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ChessatmyboarD

My Chess Blog

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Catalan BogoIndian opening…pardon?!

Posted on October 4th, 2010 by Richard

I lost my last OTB game last week. I was black and white played 1.d4.
My main reply is 1….e6 and from then on there are a myriad of possibilities of openings depending on the next moves. I have had some coaching recently in the English opening but have not yet played it enough to know the variations.

In this game I lost and when I analysed the game with the computer engine (Crafty) it told me the opening was the Catalan BogoIndian.
The what???
The Catalan BogoIndian! (ever heard of it-ever played it?!).

Well I lost the game-I kept losing position gradually & somewhat lost interest in the game. Eventually I made a really poor move but I wasn’t really interested in playing by then!
Why don’t White players just stick to 1.e4? It would make life so much easier & a whole lot more fun! 1.d4 and 1.c4 should be banned (along with everything else except 1.e4!)!!

Now I am going to check out the Catalan BogoIndian defence & find out how this opening should be played!

Here is the game:

Tags: Chess game, Chess Openings, my chess games
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Written by: Richard

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3 minute blitz chess

Posted on August 24th, 2010 by Richard

Earlier today I found my 15 yr old son on my computer playing chess 3 minute internet blitz. My son is a good player who has more or less given up regular time control chess but he plays a few 3 minute blitz games for fun.
I watched him win 3 games in a row before I asked to use my computer!

Here is the last game he played and won-very entertaining as both players were low on time:
CaroKann Opening

In contrast to that last week I had a bad time at chessclub in a decreasing time control tournament. I lost 4/5 games and forgot there was a final round 5 game & left the club!
I shall try and get some practice in against Numpty chess engine.

In regard to Numpty it is written in Basic (.bas) and about a week ago I tried to convert this to C code using BCX converter.
It didn’t work! I got an error message (I have forgotten now exactly what). The only trouble I have running Numpty is that it seems very memory hungry and I can have no other programs open & running when I use Numpty. This is inconvenient as I like to play after research/computer work and I like to keep my browser tabs and programs open mainly.
One day I hope to fix this in Numpty-then I can do more practice against Numpty chess engine!

Tags: Chess game, Chess Openings, my chess games
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Written by: Richard

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End Game training

Posted on August 13th, 2010 by Richard

How good is your end game play? Have a look at this game. This is a part of a round 11 game from the recent British Championships.

White to play and white needs to win the game to get second place in the Championship:

Nice play by White to allow the potential to Queen the pawn (and also avoid the dreaded stalemate!)

so securing an overwhelming winning position and black cannot do anything now to stop White winning.

Now two important Rook and Pawn endgames-Philidor & Lucena positions

introduced by Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philidor_position:

The Philidor position (or Philidor’s position) usually refers to an important chess endgame which illustrates a drawing technique when the defender has a king and rook versus a king, rook, and pawn. It is also known as the third rank defense, because of the importance of the rook on the third rank cutting off the opposing king. It was analyzed by François-André Danican Philidor in 1777. Most rook and pawn versus rook endgames reach either the Philidor Position or the Lucena Position if played accurately

The Lucena position is one of the most famous and important positions in chess endgame theory, where one side has a rook and a pawn and the defender has a rook. It is fundamental in the rook and pawn versus rook endgame. If the side with the pawn can reach this type of position, he can forcibly win the game. Most rook and pawn versus rook endgames reach either the Lucena Position or the Philidor Position if played accurately.

So here is JRobi on youtube on the Philidor endgame:

and here is JRobi on the Lucena position on youtube video:

Well this all seems clear except that I have known about these positions since I started playing chess but I still do not know them fully enough to be totally confident with the correct moves. I do not know why I cannot get this to be automatic for me but I will try & study it and get it done!

These are common endgames and if you want to improve your rating you need to know how to play these positions….

Tags: Chess game
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Written by: Richard

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GM M Adams wins British Chess Championship

Posted on August 13th, 2010 by Richard

Congratulations to GM Michael Adams on his win in the British Chess Championship.

Also congratulations to IM Jovanka Houska who won the womens title.

Mickey Adams won with a score of 9½/11 and a 2757 performance. Nick Pert finished second on 8 with a 2612 performance whilst Stuart Conquest, Andrew Greet, Jonathan Hawkins, Adam Hunt, Richard Pert & Alexei Slavin all finished equal third on 7½. Congratulations to Adam Hunt who secured his 2nd GM norm with a 2624 performance over eleven rounds

Here is the round 9 game between Adams and Hunt that ended in a draw:

Tags: Chess Tournaments
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Written by: Richard

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British Chess Championships 2010

Posted on August 1st, 2010 by Richard

The British Chess Championships are in play at the moment at the University of Kent, Canterbury.

British GM Michael Adams is in the lead after round 6 with 5/6.

Local Woodbridge School teacher International Master Adam Hunt is on 4/6. Both Richard and Nick Pert are playing there.

Here is a round 6 match between GM S Williams vs IM T Rendle :

Here is a link to the webpage for the championships:
BritishChess2010

Tags: Chess game
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Written by: Richard

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Trialling ‘chess-by-blog’ WPress plugin

Posted on June 3rd, 2010 by Richard

[Event ""Casual Game-The Immortal Game""]  [Site ""?", GER"]  [Date "1851.."]  [Round ""]  [White "Anderssen, Adolph, "]  [Black "Lionel, Kieseritsky,"]  [CBBWhiteId "admin"]  [CBBBlackId "*"]  [Result "1-0,"]   1. e4 {RPD-This game is famous and known as ‘The Immortal Chess Game’  -Opening is C33: King’s Gambit Accepted: 3 Nc3 and 3 Bc4} 1… e5 2. f4 {White offers a pawn   to gain better development and control of the center.} 2… exf4 3. Bc4 Qh4+ 4. Kf1 b5?!   {Bryan’s Counter Gambit. A dubious gambit in modern times, but typical of the attacking style   of that time. Here black lures the Bishop from it attacking diagonal against the sensitive   f7-pawn, and provides a diagonal for development of his own Bishop to b7 where it will bear   down on white’s King side. All this value for the price of a pawn.} 5. Bxb5 Nf6 6. Nf3 Qh6 7.   d3 Nh5 {The immediate, cheap, and shallow threat of … Ng3+ is easily defended.} 8. Nh4 {The   position is sharp and getting sharper.} 8… Qg5 {Again, playing for cheap threats. In this   case, black attacks two pieces at once.} 9. Nf5 c6 {9… g6 10. h4 Qf6 is another complicated   position for another day.} 10. g4 {A brilliant move made with a steady hand. Note that white   cares little for defensive moves, and is always alert for attack. Now black plays to win the   g4-pawn.} 10… Nf6 {Black should have played 10… cxb5 11. gxh5 with a better game.} 11.   Rg1 {Now Anderssen sacrifices his Bishop, the first of many sacrifices in this game. White   cares little for defensive moves, and plays always for the initiative.} 11… cxb5 12. h4 Qg6   13. h5 {White gets more space.} 13… Qg5 14. Qf3 {White now has the ghastly threat of Bxf4   winning black’s Queen next.} 14… Ng8 {Black is forces to clear a path of retreat for his   Queen by also retreating one of his only developed pieces.} 15. Bxf4 Qf6 {Black should   quickly develop his pieces.} 16. Nc3 Bc5 17. Nd5 {Inviting black to indulge his greed. Also   good is 17. d4 Bf8 (17… Bxd4? 18. Nd5 when the Knights savage the board.) 18. Be5.} 17…   Qxb2 18. Bd6 Qxa1+ {And why not capture with check!} 19. Ke2 {Now who can resist the tender   morsel on g1, but resist he must.} 19… Bxg1 {Black is just too greedy. He has too few   pieces developed, and what is developed is sent to the far corners of the board. Now it is   white’s turn to play. Black may have won after 19… Qb2 (to guard against Nxg7+) 20. Rc1 g6   21. Bxc5 gxf5 (not 21… Qxc1 22. Nd6+ Kd8 23. Nxf7+ Ke8 24. Nc7#).} 20. e5 {Slipping the   noose around the neck of the black King.} 20… Na6 {Perhaps 20… Ba6 would have put up more   resistance by giving black’s King more room to run.} 21. Nxg7+ Kd8 22. Qf6+! {A final pretty   sacrifice that ends the game.} 22… Nxf6 {A deflection.} 23. Be7# 1-0

I came across another WordPress chess plugin called ‘chess-by-blog’ and thought I would try it out! It doesn’t want to work for some reason on any of my other blog pages on site here but it does have tags in the admin posts editor on this home page. I am trying to contact the author, Julian Fong to see if I can fix this.

Meanwhile I am going to try it with a great chess game- ‘The Immortal Game’

between Anderrsen & Kieritsky.

The game was a King’s Gambit opening and features some interesting sacrifices leading to a minor piece mate. Amazing play really! Enjoy…

{EDIT: I could not get chess by blog plugin to handle this. Probably my fault but I think this plugin is more for playing chess between blogs and I need to test that out. Meanwhile I have put the above game back in ‘Embed Chessboard’ game viewer}

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Written by: Richard

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