Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Barrett Annotates His Game

Tellurium Rd 2. Great game from Barrett. He saw the tactics perfectly. Here's his thoughts about the game.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Round 3 Games

Tellurium Rd 3. bshribharath won a pawn, then kept everything under control, and brought home the point. Nice.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Tamky70 Wins Again

Rubidium Rd 2. Black, seeing the 350 rating point difference, kept offering draws. White, also sees the ratings, and plays on even in a inferior position and is rewarded.

Lobotomy Anyone?

One of our "Element" players took the Rook with the pawn causing stalemate.
Don't laugh, you KNOW you've done something similar.

Quick Win For Krysto

Niobium Rd 2. krysto was a 150 point underdog. Not to worry, he wins in 22 moves.

In A Slump?


Do you ever get into a Chess slump? Can't win a game. Can't "see" anything. One thing I do to overcome this is to play over Bobby Fischer's games. I pick a tournament, like the 1970 Interzonal where he scored 18.5 of 23, 3.5 points more than second place, and just quicky play through the games. The simplicity and exactness of his play inspires me and seems to pull me out of my slump.
My copy of "Profile of a Prodigy" is in horrible shape, the cover has fallen off, pages falling out etc. Nowadays you can use ChessBase and let the computer move the pieces for you.

Whiskytown Wins


Rubidium Rd 2. A good battle that went back and forth. Black fell apart in the endgame.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Awesome Endgame Play By Barrett

Rhenium Rd 2. Great stuff for endgame fans. Did I lose my audience right there? Knowing endgames will get you more points and a higher rating.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Sunday, November 11, 2012

White Mates in 2

A Game From whiskeytown

whiskeytown also joins Rubidium. Here's a very exciting game with opposite side castling.

QuimCatala Wins Quickly

T55 is starting very soon. It's time to show some games from some of the new players to the "Element" teams. QuimCatala is joining Rubidium. Here he beats a player rated 200 points above him in just 19 moves.
Picture: Bose–Einstein condensate. Velocity-distribution data of a gas of Rubidium

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Tactics, Seen And Not Seen

Rubidium Rd 3. A huge disparity by the players in seeing tactics can be seen here. Elalfer gets a nice win as a result.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Clutch Win By Jorobo

Rhenium Rd 5. A must win situation. Rhenium needs to win this game to draw the match and get into playoff contention. Jorobo crushed him.

An Awesome Game

Tellurium Rd 3. CamNewton really had his hands full here. Black's playing a great game and has him on the ropes but cam is pounding out some good moves of his own. Then a little error and White gets two Rooks for a Queen. Really great stuff, check it out.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Burnsy Wins His Fifth In A Row

Strontium Rd 5. 5-0 score for Burnsy with Strontium this league so far. I'm way behind getting all these games posted. Here's a real slaughter.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

What's Your Plan Pt.2

Rhenium Rd 2. TerryMalloy said "it took me a while to figure out; the only way to get the b-pawn was with the king"

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Play The Whole Board.

Rhenium Rd 2. A real impressive game by Campagnolo. Total domination.

What's Your Plan?

You're playing Black here. What's your plan? No need for specific variations, just what you want to accomplish in the next dozen or so moves.

Monday, September 10, 2012

A Win For Miles

Niobium Rd 3. milesotoole saw something his opponent overlooked.

Berke Wins Two In A Row

Strontium Rd 4. This is not a good game. Berke took advantage of some bad moves from White. But there is some instructional value in games like this. See the note to move 15.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Comparing 2 Games, Pt 2

Rhenium Rd 4. The same variation. Check out how this game went. The game gave Rhenium a match point.

Comparing 2 Games, Pt. 1

Rubidium Rd 2. We're comparing two "element" games where the opening was identical to a point.
The first game, here, is from krysto, about 1600. The next game we will see how universe, just a tick under 2200, handles it. It's clear in both games that Black knew the opening better. And we see some similar themes.

OOOPS

Rubidium Rd 2. Another "it happens"

Decisive Rook Sac

Tellurium Rd 4. A good attack by bshribharath. Almost let him get away though.

Nice Win By Berke


Strontium Rd 3. A strong attack gained a lot of material.

Back To Work

Rhenium Rd 3. Been a little busy the last two weeks.But I'll try to catch up on getting your games up here. A lot of good games. Here's the decisive game getting Rhenium the point in round 3.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

"It" Happens

Rubidium Rd 1. Not much to this game. Tamky70 had the better position when his opponent gifted him a whole Rook. It reminded me of a scene in the movie Forest Gump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b3vg9k8Abc

FlyingTiger Gets A Nice Win

Niobium Rd 1. FlyingTiger played the Queen endgame very well. It's worth taking a look to get some ideas on how to win these things.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

White To Play

A position from my endgame course in the Bishop section. It looks like a simple win but if Black can blockade the pawns then he can draw. There's only one move that stops any blockades from happening.

Krysto Starts with A Win

Niobium Rd 1. Krysto got into some trouble but battled back.

T54 Starts!

Strontium Rd 1. Sorry for not posting lately. Some crisis' in my life right now. But now it's time for some league games! Here's a very interesting game to start things out. A lot of mistakes on both sides, a little rust I suppose. But also some fine moves. And a very instuctive endgame.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Chess Endgame Course


I watch a lot of 45 45 games and the biggest thing I notice is the horrific endgame play, especially at the lower levels.
Both players begin out playing fairly decently, attacking, defending, some good plans etc. Maybe not master level but reasonable.
Then when the endgame starts things fall apart. Missed wins and draws abound. It's if there are random moves being made.

Why is this? It's because most people don't study the endgame. It's boring they think. Or another false thought that the ending won't happen. But it does. People may avoid the endgame because of this weakness, instead of going into a winning endgame they will stay in the middlegame letting their opponent off the hook. Lots of rating points go wanting.

Are you one of these players? Have you gone over your game afterwards and to your horror discovered you missed a win or draw in an endgame position? And lost rating points because of it.

"In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before anything else; for whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and the opening must be studied in relation to the endgame." – J.R. Capablanca

So what can be done? You could buy a book, study it haphazardly. You're not sure whats important and whats not. Maybe you'll get to chapter 2 before you realize that it IS a lot of work to gain this Knowledge. The book ends on the shelf gathering dust. And you're still missing those wins and draws. And those rating points.

But I can help. I'm offering an ENDGAME COURSE. It's targeted specifically for players under 1800 down to 1200.

About 12 years ago I started taking lessons from an IM. The first thing I noticed it was a lot of endgames. I asked why. He told me that it was the foundation of being a good player.
And I found out I really enjoyed endgames. And I got some positive reinforcement when I started to gain an extra half point here and an extra point there.
But this teacher was charging me $60 an hour and I couldn't afford it.
I wanted to do the work though and try to master this aspect of the game. I bought some books, some database programs, and set to work.
I spent 1,000 hours on this in the next year and a half. And I got good at it. The rating went up. If I had a even position I could, as an option, just take it to the endgame. And many times it worked, I scored the point, even against Masters.

So I've taken my notes, my games, the books and databases I've accumulated and compiled it into an Endgame Course. I'm saving you those 1,000 hours that I took.


The course is as follows:

King and Pawn endgames to begin with. The soul of Chess. You will recognize the themes of what is happening on the board. You will know what to calculate, what to be looking for. Your opponents will still be making random moves. You'll start scoring much more.

Rook and Pawn endgames. The most common endgame. Lots of theory here but you will gain the knowledge to recognize what to do and how to combat what your opponent is doing. More points scored.

Other endgames: There's a lot here but they're less common. I present the key positions in winning Knight endings, Bishop endings, Bishop vs. Knight endings, Queen endings, and unbalanced material endings.

The lessons are done on ICC in examine mode. The positions are stored and placed in examine mode instantly. None of this put the pawn there, the Rook there, etc.

The course isn't free but very reasonable. Considering the time I spent to get this course ready I'm making very little.
$25 per hour or $100 for 5 hours of instruction. Pretty cheap considering you'll retain this knowledge for the rest of your lifetime. We can also go over your games or other things that interest you.

If you're interested send an ICC message to Paulkov or an email to cottonyard@charter.net

"When you study openings you learn openings; when you study endgames, you study chess."

Studying the endgame really helps your calculations in other areas of the game.


Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Strontium Championship Round, Final Game

Strontium Championship round. Strontium is down 2-1 and a win is necessary for Strontium to get another chance to tie and play another match.
Milesotoole does it again! They will play another match this week to finally settle things.

Leave No Doubt

Niobium Playoff Rd 2. Niobium lead 2-0 when this game started. Just a draw was needed in the final two games. The title of the post refers to what Milesotoole did here.
The title also refers to a football injustice from 2003.
In 2003 the USC football team ended the regular season ranked #1 in both the AP Poll and the Coaches' Poll. Controversy erupted when the BCS computers selected Oklahoma-LSU as the BCS title game. USC got left out! But after a convincing win in the Rose Bowl USC won the AP poll. But LSU won the coaches poll. Being a huge fan of USC all my life this has always pissed me off.
At the start of the 2004 season USC adopted the slogan "Leave No Doubt". They did just that, going 11-0. The picture is from a game of theirs I went to that year.
Niobium advances to the Championship round!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Niobium Goes Up 2-0

Niobium Playoff Rd 2. Good game by FlyingTiger.

What If He Won't Resign?

You've all probably had games where you win a lot of material and you're opponent won't resign. Best play is to mate him as quickly as you can. But sometimes you can get creative and make him pay for playing on. Maybe it's not good sportsmanship but, after all, he's the one playing on. Here's a recent game of mine where I promoted 5 pawns to Knights.

Niobium In Round 9

Niobium Playofd Rd 2. flyingpawns got into a bad spot but was able to turn the game around and score an important point.

Strontium Championship Round Games

Strontium Rd 9. Final Championship round. An important win by Lee-D. He was well in control most of the game but got into what was probably, with best play, a draw. But endgames can be hard, especially when you're the player trying to save it. Lee-D kept setting problems that his opponent couldn't solve. I'm showing just the ending of this game here, very interesting. I'll post the earlier part of the game later. The match stands at 1-2 with Milesotoole playing next Tuesday. If Miles wins then another match will be played.