BSE Chess Congress 2010

Posted on November 1st, 2010 by Richard

Last weekend (30/31 Oct 2010) was the Bury St Edmunds Chess Congress in the

new  Apex function hall. There was a large entry of over 170 chess players.

BSE Chess Congress 2010 in the new Apex building

Anyway I played badly in my 4 matches in the Minor section only acheiving a draw with 3 losses so finishing with 1/5!

This was very disappointing to me. I played several openings:- French Exchange (as black)/Alekhines’s defence (as white)/Bird’s Opening (as black)/Nimzowitch defence (as white) and my favourite Scotch (as white).

There was a joint winner in the Open section-a tie between GM M Turner and GM N Pert

 Open Section

 Here is my only half reasonable reult-the draw I made in round2:

Alekhine’s defence-Draw agreed

[pgn height=500 automove=none]

[Event “Bury Chess Congress”]
[Site “BSE Apex”]
[Date “2010.10.30”]
[Round “2”]
[White “Me”]
[Black “NN”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]

1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. c4 Nb6 4. Nf3 e6 5. b3 d6 6. Bb2 Nc6 7. Be2 Bd7 8.
d4 Be7 9. Nc3 h6 10. O-O Rf8 11. Qd3 g6 12. Ne4 Nb4 13. Qd2 Bc6 14. Nf6+
Bxf6 15. exf6 Bxf3 16. Bxf3 Nc6 17. Bxc6+ bxc6 18. Qxh6 Qxf6 19. Qd2 Kd7
20. d5 Qf5 21. dxc6+ Ke7 22. Rac1 Qc5 23. Rfd1 Qxc6 24. Rc3 Rfd8 25. Rf3 e5
26. Qg5+ Kf8 27. Rh3 Ke8 28. Rh8+ Kd7 29. Rxd8+ Rxd8 30. f4 Kc8 31. fxe5
Qe8 32. exd6 Rxd6{Draw offered by black & agreed}
1/2-1/2

[/pgn] 

I was very disappointed with my play and results-in all games except round2 draw I blundered away good positions I had achieved. The only thing I can do with this is put it down to experience and try & learn some lessons from it and play better in my next matches! I do need to do 2 specific things:

1. Do not spend too much time on moves and then try to play too quickly to get to the time control.

2. Do not move too quickly and make blunders!

These are almost mutually dependant actions and overall I need to think more carefully about how I play each move and the whole game.

So I still have a lot to learn and a lot to improve to achieve my aim to play good chess and improve my rating!

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

Must improve my ratings-Blitz & OTB

Posted on October 28th, 2010 by Richard

My 2 current chess goals are to improve my Blitz rating and my OTB rating.

I want to get my 5min blitz rating to over 1400(currently is 1200) and my OTB BCF rating to over 100. Both should be possible if I can spend some time playing and studying!

Here is a blitz game I won today.

Alekhine defence B02-I am playing White:

[pgn height=500 autosavenone]

[Event “rated blitz match”]
[Site “Free Internet Chess Server”]
[Date “2010.10.28”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Me”]
[Black “NN”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “1139”]
[BlackElo “1287”]
[ECO “B02”]
[TimeControl “300”]

1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. b3 d6 4. Bb2 dxe5 5. Bxe5 Nc6 6. Bb2 e6 7. Bb5 Bd7 8.
Nf3 a6 9. Bc4 b5 10. Be2 Nf4 11. O-O Nxe2+ 12. Qxe2 Bc5 13. Nc3 O-O 14. Ne4
Bb6 15. Nfg5 Ne7 16. Qh5 h6 17. Nf6+ gxf6 18. Qxh6 fxg5 19. Qg7# {Black
checkmated} 1-0

 [/pgn]

I enjoyed the successful kingside attack finishing with mate!

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

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]

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

Thetford RapidPlay 18/09/10

Posted on September 22nd, 2010 by Richard

Thetford RapidPlay chess

The tournament was a great success and enjoyable for all chess players even those who were a little disappointed with their results.

I played in the Minor u125 section ending with 4/6. This section was won by Richard Donahue. My son Chris played in the strong Open section and he finished with 3/6 and overall this section was won by Stephen Orton.

Unfortunately although I scored all my games I made some errors in the scoring & did not complete any one scoresheet & I cannot show my games! I must improve at scoring while playing to ensure I do not miss out moves but record all accurately & quickly.

Chris & I had a good time and we hosted Steyn & Jarno who did well too! Thanks Kevin for all your work!

Thetford RapidPlay Chess 18/09/120

Tags: Chess Tournaments, my chess games
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Written by: Richard

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!

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

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:

[pgn height=400 initialhalfMove=16 autoplaymode=none]

[Event “97th ch-GBR”]
[Site “Canterbury ENG”]
[Date “2010.08.06”]
[Round “11”]
[White “Pert, N.”]
[Black “Gordon, S.”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A05”]
[WhiteElo “2551”]
[BlackElo “2534”]
[PlyCount “171”]
[EventDate “2010.07.26”]
[FEN “4k3/4B3/4KP2/4N3/8/8/5r2/8 w – – 0 80”]

80. Bb4 Rf1 81. Bd2 Kf8 82. Bh6+ Ke8 83. Be3 Kf8 84. Bf4 Kg8
85. f7+ Kg7 86. Ng6 1-0[/pgn]

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:

 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OUb-nCJ4mI[/youtube]

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

 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXtT0StMqKQ&feature=channel_page[/youtube]

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