Back into blitz

Posted on January 26th, 2015 by Richard

In my last posts I mentioned how I had taken a break from chess play since the end of October 2014. Well I also mentioned that I want to start playing again so about 10 days ago I started back playing 5min blitz on ICC.

This was a disaster! I was so rusty and played so badly that my rating of 1300 plummetted to an all time low of 950! Even players of 900 seemed to play well against me but in reality it was I was playing badly and I lost a lot of won games on time too as I had slowed down greatly!

Well I stuck at it and I am getting my rating back slowly (I’m back at around 1200 now). I have also been doing a little study and looked at the Kings Indian Attack opening for white. This was a favourite of Bobby Fischer and so can be recommended especially to me a 1.e4 player. Of course, the KIA can be reached after 1.Nf3 and having the choice of KIA or Reti after 1.Nf3 will instantly help my rating soar up! I wish…LOL! Seriously though, knowing these 2 1.Nf3 openings is good for any improving player. 1.Nf3 is a common choice for current GM’s as it is so flexible and gives good opportunities.

Finally on the KIA (specifically 2.Nf3), there is the question of can it be used as a hybrid opening in the Sicilian and integrated with my favourite 2.c3 Alapin Sicilian using 2.Nf3 with a delayed 3.c3?
I think this is feasible and below is my latest chess video showing this:

My goal now is to play better blitz and get my rating to 1400-1600. If you have read this blog before you know this has been a long time goal of mine (at least over the last 2 years!). I really think the key to achieving this is to focus on this and play very regularly. In the past I have just played in bursts and never kept at playing enough to try to get this done. Hopefully this year will be different and I can achieve my aim….we will see! ……GAME ON! 🙂

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Chess in 2015

Posted on January 9th, 2015 by Richard

I hope to blog more regularly on all aspects of chess in this new year 2015.
Today I have made an earlier post (very belatedly) on my Bury St Edmunds chess congress performance which was the only tournament I played last year. Since the tournament I have played and done very little chess activity but it is a New Year resolution of mine to play more chess and enjoy it and blog on it more….

Happy New Chess Year 2015

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Bury St Edmunds Chess Congress 2014

Posted on January 9th, 2015 by Richard

A belated quick report on my progress in this tournament. I finished with 21/2-5. The drawn game was unusual. I played the white side of an Alapin Sicilian and attacked the Black castled king hard. After several sacs, I failed to spot the black king had a rook defending the position, and then the best I had was a repeating perpetual check of the black king to get the draw. Now I can only recall the detail of one of my two losses where I played my favourite Scotch as white and it was in the comfortable Ghulam Khassim variation. I attacked hard in the opening with an opportunity to get the black king exposed early but instead of going the exchange down for a good position I “bottled” and tried playing safe.That gave me a worse position and while I tried to cling on, my opponent made no errors and ground out a win.

Playing at 32nd Bury St Edmunds Chess Congress Minor section 2014

So that was two games I attacked hard and fast early and was lucky to get a half point from! There is a lesson for me to learn in that if I do attack early I need to commit fully to it, but I should know some attacks need more support than I have prepared so I should be more patient with my whole game.

The best game I won was a strange French defence where I went the exchange up (I lost my bishop for winning a rook). My opponent played on doggedly to the end but I held my advantage to win.

During the congress I managed to see and speak with FM Alan Merry and I even bought a few secondhand chess books which I hope to look at and learn from.

The other notable event was the thanks given to event organiser Bob Jones who has now handed over the event after running it for 16 years..well done Bob!

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