf8 {26} 15. Rxe6+ {4} Qxe6 {6} 16. Re1
{3} Qxe1+ {8} 17. Nxe1 {3} fxg5 {9} 18. Qxg5+ {5} Kd7 {4} 19. Nf3 {35} Nd3 {21}
20. Ne4 {44} Bb6 {23} 21. Qb5+ {3} Ke7 {38} 22. Qxd3 {3} Rg8 {22} 23. Neg5 {4}
h6 {6} 24. Qh7+ {19} Kf6 {8} 25. Qf7# {(Lag: Av=0.91s, max=13.9s) 2} 1-0

The second game is a loss where I was masterly destroyed trying a Grand Prix attack. I should be more carefully in my opening selection playing a player with the handle
Gambitlover !
[White "Takchess"]
[Black "Gambitlover"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B21"]
[WhiteElo "1495"]
[BlackElo "1647"]
[Annotator "Fritz 9 (66s)"]
[PlyCount "42"]
[EventDate "2006.07.29"]

{B21: Sicilian: 2 f4 and Morra Gambit} 1. e4 c5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 Nf6 4. Nc3
Nxd5 5. d4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 cxd4 7. Qxd4 Qa5 8. a4 Nc6 9. Qe3 e6 10. Nf3 Bc5 11.
Qd3 O-O 12. Ng5 g6 13. Nxh7 Kxh7 14. Qh3+ Kg8 15. Bc4 Rd8 16. Ke2 b6 17. Bd3
Qxc3 18. Bd2 Nd4+ 19. Ke3 Nb3+ 20. Kf3 Rxd3+ 21. Be3 Rxe3+ 0-1

Sunday, July 23, 2006

King Gambit Statistics and Opening Study

For the last 2 years, I was under the impression that the King Gambit was a poor opening for white. This was in the face of reason since I often lost to it as black. In reading some of the Retis book Masters of the Chessboard I became very interested in the Anderssen's and Morphy's KG games and decided I should try it. I eventually started to play it exclusively as white when I recieve a e5 response to my e4. This replaced by beloved guico piano.

One of the great things about the King Gambit is it's rich history and the changes in the chess community opinions on it. There is always alot of trash talking about it. The Gambit is unsound and you should accept it or you would be foolish to accept it declining gives one a much stronger game.

Some lines as the Falkbeer offer a countergambit just to confuse things. The KGA and KGD theory has evolved throught the years and style has changed. There appear to be about 15 ways to decline and accept all which lead to some interesting play. I currently am agnostic as to whether it is better to accept or decline. In fact my play against the KG is poor because I am constantly switching my lines to further my education. I have lost about 25 of my last 31 as black. ahem.............

I thought it would be interesting to gather some statistics on my KG games. Since I play on playchess the interface automatically saves my games in my database. I have played as white about 108 games of which I have won 56 of them. The trend line is good in my first 18 trys as white I lost 14 of them. My last 17, I won 11 of them. As for the accepted vs declined,59 accepted and 43 declined. I counted the typical Falkbeer as a decline and a Falkbeer that transformed into a Abazia as an acceptance.

There were a wide range of defenses and acceptance strategy. Since I was to spend some time effectively studying I investigated which lines than I played most. In my games as white there were only a few which followed the Kiesiretsky Line . KGA then black plays a quick g5. This is the more classical line and is fun to play and learn about. I was surprised to see only two Cunningham KGA. 5 Fischer defences KGA. the big winners in the KGA was 20 games with acceptance than Nc6,10 KGA with acceptance than Nf6,15 games which I call the modern line which is acceptance than a center counter d6, The rest of the KGA were one offs.

As for the KGD, I had 8 Falkbeers, 10 KGD with NC6( a number of these with pawns on e5 and d6 philidorish), 6 KGD classical with 2... Bc5. with 3 KGD with a philidor type defense and a bishop pin on the N at f3, the rest are one offs.

I am surprised the Kieseritsky is not played more. There are alot of GM games in this line and it is considered in some camps to be the most sound line but tricky. Perhaps people shy away from it for that reason. Interesting enough, I have a book on the King Gambit by Korchnoi and I can't find the lines where Black accepts and plays an early Nc6. This is a line I have seen the most.

I will update my blog as I learn more about these lines.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

And yet another traxler counterattack

and yet another traxler, I am playing black

1. e4 {1} e5 {3} 2. Nf3 {1} Nc6 {3} 3. Bc4 {1} Nf6 {3} 4. Ng5 {1} Bc5 {3} 5.
Nxf7 {5} Bxf2+ {3} 6. Kf1 {11} Qe7 {6} 7. Nxh8 {4} d5 {14} 8. Bxd5 {9} Bg4 {25}
9. Bxc6+ {14} bxc6 {11} 10. Kxf2 {18} Qc5+ {24} 11. Kg3 {7} Bxd1 {8} 12. Rxd1 {
2} Nxe4+ {4} 13. Kf3 {4} Ng5+ {18} 14. Kg4 {8} e4 {12} 15. Nc3 {9} g6 {27} 16.
d3 {1} Qf5+ {5} 17. Kg3 {24} h5 {9} 18. dxe4 {19} Nxe4+ {32} 19. Kh4 {12} Qg4#
{(Lag: Av=0.61s, max=1.0s) 4} 0-1

cut and paste game into this viewer

Sunday, July 16, 2006

nothing to do with chess

Our local independent radio station in Boston is playing this guy. This is great stuff in the spirit of Sam Cooke.

James Hunter

Thursday, July 13, 2006

playing big with the initiative

I liked this game I played as black. a number of sacs. unsure if it will hold up under fritz but a fun game to play

paste game into this viewer

1. Nf3 {4} Nf6 {20} 2. d4 {4} e6 {21} 3. c4 {15} d5 {5} 4. e3 {11} Bb4+ {9} 5.
Bd2 {4} Bxd2+ {4} 6. Nbxd2 {3} c6 {9} 7. Bd3 {13} O-O {7} 8. O-O {3} Nbd7 {9}
9. b3 {27} Re8 {13} 10. Qc2 {3} e5 {5} 11. dxe5 {16} Nxe5 {12} 12. Nxe5 {7}
Rxe5 {4} 13. Nf3 {1} Re8 {60} 14. Rfe1 {27} Bg4 {6} 15. Ng5 {4} g6 {14} 16. h3
{28} h6 {32} 17. hxg4 {81} hxg5 {13} 18. f3 {7} Kg7 {22} 19. Kf2 {3} Nxg4+ {20}
20. fxg4 {12} Qf6+ {5} 21. Ke2 {5} Qd4 {16} 22. Kd2 {26} Qxg4 {16} 23. Re2 {44}
d4 {16} 24. Qb2 {60} Rxe3 {16} 25. Rxe3 {3} Qf4 {33} 26. Rf1 {18} Qxe3+ {6} 27.
Kc2 {56} c5 {23} 28. b4 {50} b6 {9} 29. Rf3 {30} Qg1 {20} 30. Kb3 {28} a5 {17}
31. b5 {30} Qe1 {51} 32. Kc2 {66} a4 {29} 33. a3 {4} Re8 {41} 34. Rf1 {31} Re2+
{10} 35. Bxe2 {6} Qxe2+ {3} 36. Kb1 {31} Qxf1+ {5} 37. Ka2 {7} Kh6 {17} 38. g4
{15} Qf3 {19} 39. Qh2+ {7} Kg7 {12} 40. Qe5+ {19} Qf6 {8} 41. Qe2 {22} Qe6 {11}
42. Qf3 {11} Qxc4+ {Filrock95 abandonne (Lag: Av=0.25s, max=0.6s) 5} 0-1

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Bronstein the Sorcerer's Apprentice

I created a collection with the games of the 50 Bronstein games that Bronstein annotated in this book. I have about 38 of them in this chessgames collection.

I really love this book I imagine one could become very good by playing through all these games and studing Bronsteins comments.

bronstein Sorcerer's Apprentice

Friday, July 07, 2006

A positional player???

My rating has dropped from 1600's to low 1500 again. Water seeking it's own level.

Wanted to try something different against queen pawn opening and played the Kings Indian for the first time . At least I think its the kings Indian. It's a little out of character for me to play these slow building defenses. It didn't turn out to badly though. In the game below I should of took the bishop instead of the knight on move 26 for a much quicker ending.

Before you know it I will start playing Queen pawn endings, not sacrifice for the initiative and play long grinding games where a pawn is not taken for the first 40 minutes. In short become J'adoube 8)

I have started to think what it would be like if I actually started playing some defense and started reading a Colin Crouch book how to defend in chess. It is interesting and teaches through deeply annotated games of Lasker and Petrosian. Lasker ends up in so much trouble in the openings it is almost seem like as Reti claims purposely played bad moves to psych out his opponent. He is one slippery defender.

Also I have Bronsteins book the Sorcerer's Apprentice that I bought a year ago and am starting to play through some games . Now this guy can play!


paste game into this viewer

1. d4 {8} Nf6 {12} 2. c4 {9} g6 {5} 3. Nc3 {21} Bg7 {3} 4. e4 {12} d6 {2} 5.
Nf3 {55} O-O {17} 6. Bf4 {42} b6 {40} 7. e5 {65} Nh5 {16} 8. Qd2 {134} Nxf4 {41
} 9. Qxf4 {13} dxe5 {5} 10. Nxe5 {33} Bb7 {18} 11. Nf3 {143} Nd7 {47} 12. d5 {
234} Nf6 {50} 13. Rd1 {139} Qd6 {6} 14. Qxd6 {45} exd6 {24} 15. g3 {57} Rad8 {
30} 16. Bg2 {18} Rfe8+ {20} 17. Ne2 {33} Ba6 {24} 18. b3 {21} Nd7 {32} 19. Rd3
{52} Nc5 {8} 20. Re3 {16} b5 {29} 21. O-O {23} bxc4 {12} 22. Rxe8+ {40} Rxe8 {9
} 23. Re1 {53} cxb3 {10} 24. Ned4 {10} Rxe1+ {8} 25. Nxe1 {6} b2 {6} 26. Be4 {
17} Bxd4 {5} 27. Bb1 {50} Bc3 {21} 28. Nf3 {8} Ne4 {27} 29. Kg2 {37} Nd2 {16}
30. Nxd2 {6} Bxd2 {5} 31. Kf3 {35} Kg7 {24} 32. h4 {74} Kf6 {12} 33. Ke4 {6}
Bf1 {11} 34. Kd4 {40} Be1 {Iku resigns (Lag: Av=1.76s, max=27.3s) 17} 0-1