Tuesday, January 25, 2005

addendum

so earlier i wrote that i was playing the ruy lopez v. sicilian and ruy, the austrian attaq v. pirc/etc. and i have changed and am going to play the same advanced system v. the caro, french and ...e6 sicilian. i think i can get away with this caro-line

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.c3 e6 5.Be3 Qb6 6.Qb3



play it like an advanced French. i will try it, likely i won't get a caro but why not give it a try. there's no insane pawn pushes or anti-positional things and i'm pretty well defended against his dark square bishop and the inevitable ...c5 push

no more fucking around...

okay it's time to draw the proverbial line in the sand. i am playing 1.e4 in this tournament. i will likely play Bb5 v. all sicilian lines except for c3 v. 2. ...e6 and go for an advanced French. needless to say i will play the advanced french. austrian attaq v. the pirc and the ruy lopez. so basically i have three systems as white (word botwinnik). ruy lopez (v. ruy and sicilian) advanced french (v. french and e6 sicilian) and austrian attaq (v. garbage). probably i'll stick with the panov v. the caro-kann and just wing it v. the scandinavian. i can't even think if i'm forgetting anything. i don't have the bollocks to play the cochrane gambit v. the petroff. i decided to play the 2....d6 3.Bb5+ lines wasn't the end of the world. if it's lazy and drawish so be it...i'm just looking to survive. i am going to book up a bit v. the scandinavian. a bit. as black i'm going for nimzo, QID (no more fucking QGD bitch) and caro. i will play the grünfeld v. 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 and 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 if they allow me. i'm in the middle of moving over to 8th street so better to decide this now with less than a month, than when i'm living out of boxes for the next couple of weeks. amanda got a job in town which is cool, i will invite her and jason over for drinks sometime.

Saturday, January 22, 2005

armando shows the way...

armando recommended "play Ne4 followed by d5 v. the tromp...eventually both players will loose (sp) a tempo"

i will try it.

armando also recommended watching over Lazaro Bruzon's games. he said "You will find them boring, but he plays the balance theory to perfection, just like Capa. the balance theory consist of keeping the position at a balance estate, whomever breaks the balance is at risk...that is what happen to morozevich yesterday. He did not understand Bruzon".

Thursday, January 20, 2005

chess ideas

okay i have a couple new ideas

1. 1.d4, 2.Nf3 just like Kirk. i think it's not a half bad idea. i may even play 2.c4 against 1.d4 d5 we'll have to see. the idea is to play 2.Nf3 against 1. ...Nf6. i need to get comfortable in the queen's gambit declined just like i am in the ruy lopez as white.

2. 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5!? as Black. i think it could work. 3.e3 cxd4 4.exd4 d5 is a CK Exchange. 3.d5 b5! is the original benko gambit. 3.c4 e6 aims for either a benoni or a tarrasch defense depending. again i'm going far too deep here, but i think this would be playable enough, except for the benoni things. we'll have to see.

the big deal here is the return to 1.d4

what against the dutch i wonder? i could always just develop. i'll ponder.

morozevich is in last place at Corus Wijk Aan Zee. looks good on him...he's a jerk ass

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

caro it is

i've decided against 1.e4 e5 and decided to make THE RETURN OF THE CARO stay tuned

Monday, January 10, 2005

clin-ton

so i went over and "analyzed" with clinton, which basically means drinking some beers and pushing the pieces around the board. when i showed him my games from the barrie tournament he was amazed at how upset i was that i missed tactics, and he was like "everyone misses some tactics". do i hold myself to too high a standard, that is impossible to live up to? that would explain why i'm never satisfied with a game. maybe i should aim for realistic expectations...i'm a 1600 player at this point. let me be happy with a 1600 result. too hard ;)

also he showed me a game he played with the Cochrane Gambit





i always thought it was garbage but is it worse than the Allgaier gambit i doubt it. and it is tricky. maybe i'll give it a second look eventually ;) plus if i do a little research i'll never get a petroff at the tournament so i figure it's a win win situation.

also i was worried that clin-ton was catching up to me, but when i saw his games i'm still significantly stronger which is important to me, because i'm trying to improve ASAP

Sunday, January 09, 2005

3/5 in barrie

a couple of things before i start talking about barrie


  • my goal is to get to 1600 in 2005, which i think is doable. basically i'll need an 1800 performance in the U2000 approximately to get the 80 points i need. something to shoot for
  • i need to figure out my lines. with 1.e4 basically i'm fine v. 1. ...c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 and 2. ...e6 but i need lines v. the Dragon and Najdorf. I played the Dragon as White v. an Expert yesterday and i remember thinking (thank god he didn't play the Najdorf). i think i may play 6.f4 v. both and see how it goes.
  • i seriously need to figure out what i'm playing as Black. there are two choices...a) 1.d4 d5 which i have to figure out what to play v. the colle and the veresov and b)1.d4 Nf6 which i only need to figure out what to play v. the tromp. then there's a myriad of decisions about what to play after 2.c4 in both lines, but there's time for that
  • i am definitely putting a ban on blitz until that time...sure it's relaxing and makes me get used to middlegame positions. maybe i'll still play some blitz v. kirk but not on ICC/FICS. i'll do tactics whenever i get the craving


okay i have mixed feelings about my performance in barrie. sure i finished with 3/5 but i didn't play that well. i had initiative in the first game v. the expert, but my position fell apart. will need to go over that game with a fine tooth comb. second round, the guy asked "is this where the queen and king go?" so i played the king's gambit v. him :) third round, i lost all sense of urgency and allowed the guy to mate me horribly in 20 moves in the richter-veresov which pissed me off. round four, i had a better position but missed a couple tactics as black but still won when he hung a piece. round five, i battled and won an endgame.

kirk claimed my games were crappy but he missed as much as i did in his. i just need more games and less crap to get a serious frame of mind. after that easy victory in round two, i was just making moves in round three and was punished mercilessly. not acceptable. the good thing though is that the guy i beat relatively handily in the last round was rated 1580, so i mean 1600 is there if i want it. my goal is to go up about 100 points a year which is a lot, but i mean it's doable. i tried to talk kirk into playing up and he's not sure but i think he should. the bonus points is hard to figure out on the CFC site. basically you get more for having an 1800 performance winning 5 games v. 1400 players, than having an 1800 performance winning 2.5 games v. 1800 players, than having an 1800 performance.

also i was thinking about putting the breaks on OMGP vol. 3 it takes forever to do anything and move over to bronstein temporarily. or maybe not. just it's not proceeding as quickly as i would have liked. maybe i'll put my nose to the proverbial grindstone today and get through

they like me, they really like me!

i entered a new article on schemingmind.com based on my london tournament and people seemed to like it. which is cool.

i just returned from a tournament in barrie yesterday and it went okay...i scored 3/5, kirk scored 3½/5 and played impressively and clin-ton scored 3/5 even. i'll write more later

Sunday, January 02, 2005

sweet victory

i luckily won game three on the black side of an open lopez. he had a free piece but he played the wrong continuation :( doesn't matter, i'm back in business. and you know what i'm gonna play? king's freaking gambit...wish me luck. now it's just a matter of 3.Bc4 or trying to unass senor muzio. probably 3.Bc4. actually i changed my mind. i'm gonna play 3.Nf3 and hope for the muzio. of course he won't play it, he'll play the fischer defense instead and i'm gonna play the main line as in Day-Berry and whup his candy ass