Chess Moves

Blogger Moving!! :)

2007-09-01T06:15:00.001+10:00

I've moved my blogger to something that closely reflects my current chess. ;)

Lousy At Chess. See ya there!

Cheerios.

On My Great Dumb Moves

2006-12-23T06:08:00.000+11:00

Now I realised I well and truly, ahem, am bad in chess.

On Monday, I went along to a Chess Club with my favorite older brother-in-law in tow, played a cute small tournament with 2 players on each side of the board and making alternate moves? How did I do? Won the first two easily enough. The first game came as a victory over a simple bishop sacrifice. See diagram (I am in White). I played 1. e6 My team-mate looked at me and said,"Bishop?" (hanging on h4), I replied,"Yup. I know."

Black (it was a 10min blitz game after all so it's hard to analyse fully in such a short time) took the White Bishop with ... Bxh4 and his position collapsed after 2. exf7+ Kf8 3. Rxe8+.

My next game was won but I lost quickly in the next 2 games as I continued to leave my King in check!! Talk about dufus.

Seeing as I am not in any position to lead the table, I sorta strayed from playing as some people had by then left, leaving the tournament with the odd player out.

I subsequently played another game with Mark's wife whom I proceeded to defeat fairly comfortably. But lost another game to an elderly chap. I had a winning position (or at least a drawing position) in the late stage and proceeded to make a mess of things.

See diagram on right. I played

1. ... Rxg2+ 2. Kf1 (Kh1 is losing) Rg1+?? 3. Kf2 Rhg2+... dumb dumb dumb dumb. The correct response was naturally 2... Qg7! I still can't believe how I overlooked such a simple position.

In the meantime, best of Christmas to everyone! Had a torrid time trying to find carpark space to get a DVD marker at Macquarie Centre last weekend, much to my chagrin. And stay away from frenzied mums with shopping trolleys, they're worse than P-platers.

2006-03-14T11:50:00.000+11:00

Linares so far has ended with a bang with Leko losing to in the final game and Aronian emerging the winner! FIDE Champion Topalov staged a remarkable comeback during the 2nd leg to earn himself joint 2nd place. Leko finished a disappointing 4th.

All chess players show a preferential style towards one of the GMs at one time or another. I found one in GM Smyslov. I've been a fan of his because unlike other World Champions, Smyslov has always been a gentleman and it is his conduct over the board which is much to be admired.

Linares

2006-02-22T14:50:00.000+11:00

Yes, folks... it's been that time of the year again where everyone focuses their attention on Linares.

So far, Svidler and Leko were the quickest off the blocks and have +2.5 lead after 3 rounds. Topalov is unfortunately having a slightly slower start since his opening loss against Svidler.

There's a couple of new chess news out and I'll have hopefully a brief analysis done on one of the Linares rounds.

On the personal side, the last week has been an exercise in frustration. Someone hit my car and it's now in the repair shops for a week. My car insurance company is dragging their feet and I've been ringing their line for the last 2 days. Not a happy gent at the moment.

Still Trying To Defeat My Brother-In-Law

2006-02-13T16:05:00.000+11:00

It's not enough to get beaten by my BIL (brother-in-law) OTB but it's also important I get beaten by him online as well. :)

He had called up in the evening and I took this opportunity to play a few rounds of chess with him. He had been playing a couple of 5-minute blitz games before that and for the first game, his play was simply atrocious (be it a warning to everyone. don't play too many fast blitz games) and it's shocking that he could blunder into 1-move mistakes. So we restarted again and I promptly lost (yes, the story of my life).

More importantly, I found out why I lost. I haven't been paying attention to my prawns (or rather pawns) and the pawn structures in the games I lost were shocking. I'd really need to be more careful of how I sacrifice pawns to gain the initiative and learn how to position my pieces to protect my pawns.

After about an hour of playing, I had to go off as it's rubbish throwing time (ie. time for me to take out the garbage) and I forgot about thanking my BIL for a very good game (where are my manners! ouch!)

North Sydney League Club And Ryde Eastwood League Club Chess

2006-02-10T00:15:00.000+11:00

It takes forever to get things going. Stuff has been pretty hectic at work and the sweltering temperatures in Sydney haven't helped! :)

On Tuesday, I headed to the North Sydney Leagues club and watched a few games before Norm Greenwood started the Lightning Competition. Seeing as I was new and not taking part in the competition, a very nice gentleman came over and asked if I was interested in a game.

He turned out to be Ludwig Wolf (and as I exchanged pleasantries later, I learnt he had been playing chess for over 30 years). All I remembered of the 4 odd matches we played, Ludwig won the first 2 and I won the next 2.

I can't remember much for the first 2 games, other than the fact I was well and soundly beaten. *grin*. I'd remembered when I played Black, I was beaten when I played the French Defence and Ludwig outmanoeuvred me. In White, I got caught playing a wrong move in the Italian opening and everything was downhill from there on.

I must remember to bring my scoresheet the next time so I can record my games (I had forgotten to bring them).

On Wednesday, the Ryde-Eastwood League club was having a Rapid competition so I stayed and watched them. I'd noticed that the Rapid games tended to end in much the same way. Players were pretty much cautious, putting too much time not to make mistakes in the beginning but as the time limit ticked down to 5 minutes, play got unnaturally faster and people made more and more mistakes and outright 1-move blunders. It's really such a shame that games had to end in this way because some of the games were highly complex and intriguing and it definitely deserved better treatment but alas.... such was not meant to be.

The Corus Chess Competition had ended with Anand winning the tie-break. Speaking of more chess news, the Cuernavaca Young Masters had just started and try as I might, I could not give it the sufficient time and merit amidst shuffling between work and play.

I need a vacation........

Manly-Warringah League Club Simultaneous Play

2006-01-28T09:33:00.000+11:00

Tough week.

Together with my brother-in-law, I decided to attend the Simulaneous Play by the club champion at Manly-Warringah League Club on Monday 23rd Jan. So off I go there.... after seeing the number of people who turned up (approx. 20+ people), it was getting impossible for the club champion Mark De Groen to play so many people and to finish in 4 hours.

Nevertheless, I was very impressed with his stamina and he did very well.

My brother-in-law wanted me to take White.... but I thought I give Black a try. :)

After approx 2+ hour of gameplay at 11pm, the number of opponents had dwindled down to 15 odd people and my game was still a long way off.

By then, fatigue had clearly set in to my game (see diagram on the left) and I figured I was about 10 moves from defeat. In the end, I told my brother-in-law that I need to go off and asked him to inform Mark that I had to go (I still need to get up to work early tomorrow unfortunately).

Just FYI, it was my turn next.... and I would have played ...... Bc5.

Bummer!!

Corus: Topalov and Anand neck-to-neck

2006-01-23T14:27:00.000+11:00

As expected, the Corus Chess tournament has shown the two most strongest players tied at the moment. Topalov and Anand are currently on joint top. Topalov will have his task cut out for him as his remaining challengers are fairly strong (including the ever improving Leko, Karjakin) while Anand has only Gelfand and Topalov among the top players to match wits with.

Last night was basically a non-event with Topalov drawing against Gelfand (who would have thought the match will play for another odd 30+ moves after the last rooks were exchanged off the board). Bacrot had an unfortunate match with Anand and Anand appears at one stage to have missed the winning move towards the later stages of the game but still won enough as his position was strangling Bacrot's pieces.

There's been not much to report on the home front. I hope to look forward to playing some chess at the North Sydney and Eastwood league clubs soon.

In the meantime, Happy Australia Day, everyone!!

FIDE Champion Topalov Falls To Adams

2006-01-16T11:21:00.000+11:00

If Anand stole the show with his sacrifices yesterday, Adams wowed the crowd today with unerring positional accuracy to defeat Topalov.

The game was very intriguing as Adams and Topalov traded blows with pins, counter-pins, deflections and sacrifices in the rather sharp line of the Scheveningen Sicilian. It takes a lot to bring down the current FIDE World Champion and Adams definitely proved a point that Topalov is still vulnerable with a relentless attack that had Topalov struggling to find cover in the later stages of the game.

In other matches, Ivanchuk won again putting him as the leader after 2 rounds after Anand could only salvage a draw (although he looked to be in a winning position at one point with the Closed Ruy Lopez) with Aronian.

Tomorrow, Anand faces up against Ivanchuk. Anand would be desperate to prove something but I can forsee a draw to be the end result.

Karjakin Feels The Wrath Of Anand

2006-01-15T02:52:00.000+11:00

I was up in the wee hours of the morning watching this match and true enough, Anand didn't disappoint. In fact, not only did he didn't disappoint, he played what is probably one of the best games involving sacrificial play. Tal will be so proud of him.

Corus Chess 2006, Wijk aan Zee Round 1 Kajarkin - Anand, 2006.01.13

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. f3 Be7 9. Qd2 O-O 10. O-O-O Nbd7 11. g4 b5 12. g5 b4 13. Ne2 Ne8 14. f4 a5 15. f5 a4 16. Nbd4 exd4 17. Nxd4 b3 18. Kb1 bxc2+ 19. Nxc2 Bb3 20. axb3 axb3 21. Na3 Ne5 22. h4 (see diagram on right)

At this stage, Black's pieces are horribly hemmed in. White's pieces are active and White's kingside pawn structure is fast closing in on the Black king looks dangerous indeed.

Black's only active piece is that undisturbed rook on a8.

If Black doesn't do something soon, White will overwhelm and storm through Black's barricades like a hot knife through butter.

Karjakin at this point must have thought he can safely write 1-0 on his scoresheet.....

At this point, Anand goes into deep thinking mode for the next 15 minutes and suddenly pulls the rug out from under the young GM with .... Ra5 23. Qc3 Qa8 24. Bg2 Nc7! (see diagram below) sacrificing the Knight

Play continues...... 25. Qxc7 Rc8 (now Black sacrifices his Bishop!) 26. Qxe7 .... at this point we're wondering if Anand is losing it (maybe coming in second in San Luis has affected him) but he pulls off the stunning move Nc4!

White is stunned! Suddenly, the roles are reversed. White is looking extremely vulnerable. The White Queen has been lured away from the protection of the King to gobble up Black's 2 most inactive pieces on the board. A fatal mistake!

27. g6 hxg6 28. fxg6 Nxa3+ 29. bxa3 Rxa3 30. gxf7+ Kh7 31. f8=N+ Rxf8 32. Qxf8 Ra1+ 33. Kb2 Ra2+ 34. Kc3 (see diagram on left)

At this point, most players would have thought of the followup move .... Qxf8 but not Vishy Anand. He ponders over this for a good 10 minutes and comes out with a mate in 6!!! Starting with Qa5+! 35. Kd3 Qb5+ 36. Kd4 Ra4+ 37. Kc3 Qc4+ . At this point, Karjakin is another 2 moves from mate and promptly resigns. 0-1

A fanatastic first round display by the lightning "kid" from India.

This game play was similar to the one played by Peter Leko vs Francisco Vallejo-Pons at the 14th Amber Tournament: Rapid 2005 but that game was a blitz game and it petered out to a draw. It is clear that Anand saw potential in this game and developed it further. Great homework done by Anand nonetheless!

Corus!

2006-01-14T05:03:00.000+11:00

I just realised how badly I sucked at OTB playing while playing at the league club this week.

I lost all my games. 4 of the 5 games I played were blitzed games. Where has all my concentration gone? Down the gutter, that's what. Heheheh.... oh well, when you're down, the only way to go is up.

I do notice one thing, when observing another game, I noticed that one of my opponents (who beat me in a 5min blitz game) didn't pick the best moves in a slow 20min game with another weaker player . I spotted at least 5 different times that his chess pieces movement would have led to an instant winning position but he missed it. So it does look like all that chess study is paying off. The problem therein comes when it's my turn at the board. I couldn't concentrate for the first game and lost easily but really should have drawn the second and third game.

Anyway, my BIL who was there, played with me and I found that he was having problems (I played a different opening repertoire) and we actually enjoyed a very good game. I was playing Black and had managed to repulse his attack and achieved equality in the middlegame. But he got me in the end with a pin (that should never have happened)........ D'oh!!. I need to conduct my attack more judiciously.

On the next day, at work during lunch, I played another opening I was "trying out" and took my colleague Szabo to the endgame where I won because I had a better grasp of endgame knowledge. Szabo then commented that I used to beat him in the middlegame. So in my followup game with him, I switched back to my opening repertoire and pulverised Szabo as Black in 15 moves. I didn't really like that so I decided to ease up and get him into the middle game so that I can learn to formulate tactics and positions and more importantly, how to position my pieces.

So far, I'm starting to train up for the upcoming competitions. Hopefully, I will do better. I've been reading up and exercising in the gym in an attempt to get myself fitter and sharpen my concentration and boost my energy levels. Hope all this work is worth it... :) And even if it didn't, at least I'm having fun doing it anyway.

Onto international news, the draws for the Corus Chess Competition has just been announced.

Round 1 - Saturday the 14th

L. van Wely - I. Sokolov
S. Mamedyarov - E. Bacrot
S. Tiviakov - M. Adams
V. Topalov - G. Kamsky
B. Gelfand - P. Leko
S. Karjakin - V. Anand
L. Aronian - V. Ivanchuk

The draw of this round will surely be the young, aggressive Karjakin facing the much experienced "lightning speed" Anand.

Michael Adams will be anxious to reverse his horror show at FIDE Chess Championship in San Luis last year. I hope he does well.

The Aronian-Chukky match is also another match to watch for. I can't wait for Saturday to come.... :)

Kramnik Blues

2006-01-09T08:51:00.000+11:00

It is somewhat sad that Vladimir Kramnik has withdrawn from the Corus Chess Tournament at Wijk aan Zee. Major bummer!

Full details at http://www.coruschess.com/

Over in Singapore.... happier news awaits... the 2nd Singapore International Chess Convention which was wrapped up recently looked to be a stunning success. Man, why didn't they have this sort of event when I was much younger. I would have loved to participate in the Asian Schools Chess Festival. More details at:

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2848

Chess Openings: Changing Lanes

2006-01-06T13:16:00.000+11:00

Office work has really got me occupied the past week *phew* that I barely had a breather and I need to work over the weekend again....

During this time, I had a look at a few books. I'm still struggling with trying to find an opening that's appropriate to my style of playing but so far have had little success.

I've halfway through Emms' book on the Sicilian openings and am unsure if it really fits me at all.

I've right now perusing through the Modern Defence, King's Indian, Queen's Indian, French, Nimzo-Indian etc.

Hopefully, I have one that's more to my playing style. I know what my BIL plays... he plays the Modern defence all the time.... the trick is that his tactics and positional skills are far superior to mine.... oh well, c'est la vie.

Chess Competitions - The Best Is Yet To Come

2006-01-03T08:27:00.000+11:00

The Russian Chess Championship Superfinal ended on New Year's Eve with Sergei Rublevsky emerging the winner having gone the whole competition undefeated with 7.5/11 score.

The final positions as follows:

Sergei Rublevsky 7.5/11 (+4 -0 =7)
Alexander Morozevich 6.5/11 (+4 -2 =5)
Dmitry Jakovenko 6.5/11 (+3 -1 =7)
Peter Svidler 6/11 (+2 -1 =8)
Vadim Zvjaginsev 6/11 (+2 -1 =8)
Evgeny Bareev 6/11 (+4 -3 =4)
Vladimir Kramnik 5.5/11 (+2 -2 =7)
Alexander Motylev 5/11 (+2 -3 =6)
Alexander Khalifman 4.5/11 (+0 -2 =9)
Alexey Dreev 4.5/11 (+1 -3 =7)
Sergey Volkov 4/11 (+2 -5 =4)
Evgeny Tomashevsky 4/11 (+1 -4 =6)

The new year will start with a bang for the chess world as all eyes focus on the upcoming Corus Chess Tournament being held at Wijk an Zee, Netherlands from Jan 13-29.

Participants of this tournament will be (country and FIDE ratings included):

GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2788
GM Veselin Topalov BUL 2782
GM Peter Leko HUN 2751
GM Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2748
GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2739
GM Etienne Bacrot FRA 2725
GM Levon Aronian ARM 2724
GM Michael Adams ENG 2718
GM Boris Gelfand ISR 2717
GM Sergey Tiviakov NED 2700
GM Ivan Sokolov NED 2696
GM Gata Kamsky USA 2690
GM Sergey Karjakin UKR 2658
GM Loek van Wely NED 2648

It's the first time that champions Topalov and Kramnik are in the same competition since Topalov won the FIDE World Chess Championship in San Luis, Argentina.

More details can be found at http://www.coruschess.com/.

New Year Blues And Clearing Diagonals

2006-01-02T06:44:00.000+11:00

This looks like it's going to be the start of the same old year for me....

First of all, I lost 2 games with my BIL (brother-in-law) when we played over on New Year. However in one of the games, I'm surprised that I'm starting to think deeper (at least 2 moves ahead now).

Here's the position setup of one of my games. My position was rather precarious and the white Knight on b7 is a real thorn. My only choice perhaps was to draw from that position. So after this position, I played

1. ...Nf3+.
(If my BIL had taken that Knight, it would've been perpetual check with:
2. gxf3 Qxf3 3. Nc5 Qg4+ 4. Kh1 Qf3+ .....)
So he played 2. Kh1....

The rest of the game didn't pan out too well for me as I made an error allowing White to win the endgame.

I noticed that I'm very impatient and I would definitely need to learn to think things through at a slower pace (see what happens when you play too much blitz?). Oh well, hopefully, I will improve during this year.

Onto Australian chess news, while picking through the Australian Chess Championship games, I saw one game that is educational. IM Alex Wohl v James Obst.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. b3 b6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 a6 6. Bd3 Qc7 7. O-O Nf6 8. c4 d6 9. Nc3 Be7 10. Bb2 Nbd7 11. Rc1 Bb7 12. Qe2 O-O 13. f4 Rfe8 14. Nf3 Rac8 15. Bb1 Qb8 16. Rce1 g6 17. Ng5 Nh5 18. Qg4 Ng7 19. f5 Ne5 20. Qh4 Nh5 21. fxg6 fxg6 22. g4 h6 23. gxh5 hxg5 24. Qg3 gxh5 25. Qh3 g4 26. Qxh5 Rf8 (see left diagram) 27. Nd5 exd5 28. exd5 Rf6 29. Rxf6 Bxf6 30. Bxe5 dxe5 31. Qg6+ Bg7 32. Rf1 1-0 ...black resigns as it cannot stop Qh7 mate on the next move (Note that Black cannot play 28... Nf3+ 29. Rxf3 gxf3 30. Qh7# nor 28. ... Nf3+ 29. Rxf3 Rxf3 30. Qxg4+ with Qxf3 to follow and Black would have lost a pawn and a minor piece for nothing and his position has worsened).

It showed me the importance of knowing how to sacrifice to open lanes. Both White and Black Kings are exposed but Black is in more peril as:

a) the two White bishops on b1 and b2 are poised for attack (but only if the diagonals are cleared)
b) the e6 pawn and e7 Bishop is undefended (this would prove costly on move 31)
c) Blacks' Queen and c8 Rook are inactive and away from the King

Wohl chose to sacrifice his Knight via Nd5. The resulting exchange favoured White as it allowed White to open the lane for his b2 bishop to remove the Black Knight guard on e5 that's protecting the square g6 and the pawn g4.

Very nice technique!

Happy New Year

2005-12-31T20:29:00.000+11:00

Here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year!!!

May the New Year bring new tidings of great joy and happiness

Positionally And Tactically Lost

2005-12-30T05:59:00.000+11:00

The results are in. Against my brother-in-law last night, played 5 games, lost all 5 games. How pathetic is that?

My answer: Very pathetic. One of the games even ended with my Black king on square a4 (gee...that's a long way from home, isn't it? :) ).

My BIL played the Modern opening in all his games and I couldn't get a grip on any of them. I've never had this much trouble before with this opening. Maybe it's a psychological barrier (of never having beaten him ever) that's affecting my concentration (excuses, excuses....). In the end, I was just positionally and tactically lost.

Onto other chess news, at the OzChess Championships 2006 in Brisbane, the highlight match of the day IMHO was between Ian Rout v Kevin Sheldrick, Black played the Benko Gambit (somewhat a rarity in top level competitions). But one of the strangest looking Benko Gambit variations I've ever saw. On move 16, with the exception of the fianchettoed Bishop on g7, all of Black's pieces are huddled into one corner. White then made a positional error on move 17 vacating the Queen (to attack Black's undefended pawn on e7) that was guarding the square d3 allowing Black's light-squared bishop to infiltrate the position. The subsequent firepower raining down on the Queenside was overwhelming.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. bxa6 g6 6. Nc3 Bxa6 7. g3 d6 8. Bg2 Bg7 9. Nf3 Nbd7 10. Rb1 Nb6 11. b3 O-O 12. O-O Ra7 13. Re1 Qa8 14. e4 Ne8 15. Qd2 Nc7 16. Bb2 Rb8 (see diagram) 17. Qg5 Bd3 18. Rbd1 c4 19. Re3 h6 20. Qh4 Bc2 21. Rd2 cxb3 22. axb3 Bxb3 23. Bf1 Nc4 24. Bxc4 Bxc4 25. e5 Nxd5 26. Qxc4 Nxe3 27. Qe2 Ng4 28. exd6 exd6 29. Nb5 Rab7 30. Bxg7 Rxb5 31. Ra2 Qb7 32. Ba1 Ne5 33. Nd2 Qd5 34. Nf1 Nf3+ 0-1

In the Russian Championship superfinal, Sergei Rublesvky is the leader after drawing his game with Sergey Volkov as White with Dmitry Jakovenko in second place. Vladimir Kramnik has had a poor performance (perhaps he's preparing for next year's competitions?) so far in joint 7th place with Alexander Motylev.

The worst game so far of the tournament was Khalifman v Rublesvky, with the game agreed drawn after 14 moves! Black had sacrificed a Queen for 3 minor pieces and the game look very edgy and had a huge potential.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.f4 Bb4 8.Bd3 Qb6 9.O-O Bc5 10.Na4 Bxd4 11.Nxb6 Bxe3+ 12.Kh1 Bxb6 13.e5 Nd5 14. Qe1 1/2-1/2

Chess At Work And Live Games

2005-12-29T00:01:00.000+11:00

First day at work, I decided to play a couple of chess games with one of my colleagues, Szabo over lunch and after working hours. Szabo is a recreational player and his chess skills is a tad lower than mine (around 1200+ according to my BIL - brother-in-law).

We played 3 games over our lunch hour (chess is normally our fav activity over lunch). I played 2 games as White (one with Queen's Gambit Accepted, the other with Ruy Lopez - Closed), the other as Black (Closed Sicilian) - winning all 3.

At the end of the day, I decided to try again. This time out of 4 games, I lost one, won two, drew one. But I was less than satisfied with the results this time. Against a tougher opposition I would have easily lost the drawn game and drew one of the two won games. The only game that was of particular significance was this game. I had placed my Queen and my King on the same file and Szabo attempted to pin me, allowing me to setup a skewer with my rook, resulting in a mate in 4.

I had just played ... Qe7-g5 (See diagram). White moved:
1. Rg2?? Rc1+
2. Kf2 Rc2+
3. Kf1 Qxg2+
(with mate on next move)

Against more experienced opponents, this ploy would most certainly have failed.

When I got home, my BIL called and asked me to go over to his place for dinner tomorrow, and naturally, a game of chess awaits me. I'm dreading it already.....

Onto other chess news, I've been following the Russian Championship Superfinal on http://www.chessgames.com as well as the Australian Junior Championship at http://www.ozchess2006.com/

Do take a look if you can spare the time. It's past midnight now but I'm following the Evgeny Bareev vs Peter Svidler game.

Back In Sydney

2005-12-27T17:25:00.000+11:00

"1900 in no time"

"Huh?"

"Your rating will go up to 1900 and you will easily beat me in 6 months' time" replied my BIL coolly.

He's got to be kidding. I was sitting in his car (as he had just fetched me from the hideous building - that is called the Sydney International Airport) on our way home.

Great, just what I needed. More chess stress from him... :)

As he dropped me off at my apartment, I proceeded to go the local supermarket and provision shops to pick up a few groceries. I slowly unpacked and much to my dismay, there were so many things in there that needed to be sorted. My friend who lives nearby had been great to help collect my mail and thankfully, no overdue bills had hit the doorstep... not yet anyway.

As I now type with a glass of ice-cold OJ by the computer, typing away at the keyboard, I wonder what my plans are for tonight.

Whatever happens, it's definitely good to be back in Sydney.

Chess Information Overload

2005-12-26T09:56:00.000+11:00

Today, I will be leaving my country of birth to head back to Australia. I leave somewhat with a very heavy heart as I will start to miss my parents and my brother.

I am very reluctant to leave for Sydney but work beckons. I still honestly do not know if I want to stay on in Australia.

On to chess things, there's one problem with looking at chess books in a bookstore.... there are far more books to read than you can possibly have time for. A Google seach on chess yields thousands of websites. And as you've guessed it, you're going to suffer from information overload!

I was reading this book at Borders in which the chess author highlighted that a good way to improve your chess is to gather a games database of your favourite openings. Unfortunately, sorting out the good matches from the bad ones can be onerous, to say the least.

So how do you sort out the good from the bad? There is no easy answer. Even if you were to purchase a database, there's no guarantee that 80% of the database is suitable for you. From that book (I wished I had noted down the book title now), I gleaned the information that it is far better to pick a handful of good games that you can familarise yourself with than to learn from a hundred average games.

As I went perusing through the various chess databases, it occured to me that:

a. I need to have an idea of what I want (which opening I want to adopt),
b. find out whose GM's playing style closely resembles mine (so that I won't end up doing something that is not suited to my style) and
c. learn to annotate and analyse my own games (with and without the aid of computer chess programs).

I'm still reading up and slowly digesting the Emms' book. The progress is getting much harder and slower than I would have preferred.

Christmas And Afterthoughts

2005-12-25T10:09:00.000+11:00

Yes, folks it's that time of the year where everyone spends gobs of money buying presents for other people that no one really wants but are too polite to decline and where you have a tendency to max out your credit cards.

That's why this year, the missus and I decided to adopt the "low-profile" approach. Sure we got gifts and presents but on a much lesser scale. Saving up for a house can be stressful at times.

Being at the age of 35, time is definitely against me for ever being able to compete at Masters level. There's just far too many things like family and work that prevents one from investing fully in chess as anything more than a social activity - which is a bit of a downer for me, actually. That is because I've always believed in the idea that once you start something, at least do it to the best of your ability and do it to completion (although the amount of postponed housework to do is hardly a testament to that).

As I spend time here mulling about the implications of my rather brief chess career, my wife was nevertheless very supporting of me. She doesn't mind me going missing on some nights to play chess with the people at the club and that makes me all the more grateful and appreciative.

Sometimes, I wonder what I do without her.

Back on to chess stuff,... I was still poring through the results of the recent Russian championship held in Moscow. Thanks to my BIL (brother-in-law) for pointing me to this website http://www.chessgames.com. I can now trace through the moves of some of these super GMs' matches.

I have been taking a break analysing chess games the last 2 days. I took a bus while reading the Emms' book (Starting Out: The Sicilian) and fell asleep somewhere between the Dragon and Najdorf.... chess does tend to take a toll on your brain cells.

Interestingly enough, I stumbled onto another website http://www.chesscafe.com. The website is full of useful articles.

My local computer shop here is selling backdated copies of Deep Fritz 8 at $60 (approx. US$45). I might be tempted to get one but with my wallet taking a bit of strain, it looks like I need to hold out for a little while more.

My ELO is smaller than your ELO

2005-12-23T11:18:00.000+11:00

Pouring through the book on Sicilian openings has done some wonders... I think. Now all I need is some more books to help me on my way.

My brother-in-law (henceforth known as BIL) plays chess at the local leagues club. I'm thinking of signing up and joining him as well....

Encouragingly enough, my BIL (whom by the way I've never beaten him EVER in chess) thinks I'm somewhere in the 1400 ELO rating. As I've no idea what that is, I did a quick Google search which explained that ELO is some kind of rating of a person's chess skill.

The purpose of all these ratings is to get them as high as you can. The higher you are, the more kick-ass is your chess skill. Kind a bit like comparing who's smarter.

A bit like school grades I guess, so the world champion is sort of like the ultra uber smart-alec in class, you know, there's always one kid who knows everything whenever a teacher asks a question. Whereas lesser mortals (aka. me) can only sit in school and day-dream - part of the reason why my school grades suck... :)

Anyway, the world chess organisation FIDE only gives out ELO ratings to those who demonstrate super uber skills. I can see my name not appearing anytime soon, oh say, within the next 10 years or so....

Getting Creamed

2005-12-22T12:00:00.000+11:00

I went over to my in-law's place.

Father-in-law (henceforth nicknamed as FIL) promptly brought out his chess set and we started playing.... and consequently got creamed.... TWICE (no prizes for guessing who got the short end of the stick). The final board layouts were too embarassing to be shown here....

Essentially, I started out fine and midway through the middle game, I lost a minor piece (goodbye, my beloved Knight) and it was pretty much downhill from there on.

The second game was better, not much better but better. In my eagerness to take a rook, I lost my king.... have you ever seen a grown man, wide eyed open with two hands on the cheeks, mouth agape and shaking head at the same time? Think of Edvard Munch painting's The Scream... (see insert) yup, that's me.

So I borrowed a book from the local library called: Starting Out: The Sicilian by Emms.

That's it.... the Sicilian (otherwise known as the Italian Opening) - the favourite opening espoused by ex world champion Garry Kasparov.

Hey, I should be able to play better now once I've digested this, shouldn't I?

First Day In The Wild

2005-12-22T11:33:00.000+11:00

I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing here but I guess it's to detail my relatively short chess experience.

I started learning chess when I was a teen ween pimple faced 12 year old. My parents bought my brother and me a chess set. We knew roughly the way pieces move but that was it....

Now fast forward some 23 years later......... my father-in-law ("When are you going to get a house after marrying my daughter! "hehee) came over to our little apartment and started to play chess with me during his short stay.

Being pretty much bored with practically no hobby of my own.... yes, I lead the typical suburban life of fixing and cleaning the place over the weekend.... I thought it might be something to keep my mind occupied.

Currently, I reside in Australia and am visiting my folks in Singapore (and no, for the umpteenth time, you don't go to jail for chewing gum in Singapore... *grin*).

I forsee my chess career to be relatively short-lived. One with zero chance of making it to National Master level much less GM level (that's GrandMaster level for you non chess nuts).