MN Open 2013

I stepped up to the Premier section this year, so no MN Closed for me.

I did well. I lost to an IM, beat two lower rated players and drew with an expert and a player that is bouncing around 2000 USCF.

My last round game was an exciting, error prone, and long draw. I was black and played a King's Indian Defense. He chose the Saemisch variation.

TCCL 2013 round 6

Again, I forgot the critical move in the main line of the variation of the KID classical I play as black.

My wrong sequence of moves ended up with me having a weakness that my opponent eventually was able to exploit.

I have got to do a better job memorizing my mainlines now that I am playing experts and masters on a regular basis.

MN Winter Open 2013.

Overall mediocre results, till the last round. I beat who I should have beat and lost to who I should lose. In the last round I I got lucky to face a Dutch (which I had just been studying). I pulled out an unusual line, and got a favorable game out of the opening, and ground out a win.

TCCL 2013 round 5

Another substitute board 4. Our opponents lineup has been in flux anyway, so I did not have much clue what to prepare against. I chose to work on the Dutch a bit, but did not face it.

My opponent played well though he was punching well above his weight class. I basically just played solid and took advantage of the weaknesses he made in his position and slowly squeezed him. This is precisely the kind of game I hope to make a regular thing, but against stronger players. I made several imprecise moves and have identified things I can improve.

On one move in particular, I forced him to improve his position.

I played the simply awful 15.Ba7 which forces his rook to a better square. In keeping with my plans, 15.a5 to fix the hole on b6 would have been better. My knight could take up residency there. Houdini thinks now is the time to strike and favors 15.e5.

Unexpected Opponent

I was going through my chess.com games and vote chess games today, when I was challenged by a user with the name Alexandra-Kosteniuk.  The user is from Russia and has a picture of the former Women's World Champion on her page. She has not been on chess.com for long, but has beaten several masters.

I have no idea why, but perhaps she is looking for some exercise against Catalan players.

Update: The user has been revoked by chess.com as fake. Oh well, I guess it was too good to be true.

TCCL 2013 round 4

The team lost. I won. My opponent was a substitute, a young strong class A player on  the verge of expert.

We diverged from opening theory early in the Slav. At the critical moment I missed that I had an overloaded bishop that would lose me an exchange. He missed that after winning the exchange, I would get full compensation.

A Thought

Three ideas came together for me this morning.

1. Masters know what they want from a position.
2. Endgame play is dominated by figuring out what position you want and then figuring out how to get there.
3. Go is learned by simplifying the game by playing on smaller boards. Chess cannot be simplified by smaller boards, but it can be by fewer pieces.

To reach the next level, I do not need to just get better at the endgame, but to have that infuse my whole approach to the game.