I am a genuine Internet Troll who have been playing turn-based chess for a little more than a year. My goal is to feel like a 1500ish OTB player by the end of the year (my New Year's Resolution is descibed elsewhere).

 

The plan is to play weekly live games at the office. We have a handfull of wood pushers at the office who meet for a few friendly games. Also, I will try to squeece in a few slow live games at this site and to annotate the games.

 

My daily routine is to solve a few tactics problem (CT-Art 3.0 and/or Tactics Trainer) every morning before the kids wake up.

 

Favourite Openings: King's Gambit & Latvian Gambit

 

Lovely! We should practice it sometime! I am at the office ritght now but maybe we can find some suitable time for a game.

I ordered the DVD Graeme mentioned in some thread: "1 e4 for the creative attacker" because the "author" suggests "2. f4" against a few defences. 

fav openings

Latvian gambit

or Queens gambit

 

 

I have finally started reading "Chess for Zebras". It is a wordy and rather philosophical book but very interesting. The first tiny part which I have read is roughly about the learning process. I blunt attempt to a headline summary of the message so far is:

"skills are more important than knowledge"

or perhaps

"learning by doing instead of learning by nodding"

 

 

 

My favorite openings are the Giuoco Piano and Giuoco Pianissimo.  Anyone want to play? 

Farbor> My daily routine is to solve a few tactics problem (CT-Art 3.0 and/or Tactics Trainer) every morning before the kids wake up.

 

Yep, I know that schedule well. ;-)

 

I'm curious... why did you choose to begin with CT-ART instead Chess Tactics for Beginners (or for Intermediate players)? I actually started with CT-ART but then I downgraded when I realized most of the tactics that were missed in my over-the-board games were quite simple... much simpler than CT-ART level 40+ anyway.

 

I had heard great things about CT-Art and nothing about the other discs.

 

I am trying to get my daily dose of Tactics Trainer here at chess.com. It is a very bumpy ride. I almost gave up the Tactics Trainer some days ago after facing a long row of severely under rated problems.

 

 

The Tactics Trainer has been moody for some time but I managed to reach an new personal all-time high: 1711

Sweet. :)

what is the tactics trainer?

i play on chesstempo 

Masky>> Look under the "LEARN tab" and you will find a link to the Tactics Trainer.

 

I will focus on the Convekta CD "Advanced Chess School" for the next few days trying to work through all the stuff on the disc. I like most of it a lot but some of the material is silly! It is really silly to face the task "Damage Blacks Pawn Structure" and after you have played the first move the engine plays ten or so moves. There are a snowflakes chance in a warn place that i woodpusher such as me would play the same sequence as the GMs who originally played the game.

 

CT-Art 3.0 is my fave CD disc but Advanced Chess School is also pretty good.

 

Yikes! 1804 at CT-Art 3.0. The family is sound asleep so I can do my best James Brown act: "I feeeeel Goooood!"

hehe. Good stuff. :)

 

I just started working with the Chessbase discs on endgames by Dr Muller. Very good stuff!

 

Amazing! My coach gave me basically this pattern as home work two weeks ago. Talking about immediate rewards for studying!

 

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=7279932

Again, no rocket science but I do not get to play too many slow games. Here I planned to play something along the lines of The Lion but my mind went blank after just a few moves. I had a vague notion of the theory moves here and there but did not dare to try them since I failed to see the reason for the moves.

Some quick thoughts:

11...Ng4! 12.Rad1 Nxe3?

Why immediately capture? Your knight is not threatened and White's bishop had no good squares to flee to. Often, maintaining tension is better.

13.Qxe3 Bg5? 14.Nxg5 Qxg5 15.f4?

Your opponent missed a chance to damage your pawn structure. After 15.Qxg5, I think combined with the open d-file, they have the better chances.

16.Qxf4 Qxf4 17.Rxf4 Ne5 18.Bxf7?? 19.Nxf7

Blunder. Your opponent apparently missed your knight on e5. There's something to be said for tactical sharpness, which you had a leg up on. :)

Thank you for you input!

 

Yes, 12...Nxe3 felt rather simplistic. I suppose both of the alternatives give in my sketchy notes are stronger. Qc7 is a trade mark of The Lion and a5 might very well create som added tension along tha a-file.

13... Bg5?! is clearly worse than I thought last night after the game. There are several better moves for me (black) and a few ways for white to penalize my oversight.

 

True, he did blunder but there are of course still a lot of "play" in the position and more blunders to come from the two of us. Still, a win is a win.