IM Silman Chess Mentor Study Group

3 hours, 40%  

After I made the initial incorrect move, it took me this long to find every correct move on my own, tapping into the "hint" only twice. 

I am in too.  I have done the first two, but I need to slow down and think more to do better.  This is excellent study material.

 WOW - I had to use the hints on like every move.

Amazing dedication, suzettemy.  I don't know if I could stick with it that long with no hints.  Remember, too, though, that the purpose of the exercise is to learn from IM Silman.  I didn't use very many of the hints, but when I did, I learned something then, too, as the hint usually provided some insight on where and why to look for "the move".  Our goal should be neither to "get every move right" or to rush through using every hint.  But, rather, a balance in studying the position long enough to get a feel for the strategies (and tactics, occasionally) that might work and then making your best guess at the move.  If the first 2-3 attempts don't work, it's probably best to check the subtle hint and see where you might be mis-interpreting the strategic situation.  Just my thoughts...I encourage others to join in on how best to get the most from these exercises.

Here's the latest summary:

Name/ID        Rating     Date-Completed  Time-to-Complete    Score

--------------    ----------       --------------------   ------------------ -------

ECHOOooo       1753           1/4/2012                60 min             60%

jjeffrey            1746          1/17/2012               63 min             80%

AdamALonn      1086          1/17/2012               21 min             56%

shepi13            1523          1/18/2012               11 min             71%

Kolems             1770          1/20/2012               38min            67%

suzettemy         1535         1/21/2012                3 hrs            40%

Constantine73    2050         1/16/12                  20 mins         81%

royalbishop       ???

CalbaMan          ???

tipsybadger      ???

There are 5 days left before we move to Lesson 2.  

Also, I want to emphasize that this is a personal journey for each of us.  I don't post the scores as a competition, but more to give some idea of how long we can expect to take if we decide to tackle the exercise.  And also out of curiosity to see if our ratings correlate to our scores and times (I think they probably will, in the long run).  Finally, as we work our way through these exercises, we might want to look back on our progress to see how our ratings improved and if our understanding improves at the same time (i.e. better scores and less time as we progress through the course).

I hope everyone is enjoying the study group.  I'm happy to see how many of us are participating.

I am impressed with everybody's time.

82% in 45 minutes.

That was a very logical game. Each move seemed to follow a clear plan and contribute to the victory. It appeared to be a scientifically engineered model game of chess prepared by a computer or a robot. 

Warning Spoilers ahead: Don't read this if you haven't already done lesson 1.

I was about to tackle lesson 2, when I thought I would first breeze through lesson 1 for a second time (after 6 days).  Wow, it's still hard, but I think I got more out of it the second time, and decided to make (and post) some notes.  Let me know if you find these comments useful.  This time through it still took me 45 minutes, though I tried to fully understand each move.

After 6...Nc6 Silman notes that had black tried" 6...Nexd5, White should avoid 7.exd5? Rac8 and instead" 7.Bxd5! Nxd5 8.Rxd5! giving threats of 9.Rc7 and 9.Rxe5 and a winning endgame. "If you saw these points when playing 6.Nd5, then give yourself a pat on the back."  I found this comment most humbling, as I didn't come anywhere near to seeing these points. I'm sure this is a trivial comment for a master.

After 8.Rd7 Silman says "Following the rule that a Rook on the seventh rank is worth a pawn."  I had never heard this rule before, though knew that a rook on the seventh was good.

11th move, I tried 11.Bxf7, but Silman points out 11.Rxf7 as better as this is the move that "ties the Black King down to the first rank."  Good point !

The 13th move I found difficult.  I tried Kg3, f4, h4, all wrong.  Finally tried 13.Bd5 which Silman really likes as an excellent move that places the Bishop on its most imposing square and prevents the Black Rook from ever making use of the open d file.

Seems to me, the major point of the lesson is his comment after move 15. "Notice how White first made his Rook better than the Black Rook.  Then he made his Bishop better than the Black Knight. Now with 15.Kg3, he is quietly turning his attention to his King. Every white piece is made to perform at its optimum level."  This is something that is sorely lacking in my game.

Move 22 was probably the hardest in the lesson.  I first tried 22.Re7 going after the e pawn, but Silman said "this lets the Black Knight reenter the game after 22...Nc6. Why allow this, even for a free pawn?"  This emphasizes his major point that you need to keep your opponents pieces as powerless as possible.  I didn't try 22.Ra7 until after going for the subtle hint, and then the strong hint which says "Take aim at the weak Black pawns."  I am still struggling to understand this move.  What is it really threatening??

All of these mistakes on my 2nd time through the lesson (though my score did improve to a 92%).  I highly recommend everyone go through it again before tackling the (*GULP*) 1900 rated second lesson.

Agreed Jeffrey. I went through it three times. Second time I read all the hints and notes and got a really low score. Then the third time I got it all down pat 100%. Very instructive. 

@jjeffrey - Ra7 keeps the knight out of the game by threatening to pin it. Also, when the black rook moves Kf5 should win the e pawn. The rook goes to b6 to allow Nc6 without a pin to save the e pawn, but then Re7 wins.

I took 45:10 to get a 73%.  The last move had me stumped.

I've been through the lesson 5X now and I'm not through with it yet.

That sounds right. Can't go any slower. Once every week or two is best. 

Here's the (final?) summary for Lesson 1:

Name/ID        Rating     Date-Completed  Time-to-Complete    Score

--------------    ----------       --------------------   ------------------ -------

ECHOOooo       1753           1/4/2012                60 min             60%

jjeffrey            1746          1/17/2012               63 min             80%

AdamALonn      1086          1/17/2012               21 min             56%

shepi13            1523          1/18/2012               11 min             71%

Kolems             1770          1/20/2012              38 min            67%

suzettemy         1535         1/21/2012                 3 hrs            40%

Constantine73    2050         1/16/2012              20 mins          81%

johnadamsx23     1326        1/22/2012              20 mins         56%

Lawdoginator      1906        1/23/2012              45 mins         82%

audiom101         1594         1/24/2012              45 mins         73%

Groen                1686         1/24/2012              ?? mins          69%

royalbishop       ???

CalbaMan          ???

tipsybadger      ???

--------------    ----------       --------------------   ------------------ -------

Tomorrow (Friday, 1/27/2012) we move to Lesson 2.

It's friday - and I did lesson two! 

 Sadly, I didn't do nearly as good as I did on the first one. This lesson was a lot more difficult, and I used more and more of the hints. I scored a 47%, but I lost the time when I went through it again.