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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:
[pgn height=500 initialHalfmove=16 autoplaymode=none][Event “CambsCC vs BSECC”]
[Site “Cambs”]
[Date “2010.09.30”]
[Round “Board4”]
[White “AN”]
[Black “ME”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “0”]
[BlackElo “0”]
[ECO “A40 Catalan BogoIndian”]
[TimeControl “0”]

1. d4 e6{crafty engine analysis} 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. e4 Bb4 5. Bg5 e5 6. d5 Nd4 7. Ne2 Nxe2 8.
Bxe2 O-O 9. O-O Bxc3 10. bxc3 d6 11. f4 Re8 12. Bd3 h6 13. fxe5 hxg5 14. exf6
gxf6 15. Qf3 Kg7 16. Rf2 g4 17. Qf4 f5 18. exf5 Qf6 19. Qxg4+ Kf8 20. Qd4 Re5
21. c5 Bxf5 $2 {Crafty (score 6.22 at depth 8) thinks this is not a good
move-Crafty suggests: 21. … dxc5 22. Qxc5+ Qd6 23. Qd4 Qxd5 24. Qh4 b5
25. f6 Rh5 26. Qg3 Bd7 $18 (score 2.32 at depth 10)} 22. Bxf5 dxc5 23.
Qxc5+ Qe7 24. Qxe7+ Rxe7 25. Kf1 Kg7 26. Re1 Rxe1+ 27. Kxe1 Re8+ 28. Re2
Rxe2+ 29. Kxe2 Kf6 30. Be4 Ke5 31. Ke3 f5 32. Bf3 {Black resigns} 1-0
[/pgn]

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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
[pgn height=500 initialHalfmove=16 autoplaymode=none]
[Event “rated blitz match”]
[Site “Some Internet Chess Server”]
[Date “2010.08.24”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Chris”]
[Black “AN”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “1424”]
[BlackElo “1436”]
[ECO “B18”]
[TimeControl “180”]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. Nf3 Nf6 7. h4 e6 8.
h5 Be4 9. Nxe4 Nxe4 10. c3 Nd7 11. Bd3 Nef6 12. Bg5 Nb6 13. Qc2 Bd6 14. O-O-O
Qc7 15. h6 Bf8 16. hxg7 Bxg7 17. Bxf6 Bxf6 18. Rxh7 Rxh7 19. Bxh7 O-O-O 20.
g3 Kb8 21. Bd3 Ka8 22. Rh1 Qd6 23. Nd2 Qd5 24. Rh6 Qxa2 25. Rxf6 Rh8 26. Be4
Qa6 27. Qd3 Qa1+ 28. Kc2 Na4 29. Nc4 Rd8 30. Qd1 Qa2 31. Qd3 c5 32. Rxf7 cxd4
33. Rxb7 Nc5 34. Rb5+ Nxe4 35. Qxe4+ Rd5 36. Rxd5 exd5 37. Qxd5+ Kb8 38. Qxd4
Qa4+ 39. Kd3 Qc6 40. Qf4+ Ka8 41. Qf8+ Kb7 42. Qe7+ Ka6 43. f4 Qd5+ 44. Kc2
Qxc4 45. Qf6+ Kb7 46. g4 Qe2+ 47. Kb3 Qxg4 48. f5 a5 49. Qe7+ Ka6 50. f6 Kb5
51. f7 Qc4+ 52. Kc2 Qa4+ 53. Kd2 Qf4+ 54. Kc2 Qa4+ 55. Kd2 Qf4+ 56. Ke2 Qc4+
57. Kf2 Qf4+ 58. Kg2 Qf6 59. Qxf6 {AN forfeits on time} 1-0
[/pgn]

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!

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My chess improvement

Posted on July 21st, 2010 by Richard

I haven’t posted in a while, partly because I have had big problems with WordPress themes for my chess blog. I still have those problems!

Anyway here is a chess update about how to improve my rating:

My chess rating is slowly going up. As I play better, my rating improves as I start to win more (& lose less). My problem has been to identify how do I improve my chess? I know at my level I make weak moves but I need to know why my moves are weak and how to change and make stronger moves.

I believe I have finally realised that I need to improve my game analysis through better assessment and calculation. In short I have not been good at analysis, assessment and calculation and my weaknesses in these areas let me down. More or less up to now I have been playing what I ‘feel’ to be sound moves without thinking much about my game plan and the opponents plan and crucially without calculating through my moves enough! In effect I play the whole game on ‘auto-pilot’ mode and while my opening knowledge is reasonable, my mid and endgame play is much weaker and so I struggle and often lose from good positions! I look forward to changing this by thinking & calculating my moves before playing them! I’m sure this will make me become a better player and I look forward to detailing how I can do this and sharing it here!

Meanwhile here is a win of mine in Alapin Sicilian B22 opening:

[pgn parameter=value height=500 autoplayMode=none]

[Event “rated blitz match”]
[Site “Free Internet Chess Server”]
[Date “2010.07.19”]
[Round “?”]
[White “me”]
[Black “AN”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “1297”]
[BlackElo “1311”]
[ECO “B22”]
[TimeControl “300”]

1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nc6 3. Nf3 d6 4. d4 cxd4 5. cxd4 g6 6. Bb5 Bd7 7. Nc3 a6 8.
Ba4 Bg7 9. O-O b5 10. Bc2 Nf6 11. h3 Qc8 12. Bg5 O-O 13. Qd2 Bxh3 14. gxh3
Qxh3 15. Nh2 h6 16. Bf4 e5 17. dxe5 dxe5 18. Bg3 Rad8 19. Qe3 Nh5 20. Rad1
Nd4 21. Bd3 b4 22. Nd5 f5 23. Nxb4 f4 24. Bxf4 Qxe3 25. Bxe3 Nf3+ 26. Nxf3
Rxf3 27. Nxa6 Nf4 28. Nb4 g5 29. Bc4+ Kh7 30. Rxd8 g4 31. Bxf4 h5 32. Bg3
{AN resigns} 1-0[/pgn]

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How to improve your chess

Posted on June 28th, 2010 by Richard

Here is a fascinating interview with my chess coach Bob Jones on how to improve your chess:

Bob is a well known local chess player and coach and tournament oraniser. Hear his views on how a near beginner can try to improve their chess rating. He gives sound advice which will help any beginner become a better player!

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My first ever Youtube video and on chess!

Posted on June 5th, 2010 by Richard

Yesterday I changed my chess blog theme to this GoNatty WPress theme and I am still adjusting it.

Today I made & uploaded my first ever Youtube video and it is on my favourite chess opening the Scotch game.

This was a very interesting exercise especially limiting my video to just 10 minutes! I had many takes to make it under 10 minutes!

It features on the sidebar here and in this post! Hope you like it!…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDl7jfNA2LA[/youtube]

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The English Defence

Posted on May 30th, 2010 by Richard

Last week I had a coaching session with my chess coach on the English Defence. Coincidentally this is a black opening defence my coach plays and he had a game a few days later which featured this opening. Here is that game. It ended as a draw and I checked this through Rybka who agreed with best play from both sides only a draw would occur.

The English defence:
[pgn height=500 initialhalfMove 16 autoplayerMode=none]

[Event “Club Championship Final”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “????.??.25”]
[Round “?”]
[White “AN”]
[Black “My Chess Coach”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ECO “A10”]
[WhiteElo “176”]
[BlackElo “139”]
[Annotator “My Chess Coach”]
[PlyCount “84”]
[EventDate “2010.05.26”]
1. c4 b6 2. Nc3 e6 3. e4 Bb7 4. g3 f5 5. Bg2 Nf6 6. f3  fxe4 7. fxe4 Bb4 8. Nge2 O-O 9. O-O c5
10. d3 d6 11. Nf4 Bxc3 12. bxc3 Qe7 13. g4 e5 14. Nh3 Nbd7 15. g5 Ne8
16. Nf2 Nc7 17. Bh3 Bc6 18. Qg4 g6 19. Be3 Rae8 20. Qh4 Ne6 21. Ng4 Nf4 22.
Nh6+ Kh8 23. Bxf4 exf4 24. Rxf4 Rxf4 25. Qxf4 Rf8 26. Qe3 Ne5 27.
Rf1 Rxf1+ 28. Kxf1 28… Nf7 29. Nxf7+ Qxf7+ 30. Ke2 Qe7 31. Qf4 Kg7
32. Ke3 Ba4 33. d4 Bc2 34. e5 dxe5 35. dxe5 Bb1 36. a3 Qf7 37. e6 37… Qxf4+ 38. Kxf4 Kf8 39. Ke5 Ke7
40. Bg2  Bf5
41. Bd5 Bh3 42. Kf4 a5 {Draw}[/pgn]

Amazingly this draw secured the Club Championship win overall for my coach-CONGRATULATIONS Coach!

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