Chess move by move

Moved to ChessThinking.com

2009-10-04T15:15:00.009-05:00

Unzicker - Fischer (Varna Olympiad, 1962) 0 - 1

Warren Buffett on the Benefits of Playing Bridge - Does Chess Measure Up?

2009-08-30T23:02:00.007-05:00

CNBC had a story about 2 months ago on Warren Buffett's Top Three Investment Rules for the Average American, among other things, he discussed the benefits of playing Bridge.
"In bridge, everything anybody does or doesn't do, you're drawing inferences from, including your partner and your opponents. You're working with a partner. If you don't work well with partners you're not going to have a winning bridge team over time. And everything you've learned from the past has some utility on the next hand you play. The next hand, you've never played it before and you'll never play it again in your life. But on the other hand, the problems you've solved in the past are useful in solving the problems there. And you have to keep paying attention all the time. You can't coast."

Let's breakdown the benefits and see if Chess measures up:

"In bridge, everything anybody does or doesn't do, you're drawing inferences from, including your partner and your opponents."
I do not play bridge, but from the little I have gathered, you do not always start with the same "hands"? In traditional Chess on the other hand, the starting position is the same. When you consider Chess960, on the other hand, the starting positions will change, so in a way, you are dealt a different hand? It seems to me that in Chess, there is less inference from what a person is doing or not doing. In Chess all the pieces are in front of you, you can pretty much tell the options that your opponent has. I am not sure how "forcing" Bridge is. Can a bridge player say, I was forced to play that particular "move" or "card"? Chess on the other hand, positions are reached, sometimes from the very beginning, when one of the players is forced to make certain moves. It is "forcing". How is this related to investing? Well, I think that before you invest, you usually do an analysis or evaluation of the company you want to invest in. The Financial Statements are right in front of you. The notes to the Financial Statements themselves are not Gospel, there contain some estimations and "judgment calls", there are Standards that can be followed without necessarily giving out all the information. The fact that "all" the information is right in front of you makes Investing more like Chess. The fact that you look at what's in front of you, and what's going on in the market, and draw conclusions from there, makes it similar to Chess. The guessing aspect of how the future may turn out, is common to both Chess and Bridge. I think that if you are "good", the results of Chess player may correlate more to those of a good investor, [than those of a good Bridge player.]

"You're working with a partner.If you don't work well with partners you're not going to have a winning bridge team over time." Chess is an individual game. You may get help from a coach, some friends, or your computer while you are preparing, but when it comes to game time, you are always alone fending for yourself. It is self-interest and survival of the fittest at its best. How does the collaboration during Bridge work? Can a team mate convince you to play in a particular way? I should point out that, I believe, with this point, Buffett was emphasizing the importance of having good relationships or the ability to work in a team environment - and how that is an important factor in being successful in life and investing. You cannot argue with that. Almost all highly successful people have a team of friends, family, acquaintances that helped them along the way. Even in Chess, one plays with a lot of people along the way, and some become life-long friends and business partners. I am wondering if Chess as a game is a zero-sum game whereby if you have edge or some information that may help you win, you are bound to keep that to yourself until you use it. If you share it, then you may not effectively use it to your advantage during a game. Every new information gets added to the knowledgebase for all to see, and then he who has superior advantage in some way (talent, memory,preparation...) will win. Bridge on the other hand, is not static, probably every game is different? I have seen books on Bridge. Is there opening theory with opening names, middle game, and ending? Is there something like Rook versus Bishop?

"And everything you've learned from the past has some utility on the next hand you play." Much more so in Chess. I am not sure what this has to do with investing. Is it that the information you gather before investing affects your investing moves? Or is he referring to life after you invest? The latter does not make sense, especially in the way he invests, value investing. Since he invests for long term, then his past moves do not have some utility on the next investment. May be it does... if you consider that you have made a good investment, you are getting some returns, and then you are reinvesting those or buying up new stock with those returns, or even consuming whatever you get. Some utility there. May be. If he was talking about life in general, all our actions have some consequences, good or bad. You reap what you sow. Whatever the case, in both Chess and Bridge, "And everything you've learned from the past has some utility on the next hand you play."

"The next hand, you've never played it before and you'll never play it again in your life. But on the other hand, the problems you've solved in the past are useful in solving the problems there." I had debated whether to separate the last sentence (discussed in the paragraph above) from the sentences being discussed in this paragraph. What settled it is the fact that in Bridge you will/may never have the same hand ever again! In Chess, we some times (almost) play a game all over again at different times in our career. I would like to think that Chess then, other than Bridge,is similar to investing than Bridge. If you read the financial statements of a particular company, you may think, "I have seen that before" or "I have read that before". In addition, if you are doing an analysis of a company to see if you should buy its stock, you will probably have some criteria that have to be met. You may say, I want to the Debt to Equity ration to be less than 0.2. or Current Ratio to be greater than 5, whatever. As you analyze hundreds of companies, some things will start repeating themselves and your decisions will almost be already made. I know it is putting it very simply, but in general terms, that is how it works. Of course, Buffett has mentioned about buying companies that have a sustainable competitive advantage, and that can be seen through consistent numbers year after year as you do your analysis. Thus, it appears to me that investing is more science than "luck" or what you are dealt, and thus it is more similar to Chess than Bridge. I have already discussed using past experiences and knowledge as you make your present and future decisions, so I will not revisit that.

"And you have to keep paying attention all the time. You can't coast." Need I say more? Without having played Bridge, I cannot tell how much more attention is required in Bridge compared to Chess. I would like to say that Chess requires more attention that Bridge for this one reason: if people are talking and discussing their next move/play/hand during the game, there may be some distractions going on there. We all know that in Chess collaboration and/or noise is not allowed, which gives the impression that the utmost attention is required at all times. I know that I may not have given Bridge its fair shot because I do not play the game. Warren Buffett did not say that Bridge is better than Chess. This was just to revisit the virtues of Chess
through the lenses of Bridge.

Here is the CNBC story: Warren Buffett's Top Three Investment Rules for the Average American http://www.cnbc.com/id/31849504

Here is a link with some things Warren Buffett said about the benefits of playing Bridge. Of course, it is at a Bridge website, and he sponsors the cup: http://www.buffettcup.com/BuffettonBridge/tabid/69/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Here is a link with a some debate on Chess v Poker: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/chess-vs-poker

17th Annual Chicago Open - Round 5 - Fourth win

2009-08-30T04:38:00.002-05:00

[I previously posted this at chess.com on 5/30/2008]
After winning 3 games in a row, I knew that maintaining the wins would be very hard as the opponents would get stronger. I also knew it would be fun playing higher rated players. So, the self-talk began. I suspected that the rest of players I would play would be higher rated than me. I have always believed that I am stronger than my rating (shows). If in truth, I am not stronger than my rating, then I believe I have the potential to go a lot higher than my rating. You cannot argue against potential. So, I kept telling myself that in truth, I am higher rated than I am now, so I had at least equal chances. I also had to fight my doubts about my lack of preparation for this tournament. I told myself that I had won tournaments before without much preparation. I just had to believe that I would do well, and focus during my games. The last thing was a practical thing. When I go through Alekhine's and Fischer's games, I see a lot of things. I think I understand a lot of what happens. That being the case, I would be able to see and understand what was happening on the board with people rated 20xx! At the end of the day, each player gets a turn to contribute on what happens on the board.

So, that was the self talk.

I was a few minutes late for my earlier games because I came out of my room late as I don't like to "fight" with people to see who I am paired with. It messes up my "flow"/rythm. So, I let the games begin, and then peacefully walk to the pairing board to see what board and who I am going to play. The couple of lost minutes are worth it for me.

This game was different. I was a little late, yes, but when I went to the board position, my opponent was not there! Mmnnn! Interesting. I set up the board, waited a few seconds, and made my move and started the clock. My opponent showed up 5 minutes later. He took his time making the first move - (something that I do when I am late - just to compose myself) - I understood that. Then he took time taking off his jacket, getting a pen, etc. So I decided to wait until he was done and ready to sit down and play the game for me to make my second. I just wanted to say: "I know you are not worried about the time, neither am I." May be it was just my "twisted psychology", but that is a little background to the game.

The game itself was very interesting. I think this was my second best performance of the tournament. (I think the next game, round 6, was my best game of the tournament).

Without further ado, here is my fourth win.... two more to come...

17th Annual Chicago Open - Round 4 - Third win

2009-08-30T04:36:00.001-05:00

[I previously posted this at chess.com on 5/30/2008]
I went into my 4th game wanting to maintain the momentum I had (gained) after winning both my games the day before. I am looking at the scoresheet to see what I remember about this game, and it appears it was a pretty quick game. We had 6 hours to finish hour game, and it seems we used less than 2 hours of it. At move 16, I have marked that I had 1hr 26min while my opponent had 1hr 36min. However, it was about that time that I played the move that won me the game, think: 16...f3.

It was a relatively short game, 34 moves.

I do not know what opening I played. I will have to look it up. My first four moves were pawn moves: ...c5, ...d6, ...e5,...f5. I just wanted to attack.

After winning this game, my record was one loss, and three wins; three more wins to come...

Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

17th Annual Chicago Open - Round 3 - Second win

2009-08-30T04:33:00.001-05:00

[I previously posted this at chess.com on 5/29/2008]
The first two games featured "Indian Defenses" and I thought they were King's Indian Defenses. GotGoose correctly pointed out that those were Benoni Defenses. The third game was a Benoni. (Which one? Old? Classical? or...?) I am not an Opening theorist.

What I liked about this game was that I castled pretty late for me. Move 13. Usually, I am an early "castler", but this time around, I waited to see what Black's intentions were, and then declare my own by opening a line/file to Black's King before I castled. Like the second game, I had to balance between defense and attack before going for an all out attack.

At the end of round 3, I had one loss, two wins, ... four more wins to come...

Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

17th Annual Chicago Open - Round 2 - First win

2009-08-30T04:29:00.001-05:00

[I previously posted this at chess.com on 5/28/08]
After losing the first game with White, I decided to study/review the King's Indian Defense and use it as Black against 1.d4. In the previous couple of tournaments, I had played the Gruenfeld Defense. Going to this tournament, I had not settled on any Defenses against 1.d4, but after losing to a K.I.D. in the first game, I decided to get over the loss by passing on the pain of losing to K.I.D. to other people. So, here is my annotated first win; five more to come.

Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

17th Annual Chicago Open - Round 1 - Loss

2009-08-30T04:25:00.001-05:00

[I previously posted this at chess.com on 5/27/08]

Here is my first game in the 17th Annual Chicago Open that I played in over the weekend. I was White, and I lost to a King's Indian Defense that I mishandled at various points. At first, I lost a bunch of tempos - (poor/inconsistent decisions). I must, however, commend Greg for exploiting my weakness very well. He was very patient, which sometimes, is all you need to convert a good position into a win.
After losing this game, I realized that the only way to win my section (U2100) or to end up near the top was to win all my remaining 6 games, or win 5 and draw 1. So, here is the annotated loss. The six wins will follow.

17th Annual Chicago Open (My first time - U2100)

2009-08-30T04:20:00.002-05:00

[I previously posted this at chess.com 5/27/08]
Over the Memorial Day weekend, I participated in the 17th Annual Chicago Open, that took place at Westin Hotel (Chicago North Shore), Wheeling, IL. It was amazing seeing all the people that play the game. It was bigger than the previous big tournaments that I played in, (Mid-America Open being one of them).
I started off on a bad note by losing my first game. I had registered for the 3-day schedule, which meant that I would play the first two games at G70 (---play all the moves in 70 minutes). Time was not an issue for me, as I rarely use up a whole hour during my games. However, I wondered if I would be too tired after those two games to focus on the third longer game game 40/2, SD 1... or whether I would be "forced" to play unusually fast, ... or if I lost the first game, would I be able to recover quickly, (playing back to back games)? Since I would spend about $1,000 to play in the tournament ($220 Entry Fee, $90/day hotel accomodation, $x meals, $z transportation, etc), I needed to give myself the great chances to play the best Chess I am capable of. So, despite being tired from the travel, and other things, I decided to play the 4-day schedule. Lucky enough, I didn't have to pay extra to switch (as was the case with people who were moving from one section to the next!) So, I ran back to my room, did some stretching exercises, showered, and tried to focus on Chess before the game. I played the first game, and lost! Now time became my ultimate foe! I could not wait for the next game. Instead of getting over the loss within minutes or a few hours, I had at least 12 hours to think and feel my loss, and mull over it. It was a long 12 hours. I also knew that to win or even get a prize, I would have to win almost all the remaining games. At a minimum, I should not drop a point! Lucky enough, I won all my remaining games and ended up sharing first place (with 6 points).
http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?200805263911.3
I will post my games, thoughts and reflections in the next couple of days.
Click here for the first round loss.
Click here for the second round win.

2008 Mid-America Open - Game 5

2009-08-30T04:18:00.001-05:00

Here is my 5th and last game of the 2008 Mid-America Open tournament that was played last weekend. At the time, it appeared I was already assured of being in the top two or three. I needed a draw to be an outright winner. I do not know how to play for a draw. I only play to win and then during the game, a draw may arise. This gives me peace... knowing that I do not have to change much in order to obtain a particular result. My opponent, a very friendly guy, later told me that he needed to win in order to get a prize. He mentioned that it was a very nice game, and he enjoyed it even though he lost. It appears a fair result would have been a draw.

I played the Grunfeld Defense again. I had an inferior position coming out of the opening, and I had to dig myself out of the hole to equalize. The win was similar to my other games whereby the battle was on the Queenside, and then I shifted it to the King side to get an advantage.

I think this was my toughest game.

I have annotated the game, and your comments, suggestions, and ideas are welcome.

2008 Mid-America Open - game 4

2009-08-30T04:15:00.001-05:00

Here is another Grunfeld Defense which almost went wrong!

After winning three games in a row the day before, a friend told me that I was the only one with 3 points after 3 rounds in our section, U2000. It was exciting. Could I make it 4-0? This was a pretty tough game... I lost a pawn on the Queenside and I decided to shift the game to the Kingside and try to mate my opponent. The pressure on his King worked and with this win, I was closer to my dream of winning all my games in this tournament. I have annotated the game, and I welcome your ideas, suggestions, and comments.

2008 Mid-America Open - game 3

2009-08-30T04:13:00.001-05:00

After winning the first two games, I was under some pressure to win the third game so that I could finish my day with 3 wins. I knew it was going be tough as the people I was playing were getting stronger. I told myself to not worry about it, as at one time, I was rated higher than I am now, but I just got "weaker" due to lack of practice. I had studied and practiced well for this tournament...

My opponent played the Grunfeld Defense, the opening that I had studied quite a bit and I was using as my response to 1.d4 during this tournament. Unfortunately for him, he allowed me to play my favorite move, c5 - (refer to game 2) - and I tied him up real quick. It was nice going home knowing that I had 3 wins in my pocket.

2008 Mid-America Open - game 2

2009-08-30T04:03:00.005-05:00

Here is my second game of the 2008 Mid-America Open tournament. It was the Slav Defense of QGD. I was happy with how I had relentless pressure against the Black King. I later sacrificed a pawn for a winning attack... I have annotated the game and I welcome your comments, ideas, and suggestions.

2008 Mid-America Open - game 1

2009-08-30T03:58:00.002-05:00

(I previously posted this game at chess.com 3/5/08)
Over the weekend, I participated in a tournament in St Louis, MO. It was the 2008 Mid-America Open Tournament. I played quite okay and I won all my five games. Here is the first of those games. I have included my annotations. Your comments, ideas and suggestions are welcome.

A painful loss - Was the sacrifice a mistake?

2009-08-30T03:35:00.004-05:00

In this second round game of the 34th Annual Easter Open, I gave up a Bishop for 3 pawns... and then, I think I misplayed the middlegame and ending. Well, how else would I lose? :-O

My First Alekhine's Gun!

2009-08-30T03:04:00.005-05:00

I played this game a little over a year ago, and it is one of my favorite games for several reasons: First, I had an objective right from the start - third move - that Black's light-squared Bishop would not get involved in the game and that sort of happened. Second, I created my first Alekhine's Gun! Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Chess Plans September 2009

2009-08-30T02:06:00.011-05:00

As a way to slowly ease back into Chess, I plan to do the following:

1) Go over about 20 tactics problems at Chess Tempo at least 5 days a week.

2) Start and finish Fred Reinfeld's The Complete Chess Player.

3) Participate at Chess.com by looking for questions asked by various players, mostly beginners, that I may be able to answer. A way to help out.

4) Play several competitive games, either at Dallas Chess Club, or at a tournament.

Chess is where I belong

2009-08-29T22:31:00.004-05:00

Some people feel called to a particular undertaking. They take a look, give it a shot, and wonder whether the voice they are hearing and feedback they are getting is real, or it is just a figment of their imagination. I have had such a relationship with Chess. When my cousin, Dan, told me about a week ago that I "belong to Chess", that pretty much summed up the feelings I had all along, the things that other people had told me in different ways, and the dreams I had. I thought I would give it another shot. It's been over 20 years since I learnt to play Chess. I am looking forward to seeing what the next 20 years will bring. What will I learn, and what will I become?

Road to Recovery (progress report)

2007-12-15T07:57:00.000-06:00

I have done quite a bit since my last post. I have become more active at chess.com - you can see my content by clicking here. Both the writing, commenting on other people's postings, and playing a couple of games keep me in the "Chess mood".
In addition, I have been reading a few Chess books. I finished Chess for Tigers in a couple of days, then I was on Bruce Pandolfinis' Visual Dictionary of Chess(?). I am now working on Lev Alburt's Chess Tactics for the Tournament Player and John Watson's Chess Strategies in Action. The last one is an intense read. I have barely put a dent into it.
I have been going through games of Legends, like Alekhine, Capablanca, and some Fischer. Last but not least, Openings. My study of Openings has been through playing games of the same
Opening - that way the idea and variations sink in without necessary booking up on Opening lines.
Oh, one more thing, I have been going through tutorials in ChessMaster 9000's classroom... I have started with the beginner tutorials (even though the material is very basic). My belief is that sometimes you forget the basics... like Rooks and Bishops need opening lines (Files/Ranks and diagonals, respectively) to be effective. So, it doesn't hurt to review.
I feel good about where I am headed.
I am playing a lot fewer games at Chess.com; I think I am better able to focus on each game. I look forward to playing in 2 tournaments in the next 2 weeks.

Self-discovery through loss

2007-10-12T19:42:00.000-05:00

I think my Chess has deteriorated a lot in the past couple of weeks... or everybody else has gotten better than me. If the latter is the case, then my rating is about 1200! I have lost to a 1300 player, a 1500 player, and I am not doing very well with 1700s and the like - yet I have a provisional USCF rating of 1949 (will go lower after those defeats!) - and I would like to think that I should be rated way higher than that.
The losses were hard to take - but I later realized that such losses are an opportunity for self-discovery. I thought about why I play Chess and what I expect from it. I looked back at the times that I played really well and what I did in order to play well. I have even looked at my whole life, what am I spending most of my time doing? Am I sleeping enough? Where does Chess rank at this time? Where do I want to get, Chesswise? etc.
At this time, one thing is for certain. I need to play a lot better Chess. I will go back and read my writings on how to improve at Chess and try to practice what I preach.

How to improve at Chess (A collection of all my tips)

2007-08-14T19:51:00.000-05:00

Here are all the links to my tips:

If this will not inspire you, nothing will!

Chess Openings Buffet: - All you can eat! FREE!

How To Improve at Chess: Tip# 3: Constant Decision-Making

How to Use Love and Accountability to Play Great Chess

Should I continue playing after a big blunder?

How to Improve at Chess: Tip 4 - “Do This and You Shall Live!”

How to improve at Chess: Tip# 5 - For every move you make…

How to Improve at Chess: Tip#6 - “If I had his pieces…”

How to Improve at Chess: Tip#7 - Take your time when playing through recorded games

How to Improve at Chess: Tip#9 - Annotate your (Email Chess) games

How to Improve at Chess: Tip#8 - Study with the right pieces on your side….

How to Improve at Chess: Tip#10 - Let go of the Mouse!

How to Improve at Chess: Tip #11 - Don't skip the draws

How to Improve at Chess: Tip #12 - Work on your Memory

How To Think Fast - 10 Tips

How Far Can You See?

The trick to excellence: “Do This and You Shall Live!”

How to Improve at Chess: Tip # 13 - Beat the Greatest Masters

How to Improve at Chess: Tip # 14 - Study miniatures

2007-08-14T19:42:00.000-05:00

Why study miniatures?
First, they are fun, short and sweet. You play through them and in no time, you are done.
Second, you see where the losing moves come in; you can learn to avoid similar mistakes.
Third, you see where the winning moves come in; you can learn how to finish a game or win in similar positions.
Fourth, they are easy to remember. I have discussed the need to play from memory before. Miniatures are a sure way to do that. The easier a concept is to remember, the higher the chances that you will apply it in your own life.

Sacrifice Buffet! When the Doctor prescribes the wrong diet!

2007-08-13T23:24:00.000-05:00

Mikhail Tal vs Z Pigit
URS 1953 · Sicilian, Richter-Rauzer (B62) · 0-1
In this game, the master tactician, Mikhail Tal, gives up all there is to give, except for the King, Queen (and King's Rook, sort of). It's action, action and no "cuts"! When the King's Rook is about to be captured, the Doctor realizes that the wrong diet has been prescribed. Time to resign. Enjoy!

Things start to happen as early as move 8 when Tal plays 8.e5, sacrificing a pawn in the hope of messing up Black's pawn structure(?). Tal was never a positional player, so that is an unlikely reason. But if Black takes the pawn, then moves like 9.Qf3 attacking c6 and f6 are possible. Black meets Tal's tactics with his own.
8...Qa5! If White takes the Knight with his pawn, Q takes Bishop.
9.Bb5! (Exclamation for the unexpectedness of the move, as well as the excitement.)The moves aims to block the Queens path to the Bishop on g5 as well as open up the diagonal f3-a8.
9...cxb5 Black accepts the sacrificed Bishop with the knowledge that the blocked rank will be opened next move, with an attack on two pieces.
10.exf6 He gets the pawn. So far, things are going according to plan(?)
10...b4 Pigit resumes the attack on the Bishop on g5, the pawn is attacking the knight on c3.
11.Qf3 protecting neither piece! Attacking the Rook on a8.
11...Qe5! Pigit wants to block the path of the White Queen, which he could have done by immediately playing d5. However, that would block off the attack on the Bishop on g5. With this move, he is still attacking the Bishop, and he will block the diagonal next move.
12.Nd4(!) Only Tal could see such moves. Good or bad! The knight or the Bishop, one of them is a goner. How about playing 12.Nd2 when the Bishop is "defended" by the attack on the Rook? Not Tal! So he defends with an attack. Protecting the Bishop?
12...d5. Blocking the diagonal and attacking the Knight that is defending the Bishop.
(annotation to be continued)

How to Improve at Chess: Tip # 13 - Beat the Greatest Masters

2007-08-13T01:29:00.000-05:00

On page 10 of Chess Life,Winter 2004, Bobby Fischer is quoted as saying: "I have played over several hundred of Morphy's games, and am continually surprised and entertained by his ingenuity. It has taken me twenty minutes at times to find the proper response to one of his move."
Why would Fischer spend 20 minutes trying to find a solution to Morphy's move? One reason could be that he needed to know how he would respond if somebody played the Morphy moves (from rote) against him. Second, may be he was trying to beat Morphy! If you are going to be the greatest ever... you have to be able to respond to anything that may be thrown at you, by others, whether they are dead or alive ;-)
20 minutes trying to analyze one move and come up with a response to it! I guess just like life, you get out of Chess what you put in.
How long do you spend analyzing games of the masters? Do you just take their moves as the last word?
So there is a tip: Beat the greatest Masters at their own game!

Qxh7#: Still Too Early for Lessons You Think?

2007-08-12T12:03:00.000-05:00

How soon can you start teaching your kid how to play Chess? How about this early???::::

Qxh7#: Still Too Early for Lessons You Think?

The Sarratt Attack (J.H. Sarratt - NN)

2007-08-12T11:36:00.000-05:00

In this game, Black starts an attack with insufficient forces. His Knight and Bishop are chased back. The Knight gets pinned and then attacked by a pawn. It is ironic that White wins with an attack similar to what Black had envisioned and tried unsuccessfully: Bishop and Knight attacking the c-pawn on its initial position!

On move 10. Black could have tried 10... Bxe4 to attack g2 and d5 (thus protecting c6). However, that is refuted by 11. Nxc7+ Kd7 12. dxc++ Kxc6 13. Qe2! (This threatens mate on b5 and attacks the Bishop on e4. May be the solutions is to give up the Queen for the Knight at some point.

Jacob Henry Sarratt vs NN
England 1818 · Queen Pawn Game: Sarratt Attack (D00) · 1-0

Robert James Fischer vs. Samuel Reshevsky (Annotated game #9)

2007-08-12T01:44:00.000-05:00

Sousse izt Rd: 11 / Sousse izt Rd: 11

1967

ECO: C93 | 1-0

1. e4

It's Fischer! What do you expect. His favorite opening move, "best by test". Opens for the Bishop, Queen, Knight, (and God forbid, King). Goes for the control of the center.

1... e5 Similarly, Black Opens with his King's pawn.

2. Nf3 Developing the Knight towards the center, clearing the bank rank for castling, and attacking the Black pawn.

2... Nc6 Developing a piece towards the center and protecting the pawn.

3. Bb5 Ruy Lopez. One of Fischer's specialties. Developing the Bishop. Attacking the defender of the pawn. He is ready to castle.

3... a6 Attacking the Bishop. Making him decide what he wants to do with the Bishop. Note that Black does not lose a pawn if White plays, BxN dxc6, Nxe5 because of ...Qd4.

4. Ba4 Gets away from the attack, still attacks the Knight on c6.

4... Nf6 Develops a piece towards the center, attacks the pawn on e4, and clears the back rank, preparing for castling himself.

5. O-O White castles, protecting the King and bringing the Rook into the game, leaving his pawn hanging. If Black takes the pawn, White can either play d4, or Re1 or Bxc6 in some order and he ends up with a long-lasting initiative.

5... Be7 Black goes for development instead of grabbing loose pawns. He is now ready to castle.

6. Re1 White protects his pawn. He is ready to take the Knight on c6 followed by taking the pawn on e5.

6... b5 Black closes the path of the Bishop to the Knight by attacking it with this pawn move.

7. Bb3 Bishop retreats, the focus of the attack will be along the new diagonal (unless the Bishop is taken out by moves like Na5 followed by Nxb3.) White exerts a lot of pressure on d5. This control builds up after Nc3 and the exchange of the d-pawn after d4.

7... O-O Protects the King and brings the Rook into the game.

8. c3 Preparing for d4 and also opening the way for the Bishop in case it is attacked by Na5.

8... d6 Opening for the Bishop on c8 (even though this blocks in the Bishop on e7), and also supports the pawn on e5. The Knight on c6 is free to go wherever Black wants without worrying about losing the pawn on e5. People have argued that it was bad strategy for Reshevsky to play the closed Roy. He should have played something that would have allowed him to take advantage of the time difference. Fischer was not to be excellent at speed play, so I am not sure it would have mattered.

9. h3 Prevents any piece from coming to g4 (especially the Bishop on c8). It may also be preparation for a move like g4 later on.

9... h6 Similarly, he prevents any piece from coming to g5. Gets ready for his own g5 later in the game.

10. d4 Going for the center. If Black exchanges pawns, White captures back with the c-pawn and has two central pawns. This move also opens the d2 square for the Bishop, Knight and Queen.

10... Re8 Bringing the Rook into play. Since the Bishop is closed in, it may be better to put in on f8 to help defend the King in case of an attack, and also allow the Rook to come into the game. The Rook defends the pawn on e5, but if Black initiates the exchange, (and the Bishop gets out of the way), you have the Knight on f6 and the Rook attacking the pawn on e4.

11. Nbd2 Developing a piece, defending the pawn on e4 in case of the exchanges mentioned above, but also the Knight may be headed to f5 or h5 via f1 and g3.

11... Bf8 The Bishop has gone back to Open the file for the Rook. As mentioned earlier, it may also help defend the King.

12. Nf1 There is the Knight manouvre. Targets may be f5 and h5 if it goes to g3, or f5 and d5 if it ends up on e3. (Of course, going to e3 immediately would lose a pawn ;-))

12... Bd7 Developing the last piece. One would wonder why not go to b7 with the Bishop since that side is already open. This move has several ideas behind it. First is to avoid the Queen exchanges after dxe5 dxe4, when White can exchange Queens. Some people don't like games like that. I am not sure if Black would be at a disadvantage after the Queen exchange. The other idea is to bring the Queen to c8 when the Bishop can be sacrificed for two pawns on h3 at an appropriate time. Last but not least, he does not want to commit the Bishop to the a8-h1 diagonal when a blockade of that diagonal could make Bb7 useless.

13. Ng3 So.. the Knight is headed towards f5 and h5. going to f5 would exchange Blacks only active Bishop. This move prevents Black from playing Nh5, in case he wants to play the f-pawn. Of course he can still do it by going to h7.

13... Na5 Attacking the Bishop, but most of all, opening the way for the c-pawn.

14. Bc2 Fischer loved his King Bishop. I cannot remember what Fischer-game Kasparov was analyzing. It was from his "My greatest predecessors" series, and he mentioned that he could only remember one game in which Fischer won with his dark-squared Bishop. So here he goes again, protecting his light-squared Bishop. Actually, this Bishop move is essential to conducting a Kingside attack (in the Ruy Lopez and other openings). It nicely works with the Queen to create threats of mate against the opposing King.

14... c5 White appears to be ready to launch a kingside attack, Black needs to attack the center and may be go for a Queenside attack himself.

15. b3 Black could have played b4 next move, and White could not meet it with c4 as the pawn could be captured by the Knight. So in a way, b3 enables c4 in case of ...b4. The move also prevents Nc4 when Black would attack the dark-squared Bishop if developed on b2 or e3. It appears White is giving himself the options of joining the attack through b2, or even going to a3 with the Bishop to attack the d6 pawn after pawn exchanges.

15... Nc6 The Knight returns to c6 after releasing the pawn. It adds pressure to d4 and adds protection to e5.

16. Be3 Developing the last minor piece. Adding support to the d4-square. x-ray attack to c5. Similar to Bd7, the Queen can come behind the Bishop and attack the h-pawn.

16... cxd4 Black decides to relieve the tension. I am not sure why. He accepts a backward pawn on d6. What else was there to play? But may be he sees that after cxd4, the Knight can go to b4 attacking the Bishop on c2... but the Bishop can just retreat to b1, followed by a3 and the Bishop goes back to c2 if need be.

17. cxd4 he has to take back the pawn.

17... Nb4 Knight attacks the Bishop on c2.

18. Bb1 The Bishop is needed for a Kingside attack. It is more powerful than the Knight that is attacking it, so why allow the exchange?

18... a5 Trying to liquidate the Queenside - may be something will come out of it. He is also opening a spot for the Knight to land if attacked. The Rook on a8 can then come to c8 without being blocked by the Knight.

19. a3 Attacking the Knight. He may also bring the a-Rook into the game via a2 to c2 or d2 or e2.

19... Na6 Knight retreats to a6, not c6, to avoid blocking the c-file. Black gets to the c-file quicker with his Rooks.

20. Bd3 The Bishop comes back into the game with an attack on the pawn. The White Queen can come to e2 to support the Bishop attack on the pawn. That's something to remember about Chess... it is always changing, you gain some you give some. Black had created a spot on a6 for the knight to land after being chased by a3, but in the process he removed the support for the b5 pawn. Now that pawn can become a weakness.

20... Qc7 Not sure about this move. I think Rc8 was better. May be Reshevsky 'feared" a4 which would have taken advantage of the Knight-wthout-support on a6. But that could be countered by Nb4. How about Qb8? to support the b5 pawn if it needs extra support. May be it is bad because the Queen no longer supports the a5 pawn?

21. Qe2 Fischer goes for the b-pawn. He also opens a way for the King's Rook to come to the Queenside for an attack there.

21... Qb7 Protecting the b-pawn. That could have been accomplished in one move by going to b8 instead of c7 earlier. May be he didn't want to block the connection between the Rooks?

22. Rad1 I am surprised by this move. I thought the Rook on e1 would come to c1, but that would start piece exchanges. This Rook move leaves the pawn on a3 without support. It is not yet attacked, but it can be attacked by the Bishop on f8 after pawn exchanges. The Rook indirectly attacks the Bishop on d7 when the file is clear.

22... g6 May be he is preparing for a push like h5

23. Qb2 Providing protection to the pawns, but mainly attacking the e5 square. White can win a pawn.

23... Qb8 Providing protection to e5. I guess I am vindicated; 20...Qb8 seems to have been a better move.

24. Bb1 Preparing to trade places with the Queen at a moment's notice: Queen in front supported by the Bishop behind it threatening a check(mate) - at some point in the future. I guess Fischer had seen that the Queen would end up on b8 leaving the Bishop on d7 supported by the Knight on f6. The Knight has no support.

24... Kh7 May be supporting the pawns and ...??? I don't know. All I can see is that now the g-pawn is "pinned". If the b1-h7 diagonal is blasted open, White moves like Nh5 would be possible. Now the f-pawn is not defended. Of course it is not attacked. But when you leave several pieces unsupported, something you treasure can leave the board without compensation.

25. dxe5 After so long, the pawns are exchanged. Why now? Because Fischer can benefit from the situation. See the next couple of moves.

25... dxe5 Black has to take back.

26. Nxe5 Temporarily sacrifices his Knight to gain a pawn. If [26...Qxe5 27.Bd4 followed by 28.Bxf6]

26... Rxe5 ??He has to take back or address the attack on the Bishop by the Knight and Rook. Does he have to take with the Rook? I think this is a blunder. I think better was 27...Qxe5 as explained above when Black would be down a pawn. Now he will be down the exchange plus a pawn.

27. Bf4 Of course. Fischer will now be up the exchange.

27... Qb7 [27...Bd6 28.Rxd6 Qxd6 29.BxR followed by 30.BxN would be bad for Black.] This is the thing about leaving pieces unprotected. If the Knight on f6 was protected by a pawn or Bishop, things would not be so bad. At the same time, you cannot have your Bishop that's attacked by a Rook supported by a Knight that can be easily attacked. If the Knight is chased away or captured, the Bishop is a goner.

28. Bxe5 White takes the Rook with an attack on the Knight on f6.

28... Ne8 Runs away from the attack.

29. Ne2 Shifting positions. The Knight is going to join the attack on the Black King. I thought White would want to move the Bishop from e5 so that the Bishop on b1 can join the attack after the pawn moves. May be it's slower than the moves played.

29... Nc5 "A Knight on the side of the board is a shame." - i guess removing it from the side of the board. Attacking e4 and b3. The Knight may also be shifting to the Kingside to protect his majesty.

30. Nf4 Not sure whether he is attacking g6 or he wants to go to d5 and then f6 to exchange one of the King's defenders. Moves like this are hard to deal with... you wonder where you opponent is headed. You react one way, he goes the other way! He also opens the file for the Rook to protect the pawn on e4.

30... b4 Trying to create something on the Queenside. A constant theme in Chess.

31. a4 Fischer say no to discussing the Queenside!

31... Bc6 Pressure on the e-pawn.

32. Nd5 Blocking the attack on e4. But may shift to the Kingside.

32... Nd7 Attacking the Bishop and strengthening the defense on f6.

33. Bd4 Running away from the attack and also preventing the Knight from coming to c5. The Bishop is controlling most of the landing squares for both Knights.

33... Ng7 Heading to e6 to attack the Bishop again?

34. Bd3 Headed to c4 to attack f7?

34... Ne6 Attacking the Bishop on d4.

35. Bc4 x-ray to f7.

35... Re8 Black appears to have consolidated his defenses.

36. Bf6 Take me if you can! Since Black was attacking the Bishop, White puts it where it would be "poisonous" to do so. [36...Nxf6 37.NxN+ Kh8 38.Nxe8+]

36... Nec5 Attacking the pawn on e4 with the support of the Rook.

37. Qc2 Protecting the attacked pawn.

37... Ne6 After forcing the Queen to move to c2, the Knight returns home.

38. Ba1 The Bishop would like to trade places with the Queen: Queen in front, Bishop behind it, threatening to mate!

38... Qa7 Had to play something without impacting the position negatively. Now the Bishop on c6 is not supported by anything. May be he is intending to play Bc5 to attack f2?

39. Kh1 White moves away from the pin. He is now ready to play f4 if need be to soften Black's position.

39... Bg7 Cancelling out the possibility of Bishop-Queen battery.

40. Bxg7 It appears forced. Simplification sometimes favors the losing side. Sometimes it favors the winning side. In this case, it is hard to tell. I would say, temporarily, it has favored Black as his Bishop was not doing much.

40... Nxg7 He has to take back. [If King takes, Queen can give check. Why waste time?]

41. Bb5 Double attack on the Bishop (by Bishop and Rook). Fischer is going to simplify further. Here he is not just simplifying for the sake of it. He is creating a passed pawn with the exchanges that ensue.

41... Bxb5 Black had no choice.

42. axb5 White has to take back.

42... Rb8 Attacking the isolated pawn.

43. Qc6 Protecting the pawn. Attacking the Knight with the support of the Rook (if the Knight moves from d5). Actually, White threatens to win a piece by taking the Knight with his Queen and then playing Nf6+ forking King and Queen.

43... Ne8 Defending the f6-square and any tricks associated with it.

44. e5 At long last, the e-pawn joins the attack.

44... Nf8 Defending against e6. He can go to e6 next move, blocking the file.

45. Nf6+ Exchanging more pieces. Eliminating one more defender.

45... Nxf6 Forced, otherwise he would lose a piece.

46. exf6 Has to take back. The Queen has to stay where she is to protect the pawn on b5.

46... Rb6 Attacking the Queen.

The game was adjourned. Reshevsky did not resume play. He lost because he did not show up. He made Fischer wait to win the game as long as Fischer had made him wait to start the game! Hope you enjoyed it!

Wisdom from the game of Chess

2007-08-12T01:06:00.000-05:00

We know from playing Chess that a “check” is not a checkmate. It is just a bump in life. Take care of it, and the game continues. What other checks do we get in life, and what do we do about them? (It is for you to answer.)

We know from playing Chess that sometimes it just doesn’t rain, it pours. Your King may come under the most vicious of attacks, and when you address those attacks, the calm comes. What attacks have come into your life, and how have you handled them?

We know from Chess that it is not over until it’s over. If you think it’s over, that you are set or damned for life, you may be disappointed. If you give up too soon, you may be disheartened further by the realization that there was a creative way to resolve your game (position). If you celebrate too soon, the victory may be ripped from your hands. When in your life have you come to a point of giving up, what did you do? Do you celebrate too soon?

We know from playing Chess that there are up and downs, and we take them in our stride. We enjoy the journey. (There is no destination? May be each game is a journey and a destination.) Do you enjoy the journey of life?

We know from Chess that we have to focus on this game. Give this game all you have. In life, do you give each day all the attention it needs. Do you just focus on just this day and do the best you can on this particular day?

We know from Chess, that each move deserves all the attention; we cannot choose and pick when to pay attention. How about the tasks of this day? Do you give each one special attention, completing it to the best of your ability? As if the life of the day depended on it?

We know from Chess that we cannot just live for today, that we make preparations for the future: you develop your pieces well, you coordinate your pieces, you try to predict the future and act accordingly. In life, how strong is your foundation? Are you living this day as if it’s your last, trading the futures happiness for today’s?

We know from Chess that for most of us, to be good, we have to perspire a lot. In life, do we perspire to get where we want?

We know from Chess that we don’t create gems from nothing, that we build brilliancies move by move. What are our expectations of life? How are we building our dreams?

We know from Chess that we play to win, and we give our best and hope for a miracle win when we face a much higher rated player. In life, do we get up each morning with a winning attitude? Do we still hope for the miracle win when we face the seemingly insurmountable?

I am not saying Chess is life, or “life is like the game of chess”, but we can get a lot of Wisdom by meditating on the game of Chess.

Playing 21,900 games of Chess without knowing it!

2007-08-12T01:03:00.000-05:00

Studying books, practicing sleep, consulting with a coaches and friends,… on how best to start off your day. Which side of the bed is it best to wake up on? How fast should you get out of bed? Is it better to read in bed first, or brush you teeth, wash you face, and then pray? May be watch tv? May be shower and leave the house as soon as possible? What to wear? Okay, you have found that out. Next:

You have left the bed, may be the house. Who should you talk to? How wide should you smile? How much should you complain? How much should you listen? How fast should you work? How nice should you be on the phone? What should you to do to get a better review? Should you hang on to this job? Should you eat out? What time should you go to bed? Should you see the Doctor? Okay, this has been resolved one way or the other? Next:

What will your legacy be? Should you have married those four? Are you happy? What are you good at? What proof is there that….? What are the fundamentals of life? What do you need to live an enjoyable life? Was it all worth it? Did you waste time? Do you need to analyze the past? Do you need to keep a record of my life? Should you just move on? What are the lessons learnt? If you were to choose, would you choose your life all over again? What would you change?

I cannot say that I have listed all the questions that people ask or the points at which a decision has to be made, for whatever reason. But it is not a bad list of ideas/questions at all - in my opinion. I think a lot of people ask at least 10 percent of these questions at some point in their life.

I wonder if there is a game in which one thinks about each move/decision in so much detail as is the case with Chess. I will not list the questions that will match the life questions above. But I can tell you this: the questions that are asked during a Chess game or before a game even starts, or after the game, or during one’s career are awfully similar to the life questions.

In a way, everybody plays a game of Chess without knowing it. If you live to be 70, and assuming that you started asking any of the questions above when you were 10 years old, then you will have asked any of those questions about 21,900 times (60 years times 365 days per year)! I look at life as a game of Chess. Each day, you play a game. You decide how what Opening you use, what the Middle game will be, and what the Ending will be. 21,900! That is a lot of games. How many of those do you think you won? How many of them did you enjoy? How many are memorable? How many you would rather forget? How many have you already played? How do you want them to go? What can you do to change the result?

The trick to excellence: “Do This and You Shall Live!”

2007-08-12T01:02:00.000-05:00

This is a post that I wrote at my blog at chess.com - I am reproducing it here verbatim.

Well, today is Sunday and I went to Church after a couple of weeks of not going. The Readings had one major theme: You know everything that you need to be successful or to be a Godly person. However, you need to put what you know in action. Here are two of the readings:

1) Luke 10: 25 - 37

2) Deutoronomy 30: 10 - 14

Well, I must confess that I think about Chess in places that I shouldn’t! So I was thinking about how these two Readings are applicable to Life and Chess. In Chess, people are always looking for tips on how to improve, how to win quickly, how to play the opening better, how to think like a grandmaster, etc. However, if you asked a novice or somebody who has been playing the game for a couple of weeks what they can tell somebody about the game, or how they would go about teaching somebody Chess, you would be amazed by the knowledge that they have on how to play the game effectively!

What’s the conclusion from all this? We all (90% of us) know the same things that grandmasters know on how to play the game, how to improve, etc. We just have to put it in practice, move in move out!

So, there is a tip on how to improve at Chess: “Do this (this=what you already know) and you shall live” (live=get what you seek).

How to prepare for joblessness: Saving the third check for a rainy year!

2007-08-12T00:54:00.000-05:00

Most people live paycheck to paycheck and fear the day when they will be laid off and they have to do without income coming in from their employer. I do not know the actual percentage, but from what I have read, it may be over fifty percent. Let’s assume that at least half of these people have been working for at least twenty-four years (because in places that I have worked, most of the workers are at least 45.) In the U.S. and most of the developed world, people start earning money in their teens. They get a regular job by the time they are twenty years old. If they go to college, they may be delayed a little and start a regular job at twenty-five. So they just have to be forty-nine years old to fit into the cohort I am describing - people who have worked for 24 years. (Assuming no lay-offs.)

These people should be able to live without a paycheck for 24 straight months! How? By the power of the third check. According to my calculation, people who are paid every two weeks get paid three times in one month twice a year. For example, there are a lot of people who will get a paycheck(1) in the first week of August 2007, they will get another paycheck(2) in the third week, and then get yet another paycheck(3) in the fifth week! This will happen again in January/February 2008. What do people do with this “paycheck windfall”? Spend it!

What if people put this paycheck away into money market account and didn’t touch it until they got laid off? Well, since you get these 3-checks-in-one-month twice a year, for every year that you work, you could have a month’s worth of paychecks put away. Thus, if you work for 24 years, you should be able to stay at least 2 years without getting a paycheck and still survive. At a minimum, I think you would be able to live the way you used to when you had just started working.

How about change in standard of living and cost of living?
Well, let’s assume you start off making $5 an hour before taxes. That is less than the Federal minimum wage. You work 80 hours per pay period, you get $400 before taxes. Your take home… let’s say for some reason it is only $300.00. You put this away in your first year of work and it is earning 5% interest compounded annually. My calculation is showing that your money will grow to $921.00 after 23 years (since we are assuming that you will be laid off after your 24th year of continuous work. Of course, I have not factored taxes into the equation, but I think that is a lot of money. I will posit that a person who made $300 a paycheck 24 years ago should be able to live on $921 today. In addition, one would have to start living frugally in order to accommodate the new reality: joblessness.

How about expenses that are incurred during the two week period in which you earn the money?
This question is saying: “I understand that I pay some of my bills, for example, rent or mortgage, car payment, utilities, etc, once a month. However, I eat every day, I drive my car to work each day, etc. How about these expenses? Am I not allowed to use some of that money in this paycheck? If I am allowed to use some of that money for these expenses, then your figures are off. First, I won’t save as much. Second, I won’t have as much to use in the future.”
Well, when I budget, I take into account expenses for the whole month, and these are covered by the two paychecks - the norm -regardless of whether a third paycheck will come or not. However, I will concede that you may eat a little bit into that paycheck, but just a little bit. We also have to consider that when you get laid off, you may not drive as much, or be forced to eat expensive (junk) food at work, or buy work clothes,… so your expenses may be lower! So this may take care of the difference between the exact figure required by the question and what my calculation is giving you.

When can you start?
Now. You have to think about it today. You have to make your decision to save that money today. Make sure that check does not find its way into your expenses, budgeted or otherwise.

Of course, you cannot spend all your income and put all your hopes on the third check, as an emergency fund. This would be foolish. There are other good personal financial management practices that you have to practice, click here for a good start.

(What does this have to do with Chess? Well, if you give a good Chess player a piece for no good reason, even if it’s a pawn, you have set him for life. For me, I treat Chess “freebies” as insurance against unforeseeables. The third-paycheck-in-one-month is like a free piece. An advantage you have to convert into a win.)

Chess and Music - Differences and Similarities

2007-08-12T00:52:00.000-05:00

One of the things that makes me believe that there is God is the existence of music. I cannot claim to know much music, but when I see/hear a beautiful final product, it is amazing to consider that somebody conceived it from scratch, and that people can read whatever is written down and then come up with the right “coordination”, “tones”, “instruments” etc to turn the work into something as glorious as the music that people love. I saw this video at youtube and I started thinking about music and chess. A lot has been said about chess and music, for example, that “chess, like music, has the power to make men happy.” So what are the similarities and differences between the two?

Similarities:
1. They both require a lot of creativity.
2. Writing the music itself, (not playing it), is similar to Chess because it requires intellectual discipline and struggle.
3. Both require study.
4. For both, the earlier you begin the higher the chances that you will be better at it.

Differences:
1. Chess requires silence to focus. I am not sure if writing music requires silence (I need help here!)
2. Chess is competitive. There is an opponent in front of you that you want to defeat.
3. There is resistance to your creativity - this is related to 2. above. You may want to create something, but it will not happen if your opponent will not let you.
4. There is loss, pain and defeat in Chess. Music does not even come close.
I guess, in the end, chess has elements of sport that music does not have.

Here is a link that you may enjoy watching and listening to.

Does God answer sports prayers?

2007-08-12T00:49:00.000-05:00

There were times when I knew things were beyond my control when I played sports/games, especially Chess. So I would go to Church to pray. Usually during Mass, I would make sure I confessed all my sins, and asked God to bestow his favor and grace upon me or my team so that we would win whatever game(s) we had. There were also times when I prayed during the game itself. Most of the time, my prayers were answered in the affirmative. I would then thank God quickly (as usual!) and move on to the next thing.

I was meditating on this, and I wondered, what if all these people that I competed against prayed too? Did they reach a conclusion that God does not answer (sports) prayers? Was I an exception? Of course, there were a couple of things that worked in my favor: I worked hard, I was somewhat good at basketball, soccer, and volleyball, and I was pretty good at Chess. How about the times I prayed for an exam to be easy enough for me to get an A? May be I was somewhat smart enough?! Anyway, let’s stick to sports.

Why would God answer my prayer and not the other guy’s? Is it because I have more faith? Why doesn’t He spread out the love? This guy wins today, the other wins tomorrow? Does He get involved? Why would He get involved in sports? For people who play any game, they usually end up saying: it’s only a game! So if it’s just a game, why would God be involved? How about people who play these games as professionals? It ceases to be a game, I believe. It is work. It is livelihood. Is it okay if they pray? Is it okay if God answers only those prayers by professionals? What if professionals of different teams are praying to win? Does He offer a draw (based on faith)? It must be tough to be God! May be not. I don’t know.

I believe God answered my sports prayers. I don’t know why He did it. I don’t believe He owes me an explanation. I am glad he answered my prayers the way He did; both when He said “No” and when He said “Yes”.

Will I pray again? Yes! For sports? Yes! Will answer my prayer? I don’t know!

What are your thoughts on God and sports prayers?

Declare your love! Tell the world about your passion!

2007-08-12T00:43:00.000-05:00

What is it that you have spent most of your life doing? Is it practicing Medicine, Accounting, Chess, Politics, Law, Philosophy, …? Whatever it is, how do you tell the World that this is what I have spent my “life-energy” doing?

What is it that you feel so passionate about? That when you get up, you want to do it? When you are stressed out, you think about doing it? Is it reading a book? Is it playing Chess? Is it blogging? Is it taking care of patients? Is it tutoring or teaching?

I was thinking about this, and I know that the one thing I have spent a good chunk of my life doing, is playing, thinking, reading, studying, dreaming about, Chess. This game has been my love and my passion. That is why I write about it. That is why I look at life through its lenses. So I was wondering, how do I tell the world that I love this game, without being obnoxious about it? What kind of information do I give the world? My “Social”, my phone number, my home address, my work info, my website (infrequently) and my email address. Hmmmnnn! None of those, but the email address gives me a chance to tell the world what I am passionate about. If I could have my email address look something like me@chess.com - that would be great! Other chess players would love to get my email address looking like that! I would love to email and talk to people with an email address like that. So I went to www.chess.com and lucky enough, I could have an email address with that domain name. I started searching around to see if I could get an email address @Christ.com, @God.com, @Accounting.com, … no luck! My suggestion for people who own these domains is be to provide an webmail/email service for people who love God, Christ, Accounting, Medicine, etc. Imagine yourname@God.com! That would be awesome - as long as you are sure you live in God! So that is my little story. What is your love? Is youremail@yourpassion.com?

Hopefully, the service at yourpassion.com will be great. That you will be able to find tools of your trade, meet people that have similar likes to yours, or share your ideas with the world. I think it is a great thing to have - for people who think alike, whose experiences and desires and vocations and … are similar. It is like a country club or lions club for your passion. Online!

ARE YOU BLACK OR WHITE? A Chess Perspective On Race And Racism

2007-08-12T00:34:00.000-05:00

It is not uncommon for non-Caucasian Chess players to say something like: “I am white”, “I was white and I lost!” or for Caucasian or non-African chess players to utter something like: “I am black”, “I was black and I won”. When we, Chess players, say it, we do not think about race. We are talking about the color of the Chess pieces that you play during a game.
In Chess, Black is considered to start off with a disadvantage since the player with the white pieces makes the first move.
In a way, White, (the player with the white pieces), determines how the game goes. If she is a good player, she usually has
the initiative (similar to having “the say” on how things go on the chess board). However, having the white pieces does not necessarily mean that you are going to win the game. In some aspects, it is a negative thing because of the pressure; it is assumed that since you are White, then you have to win the game. Black has ways to play the game such that the advantages of White’s first move are minimized or neutralized. Black usually hopes for equality. Of course, after equalizing, Black may try to play for a win. There are tons of games where Black has outplayed White. Unlike in Chess, where one person’s gain is another’s loss, life does not necessarily work that way; two people of different races can live together, work as a team, and both come out as winners. Thinking about the “color of the pieces” has made me address a couple of issues regarding race for both from the “victim” or the “oppressed” and the “aggressor” or “offender”.

WHAT CAN THE OPPRESSED DO TO IMPROVE THEIR WAY OF LIFE?
1. You have to do your best all the time or most of the time. You are playing the black pieces. You are not the one who gets the first move, compliment, raise, or whatever it is that is advantageous. Before the first move is made, people have assumed that you are going to lose the game or at best come out with a draw. You cannot just wish that they change their assumptions. In a way, you are supposed to prove that being black, or gray, or whatever pieces you have, deserve a chance, a second look, that you have abilities on the Chess board called Life.
2. You have to have a greater goal than just playing this one game of Chess. I have talked about having goals before. (Click here for one of the articles.) When your goal is beyond just going to work or paying the bills or surviving, you are more motivated to overcome whatever hurdles come your way. For example, you can go to a tournament with the goal of winning the tournament. This goal does not give you much room to drop points by drawing or losing as Black. Other people have gone to places just to change the culture. Or to let the people know that being Black does not mean you are carrying a gun or you are lazy or … it just means that God wanted a Black or Latino or mixed or whatever image of His face on earth. Thus, you do your best to accomplish your big goal; one of your missions in life.
3. You rise above the color of the pieces you are playing. Chess teaches you to forget everything else and focus on what is happening on the chess board once the game starts. Each time, you try to make your best move and improve your position. If you lose a pawn or a piece, you still play your best to the end. In life, people will do all sorts of things, say all sorts of things, but you have to rise above it all and play your best move, each time. (It sounds pretty hard, and it is, but you if can do it consciously for 32 months, it will become a habit. You will not have to think about it.)
4. Stay out of trouble. Very few players sacrifice pawns or pieces when playing Black. There is a lesson from Chess! If things do not seem to go your way right from the start, the least you can do is stay out of trouble. Everyone needs to meditate what that “trouble” is. Just to give some example, it can be trouble with the law, debt, anger, self-esteem, education, or other (life-)skills. What you are trying to do is avoid loss of control of your life. If you are arrested, you give up your life to whoever runs the system. If you are too angry you give up control to whoever is making you angry. It is no longer just an initiative; you are talking several initiatives or tempi. (Sorry, that is too much Chess, but I could not find a better way to put it.)
5. Count your blessings. When I play Black, every once in a while I stop and re-evaluate my position to see whether I have met my expectations “so far”. Usually, I feel better because I have not been swept off the board by White! I look at ways to improve my position if it is at all possible. I think in life you have to do the same thing. If you want to really see how well-off you are, you can consider how it would have been 200 years ago or may be 35 years ago. Where would you be? Or What if you were born in a different country where there is no hope for bettering yourself? What if in addition to the current disadvantage, you also had … (you can fill in the blank - whatever would make your life horrible!) The point is to make yourself realize that you may have it bad, but other people have it worse. Hopefully, the appreciation of your position will make you think about ways to maintain or improve it.
6. Focus on the good people. This is similar to 5. above, but the difference is that here I am referring to people, specifically. There are people that, regardless of what you do, they will do their best to bring you down. There are also nice people out there; people who are just nice, regardless of who you are or what you have done. I find that focusing your attention on the good people does help. You avoid the negativity, and at the same time you learn the art of being nice to people regardless of who they are, or what their skin color is.
7. Accept that you cannot change the world. In Chess, there will always be people who hate playing Black, who are scared of playing Black, or who think that because you are playing White, you win, regardless of the results/proof to the contrary. What can you do about these people? Not much. After you have done your best, there is nothing more to do. So the same goes for life. You cannot preach to people that being this color is good or bad if they firmly believe otherwise. They may have reason to. It is their “prerogative”. Once you accept people regardless of their belief systems or how they treat you, you experience a sense of relief. You no longer carry the burden of proof. You know the truth and that’s what sets you free.
8. Know people at a deeper level. At first, I thought that I should keep this for my section on the “oppressor”, but I saw that this also applies to the “oppressed”. When you know somebody beyond the “professional” interaction, you understand his biases, prejudices or whatever it is better. You can explain some of the behavior. Sometimes it is not personal. It is not directed at you. In addition, when you know a person deep enough, you do not judge him by what is showing on the surface. You have inside information; more information with which to make your decision.
9. Learn new things, skills, etc about the other group. In Chess, it does not matter whether the piece is Black or White, it moves the same way. All Bishops move diagonally, all Knights move the L way. So when you are playing Chess as Black, you do the same things that White does: opening for your pieces, castling to protect your King, etc. These improve your chances of enjoying the game and hopefully winning. In life, because of social status and other issues, people do not have experiences of the other side. By learning knew skills, cultures, languages, etc, you increase your chances of understanding what the other side is doing. You become more competent dealing with the other side. You minimize misconceptions and prejudices born of ignorance.
10. Know and live your rights. There is nothing worse than being entitled to fair treatment and not getting it. I cannot imagine a Chess player with the Black pieces letting white make 2 consecutive moves before he makes his move(s)! If Chess players cannot let it happen, why should you? Knowing your rights does not only mean that you know what you should/can get, but you also know what you should not expect to get.
I am sure there is a lot of literature out there dealing with issues of race and racism. I guess a bonus point is: KNOW AS MUCH AS YOU CAN ABOUT RACE ISSUES. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. Armed with knowledge and social intelligence, you should be able to navigate the race waters successfully.

WHAT CAN AN OPPRESSOR DO TO IMPROVE THEIR OWN LIFE?
Why do people oppress other people? This is the question that the oppressor needs to answer on his own. He knows best why he thinks he is superior, why people who are different from him are inferior, why he has to act like the game is won before any pieces have been moved. Once this question is answered, he will have to look at it and see if it is something that he needs to continue doing for the rest of his life, or he can effect changes that will benefit people different from him that he comes in contact with.
A few suggestions:
1. Give people a chance to prove themselves. Sometimes that is all it takes for you to change your mind. If you win against Black all the time, all it takes is several games where the guy playing Black is very good and you see it over the board, that being Black is not a handicap, like you once believed.
2. Forget the colors of the pieces; just play your best move! In Chess, that is what you do. You know you are White. You think about if for a while, probably before the game starts, but once the game is going, you “forget” about the colors of the pieces. You forget that you made the “first move” because you are White. Similarly, when you forget about the skin color, and you let the people be themselves you achieve several things. First, you let the people be themselves, and usually, people do their best when they are not stressed out about having to do this extra work just because they are different. They just do the job, whether it is programming, designing, preparing for a case, presenting a case, sweeping, or learning new things. Second, the people feel accepted for who they are. I cannot explain how powerful this is. It is powerful in love, in religion, and I believe it is powerful in other areas, including work.
3. Know people at a deeper level. Once you know a person deeply, you never treat them the same. It is the reason why most people treat their family members differently from non-family member, for better or for worse. This is just because you know your family well. Hopefully, you know and remember good things! It is the same for people of a different color. If you know that they had a troubled background or they grew up poor, or they didn’t go to school til they will 10 years old, or that they have a family member who is not doing well, or … you change the way you look at them. This is called a paradigm shift. You no longer label them slow, angry, unteachable, or ‘Black’ - whatever that means to you. Their actions make sense. Instead of treating the symptom, if any, you treat the source. You see how you can help so that both of you benefit in the end.
4. Accept that you cannot change the world. You cannot expect too much when it comes to social issues as they are very complicated. All you can do is your best, one person at a time, one situation at a time. Sometimes it will not work out, but you cannot take it personally. After you have done your best, there is nothing more to do. You play your best move or game all over again. After all, Life is a game of Chess.
5. Know your rights and duties. Similar to the “oppressed”, this will help you know if you are doing the bare minimum or you are being taken advantage of. Hopefully, you will exceed the expectations, while making sure that people are not taking advantage of you by playing the race trump card.

BONUS POINT: Again, knowledge is power. Knowledge plus social intelligence should help you navigate the race waters successfully.

THE POWER OF PRAYER
When I played Chess, there were times when my knowledge and skill could not get me into or out of certain positions. Guess what I did? I PRAYED! I have always had so much faith in God. Similarly, here, I would suggest that before you make a move on all that is written here and elsewhere, you pray about it, and as you make your moves, you pray about it, and whether you are successful in effecting positive changes in the racial dynamics, you pray again. I believe that we are all created in the image of God. As such our treatment of each other should reflect the Creator’s Character. Need I say more?

Any comments, experiences, ideas and suggestions regarding race issues will be greatly appreciated.

How Far Can You See?

2007-08-12T00:32:00.000-05:00

How far can you see? This a question of TIME not distance. In Chess, how far you see is determined by the number of sequential moves you can see. I will give my definition of time in life as it relates to the number of moves in Chess.

1. Seeing nothing at all. This is when you just do whatever comes your way. You don’t know what you are doing. You don’t know what’s coming next. This is the worst. It would be similar to a Chess player who just pushes wood. No thought whatsoever behind it.

2. Seeing the the next action or two. This is when you do something, and have an idea of what you will do next if things work out a certain way. For example, “I will study instead of going shopping. If I don’t spend this money I will save it for whatever.” In Chess it would be similar to making a move with a follow-up idea in mind - if your opponent complies.

3. Seeing the next three or more actions. This is when you do something and you know where you will be after the next couple of things are done. Say you have a meeting where you are going to give a presentation. You know that you have to prepare for it. Somebody has to type it up or create a presentation. You need several hours of undisturbed time to draft, compile, bump-if-off some people etc. I hope you can already see that when you start seeing further out, you start working in reverse. There is the big goal out there and you are working backwards to accomplish it. That is the ideal way of doing it. In Chess, it could be something like a checkmate in 3 moves. You envision where your pieces should be to get to checkmate. Then you see how your pieces can get there.

Sometimes seeing three, four or even five moves in Chess is not enough; but for the most part, the more you train yourself to look at a move and then go forward a couple of moves after that, the better you get. Of course, you just don’t look at one move. You look at several moves/options. In essence you may see a total of 15 to 30 moves. Some of them may criss-cross. Not all of them are valid or useful. With time you learn to eliminate some things.

The farther you see, the more likely you are to deal with things before they become a crisis. The farther you see, the easier it is to come up with goals and milestones so that you can monitor your progress. Finally, meeting the goals YOU SET will give you a sense of achievement and control over your life.

How To Think Fast - 10 Tips

2007-08-12T00:27:00.000-05:00

1. Build a critical mass of knowledge. You have to have a sound base from which ideas or thoughts will come. This base of knowledge has to be built before you are required to think fast.

2. Be prepared. If you are going to show (off) your speed of thought, you have to be prepared before the time of reckoning comes. This is different from building critical mass above. The preparation can be done by reviewing bodies of knowledge, or you could guess/think about what the potential questions may be and try to answer them quickly.

3. Practice thinking fast. The brain has to be trained to think fast. In Chess, this is accomplished by playing practice speed or blitz games. In real life, you can do this by reading very quickly, reviewing quickly, answering testlets quickly. Practice makes perfect. This is different from preparation above. Preparation is getting ready for something. Practice is just doing it to form a habit.

4. Be honest. It takes longer when you fake it than when you tell the truth. It is easier to rattle off something that you truly know than something that doesn’t exist. In addition to thinking fast you would have to create it if you are making it up.

5. Practice lateral thinking or getting out of the box. If you stick to old ways of thinking you may find that when you hit a mental block, you are not be able to get over it. The solution may be to go around or over it instead of through.

6. Commit to thinking fast. You have to commit yourself to thinking fast. It is an endeavor that requires discipline. You cannot do it some of the time. Or you wake up one morning and you decide to give it a shot and expect to do well. Commitment may require some life changes.

7. Time yourself. How long did it take you to solve a puzzle, to explain yourself, to solve a problem at work, or to complete a testlet in an exam? FAST has an element of time in it.

8. Use your experience. Analyze your thought process afterwards. This is similar to analyzing a Chess game that you recorded. From here you see some patterns that you can tweak accordingly.

9. YOU should DO IT! You cannot read any more. No more tips. No more wasting time. No more how-to’s.

10. Remember it’s only a game! I have noticed that it is easier for me to think more efficiently, more accurately, and clearer when I am relaxed. When I tell myself that it is just a Chess game. Life outside Chess is not different. Find something that can calm you down if stressing is blocking your thought process.

Bonus point: SMART fast thinking goals. SMART = Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.

What are you giving up your life for? (Parallels between Life and Chess# 4)

2007-08-12T00:26:00.000-05:00

“Life energy” is a term or concept that is introduced in (Chapter 2 of) Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. Simply put, when we spend time for something (money, for example) we give up time to do it. The effort and time spent is life energy. So if you are spending spending time - past, present and future - unwisely, you are wasting your life away.

My definition of time:

Past time: Time that you cannot claim because it’s gone. The only way to show something for it is what from what you currently ‘own’ from your past efforts.

Present time: The now. It will be gone before you know it, and you will know whether you wasted it or not when you need to show what you have from the past at a future point in time.

Future time: It is yet to come. However, you can decide now how you want to live/spend that time.

Parallel#4 is to analyze how you spend your money/time. When you play (competitive) Chess, you record your moves. Serious players go home and play through the recorded game. They can then tell if they missed an opportunity to win more quickly. If there are some mistakes that they made and they should learn from and not repeat. This is an example of analyzing the past time in the present time to affect the future time.

Analyzing your expenses will show you how you are spending money. This money is what you gave up your life for (at work). Whatever you buy with that money is worth your life. Now, THINK: what are you giving up your life for?

Parallels between Life and Chess#3: THINK before you do it!

2007-08-12T00:10:00.000-05:00

In Parallels between Chess and Life I referred to this parallel as count to 32 before you spend your money or before you touch the piece you want to move. The 32 is nothing special. That is the number of pieces on the Chess board at the beginning of the game. Counting to 32 should also take some time. If you rush to counting to 32, what’s the rush? You better have a good reason! If you ju”Life energy” is a term or concept that is introduced in (Chapter 2 of) Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. Simply put, when we spend time for something (money, for example) we give up time to do it. The effort and time spent is life energy. So if you are spending spending time - past, present and future - unwisely, you are wasting your life away.st count and make it to 32 - you will probably carry out the decision you made before you started counting. It is a waste of time whether the decision was good or bad. The idea is to THINK before you do whatever you want to do. Should you spend now? Can it wait? Why are you buying it? Are there better alternatives? Could I put this money to better use? (In chess language: what good is this move to my position? Is there a better move? What is my opponent trying to do?)

Hopefully, your answers to the questions above are not yes or no. That will not do you much good. You have to continue and give yourself a good reason for doing or not doing whatever you wanted to do. Otherwise your commitment to the decision will be short-term. For example, if I want to spend money on a book, but before I do it, I ask myself: Do I need to do this? Can I put this money to a better use? I may answer yes to the first question and the second question… and follow up with ‘what better use’? Pay my rent. Building up a savings account for times of emergency. Then I wont regret buying the book. Ever! Or I may find that the book is necessary for a class that I am taking… I cannot share a book with anybody. Yes, it is necessary to get this book. In that case, I will never regret buying the book.

One last tip - do the thinking before you go to the store!

Parallel 2: Track every cent you earn/spend//Bishop, King, Pawn… Where art thou?

2007-08-12T00:08:00.000-05:00

I remember playing Chess with Kajani K. years ago and there were times when I got tired of waiting for him to play his move. It was not because he was “slow” because when a Chess clock was introduced, he would play at lightning speed! It was almost never possible to beat Kajani when playing a game that was timed (with a chess clock). One time, out of boredom, I decided to study his face! I looked at his nose, hair, … and finally eyes. There! All over the place. Then they would stop for a while… and I would stop looking at him to “see” what he was looking at. The eyes would start looking all over the board again… It took me a long time to realize that Kajani was not just wasting time. He was searching, hunting, quizzing moves out. I can say that of all amateurs that I have played with, he was the most professional. The person who tried to find the soul of Chess - the best move or moves at any one time. I later adopted this approach. I think I am a fairly quick player, but I try to look at everything before I make my move - most of the time!

What does this have to do with life - more specifically, money? I realized later on, that not knowing where every bit of my money went was like not knowing where my pieces were when playing Chess. What’s the point of playing the game in the first place? How can you win if you don’t know where every piece on the board is, and if it is not on the board, what happened to it?! Similarly, I told myself to track every cent I earned or spent. For me, money is Chess. Tracking everything helped me see patterns in my expenditure. Oh, I just gave up my queen for nothing! (That’s how I think when I make an unnecessary expenditure - of course, sometimes it’s a pawn, and I don’t sweat it too much - until I miss the pawn…)

My two pawns. How do you think when you play chess or spend money? (What a loaded question!)

My 101 Goals in 1001 Days (Parallels between Life and Chess #11: Goal Setting)

2007-08-12T00:04:00.002-05:00

I assume that everybody knows the importance of goal setting in life- if not in life (outside Chess), then at least in Chess. Way back when I used to play in (local) tournaments regularly, I would decide in advance what my goals were. My goal would either be to win the tournament (almost invariably the goal), or be in the top x, to be guaranteed prize money, or just to have fun. The last one almost meant I would watch, help with organizing and play casual games. The goals helped me to focus when I was playing. Every move I made was driving me towards my goal of winning the tournament. A time came when the money didn’t matter, but the reputation did. In life, I set goals, even though I don’t always follow through. That is the one thing I am changing. That every goal is written down for a reason and it has to be attained if I can help it. Below is my list of 101 goals to be accomplished in the next 1001 days.

This is not an original idea. I believe I first saw it at Get Rich Slowly. Actually, I started my list several weeks ago. I haven’t decided what I will do for every goal that I don’t attain at the end of the 1001 days. I guess as I become more technically sophisticated, I will add a counter to see how much time is remaining, and something against each goal to show whether the goal has been attained or not. I do not believe I will write about why I/you need to have goals. I will probably include links in the near future:

These goals are meaningful to ME. Some of them are not original at all.

Here come my goals:

1. Change so that MKX and I are happier… (no details here!)

2. Call family at least once a week.

3. Forgive and forget past hurts.

4. Pass CPA exams within the next year.

5. Read the Bible cover to cover.

6. Get married.

7. Speed up my reading (need to come up with wpm here…)

8. Speed up my typing (need to come up with wpm here…)

9. Keep in touch with all my friends at least once a month. Will do a list and check mark when done.

10. Save $AE,000.00 (Strive for $E00.00/month - I have the figures!)

11. Drink water as the only beverage for 52 weeks.

12. Devote 1 month to each of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

13. Get up (Out of Bed) at 6am or earlier at least 5 days a week.

14. Get rid of physical, emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual clutter in my life. I will start with the physical, and then move to the other aspects.

15. Get FICO score >=GE0 (I know the credit score I am shooting for…)

16. Buy a house.

17. Visit family.

18. Spend a day at an aquarium.

19. Go to Las Vegas.

20. Go to Grand Canyon.

21. Go to Yellowstone National Park(?).

22. Write my Mission Statement.

23. Dance (Slow Dance) once a month.

24. Cook for more than 10 people.

25. Go on a “family trip” with my friends.

26. Be/Live Clean (physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally.)

27. Help 10 people reach their goals.

28. Work as volunteer.

29. Play blindfold simultaneous Chess.

30. Learn about meditation and meditate for 15 minutes every day for 30 days.

31. Do 75 sit-ups in one go. (Believe it or not, I am not even close here!)

32. Read an Economics book from cover to cover.

33. Read a Statistics book from cover to cover.

34. Practice keyboarding (music) once a week for 52 weeks – one hour per session.

35. Spend one week without watching TV.

36. Read world news at BBC everyday.

37. Say the rosary for 60 days straight.

38. Get to work by 7 a.m. every day for one month.

39. Clean up dishes before going to bed for 60 days straight.

40. Use only 1 light bulb at a time for 1 month. (Only light that’s on will be the one in the room/area I am working in.)

41. Take stuff that I don’t use to Salvation Army or the Red Cross.

42. Buy a new DVD player for my family.

43. Send money to cousins.

44. Eat healthier//Buy food from Trader Joe’s or Global Foods or Farmer’s Markets.

45. Go through VCR’s to see what’s on them and get rid of what I will never watch again//Related to clutter goal.

46. Run for 30 minutes every day for 1 month.

47. Shoot and make 25 straight free-throws (basketball).

48. Spend no more than 10 minutes per day doing personal stuff at work.

49. Stay 15 days straight without complaining or saying something negative.

50. Memorize the beatitudes.

51. Memorize the Apostle’s Creed and 5 other Catholic Prayers.

52. Go to church every Sunday for 6 months.

53. Clear desk at work. Only work should be what’s in my in-basket.

54. Don’t carry work home for 3 months.

55. Take food to work for 1 month.

56. Watch over 25 movies from the library.

57. Go to the library at least once a week.

58. Buy a new computer (preferably laptop) from non-work sources or non-emergency fund sources.

59. Track every cent that I spend/earn for 3 months.

60. Balance check book at least once a week.

61. Get a nice gift for friends/family who are getting married.

62. Avoid late fees (Library, Bank, etc.) and tickets (traffic) for 1 year.

63. Review my goals at least once a day.

64. Keep learning about going green (saving the Earth). Keep a list of things I can do and adopt what I can.

65. Learn about 401K, Index Funds, Vanguard 500, etc. Keep learning about financial stuff.

66. Repair seal for my car’s windshield.

67. Remove stains on car seats… May be buy seat covers.

68. Get car window fixed (power button not working… NOW YOU KNOW WHAT SHAPE MY CAR IS IN!!)

69. Get a license plate put at the rear of the car.

70. Invest in some fund/Vanguard 500 per simple dollar. Need to read how this works first.

71. Find real wage rate//Life Energy spend on items etc. per “Your Life or Your Money”.

72. Think/Act positively.

73. Sell items on ebay.

74. Find mentors (Trent is one of them).

75. Blog my life so far.

76. Review daily goals:

a) Leave Clean

b) Pray

c) Balance check book

d) Track expenses

e) Speed read self-development book (1 chapter)

f) CPA test prep

g) CPA study

h) CPA Audio

i) Clean/Organize home for at least 15 minutes

j) Meditate

k) Evaluate day

l) Plan next day

m) Thou hast to write for blog

77. Eliminate procrastination

78. Reflect on what it means to be made in the image of God. How do I reflect the character of God in life. (idea from 101 ways to make a difference today.)

79. Analyze Bobby Fischer’s games. (Fischer move by move).

80. Start a blog /// Get my own domain.

81. Learn HTML and other stuff in order to better manage my website and writing.

More to come

82. Finish Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life. (Goal added 6.11.07)

More to come…

83. Revisit my life and come up with at least 50 things that happened to me that I didn’t deserve. Things that I would call luck or whatever. Meditate on these and hopefully be humbled by the experience. (Goal added 6.12.07)

More to come…

84. Be a CHUCK (Goal added 6/12/07)

More to come…

Do you have goals to share? How are you doing? What has been your motivating factor/factors?

Parallel between Life and Chess #1: Make more than you spend//Play with stronger players

2007-08-12T00:04:00.001-05:00

I love(d) Chess dearly and one of the things that helped my strength rise exponentially was playing with stronger players. I had faith in my ability to learn how my opponents were playing and changes to make in order to adjust and fare better. What do you gain from strong players? It depends. They may be strong because they have played the game for a long time and they just “know” what to do to win. By playing with them frequently, you have the advantage of seeing “things” that they keep doing. Sound opening, eyes darting all over the board looking for opportunities to create something or see weak areas to attack, taking a second to see an opponent’s move etc. That is just one of the reasons an opponent may be strong. That is not my reason for writing these thoughts. I think the weaker player benefits from the net (positive) difference between him and his opponent. This net difference reminded me of another important factor when playing chess for a living and for living to play chess. The former, you play chess to be able to pay your bills. The latter you work somewhere to be able to pay your expenses including Chess. Anyway, can you create a net positive difference in the way you spend the money you make either way? Personal financial advisers recommend that you spend less than you make. (I said, make more than you spend… it is not quite the same thing, but you end up with the net positive difference either way.) That is the way to improve your life, at least financially.

Some of the things that are obvious to us on the Chessboard are not that obvious in life.

How did you learn to manage your finances better? What was your route to improving at Chess? What do you agree/disagree with in this piece?

Chess Greats as Mentors in Life

2007-08-12T00:01:00.002-05:00

Early on in life, as much as I wanted to be the World Chess Champion some day, I knew that a lot of things would have to go my way for it to happen. What if I didn’t make it to GrandMaster? Or International Master? Or Master? What would I be if I didn’t have anything to show for my efforts at the chessboard? What if I could not support myself with Chess? That was always depressing because it took me a long time to figure out what I was good at. Even today, I still have my doubts. Whether my accounting knowledge is good enough? If I become a CPA, will I be just another CPA? What impact will I have on kids’ life? etc.

Despite the doubts, I kept playing Chess, and because I loved the game, I read about other Chess players, especially the greats. I saw that we (Chess players) have great Engineers, Architects, Mathematians, Physicists, Musicians, Ph.D s, M.D.s etc - the list goes on. The people who love chess go on to do other things. Life isn’t just about Chess. I can’t believe I said that because Chess was my everything at one point. I still think that I will get back to it some day. I have talked about the chess greats, but there are a million other people whom we do not read about their chess accomplishments but they are or were very good, but they went on to do other things without losing their love for the game.

While writing this piece I decided to research and come up with a comprehensive list of Chess players and what they did for a living in addition to playing Chess. Luckily, I found a nice piece written by Leopold Lacrimosa at Chessville

What I am trying to say is that I looked at all these people, and told myself that I had to have a back up plan to Chess. I had to work hard at school - I had to make sure that I was good enough to make it in college and graduate school. I had to develop the skills that are needed to survive in the work place. Just in case. Here I am not yet a World Chess Champion, but I am paying my bills and looking forward to a brighter day every day/night.

Who were/are your mentors? Were you ever at crossroads between chess and life? What did you do?

Bobby Fischer - Robert James Fischer

2007-08-12T00:01:00.001-05:00

The player whose games I will be analyzing is Robert James Fischer - well known as Bobby Fischer. He was a chess prodigy. He worked very hard for what he achieved. He was the world champion of chess from 1972 - 1975. His life outside chess was something else that I would rather not go into. His style of play is easier for me to explain/analyze than that of Alexander Alekhine or Gary Kasparov. I thought about analyzing J.R. Capablanca’s games, but I decided to go for somebody who blends classical chess with hyper-modern chess. For more info on Bobby Fischer, go to Wikipedia

Fischer for beginners - Analysis of Bobby Fischer’s games

2007-08-11T23:57:00.000-05:00

I will try to analyze Bobby Fischer’s game- any that I can lay my hands on. It will do it in the style of Irving Chernev’s Logical Chess My work will emulate that classic…

My analysis will not be too detailed because…

First, I do not have the time to analyze Fischer’s games in depth. (Do I have the talent? We will see…)

Second, I will not be using a computer to do the analysis, because I don’t want to.

Third, it is a challenge for me to go through the games, and try to figure out what was happening. Usually when I play through GrandMaster games, I don’t have the patience to analyze the position before seeing the next move. This will force me to see what I missed, way back when.

Fourth, I hope my kids - when they come into existence - and when they take up chess some day, they can have an idea of what kind of things to look for when they are thinking at the chess board.

Lastly, it is my way of training/practicing for when I return to Chess.

Like everything else I write here, this is not to be construed as advice of any sort. It is just another chess player’s take on things. Feel free to write comments or suggestions on the games I pick. I would prefer that computers not be used to find moves and hence comments/suggestions.

I will get the games from Chessgames

I will be picking a game a week. That’s the best I can do I think. In a year, there will be 52 games to go through… and in 10 years, over 500 games! Amazing what time can do!

Parallels between Life and Chess# 10: Patience

2007-08-11T23:56:00.000-05:00

In Chess, once you make your move, you wait for your opponent to reply (if you are playing White; of course, if you are playing Black, you start off waiting!)

In life, we generally don’t want to wait for the other person to say what they want to say or do what they want to do so that we can have our turn. We think, or at least I do think, that I can do it quicker and better, only if it was my turn. I am not very patient. I have never been. However, I am analytical - a subject for another day - and this has helped me observe that Chess forces me to be patient when I am playing the game. To wait til it’s my turn.

There have been times during the game when I thought I had seen every move, only to realize that I had not seen it all… when my opponent makes her move. Then I wish I had used the time I walked away from the board or thought “how slow”… to think about my response to the move. I know life is not a game. For some people, chess is not a game either!

I think the patience that Chess demands, from waiting to make your move, to waiting for the round to finish before you can play the next game at a tournament, can be applied to life outside Chess. May be cut out the wanting to win attitude for now.

Back to life: since I am training myself to be more adept at managing my finances, I have to learn to wait for the year end to before reap the fruits of my savings or investments. To have the patience to see the fruits of what I have learnt so far. Not very exciting or easy but worth it.

How patient are you? Did Chess or some other game have anything to do with it? What are your ways/tricks of “forcing” yourself to be patient when you play Chess and/or away from a Chessboard?

Chess is my life too!

2007-08-11T23:55:00.000-05:00

I first saw and played the game when I was thirteen. One of my ‘trainers’ was a bully and thought I was lying that I had never played the game. I didn’t know why at the time, but I later realized I was better than most beginners he had encountered. I later became the high school champion, a few years later, university champion, national champion, and then won a few tournaments. When I was younger, I thought that if I had been born in the US, I would play chess professionally… Now that I had a chance to live there, life took over and I became an accountant! Along the way, chess has taught me the value of study, practice, incremental advantages, money, love, and many other life lessons. It is my way of saying thanks to the game that financially supported me at one time, and also “loved” me. It is a game that has made me who I am whether I am loud or introverted, calculating or intuitive, a failure or success. It is my founding block. As I keep writing, I will give more examples that will show the impact this game has had on me.

I have just remembered something that cannot wait til next time. My best friend, Zenga. I was about 17 years old and I went to the library to look for a chess book called, “Exchanging to Win in the End Game”. I had used read the book months earlier and it had a significant impact on me. The library had less than 10 books on Chess and that was one of the best books they had. I looked and searched the earlier that I expected to find the book and I couldn’t find it. I looked at the shelves surrounding that area - still no “Exchanging to Win in the End Game”. I was walking out and I see this guy with the book in his hand. I couldn’t jump in because it was not my turn yet… Was he returning it? Was he renewing it? The person in front of me left and I couldn’t refrain myself any longer. I asked him if he was returning it. He was like, you can take it if you want it! The sweetest words ever! He asked me if I played Chess, I said yes. He asked me where I was going. I told him I was going to my mom’s work place to get some money for something… we could go together if he didn’t mind. We went, run a few errands together, talked non-stop - he later told me, I had mentioned about wanting to be the Chess World Champion! (Wink, Wink!) We went to my place, played blitz and he told me I was very good. I thought he was very good. At least, up to that time, he was the fastest, toughest player I had played. I think. He gave me directions to his place, two buses away. We met and played chess at least twice a week for a long time. He is someone I have always looked up to. I just had to let you know that Chess gave me a best friend. We last met in 2000, but have kept in touch, sort of. I can’t wait to meet his wife, kid, and of course, him - to sit across the board again - and play a game one more time.

What impact has chess or any other game that you love(d) had on you?

Parallels between chess and life

2007-08-11T23:53:00.000-05:00

This will be a series where by I will go through some things that I believe are required for one to be a success at Chess and for one to live a more fulfilling life. So far I have come up with the following things, but I will add to it in due time.

1. Life: Make more than you spend (-actually, spend less than you make). Chess: Play with players better than yourself.

2. Life: Track every cent that you spend/earn. Chess: Account for every piece on the Chessboard - yours and your opponent’s.

3. Life: Count to 32 before you spend your money. Chess: Count to 32 before you touch the piece you want to move/play.

4. Life: Analyze your expenses. Chess: Analyze your games; annotate every move.

5. Life: Start early. Chess: Start early.

6. Life: Develop good habits. Chess: Develop good habits.

7. Life: Passive income is the best and easiest way to earn money. Chess: passive thought is the best and easiest way to play good chess.

8. Life: Have an “EMERGENCY FUND”. Chess: Cover your bases (MAKE SURE THE KING IS SAFE!)

9. Life: Learn to live without. Chess: Learn to play without.

More to come…

10. Life: Patience. Chess: One move at a time (- patience)

How to Improve at Chess: Tip #12 - Work on your Memory

2007-08-11T12:58:00.000-05:00

Why waste (energy) when you can save (it)?! Why work harder and under stress, under time pressure, when you can work comfortably and at your leisure? That's the decision you have to make. Working from memory is an easier way to do things - most of the time. Just a quick example, when you learn to play Chess, you struggle to think about how the pieces move such that you don't enjoy the game. Once you "know" how the pieces move, you just focus on the more fun thing, which is to play the game and be creative. Some people don't like "Memorizing", preferring "Knowing". Whatever the case, what we are after is spending less time and energy and money, thinking about things that you should have known by the time you sat at the board. Either from knowledge or from memory.

So, let's look at ways in which you can work on your memory/knowledge:

1. Set up positions from your memory. If you are playing through a game and you reach an interesting position, remove the pieces from the board and try to recreate the position from memory. If you don't have a board with you, try to think about the position when you are waiting for sleep to come or for your computer to reboot(!). If you see a recurring theme, for example, a piece sacrificed on f6/f3 in order to create a blockade for mate, know/memorize the positions and/or create your own, so that if similar positions happen while you are playing, you just "know" what to do. You may not pull if off, but you will be glad that you knew what to do. May be you will change a thing or two to pull it off. You may have seen/read/heard that GM's, usually World Champions, are shown positions for famous games and they are asked whose game it is/was - and most of them can tell you a lot of the details about the game. Knowledge? Memory? Both?

2. Replay whole games/sequence of moves: If you are studying Openings, it pays to replay the moves - (preferably from memory/knowledge). When you are playing somebody, you don't have a book or some sort of reference next to you. All you have is your mind. Knowing a bunch of moves before hand gives you some time to calm down, warm up, before the actual thinking starts. If somebody takes you out of the book right away, well, what does it hurt? If you had not studied you would have been out of the book from move one, anyway! If you have studied games by GMs or other strong players, you may have noticed their comments that go like: "This game followed 'Chessiq - Chessbuff, chess.com, june07, where chessiq continued ..." It pays to "know" what's already out there. Why reinvent the wheel?

If you want to memorize whole games, it is easier and better to start with Miniatures. You can start with 10 moves or less, then move to 15 moves or less, then move to 20 moves or less. It is also easier when you focus on one Opening first, that way you don't have to "think" about the first couple of moves.

3. Play blindfold Chess: I will address how to play Blindfold Chess in another post. For those who do not know what it is, you play the game without sight of the board. You just announce your moves. Blindfold Chess has several benefits, (from my experience).

First, you resort to things that you know well or think you know well. Most people will play 1.e4 than 1.b4 when playing blindfold Chess. Most people will complete their development before launching an attack when playing Blindfold Chess. So, it reinforces the basics/fundamentals.

Second, you work harder, think deeper, focus more, when you are playing Blindfold Chess, than you would in an OTB game. I suspect that the reason is that you feel "handicapped", so you overcompensate. The benefits from playing Blindfold Chess carryover to Over The Board Chess.

Third, it is easier to recall the moves in a Blindfold Chess game than it is an OTB game. I don't know why it is like that. May be it for reasons listed in the point above. Thus, your memory improves with Blindfold Chess.

WHAT OTHER TRICKS/METHODS DO YOU GUYS HAVE FOR IMPROVING CHESS MEMORY?

How to Improve at Chess: Tip #11 - Don't skip the draws

2007-08-05T12:15:00.000-05:00

When I downloaded games in PGN, or I searched a database to play through games, I usually wanted games in which White won, or Black won... I wanted resolution one way or the other, but not draws. So I would skip over draws. It took me a while to realize that I was missing out on a lot of good stuff. So, let's see the benefit of going through drawn games.

1. A draw is only a result. I have escaped with a draw here, when I should have lost. The same goes for GM games, somebody may have missed a winning sequence of moves or they may have been in time trouble and offered a draw. Thus, if you skip draws, you may be missing out on winning lines.

2. A draw is also part of a life story. You don't always win or lose, sometimes you draw. That's just a fact of life. Denying to look at this is denying a fact of life. In addition, if you are studying somebody's games, you will not know the complete player until you play through his/her drawn games. Why did he draw? May be hard an inferior position from the Opening and fought to the end to secure a draw. May be he just needed a draw to win a tournament and he chose a drawing line.

3. Drawn games can be life savers. By looking at draws, you learn what type of things/moves/positions result in a deadlock. These show you things to avoid if you want to press for a win, or things to adopt if you are playing a very strong player and you want to come out with a half point.

4. Learning strategy and tactics. Games are usually drawn because neither side has a positional or tactical advantage convertible into a win. Usually tactical draws are short and sweet. Don't miss out on those! Draws from "positional stalemate" are a good instruction on how to play strategically. They are usually long and tedious, but study of these games is very beneficial. If not for learning about Chess, may be for the stamina required to tough it out through a long game.

5. Learning how to play with Black pieces. Since it is believed that being Black has an intrinsic disadvantage, and there is no way to avoid being Black, you might as well learn how not to lose as Black. Draws are a nice way to see what Black does to reach an equal game. After this understanding, you can progress to how to win with the Black pieces.

So there is a tip: Play through drawn games; don't skip 'em!

How to Improve at Chess: Tip#10 - Let go of the Mouse!

2007-08-04T10:44:00.000-05:00

If somebody had a weight problem due to over-eating, what would you think if you saw him/her walking around with food in the pocket, hand, bag, car, AND ... mind!

How about somebody who wants to be an A-student but misses class all the time and doesn't study?

You get the idea - you have to do things that are in line or in sync with your goals. If your problem is playing Chess too fast or seeing a better move after you touch a piece or click "submit move", then this tip is for you. Let go of the mouse. "Sit" on your hands if you have to ! Whatever you can do to not make that move until you are sure that it's the correct move. Thinking while holding your mouse tells your brain one thing: I am ready to make a move... and I don't think you think as well as you would if you didn't have that "clutter" in your mind.

So there is a tip you can use in your online games: Let go of the mouse!

How to Improve at Chess: Tip#8 - Study with the right pieces on your side….

2007-08-02T23:25:00.000-05:00

This is so simple, and I hope I am the only one who makes the mistake of not turning/flipping the board when I study other people’s games.

A few days ago, I was studying the Dutch Defense. I had downloaded Alekhine’s games and I was going through them. I played a couple of games, and I felt that something was not right. The default for the board is White (closest to me and) playing up the board. This is not the normal way when I play Chess with the Black pieces. I would be playing up the board with the Black pieces! So I need to turn the board around, that way I see things the way I would see them during the game. The idea is so simple that you wonder why anybody has to say that you should do it. However, it was not so easy for me, especially if I am playing through the recorded game online. There may not be an option to turn the board around. My suggestion is copy the moves down, and play it on a normal/physical board, and see things from the side that you are interested in.

Even here, at www.chess.com, there have been times when I want to see if my opponent has made his move, and I click on “waiting” and if I am taking Black, the board shows me playing down the board, and it takes me a while to get my bearings right. I found out that if you click “details” and then select “flip board”, you will see the game the way you were seeing it when you were playing the game.

So, here is tip #8, if you are playing through somebody’s games or you are studying an Opening, make sure the right pieces are facing you. If you are studying White’s moves, make sure the White pieces are playing up the board. If you are studying Black’s moves, make sure the Black pieces are playing up the board.

Virtues of Chess - #1: Patience

2007-08-02T23:24:00.000-05:00

What do you feel when you are playing somebody, you are a Queen up, or a Rook and two Bishops up, and he or she has a lone King, and s/he is playing as if the game has just started? (You want to ask them, ever heard of “resign”? but you don’t say it!)

What do you feel when your opponent is taking forever to play and you have things to do or you just want to “get on with the game”?

What do you feel when your game is over, but other games are still going on for the next hour, two hours, or more?

What do you feel when you spend more hours that you can admit, studying Chess, but you have no fruits to show for your labor?

What do you feel when you spend a lot of time looking at position, looking at all options, and you make your move, and your opponent takes just a second to take advantage of your newly created blunder?

What do you feel when…?

Thing is, I do not know what you feel, but I know that after experiencing all those things over and over again, you become more patient with yourself, and hopefully with other people. That’s one virtue of the game of Chess.

Waiting for somebody to make their move, when they feel right to do so, teaches us the patience required in life. Well, I don’t always wait for people to finish speaking before I chip in, but I know that I am better in waiting for my turn now, than I would otherwise be if I was not a Chess player.

So, thanks to Chess, I am a more patient person.

Do you have examples of times when you have been patient with people or at Chess? Please feel free to share them with the community.

How to Improve at Chess: Tip#9 - Annotate your (Email Chess) games

2007-08-02T23:23:00.000-05:00

This you have heard before. Annotate your games. This tip is specific for your Email Chess games.

NO “TIME” EXCUSES!
Unlike “live” Chess, where you don’t have time to record your moves, in Email Chess you have all the time in the world to record your moves. Not only that, the system records it for you, so you can click “Moves” and you can see all the moves that have been played to reach the position on the board.

WHY DO IT?

First, you have a record of your games… paper or electronic. Well, there is a record on chess.com,.. okay, you have backup!

Second, when you annotate your games, you see what you were thinking when you made a move. There have been times when it is my turn to play, and I wonder what my last move was and what I was thinking. If I had recorded my moves, with annotations/explanations/notes in them, I would just look at the notes and I would go ahead and see if I can make my “planned” move or if something has changed dramatically etc.

Third, change/improvement is on the way! Knowing how/what you were thinking is the first step towards changing/improving. You will record your game to the end. You will then post it here. You can include your annotation is your post. People will look at it and tell you what they think. You will compare the two and then see what you were missing. You can include people’s comments in your notes. You will play over your game while looking at the new annotation/comments. How can you not improve?

HOW TO DO IT

I think it is best to get a notebook - or whatever you are comfortable with - I think it has to be portable. I would then make “tabs”: A, B, C, D, etc so that you can easily find your opponent’s name (and game). I would leave several pages between the letters because of long games and/or people with same name/login/handle. That’s it! You are ready to record and annotate your games!

WHAT IF YOU DON’T WANT TO RECORD THE WHOLE GAME?

Okay. Let’s say you are just interested in a particular position. Yeah, you can record just a position and then write you observations/comments/thoughts. You can record it the long way:

WHITE (Me)

King on e4, Knight on f5,Pawns on e3, g4,…

BLACK (Batgirl)

King on h7, Rook on h6

Comment: I would like to resign, but she is going to laugh at me. So I will play my Queen (imaginary!) to g6! Post game for analysis when it’s over!

Or you can record it using the FEN notation (you will need to scroll down to where I gave the description of FEN notation in the comments). I prefer the FEN myself.

So there you go! That is tip #9, annotate your (Email) Chess games or at a minimum, positions.

See, it is one of the longest tips I have given. It tells you how much I believe in this. Of course, what’s the point of annotating if you will not review it?

Virtues of Chess - #2: Wisdom

2007-08-02T23:22:00.000-05:00

We know from playing Chess that there are ups and downs, and we take them in our stride. We enjoy the journey. (There is no destination? May be each game is a journey and a destination.) Do you enjoy the journey of life?

We know from Chess that for most of us, to be good, we have to perspire a lot. In life, do we perspire to get where we want?

We know from Chess that we don’t create gems from nothing, that we build brilliancies move by move. What are our expectations of life? How are we building our dreams?

I am not saying Chess is life, or “life is like the game of chess”, but we can get a lot of Wisdom by meditating on the game of Chess.

Chess Diary (Entry 1) 7/22/07

2007-08-02T23:21:00.000-05:00

I have decided to start a Chess diary to track my Chess thoughts and activity. A couple of hours ago, I was going through one of the games that I am playing (Email Chess). I don’t like the position at all. I messed up in the opening. I don’t follow my own advice/tips sometimes. So I was analyzing the game and I decided to look up the sequence of moves, and it is French Defense (Tarrasch). I have always had disdain for studying openings. But it appears that relying on opening principles alone is not cutting it for me. Well, it has worked all along, but I end up working too hard or being riled up when things don’t go my way. So I wrote up a 10 point plan: COMMITMENT TO CHESS EXCELLENCE. I am not sure if I have ruled out the possibility of playing Chess professionally or going for norms. So in the mean time, I think I will just prepare myself, just in case. So the “Commitment” will help me eliminate the early mistakes I make when I play Chess games. It will also help me get ready for tournament (OTB) play. It will also act as a foundation for being disciplined in other areas.

Chessiq’s COMMITMENT TO CHESS EXCELLENCE:

1. To play Openings that have NAMES in my head. If I cannot call it by its name, I will not play it. I will be able to answer the question: “What Opening was that?” with more detail than “Queen’s pawn”, for example.

2. I will choose several openings. 2 for White, 2 for Black. I will learn as much as I can on these openings. I will focus on the Main Lines to start with. I will go into more detail as need be.

3. Prepare for Openings that are not my Specialty and learn to transpose into Openings that I am familiar with.

4. If I encounter something new, I will research it whenever I have time and then make notes on it.

5. I will not make a move until I am sure that I have answered several questions. “What is he trying to do?” “What would I play if I had his pieces?” “What am I accomplishing with my move?” “How is he going to respond to my move?” etc.

6. I will annotate all my losses, and find ways to not repeat the mistakes I made.

7. I will post my losses on this website for analysis/help/discussion.

8. I will give away $5.00 to charity for each loss. (I may change the figure in the future.)

9. I will choose a Mentor/Model/Exemplar; a player I really like, to see how he played/plays the Openings that I choose. I will study the mentor/model and adopt some of his Chess habits.

10. I will review this COMMITMENT every day, and change it as need be.

Chess Diary (Entry 2) 7/23/07

2007-08-02T23:20:00.000-05:00

After writing the first entry last night, I spent time trying to figure out what kind of Openings and Defenses I like. I knew that since I am not going to be playing 1.e4 any longer, I need to find some opening that suits my style. What is my style? I would like to think that I am an attacking player. Not an all out attacking player, but one that if I have an advantage, I will try to maximize it to a win. I think I am a pretty good defender… I have always liked Fischer and Capablanca because I find it easier to follow their games and explain them, most of the time. However, those are super-talents. I like Fischer a lot because he shows that if you add hard work to talent, you can create amazing things. So, I had to choose somebody whose process to greatness I admire. I decided to list down all the greats I like and then choose how I am going to use them. Here is my breakdown:

1. Fischer: he almost always played 1.e4 as White and he almost always defended it with the Sicilian Defense as Black. So I will use him to study how to fight off White’s 1.e4. This will not be too hard as I have played 1.e4 for the past 18+ years.

2. Morozevich: he finds a way to get in trouble. His Chess is exciting, win or lose. He plays a wide-variety of openings, so I will use him to scan some things that I would otherwise not come across.

3. Karpov: Nobody gives him the props because he lacks flare. I wouldn’t say my style has flare either. At least not all the time. You need the silent killer option. You know, sometimes somebody beats you and you can’t just figure out where you went wrong. I think Karpov is that type of player.

4. Kasparov: Similar to Morozevich, but he rarely gets in trouble! If I have a day to chew over a move, how best to do it than to play through Kaspa’s games?

5. Alekhine: Another master at creating lightening and thunder out of the clear sky. He played a variety of openings too. So he will be a good supplement to Morozevich.

6. Tal: Most of his games were short and sweet. I try to win by move 30. Tal’s games were determined in the teens. I don’t intend to try out his style, but it is such a breath of fresh air that you just have to play through them. He is also going to provide me with tons of tactical practice games.

So after choosing these players. I went through their opening repertoires to see what they played as Black and as White. I downloaded what I will want to study. French Defense (and Sicilian Defense) against 1.e4, King’s Indian Defense (and Grunfeld Defense) against 1.d4. My Opening repertoire for 1.d4 will develop as I study my defenses to 1.d4.

Then I downloaded the games of these players with the Openings that I am interested in.

I think I have an idea of how I am going to study these thousands of games. I guess I need to refine the plan/idea further. It will be in a future chess diary entry.

Praying to win!

2007-08-02T23:17:00.000-05:00

I have written about God’s involvement in sports; click this link for one of the posts:-) “Does God Answer Sports Prayers?”

Anyway, I was wondering - if you were “out of time” - but you wanted to say a straight-to-the-point, succinct, prayer… what would it be like? The best I could come up with was: “O KING (God), MAY MY King (Chess) PREVAIL!”

How to Improve at Chess: Tip#7 - Take your time when playing through recorded games

2007-08-02T23:16:00.000-05:00

I know I have recommended playing through tons of games of Masters and GrandMasters quickly- with the reason that your brain will notice patterns and themes that happen occur in good Chess play. I still believe that this is a helpful tip.

However, I would like to add another that is “contrary” to that one: slow down when you play through other people’s games (well, even your own recorded games). Thing is, there are some things that require time for the brain to process. So taking an addition 3 seconds or 5 seconds per move may make the difference between whether you benefit from playing through a game or not. During this time, you just want to see what has changed with that move. Can you see what the player is trying to do? Was there anything better? You may spend a minute or so. If it is so interesting, you may not even complete the whole game… you will focus on the position that is of interest to you.

Slowing down may also benefit you during your own games by preventing you from making rush moves.

So, there is a tip: Take time to go through a recorded game. The extra time may save you a game in the future…

To You, My True Love

2007-08-02T23:15:00.001-05:00

“I think about you all the time; morning, noon, and supper-time,… baby!”

“I dream about you”

“I would like to spend forever with you!”

“My love for you is unconditional.”

“Your love is unconditional.”

“You are the best.”

“We have spent all day and all night, just talking, hand-in-hand.”

“You are the best listener in the world.”

“You are the most beautiful thing.”

“I will always love you.”

And more…

Can you think of anything that is applicable to True Love that we cannot apply to Chess? Or you can just add to the list of what you feel for Chess… What would you say to Chess if he/she was listening?

Chess vacation/holiday

2007-08-02T23:14:00.001-05:00

I will be going on vacation/holiday and I would like to travel… and also do something related to Chess. I was wondering if any of you have done that and if you have any suggestions regarding preparation, destinations (preferably USA Midwest), etc.

Chess Questionnaire

2007-08-02T23:12:00.000-05:00

Copied the original questionnaire from SonofPearl

You can find SonofPearl’s Chess Questionnaire by clicking here

There is a chess questionnaire doing the rounds in the chess blogosphere at the moment. Although I’m a patient sort, I’m not going to wait for it to be sent to me, so I thought I’d complete it anyway here on my chess.com blog!

1. 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 have been playing since I was 13. I learnt it in high school. (secondary school). I played it consistently for about 10 years, participating in tournaments and winning various trophies and championships in Malawi. Then I stopped because I was focusing on work and other things. I have played 4 small tournaments in the USA. I came out on top on 3 of them. The lulls affected me quite a bit. I don’t play or see things as fast as I used to. But the talent is still there.2. Aside from playing games, what is your primary mode of training?

I would say, annotating games (Fischer’s for the most part), and playing through GM games at www.chessgames.com. I also analyze games at this site. It has been a while since I last read a chess book. I have Fritz 7 on my computer, but I am so anti-computer-chess that I don’t use it except to play through other people’s pgn games.

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

Playing with players that were stronger than me. There were tons of them when I had just started. I was lucky that they were willing to play me whenever I wanted.

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

It used to be 1.e4. Now I have stopped playing it. I would like to grow in other areas/openings. In response to 1.e4, I would probably play the french defense or the Sicilian defence. Against 1.d4 I would play Kings Indian Defense or 1…c5 (not sure what the name is).

5. Who is your favorite chess player and why?

Fischer. He shows that study pays off. (He was extremely talented, but he also worked so hard.) Capablanca is a close second. He is closest to Fischer without the shenanigans.6. What is your favorite chess book?

I have to say “Exchanging to Win in the Endgame” by Gennady Nesis. First, because I met my best friend when I went to the library to get it for the second time!

I remember that I read it from cover to cover in 2 days. (Of course, I didn’t do anything but set up the position and play through the moves…) To say that I was unbeatable is an understatement. I would look at a position, and I just knew when to simplify to the end. It also teaches you how to save lost positions by simplifying. Very helpful.

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

“Logical Chess Move by Move” - by Irving Chernev. Highly recommended to all beginners. I use this book as a model in annotating Fischer’s games. It is classic, so I don’t even come close. Knowing the reason behind each move trains you on what to look for in a position. How to explain your opponent’s moves. Once you read it, a chess move will never be just another move again.

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

It has been a couple of months since I last played in a tournament (OTB or otherwise.) I have several “favorite” tournament experiences. Almost all of them have to do with the will to win. The one I can remember now, I had a won position, and I saw 5 or 6 moves to a mate or something very close to it. I was about to make my move, then I saw a mate in one. Without checking, I just played the move! I was about to get up and to shake my opponent’s hand when he captured my rook with his Knight! Aw! So, I could resign, or I could play on. It took me 15 minutes to calm down and to make my next move. I determined that my position was so strong that loss of a Rook was not going to result in an immediate loss. Well, if it’s one of my favorite, you should know that I won the game!

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

How to Improve at Chess: Tip 4 - “Do This and You Shall Live!”

Annotated game#2: Thomason - Bobby Fischer

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

Less time than what most people, including myself, actually spend. I think less than 10%. (This is SonofPearl’s answer, and I agree with him.)

You can find SonofPearl’s Chess Questionnaire by clicking here

Perhaps other chess.com members would like to complete the Questionnaire on their own blogs?

How to Improve at Chess: Tip#6 - “If I had his pieces…”

2007-08-02T23:11:00.000-05:00

If you had your opponent’s pieces, what would you have played?

This is not as easy as it sounds. It means you have to stop being possessive/subjective of your pieces. You have to objectively look at the position, imagine that your opponent is going to make two moves in a row: the one just played, and the next one. Since we are lucky that we don’t endure that in Chess, we have a chance to intervene! How are you going to intervene if you don’t see what’s coming?

A trick you can use is to think about what you have played before in a similar position. For example, most of us have played 1.e4 and we know a bunch of moves that come regardless of what Black plays. However, when we are playing Black, we freeze after 1.e4 as if we have never seen it. All you have to do is choose one reply. When the next move comes, look in your mind to see if you have played that move before. If you have, what were you looking for? Could it be that your opponent is looking for the same thing? etc.

So, there is a tip - Think: “If I had his pieces, what would be my next move?”

Should I Post “Email Chess” Games?

2007-08-02T23:10:00.000-05:00

I have played just a few “Email Chess” games, and some of them are already very interesting. I was wondering if it’s okay to post them here with my annotation. I don’t mind posting them. However, I wasn’t sure if my opponents would mind, especially if they lost. I am going to lose a game or two in the next few days, and I don’t think my opponents would mind my analysis at all. So if we have played a game and you don’t want me to post it, shoot me a message!

The other thing I was thinking about is that - unlike annotating a game by a grandmaster or somebody who is not here to answer - the “Email Chess” games have the opponents here. Should I send my analysis to my opponent first before posting it so that they can add their comments? What gives me the right to post it? Should both of us post it? etc.

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Does this happen to you?

2007-08-02T23:09:00.000-05:00

I come to this site, I play a couple of games, I write a few things, I read a bunch of things… and I am done, BUT I CANNOT LEAVE! I sit there… trying to figure what else I can do! Urrrgghhh! I am supposed to be leaving for work as I write this!
(THIS IS ANOTHER POST I WROTE AT CHESS.COM)

How to improve at Chess: Tip# 5 - For every move you make…

2007-08-02T23:07:00.000-05:00

For every game (or “move”) you play, you spend 2 minutes reading/commenting/creating something on this site (THIS WAS WRITTEN FOR CHESS.COM MEMBERS)!

Benefits:

You get to see what other people think. There is a ton of information here, from openings, to middle game, to end game. Blogs, forums, etc. The info may help you improve in your weak areas, or you may meet some people who provide you with a ton of good info. I have met a couple of people, albeit online, that I am glad to know. Some have already impacted me positively.

You benefit more than you may just by playing your own games. I don’t believe there is a good player who became good by not studying other people’s game. Most good players are interested in the games of others to see how they are playing. They read articles about them to see how they think, etc.

You get to help. Chess.com is our website. I feel that guys like Erik and Matt and Andy and other people who are involved making this site work, cannot do it all by themselves. They cannot comment on every topic, they cannot help all the people who need help, etc. Since we get to enjoy the fruits of their labor, I think it would be great to show our enjoyment and love of the game by helping to make the site a lively one.

You feel good. Try it. If you don’t feel good, let me know!

Disadvantages:

You love the game more! You become better! You are stronger since you are a helper! You feel better than you would if you had not read a few things and dropped a few comments! You become productive while waiting for your opponent to play!

WHAT OTHER BENEFITS DO YOU THINK YOU CAN GET FROM BEING AN ACTIVE MEMBER?

Bias against Black!

2007-08-02T23:06:00.000-05:00

I was wondering if the “White to Play and Win” propagates the belief that if you are playing White you will win. In real life, Black has almost as many chances of playing to win! How about (more) “Black to Play” puzzles?

How to Improve at Chess: Tip 4 - “Do This and You Shall Live!”

2007-08-02T23:05:00.001-05:00

1) Luke 10: 25 - 37

2) Deutoronomy 30: 10 - 14

So, there is a tip on how to improve at Chess: “Do this (this=what you already know) and you shall live” (live=get what you seek).

Chewing your opponent’s soul by not playing 1.e4!

2007-08-02T23:03:00.000-05:00

Last time, I asked if I should stop playing 1.e4 - the comments were helpful. So far, I have been playing anything but 1.e4 in my “chess by email” games. I feel that when I win without playing 1.e4, my opponent will know that I won coz (I didn’t play the strongest opening in the world!? Therefore…)

I think that will chew my opponent’s soul. That makes me sad!

Would your soul be chewed if you lost to 1.c4 or 1.d4 or 1.b3?

Should I continue playing after a big blunder?

2007-08-02T23:02:00.000-05:00

One of the toughest things in Chess (for me) is deciding what to do after I blunder big time! So far I have continued to play because of two major reasons. I feel that if I play well enough, I can secure a draw or a win. Second, I don’t want to be a quitter unless it’s clear that I have lost.

Do you play on after a huge blunder? Why or why not?

How come Bobby Fischer or Kasparov or Karpov are not on the list?

2007-08-02T23:01:00.000-05:00

Here is what happened:

I was in the library looking at the Chess Notice Board. Posted were “Greatest Lists” of Chess. Greatest Tacticians, Greatest Strategists, etc. This guy walks over, chess “bag” on the shoulder. He joins me looking at “The Greatest 19th Century Chess Players”. Very quickly, he noticed that there was no Fischer, no Kasparov, and no Karpov! He exploded: “Why isn’t Bobby Fischer on the list? No Kasparov or Karpov? Why aren’t they on the list?!!!”

He then mumbled something, calling the author “ignorant”, “X&%#”, etc.

Then he asked me a question: “DON’T YOU THINK THEY SHOULD BE ON THE LIST?”

How to Use Love and Accountability to Play Great Chess

2007-08-02T22:59:00.000-05:00

I read somewhere - may be I saw a cartoon - that Bobby Fischer loved his pieces. From what I can remember, he was breathing life into a pawn. I think the commentary said that you could see/feel the love/pain he felt for his pieces. I may be off a little bit on the details. However, I thought I would share what I thought about this. Using love and accountability as a way to play great Chess.

First, let us imagine several scenarios.

1. You are a general of an Army and you have to send your men and equipment into war. For every death and injury of a soldier, you have to explain it to the loved ones. For every loss of equipment or territory, you have to explain it to the Commander in Chief and the Nation.

2. You are the head of your family. Your life and the lives of your loved ones depend on the decisions you make. You are participating in a competition that will determine how much money you make, how long you live, how easy it will be to see and communicate with your loved ones.

3. You are the CEO of a corporation. You have worked your way up. You have to lead your company to success, however success is defined.

Ok, the first three scenarios illustrate the accountability that comes with ownership and responsibility for your decisions and actions. Once you up the level of all these, the thought, consideration, commitment, etc that you put into your decision changes.

4. Think back to your life so far. Who do you trust? Who have you trusted? What did the person or people do to earn your trust? If you have kids, do they trust you? If they do, why do they trust you?

In the fourth scenario, in my case, I trusted people who I felt cared for my well-being, had proven to me that they cared for me by the way they treated me. I know Chess pieces don’t think. But if they did, would they trust you with their life?

I think that if you look at Chess pieces a different way, instead of looking at them as wood or plastic, look at them as your men in combat, your ‘family’, your employees, … you will change how you move them around. and if you look at yourself a different way. If you look at yourself as an Army General, a CEO, a Leader, a Head of Household… the quality of your decisions/moves change completely.

Of course, this will not apply to the casual player, but for someone seriously thinking about becoming a very good player, Chess pieces will no longer be pieces of wood or plastic. There will be a life element in it. They will take all life lessons and apply them to their game.

That’s how I think one can use love and accountability to play great Chess.

How to Use Love and Accountability to Play Great Chess

2007-08-02T22:58:00.000-05:00

First, let us imagine several scenarios.

3. You are the CEO of a corporation. You have worked your way up. You have to lead your company to success, however success is defined.

4. Think back to your life so far. Who do you trust? Who have you trusted? What did the person or people do to earn your trust? If you have kids, do they trust you? If they do, why do they trust you?

That’s how I think one can use love and accountability to play great Chess.

Chess Records for Practical Games

2007-08-02T22:57:00.000-05:00

I was looking for the longest practical chess game. I ended up seeing 3 castlings (is that a word?!) in one game!

Chess Records for Practical Games

Stop playing 1.e4

2007-08-02T22:56:00.001-05:00

Since everybody seems to like 1.e4, I am considering stopping. That way, may be I will win more because people don’t focus on the other Openings as much. What do you think?

How To Improve at Chess: Tip# 3: Constant Decision-Making

2007-08-02T22:54:00.002-05:00

I am following a U.S. soldier who is now in Iraq. I will be reading his blog every day, just to make sure he is safe. I don’t know him, but I believe that all human beings are connected in some way.

Anyway, he wrote about constant decision making as a way to get out of debt. I thought that his ideas/observations, are applicable to Chess (improvement). If on your every move, you make a commitment to think to the best of your ability and to make the best move you can (in the time alloted), you should be able to improve.

Why do we suffer from absent-mindedness? Switching off the brain? Lack of imagination? I posit that it is because of lack of commitment to make the best possible move.

So here is a tip: Constantly decide to make the best possible move. Each time.

(Thanks to Nick, the Soldier in Iraq.)

Chess Openings Buffet: - All you can eat! FREE!

2007-08-02T22:54:00.001-05:00

Click here and when you go through all the info that is there, ask me whatever question you have about Chess Openings!

I am yet to find, a more comprehensive free resource of information, that is logically presented for everybody!

I would suggest that before you leave a page, you finish reading that page and then click whatever link you want for more info. Enjoy and Good luck!

If this will not inspire you, nothing will!

2007-08-02T22:53:00.001-05:00

Read this story/blog. See what is motivating this guy to do what he is doing. Now, think: what are you willing to do for your goals? Whatever they may be? Chess GM, Chess WC, Millionaire, Whatever! What are you willing to do to get to your goals?!

Chess-wise, Life-foolish!

2007-08-02T22:50:00.000-05:00

You know the expression, “Penny-wise, Pound-foolish“? Well, how about, Chess-wise, Life-foolish!? For a period of at about 10 years, I focused my life on nothing but Chess. I almost flunked in school, but I was a Chess champ. To be my friend, you had to be a Chess player. To enjoy conversation, it had to be about Chess. I think that was “Chess-wise, Life-foolish!”

How about you? Have you been “Chess-wise, Life-foolish?” or has Chess helped you become Life-wise?!

How to improve at Chess. Tip 2: The Sponge Method

2007-08-02T22:49:00.000-05:00

What comes to your mind when you think of a sponge?

For me,

1: immersion into a liquid/water.

2: sucking up the liquid/water (quickly).

There are several ways to immerse yourself in Chess and suck up all these ideas/moves/scenarios that come up in Chess.

a.) Play as many games as you can. Hopefully, each game will be different. The more games you play, the more things you will see and, hopefully, learn from.

b.) Go through as many recorded games as you can. If you have time, you can analyze them or annotate them. But for me, I just went through tons of games. I can say that I have seen… 100,000 games. I am kidding. I don’t know. But there were days when I just went to a database of chess games (I think we have a database here, so I will not give you a link to an outside one.) - and I played hundreds of games in one day. Usually for a specific GM that I like. Believe it or not, your brain will capture a ton of ideas without you knowing it.

c.) Read a chess book dealing with a particular theme in one day or less. Just play through everything that is in the book. Read quickly, set up the board quickly, and play through the moves quickly. Be done with it. You can come back to it if you want to analyze stuff.

The thing is, go through a ton of stuff. Your brain will retain a bunch of ideas/concepts/moves/tricks/traps/….

One other thing… when I am playing Chess, I find it easier to deal with something I have seen before than something I haven’t. Going through tons of games, either through actual games or through study increases the chances that you will have seen whatever you encounter, at least once, in your life. I think that is one reason why GMs are a lot better than the rest of us.

disclaimer: i am not a proponent of blitz!

My $0.02

Win more games by practicing Humility

2007-08-02T22:46:00.000-05:00

What is Humility? You can click here to read about humility. What it is and what it is not.

Okay, how is this applicable to Chess? If you have done this, say “How did CHESSIQ KNOW?!?!” —:

- You had a won position, and you wished everybody came to see your game!

- You had a won position, and you played quicker than you normally would!

- You had a won position, and you got off your chair, moved about, …!

- You had a won position, and you stopped thinking about the game!

- You were rated higher than your opponent, so you thought you had already won!

(… You are free to add more examples of your own)

Thing is you have lost at least one game because of your …”lack of humility” - (I will not call it pride!) - You thought you had won, or you thought you were better than your opponent (in some way).

So here is a tip: Practice humility, as defined in the article above, and you will win more games. That’s just one benefit. The other benefit is that you will make more friends.

My $0.02

Why do you want to be a GrandMaster or World Champion of Chess?

2007-08-02T22:44:00.001-05:00

I wrote about “Wanting to be Jesus - My 10 wrong reasons” a couple of weeks ago. You can click this link to see the whole post.

But one of the reasons was:

4. The fans/followers. I would have so many people loving and knowing me. (Related to this, there was a time I hated being introduced to people… how come they don’t know me? If I was Jesus, no introduction… or after introduction, the person would go like, I have heard a lot about you…)

I know a lot of Chess players want to be World Champion(s) or Chess GrandMaster(s) - Why do you want to be World Champion or Chess GrandMaster? Answering this question, truthfully, will tell you whether you are going to make it or not. My $0.02.

How to Improve at Chess. Tip 1 - Know your weakness and eliminate it!

2007-08-02T22:41:00.000-05:00

Most chess players wonder how they can improve. There are many articles that have been written on how to improve at Chess, how to train etc. Here is one more tip: Know your weakness and eliminate it!

You may have several weaknesses, but pick one! It is easier to deal with one thing at a time that it is to deal with multiple things. Let’s say the weakness is your lack of knowledge in opening theory. I think this would be the worst of weaknesses as you can lose a game in the opening because of inaccurate play. How would you go about eliminating this? Several ways:

1) Study all openings! That’s a hard one, but that is what Fischer did. You need to have time on your hands to do this. The benefit of this is that there will be no surprises in the Opening. You will have seen it all, at least once. I did not do this, so I would not tell you to do it.

2. Choose a few openings and focus on those. Which few? I am not sure. But the easiest way to do this is to think about what you are trying to achieve. If you have a weakness in the opening, your goals are: avoiding weaknesses in the opening, avoid checkmate in the opening, the ability to avoid a cramped middle game, etc. Openings like King’s Indian Attack for white help you achieve this. Here is a link: http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/Openings/sic10.html

May be as Black, you may want the King’s Indian Defence or the French Defence. There is no guarantee that you are going to win - but what I am trying to say is you could solve this problem by playing an opening that can be employed against everything that White or Black does. Study that and stick to it. You learn, not by quitting, but by hanging on and learning from your mistakes.

Benefits of eliminating your weakness one at a time:

a) You play your game with confidence, knowing that all your work in other areas will not be undone by this particular weakness.

b) You become a well-rounded player. People make the mistake of focusing on their strongest parts. Chess, like life, offers you stages of development (childhood and adolescence=opening, younge adult & middle age = middle game, old age = ending) - you cannot just live/know one stage very well and ignore the rest. Unlike in Life whereby a messed up childhood may not be fixable, in Chess you can correct those weaknesses.

c) You learn that you can improve in other areas of your choice. The sky is the limit. What a feeling!

This was not meant to be a lengthy treatise on eliminating weaknesses, but I will be glad to answer any specific questions on your weaknesses. If I cannot answer them, I am sure other Chess players will offer insights on what you can do.

Just like you and I (Grischuk-Karpov)

2007-08-02T22:38:00.000-05:00

I watched the clip below - it’s a game between GMs Grischuk and Karpov - and they do the same things we do: Decide to make a move and then reconsider while the hand is out to touch a piece; Blunder away pieces; Look for a square to place a piece after they have already touched it (the piece); and last but not least, they play great Chess like the rest of us!

So when you make mistakes, or you have doubts, remember that even the greats go through similar emotions/experiences/episodes…

Needless to say this seems to be a speed/blitz Chess game. You may need to watch it a couple of times to really enjoy it. Have fun!

http://www.chess.com/videos/grischuk-karpov

Game#3: Fischer - K. Warner

2007-08-02T22:33:00.000-05:00

Robert James Fischer vs K Warner

Lincoln ch-US jr 1955 · Sicilian Defense: Classical Variation (B58) · 0-1

1. e4

Nice opening move. Going for the center, opening for Queen, Bishop, and King. Controlling d5 and f5.

1… c5

Sicilian defense. Avoids direct confrontation at the center. Control/attack b4 and d4. Opening for the Queen - diagonal to a5. The knight usually comes to c6; this move makes sure that the Knight is not blocking the pawn.

2. Nf3

Developing move towards the center. Clearing the way for castling. Fights for control of d4. Attacking e5 and g5 to name a few.

2… Nc6

Developing move towards the center. Another fight for the center. Contests control for d4 and e5. Supports the pawn in attacking b4 and d4.

3. d4

The d4-square is ‘attacked’ 3 times by the white pieces and 2 times by the black pieces. Thus white can afford to make this move. If the pawns are exchanged, white takes away Black’s only pawn at the center. If Knights are exchanged, Black will have no pieces near the center of the board. White will have a pawn and a Queen. This move opens for the Queen, Bishop, King and both Knights. White is also threatening to play d5 dislodging the Knight from c6.

3… cxd4

Black decides to exchange pawns.

4. Nxd4

Of course, don’t take with the Queen!

4… Nf6

A developing move towards the center, attacking the undefended pawn. Black leaves it to White to decide whether to exchange Knights.

5. Nc3

A developing move towards the center and protecting the pawn on e4.

5… d6

This opens for the Bishop on c8 as well as the Queen. Also playable is a6. This move “prevents” e5 (after the exchange of the Knights).

6. Be2

A developing move. Clears the way for castling. Also playable is Bc4 or Bb5.

6… g6

Looks like the Dragon variation to me. Fianchettoing the Bishop is one of the easiest ways to develop a Bishop. In addition to the development, the area around the King after castling is pretty tough to break. The Bishop comes into play once the Knight gets out of the way. Thus the fight for the d4 square is not finished.

7. Be3

Develops a piece towards the center. Adds support to the d4 Knight. If the Queen moves, White can castle short (o-o) or long (o-o-o). Note that if White had not played Be2, Black could have played Knight to g4 at this point. So Be2 was a prophylactic move.

7… Bg7

Develops a piece. Clears the way for castling. If Knight on g6 gets out of the way, the Bishop attacks everything that comes on the diagonal (h8-a1)

8. f3

It seems White is announcing that he may not castle short. In addition to supporting the pawn on e4, this move prepares for g4 to be followed by h4 and so on. Almost the only way to break the protective structure around the King with a fianchettoed Bishop.

8… O-O

Black seems not to mind the oncoming pawn assault. He tucks his King away the same side anyway. This move protects the King(?) and brings the Rook into play.

9. Qd2

Develops the Queen. Gets it out of the way for White to castle long. He is threatening to play Bh6 forcing the exchange of Bishops which would weaken Black’s defenses around the King.

9… a6

Prevents any Knight move to b5, AND prepares for b5. If White is going to attack my King with a kingside pawn storm, I am going to attack his Queenside with my own pawn storm. If the King goes that way, all the better. If the White King castles short, then he will have opened himself up anyway.

10. O-O-O

White castles long. This protects the King, and allows the Q-Rook to join the attack on the White King. I suspect that he things he will get to the Black King quicker than Black can get to the White King.

10… Qa5

This move not only attacks the Queen side, (for example, if the Knight on c3 moves, the Queen can take on a2), but it is a way to get the Queen to the Kingside if need be, to support the King. (if you take out the Knights on d4 and f6, the Black Bishop and Queen are attacking the Knight on c3. That is how dangerous the fianchettoed Bishop is. You always have to be mindful of its potential harm.)

11. Kb1

The King scoots over to protect the pawn on a2 thus freeing the Knight on c3 for other duties.

11… Rd8

If you take out the pawn on d6, the Rook pins the Knight on d4. Usually, when a player brings Rooks behind pawns like this, his intension is to open up the position so that the Rooks can become more effective.

12. g4

Better get on with the attack before Black consolidates his position.

12… Nxd4

Relieving the tension in the center. Getting rid of these Knights will allow Black to attack through the c-file.

13. Bxd4

Better to capture with the Bishop that way you don’t have to worry about a discovered attack (on your Queen).

13… Be6

If the Knight on c3 moves, the Black Queen and Bishop are attacking the pawn on a2. Mate is in sight! This moves also clears the way for a Rook to get to c8. However, it blocks the path for the pawn on e7, (not that it needs to be moved right away.)

14. Qe3

Strategically, this is a move preparing to get to the Kingside. Tactically, White is threatening to play Bb6 winning the exchange! (Where can the Black Queen go? …Qe5?? f4.)

14… Nd7

Preventing Bb6 and opening the way for the Bishop.

15. f4

Carrying on with the pawn attack on the King. If Black wants to trade Bishops, let him make the move!

15… Bxd4

Black trades Bishops. Sometimes the best way to defend is to make things a little clearer through exchanges. This cuts both ways, if it’s clearer for you, it is clearer for your opponent!

16. Qxd4

No choice, she has to take back.

16… Nf6

The White Bishop has been executed, so the Knight does not need to be on d7 any longer. He helps the Bishop on e6 attack the g4 pawn. If the Bishop was not on e6, this would have been an opportune time to play a move like e5, attacking the Queen and busting the pawn armada.

17. f5

One of the best way to defend is to counter-attack! In your face!

17… Bd7

Exchanging pawns by Black would have been dangerous as it would have opened up the g-file. The Bishop wisely decides to step back. He did not go all the way to c8 because he does not want to block the path between the two Rooks.

18. h4

Another pawn to join the attack. Send the foot soldiers first to soften up the target.

18… Bb5

Let’s get rid of another set of pieces so that White does not have enough pieces to attack my position with. The other reason is that the Black Bishop did not have a nice sanctuary, so why not get rid of it?

19. Bf3

Black needs his Bishop. Just to point out, White could not initiate the exchange with the Knight, as Black would have captured with the pawn - and the Queen and Rook would be attacking the pawn on a2.

19… Rac8

Black brings the Rook into play. He may sacrifice the Rook for the Knight in order to generate a Queenside attack and also remove a defender of the King. He may be thinking about bringing the Rook over to help in the attack, but that cannot be successful if the Knight is still on c3.

20. Nxb5

Since the Rook is no longer on the a-file, White decides to take the Bishop with his Knight! It also takes out the threat that Black posed - of giving up the exchange for an attack.

20… axb5

Interestingly, Black goes on to take with his pawn as if the Rook is on a8. This is probably because, he can bring the Rook back in one move. Notice that that move is a big deal for White. Previously, the Rook was already there, so he could not take the Bishop. After the Rook moved, it requires an extra move for Black to achieve the same result/position.

21. h5

Going on with the attack (before defending any attacks that have not yet materialized.)

21… Rc4

I am not sure about this move. The only thing I can think of is that he wants to have the Rook on e8 move to a8 instead of this Rook (that was on c8). Why? May be that way you have all the Rooks involved in the attack? For example, having Rooks on the c-file and a-file within 2 moves allows him to attack both the a2 and c2 pawns within 3 moves. Other than that, I miss the point.

22. Qe3

Gets away from the attack while eyeing h6.

22… Ra8

As previously explained, attacking a2.

23. a3

Easiest way to stop/delay the attack.

23… Qa4

Attacking c2 with Rook and Queen. Attacking e4 with Knight, Rook and Queen.

24. c3

Stopping the attack! Hopefully, you saw that 24.b3 forking Queen and Rook was a blunder… because???)

24… Nxe4

Yummy! On a serious note, apart from the attack on the White King (see next comment) this is a way to defend the Black King by opening the 4th rank so that the Rook and Queen can get to the Kingside.

25. Bxe4

Otherwise, the Knight could be sacrificed on c3.

25… Rxe4

Has to take back.

26. Qh6

Running away? Sort of! More like Attacking away! Threatening hxg6 followed by Qxh7 as it would be supported by the Rook on h1.

26… Re2

If you try to give me mate I will give you mate! Threatening to play Qc2+ followed by Qxb2# How would you defend this?

27. Rd2

Probably because he saw that after Rc1, Black would play Qb3 which might be a little hard to defend! But this does not see even two moves ahead! Aw!

27… Rxd2

Black has to take, because of a bigger winning move awaits!

28. Qxd2

White has to take… otherwise he will be mated sooner than he can checkmate Black.

28… Qe4+

Aw! That’s what Bobby “missed”- may be he should have played 27.Qc1 - May be.

Game#4: Kenneth Blake vs Robert James Fischer

2007-08-02T22:23:00.000-05:00

Kenneth Blake vs Robert James Fischer
Philadelphia ch-jr (09) 1956 · Sicilian, Boleslavsky Variation, 7.Nb3 (B59) · 0-1

This is an interesting game. Not just because Fischer played it when he was 13, but because I wonder if you will see why his opponent resigned. Should he have resigned?

1. e4

Opening for the Queen, Bishop, King, Knight, and moving towards the center where pieces have the most mobility. “Controls”/”attacks” d5 and f5. What will Fischer play against his favorite opening move when he is playing White?

1… c5

The Sicilian Defence. “Attacks b4 and d4. Gets the pawn out of the way so that the Knight on b8 can come to c6 without blocking the pawn. Makes White think twice about playing a move like d4.

2. Nf3

Develops a piece towards the center. Attacks d4, e5, g6, and h4. He can now play d4 without worrying about capturing back with the Queen.

2… Nc6

Develops the Knight towards the center, attacking a5, b4, d4 and e5. Supports the pawn in putting pressure on b4 and d4.

3. d4

Fights for control of the central d4 square. If the pawns and Knights are exchanged, White would have a Queen on d4, pawn on e4. Black would have to pieces or pawns in the center of the board. This move opens for the Queen, King, both Knights, and the Bishop on c1.

3… cxd4

Fischer decides to exchange pawn. One reason could be to prevent it from advancing to d5 where it would chase away his Knight. He could have played e6. Of course, I will not go into the merits of that move if White went ahead and played d5.

4. Nxd4

White takes back with the Knight. (Of course taking back with the Queen would lose!)

4… Nf6

Instead of capturing the Knight on d4, which would get rid of his only developed piece, Fischer decides to develop another piece! (This is a good lesson for beginners). The newly developed Knight, on f6, attacks the pawn on e4. So instead of White thinking about just one thing (if Fischer had captured the Knight on d4), he will be thinking about several things: should he initiate the exchange of Knights? Should he defend the pawn? How should he defend the pawn. The more you make your opponent think about a lot of things, the better.

5. Nc3

White decides to protect the pawn on e4 and do so while developing a piece (towards the center). He could have played Nd2 defending the pawn, but this would have blocked all those pieces that the pawn had opened for.

5… d6

White opens for the Bishop on c8, the Queen, and the King. The pawn attacks e5 and c5. These squares become crucial as the game progresses.

6. Be2

White develops a piece, clearing the way for castling. Playable is Bc4; but it exposes the Bishop to attacks like Na5 which would force white to address the attack. Another possibility is Bb5 which would exert a lot of pressure on the Knight on c6.

6… e5

This opens for the f8-Bishop, the Queen and King, the Knight on c6 if it wants to move over to g6 for whatever reason. It attacks f4 and d4 (and the White Knight happens to be on the latter square).

7. Nb3

White decides to keep his Knight instead of exchanging in. He could have gone back to f3, but that would have blocked the pawn on f2, the Bishop on e2. I should have mentioned that the Bishop on e2 is preventing moves like Bg4 and Ng4.

7… Be7

White develops his last Kingside minor piece, so he can castle next move. The bishop move renders White moves like Bg5 harmless, (otherwise it the Knight would have been pinned).

8. O-O

This protects the King and brings the Rook into play.

8… O-O

Black castles and has similar advantages to White’s previous move.

9. f4

White launches a Kingside attack with this move. He would like to dislodge the black pawn from e5. This move opens the f-file for the Rook to get into the game. A possibility is f5, Rf3, Rg3 or Rh3, and somehow get the Queen and Bishop involved.

9… a5

Black starts a counter-attack on the Queenside. “The best form of defense is counter-attack” - especially if you can meet the attack HEAD ON. (Apply it directly where it hurts!)

10. a4

White decides to neutralize Black’s attempts to create an attack on the Queenside, before he continues with his own attack. Another good lesson here… knowing when to stop and look and see if you can take care of other business first before your wishes/dreams are carried out.

10… Be6

Black develops his last minor piece. He puts in a position where it can go to the Queenside or the Kingside as need be. Note that if Black captured the Knight on b3, White would have to capture with the c-pawn. The pawn would move away from the center, which is usually a disadvantage. If Black had not played a5, forcing a4, after the Bishop captures the Knight, White could capture with the a-pawn, towards the center. So the a5 move was not just a counter-attacking move, it had other “strategic considerations” to it.

11. f5

White decides to dislodge the Bishop from e6. If you take into account my previous comment, this seems ill-advised as it forces Black to exchange the Bishop for the Knight. White gets doubled pawns, backward pawns, pawns that are away from the center. Since the position is a little locked up, Knights may be preferable to Bishops.

11… Bxb3

It seems forced to me from my previous comments. It appears to have advantages than disadvantages. I have already talked about the disadvantages to White for allowing this exchange. Hence Black’s advantages can be found in exploiting White’s disadvantages. What are Black’s disadvantages in playing this move? One major disadvantage is that Black’s pawns are on dark squares, that being the case, it is preferable to have the Bishop of opposite color as it is not blocked by the pawns, and it also complements the pawns in covering squares that are not being covered by them.

12. cxb3

White captures back. Forced.

12… Nb4

If you see a backward pawn, (like in this case) see if you can put a piece in front of them. First, you stop them from advancing any further. Second, you cannot be chased away by the lowly pawns. Third, if you cannot be captured, you can stay there forever and control things.

13. Bg5

White develops his last minor piece, attacks the Knight on f6, and opens for the Rook on a1 to get into the game.

13… Re8

If I had played this move, I would have said… I needed to move something, and this seemed the least evil thing to do. Let’s see. If Black wants to play d5 at some point, he does not want the pawn on e5 to be unprotected. If White somehow attacks the Bishop on e7, he wants some place for the Bishop to retreat to. Lastly, it pays to move the Rooks to the central files. With practice you just know that they become more effective there. (Just like the other pieces.)

14. Bf3

May be Black really wanted to play d5! Let’s stop him!

14… Qb6+

Bringing the Queen out so that the Rooks can be united…. and if you can gain a move by giving a check, do it by all means! (Note tha if the Black Knight moves from b4, the Black Queen is attacking the pawn on b3.

15. Kh1

Looks like the least evil way to take care of the check.

15… Rac8

Bringing the Rook into play via the only open (=no pawns) file. If the Knight on c3 moves, the Black Knight on b4 can go to c2 attacking the Rook for the fun of it! Well, not really, but it is moves like that that you watch out for. (Just saying “bringing the Rook into play” didn’t seem enough!)

16. Rg1

Hmmnnn! Preparing for g4? Really? I am not sure about this move. Is he considering g4, Rg3, Rh3? I would start with g4 right away if that was my idea since the Bishop is protecting the pawn anyway. Why choke my King?

16… Qf2

Since the f2 square is no longer controlled by the Rook, why not go there to attack the pawn on b2? (and also enable Nc2?)

17. Qe2

The Queen seems to be a nuisance, let’s get it off the board by exchanging it with my docile Queen. Remember that when you seek simplification, you may sometimes benefit your opponent. When things become clearer for you, the also become clearer for your opponent!

17… Qxe2

Ok. I have nowhere else better to go, I will give you my Queen for yours.

18. Bxe2

White ought to take back.

18… Nc2

Remember I mentioned this move? But it is not just to attack the Rook. It is to move the Knight to a better post. If you can do it with the initiative (by giving a check or attacking a more valuable piece) then do it by all means!

19. Rac1

If you defend, and you can counter-attack while defending, …. (do so my all means!). The Rook attacks the Knight that attacked it!

19… Nd4

The Knight runs away, but with an attack in mind. It gets to a central, more favorable outpost, with the initiative by attacking the Bishop on e2.

20. Bc4

The Bishop runs away, gets to a more favorable post - generally speaking - on c4. Here, it defends the pawn on b3 - (did I say it was attacked?) - and it blocks the path of the Rook on c8. It cannot be attacked by pawns here. It attacks f7. d5 is almost permanently taken… Whew! But!!! remember when I said on move 6 or 7, that Be2 prevents moves like…

20… Ng4

this! Well, what did I say about choking the King? What’s up with the Bishop on g5? What do you think White did? Well, he resigned! Now, go back to my introduction and answer the questions! Hope you had fun!

How I Think When I Play Chess

2007-08-02T22:21:00.001-05:00

I cannot write everything because I don’t know everything I do when I play chess. This, however, is a list of the things I do frequently.

1. I play to win. That’s it. So I don’t really think that I want to win, because that is the default. Everything else I do after that is subservient to the winning goal. I approach the game and my moves with a winning mentality.

2. I play the opening that I know most about. I have always played 1. e4, and I almost always start that way. Everything else that comes after that, I have seen at least once. This helps me gain confidence that I know what I am doing. Sometimes I cannot think straight when I am stressed out. The calm I feel after playing 1. e4 helps me think. I have won way more games than I have lost, overall. So I feel like I am going to win when I play 1.e4

3. I account for all my pieces. I look all over the board. I make sure I know where all my pieces are. (I also account for all my opponent’s pieces.) This is not really thinking. It is just looking and seeing. As you look, your mind thinks. It has to interpret what it sees.

4. I explain every move that is made. I will not make a move if I cannot tell somebody why I made it. I will not play my move if I don’t know what my opponent was doing with his last move.

5. I treat every position as a mate in 10 (I am laughing because this is not entirely true!) I search for the strongest continuation possible. The best way for me, is to assume that there is “mate” somewhere, and I don’t want to find out after the game (that I missed it.)

6. What would Fischer or Capablanca play? Those are my Models. You need to see lots of games of your Model to have a feel of what they would play.

7. I usually think three moves ahead, no more! I can see 12 moves total - that is 4 variations of 3 moves each. Unless it’s totally clear, like in the end game, I don’t look too far ahead. I am not sure if this would help me if I played a GM. The good thing about Chess is that when your opponent makes a move, you have time to figure out what they are doing before they follow it up with something. You can always foil their plans.

8. I focus on the Chessboard and not the person I am playing. Well, except a few times, and I will talk about that in a later post! But playing the board is way better than playing the person.

9. I count to 32 before I make move - especially when I have a won position! There have been times when I have lost won positions because I was too excited. Counting while I am thinking and re-evaluating my decision, helps me find things that I could have missed. 32 is just the number of pieces at the beginning of the game. It takes me a long time to count to 32. It gives me time to reflect. Don’t do this when you are short on time!

10. I think about the best times I won from a lost position, or when I created something to win… and tell myself I can do it again. I don’t lose until I am dead.

11. Before I play the winning move or the resigning move, I think about what I will say to my opponent. It has to be nice either way. I don’t leave the table/chair until I am ready to leave, win or lose. After a long fight, I just don’t want to get up and fall, or to do something stupid, like forgetting to say, “nice game”, or “I enjoyed playing you”, or whatever. If I win, I don’t want my opponent to feel like he is not good enough. If I lose, I don’t want him to think, “what a jerk, good thing I kicked his butt!”.

If your life was a Chess Game…

2007-08-02T21:52:00.000-05:00

I like to write about things that I have learned about life through the game of Chess. For example, I have learned through the game of Chess that small good moves add up and become a big advantage to win the game. I use this concept to save money, even if it is $1 a week. That is $52 a year, and if you work for 50 years, you have… $2600 in the bank, excluding interest. You would be surprised how many people have worked for 50 years and they don’t have $2600 in the bank. Of course, there are explanations for all that. So if you saved $10 a week for 50 years, you would have $26,000 in the bank, huh? (That is without interest…)

Anyway, I was just wondering - if my life was a Chess Game, what would be the King? What is it that I would do anything to protect? What is it that I would do everything in my might to advance its cause? What would be the Queen? The most powerful piece on the board? What is it that I would have the hardest time giving up? What would be the pawns? What is it that I have the most of? Note that it can be good or bad. It can be lots of books that are just taking up space. It can be money that I am not managing very well. It can be commitments that are stressing me out and I just need to let go of. Or it can be some positives. Each life is different.

I found out that for at least 10 years - may be 15 years, that I seriously played Chess, I thought more about Chess than I thought about life. I studied more Chess than I did any school work, career stuff, or just life stuff. I can say that I know more about Chess than I know about the Bible or God. May be there is nothing wrong with it. But once I decided to treat my life like a game of Chess, not to win, but to give each move the consideration I give my pieces, I became a better person.

One quick parting thought, in Chess, you play a move, and you wait for your opponent to make a move. You sit there, you watch, you don’t do anything… in a way, you “listen”. From this, I told myself that I would cut down on interrupting people when they speak. If they are speaking, I would consider it their move. I will wait til they finish.

Here is the question again: If your life was a game of Chess… (you fill in the last part!)