First Tourney on WCL

I played in my first tournament on WCL tonight. They have a nightly 15 0 tourney at 7pm my time, which is right after the kiddos are tucked away in bed. It’s a four round Swiss, so the maximum time for the entire thing is about two hours.

Tonight there were eight players, including myself. The average rating was 1787, so I was definitely playing out of my league. I was looking forward to seeing how well I could stand up to the big guns. How long could I last?

Round one had me paired against someone rated 1815. I had black, and I managed to play my Pirc against an Austrian attack. I know what opening White played only because WCL tells me so after the fact (I love that feature).

I held my own into the middlegame. However, White had a pretty strong position, and by move 16 I had blundered away a rook. After that, it was downhill.

The second round had me paired against the tourney manager, who was only rated 1620 but played very strongly. I blundered early, and he pounced. I could never really recover after that.

Two lame-o’s disconnected after the first round, so in the third round, I had a friggin bye. Yeah, I got a point, but I’m not playing for the points. So basically I had a half-hour to kill while the other players battled it out. I watched some games for a bit, and I started this blog entry.

The fourth round saw me paired up against someone rated 2085. Yeah. Like I had a chance. I had White, and played my standard KIA. He mirrored my moves, which I was really glad to see, since such a passive defense should have given me the upper hand. And it would have, if I hadn’t been lulled into such a sense of complacency that I blundered away a rook. I was so into developing my position that I didn’t see it coming until after it happened. Yeah – total smackdown. Ouch.

Despite my horrid performance, I enjoyed playing in the tourney. I’m definitely planning to analyze these games, and enter another tournament in the near future.

BTW – I tried to paste the output from Chess Publisher into this entry, so that all of you could experience the titillating thrill of one of my games. But WordPress keeps removing the iframe tags. What gives? I even disabled the WYSIWYG editor to no avail. Anyone know how to get iframe tags to stick in a post?

Learning not to hate Blitz

Three months ago, I considered Blitz chess to be a scourge upon the Earth. A nefarious plot hatched by either Satan, Darth Vader, or the NSA to make me look like an incredible ass. Oh, the blunders that I would make! Oh, the stupidity!

Having joined WCL, I have started playing Blitz again. My current lifestyle does not afford me the luxury of standard games. I will make an effort to build time into my schedule for them eventually, but right now, I only have time for Blitz.

When I started playing more Blitz, I would usually play 5 12 time controls. The 12 bonus seconds that I got for each move seemed to provide me a little more peace of mind. However, the cold hard fact is that I suck at this time control. My rating on WCL is 937. It’s still provisional, but I don’t see it improving that much in the near future. At that rating, it’s awful hard to get someone to bite on my Seek.

WCL has a pretty cool feature. In the main window’s toolbar, there are three buttons, labeled 1, 5, and 15. By clicking on one of these buttons, you are stating that you want to play a game with that many minutes on your clock. Furthermore, you’re agreeing to play against whoever the system pairs you up with. This means that you get paired up very quickly, sometimes instantaneously. Sure, I may be paired up with someone rated 1700, but at least I didn’t have to wait for a game.

Here’s the funny thing. Despite my initial feeling of discomfort about not getting any extra time each time I move, I actually seem to play better under these time controls. My rating for “Pure 5-minute” games is 1280. I’ve won 2 games, lost 4, and drawn 1. My 5-12 Blitz record is 1-6-1.

Granted, I think that the better rating is due to the fact that I’m playing a lot of people rated much higher than me. Oftentimes, I gain ratings points for losing. When I play 5 12, I’m usually paired with someone within a couple hundred points of me, because no high-rated player wants to take a chance against a bottom-dweller like me.

I’m slowly learning not to hate Blitz. It’s really helping me to learn the different variations for my new opening repertoire. I think what I need to do is play a few games of Blitz, and then take the time to thoroughly review them. Figure out what I did right and what I did wrong. Once I’ve analyzed them, then play a few more games, and analyze those. Rinse, repeat. If I integrate careful analysis into the process, it should help me to improve.

Hey, it’s a theory. I’ll run with it for a few days or weeks, and let you know how it goes.

 Breaking News: I just defeated someone rated 1170 in a 5 12 Blitz game, bringing my Blitz rating up to 1008 (woo hoo – 4 digits, baby!). Maybe that stuff I said about time controls was just blather. Maybe I’m just getting better at this…

World Chess Live

When I first started this blog back in June, I looked at several options for playing chess online. I was a member of ICC years ago, but membership fees have increased significantly since then. I wasn’t interested in paying $60 a year, especially when sites like the Free Internet Chess Server have similar functionality and are, well, free. Yes, ICC offers a lot of content, and hosts tournaments and the like, but for me, it wasn’t quite worth the money at the time.

I stumbled across the World Chess Live site around this time, and WCL looked very appealing. It seemed to have a friendlier atmosphere, and indeed, it touts itself as family-friendly. However, this was right around the time that they were bought by ICC, so they were not accepting new memberships. Bummer.

For a few months, I stuck with FICS, and started playing more games on RedHotPawn. As I became more serious about getting better, I considered joining a for-pay online community site again. I was enjoying RHP, so seriously looked into joining that. The night I decided to join RHP, I looked at the WCL site, just for giggles. And guess what? They had just started accepting new members again. Even better – they were running a half-off sale for annual memberships. $25 for a year. Sweet!

Sorry RHP. I’m with WCL for at least the next year. Still love ya though!

World Chess Live Review

As I said before, I used to be a member of ICC. WCL is very similar to ICC, functionality-wise. It probably runs the same server software as ICC. However, most of the server command-line scariness is hidden by their excellent client software, called Dasher.

One major bummer – Dasher only works on Windows. Other than that, I like it very much. It’s pretty easy to use, and I like the fact that it stores all your old games so you can call them up and review them whenever you want.

The WCL community is nice. Everyone I’ve met so far has been respectful. The only concern that I have with the community at this point is that it seems to be fairly small. Every time I pull up the Seek window, there are very few human users seeking games. The Seek window is dominated by bots. And when human users do appear on the Seek window, they are well above my lowly rating level. There are very few people around the 1200 level that seek games.

Tournaments are the same way. I’d love to enter some tourneys, but the average rating level for most tourneys is like 1700 (I know this because WCL tells you this when you choose to view tournament info). I’d like to play in tournaments where I have at least an outside chance of winning a game.

I’m hoping that the small community is a result of the months-long transition period as they merged with ICC. I’m hoping that the once-thriving WCL community will return in the next few weeks, and that many new members will join because of the half-price sale (which runs through the end of October, so stop reading this and go sign up now).

If you’re already on WCL and are interested in playing a game, my username is Petey. Hope to see you there.

A Logical Defense (or two)

In my last post, I described my magical experience discovering the KIA, an opening that is really well-suited for me. However, since I’m obviously not always allowed the luxury of playing White, I needed to find a well-suited defense to use when I had the Black pieces.

Luckily, Yasser Seirawan has a solution for that too. Thanks, Yasser! I owe ya a beer at least, maybe two. After he describes the KIA opening for White, he discusses two more opening solutions, both Black defenses.

If White opens with D4, he suggests the King’s Indian Defense. This opening is very similar to the KIA, except reversed. That means that by learning the KIA, I also simultaneously learned the KID. Efficient! Sweet!

If White opens with E4, he suggests the Pirc. This is very similar to the KID, but has a slight twist thrown in to stop a quick e4-e5. Again, since this defense is similar to the KID, which is similar to the KIA, it is easy to pick up once you know the basic positions.

I’ve used the Pirc in a game or two, and the KID in a few games, and I’ve been able to get to the middlegame in decent shape in all instances.

Now that I’ve played each opening a few times, I plan to re-read the relevant portions of the book to gain greater insight into the various variations. I am still far from mastering these openings. I’d also like to find some discussion about the ideas behind these openings, and the types of middlegames I should try to play for when using them.

My Blitz play has already improved a bit. This is because I don’t spend much time thinking about the opening moves – I’m already comfortable enough with these openings to bang out the opening sequence and even alter it a bit when called for. Because I’m not spending as much time on the opening, I have more time to think during the middlegame, and that is leading to a few wins.

Still lots of blunders (oh, so many blunders), but there has been improvement, and that is encouraging.

Finding an Opening

One of the guys I play against regularly on RHP is someone here at work. He’s a much better player than I am, and he routinely smacks me around the board. But all that beatdown has merely fired me up. I have this intense desire to get better so that I am the smacker, instead of the smackee.

When he plays with White, he usually opens with the Ruy Lopez. I usually hold my own against this for 5 or 6 moves, and then I will make a move that will allow him to gain an advantage. Once he’s got an advantage, I’m toast.

I realized after being bludgeoned a few times (I’m a slow learner when it comes to chess) that I needed to come up with a solid defense against the Ruy. I followed that train of thought a bit further down the tracks and realized that I also needed a solid opening when I was playing White. My usual opening was not very organized – I would just start with e4, and then try to develop my pieces without any real strategy. As you can imagine, my opening would be picked apart easily by anyone with a 4-digit rating.

Up to this point, I had refrained from studying openings. Many people advocate learning opening principles, such as developing pieces, controlling the middle, establishing a solid pawn structure, etc, and then focusing more on tactics and endgames. They suggest that once you become more experienced with tactics and endings, then you can focus on the openings. I agree with this assessment, for the most part. However, I’ve come to realize that having a small repertoire of openings that you are comfortable with will allow you to reach those middle and endgames with a fighting chance. Especially in blitz. If you are hemming and hawing about which move to make in the opening, you’re wasting valuable time that you’ll need later.

So I got out one of my trusty old chess books. I’ve got quite a few of those collecting dust on my dresser. The book I reached for in this case was Winning Chess Openings by Yasser Seirawan. I purchased this book several years ago. In fact, it’s the original edition published by Microsoft Press (his series has since been republished by Everyman Press). I started to read it back when I first purchased it, but after getting about a third of the way in, my head was overflowing with the various opening permutations and I had to put it down. And I had only gotten partially through King’s Pawn openings! I didn’t even get to Queen’s Pawn, or to any defenses.

What I also missed was the last few chapters, in which he tells you that knowing and studying all the aforementioned permutations is nice, but is unrealistic for all but highly-rated players. Then he goes on to present his solutions to the question of which opening to use. For white, he presents the Barcza opening, which usually develops into the King’s Indian Attack. He explains the opening, a few different lines of play, and likely defenses that Black will use. As I read about the Barcza, I could feel the clouds parting over my head and the gentle rays of the sun begin to caress my face. I felt like I had finally found an opening that suited me. Hey! Barcza was a Hungarian chess player, and I’m from Hungarian descent. It was meant to be!

So last week, I started playing the Barcza exclusively. I immediately started two new games on RHP, both as White. I also logged into World Chess Live and started seeking games in which I would play White. I played a lot of games.

And I lost a lot. But it was very encouraging. I wasn’t expecting to win right off the bat, I was just trying to get to the middlegame with an equal position. And for the most part, that’s what was happening. The Barcza just made sense to me, and I came to appreciate its nuances the more I played it. I could see how the various pieces supported each other.

I’ve been playing the Barcza for about a week now, and every day I’m learning more about it and liking it more and more. Last night, I studied some more lines so that I could learn how best to repel Black’s various defenses.

I feel good. This is the first time that I have ever felt confident about an opening. Now when I blunder (something I still do regularly) it’s usually in the middle or endgame, not the opening. If you’re looking for a solid opening that is fairly easy to learn, I suggest you check out the Barcza/King’s Indian Attack. And check out Seirawan’s book. Actually, check out the entire series – it’s the Play Winning Chess series, and it’s currently published by Everyman Press. It’s an excellent series.

Enough blogging for now – I’m off to play the Barcza!

Chess on the iPhone

So, I thought I’d catch you up on how exactly my re-entry to chess was orchestrated. As I said in the previous post, I have been playing a few games of correspondence chess on RedHotPawn.com (you have GOT to love the name of that site). Since that site was blocked at work, I could only make my moves at home. This lead to pretty slow games, averaging about a move a day.

Enter the iPhone (cue fanfare). My iPod was dying after several faithful years of service, so I was looking to buy a new one. When good ole Steve Jobs announced the $200 price drop in the iPhone though, I felt it was my duty to go get one right away. It was only slightly more expensive than the iPod I was looking at, and it had all that extra stuff, like a camera, wireless internet, and email. Oh yeah, and a phone too.

So I strode into the Apple Store and I bought my iPhone (cue fife and drums). I set it up that night and started to play. One of the first websites that I checked out was RedHotPawn. It looks pretty decent on the iPhone, especially when you zoom in and let the board fill nearly the entire screen. As I was playing, I realized that my iPhone would not be blocked at work (since it would be using the EDGE network and not the company’s).  Woo hoo!  Chess at work! (cue mighty fanfare and fireworks).

Since that time, I have been flying through correspondence games, sometimes making as many as 5-10 moves a day. This generally means that a game takes a week or two to play, instead of months.

If you have an iPhone, I suggest you check out RedHotPawn. If you don’t have an iPhone, I suggest you check out RedHotPawn and then go purchase an iPhone.

Back in the saddle again

I took a semi-break from chess for the last few months, and have basically ignored this blog. For shame!

In my defense, I have been playing a few correspondence games on Red Hot Pawn, and those have kept my chess fires burning. I’ve also recently been playing some blitz games on RHP and FICS. Yes, blitz. I know that I’ve cursed blitz in the past, and I’ve cursed it quite a bit in the last few days (as I make one spectacular blunder after another), but along with the cursing has come a new resolve.

I’ve started to focus on chess again in recent days, and am enjoying myself for the most part. I’ll divulge more details in the posts to follow shortly.