phorku's chess blog

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Big Winner!!

Went to the chess club yesterday and won 2 out my 3 games. My last game we were playing 25m with a 5s delay. I sacked a Bishop for 2 pawns and a raging attack. I was really beggining to tear him up when I got short on my clock. My flag feel just as I was finishing him off.

So I was very happy with my play after many losses the last couple times I was at the club. I was sitting there enjoying enjoying the moment when the TD comes up and says "Here.". I look up and his is holding out $6. I say "Huh?". The TD tells me I tied for first. So minus the $5 entry fee I won a whole $1.

I have learned some new lessons as well. There is book learning and then there is understanding. I have always read about and some times played for the center and putting rooks on open files. I never really fully understood the importance of it till lately. I always liked the attacking game as I am pretty sure about 90% of the Knights do. I play openings that usually involve taking space and attacking on the king side. It is amazing how many players will castle short anyway. Anyway I would usually play on the flank trying to go for the kill. I have learned that supporting the center aids in these attacks and often allows for attacks from both sides of the board. Doubled rooks on open or half open files in the center are great for this. Plus it often restricts your opponents movement. Seems obvious but now it is more than just a memorized lesson.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Recent Activities

Well it has been a while since I posted. I have been pretty busy lately. I started my new job on June 19th. I wear 2 hats; database administrator and developer. The company has had explosive growth and is pretty short handed. I work in a mostly new IT department and the entire network is going to be mostly rebuilt. I have been working some extra hours trying to get things in order and make a good impression.

When I get busy I usually slack off on my blogging first. I have been studying a variety of material. Some mentioned in my last post. I got the chess base CDs for the bishop's/Vienna and the Dutch Leningrad. The Dutch CD seems at first glance to be all for the g6 variation that I never play. I guess I picked the wrong Dutch CD. Oh well maybe there is some good stuff in there. The bishop's/Vienna CD I like alot. There are some lines in there not covered in my books that give the opening a whole new flavor. I am starting to really enjoy it. I make less mistakes in the opening now and spend less time calculating book lines. It is not so much that I have memorized the lines but understand some of the concepts better. I also understand some of the trickier lines now as well.

I took a break from tactical study for a few weeks while studying some of this material. I am still surprised how fast your tactical muscle gets flabby. I have been studying my tactics on the CTS as well. If I get some more free time I will update my tactics stats.

I lost all my 45 45 games and my team did not do well. I am not disappointed though. I put the team together at the last minute and just wanted to play. I played pretty well, not making any gross blunders except under time pressure. I got beaten by chessbridge, a blind 17 year old twice. My family finds endless pleasure razzing me about that. I also tried to play in the 90 30 but the players were really bad about scheduling their games. My standard rating is down to 1577. I have been playing a lot of blitz lately. I will start going back to the club starting tomorrow in preparation for the club championships. These are G90 games that I enjoy. I don't like the G30 games much at all.

Here are 2 recent games I lost.
Game 1(new window)
Game 2(new window)