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.
5 comments:
Boy, we all know what brain: MIA feels like. I think I spent most of the 90's like that ;)
Anyway - I just wanted to say that after reading yours and other various posts I decided I too would blog my experience in aiming for chess improvement ('mastery' is probably too lofty a goal for me at this point!).
Don't let the bad days keep you down. Hopefully this blog experience will help us encourage each other through the rough spots -
BP,
Yes, it's me... the "other club member" in your post. I think your first move is the problem! It's a hard thing to do, but the Knights need to take up more tactical openings if they're going to use their swords. The Caro just is too slow (so is the French). Any openeing that lets white get away with d5 and g4 in the first few moves has got ot be bad. :)
Play the Dragon! Yeah, there's tons of "theory" (whatever that is...) and there's lots of ways to avoid it, but it's just too fun. Most of the "standard ideas" are tactical and a lot of fun to uncork (e.g. anytime a ...Rxc3 exchange sacrifice is available, you just play it, game over!)
"Winning with the Dragon 2" by Chris Ward is excellent. The first 10-15 pages are just ideas and themes, the rest is all annotated games. Great stuff; not necessary to memorize, just fun to watch.
Until we meet again,
-Matt
Well, I vowed tomyself to finish the maze ( 7 circles) before I do anything drastic like change my opening... especially 3 days away from an event I plan on heading to.
Years ago I used to play the Najdorf Dragon.... but that was back in the 70's ...I clueless and augmenting my reality WAY too much back then ;)
I may gear up for the World open.
I always HATED to study openings. Now, I find it rather interesting. I think this is why: first I finished my tactics circles and got reasonably competent in that part of the game. Now, I'm studying a lot of strategy and position play (mainly using Chess Mentor supplemental problem sets). I've started to win more and when I lose, it's mostly been due to lack of opening knowledge (although I still can get beat strategically and in the endgame). So, when I lose and I know it's because I screwed the opening up, I go back to my opening reference books and re-study the ideas as well as the moves sequences (to understand how the plan moves are prioritized). This has seemed to help, and it also has made my opening study more interesting.
Welcome aboard!
PS
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