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

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]

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

Trialling jspgnviewer WordPress plugin to display games

Posted on July 1st, 2010 by Richard

I have been trying over the last few days to install jspgnviewer by Toomas Romer as an alternative chess pgn game viewer for my blog. It has been a bit awkward as it does not install as simply other  WordPress plugins. It is not too complicated though-it seems to need the pgnviewer directory moved up a level (ie to be put in the plugins folder along with jspgnviewer-0.6.7 folder). So I hope this will work!

This is a game of mine from a nice training chess software program I have recently found called ‘Lucas Chess’

Unfortunately the board images are not displaying!

I am now going to try cvd plugin (chess viewer deluxe)!

[pgn parameter=value height=500 autoplayMode=none]
[Event “4th FIDE Grand Prix”]
[Site “Nalchik RUS”]
[Date “2009.04.29”]
[Round “13”]
[White “Levon Aronian”]
[Black “Peter Leko”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “2754”]
[BlackElo “2751”]
[ECO “E55”]
[EventDate “2009.04.15”]
[PlyCount “107”]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 d5 6.Nf3 c5 7.0-0 dxc4
8.Bxc4 Nbd7 9.Qe2 b6 10.Rd1 cxd4 11.exd4 Bxc3 12.bxc3 Bb7 13.Bb3 Qc7
14.c4 Rfe8 15.Bb2 Qf4 16.Qe3 Qf5 17.Ne1 b5 18.c5 Nd5 19.Qg3 Nf4
20.Rd2 Nf6 21.f3 N6h5 22.Qf2 Bd5 23.Bc2 Qg5 24.Kh1 Bc4 25.g3 Ng6
26.Ng2 Bd5 27.Ne3 Nf6 28.h4 Qh5 29.Nxd5 Nxd5 30.Re1 Red8 31.Rde2 Rab8
32.Bc1 h6 33.Kg2 Nc3 34.Re5 Nxe5 35.Rxe5 f5 36.Bb3 Nd5 37.Rxe6 Kh8
38.Qe1 Nf6 39.Qe5 Re8 40.c6 Rbc8 41.Qxb5 Qg6 42.h5 Qxh5 43.Bf4 a6
44.Qxa6 Nh7 45.c7 Ng5 46.Rxe8+ Qxe8 47.d5 Ra8 48.Qc4 Kh7 49.d6 Qe1
50.Qf1 Qe8 51.Qd3 Qd7 52.Qc4 Qe8 53.Bxg5 hxg5 54.Qg8+
1-0[/pgn]

[pgn parameter=value height=500 autoplayMode=none]
[Event “Ajedrez Lucas”]