Thursday, May 29, 2014

Math Teaching

I have gone back to school to get a certificate to teach mathematics. This is going to drastically reduce the time I have to spend on chess. I may have to change my goal from improvement to maintenance until I get out from under the workload of the first few years of teaching.

I might have to move to back to KIA and Pirc to relieve the issue of opening knowledge.

I must keep practicing tactics. It will be a good break from my other work.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Following Kaufman - May 2014

May 2014 is here and a new issue of "Following Kaufman" is available for the popular price of $0.99 here at Smashwords.

There are 172 games relevant to the "Kaufman Repertoire in Black & White". I have annotated Four Queen's Indian games.

Here is a video I made out of one of the annotated games.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

TCCL 2014 - Final

The 2014 season of the TCCL is finished, and the Rochester teams managed to finish solidly (more or less) in the middle of the pack in all three divisions.

This is confirmation of the Rochester Chess Club's attempt to field teams that are competitive in all three divisions.

Our gold team did have some nervous moments in the last round. We needed to do better than the Twin Knights to secure our place in the Gold, but their opponents first board did not show, and the Twin Knights got a 4-0 sweep by forfeit. We were able to manage a 4-0 sweep by games.

Overall, I am satisfied with my performance this year. I think I improved in how I prepared for an opponent, but I think my overall chess strength has not increased as much as prior years. I am hoping the annotation of games I am doing for "Following Kaufman" will help me progress.

Friday, April 4, 2014

Following Kaufman - April 2014

The April 2014 issue of Following Kaufman is available on for sale here on Smashwords It is available for a popular price of  99 cents.

This month includes four annotated Queen's Gambit Declined Exchange games.

There are a total of 190 games.

I have put a video up on you tube about Aronian - Kramnik from the world championship candidates tournament, which I annotate in this issue.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Following Kaufman - March 2014

The March 2014 edition of Following Kaufman is available for sale here on Smashwords. It is available for a popular price of  99 cents.

This month includes three annotated Slav games where black tries to get a better Queen's Gambit Accepted.

The filter selected 77 games.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Chess Stack Exchange

Stack Exchange is a set of sites where people can share knowledge on various topics. It started with Computer Programming problems and Stack Overflow. There is a rating/voting system for the quality of the answers. I search Stack Overflow a lot to help with programming.

There is now a Chess Stack Exchange where I have answered a few questions. I think this is a valuable format for exchanging chess knowledge. Go over there and take a look.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Minnesota Open 2014

Bartholomew won the 2014 Minnesota Open with a perfect score, with Nagle, Tang, and Amarashinge in a 3 way tie for second.

Amarashinge re-entered after losing his first round game to our local protege Leker-Locker. His re-entry gave me my first loss. I was white in a line of the KID that I have not looked at much. I deviated from my preparation on move 8. I had a good idea on move 13, but did not follow up precisely.

Saturday was a miserable day for me with two more losses after the first. In the latter games, I had an advantage and messed up both times. Good learning experiences, I hope. I did not have a good night's sleep Friday and did not eat much on Saturday. I think both were contributors to the latter two losses.

I easily won both games Sunday, after a good nights sleep, breakfast, and lunch.

I need to spend some attention to playing "easier" (Soltis "What It Takes To Be A Chess Master"), so long days do not wear me out so much.


Thursday, February 6, 2014

Following Kaufman - February 2014

The February 2014 issue of Following Kaufman is available for purchase on Smashwords for 99 cents.

Included are 78 relevant games. I have annotated three Ruy Lopez games this month.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Rochester Chess Club tournament January 2014

The club this year is running a grand prix style for determination who will play in the club championship next fall. The first of these tournaments finished this last Tuesday, and I managed to squeak out a win against another class A player. The time control was G/60+30 increment. This was a little fast for me, and I had trouble in all 4 games, but managed to win many in the endgame to get 3.5 points out of 4.


Tuesday, January 28, 2014

St Paul Winter Open 2014

The tournament had a good turnout despite the weather. I did well with 2.5 out of 4 (I withdrew before the last round, so I could drive home in the daylight through the blizzard)

There are important lessons for me in 3 of the games, including two Catalan's that I did not get enough out of the opening, one of which I held on to draw FM Wasiluk. My second round game was a bit of a blow out, as he missed a critical move. In the third round, I messed up tactics against P. Amarasinghe in a wild KID (much like our first game years ago), but was unable to swindle him this time. My last game was the second Catalan, and though he equalized, I was able to get to an endgame where only I had winning chances, and he made several errors.

Both Catalan's were not "mainline" and illustrated the problem with memorization of opening lines.

There was a wild card thrown into the tournament. After round 4, Charles Wynn, a class A player who had not played in the last two years, was the leader having beaten Wasiluk and Chakrasali, while the other masters had draws. Iwu beat him in the last round to win the tournament. He is one to watch.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

TCCL 2014 round 5

I played Zach Adams, again, and lost, again. The rest of the team did well, but the match turned on my game. We need to get at least a whole point out of the next two matches to stay in the Gold.

It was not a good night for Rochester, as the other teams lost, also.

I had a good idea that did not work tactically. I missed a pin that spoiled the combination. The combination was to open up the center while his king was stuck there.

I misjudged the team situation, and I should have played more solidly.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Following Kaufman - January 2014

The January 2014 issue of Following Kaufman is available for purchase on Smashwords for 99 cents.

There are a total of 199 games. I annotated two Gruenfeld games that I thought were interesting. I was going to do a third, but I got sick at the end of December.