Downswing

Well, the October swiss tournament at the MCC could have gone better. I don't think it would be fair to term it an "unmitigated disaster" as I did win 2 out of 5 games, but it was pretty bad. I didn't play anyone with a higher rating than my own. I won against a pair of players in the 1300 range and lost to two 1400 and one 1300 player.

Oh, but the way I lost those games.

Wollkind - Bottini

White to play
This position looked pretty dead drawn to me. I was pretty confident in that assessment, but figured I should play on until there was no question...after all, my opponent might overplay his position. Ha! I was the one who misplayed, with the fatal 44. Ke3?? allowing the rook to get out of the pawn's way with tempo. I had been well aware that this was his route to victory, yet completely forgot my prior analysis and threw away a draw.

Wollkind - Hong

White to play
White is a piece up, but under some pressure. There are some interesting things to look at earlier in this game, but this is the key moment. Once the sacrificing had settled down I lost sight of my plans and had a lapse of reason. Instead of 32. Rb2, parrying the mate threat and allowing me to play on I played into mate in 2 with 32. Qb2??. I'm not sure if I could have found a good way to get the knight into the game, but I feel there's no way white should lose from this position.

The fifth round game that I lost against Ed Lafferty was a joke from start to finish. I hung a pawn, fell into two pawn forks, and ultimately miscounted and gave away a rook when I thought I was giving back the Exchange. I don't mean any disrespect to Mr. Lafferty, but my play in that game was embarrassing, plain and simple.

I haven't been spending any time on chess outside of the weekly games, and it's starting to show. I learned an important lesson in round 5: when you don't feel like going to play chess and you go anyway you will stink. My interest in chess has always waxed and waned as other ways of spending my free time rise and fall on my internal priority list. I think I should take a hint from myself and take a step back for a little while. I do still enjoy the games and the competition, but I can't play at a level that satisfies me if I'm not working on improving between games, and I don't have it in me right now.

So, a brief hiatus until I feel that fire again. Projects, holidays, CFA level 3 study and exam will take me to June. I could be back for a brief spell in early 2008, but suspect I won't be back full time until the summer.

Until then, good luck everyone...

Trick or Treat Swiss Round 1

Maybe this weekend I'll post the game for round 4 of Back to School Swiss. I lost, but I had a win and didn't find it. For now, though, my second effort vs. Mr Dan Callahan. The last time we played, about a year ago, we were both rated in the 1100's and have each come a long way since then.
Blunderprone, you said you'd give me some suggestions vs the London...

Dan Callahan (1339)    --    Steve Wollkind (1533)
MCC Trick or Treat Swiss (2008)  (1)   Natick, MA
2007.10.02     0-1     D02m

1.	d4	d5
2.	Nf3	Nf6
3.	Bf4 (D)

My second time facing the London, but apparently I didn't learn anything after the first one (played roughly 6 weeks prior to this game). How to Beat 1. d4 by James Rizzitano suggests that black play c5 here. I thought about it, but prefered to get the light bishop outside the pawn chain and solidify with e6.

3.

...

Bf5

( 3...c5 )

4.	e3	e6
5.	Nbd2	c5
6.	c3	c4 (D)

Exactly the kind of move I can never resist. It's the f pawn with white and the c pawn with black, and I love to push it to the 5th (4th) rank if I can restrict a bishop by doing so. Perhaps it creates too static a formation, but I like having the space.

7.

Bxb8

Questionable, in my mind. Giving up a developed bishop to kill my knight in its bed doesn't make sense to me. Additionaly, this brings my rook to the B file, which helps prepare to push the b pawn to make a break.

7.	...	Rxb8
8.	Ne5

I sensed that this move might be premature, but didn't have a great way to combat it. At the same time, I felt that it wasn't doing much for white. I think I was wrong. It brings a second attack on my c pawn and pins the b pawn down to the defense of the forking square c6.

8.	...	Be7
9.	b3 (D)

A move I should have seen coming a mile away. By my count white can now win a pawn by force, with other dangerous moves in the air. With the c-pawn advanced, the Queen's knight gone and the light squared bishop locked outside the pawn chain, checks on the a4-e8 diagonal are problematic. Even worse, the knight on e5 is now a serious problem since black can't play Qd7 to block a check either. I considered just giving up a pawn to castle immediately, but decided against.

9.	...	Ne4
10.	Nxe4	Bxe4
11.	f3	f6 (D)

A mistake. Luckily, white decided to save his knight, but if he had exchanged everything off black would have had some serious problems.

12.

Ng4

( 12.fxe4 fxe5 And things get ugly. Qh5 is probably quite strong here. )

12.	...	Bf5
13.	Nf2 (D)

Spending another move to prevent the loss of the knight, and finally there is time to protect the c pawn and end the threats of Qa4+.

13.	...	b5
14.	e4	Bg6
15.	Be2	O-O

Finally whisking the king to safety. Someday I'll learn to do that before sending my pawns rushing up the board.

16.	O-O	Qd6
17.	g3 (D)

White obviously worried about later threats on the h pawn, but this move seems both premature (there is no tangible threat yet) and weakening.

17.	...	Bf7
18.	b4	e5
19.	a3	Bd8
20.	Ra2

Looking ahead to needing some defense on h2 with the option to put double the rook with the queen on the d file.

20.

...

Bc7

Completing the maneuver. The threat is not subtle, but I felt that white might have trouble getting his pieces out of one another's way to defend it. During the game I wondered if my advantage was actually on the queenside, and whether I should have been pushing the a pawn at some point.

21.

Re1

h5 (D)

My plan was to try and get at white's king. The computer hates it and wants me to rip up the center.

22.	Bf1	h4
23.	g4

A bad mistake, giving me exactly what I wanted: an attack on h2. White had many better defensive options including dxe5.

23.

...

exd4 (D)

Now the mate threat must be addressed.

24.	e5	fxe5
25.	cxd4	exd4

The mate threat returns. The knight has to get out of the way and the c and d pawns are going to become a serious problem for white.

26.	Nh3	d3
27.	Bg2 (D)

Black resigned here, expecting Qxh2 and some ugliness to follow.

( 27...Qxh2+ 28.Kf1 And I am forced to admit that I don't see the obvious winning plan here. Black must be winning, but it's the sort of position where I would make it more of a grind than it needs to be. I was sort of surprised my opponent resigned after Bg2, but thankful... )

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Diagrams generated using Steve Eddins' Chess Imagerhttp://www.eddins.net/steve/chess/chessimager

Back to school part 2 (round 3)

I had white last night against Jenshiang Hong at the MCC. A somewhat boring game in which I made two tactical miscalculations. First, I entered a series of exchanges which I thought would win me a pawn, but instead just gave me doubled c pawns (half open on the b file) and a position where I had to defend.

The second was worse. I missed a very simple tactic that would have won my opponent's d pawn, making my own d pawn passed. I think that this would have given me a winning position. Instead we locked our pawns, traded everything off, and agreed to a draw. I'm disappointed with myself.

Things worked out just right such that I'm paired against the section leader next week (James P Williams, the only one with 3/3) and it looks like I'll have white. If I win then I will have at least a share of first place. Board two in the section features two other players with 2.5 points, so it would likely be a two way tie for first.

The last few weeks have hammered home that I need to spend a lot more time on tactics. I've been skating my on my opening and strategic knowledge, but tactical sharpness fades a lot faster than those other parts, and I need to do my homework this week.

Always easier said than done.

Back to school!

Well, not really, but the September swiss tournament at the MetroWest Chess Club is dubbed "Back to School Swiss." I could use some going back to school, though....

Last night I played Robert Matthews (for the second time in the last 3 weeks) and the third time overall. I'm now +3 against him, but I'm not sure that I deserve a plus score against him at all. All of my games with him have featured a number of positional mistakes on my part and a larger mistake on his part. I'll take my wins where I can get them, but it doesn't make me feel all that confident.

So far for September I'm 2/2. If the provisional pairings hold up (and I think they should, since section leaders normally show up to play) I'll have white against Jenshiang Hong. I'd love to win this game and give myself a chance to win this section in two weeks...

I've been slacking off a little lately, when it comes to chess, and it's showing. I'm basically doing no work at home between games and relying on the knowledge I have already. It's been working ok...I've won 10/12 since returning from my spring hiatus, but I can't expect my wits to carry me through the late rounds against folks with good scores.

So, this week, back to tactics. Also, any MCC folks know what Mr. Hong plays as black? He has 3 games in the MCC game collection, but all as white (his repertoire looks a little like mine from that side of the board...). I should never quote statistics, since it only gets me in trouble and makes me under/over confident, but I'm a numbers nut, so here we go: I'm +13 in games with white against lower rated players (+13 =0 -0, in fact) so I feel that I should have a good chance next week. I need to work to make sure that I'm sharp, though....

Anyway, since I have those numbers handy and I find them kind of interesting, here's the full set:

• Against higher rated opposition
  • As white: 50% (8.5/17)
  • As black: 26% (5/19)
  • Total: 37.5% (13.5/36)
• Against lower rated opposition:
  • As white: 100% (13/13)
  • As black: 79% (11/14)
  • Total: 89% (24/27)

Clearly my black opening play is a little shoddy, and good players are absolutely hammering me for it. Does this mean I should work more on black openings or that I have some fear of black that needs to be overcome?

MCC Ind Day Swiss Wrap-Up

Hello from Paris!

Just got around to catching up on all of the other chess blogs out there and decided that I'd post my July wrapup while my wife showers. Then, it's off to the catacombs.

First, the link to the online replay of the month's games:
http://www.njord.org/~steve/mychess/mcc0707.htm

If you only look at one, I suggest the last. I didn't think it was that solid a game, but a friend told me it was one of the cleanest he's seen me play, so....

Quick round by round summary, excluding round 1 which I already discussed:

• Round 2: White vs George Goulding. He responded to e4 with e5 and we played a bishop's opening. I have a hard time resisting the early f5 in these lines, even though it's not book. I just love the way it restricts black's queen bishop. The center got locked and he missed my threat to win his two central pawns. After that it was just a little defense and then it was all over.
• Round 3: White vs Calvin Hori. I played Calvin once before and knew we'd play the Sicilian. I was pretty upbeat before this game: I was +5 =1 -1 in the Closed Sicilian, I was +1 =0 -0 against Mr. Hori, I was +4 =0 -0 in rematches and +10 =1 -0 in my last 11 games with white. Well, none of that did me any good when I proceeded to hang my b pawn (both losses with the Closed Sicilian that I've had have now featured the hanging of the b pawn) and went on to lose a long game.
• Round 4: Black vs David Harrington. We played a Scandinavian with 2 e5. David (1535) is now the highest rated player to play e5 against me in the Scandinavian. I know it's not a good move, but I always have trouble against it. In this game he made several pawn exchanges that developed my pieces and left me with a pair of unopposed, connected central pawns. Eventually he had to give up a piece due to this. We then traded down into an endgame that was harder for me than it should have been, but I ground it out for the win.
• Round 5: Bye

I'm still disappointed by the loss to Hori, but all in all, a good tournament for me. 3/4 vs 1075, 1615, 1650 and 1535 sent my rating over 1500 for the first time ever.

Ok, time to go look at some bones!

BDK's Chess Survey

I didn't think I would bother with this, but everyone else seems to be doing it....

How long have you been playing chess? Have you played it consistently since you started, or were there lulls in your play? How did these lulls affect your performance?

I learned the rules of chess in third grade from a friend and throughout middle and high school I would occasionally play with a couple of my friends. The same persisted through college, though I would play no more than a few games per year. I've always been fascinated by the game, though.

Sometime in the spring of 2002, while working at my first job out of college, I got really interested in chess. At this point it more or less became a hobby. I learned about online chess, bought a few books, started reading chesscafe.com and began to actually try to improve.

I played online on and off (usually life would get too busy and I'd put it on hold) for a few years. After moving back to Boston from a sojourn to Texas for grad school I decided it was time to take the leap into full chess geekery and play in a tournament. Slightly less than two years ago, in late July of 2005, I played in my first tournament. I was awful, but I was also hooked. 2 years and 57 games later I feel like I'm finally starting to understand tournament chess, but I'm still addicted.

Aside from playing games, what is your primary mode of training?

I think training would be a strong word for what I do, but I think that I spend most of my non-game playing chess time working on tactics. I'm trying to work through some game collections, but to be honest I've never really found out how to best make use of them. If anyone has advice....

What is the single most helpful method of improvement that you have ever used?

I think that playing slow, serious games has done more for my chess than anything else. There really is no substitute for thinking hard about a single game for 3 to 4 hours. Slow games have done a lot for my recall of positions, my thought process, concentration, patience and nerves. I think there's no substitute for this sort of real world competition experience when it comes to improving.

What is your favorite opening to play as white? As black against e4? As black against d4?

I don't think I've ever opened a chess game as white with anything other than e4. My white openings all come from John Emms' "Attacking with 1 e4." That makes it the Bishop's Opening, the Closed Sicilian, the KIA vs the French, 2. c4 vs the Caro Kann and the 150 attack vs the Pirc and Modern. To be honest though I've only had games vs e5, c5 and e6 since picking this book up.

My black openings aren't nearly as well thought out. Against e4 I play the Qa5 Scandinavian. Against d4....well, I'm not sure. My plan is to play the QGA at some point, but I've never had a good chance to learn it, so I generally end up playing some kind of vanilla QGD with d5, e6, Be7, Nf6 and O-O in whatever order seems appropriate. I usually play a very early c5 in these games, often to my own detriment. Clearly I need to work on my response to d4, but I've seen it in 3/57 tournament games, so there's not much incentive yet.

Who is your favorite chess player and why?

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I don't know any other players' games well enough to pick a favorite yet.

What is your favorite chess book?

Hmm, a tough question. I have many. Too many (there are definitely days when reading about chess seems much more appealing than actually playing) and I find books about chess just plain fascinating. If pressed I might have to pick "The Amateur's Mind" by Jeremy Silman. I'm not sure I love the style of that book, and a lot of the time he just makes fun of his students, but it has taught me that the basis of any plan I try to formulate will have to be based on differences between my position and structure and that of my opponent. I'm still useless at making plans, but I feel this book has taught me something...

What book would you recommend for a friend who knows only the rules of chess?

I recently had a friend in such a position, and I recommended that he look at Dan Heisman's "Everyone's Second Chess Book" and a book on tactics. He outgrew the Heisman book pretty quickly, but I think a lot of that material, while simplistic, is exactly the kind of stuff that someone who has never seriously studied the game won't have run across.

Do you play in in-person tournaments? What is your favorite tournament experience?

I try. Lately I play in month long swiss tournaments in which there is one 40/90 G/30 game per week. It's a lot easier for me to commit every Tuesday night to chess than it is to set aside an entire weekend for the game. Life just gets in the way. The house needs cleaning, the shopping has to be done, etc. Also, looking over some numbers that I've accumulated (and will post soon) I am a lot worse in weekend tournaments...

Please give us a link to what you consider your best two blog posts (on your own blog).

Meh. I'm not that good a writer, and this blog is really more for my own use than trying to acquire readers....it reminds me to work through my games, comment them and post them. There's only about 40 entries now, so if you want to go look for a favorite, you're welcome to :)

What proportion of total chess time should be spent studying openings for someone at your level?

Well, probably less than I do. I really enjoy openings, and I find it makes me feel very uncomfortable to be in an unfamiliar position before move 8 or so. I know that one of my main problems in unfamiliar opening positions is playing rote developing moves rather than being tactically aware, and I'm not sure that's a cause or an effect of the way I feel about openings in general. That's all I'll say about this for now...I have some ideas lined up for a post about my internal chess psychology and it will touch on this.

MCC Independence Day Swiss (Round 1)

A few months ago, a coworker of mine became aware of my interest in (obsession with) chess and asked me, half seriously and half jokingly "If I started to work on chess, how long until I start kicking your butt?"

An interesting question. I told him that if he put serious time into it that it wouldn't take all that long. A few months to a year, perhaps. I was able to sow the seeds of chess interest, and he soon went from a guy who just knew the rules to someone who was spending time doing tactics problems and starting to learn some of the strategic ideas. We also started playing casual games after work. In approximately 40 games he beat me three times.

When I returned to chess after my three month break I convinced him to come with me, so for the past 6 weeks he's been playing in the Tuesday night swiss games at the MetroWest Chess Club. He scored 1.5/4 in the first tournament, which isn't bad for your first serious chess. It took me 6 OTB games to score a single point...

On my advice he's been playing in the lower/mid section with me because the U1350, while technically the appropriate place for him, is so full of kids rated 500 that I feel you don't learn a whole lot. I knew there was a chance, if things worked out just right, that we might get paired up in the first round....and that is exactly what happened this month. He was ecstatic, I was not. First, he's given me a bit of trouble when I've been black lately, and second, I don't think I enjoy playing my friends in serious chess games. It's distracting to know your opponent, and it's hard to play mercilessly when you know and like the person across the board from you. He thought it was pretty awesome, and had once said that his goal was to beat me in a tournament game and that if he ever did he would retire from chess. Looks like he'll have to keep playing until our next matchup...

The game itself was ok. As usual I gave my opponent a chance to make my life really hard (a temporary piece sacrifice that lead to a two pawn advantage, but could instead have given him a chance to trap my queen). He missed the best continuation and after that I had a solid advantage. Still, I need to be more careful

Online replay version (with comments) here.

Dave Silverman (1074)    --    Steve Wollkind (1435)
MCC Independence Day Swiss  (1)   Natick, MA
2007.07.03     0-1     B01o

1.	e4	d5
2.	exd5	Qxd5

I had been playing the Nf6 version of the Scandinavian, but it hasn't worked out that well for me. I tended to get very sterile, equal positions where it was hard for me to find a good plan. The main line of the Qa5 variant seems much more dynamic to me. I was also happy to play differently here since my opponenent has seen my Nf6 Scandinavian 10 or 20 times in casual games.

3.	Nc3	Qa5
4.	d4	Nf6
5.	Nf3	c6
6.	Bc4	Bf5
7.	O-O (D)

Out of book for me, but clearly a logical continuation and one I feel I'm likely to see a lot. I think that unless a player is already familiar with the main line of the Qa5 Scandinavian, they're unlikely to castle on the queen side.

7.	...	e6
8.	Bf4	Nbd7
9.	Ne5	Nxe5
10.	Bxe5 (D)

10.

...

Be7

Qb4 looks interesting, but doesn't amount to much due to threats to trap the queen.

( 10...Qb4 11.Bd3 Bxd3 12.Qxd3 O-O-O 13.a3 Qe7 )

11.	a3	O-O
12.	b4 (D)

( 12.Re1 Qb6 = Brings us, via a different move order, to a sideline evaluated as equal by Emms' Scandinavian book. )

12.

...

Bxb4?!

In retrospect, a mistake. My thinking was that the undefended nature of both the bishop and knight would assure me the return of my piece after the temporary sacrifice of bishop for two pawns. The only queen move that would defend both pieces was impossible due to the other bishop on f5....

( 12...Qd8 )

13.

axb4

Qxb4 (D)

14.

Bd3?

A reasonable seeming move. Black will be up two pawns, but white can make sure that those two extra pawns are part of a tripled and isolated set. More on this idea later, but white here misses the best move: Qd2, which forces black to recapture on c4, and then white has some chances to trap the queen. I find traps difficult to see, and this one is a little tougher than most because the knight on f6 also must be traded before the trap can be sprung. I'm lucky white didn't see it, but I count this tactic a little hard to see.

( 14.Qd2 Qxc4 15.Bxf6 ( 15.Ra4 Ne4 ) 15...b5 )

14.	...	Qxc3
15.	Bxf5

Taking the knight first doesn't allow white to inflict tripled pawns.

( 15.Bxf6 Bxd3 16.cxd3 gxf6 )

15.	...	exf5
16.	Bxf6	gxf6 (D)

White has inflicted his tripled pawns, but I think it was a mistake. Surely, blacks two pawn advantage has been somewhat blunted, but the tripled pawns on the f file are controling a lot of space. Niether the e nor g files can be effectively used by white to invade. On top of this, the white c and d pawns are extremely weak. White will be hard pressed to effectively defend the d pawn.

17.

f4?

Failing to address the impending threat to the d pawn, and

17.	...	Rfd8
18.	Qf3

Again, I think white's chances dwindle as pieces come off the board here, so I'm happy to exchange.

18.	...	Qxf3
19.	Rxf3	Rxd4
20.	Ra5	Rd1+
21.	Rf1	Rxf1+
22.	Kxf1	Kf8

Kg7 may have been better, preventing a later Rxf6, but I wanted to be ready to head to the queenside with the king, and felt that if White took the time to go after those pawns I would be even better off.

23.

Rxf5

a5 (D)

The pawns are all conspiring against white getting his rook back to the defense.

24.

Rc5??

A blunder. It was going to be ugly in any case, but this made it much worse. White now has no possibile way to stop the a pawn.

( 24.Rxf6 a4 25.Rd6 a3 26.Rd1 a2 27.Ra1 Ke7 28.Ke2 Kd6 29.Kd2 Kd5 30.Kc3 (D)



This is perhaps better, but still lost for white. )

24.	...	a4
25.	Rc3	a3
26.	Rxa3	Rxa3
27.	g3	Ra2

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Diagrams generated using Steve Eddins' Chess Imager http://www.eddins.net/steve/chess/chessimager