And I did the first four levels of CT Art yet again.

I am embarrassed, though. I probably went through the exercises too quickly, and therefore didn't improve. I calculated less and played more moves that "looked" right.

Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 92%
Level 30: 79%
Level 40: 73%

Oops! Just like last time, except worse on level 10.

Today's super fun happy chess post.

I'm up to Alekhine's match against Capablanca in his game collection. I've noticed that I have been going over the games faster lately. I went through two this morning on the train. I think this is not good. I should make a conscious effort to slow down a bit. I think one per train ride is a good pace for my purposes. It's enough time to reflect a bit on the game and work it out but fast enough that I can do it.

I played two quick games at lunch today against the ~1650 player. He's been wanting to play me ever since my success last month. I won one - he made a mistake in the Najdorf and I stole his queen. I lost the next. I need to figure out how to go against his "slow kingside buildup and attack" plan in the Two Knights with d3. I think maybe I need to be more aggressive and open things up before he can get it rolling, as he keeps his king in the center for a long time.

Anyway, I've been having some fun playing games besides chess lately. I played softball last night and I'm going to a "game night" at a friend's tonight. He's a chess player, but we're going to be doing other board games.

I'm not going to go to the Chicago Class tournament, but I will go to a tournament on Sunday afternoon. I just can't spend an entire weekend at a tournament right now (or spend $100 on entry fees). I can justify spending a Sunday afternoon and $20, though. It would be unrealistic to expect as good a showing at this tournament as last month's, but I think there's a good chance I'll do okay. I'll be happy if I win one game and play some good games against stronger players. Okay, scratch that: I really want a performance rating over 1500 for this. That's modest. So, if I can win one game and have a 1500 performance, I'll call that a good showing. There are plenty of reasonably rated people showing up to this event usually, so that might not be a problem.

Boost Your Chess!

I started Boost Your Chess 1 and am enjoying it. More of the same good stuff. It is very nice.

On chess.com, I just bungled a game against a friend of mine, but he bungled it, too, and I managed to get him to force a draw. I don't know whether I had a forced win earlier, and since it was a three-day-per-move game I probably should have taken more time to verify I did not (I'm pretty sure I didn't). But I am happier with the draw than with the loss for sure. One thing I don't like about chess.com is that it presumes that somebody who is unrated is 1200 when it calculates how your rating takes a hit.

I also started up a game against somebody who turned out to be undefeated and, though only rated 1865 on chess.com, is rated 2000 in real life. He's only 1865 on chess.com because he has mostly played low-rated players. My only hope, I think, is to go for a "correspondence game" type position - sharp tactics and what-not and hope that my theory ends up being sharper than his theory, but it looks like he's playing a staid line of the Vienna Game. Drat!

In other news, I'm taking up the role of co-captain on my company's CICL team.

Finished Build Up Your Chess 1

I found it tremendously helpful and informative. The exercises were hard work and were very rewarding. I am going to review the material some more, play over some of the variations in the chapters and exams a few more times to make sure I've got it all and then I will start Boost Your Chess. I have to guard myself against laziness in doing this, especially as I work these things out on the train. You are supposed to go over every variation and spend 1-2 hours on each lesson. Then you are supposed to spend 1-2 hours on each exam, writing out all the relevant variations. The temptation to do less is great. I passed the final exam with a "Good" score, but not "Excellent", and there were a couple problems I just did not get at all.

Still undecided about what I'm going to do in terms of chess tournaments in the next few weeks. There are several opportunities to play on Sunday afternoons and there is the opportunity to play in the Chicago Class, but that would take all weekend and the wifing unit might feel neglected if I do that. I'm taking the car in to get some work done on the brakes, so I might not have it back by this Sunday, so that would answer the question of this week's tournament. Beyond that, who knows?

I played better on the second day.

I won both my games for a final score of 2.5/5 (I took a third round bye). My opponent from the first game in the tournament won the section, he played very well. My first win was against the guy I played in the last round of the Evanston tournament a few months ago. He played the English again and I was a bit more ambitious. I think I had a bit of a positional advantage and then he slipped up, dropping a pawn. His position fell apart quickly after that. In the second game, I was against a low-rated junior. He played the Ruy Lopez, Classical Deferred, but got himself a cramped position. I used the fork trick to gain some central space and then won two pieces for a rook. I picked up another pawn and then went into an endgame with a rook, two minor pieces, and a couple extra pawns against two rooks. I didn't have to use my super endgame skills, though, as he made a tactical blunder and lost a rook. I think I'll lose a couple rating points from this tournament, which I don't particularly care about. I think I also picked up a few dollars. The tournament seemed to have far fewer people than they had hoped for (50 as opposed to far more, the quoted prize fund in the advertisements was b/250). I think it was because it conflicted with another large local tournament, the FIDE Continental Amateur something or other, which had about 100, as well as, of course, the World Open and everybody's 4th of July plans.

I'm still undecided about playing in the Chicago Class in a couple weeks. It's a choice between that and playing the NSCC G/45 event. On the one hand, I did get some cash money to make the entry fees a little better and it's a long time control. On the other, it takes all weekend and, even playing up a section, I'll probably face weaker opposition than I would at the NSCC event.

EDIT: Going over one of the games on the computer - I realize it's no substitute for master human commentary - I think it's amusing that, for four or five straight moves, Houdini insists that Black needs to play ...Nc5 and White needs to play c4. In retrospect, those are good moves...

I played horribly today.

Perhaps I can redeem myself tomorrow.

EDIT: The first game, I just got steamrolled in the Alekhine. Lost a pawn early. In the second game, I had a pretty decent positional advantage, but I foolishly gave it away to equalize when I thought my opponent had an attack that needed equalizing. I then made a major blunder which lost.

Tournament tomorrow!

I'm playing in the double class tournament starting tomorrow. It's a 40/90, SD/30 time control, which is a little slower than I'm used to, but it's a time control I should learn to play. I've been playing G/90 lately, but I've been going fast because I've been getting winning positions. I'll try to make the most of my time. The SD/30 is kind of fast, IMO, for a secondary time control, so I'll think of this as like a G/120 and possibly leave some time at the end of 40 moves unless the game looks like it won't need that much for the finale.

I think if I win money at this, I'll go to the Chicago Class in two weeks. If not, I'll go to the North Shore Chess Center tournament in two weeks. It sounds kind of lame to predicate this stuff on winning money, but it's one thing to spend $100 on chess tournaments in a month, another to spend $200. Even though it's a shorter time control, I think the NSCC tournament would be better for my development as a player because the players will be stronger than the ones I'd play in the class tournament (even if I played up a section). A challenging (but feasible) G/45 is going to be better than a less-challenging or trivial 40/2 SD/60. As I said, if I do win money, I thnk I'll play in the Chicago Class, but then it's a question of whether I'll play my own section or play up. I just don't think I'll get good games if I play my own section - Section D (!). I probably need to play against B and maybe C players to get a good game. So I could play in the C section - but what about the chance of filthy lucre in the D class? Ah, filthy lucre...