DHLC Newsletter - FEBRUARY edition

Dan Heisman Learning Center

Newsletter for February 2014

Contents

Welcome!

News

Dan's Corner

Blog highlights

Puzzles of the Month

Easy Links

Want to get in touch with the newsletter crew?  Write to them at DHLCNewsletter@gmail.com 

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WELCOME!

Newsletter February edition, volume 14

Welcome to the Dan Heisman Learning Center!

All members of the DHLC share a common interest and we all have the strong desire to improve our chess playing.  We are truly a group BY the members FOR the members.  No matter if you are a master or completely new to the game, we welcome you.  Please do take a look around the forums to see where other members can help you improve or you can help others as well.

We at the DHLC encourage active participation, good sportsmanship and above all, fun in learning this wonderful game.  Whether your preference is for live chess, longer correspondence (“online”) games, some vote chess or working your way through the instructional articles written by some of stronger members, there is something for everyone at DHLC.

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Slow events in the DHLC

SirIvanHoe

Grand Prix Points!

Beginning on Dec. 30, 2013, the DHLC's Slow Chess League will begin a Grand Prix point system!

Every game played win, lose or draw (and every game won by forfeit) in the Slow Chess League during any week in the contest year except for League Qualifier tournaments will count as 1 Grand Prix point.

Additionally, tournament winners (Slow Swiss and 1-2 Pairing) will be awarded Grand Prix points at a rate of 3 x # of rounds for first place, 2 x # of rounds for second place, and 1 x # of rounds for 3rd place (individual or for each team member of a winning team) in addition to the points for games played. Tied winners will split the rewards (eg, 1st + 2nd for 2 players tied for 1st), no tiebreaks. Points for tournament wins will count only if a tournament starts and ends in the contest year.

League Qualifier tournaments do not score Grand Prix points. Weekly and Quad tournaments do not score winner points (but do score points for games played). Points for new tournament types debuted during the year may or may not accumulate Grand Prix points and rules for that will be announced on a tournament by tournament basis.

Note that the rules listed here may be adjusted up until the start of the contest year.

We will compete annually for the highest Grand Prix point total. The 2014 competition will begin on December 30, 2013 and last until December 28, 2014.

The prize for the most Grand Prix points accumulated in 2014 will be a $50 Gift Certificate to the DHLC Shop!!!

New to our events?  

League Qualifer Tournament

This is the event that all new league players MUST compete in successfully to qualify to enter regular tournaments in the DHLC Slow Chess League. This is a 3 round event with games played at a time control of G/45+45. In order to qualify you must participate in all 3 rounds, observe all league rules, and complete at least 1 game. Before signing up below, read our rules here.  Use this time zone converter to help with scheduling your games. (Enter New York in the converter to get ET.)

League qualifers happen every three to four weeks.  Watch for signups in the DHLC proper.   Want to see how it works? 

Recently qualified league players:

From Qualifier #7

12F8031

CHESSUSA39

CKCardinal

corylamontage

hakim2005

iocompletion

isaiahjhonson

jmbecker

jstainer

MartinBrookes

MasterDuffer

Pawnslinger1

qutuck32

robbie57

RudiV

RomulusMasterson

sagnac

towbat

Troglodyte0

udb_1993

 

From Qualifier #8

asynchrony1

BarrySmith2

BobD91

ChessMN16

Chesterking46

CirrusStratus

cmtavernier

coachmterrill

djepi

eigentor

ek2112

emanueldejanu

FrancynAbcd

Gordon1962

hazy13

hudman653

I_broke_bad

Ivanikov

kikienpassant

Knight_e4

prosperov

Ramaya04

rosadot99

SilentKnighte5

Satranj111

Somebodysson

staleen

WhirledPeas

 

Qualifier #9 is in progress and Qualifier #10 is open for signups in the DHLC forums now.

DHLC Slow Chess Weekly 

Signups Are Now Open!

This brand new tournament format is designed to let regular league players get an extra game on any single week that they'll have the time to play. 

New Feature! - We now offer both G/45+45 and G/90+30 sections. Let us know when you sign up which time control you want - or sign up for both! Being a single round event means that due colors are not observed week to week. Each week's pairings will not in any way be based on pairings or results of previous weeks. You must be a qualified league player to participate in this event.

DHLC Slow Chess QUADS

Signups Are Now Open!

2 time controls G/45+45 & G/90+30 - double round robin quads by rating

Note that rounds for all time controls are 1 week for new sections formed.

Rule Change - Games may not be played earlier or later than the scheduled round. A withdrawl from a quad will count as forfeits for all remaining games in the quad and means it will likely result in Immediate and indefinite league suspension.

G/45+45 (1 week per round - 6 round event runs 6 weeks)

1800+

U1800, U1600, U1500, U1200. 

 

G/90+30 (1 week per round - 6 round event runs 6 weeks)

1800+ 

U1800, U1600, U1400, U1200. 

 

Sign up here:  http://www.chess.com/groups/forumview/dhlc-slow-chess-quads

Mention the section for which you'd like to sign up.   You MUST be a qualified league player to sign up for this event. Your Live Standard rating at the time a quad starts will determine what rating class you may enter. Players may not play outside of their actual rating class. Players may sign up once in each time control, and then may add their name again after a new quad including them has started. Quads will begin when 4 players sign up for a single time control / rating class or as soon as TDs are available with rounds to start on a Monday. Slow Chess League rules will apply.

 

Please be sure to check Tracking Comments so you'll know when your quad has been formed.

As with all of our tournaments, players will be invited to a specified playing group.  The quad forum is unlocked when the assigned TD has arrived.  

 

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Dan's Corner

NM DanHeisman

Before I played the following game at the Pan-Am Intercollegiates, Vince Livermore of CCNY came by and predicted a "4-0 sweep" for the favoried CCNY team (the rest of my teammates were lower rated).

Afterwards, I said to Nick "I had to win, to prove Vince wrong!" Nick later went on to be a successful backgammon player and organizer on the West Coast.

Want more tips?  Turn to Dan's Tip of the day!

http://www.chess.com/groups/forumview/dans-tip-of-the-day

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Blog Highlights!

Dr_Cris_Angel 

Chock full of blogs this month! This is what I like to see!

udb_1993 writes about The Fascinating Fischer

http://www.chess.com/blog/udb_1993/fascinating-fischer--part-1

Samsch writes about a tournament experience:

http://www.chess.com/blog/Samsch/sterling-fide-open

The DHLC has been fortunate enough to have some titled members join us and a few have been kind enough to share some blogs with us!  We are very grateful for the contributions and I'm sure many of our members will find the blogs valuable in learning and enjoyable to read as well.  

Here we have several from CM stepanosinovsky:

http://www.chess.com/blog/stepanosinovsky.

With some nice examples of analytic job :

http://www.chess.com/blog/stepanosinovsky/najdorf-battle--1 

http://www.chess.com/blog/stepanosinovsky/--promised-to-make-commentary 

http://www.chess.com/blog/stepanosinovsky/positional-play 

How Dominguez won a Bishop engame:

http://www.chess.com/blog/stepanosinovsky/etry

NM SoFluffy has also shared a very interesting blog.   Worth noting, I found this blog easy to understand and was able to follow. 

http://www.chess.com/article/view/trying-to-stir-up-morra-mayhem?ncc=2#first_new_comment

For some very interesting statistics regarding the DHLC games, Farnel has updated the State of the Database.  This is absoultely fascinating and fun to learn what goes on in the DHLC games!

http://www.chess.com/blog/Farnel/state-of-the-database-january-2014

Have a blog you think would be interesting and worth sharing?  Please let us know about it!   Blogs do NOT have to come from expert players.  We all have something to share!  

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Puzzles of the month

Farnel

This month, no grand unifying theme, no connection between the puzzles, it is just a bunch of entertaining and I hope interesting puzzles for you to solve. I have tried this time to keep the puzzles a little less challenging, let me know if you agree, or not. Let's get straight into it.

 

The first one shouldn't be too difficult. That black king is looking a little lonely, and white has quite a bit of firepower aimed his way. It should be no surprise then that there is quick win here. We Aussies like to be a little different - the checkmating move may not be unique in chess, but it certainly is in my experience. This puzzle is especially for everyone's favourite newsletter editor; she knows who she is.

Next, enjoy the thrill of the chase. Not a long one to be sure, the black king is again rather vulnerable. Again, it should come as no surprise that white can mate in 3.

No clues here, it is fairly simple. Another cramped black king, another quick kill. White mates in 3 moves.

A surprise - this one is not a mate in 3! In such a simple ending, a pawn up is often a draw especially if the defending king and knight are close to the pawn. And here the white king can offer no support to his pawn at all from the far corner on a1. But all is not quite as it seems - what can you find for white to bring home the full point?

Now another mate in 3 for you here. There is a common mating theme here but is not quite ready to to appear on the board, white must prepare it. Find the idea and find the win.

We'd better not let white have it all his own way so here it is black to play and win. This the finish from a famous Nimzovitch game so my apologies if you have already seen it.