The last weeks have been very hectic, full of work. But I´ve still managed to get my study in, going over one or more annotated games per day, some tactical problems, on the way to and from work, aswell as a few on the internet as usuall.

My play however, has been seriously lacking, I haven't had any energy at all to actually play, and the few games I have played have been terrible. My live rating online has dropped by about 100 points. My correspondance has gone so and so, I'm beating higher rated all the times, but at the same time I've started giving away material against lower rated, haven't had the energy to put in the same energy in those, as against higher rated, I've mostly just tried to get rid of them, and it bite me in the ass.

Tomorrow I'm having my first otb game since the last update, and one week from now there will be a 3 day long weekend rated tournament that I'm joining, in hope to get a few rated games going this season, since it looks like work will collide with the longer tournaments during all this season. I hate working evenings.


And I've also taken a look at the Scandinavian, just for the heck of it, and the only thing I learned was that it was way above my current level. I know it's usually mentioned as this easy to play opening tried out by beginners, but most of the ideas (in the Qa5 mainlines anyhow) are pretty positionall and oriented thowards the endgame. And it's quite obvious that the positionall ideas are above my head, aswell as the opponents. I'm tempted to try out one of the more tactical 2. Nf6 variations, but I might just head back to 1...e5 for now and return to them once I'm stronger. On the other hand, that's pretty much the only thing I've been playing, maybe it's time I start experimenting with some new ideas now.

I have played the Nf6 variation of the Scandinavian for some time and am only now switching because I prefer different types of positions.

I seem to either win or lose quickly with it.

When I tried to sleep last night, I lied awake trying to decide on what defence to chose against 1. e4, and finally I decided in favor for the Scandinavian. But the game didn't go that way, and instead it went into a queens gambit declined. I've been seeing some more queens gambit games lately in various books, so I felt that I should probably have chances for some decent play, even though I'm not booked up on modern lines.



NN 1672 - Tricklev 1450 Draw
1.d4 d5
2. c4 e6
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. Bg5 Be7
5. e3 Nbd7
6. Nf3 0-0
7. Bd3 dxc3
8. Bxc4 c5 About here I felt very confident with my position, I had got in a freeing c5, and I thought the white bishop should be easy to activate, I thought this should give me a decent game.
9. 0-0 cxd4 I was okey with every reply here, but I was hoping that he would take it with the pawn, as he did, I want to practice some against IQP.
10. exd Nb6
11. Bb3 Nbd5
12. Re1 Nxc3 To be honest, I'm not sure how to play against pawn island like this, I'm assuming I point the heavy pieces against them, and then try use the weak spots as jumping boards for my minor pieces? I traded since I didn't enjoy the tactical shots he could get in, and I figured this would slow him down some, while not completely removing his long term weakness.
13. bxc3 b6
14. Qd3 Nh5? I'm not sure why I decided it was a good idea to remove the defender of the black squares, with his queen, bishops and knight pointed thowards my kingside. He didn't condemn this in post mortem, but I consider it rubbish. I should have continued with Bb7 instead, threatening to challenge him on the h7-b1 diagonal and simplify the position a bit where his pawns might have been targets.
15. Be2 g6 Further weakening my kingside.
16. Bxe7 Qxe7
17. Re5 Ng7 This stupid knight only covers the wrong holes! From here on it's almost a useless piece, and if the opponent hadn't been so passive, the dark squared bishop exchange would probably have helped him alot.
18. Qe3 Bb7
19. d5 Rfe8
20. Rd1 Rad8
21. c4 Qc5? Probably rubbish, I looked at Qh6, and thought I saw some resources based on his weak seventh and eight ranks, but the position would probably have been better for white after 22.
22. Qf4? (Defending a pawn when he can initiate a kingside attack, to passive) exd5
23. Nf5 Rxe5
24. Nxf7 Ree8
25. Nh6+ Kh8
Draw agreed



All in all, I was pretty satisfied with the game, I spent almost one hour on the first 10 moves, trying to find my way out of the queens gambit declined jungle, and I thought that I did so pretty decently. Then I did some weak moves making my king weaker, but the opponent then faltered, turned a bit passive and we agreed to a draw (agreed and agreed, he had a forced draw anyway). I should have done better, but I'm pretty satisfied with the opening play. Any tips, pointers, and critisism of the game is welcome, in all aspects of the game.

And I probably should study some pawn play, what am I supposed to do against these various pawn formations?

Tonight I also had my team league game (on fics, the above game was my otb team league game), and it wen't like most of my live games online has been going lately. I went in for an unorthodox variation of the sicilian Chekhover, I sacrificed a pawn for some development, and then I decided that giving away a whole piece, that was integral to my pressure was the best way to continue the game, and resigned.


It's so stupidly frustrating aswell, if I don't play live games online, I barelly get any chess at all, and how am I supposed to improve without chess? All the chess I do get though, is ruined by giving away pieces and generally sucking. Atleast there's a whole weekend tournament to look forward to on friday.

Before work today I popped by the library to see if they had any interesting books in today, and they had, loads! Eventually I skipped a tournament book (these are the most fun, tons of various openings, various players, and various styles, often together with some interesting annotations and fun trivia.) and decided for the Reuben Fine classic The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings, since I´ve already read another book on the openings, and most of it is still fresh in my mind. I will only use this book to read up on the 1.d4 d5 openings, since my Mastering the chess openings volume 2 hasn't come yet, this book ought to be a good enough replacement to learn some standard ideas.

I also picked up Drazen Marovic's book Understanding Pawn Play in Chess, I couldn't say no to this book seeing as during yesterdays play I wasn't quite sure to handle the pawn formations. So this book ought to be an interesting read, however I´m currently checking out the rewiev done on Jeremy Silmans homepage, and he recommends the book for players rated about 1800 to 2200, so maybe this one will be way over my head?

Anyhow, I will read up some on the 1.d4 d5 openings as planned for a long time now, and hopefully I´ll learn something new from Reubein Fine.

I also plan on looking at the endgame this week, after I´ve gone through the 1.d4 d5 ideas. I mainly use Silmans endgame manual to study the endgame, and I figured that this time I'm going to study the 1600-1800 part, hopefully I will step up into the 1600 by the end of this season, so I might aswell prepare by studying the endgame before the weekends tournament. I guess there is no point in waiting with the 1600 chapter untill I have an official rating of it or above.

Today the rated tournament lasting all weekend started, unfortunately the tournament is only 5 games, due to the fact that a game can last up to 5 hours.

There was only one game today. I played as white against someone ranked slightly below me, he played the Sicilian and we went into a smith morra-gambit, he missplayed the opening something terribly, and as early as move 10 he was clearly loosing.

A few moves later we reached a critical position, I could either exchange my strong knights away for a very strong position, up a few pawns, the exchange aswell as his king stranded in the middle of the board. Or I could play a very speculative sacrifice for a king attack. I thought about trading down, but I couldn't resist thinking about the sacrifice, I remembered reading how David Bronstein critisized players for playing catiously and uninteresting. After about 45minutes, one coffe and a smoke later, I decided to play the sacrifice.

And then I lost the game, bollocks. Since it's only a 5 game tournament aswell, my chance for a rating price pretty much dissapeared, bollocks once more.

Well, it is 5 rounds, so you can certainly bounce back. I've had great tournaments where I lost the first round including a 6/7 tournament once. Don't get down on yourself, and please don't withdraw!

Now as for the game, there's a lesson here. Cautiously and uninteresting? Ok, but you had a clearly winning position, so there was no reason to go in for the sacrifice. When you're winning, you should strive to make the position even more simple and when you're losing you should try to complicate. Your opponent got exactly what he wanted as the position became complicated, which gave him a chance to win. A lesson we can borrow from the endgame is when you have control, eliminate your opponent's counterplay and by going into that variation, you certainly gave him a lot to play for.

As an example, in a recent tournament, I had a much better position and my opponent played his knight to h5. I had pawns on h3 g3 and f2. He was possibly considering taking on g3 with his knight, which probably didn't work anyways. I didn't spend any time evaluating that position though and moved my king to h2 as taking the time to prevent his efforts to complicate wouldn't hurt my position at all, and the position wasn't sharp enough for him to take advantage of me spending the move that way. As a result, he had no means of counterplay and his position crumbled a few moves later.

I know you are right Abba, and hopefully I won't make this misstake again, there is beauty in a technical correct win aswell, the complications was a misstake.

I also appreciate you taking your time to answer, getting some advice from someone as strong as you really motivate oneself.


A short update on the tournament.

Day 2 started yesterday, I was paired against someone rated about 250 lower than me, on move 10 I hung a piece and I resigned in disgust over my play.
Since the games last for about 5 hours, and we have one hour lunch in between, I had about 5 hours to spill before the start of the next round, so I played some blitz, went to grab a pizza, and then I joined in the post mortem analyses of various other round 2 games.

When round 3 started I was spent, I had already spent 5 hours playing blitz, and analysing chess, aswell as a nasty cold I've had all week. Game 3 was the first one against a player rated higher than me, he declined my morra-gambit, and the game eventually drawn after some excitement where he got some pressure on my queenside, but eventually the pieces got traded away and he had nothing, aswell as being down a pawn. We agreed to a draw in opposite coloured bishops, there might have been something, and it would probably have been good practice to play the ending out. But we where both to spent after an awful performance so far.


Day 3, I arrived a the club, only to find out that my opponent had called in sick just a few minutes ago, I played a blitz game with another player there, had a cup of coffe, then I went home again. The last round starts in about 90minutes, and I'm heading off soon for it.


Day 2 was a huge dissapointment aswell, losing another game against someone rated alot lower than me (as the player on day 1), I got a draw but the game wasn't to exciting, I was a bit to tired and unmotivated to care about the game.

So far I've got 1.5 out of 4, but the one full score in there I got by default against a 10 year old kid, rated about 1000 with the sniffles. So as of yet the tournament has been a huge loss in rating, and I haven't had to many good games, none to be honest. I'm hoping the last game will be a really exciting one.

I just came home from the fifth and last game, and it was what I hoped, the game that made this whole weekend wortwhile. A really fun and interesting game.

I still lost a few rating points over the whole weekend, but that's hardly of interest. If I deserve them I'll get them back eventually.



: DISCLAIMER :
The following is not a description of what actually happened in the game. Rather, they are the thoughts and feelings that I had during, and shortly after the game. This is not necessarily representative of what actually happened in the game.
: DISCLAIMER :



The opponent was ranked just a few 20 points or so below 1600 he played white. We went into an italian game and he sacrificed a pawn for a strong attack. But he played it rather crudely and I found some defensive manouvers and ideas I was very pleased with. I managed to fight his assault back, and in a desperate attempt not to trade down the pieces his forces ended up on his first rank, being rather passive and useless. I got a strong attack myself, having rather many forces around the kingside, while his was rather passive, and I got a strong attack going. It was obvious that the player didn't like defending, and I eventually broke through.

A small update on what's been happening lately, the blitz tournament that was supposed to happen on tuesday got cancelled in the last moment due to lack of interest.

My study the last time has been going great though, I´ve been putting alot of time into Alekhine's New york 1924, there are some great games in that tournament. I'm pretty keen on getting Nottingham 1936 aswell, these little older tournaments are really helpfull, they derange from theory about the same time my own games do. The change in theory over the last 80 years is really astounding. I've also ordered Zurich 1953, but if possible I would like to read Nottingham, or some other older tournament book first.

I´ve also been putting heavy time into my tactics training, and it's been going pretty great. I'm now and then checking and re-reading some parts of Silmans endgame book to make sure that I have the endgames in my backbone as much as possible.

I've also recently borrowed Tony Kostens The Dynamic english, where he very instructivly explains all the ideas and plans in the various responses to it. I don't plan on spending to much time on it. The plan is to only look at the plans, ideas and example games when they crop up in my correspondance games. And the bulk of my study should go in tactics, annotated master games and endgame.

And I'm also playing a few live games online again, maybe it was just the cold, but I've stopped giving away pieces for no reason again, the last few days. And that allways makes chess more enjoyable.