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! 🙂
Posted in chess games, My Chess • Comment on this post »