I am *SO* done with the 70's

I just finshed my 7 concentric mazes of the level 70's. Interesting that I scored almost identical to what I did when I tackled the level 60's. Here are the scores:

level 70
45
47
51
56
63
73
82

You can scroll down to the "60's" post to compare if you want.

Time to put away the bell-bottoms and turn up the punk rock and the big hair metal bands. I'm heading for the eigthies!

Off to the 44 problems of the 80's times lucky seven!

That swindle At the Eastern Class

Here is that "swindle" I had back at the eastern Class Championship for those interested.


Duval,G ( Blunder Prone) - Kolb,D [A48]Eastern Class Championship 2006(4), 05.03.2006[Duval,George]

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 g6 3.e3 Bg7 4.Nf3 d6 5.Bd3 Nh5 6.Nbd2 Nxf4 7.exf4 Nd7 8.c3 0-0 9.f5 c5 10.fxg6 hxg6 11.Qb3 cxd4 12.cxd4 Qb6 13.Qxb6 Nxb6 14.0-0 Bd7 15.Rfe1 Rfe8 16.Rac1 Nd5 17.Be4 Bc6 18.a3 Kf8 19.Nf1 Rac8 20.Ne3 Nxe3 21.Bxc6 Rxc6 22.Rxc6 Nxg2 23.Rxe7 bxc6 24.Rxe8+ Kxe8 25.Kxg2 Ke7 26.b3 Ke6 27.Ng5+ Kf6 28.f4 Bh6 29.h4 Bxg5 30.fxg5+ Kf5 31.Kf3 a5 32.b4 axb4 33.axb4 d5 34.Kg3 Ke4 35.Kg4 Kxd4 36.Kf4 Kc3 37.Ke5 d4 38.Kf6 d3 39.Kxf7 d2 40.Kxg6 d1Q 41.Kh6 Qd6+ 42.g6 Qxb4 43.h5 Qf4+ 44.Kh7 Qf5 45.Kh6 ....

45...Kd4 46.g7 Qg4 47.g8Q 1/2-1/2

Never resign! Make them earn the point! Arrrrrrrr!

BP

...And then I let it slip through my hands!

Thus the name Blunder Prone! Tonight I had yet another "won" game in my clutches coming out of the opening ahead on the exchange ( in this case a Rook for a Knight) yet i managed to let it slip through my hands.

1) I tried to follow the rule of thumb that once I win material I should regroup my pieces and defend any threats. This only handed the initiative back to my opponent. He had so much play left that I had to be careful of him gaining material back and almost mating me!

and then....

2) I saw an opportunity to simplify and exchanged down. But a miscalculation left me with 2 disconnected rooks and a bishop versus an active queen and a Knight ( with 2 minutes left on the clock). I thought I had the knight too but ... oh well.

and matters made worse....

3) I tried to save an advanced central pawn ( which was blocked). This only led me to keep the rooks disconnected and pieces out of harmony. Yeah... I dropped a rook. The adventures of Blunder Prone strikes again. Yay varily.


Grrrr. I do this too often. Like the last tournament I went to. I come out of the opening strong and even some middle games ahead... only to chase some ficticious demon or stupid "rule" and not playing "real" chess. This does get frustrating....when will I learn?

Almost done with the circles.... must finish circles.... circles...nice circles ... I see them now...hmmm dizzy now.

synapses misfiring .... neural network error

I made it through the 60's ...Woah Man... Cool!

For those of you wondering if I am having any sort of a flashback, I'm afraid the only flashback here is those of seeing level 60 problems etched into my thick skull. I finished the 7th tour of level 60 CT-ART 3.0 problems tonight ( hit rate) :


level 60
46
46
53
54
63
73
82

I did the last three concentric mazes over the weekend and found myself pushing the envelope to see if I could do it faster each time. I think it helped to have them complete back to back... it did well for my short term memory issues... rather, my overall MEMORY issues.

Well, time to put the bell-bottoms and the lava lamp on and head for the 7 concentric mazes of the level 70's!

BP

I got to use the "sword"

Alright, I went to the Eastern Class Chanpionship this weekend and had less than stellar results. I was playing at the bottom of the class B section and really didn't expect a whole lot in the first place. I did manage to scalp someone who was 130 higher and I managed to swindle a drawfrom another 100 plus rated player. Other than that ... I lost. Two of those losses were because I was attempting "cowboy" moves ( Improperly calculated tactical shots) when I "should have" played more conservative and positional.

This brings me to my epiphany I had this weekend. The games I typically play tend to be positional battles. One guy was telling me that I should try to play tactical open games to make use of the "training" ( and he was ready to sell me 100 bucks worth of books to me) but after some consultation with others, I realized that I AM A POSITIONAL PLAYER. I *found* my "style" this weekend.

The games I played had me coming out of the opening rather well and even had some play in the middlegame that actually was making sense. I even played into an Isolated Queen Pawn position and actually remembered what to do! I turned development advantages into material pawn advantages and figured how to block in my oponent's Bishops off. Where I went wrong was when I would get ahead of myself and think I see a tactical shot. Both times I did this, I calculated into uncertainty. Had I had my brain with me, the red flag would have gone off and told me not to play it... maybe losing a few rating points will help me do less "cowboying"

So, overall, I will continue the tactical training as prescribed... because I will still have those tactical possibilities eventually in some of my "positional" games. But for now, I will beef up the stategy and positional training. Plus, I want to play sharper lines of the openings I play. End games will also be thrown into my mix.

I'll keep you all posted.

Concentric Maze (Circles de la modified) Update

To recap on my method:

1. CT-ART 3.0
2. Start on level 10
3. Do it 7 times
4. Next level ... 7 X
5. Does it hurt yet?

So, in theory, my circles consist of 63 concentric mazes which will still total the same amount of problems as prescribed by Michael De La Maza. Tonight, I made it through Maze 38 ( 3rd round of level 60). This brings my total problems to a count of 7279. I did two extra mazes on levels 10-20 plus a few odd ones in various levels at the beginning for those of you doing the pure math ( Like Hmmm... 7 x(110+286+221+204+134) +3x 84 only equals 6937... who am I kidding?).

I still suck ... I find at the higher levels the first couple tours I score about the same percentage.

A look at my sucky "hit rate":

Circle 10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s

1 89 74 65 58 54 46
2 90 77 67 59 58 46
3 90 80 68 59 55 53
4 90 82 68 59 59
5 93 86 73 69 69
6 97 90 73 73 66
7 95 89 76 79 71

8 94 92

( I haven't figured out a clean way to do tables on this Blog so sorry for the craptacular format)

These are pathetic...probably because for a while I was not using proper "thinking" and trying to calculate or recognize the pattern. Rather, becuase of burn out and trying to go as fast as possible I would "guess".... trying to correct that these days.

Oh well, I'm Off to the Eastern Class Championship this weekend! I'm done with tactics for tonight off to review my openings and attempt to finish Andy Solitis' new book on How to Choose a Chess Move I found at our local library ( good positional book ... very "wordy" ...I like that... I am dense).

Later,

Brain... missing in action

Well, I went to the club with my tactical sword sharpened but forgot to refresh my opening reply as Black against 1.e4. I suffer from CRS ( Can't remember ...stuff) and I need to constantly refresh my openings. I think it was my mispent youth or the oxygen starvation back in the carefree days of the 70's ;)

Maybe I am just dense. I play the caro-kann... because I used to play the french but never liked my Q-bishop locked in. So now, I use the C-K with a vengeance and get the damn Bishop out before I lock in tehpawn chains. Mainline I am Ok... Advanced variation... I had to take a couple knocks from another club member to remember to advance c5 early less trouble sets in. Tonight was no different, I did remember the early c5 ... but I managed to be behind in development the entire opening and well into the middle game. I could see tactical shots only a tempo or two away but my opponent had the initiative almost the entire game.

I suck... I never got to use my sword :(

Studying openings has always been a pain for me. I am a visual guy. I tried bookup but can't seem to get the hang of it. I wish I could find a better method of understanding the concepts behind them ( I have the "easy" series of books ... I have to keep re-reading them because it doesn't stay in my thick head) I am open to ideas.

Back to tactics and on to the Eastern Class Championship this weekend.

I took the test... Steinitz?

Chess Bully

You're Wilhelm Steinitz! The first official World

Chess Champion, your logical approach to play

was a timely corrective to the romantic yet

unsound style relying on brilliancies and

explosive sacrifices. Instead you advocated

steady, correct play exploiting tiny

positional advantages and refraining from

flashy, questionable attacks.


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