Temposchlucker

Welcome to our Nasty Knight Harmless . You can find here the Nicknames of the Knights Errant Update may 2 TCT # prbs circle 1 circle 2 circle 3 circle 4 circle 5 circle 6 circle 7 Stp3 540 96% 97% 97% 99% 99% NA NA Stp4 560 94% 95% 95% 97% 99% NA NA Stp5 580 75% 84% 89% 92% 96% - - Things are speeding up. It's really weird how problems that you encounter for the 4th time look you in the face as if you have never seen them. Or that you think they are vaguely familiar but you have no clue whatsoever. It becomes more and more clear how bad I am at chess and why.

The New Ratinglist is just published. You can find me under ID-nr 7923355. The one below me with the same name is Margriet. Look at letter S. I have now an all time high rating of 1751 !! Which is exact 50 points more than the 1701 from the list of februari 1st. So the training is definitely paying off. After plateauing for more than one year I started in october with the tactical training a la DLM. These 50 ratingpoints improvement are gained in januari at the Corus-tournament and based on the 9 games I played there. Hence 3 month of training were the base for this result. So only 168 - 50 = 118 more points to go to write my name in golden letters in the Hall of Eternal Fame. Margriet with 1420 gained only 3 points, but she started much later with the program.

Grandmaster Joel Benjamin played in1986 a game against GM Victor Korchnoi. Korchnoi routineously traded off the rooks in a rookending end got a pawnending what he simply won by a Kings triangulation. Benjamin was very surprised that Korchnoi played a tempo and that he himself consumed the full time. When the game ended, Korchoi said to Benjamin "I know something about Kings triangulation." Benjamin was very surprised about this "cryptic remark" and speaks out his admiration about Korchnois endgame play: "So I can't play". Then it's Korchnois turn to react very surprised "but this is the ABC of chess." What you can read between the lines here is that it is actually possible to become a grandmaster without knowing anything about endgames. Mind you, I'm not saying that endgame study is useless, I'm only trying to show things from a different perspective. TCT # prbs circle 1 circle 2 circle 3 circle 4 circle 5 circle 6 circle 7 Stp3 5...

What's nice about the Caro-Kan (1.e4 c6) is that you as whiteplayer often know that you are going to play the Caro-Kan even before move one. A player of the Caro-Kan has the habit to put his horses with the snout (am I offending Hippophyles?) in the direction of their own king. This indicates that a Caro-Kanplayer observes the world as a flat plane. You can see this by that he never goes straight to his goal, but moves more sideward. As if he was a crab. If their knights have to chose between a move forwards or sidewards, than the latter has the preferation. The movements of his knights look like the pincers of a crab. You see, I live my preoccupations to the full. At playing the Caro-Kan belongs a special mentality. Chess hasn’t to be beautiful, as long as it gains points. "With white we try to win, with black a draw will do." The move 1. ... c6 indicates a person who draws the game to his own territory immediately. All theory of real openings is avoided this way. Everyt...

While I looked over the weird country I saw windmills everywhere. A gentle breeze carried a faint smell to my nose. It was hard to describe what it smelled like. Some strange blend of glue and fish. Curious I followed it. On a certain moment I heard the breaking of wood. When I came from behind the bushes I saw a guy who was demolishing a windmill. As I came nearer he all of a sudden saw me and stopped working. He looked at me with a frowning face and exclamated "Holy Snickeys! Long ago that we have seen a stranger here!" Nearby there where some beans backing in a dutch oven. I said "Good afternoon." "I am searching for the Holy Grail. I have heard that it has to be in the neighbourhood around here." He said "Nah, the Holy Grail? Never heard of." I said "It's an Holy relic that was used long ago by barbarians when they worshipped their god Elo." He frowned his green face in an attempt to think deeply, a process which hopelessly seem...

Often tactics and positional play are regarded as opposite. That's utterly nonsense. Tactics extend the possibilities in any given position. Say you think it would be a good idea to get your knight to the outpost d5. But it isn't possible because it can be captured there. Suddenly you see a tactical trick. Because of this trick it is possible to bring the knight still to d5. If black captures it, he will loose a piece due to the trick. So what first seemed impossible, is now possible with the aid of tactics. No matter if the positional idea to post the beast there sucks, you found a brilliant way to do it. Tactics are only the tools that enhance your possibilities. What is opposite in the story is the element of time. Time you use for studying tactics, can't be used for studying strategy and vice versa. If you study both, like Margriet and I do, your garden will look like this: Update: TCT # prbs circle 1 circle 2 circle 3 circle 4 circle 5 circle 6 circle 7 Stp3 540 96% 97...

It starts to look like it. Instead of enjoying a well deserved break from step 3 and 4 I already have another 200 chessproblems of step 5 "under the belt". Well, there are worse things to be addicted to. For to gather the 168 points neccesary to be recorded in the Hall of Fame some work have to be done yet. What's next? First I want to finish circle 2 to 5 of TCT step 5. Then I want to continue with the first 1350 problems of Intensive Course Tactics of George Renko. I already did 6 circles from that one. 2 or more circles should do to play tru them a tempo. What to do after that I haven't decided yet. I have the feeling that the 24 days I spend on step 3 and 4 already are paying off. Step 3 and 4 of TCT consist of the very basics of tactics. At FICS I played a few 10 minute games where I noticed that I see simple tactics much faster now.

Grandmaster John Nunn describes that he once played 100 blitzgames with a master. 5 minutes on the clock for Nunn and 10 minutes for the master. He won with 88-12. Afterwards the master was disappointed: "I thought that I would see lots of advanced strategic concepts in these games but actually all I have learnt is LPDO." "LPDO?" Nunn asked. "Loose Pieces Drop Off" Most of the games where decided by relatively simple tactics involving undefended pieces. So the tactical skills of a grandmaster compares to the master's as 88:12 According MDLM the difference between a class D-player and an expert lies in tactics. So what is the difference between an expert and a master? According to Nunn it is the ability to play rookendings well. So what do you have to do if you want to become an expert, master, grandmaster? Update. I did it! I completed the 560 problems of step 4 all a tempo! Pffoeii. I can hardly see tru my watery eyes and I'm grunting all the time...

The book of Seirawan "Winning chess strategies" has arrived from Fatboy. Thanks! Margriet and I are both delighted with it, we finally found an occupation for our endless spare hours (ahem). I'm surprised that the nervous Americain officials let this dangerous weapon fly trough their airspace. Anyway, I already learned something from it, it is very readable. I'm going to work my way through the book with in my mind the question if strategic play can fall victim to a DLM-approach. Because I have to prepare myself for the vacuum that arises after my tactical skills are boosted to the limits (ahem, ahem). Today I did step 3 of TCT. I went thru all 540 problems a tempo, so I considder it done. I hope that I finish step 4 this weekend. Here you see that the level of the problems is all important. It took me only 24 days to play thru all 1100 problems a tempo. Circle 6 and 7 are not neccesary, after a few weeks I will play thru the problems again to consolidate. TCT # prbs ...

Today I had reserved for doing some important work as the treasurer from our club. But what did I do? 630 chessproblems! When must I do this work then? What the heck! Playing chess must be more important than organizing it. I hope I can persuade our chairman. . . But figures are steady improving and the pace inclines. A warm welcome to a new Knight: Mousetrapper He works with the program for quite some time, but decided recently to take a more serious approach by joining the pack. TCT # prbs circle 1 circle 2 circle 3 circle 4 circle 5 circle 6 circle 7 Stp3 540 96% 97% 97% 99% - - - Stp4 560 94% 95% 95% 97% - - - Stp5 580 75% - - - - - -

When Don completed his 7 circles he went through deep dales. Now we see the struggle of FussyLizzard. These guys go deep and don't hesitate to take days off from work to stick to their schedule. If their gain is measured by their pain then they will become expert for sure! If you compare that to me, who changes from scheme to scheme everytime things become inconvenient, then there is no justice done to their efforts when my name would be written in gold just by completing 7 circles of 1000 problems. For people who think chesstraining is fun and who want a life next to the program we should apply different rules. MDLM talks about 400 points in 400 days. A typical program lasts 168 days. So I suggest that eternal fame will come to me when my rating has risen by 168 points. (I would be happy anyway) What do you Knights think about this idea? I made a schedule in Excel which applies a scientific approach to the intervals between repetitions. I don't think this system will become po...

Tonight I played at my club against a player with 1715. The result was a simple win by a tactical trick. I decided to stop with the Bravenet counter, because they use datamining cookies. I don't like that creepy behaviour. Has anyone a suggestion for a good free counter? Has anyone an idea why my harddisk suddenly is grumping like an old man while editing a post? Cognitive science has ideas about the interval between repetitions when you want to memorize some items. For example the first interval = 1 day, the second = 7 days, third = 16 days, fourth = 35 etc.. I'm going to experiment with this. I'll let you know if I find interesting things. Problems are going faster. TCT # problems circle 1 circle 2 circle 3 Step 3 540 96% 97% 97% Step 4 560 94% 95% 80 done Step 5 580 75% - -

What works well with the Knights Errant is that it inspires. I started in October doing cycles as preparation for the Corustournament in januari. In februari I joined the Knights, and I am still going strong. Knowing that you are not alone in your struggle and that there is a dumb outerworld that only chit-chats and criticasts makes this a nice place on the internet. Now I am preparing for the Summertournaments. What keeps surprising me is that there seem to be good days and bad days. The one day you go like a spear and the other day the problems feel like a wet newspaper. I noticed that a circle of 1680 problems is a little to big, so I'll drop step 5 for this moment. TCT # problems circle 1 circle 2 circle 3 Step 3 540 96% 97% 150 done Step 4 560 94% 95% . Step 5 580 75% - -

Today I talked with Nezha by E-mail. He is interested in the Kings Gambit. Well, maybe you are too, so why not make things public? I write in my normal, subjective way. As 1700 player who plays against persons with max 2000 and who has a result of 70% with it. So I'm very enthousiastic. Let's try to make some idea's behind the opening clear. 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Pf3 (diagram) So what this is all about? You have a central pawn of black seduced to go to a strange place, where it doesn't do very much. Which means that white now can obtain a strong center. Black has to make a major decision. If he gives the pawn back without a fight, he's positionally worse. Because of the center, a space advantage at the kingside, pressure against f7, an open f-line white just seems to have everything. If black wants to hold on to the pawn, he has to play g5 at some moment, which makes his kingside weak and make his development troublesome. If he is not used to the positions after g5...

Because the computer of Margriet crashed some time ago she has to use mine for solving problems. Today she solved a lot, so I worked a few hours on endgames. Because to calculate an endgame move and then do another because my calculations are always wrong is a too meager method. A lot of writers on the endgame have a so called 'scientific approach' to chess. Which means that they are very afraid to be incomplete. So it can happen that the first 7 chapters of a book are totally useless, because they handle about endgames you probably never get on the board. Just to be complete. It took me 3 weeks to find out where on earth to start with endgames. Now I know, it is of course very simple: you have to begin with king + pawn endgames. Because any other endgame can become such an endgame, if pieces are traded off. John Nunn has written a nice booklet. He talks about opposition, triangulation and the Reti-manoeuvre as the base for king + pawn endgames. Today I studied the opposition. ...

Today I signed up for two 9 round-tournaments this summer (OTB) If I can get transport I will do a 7 round-tournament on Whitsuntide. So we'll see if things work out. Update of the figures. TCT # problems circle 1 circle 2 circle 3 Level 3 540 96% 97% . Level 4 560 94% 330 done . Level 5 580 75% . .

Now I'm getting somewhere. Today I had really a good day in problemsolving. I will try to explain what happened by translating from "High play" from Kasparov: What 'sees' a chessmaster when he looks at the board? What does he see that other players don't see? An old French master said: "I see the chessboard like somebody sees the street whereon he walks, without giving much attention to it. When you open a drawer, you know where the things are, even if you don't see'em exactly at that moment. So is it too with the moves on the chessboard. This is was happened to day. You know where the pieces are, without exactly seeing them. You know what fields they cover. In a flash you see the total geometrical pattern of the combination, without paying much attention to it, but you know exactly what it means. So this is not thinking 3 plies deep, but you see all plies in 1 pattern instanteneously. Other comparisons: a baseball player who hits the ball knows w...