My debut with 1.e4...

The transition from the familiar positional 1.d4 to the more tactically prone 1.e4 was very much like crossing over to the DARK side. So far this month, I've played white only 4 times with 1.e4.

I've been playing up a section at the club ( the Open section) and had the "Honor" to lose to a 2460 FM...it was a nice "lesson". I went to a weekend tournament and played in the U2100 and finished with 2 points despite being at the bottom of the section. One of those wins was with white 1.e4.

I faced a couple Caro-Kanns, one opportunity to play the Skotch Gambit and a Modern defense. So far I have only one win against a 4....Nf6 Caro-Kann. The other CK I lost because I was getting too agressive ( still playing cowboy moves) . Since the Caro-Kann is like forcing white to play positionally with a d4 game, I still am out trying to evaluate the move.

In the game I played the Skotch Gambit, I definitely had a lot of potential but I misplayed the opening. This was encouraging as I played against a strong ...er...kid. ( I may post the games at a later point but I need to revisit how to do this as the java applet I used to use is a BEAR to work with in this blog).

I'm anxious to attempt my 2.c4 silly sicilian game. I am also working on a response the Pirc, modern andAlekhine.

I have a new Floor!

Despite my extreme roller coaster chess rating ride this summer. A recalculation at the USCF MSA area reveals I did actually peak 1703 giving me a new floor of 1500!

Now, if I can manage to stay off the floor with my new opening repertoire!

The Debut of......

1. e4! I know ... BIG woop! But for me being a 1.d4 player for so long because I feared the MANY variations I had to learn in order to play 1.e4, this IS a big WOOP!

For mirrored e-pawn games... I am going to attempt the Scotch ( tape) Gambit ( 1.e4,e5 2.Nf3, Nc6 3.d4, exd4 4.Bc4...)

For the French, I am comfortable with the classic and have my lines prepared for the winnawer and all the other non-main line sub variants.

For the Caro-Kann... Globular was close but its a toss up between the Panov-Botvinik or the Advanced Bayonet! Being a C-K player, these were my most pesky oppositions.

Now... for the one I feared the most.... da Sicilian. Are you ready for this ... I had to go obscure ...the voices in my head suggested I do 1.e4,c5 2. c4! followed by 3.f4 if black doesn't freak and play 2.e5 pulling it into a symmetrical English Botvinik. Sick? You may think I am pawn short of a complete set, I did a database search on the position and found a couple GMs had played it. Alekhine was one, Alexandra Koestnik was the other. But the system I am following is interesting. Pretty much abandons d4 for rapid piece deployment and action on both the b and f files. Fritz had some fun with it and I hope to continue this trend with real OTB games.

Well, that's my big debut.... I am ready to play these this month but yet to have white at the club or an actual opponent. As it turned out this week, I signed up for the open section. I am the lowest rated player in the section and figured "what the hell". If I am going to lose....might as well lose to MUCH higher rated folks as I adapt to an new opening repertoire.

One of the kids at the club ( Tim B.) was upset that I was abandoning the London. Not really, I just want to put it on a shelf for a while. I need to exercise the other hemisphere and play some e4 action.

One trick pony

I've been secretly working on a new repertoire to debut this month. I've been running into "stale" opening syndrome. My once vibrant London system as white seems to have hit the wall. When I first adopted this opening 2 years ago, I had a lot of success with it since most of the folks in the area weren't familiar with it. Since then, most of my opponents I face in the area have a good understanding of how to handle it. Sure, I can continue and look for deeper 18th move variations that may give me a plus over equal position but I feel its time to venture out.

Basically, I don't want to be a one-trick-pony. The London was a good opening for me since it was easy to learn and understand. The Pillsbury attack was my friend and an occasional Bxh7 was exciting. But I need to venture off this path. I will reveal my new white repertoire at a later date since some of my local opponents do read this regularly.