My journey: A beginner gets Chess coaching.

Patzer's Log: Chessdate 25/04/2020

The tale of the Round 4 facepalm.

Had another terrific lesson with Kestony last night.

Since our previous lesson, Chess has been hard. No less enjoyable but hard. No one tells you that lock down with drive the whole house a little crazy. When you're locked in the same four walls all day every day, it's easy too start getting on each other's nerves, family or not.

It can be difficult to concentrate on playing in an online tournament when your darling wife and teenage daughter are having a rather loud disagreement in the same family room but such is life in the time of Covid-19.

My semi regular <1199 Rapid Swiss 15/10 tournament last week was a case in point. 

I started the tournament with a Rapid rating of 955.

My opponent in Round One was rated 1089 and had beaten me soundly in the last tournament.

I managed to swindle a win playing White and was off to a great start. There's something about revenge that makes the win taste a little sweeter.

Round two saw me play against an opponent rated 1190 well above my pay grade. I had Black again and in the words of the Chess.com Game Report, "That game slipped through your fingers." After White checked my King with his Knight, I took his Knight with my own in a fraction of a second....only to leave my Queen hanging and it was all downhill from there. I could have taken the offending Knight with my Bishop and maintained my -4.53 advantage but losing my Queen swung things to a +4.1 in my opponent's favor. The rest unfolded like a Greek tragedy.

Round 3 at least saw me play an opponent rated only 30 odd points higher than me and I again managed a win with the Black pieces. I did have one great learning moment however in the post game analysis where my opponent had a tactic that could have swung the game back to +2.4 in White's favor from being down -10.8 in my favor. Luckily for me he didn't see it (I don't think either of us were capable of seeing it at our level) and I went on to win comfortably. 

So far so good and I'd managed to pick up some rating points despite my loss in Round 2.

Round 4 was the round that might have been...

I was paired with a player a little lower rated than me which is very rare for me in these events and especially after three rounds. Usually by round 4 all of the weaker players at my level have abandoned the tournament and I end up playing someone rated 1199.

Finally a chance to test myself against someone on my own level but that brings its own kind of nervousness.

The game was going well enough. I had the White pieces and was comfortably ahead in the endgame when disaster struck! 

Danger!!! Danger!!! Danger!!!

My darling wife and daughter were having what they like to call a "philosophical debate" in the same family room as my laptop etc. As the debate got louder and LOUDERRR....

My concentration wen't from its usual "woeful" to something resembling that that of a goldfish with a learning difficulty.

"I present Exhibit A your Honour."

Here's the position. I had White and Black had just played 31...Rxe3

I did what any Patzer would do. "Patzer sees check...Patzer gives check" and played 32. Rf8+

That's the first big drop in the analysis graph. My opponent was kind enough to give me a few opportunities to get back in the game which I politely declined.

Needless to say, I lost the game. I had the regulation dummy spit (you lose a s***load of rating points when you tank against someone lower rated or your own level!) and picked up my laptop making a tactical retreat to the bedroom.

This was possibly the most brilliant positional masterstroke of the tournament! 

Now my wife and daughter were mad at me for getting made at them and their original argument was forgotten in the face of a common foe. That's GM level husbandry right there!

I thought I'd post my final Round 5 game this week because it's the first time in a tournament I've had a much higher rated opponent offer a draw.

I had the White pieces for this final round and my opponent was rated 1211 at this stage of the tournament compared to my lowly 957. Man that loss in Round 4 cost me points!

Here's the game:

 

I accepted the draw offer and I think that meant my opponent won the tournament. I clawed back a few rating points for the draw.

The post game analysis shows I was up 2.94 but I accepted the draw offer because:

A) My opponent was higher rated

B) My accuracy for this game was 45.6 (my opponents was 15.7 but you don't know that at the time)

C) I'd never had a much higher rated opponent offer a draw before..

Overall 2 wins, 2 losses and a draw.

I did score a few rating points but the loss in Round 4 cost me dearly.

In my lesson with Kestony, we discussed my games but really, my playing is typical <1000 player. Some good idea let down by poor Tactics and a lack of Calculation when it mattered. We went over some more Tactics chosen to see where I was thinking and to catch me out when I failed to Calculate and just played "Give a Check and hope for the best."

I've been continuing to do at least 30 minutes a day of Tactics puzzles on various platforms and it's definitely improving my ability to spot patterns I've already seen, or slight variations on them. The tricky bit for me is that very many of the Tactics puzzles of the "Mate in 2" or "Mate in 3" variety seem to start with either a check+ or a piece sacrifice.

I found myself a little too often jumping at the first check that crossed my path, only to discover that Kestony had chosen puzzles designed to catch me out for doing this. He coached me patiently through the ones I struggled with, offering hints designed to get my thinking process on track and force me to visualize and calculate rather than just play "Hope Chess."

We then moved on to what I think is one of the most fun and exciting things you can do studying chess: Analyzing the games of the Grand Masters. 

Not long ago Kestony had gifted me the Book "Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953" by David Bronstein.

In much the same way that your personal fitness trainer might give you a set of dumbbells as a supplement to your fittness program, this book was Kestony's way of just giving me a little inspiration and something to pique my interest and enthusiasm for the game.

I took it upon myself to play through the games but rather than just move the pieces and read Bronstein's annotations and commentary, I decided to use it as a workbook.

For each game, I choose to play either White or black and I cover the moves in the book. I find a pgn of the game online, (just Google "Player A vs Player B Zurich 1953 +pgn") and load it into the analysis board on your chosen platform.

I then cover the moves by hanging a pice of folded paper over the laptop screen and play "Guess the Move" as I work through the game.

After each move of my "Opponent" in this case White, I try to follow Kestony's advice and ask myself "What is he threatening?" and "What does he want to do?"

I add my thoughts and reasons for my move choices into the game as annotations and then click on next move.

Sometimes I'm right, many times I'm wrong and sometimes I'm right but for all the wrong reasons.

In any case, I found the exercise incredibly fun, incredibly challenging and incredibly rewarding. 

Here's my effort at the game Kotov vs Stahlberg Zurich 1953 (It's game 8 in the book from memory)

 

 

It takes me quite a few hours to go through each game doing this but I think it's well worth the time spent. Apart from finding it enjoyable, I find the exercise in thinking and calculating to worthwhile in and of itself.

There's no questioning the fact that someone with my lowly rating is never going to understand the mind of a Grand Master and guess all the moves. That's not the point. Just by spending the time doing this exercise you absorb ideas and when the GM makes a move completely different to what you would have chosen, you get David Bronstein explaining the WHY?

Even better, if you go over your analysis of these games with a great coach like Kestony, you get an understanding of why your plan might have been not so good, or even that your plan was fine, just different to what the GM chose, etc.

This was a really fun part of the lesson and my understanding of the game is improving all the time. my Tactics need to catch up to my grand strategic ideas though.

We finished the lesson as we sometimes do, with Kestony sharing his screen whilst playing against increasingly higher rated opponents and explaining the plans, ideas, inaccuracies and outright blunders as he played. I get to suggest a move, sometimes I'm right, many times not. (how to tank your rating: Play hand and brain with a 950 player as the brain. lol )

The lesson went way over time but we were both enjoying it and Kestony's enthusiasm for the game is infectious.

Until next time, I hope everyone is well and remember "find somewhere quiet to play."

 

 

This is a very good retelling of the last lesson.  Thanks.

some people will naysay that “those master game books are way above your level...” but just going over them and seeing the positions that arise and where they place their pieces has an impact

and if you are doing it as you are and have a coach to soundboard off of even better

i would guess your rapid rating will jump several hundred points in the next six months

(just looking quickly at your “draw offer game”- the board was opening up, you had two bishops, two rooks on open files, and an opponents king all alone in middle of the board)

i totally get “accepting a draw from a higher rated opponent” but for us to improve we have to embrace the discomfort of pushing beyond our comfort zones

(i also get the hassle of trying to play with family all around- it doesnt work for me; i am unable to play at home unless i am by myself; c’est la vie)

good luck with your continued success

The Irving Chernev books:

“Logical Chess Move by Move”
“The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played”
“Casablanca Best Chess Endings”

are all extensively notated and the first one is especially good for beginners. I’m enjoying it alongside the Zurich book.

Chernev I think deliberately “over annotates” in “Logical Chess Move by Move” to help clarify everything for beginners.

I also discovered a love for Capablanca’s games from reading Chernev’s books. Casablanca just seems to play very simple, very logical, very accurate Chess.

These books are good but there are better and faster approaches to improve at your level .

Just started logical chess and enjoy the method to work through the games 

This is an interesting thread/blog. As someone who started 6 months ago, it's all very relevant! Please do keep it up.

hmm

I should be doing the same. glad things are working out.

Mhm.

Play this at your level and you will win more than with your expensive coaching - or at least reach a playable position.

That's a nice trap but I think Black kind of has to play into it. Coaching is quite reasonable $ if you look around.

Hi Andrew George here if you are looking for help are web site to go to is chessfox.com very good site will help you in your game

Or You can Contact Dark Knight ! 

Thanks for sharing your experiences. It is really useful for another beginner.

 

Funnily enough someone tried this on me almost immediately after I read the post. I didn't find it that hard to defend and I'm a 1050 player. I suspect it may work as a sucker punch against the unwary; it strikes me as the kind of thing someone gets you with once and then you can see coming. Bit like the fried liver.

Someone did get me with a very clever knight/smother mate trap the other day though; I must see if I can dig it out.

To the OP - I'd be interested to know how much time (if any) you've spent on avoiding (or playing) some of the more obvious traps.

I haven't really spent any time studying the myriad of opening traps. I think I've fallen for more than a few. At my low rating, you often encounter players who will launch a blitzkrieg right out of the gate and it seems to go against all the opening principles you read but unless you're careful, you get caught out by it. 

I take such things as they come, analyze afterwards and try to remember how to refute the trap. 

There's always going to be a trap or line i haven't seen yet but losing is learning and at my rating, it's more about learning than winning. 

Thanks for the encouragement. I tell myself the same thing. I also tell myself that lack of board vision, moving too fast and outright blunders are endemic for beginners such as myself. 

I do my best but I have a basic right, as do all beginners, to make fundamental mistakes. It's part of learning and improving. The coaching helps me with identifying the thought process (or lack of) that led to the mistake as well as motivating me to keep working and studying.

Any form of learning requires a feedback loop. getting coaching from a good coach just makes that process more focused and efficient. 

It doesn't guarantee instant results but it does inculcate a mindset and work ethic and helps avoid wasting time on areas that aren't so important at my level. The game report can tell me what mistakes I made. By keeping notes (I use the voice memo on my phone) as I play, and then going over my games and my thinking with my coach, I get a better understanding of the flaws in my thought process.

I wish you well.

wth- you dont get to tell people what to do with their money

btw- darwin was a pitz