Temposchlucker

. . . When I want to judge if a bishop is good or bad, I look at the pawn structure. But not every pawnstructure is suited for such verdict, I realized today. Only when the pawns are fixed such judgement has a long term value. If there is a fixed state of pawns, there must be a pre-fixed stage. Usually that is a state where the pawns are under tension. Solution of the tension can go in two directions. Either the pawns become fixed or the position becomes open. When the position becomes open, the habitual look for good and bad pieces is often useless because all pieces have become active to a certain degree. In those positions it is more important if there are targets and who has the initiative. Tempo's start to count again, so it is in essence a second round of development which has started. If there is a state of tension. there must be a pre-tension stage for the pawns. This is what we usually call development. In order to design development, one must know which tension-states are...

I have tried to put positional knowledge into practice during my games. Allthough I feel a lot of potential in it it still doesn't boost my performance. The problem is that if you have to do 65 things well in a game and you do only 6o well, you are not going to win the game. It feels a bit the same as when I started with tactics years ago. Then you could hear me whining "I'm the only one who worked this game, I have to do everything myself. Even loosing. . .!!" I have to study for my work so there's not too much time left for blogging. But I expect that to change after the summer. Margriet on the other hand is doing extremely well with the new knowledge. I expect her to cross the 1600 line soon. Every seasoned tournement player knows that it is extremely rare for women at age 50 to increase from 1150 to 1600. Usually 1400 is an unbreakable barrier. So I'm very proud.