Chess for Beginners

Author: beginchess

  • Chess Training Notebook Week of 12/28/09

    First entry of the new year, and it is time to review my Chess goals and resolutions. So far, I’m happy with my progress, and the new training program I am following is finally giving me guidance and improvement.

    This week was the 2nd and final week of the first cycle of Phase I of the Extreme Chess Training Program which I began on 12/21/09.  Next week I start on Phase II, which focuses on the endgame. I am going to use the end of 1 full cycle of ECT, which is 45 days to play a tournament and do a progress report. I will also post more information on the program upon my completion of my first 45 day cycle.

    Monday 12/28 – Chess Trainer at chesstempo.com. Increased standard rating from 1717 to 1725 1hr and 81% accuracy which is much higher than my 57% average.

    Tuesday 12/29  – Played rated game on FICS & reviewed game afterwards.

    Wednesday 12/30  – 2 Stoyko Tactics puzzles from Imagination in Chess using Tactics Checklist . Spent 39 minutes on 1 puzzle! Total training time was 1hr.

    Thursday 12/31  – New years eve, sneaked in 15 minutes of unrated tactics at chesstempo.com.

    Friday 1/1  – Did Speed Tactics from Bain’s Tactics for Students.  Exercises 93 through 197 with 95% accurracy.  Also, to makeup for Thursday I played a standard game against Fritz 5.32 1 ply (Playing against engine due to Internet issues).

    Saturday 1/2  – Core Tactics from Chess Training Pocket Book. 76% accurracy.

    Sunday 1/3  – Open day – Solved Step 3 tests of Step Method scoring 80%, 70% and 72%. Also did 20 minutes of  Tactics Trainer using chesstempo improved rating slightly from 1725 to 1727. Total training time 1 hr.

  • Dumbing Down Fritz

    I’m having issues with my Internet connectivity, so I’ve decided to play my standard game against a chess engine instead of playing my regularly scheduled standard game on ICC. While I have tried playing in sparring or friend mode, this type of play for me is not realistic enough. What I have done is to use an older Fritz engine, in this case Fritz 5.32, and I have reduced the number of ply depth and the use of an opening book. For my first game, I used the following settings: 1 ply depth, no book and engine Fritz 5.32. The engine did not blunder until move 27, and the blunder it made was very human-like. I would say that it played like at 1200-1300 USCF / 1450 – 1550 ICC human player.

    I’ll continue to play around with the settings, and will post more about them as an update to this post.

    Tests

    Fritz 5.32 – 1 ply depth – no book – est. rating = 1200 – 1300

  • Chess Training Notebook 12.21.09

    This is the first week where I trained using the Extreme Chess Training (ECT) program. I am still beta testing it and I should have more information available the first week of January.

    Monday – Performed 45 minutes of standard tactics at chesstempo.com

    Tuesday – Played an ICC standard game and reviewed it afterwards.

    Wednesday – Did 1hr of speed tactics, using Bain’s Chess Tactics for Students.

    Thursday – Played standard game on FICS.

    Friday – Performed core tactics for 1 hour. Focused on key positions from Chess Training Pocketbook

    Saturday – Performed Stoyko Tactics from positions in Imagination in Chess.

    Sunday – 20 minutes of chess trainer practice at chesstempo.com. Played over Alekhine – Duras 1913 on chessgames.com.

     The program calls for more of the same on the week of 12/28/09.

  • Extreme Chess Training – Updated

    Update 12.25.09

    Here’s an update post on a quick overview of what I’m thinking and doing so far:

    The program is going to consist of 3 phases, each phase lasting 60 days. The first phase will focus on tactics and the following phases will be on endgame and strategy. At the end of each phase, I will participate in a tournament to help gauge my progress. I am compiling positions and content to go along with the program, but I have just recently started doing this and it will take a while.

    Right now I am on week 1 of the tactics phase, and things are going well. A draft of the schedule looks something like this:

    Monday

    Tactics Trainer – consists of doing 1 hour at chesstempo.com

    Tuesday

    Play a standard game and analyze it afterwards

    Wednesday

    Stoyko Tactics – consists of doing 1 hour of positions from Imagination in Chess. These are tough, so taking up to 15 minutes per position is not unusual. I am also using a tactics checklist based on Heisman’s ‘Seeds of Tactical Destruction’ Novice Nook.

    Thursday

    Play and analyze

    Friday

    Speed Tactics – Consists of doing 1 hour of easy tactics. I am using positions from Bain’s Chess Tactics for Students. The idea is to do as many as you can in 1 hour. I am averaging about 120 positions per hour from the Bain problem set.

    Saturday

    Core Tactics – consists of doing positions from the Alburt’s Chess Training Pocketbook.

    Sunday

    Open day – idea is to have fun, take a break or work on any one of the exercises above as extra credit.

    I plan on elaborating much more on this new program with much more to follow, and remember in the meantime to visit the chess.com ECT group.

    Original Post 12.21.09

    I’m currently brainstorming a new chess training program for adult beginners rated 1200-1600 USCF. I have created a group on chess.com for this purpose which you can visit here: http://www.chess.com/groups/home/extreme-chess-training.

    I’m still in the early stages of setting this up, but I will be posting more about it in the next few days.

    Stay Tuned…

  • Evaluating Tactics

    I have started to evaluate tactical positions a bit differently than quiet strategic ones. For this purpose, I am using a tactical checklist, which is based on Heisman’s seeds of tactical destruction. I assessed the position in the using the checklist, and my evaluation is below. You can download a copy of the check list here.

    igc23_bWhite to move

     The King and black rook are on the same diagonal. The only piece preventing the Queen fork is the Bishop, so if the Bishop could be attacked, the fork would work. 1.Rf3 is the logical candidate. After 1.Rf3 the black rook could move to safety, where it would not be victim to the fork…but after further analysis the rook has no safe squares to go where he would be free from the fork. The next option for Black is to defend the bishop with the Queen, but again the Queen has no squares which are not attacked by either the White knight or the White d5 pawn. 1.Rf3  1…Qb7 2.Rxf6 Qb5 3.Qc3 Qf1+ 4.Kg3 Qg1+ 5.Kh4 1-0

  • My Brilliant Brain

    This has been out for a while, but I just got a chance to view it and it has a lot of interesting references to expertise and talent pertaining to chess. Highly recommended.

  • Chess Taxonomy

    I am working on creating a Chessbase notebook (more on this in a much future post), and I am working out a way to effectively categorize my chess content. Below is a draft of the taxonomy I plan on using. For example pins would be categorized as Middlegame – Tactics – Pins, whereas King and pawn endgame content would be categorized as Endgame – Theory – K+P.

    Opening

    Principles
    e4- opening name
    d4 – opening name
    Tactics

    Middlegame

    Tactics – Pin
    Tactics – Backrank weakness
    Tactics – Decoy
    Tactics – Deflection
    Tactics – Double Attack
    Tactics – Exposed King
    Tactics – Fork
    Tactics – In-Between Move
    Tactics – Interference
    Tactics – Clearence
    Tactics – Mating Patterns
    Tactics – Overworked Piece
    Tactics – LPDO
    Tactics – Promotion
    Tactics – Skewer
    Strategy – BishopPair
    Strategy – Good vs. Bad Bishop
    Strategy – Bishop vs. Knight
    Strategy – Open Lines and Diagonals
    Strategy – Central Control
    Strategy – Closed Positions
    Strategy – Space
    Strategy – Activity
    Strategy – Isolated Pawns
    Strategy – Backward Pawns
    Strategy – Doubled Pawns
    Strategy – Pawn Chains
    Strategy – Passed Pawns
    Strategy – Minory Attack
    Strategy – Weak Color Complex
    Strategy – Weak Squares
    Strategy – Outposts
    Strategy – Positional Sacrifice
    Strategy – Harmony of the Pieces
    Strategy – Development

    Endgame

    Theory (Mueller / Fine type content)

    Theory – Lucena Position
    Theory – Philidor Position
    Theory – Shouldering
    Theory – Opposition
    Theory – Triangulation
    Theory – K+P
    Theory – R+P
    Theory – RvR
    Theory – Double Rook
    Theory – Queen
    Theory – Minor Piece  
    Theory – Fortresses
    Theory – BvN
    Theory – Bishops of Same Color
    Theory – Opposite Color Bishops

    Practice (Shereshevsky type content)
    Practice – King Centralization
    Practice –  Principle of Two Weaknesses
    Practice – Do Not Rush
    Practice – Passed Pawns
    Practice – Schematic Thinking
    Practice – Exchanges
    Practice – Fight for the Initative
    Practice – Prophalaxis
    Practice – Bishop Pair
    Practice – Zugzwang
    Practice – Fortresses
    Practice – Converting and Advantage

  • Training Notebook Week of 12.07.09

    Monday 12.07.09

    Played G/15 game and drew against opponent rated 1826 in a winning position (I was up a minor piece), but opponent had counterplay and I was down to 4 1/2 minutes on the clock.

    Tuesday 12.08.09

    Reviewed game. Confirmed that position was won. Opponent made a tactical mistake where he lost the exchange. Focused study will revolve against playing this position against Rybka 3.

    Wednesday 12.09.09

    Played won position against Rybka and lost twice!!! I should have simplified the position, since I was up 3 pawns.

    Thursday 12.10.09

    Played standard game on ICC against opponent rated 1710 (I am currently rated 1780 with one more provisional game to go). Lost game due to tactical oversights.

    Friday 12.11.09

    Reviewed standard game. I played poorly, going from a better position to even and ultimately to a losing position. My first mistake was an exchange that gave my opponent lots of activity and counterplay even though I had a material advantage. It is interesting to note, how high Rybka evaluates activity giving it an evaluation of over 1/2 a pawn. I then fell victim to a removal of the guard / pin / deflection combination which netted my opponent my bishop. I kept on playing, and ultimately fell victim to a checkmate, which I totally missed. Focused study will revolve around doing extra tactics.

    Saturday 12.12.09

     Focused on doing tactics at chess.com instead of chesstempo. Noticed that the timer is not helping my solving…dropped approximately 100 rating points!  I prefer solving the standard chesstempo tactics which allow me to take my time to find the right answer.

     Sunday

    Doing extra tactics solving at chess.com.

  • Chess Notebook Week of 11.30.09

    Monday 11.30.09

    Played G/20 20 game against opponent rated 1865. Played the Sicilian Grand Prix and lost in a rook endgame where I was a pawn down.

    Tuesday 12.01.09

    Reviewed game. Made an interesting observation that I would not have picked up on if I had not reviewed game. I lost 2 pawns during the game, because I failed to take back material. I chose to lose material instead of making an exchange that would benefit my opponent.  I have to remind myself during a game that material precedes any other strategic criteria.

    Solved tactics for 15 minutes.

    Wednesday 12.02.09

    Did Chess Tempo for 45 minutes. Was aiming for accuracy, so I only got to do 10 puzzles 65% success rate. I am currently rated 1702.

    Thursday 12.03.09

    Solved tactics for 15 minutes.

    Played G/20 20 game on ICC against opponent rated 1783, I won the game and I am now rated 1780 (still provisional).

    Friday 12.04.09

    Reviewed Thursday’s game. Opponent made several tactical oversights, I made several poor moves in the late middlegame, but my opponent did not take advantage of them. This leads to the importance of reviewing your games, even your wins. After the game, I felt pretty good about my play and I would have never guessed that I made two weak moves that would have converted a won game into a draw if my opponent had acted on them.

    Saturday 12.05.09

    Solved 1 hour of tactics

    Sunday 12.06.09

    Open day. Did 30 minutes of tactics on Chess Tempo. Reached my highest rating yet of 1714. Played a few blitz games on FICS.

  • Chess Notebook Week of 11.23.09

    Started new program mid week, so entries will be from Wednesday through Sunday.

    Wednesday 11.26.09

    Played G/15 5 game against an opponent rated 1687 on ICC (I am provisionally rated 1781 after this game). I plan on playing all of my standard games on ICC so that I can maintain continuity in tracking my ELO rating. ICC rating is approximately 250 points higher than USCF. At 1781 my rating is a bit inflated due to it’s provisional status…it should be more like 1600-1650 IMO.

    Solved tactics on Chess Tempo (30m)

    Thursday 11.27.09 [Thanksgiving]

    Reviewed Wednesday’s game – I won the game, but I came out poorly out of the opening. I have always had issues with the French Defense Exchange variation, so my focus study will be reviewing the French Exchange variation. (1 hour)

    Solved puzzles at Chess Tempo (15m)

    Friday 11.28.09

    Chess Tempo 30 minutes
    Focus Study: French Defense Exchange variation (1.30h)

    Saturday 11.29.09

    Solved (easy non-rated) puzzles on chesstempo (30m)
    Played G/15 5 game on ICC against opponent rated 1865 I am still provisionally rated with an ELO of  1768. NOTE: Next game will be a G/30 time control.

    Sunday 11.30.09
    Reviewed game. Loss stemmed from not calculating all possible candidates and faulty thought process, where I forgot threats I had assessed several moves before. Opponent came out of the opening slightly better. Opening played was the Caro-Kann Exchange variation. Going to focus on Stoyko Exercises to improve calculation skills as well as an intense tactics training session.

    Did one Stoyko exercise from a correspondence game I am currently playing. Analyzed the position for approximately 10 minutes. I also did a ‘Guess the Move’ game on chessgames.com. I chose a Capablanca game where Capa played White against the Caro-Kann defense. The chessgames.com exercise took about 30m.

    Tomorrow Monday I’ll restart the training schedule.