CHESSTIGER

Undergoing an operation.

2012-01-26T15:39:00.001+01:00

Due to ondergoing an operation this blog will not be updated for atleast one week.

Must know endgames (part three)

2012-01-23T22:54:00.003+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> Must know endgames (part three)

Do you know where they are?

2012-01-19T23:07:00.001+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> Do you know where they are?

Must know endgames (part two)

2012-01-16T23:34:00.002+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com --> Must know endgames (part two)

Defense? No way, lets attack!

2012-01-13T00:47:00.002+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> Defense? No way, lets attack!

Must know endgames (part one)

2012-01-09T23:59:00.001+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> Must know endgames (part one)

How to set up an improvement plan

2012-01-06T00:52:00.001+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> How to set up an improvement plan

My 100 reasons to study chess

2012-01-02T23:33:00.001+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> My 100 reasons to study chess

Looking forward

2011-12-31T13:17:00.000+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> Looking forward

Christmas special: the answers!

2011-12-29T22:15:00.001+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> Christmas special: the answers!

Answers to Chess questions

2011-12-28T19:46:00.002+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> Answers to Chess questions

Time to get ready for 2012

2011-12-26T23:34:00.001+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> Time to get ready for 2012

Christmas special

2011-12-22T23:44:00.000+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> Christmas special

Chess questions

2011-12-20T22:35:00.002+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> Chess questions

Prodigal pawn asks

2011-12-19T23:34:00.002+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> Prodigal pawn asks

Weekly review report #1

2011-12-17T17:14:00.002+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> Weekly review report #1

Improvement tips by Jeff Coakley

2011-12-16T09:08:00.001+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> Improvement tips by Jeff Coakley

You need all your energy

2011-12-14T23:09:00.001+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> You need all your energy

The perfect early morning tactics book

2011-12-13T22:51:00.001+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> The perfect early morning tactics book

Chess in the early morning hours

2011-12-12T23:00:00.002+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com --> Chess in the early morning hours

2011-12-11T22:25:00.001+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com
--> I shall..., no I will...

Three tips about chess study

2011-11-29T23:21:00.000+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com --> http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com/three-tips-about-chess-study/

Reading and trying to solve

2011-10-21T14:22:00.001+02:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com --> http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com/reading-and-trying-to-solve/

Tactical exercises and the very unusual book about chess

2011-10-13T23:58:00.002+02:00

A new post is up atwww.myfootstepsinchess.com ---> http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com/tactical-exercises-and-the-very-unusual-book-about-chess/

What would you play?

2011-10-03T16:07:00.000+02:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com---> What would you play?

First game with new thoughtproces

2011-09-28T22:12:00.002+02:00

A new blog post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinches.com---> First game with new thoughtproces

Thoughtproces

2011-09-20T23:26:00.000+02:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com/ ---> Thoughtproces

To be active

2011-09-15T23:37:00.001+02:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com/---> To be active

Tactics exercises until I sweat myself a river

2011-09-07T22:26:00.001+02:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com---> Tactics exercises until I sweat myself a river

To do or get punished

2011-09-01T23:51:00.001+02:00

A new post is posted at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com---> http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com/to-do-or-get-punished

Belgium Championship 2011: Part three: the good

2011-07-27T00:38:00.001+02:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com

---> Belgium Championship 2011: Part three: the good

http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com/belgium-championship-2011-part-two-the-bad/

2011-07-24T14:30:00.002+02:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com

---> belgium-championship-2011-part-two-the-bad/

belgium-championship-2011-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly

2011-07-12T22:27:00.003+02:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com

---> belgium-championship-2011-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly

Belgium Championship: Watch my chess game live!

2011-07-04T09:01:00.001+02:00

There is a new blog post up at http://myfootstepsinchess.com

---> Belgium Championship: Watch my chess game live!

Strongest ever Belgium Championschip has started

2011-07-03T09:58:00.002+02:00

A new post is up at http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com

---> Strongest ever Belgium Chess Championschip has started

Enjoy!

New blog up at myfootstepsinchess

2011-06-26T15:33:00.001+02:00

Hi all,

A new blog post is up at myfootstepsinchess.

http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com/5-ways-to-study-chess/

New blog myfootstepsinchess

2011-06-24T09:14:00.002+02:00

Finally, after a long period of pondering, I made the step to a new blog.
I decided to buy my own domain so that I can do what I want with it. No restrictions by the firm or organisation that hosts the server space.

I still need to tweak the design and such but the first post is up. Tonight I will post the second post.

Hopefully to see you all at:

http://www.myfootstepsinchess.com has seen the light.

Once knocked down, now one of my favourite writers

2011-04-27T12:40:00.001+02:00

A new post is up at http://www.chesstiger.be

Once knocked down, now one of my favourite writers

FROM ZERO TO HERO
In the past I always hesitated to buy a book of John Nunn. I did not like his writing style and thought that what he wrote about was over my head, to complicated. Now, I have more grey hairs and some extra years on this planet, I must say that I like the books of John Nunn very much. Actually, I have to say that everybody must read them.
(...)

Chasing away the dust

2011-04-25T16:13:00.001+02:00

A new post is up at http://www.chesstiger.be

Chasing away the dust

After another dust wiping of my chess books. I decided to use the books that I have in my chessstudy. Offcourse, I can not read then all at once. After some consideration, I decided to start with four books.
(...)

Power of pawns

2011-04-17T23:42:00.001+02:00

A new blog is posted on http://www.chesstiger.be

Power of pawns

Yahoo, I have back internet! Seems that something was wrong where the cable of the internet entered the house. Something with acceleration.

Problems with internet

2011-04-05T23:30:00.001+02:00

A new post is up at http://www.chesstiger.be

Problems with internet

Chess soldiers – part two: Queen and King and an answer of question reader

2011-03-31T23:51:00.002+02:00

There is a new post at http://www.chesstiger.be

Chess soldiers - part two: Queen and King
And answering a reader's question

Answering question of a reader

Why are your first posts in this challenge of level beginners?

The reason for this is that I dont want to make the mistake that when I go further in my search to 2100 rating I come to a point where I have to kick myself because I notice that I have forgotten to learn one of the basic things of chess. With this said I hope you now understand why I am going step by step in building the chess knowlegde a 2100 rated player must have.

However, since I do not want to dissapoint my first readers I hereby ask every reader of a level higher then beginner what they want me to write about? Which question do you have about chess? I will do my best to answer the questions in the best way possible for me.
(...)

Chess soldiers - Part one: The rook

2011-03-29T00:58:00.002+02:00

A new post is up at http://www.chesstiger.be

Chess soldiers - Part one: The rook

My first soldiers

At age 8 I loved to play with my plastic soldiers. Ruffles were fun to do. While imitating the noises of wounded soldiers the batles always ended with only two soldiers of the good guys staying alive, my favourites.
(...)

After a week of doing the board exercises

2011-03-26T00:29:00.002+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.chesstiger.be

After a week of doing the board exercises

After a week of practise

After doing the board exercises for 7 days I must say that I am going in the wanted direction. Helas, I still have to work hard to get the board before my mind’s eye. What I have the most problems with is to remember, to see, the diagonals.
(...)

A Chessplayer's battleground

2011-03-21T22:34:00.003+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.chesstiger.be

A Chessplayer's battleground

The Battle of Waterloo (in Belgium) – Wellington defeats Napoleon.
The Battle of Stalingrad (in Russia) – considered one of history’s bloodiest battles.
The Battle of Gettysburg (in Pennsylvania, USA) – A turning point Civil War.

Files and ranks
Every battle has its ground. Above, three examples of famous battlegrounds, and what happened there.
Chess has also its battleground, named the chessboard. The board is a large square, build out of 64 squares, all of exactly the same size. Half of them, are white, the other half is black.
The board has 8 files and 8 ranks. Files are the rows of squares that run vertical, named by a letter (a-h). Ranks are the rows that run horizontal named by a number (1-8).
(...)

Challenge: The road to a 2100 chess rating

2011-03-18T00:47:00.002+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.chesstiger.be

THE CHALLENGE
Ranking of chess players happens by a rating, called elo, after the author Arpad Elo. The average player has a rating between 1150 and 1900 rating. Since we need to rise above average, the goal is to make a 2100 elo rating, either national or Fide (international association of chess).
(...)

Need your help!

2011-03-09T22:35:00.002+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.chesstiger.be

Need your help!

I played a reasonable game not so long ago. My feeling said that i had a better position, maybe even a won position. I started to calculate, one move, another move, another line, another variation.

(...)

How many moves can you see ahead?

2011-03-03T00:06:00.004+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.chesstiger.be

How many moves can you see ahead?

“I only see one move ahead. The right one.” Richard Reti.

What am I doing wrong?
When analysing my last played games I noticed that i made many blunders. After some searching for the why I came to the conclusion that I made those mistakes because my calculation isn’t good enough. The reason for this is that I cannot visualize the endposition of my calculated line, therefor I cannot make an accurate assessment that the endposition is good or bad for me.
(...)

Are you scared?

2011-02-21T23:30:00.001+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.chesstiger.be

Are you scared?
You are playing against a higher rated opponent, does it affect your chess decisions? Do you start the game with thinking that no matter what, you are gonna lose? Do you jump on a draw offer or offer a draw as quickly as you can?
(...)

Exercise the brain

2011-02-16T00:26:00.002+01:00

There is a new post at http://www.chesstiger.be

Exercise the brain

Why do i lose game after game? What is it that makes me lose? It’s not that my opponents crushes me from start to finish. It’s not that my opponents know more about chess then me. After a study of my games i think, i hope, i found the solution. I need to make my brain used to calculation.
(...)

How to turn bad times into good times?

2011-02-13T22:43:00.007+01:00

A new post is up at www.chesstiger.be

How to turn bad times in good times?
You have periods of time where everything in your chess goes wrong. In each game you play, it doesn’t matter against who you play, you eventually make a blunder that cost you the game. You try to save the game but by each move more your position crumbles until there is only a position left in which your opponent has to choose how to win the game. You resign in disgust with yourself. Your opponent happy. You try not to punch out a window or a hole in the wall with your fist. But you can only blame one person for this loss, yourself.
(...)

Thoughtproces, where are you?

2011-02-07T22:08:00.001+01:00

A new post is up at http://www.chesstiger.be

Thoughtproces, where are you?

Have you heard the news?

2011-02-02T23:14:00.002+01:00

There is a new post at http://www.chesstiger.be

Have you heard the news?
februari 2nd, 2011 — Tournament

Ninth round of the team competition of the Antwerp commerce 2011. As always me and a teammate, who lives close to me, drive for about an hour to the place of the chess meeting. Jokes and puns makes the conversation light. The atmosphere in the car is full of gigles and laughter when we arive at the playing venue. When we are getting close to the door of the building it goes wide open and a teammate walks towards us. His face is all seriousness. His eyes reveals that he is shocked by something. “Have you heard the news?” are the first words he directs to us.
...

Official game four with analyse of Yelena Dembo

2011-01-29T12:00:00.001+01:00

Hello all,

There is a new post on http://www.chesstiger.be

Post:Official game four with analyse of Yelena Dembo

See you around!

A new post is up at http://www-chesstiger.be

2011-01-26T23:16:00.002+01:00

Hello everybody,

A new post is up at http://www.chesstiger.be

Lesson five: Think until their are no more captures possible

See you around!

My own domain: http://www.chesstiger.be

2011-01-26T21:48:00.005+01:00

If you have money to spend, what would you spend it on? Would you buy another book? A DVD? A new chess clock? Spent it on the hotel where you stay the next tournament? Maybe you want to save the money?

Hello everybody,

Since I had some money to spend I was taking my time to think about what i wanted most.

I could buy another chess book but I still have so many chess books on my shelf that i haven't read and are only collecting dust. I decided that i had enough dustbunnies, first have to read the books i have before i buy another book.

I could buy another chess program but the programs i have are good enough for a patzer like me. Why should i buy a new program as i have enough programs to keep me busy for a very long time. Already have not much free time to play with the programs i already own. So another chess program it will not be.

What else i wish for? Why not my own domain to put a blog on that i can tweak the way i want? With the wordpress software this isn't hard to do. Only need to pay for the space. Intresting. Think, think, think, cannot find negative things about this plan.

So you guessed it, i have now my own domain on which i will blog in the future.

HTTP://WWW.CHESSTIGER.BE

That is where you can find my blog from now on.
I hope you all will change your links to add my new blog place. I will set up links as quickly as i am able to install it at my new (wordpress)blog.

See you all at http://www.chesstiger.be

Official games three, four and five of 2011: How white turns into black

2011-01-23T22:08:00.004+01:00

When do you play your best chess? Are there factors, before and during the game, that influence your chess play? Do you love playing against lower rated players or are you only happy if you can play against higher rated players?

Third official game of 2011

A week ago we got the line-up of the teams for the second round of the Silver rook competition. Its a regional competition, i guess in the US one would call it a team state championship. I was put on first board of the second team. So friday night i had to play with the white pieces.

On wednesday we got an e-mail that one of the first team players got sick with a contagious eye-infection. So one player out, some changes in the teams line-up and a big search to find a reserve player to not give a forfait. For me no change, still first board of second team.

On friday 14:00h i get an e-mail that another player got sick. No reserve player to be found. For me personal i get removed from second team and suddenly find myself on board four of the first team. If you know that the first team needs six players one can say its a big jump forward.

Anyway, away goes my game with the white pieces. Have to direct the black pieces to a win. Only knowing it a few hours in advance i cannot do any preparation work. My boss at work wouldn't be happy with that. So unprepared and tired of work i get behind the chess board to do my best for the team. I face a 1777 rated talented youth player.

Why i replied 1. e4 with 1. ... c5 i am still puzzled about. I don't know much about the sicilian opening so why on hell did i lash that move out? While i search further for this idiotic decision by me i will let you enjoy the game. You probably can show me lots of improvements for black. Don't hesitate to make a comment about these better moves.

ZT2.pgn

Fourth official game of 2011

Saterday i had to play for General Motors in the semi-finals of the cup 2011 of the royal antwerp commerce federation. In the team line-up we got a week before i was second board of our team. When ariving at the place where the game would be played i heared that our first board,IM Ronny Weemaes, was sick and couldn't play. With other words, i would play first board of our team. So no game with the white pieces but again have to defend myself with the black pieces. This time against a 2160 rated player. Would you have played further in the position i took a draw? And in case of no draw, how would you continue the game with the black pieces?

bekerKFSAH.pgn

Fifth official game of 2011

Finally, on sunday no changes in team line-up. So first team board 4 (out of six) i sit. Again with the black pieces, this time against a 2109 rated player. An intresting game, atleast i find so. Any improvements you can come up with you may let me know thru the comments. Thanks in advance.

NIC7.pgn

Lesson four: analyse and building a (secret) opening repertoire

2011-01-20T21:22:00.005+01:00

During our forth meeting via skype and playchess me and Yelena went over my second official game of 2011. She was happy that i played already more agressive then i did when we first met eachother.

After that we went on to construct a new opening repertoire for me. Offcourse i will not say what we discussed. That would be like giving the questions of an exam a week before the exam would take place. People would know what to expect and prepare something for it. It takes away the surprise effect.

All i can say is that when we went over opening after opening i was baffled at what speed Yelena could give the moves and the plans behind then. I got a little headache of trying to follow the moves and to absorp the plans. I can only wonder when she becomes a grandmaster? When she does get that magic title i hope she doesn't raise her tutoring fees. :-)

Second official game of 2011: the thought proces of an amateur

2011-01-17T20:43:00.019+01:00

What is your chess thought proces? Do you follow Kotov's tree? Or are you more for Silman's imbalances? Or an adept of the Heisman way of thinking?

THE THOUGHT PROCES OF AN AMATEUR

I have to play against Adams G. A friendly 1801 rated guy, only 55 points below my rating so this is gonna be a difficult game. I think he plays 1. e4 so its gonna be a french defense. Probably a long game aswell. I better go get myself a cup of coffee.

1. d4

Darn, my first prediction already wrong. Maybe i must go to the book shop beside the bar and go buy a book with the title:"How to beat 1. d4". I can already see myself at the board turning pages of the book while my opponent looks at me as if i am an idiot. Wonderfull, humoristic, picture.

Focus! You are playing. So what do i know about this opening move? Queens Gambit (declined). Maybe 1. ... e6 and hope he turns to the French opening. What else do i ... ? Just move so you have time left for the rest of the game!

1. ... d5 2. c4 Nf6

Darn, already a mistake. 3. cxd5 Nxd5 4. e4 and i loose a tempo because i need to play with the knight again. 3. cxd5 Qxd5 4. Nc3 and again i loose a tempo because now i have to move with the queen again. What was i thinking? Was i thinking at all? Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

3. Nc3 e6 4. Bg5

Why do they always pin my knight? Is it really that good? Okay, it develops the bishop but that's it, or not? It makes kingside rokade a little, and i mean little, bit more ackward but it's still possible and sound move. I just have to make sure that i dont have to recapture with the g-pawn.

4. ... Be7 5. e3 c6 6. Nf3 Nbd7 7. Be2 0-0 8. 0-0 a6

So far normal developing the pieces moves. Except maybe 8. ... a6. It looks like i weaken the black squares on my queenside but that is just illusion. I dont see white taking advantage of it. I cannot back it up with moves, its just a feeling that i have. Or maybe its because i have some experience with the (semi)Slav.

9. Qc2 h6

I postpone the normal move order 9. ... dxc4 10. Bxc4 b5 11. Bd3 Bb7 because i want to see what white is going to do with his black squared bishop. Maybe not a good idea but i want dont want to be surprised by a white knight jumping to g5 somewhere in the game without me having a defense against it.

10. Bh4 dxc4 11. Bxc4 b5 12. Be2 Bb7 13. a3

Oh oooh, white is planning to play b4 to burry my Bb7. I have no other option then to play c5 in this position otherwise my bishop becomes one big fat pawn. I cannot let that happen. My pieces are developed, time to become active. Time to open the position.

13. ... c5 14. Rad1 Qb6 15. Ne5 Rfe8 16. Nxd7 Nxd7 17. Bxe7 Rxe7 18. dxc5

How to take that pawn back? My gut feeling says with the knight. But what if white replies with b4? Then my knight has to go back to d7 and i have lost a tempo.
Oooops, who is standing there cracking a whip and yelling:"Be active!"? It's my coach, a person who learned me to be confident, to believe in myself.
Okay, time to activate that big piece one has given the name queen. Time to let the lady out and send her into the big world.

18. ... Qxc5 19. b4

What the ...? Why is he weakenig his knight on c3? Now he attacks my queen but i have pinned his knight on c3 now. So i probably stay best on the c-file. Qg5 looks also good but its a death born threath.

19. ... Qc7 20. Rdc1 Rc8 21. Nd5

What the hell! Didn't see that one coming. What to do? The chicken move Qd8 just lossess a quality after 22. Nxe7+ Qxe7 23 Qb2 . So no being the chicken here. Think active. No doubts, believe,be confident! Here we go.

21. ... Qxc2 22. Nxe7+ Kf8 23. Nxc8 Qxe2 24. Nd6

24. Rc7 Bxc8 25. Rxc8+ Ke7 is another possibility and maybe its better. Now black still has three pieces on the board to go for the mate. The white knight on d6 is also short of squares to go to. Must take advantage of that.

24. ... Bd5 25.Rc7 Ne5 26. Rc8+ Ke7 27. Ne8

Whites last move 27. Ne8 is totally wrong and leaves me a nice combination to win the game. 27. e4 was the only move to prevent mate in a few moves, black wins a pawn after 27. e4 Bxe4 28. Nxe4 Qxe4 but has to play well to win. Now whites knight on e8 and rook on c8 are kinda out of the game. Black's knight, bishop and queen are all standing on attacking positions, the right way to give a knock out blow.

27. ... Nf3+ 28. Kh1 Qxf1++

28. gxf3 Qxf3 leads aswell to mate since white cannot defend against Qh1 checkmate.

2de officiele partij.pgn

Third lesson: I have to become more active

2011-01-13T23:47:00.011+01:00

During my third lesson with Yelena, my coach, we went over my First official game of 2011. Its amazing what the difference in calculation power and knowlegde is between a player of my level and that of an international master.

I know now what i did wrong. Playing, and therefor thinking, to pasively. I need to be more active in my play and thinking. I have to stop being lazy and start thinking the right way. Not move my pieces backward but forward.

To end i will give you a position of my First official game of 2011 with a question.

I played 19. ... f5 in this position which is only move if one doesn't want to loose material. Why can black not play first 19. ... Qc5+ ?

Good luck in solving it.

Which opening should i play?

2011-01-11T22:11:00.006+01:00

Are you a 1. e4 or 1. d4 player? Or an addict of another openingsystem? Why do you play the openingsystem you play?

For many years i was a fan of 1. d4 . I liked to play positional chess. Colle(-Zuckertort), london system, had my preference. Other players of my club called me a woodpusher. "You just move your pieces without real action" they said "you bore your opponents to dead".

So for a short while i started to play 1. e4 openings. Just to prove my club friends that i could play active chess. I got a good score in the short period i played e4 as openingsmove. But after awhile things went the wrong way since i did know nothing about e4 openings. So i changed back to 1. d4 .

Helas, i did seem to have lost my d4 mojo. So now i have a problem. I dont know what opening to play anymore. Do you have suggestions? Which opening should i play?

First official game of 2011

2011-01-09T23:52:00.004+01:00

Do you play for your club team?

Today i played in the sixth round of the national interclub. The game didn't go the way i wanted despite me thinking myself a headache. So no analyse, yet.

Would you have played some other moves? Where did i blunder?

nicR6.pgn

Lesson two: No doubts! Believe! Be confident!

2011-01-05T22:21:00.007+01:00

Wednesday i had my second lesson. An exciting hour of chess was over to quickly. Times flies by to quickly when one has fun.

Like the first lesson we went over my openings, the white repertoire this time. It was better then my black repertoire. I know the moves but not the plan behind them. Yelena each time showed me that knowing the plan is more important then knowing the moves.

From the first moves we went to the last moves of our beloved game, namely the endgame. Some intresting examples came on the board. I have lots to learn about the endgame. Me and my coach decided that i will study the two, recently bought, books: "Nunn's Chess Endings volume 1 and volume 2".

To end the lesson we did some tactical exercises. Here Yelena pointed out that by solving the problems i used the word "but" to much. "No doubts, be confident" she always proclaimed when i let the word "but" slip out of my mouth.I could solve the problems but have to believe more in myself. Therefor my new (chess) mantra is: "No Doubts! Believe! Be confident!

Time to read some endgame books and solve more chess puzzles.
Fast forward to the next lesson!

The ultimate chess puzzle book

2011-01-05T00:16:00.005+01:00

I promised my coach i would do some tactics. So i looked at my chess book collection to see if i had once purchased a book with the intention of doing tactics. I found the ultimate chess puzzle book of IM John Emms.

"This book provides a wealth of puzzle positions to test just about every facet of your tactical skills. The puzzles in this book have been selected by analysing games new and old in search of original puzzle positions.

It is very unlikely that even seasoned solvers will recognise many of these positions. Emms, by allying his skills with those of powerful computers, has also made every effort to ensure that the solutions are sound, and that there are no unmentioned alternative solutions.

The book begins with 100 relatively easy positions suitable for novices, and ends with 100 extremely tough puzzles, which provide a mind-bending challenge even for top-class players. There are 1001 puzzles in all."

I wonder why i let it collect so much dust? I know the reason but i dont want to say: "just pure lazyness of my part", but that is probably the main reason. Another reason, and one i have with most of my chess books, is that i get started with the book but after some pages i put it aside to never open it again.

Anyway, i did the first 40 puzzles and i must say that i am neither displeased or pleased with my solving skills. It takes a few moments before i can solve a puzzle but atleast i can solve them. So i guess with a little more practise ... .

By the way, i recommend this book to every chess player.
I am not the only one.

"Leonard Barden, Evening Standard:
"The material is well chosen, and a marking system enables you to assess your performance relative to masters and grandmasters."

Phil Adams, The Manchester Chess Scene:
"Verdict: a useful puzzle book that can be used by a wide range of strengths for relaxation or for serious training. Would make an excellent present for a keen junior."

Einar Gausel,Dagbladet:
"Emms has resisted the temptation to borrow from other puzzle collections... [an] excellent training manual."

Mark Donlan, Chess Horizons:
"(..) exceptional (..) the perfect resource for improving your game by studying tactics and it's accessible to players of all strengths."

Alan Sutton, En Passant: " (..) the word "ultimate" is certainly justified (..) excellent value for money."

Nigel Donovan, Weekend chess: "There were very few positions in this book I had seen before... tackling these puzzles is an excellent way of sharpening your tactical awareness."

Paul Dunn, Australian Chess Forum: "A first class training manual."

J J Walsh, Irish Times:"The layout with six to eight clear diagrams per page is attractive, and the whole work is highly recommended."

Looking forward to my chess lesson tomorow.

First lesson reveals unkown weak spot

2011-01-02T22:00:00.005+01:00

What to expect of a first lesson? How will my chess coach be? May i ask questions or must i just lissen to her explanations and observe the board? A few of the questions which i had before my first lesson with Yelena Dembo. Questions which made me a little nervous.

But as so many times i worried for nothing. After two minutes talking on skype the atmosphere was those of two friends who had fun, relaxed with laughter not far away. I can only agree with Greg, Yelena is a wonderfull coach who knows how to teach.

We went over my openings. Not by showing dry theory but by going over them move by move. What do you play here? Why not play ... move? b6 isn't bad but an immediate c5 is possible and prevents him from taking the centre. ... . With other words, i have the tendency to play my openings even more passively then they already are.

Sometimes i become, or better said want to be, more active in the opening but then i forget the rule that ones pieces must first be developed before throwing the position open. Lots of work needed on my opening.

Another point we discussed is that i am to lazy in my analysing of a position. I seem to have the habit of narrowing the board to the bit where i plan my action and forget that there is a whole part of the board i dont even take in my considerations when planning a move. By doing so i miss possible combinations. Chess is hard work, every second the game lasts.

To finish we did a few tactical exercises. I could solve them all but for some Yelena first had to ask me some relevant questions before i could come up with the correct plan of action.

I can only say it was a splendid lesson. A real eye opener for me was the fact that i narrow the board and forget to look at the whole picture/board. A second (big) working point is to get rid of my lazyness, my analysing must improve together with my visualisation skills.

Looking forward to my next lesson on wednesday.

Chess coach

2011-01-01T20:58:00.005+01:00

I know, i am to late with my post. The reason is that i stopped trying to just take the time allocated by the ICS course. Taking my own tempo. Also, i find that the ICS course is not really my way to improvement. I need somebody to tell me what my weak points are and how i can improve them.

So, you probably guessed it already, i searched for a chess coach. I found one thanks to twitter where i posted my concern of needing a chess coach to reach 2000+ rating. If there was a list of chess coaches or some websites i could pick one? Somebody reacted on my tweet.

That somebody i hired as my coach. Some of you know this person very well, especially Greg. He always speaks with much praise about her. Yes, its the one and only Yelena Dembo.

Tomorrow i will have my first lesson. Looking forward to it.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, HAPPY NEW YEAR everybody.

Belgium Championship, part three (rounds 7-9)

2010-08-02T12:28:00.005+02:00

With 3,5 out of six rounds i am still on schedule. But i had no time to relax. Every day a game of 2 hours for forty moves and 1 hour KO in heatwave tempatures (around 35 degrees celcius) makes it in more then one way a sweaty bussiness despite the fact that the airconditioning made it a little bit cooler (about 5 degrees) in the playing venue.

Also, being a member of the organising club makes it that you cannot relax after the game since their is always something that needs to be done on the organisational level. Lucky for me our club has marvelous members so the load of the work was carried by many shoulders.

So far my switch to 1. e4 has gone reasonably well. But without any book knowledge things must go wrong at some point. The game of round 7 was my worst game of the tournament. I never was in the game, running after the facts, no real idea what to do or what i was doing.

Round 8, wasn't a game for briliant play but atleast i had some idea what i was doing, atleast after the opening phase. :-) It was my shortest game of the tournament. Not because of wonderfull play by me but by a blunder of my opponent.

Round 9, my opponent had prepared himself by looking up my games in chessbase. Apparently i am good enough to have games in that database of high standard games. However, he found only games with 1. d4 as opening move so when i lashed out 1. e4 as first move he thought i had prepared myself against him aswell. He decided not to play his normal variation of the sicilian defense. With other words, i had a little psychologic advantage at the start of the game since now we where both on not so familiar opening territory.

By rating i was 45th in the open division. With my score of 5,5 out of nine rounds i finished at the 33th place in the standings. A better result then i expected coming out of a six month slump.

Belgium Championship, part two (rounds 4-6)

2010-07-24T15:25:00.003+02:00

Because of my good start of 2.5 out of 3 i got to play on the seventh board in round 4. My oponnent Van Vliet D. opted for the french defense against my 1. e4. Since i only decided before this championship to switch to 1. e4 i hadn't time to prepare so my opening i would have to play by experience of games i played in the past. Lucky for me i play with black also french so i know atleast something about this opening.

Here is the game.

Round 5 i had to play against Schuermans, R. (2104). I played a good game but in the end i went (wanted) to far, played 32. Qd6 instead of 32. Qe5 and payed the prize by getting mated. Darned.

Here is the game.

Round 6 i think i was lucky that my opponent didn't play agressive so that i could fight myself back into the game with a draw as satisfied result for me against Hajenius, W (2050).

Here is the game.

Belgium Championship, part one (rounds 1-3)

2010-07-13T14:54:00.011+02:00

The Belgium Championship was played from 3 to 11 july 2010. I hadn't played for about two months so i hadn't any expectations. I just wanted to see if the advise people gave me after my previous blog namely to change my opening from 1.d4 to 1.e4, was something to pursue in the future.

My first game was against a 1400+ player. With black i played the french opening but felt really rusty so after some tries to win an endgame with N+4pawns against B+4pawns i agreed to a draw after i didn't see any chances to win anymore with my knight that was tired of jumping all over the board.

Second game against a 1300+ player went alot easier. With white i played 1.e4 and got 1.e6 as reply. Normally i would have replied with 2.d4 but i decided to do it differently and played 2.Nf3 just to avoid theory. The game went in my favor very soon and after a bishop sacriface on h6, which wasn't accepted, i had no problem to finish the game with a win.

Third game, with black, against a 1700+ player didn't start well. I lost the quality and white had all the play. But with a tactical trick of removing the defender (see diagram at the left: 1. ... Rc1+ 2. Rxc1 Qxb5) i got Q and B against two rooks and soon after i would win another rook after which my opponent resigned.

Here is the game of round 3. I would have also gave you the games of round 1 and 2 but somehow my notationforms ended out in the washing machine with paper pulp as result.

Next blogpost i will discuse rounds 4 to 9 of the belgium championship. But for now i need my time to prepare a little (mostly rest with this warm weather) for the international tournament of Gand which starts this saterday. Until later

HEART

2010-05-31T14:11:00.003+02:00

When i started this blog i thought writing one post a week would be easily done. But somehow things went differently then i anticipated early on. Somewhere in the past i lost my drive, my energy, my will, to write.

Lost my drive to write because i got in a negative spiral concerning my chess results. Posts about kicking myself in the head, gut and balls, time after time, isn't what people want to read so i decided to not write and after a few weeks of not writing i stopped trying to come up with entries alltogether.

Lost my energy to write somewhere on the road from work to home. All i wanted to do after coming home, doing some cooking, eat and clean up the dishes, was putting my body into my comfortable sofa and watch a little tv while trying not to fall asleep.

Lost my will to write after not writing for a few weeks. It seemed that writing something,anything, which was once a pleasure to do, became an enormous work. What was once fun and enjoyable now felt as an enormous labour to do. Labour i couldn't get myself doing after a tiring day at work. So somewhere in the past i lost my heart for writing.

Coincidently it was at the same time i lost my heart for playing chess. My bad results chess game after chess game had sink my courage into my shoes and sometimes into the ground. Chess became labour, work. It went so far that even before i had to play a game i was already calling Murphy with thoughts of "And how will i lose today?" or "I bet for 10 euros that Caissa will let me loose today".

So at the moment i am searching for my chess- and writing heart. Did you see it somewhere? I need it when i am gonna play in the belgium national championship open section from 3-11 july and in the international tournament of Gand from 17-21 july.

New belgian ratinglist has come out

2010-01-01T19:06:00.006+01:00

The new belgian rating are out. I have been looking forward to it for awhile since in the midst of the year i dropped out of the 1900st to 1897 belgian national elos. How strange and stupid that it is, i felt hurt and pain when i dropped out of the 1900st.

I had been a 1900+ player for so long that it felt weird not to be one anymore. So when i got my first glance on the new ratinglist my heart made a little jump of joy. I am back a 1900+ player. My rating got up with 10 points to 1907.

However, if i look at things over a year i can not feel happy. In the total of a years time i have a total standstill. Zero rating points raised, zero rating points lost. With other words, i am not constant enough in my chess strenght. The first part of the year i played under my 1907 level while the second part i played stronger.

I hope i can maintain this level of play i have had the last part of the year and so come closer to my (for now) ultimate goal of breaking that magical 2000 border. So if you wish my good things for the new year pray that i reach my goal quick. :-)

Thoughtproces and something about practise-study ratio

2009-12-23T15:07:00.007+01:00

Many questions have been asked about thoughtproces. Many answers have been given, both by respected chess players like IM Silman, NM Heisman, GM Kotov, GM Aagaard, ... and amateur players from my chessclub and in the blogosphere.

The best answer so far,in my personal opinion,comes from GM Natalia Pogonina at her chess.com blogpost "getting-better-in-chess-critical-mistake-to-avoid".

She is right on the money when she writes that a suitable thoughtproces can only be formed by playing lots of games. By games i mean not bullet, blitz or rapid games (which are only good to get a feel of new studied openings) but games of atleast 60 0 (60 minutes and 0 seconds increment) because afterall you must have some time to think during the game at hand.

The rules, examples, of thoughtproces given by Silman, Heisman, Kotov or Aagaard one must see as guidelines, not law. Because i can honestly say that my thoughtproces isn't 100% the same as one of the mentioned players/authors. I have taken a piece from here, a piece from there, a chunck of ..., to mould my thoughtproces and so have many other chessplayers that i know.

In this article GM Natalia Pogonina also writes, and i quote: "success is 80 percent practice, 20 percent study". With this i have a problem because if i study one hour i must have 4 hours of practise. I doubt my practise/study is 4/1 based, rather 1/1 (or 50-50 if you like it more percent wise).

Does that mean i will never face succes? Offcourse not! I will never be GM or even IM but i have seen many players, who are in the same situation as i, namely "working class" who can reach FM-level. Some even make it to IM but they have something that i dont really possess namely chess "Talent". I have to work hard for every little rating point i can get my hands on. :-)

I guess for us, working class people, a ratio of one serious game (of atleast 60 0)a week is sufficient to go a long way in the practise department. Wich means about 50 games a year, which i know from personal opinion, is doingable. I have about 43 (official) games a year, if i dont count in the games i play in a major tournament in the summer holidays. The quickest timecontrol is 40 moves in 2 hours + 15 minutes to end the game. So if i can do it, so can you.

To end i wish you, dear reader, best of luck in your endeavours, both on the chess front as in real life. Have a happy and pleasant 2010.

A.C.I.S. of Caissa: The plan

2009-12-21T22:36:00.004+01:00

It took me a whole lot of time to come up with a suitable plan of action. I still am not sure i gonna follow the right path. But i have to make a decision and move on, standing still isn't an option. So after the celebrations of christmas and new year my study plan will be Total Chess Training of Convekta.

Total Chess Training contains five unique, training programs on one CD. Chess Tactics Art 3.0; Strategy 2.0; Encyclopedia of Middlegame; Encyclopedia of Opening Blunders; Studies 2.0 covering every phase or aspect of the game. All in all Total Chess Training includes more then 9000 commented games and positions to be solved for chess players with ratings from 1800 to 2400! Total Chess Training is the product of the best Russian chess instructors' efforts. Take advantage of their training and knowlegde now, and rais your playing level to a nez standard.

How did i make this chess study decision? Mostly thanks to talks with my friend the IM. Without hesitation, or batting his eyes, he ensured me that i have the already the qualities and the strenght of a 2000+ player and that he was kinda shocked to hear that in the royal belgian chess organisation my rating is only 1897.

He advised me to work on my thoughtproces with this total packet of total chess training. Solving all the exercises, tactical as strategic as middlegame as fun opening bloopers and studies will help strenghten my thinking during a chess game because i will need to think during all these exercises and studies.

My plan may look one-sided on thoughtproces but since it contains all aspect of the game, expect endgame, its certainly a total package. So cross your fingers and pray to whatever God your religion descrive and lets hope that its enough for me to break that magic 2000 rating border.

Against the leaders

2009-11-25T14:29:00.008+01:00

Fourth round of the national interclubs was played sunday 22th of the 11th month 2009. We had to visit the current leaders, KASK 1, a team formed by 3 2100+ and 3 2000+ players. Not an easy task but chess games are unpredictable, so we had a sparkle of hope to get a surprising result.

I dropped from board 4 to board 6 since two of our 2000+ players who can only play a few rounds were able to come and help our team. This made that the difference in team averages was only 52 points (2087 against 2035). Would we be able to deliver another surprise like we did previous round?

Our first board, only 20 years old but already sporting a 2170 rating , won relatively easy after a nice kingside attack. Fifth board fought hard for a draw and saw his efforts rewarded. Third board forgot his openings theory and went down horribly since his opponent who had 100 rating points more knew what he was doing.

Sixth board,thats me. Suffice that i show you the game. Let me know where i could have played better moves, improvements are always welcome.

Johan.pgn

Which brought us to 2.5 - 1.5 in our favor. Two boards left to finish. Hopes for a tie were uttered.

Second board miscalculated so instead of winning a piece he went to lose the game. Fourth board sacked a piece for the attack but when the attack died so did the game for our player. Endresult, we went down with the smallest margin, 3.5 - 2.5.

So far i may not complain of this National interclub season. With 2.5 out of 4.0 against an average of 2023 elo rating i scored way more then i should with my 1897 elo. So hopefully i will be back a 1900+ player when the next ratinglist comes out.

A.C.I.S. of Caissa

2009-11-19T09:53:00.003+01:00

Caissa, the goddess of chessplayers, has another group of worshippers, namely the Adult Chess Improvement Seekers (A.C.I.S). Its a group that is built on the ashes of the Knight Errants who went thru hell, and burnt themselfs at the flames, trying to follow the time consuming seven circles quest to the holy chess grail which their priest Michael De La Mazza described in his bible Rapid Chess Improvement .

Founding father aka Blunderprone's has written a decent A.C.I.S birth post, which you can find at adult-chess-improvement-seekers-acis. I suggest you go and read it at Blunderprone's wonderfull blog instead of me getting a lawsuit for breaking copyrights rules, or said otherwise, i am to lazy to mirror what is already decently described elsewhere.

I couldn't be a member of the Knight Errants because i had neither the time nor the willingness to do the De La Mazza regime which i personally find useless anyway. That i am not standing alone with this opinion proves Jeremy Silman and Randy Bauer review of the MDLM bible.

Dont misunderstand me, doing tactical exercises isn't a waste of time. What i am against is that doing the seven circles is too one-sided. With tactics alone one doesn't come far if one doesn't know how to create a position in which a tactic is present and works. But enough about Knights who run in circles so they become errant seekers of chess improvement. Lets talk about this new movement, the Adult Chess Improvement Seekers, A.C.I.S. in short.

What pulled my attention is that one may choose his or her own study plan. So one isn't pushed towards Rapid Chess Improvement of Michael De La Maza or How to Reassess Your Chess from Jeremy Silman or Novice Nook written by Dan Heisman or International Chess School (ICS) or Lev Albert's Chess Course or ... . This is a good thing because for all we know, all combined may bring a bigger outcome chess wise then following only one of these courses.

I haven't formed a clear, personal, study plan in my head but i know now already that i will mix things up. Tactical exercises + reading (not studying) Novice Nook combined with the more positional orientated course ICS together with comparising to other thoughtprocessess like mentioned by Dan Heisman, Jeremy Silman, ..., will be the basis of my plan of action, but later, in another post, more about this.

What i miss by all those chess courses is the psychological factors like 'How to concentrate' or 'How to built up selfconfidence without becoming an ass' or '...' . Anybody suggestions for those topics?

Sometimes things go your way

2009-11-09T00:19:00.007+01:00

Third round of the national interclubs was played sunday 8th of the 11th month 2009. Games are of timecontrol 2 hours for 40 moves followed by 1 hour quick play finish. With other words, a game can last for 6 hours. Indeed a long game that can give you many headaches and nervewrecking experiences.

My opponent, a 2113 rated player, and i have battled many times against eachother so i could predict his first move namely 1. Nc3 . A move i had many problems with in the past but since i decided to just play my own game against this unusual opening move my results became better and better. Helas, in this game i didn't got good out of the opening so i had to battle for a very long time in a worse position. Lucky for me my opponent went the wrong way somewhere in the game (didn't have time to analyse the game).

Here is, for your analytical pleasure, the played game.Your sharp minds will probably find many improvements for me, the little 1897 player, as for my opponent. Love to hear them!

WHO STOLE MY FREE TIME?

2009-10-14T10:46:00.010+02:00

Its hard to find time to write blog entries when your free time is completely taken by 1. preparing for chess lessons i give on sunday to a group of 4 adults, 2. studying the material of ICS (started back with month one because i forgot to much already) and 3. little preperation for the games i have to play in the various otb team tournaments. So forgive me my silence for the last couple of weeks, silence on my own blog that is.

1. Preparing for chess lessons i give on sunday to a group of 4 adults
Five years ago my chess club decided to start with chess lessons for the youth on sunday from 10am to noon. Quickly we saw that a few parents who dropped of their childeren also were intrested in following chess lessons. So after some talks we, the club, decided to start with a group for adults aswell.

Four year long i teached childeren. I even followed a special course about the stepsmethode (the course we use to teach our youngsters and adults chess) for this so that i know what i am doing and i am happy to announce that i may call myself a licensed chess teacher after easily sweeping the exam at the end of the course. I am now a C-class chess teacher which means that i am licensed to even ask payment for teaching step 1 and 2. But since i love chess and my club i offcourse do it for free.

Four, long, years i had to mildly discipline the loud, noisy, sometimes even obnoxious, little childeren so that atleast they learned something the first hour of the session. More then one grey hair on my head has found its start during such first hour. The second hour i always could relax since then it was play a game of chess time and i didn't mind if they were loud and noisy then as long they kept it between the boundaries of politeness for the opponent.

Four years long i saw my little pupils chess skills grew from absolutely nothing (step 1) to a little knowlegde (step 2) to having the abillity to make a little plan (step 3), not always correct but atleast they do their best to play with a plan and not just move by move in the hope their opponent blunders a piece or walk with open eyes into a checkmate.

This progress made me happy and showed me that i was doing something right. Even the parents (some of which are part of the adult group on sunday) of those kids in my group acknowlegde this since from winning a game of chess easily against their son they now had more losses then wins against them.

During august, before the start (september 6th 2009) of the fifth year of giving chess lessons, it was decided by the group of chess teachers of my club that each person that gives lessons on sunday would switch from group. After some debate i was appointed teacher of the adult group.

We are now five weeks further and all goes well. The first three weeks we repeated almost everything they should know after having had four years of chess lessons and passing the exams of step 1, step 2 and step 3. But since theory and playing are two different things i decided, after some debate with my new group, that instead of going to work directly with step 4's new chess theory, we will first tackle step 3+, which goes a little bit deeper into the theory given in step 3, and also do some analysis of games themselfs played.

So the roughly monthly schedule of my group looks as follows: Week 1 - playing a 30 minutes per person per game game against eachother (purpuse: so they get to play, get the notation of a chess game under their belt); Week 2 - analysis of the game(s) played during week 1 (purpuse: letting them feel that what they have learned isn't just stuff but helpfull material they could (should) use while playing. Time and time again i point this out in the analyse by using the terminology of the stepsmethode course to explain to them why a move is good or bad); Week 3 and 4 - material of step 3+ is taught.

Besides Week 1, preperation takes always plenty of my free time, especially the analysis of the game(s). Last week we did the first time a group analysis and it amazed me and my students that time flew by so quickly. Normally we have a little break at 11am but it was noon, and time to part, quicker then we thought.

2. Studying the material of ICS (started back with month one because i forgot to much already).
July and august, months where you take so now and then a week vacation from work. Hot weather, cold beer, sweat dripping of your body every movement you make. Not really good condictions to sit down and studying chess, atleast not for me. So the study suffered a standstill, my brain cooked by the high tempatures a complete shutdown. Two months no study, two months without even thinking about study. Two lost months since the little knowlegde i got managed to escape my brain.

Oktober, mild tempatures going slowly towards coldness. A hot cup of coffee is a plaisure to have handy. Cosy warm room, a good chair, the ics course in hand, the chessboard set up in front of me, what more does a human want this time of year? Sheer bliss, happyness, joy, delight. First trying to progress where i left off but quickly feeling it's best to start over again from startingpoint. Slowly but certain i will wrestle myself thru this course. Slowly but certain i will understand chess better and better. That is my hope, that is why i am working hard, to get myself thru this course.

Ssssssshhhhhh, silence, here does one study!

3. Little preperation for the games i have to play in various otb team tournaments.
27th of september the National interclub started again. The first team of my club plays in 3th National division, second team in fourth National division and the third team in the lowest division called fifth National division. Almost every two weeks a round is scheduled. So almost every two weeks i have an otb game of 2h for forthy moves + 1 hour Quick Play Finish in 3th National division.

On 27th september i had to play on fourth board of the first team. It was a reasonable game against a 2016 player. Not a game with a wow-factor. Due to a moment of concentration loss and overcalculating i lost the quality (rook for knight). I had seen this a few moves before it happened but it must have slipped my mind. Oh well, better luck next round on 18th of oktober.

On 4th of oktober the competition of the Antwerp Commerce started again also. I am still second board of the first team of General Motors Antwerp, playing in first division. The first round we had to play our second team who promoted to first division last year. We beat them 5,5-0,5. A half a point given to them by our fourth board in a won, but still have to work, position on the board.

11th of oktober, second round, and now we are the team with the lower rating. With black against a 2141 rated opponent. An opponent who has something like a +7 score against me with white. So i know it will not be a ride in the park, it will be working from start to finish. Same opening, 1. Nc3, as always comes on the board but this time i am a little prepared. Instead of going on the fancy tour with him i just play decent moves. In the middlegame i have one little slip but just like me my opponent calculated the right combination as better for me so he didn't dare to play it. More pieces are swapped and after some 35 moves the peace is signed, draw. After the game our first board, an International Master, showed us the right move order after my slip and how easy my opponent would have won the game. Me and my opponent agreed that chess at our level and chess at International Master level are two different things.

That is all folks, until next time!

Painstakingly slow

2009-08-29T11:52:00.005+02:00

I am dead tired each day after one hour working on my chess. I couldn't have guessed that i would be that rusty after three months absence of chess. Even the easiest problems give me a headache. Problems i would solve instantly before my long break i now have to doublecheck to see if i didn't miss anything or just didn't notice after my first scan of a position.

So i guess its time that i dust of my shelf of chessbooks so that i can find the book "Back to basics: Tactics" from Dan Heisman so that beside reading about (beginners) tactics i can also solve the exercises during my half hour of train ride to work in the morning and half hour train ride back to home in the evening. This in the hope that when my eyes visualize something that has to do with chess my brain wakes up, quickly deciphers it, on its own, without me having to pull my hair because of misery first.

So one can say that my study goes reasonable (atleast i always find the solution of the exercises) but it takes time to be a full chess geek again like i was before my break. But, fingers crossed, slowly but certainly i will get at the same chess level i was before and lets hope also beyond.

Vacation is over

2009-08-22T00:01:00.002+02:00

Vacation is over and i am already a week going back to work. It was a lovely time without any responsibilities. Just a leisure time with me, myself and i, mostly away from the chess board, chess literature, chess ... . It was all by all a wonderfull, relaxing time with tempatures which were to high to be comfortable for me.

The only chess i played was during my first week of vacation. I played in Gent at the international tournament. My score 4,5/9 is not bad, expected, nothing out the ordinary. Winning against lower rated (+1700), losing against higher rated (+2100) with exception of two rounds where i drew an englishman, rating 1760, after a boring game and a 1780 rated dutch girl in a game where in the end my piece lost against her three pawns.

The rest of the vacation was only sleeping, watching tv, adjusting to the hot weather.

From monday on i will start all over with the ICS course, i hope to get month one quickly under my belt again so that the chess train is rolling again.

Did you ...? Yes i do!

2009-05-07T14:58:00.012+02:00

Did you never want to start from scratch again so that you could have a blog with only eye-catching and jaw dropping blog entries? I certainly do but it would be crazy to make a new blog again and hope for the best. So instead of a new blog i gonna try to write, compose, such entries on this blog from now on. Fingers crossed and putting my worst critic (myself) at the sideline.

Did you never wanted to forget all you knew about chess (thoughtproces, theory, tactics, ...) so that you had a fresh start all over but this time learning the correct things directly from the start of your chesscareer?

After doing this International Chess School (ICS) 13 month course for a half month i do wish i had found this course sooner. It opened my eyes, i discovered how bogus my thoughtproces is but also how i can fix it. It will be a long, rainy and windy road i have to travel before i get it all right. But armed with a trusthed raincoat, a roadmap and confidence the walk will be a pleasant journey thru chessland.

I can see you shift already back and forwards on your chair with a burning question on your lips. I can see you have raised your arm so that i would choose you to ask the next question. I know which question you wanna ask. But before i can answer it i have to put the proposed thinkingproces by ICS into practise so that i can give you a honest and fair opinion about it.

So lower your arm and stop wriggling on your chair. The secret(s) of thought will be made public later, when i can say it works for me or not, which things are easy to implement or you dont have to bother about. You see, still much work to do but i will do it!

With thanks to Caissa!

2009-04-03T13:31:00.003+02:00

Recently Caissa helped me with my results.

In game one my opponent blundered a piece in a slightly better position for him.
In the second game my opponent blundered a piece in a won position for him.
In the third game my opponent refused to play the winning moves.

So i may not complain about the results of these games (flowers and belgian chocolates where put on the shrine of Caissa) but cannot be pleased with the moves i played although i may also not be to harsh on myself since it wasn't all bad.

But still these games showed me that i have plenty to learn like for example not to look at my opponent's rating. If that rating is lower then mine it makes me a bit disrespectfull of the opponent. Not in manors but in thinking that the game is already won wich offcourse is far from the thruth.

Secondly my will to win has to be better. If i want to improve i even have to go all out against higher rated players instead of being drawishly carefull.

Thirdly, i have to stop worrying about my own rating. It's a number, not something that says how much i will end up with on my paycheck at the end of the month. Worrying about my chess strenght is what i have to do.

Oke, here are the games

Me against 2123

Chesstiger - 2123.pgn

Me against 1514

Me - 1514.pgn

Me versus 2260

Me - 2260.pgn

ME versus 2125

2009-01-14T09:52:00.003+01:00

I read on Korch's blog that players try to be what they are not while facing a stronger opponent. They play opening systems they normally never play, play more defensive. But most of all they come with the wrong attitude to the game so that the law of Murphy will be very effective. They already think before the game that they stand no chance against this opponent. That defeat is already knocking on the door and the only question they have to answer is when to let the unwanted visitor inside.

They forget that it will be just like each other game of chess they have played or will play in the future. Two players at a chess board trying to do their best at the game they love so much. But above all it are two humans who both have to deal with every days circumstances life brings them. They can be tired, frustrated, a little bit sick, have a problem not related with chess on their mind, are to much distracted by that beautiful blonde across the hall, ... .

With other words, each game has to be played. The outcome is not set at the start of the game but at the end. As proof of that i offer you a game that i played on friday the 9th of january against a player rated 218 points higher then me. It may not be my best game but i played "my" game. I didn't become another player, i stayed true to myself.

Just for your information. In the gamesheader you will see that i named myself logis instead of chesstiger. Guess i got confused by an old nickname i had in the past. Sorry about that.

me-2125_0.pgn

Read and study those darn books!

2009-01-06T21:19:00.002+01:00

It´s the beginning of the year and like everybody i could make a resolution in the hope i would keep myself to it. But i am not a naive guy, i know myself. After a month i will have forgotten all about it and do as if nothing has happened, no promises to myself made.

So instead of a resolution i made a contract with myself that i read and study the following books, in no specific order.

- The silman trilogie
1. Reassess your chess
2. Reassess your chess workbook
3. Silman´s complete endgame course

- Improve your chess now, Jonathan Tisdall
- Practical chess analysis, Mark Buckley
- Dvoretsky´s endgame manual, Mark Dvorestsky
- Dvoretsky´s analytical manual, Mark Dvorestsky

I know that one Dvoretsky book is enough to keep me busy for an entire year and even then i will not have understood half of it but those books i included just to have some stuff that is over my head so that i will not start to think chess is easy.

Now i only have to decide if i gonna read book by book or gonna mix books, read multiple books at the same time. What should you do?

Winning thanks to teaching

2008-12-28T17:03:00.016+01:00

White to move and win
A few days before this blitz game i had given some youth players of my chess club the lesson on how to crash thru the king's position. So i knew what to play in the above position. I am now gonna give you the same lesson so that you can give me the solution of the above position.

1. Mate of Anastasia
The power of knight and rook. The knight drives the king in the corner, meanwhile taking the squares g8 and g6 under controle, and the rook finishes the job.

Mate of Anastasia.pgn

2. Mat at the bottom row
A rook or queen at the bottom row can lead to mate if the king cant move forward.

One may even give away material to become this.

Mate at bottom row.pgn

3. Mate of Blackburne
We need:
- a black (white) king that has rokaded on the kingside
- a black (white) rook on f8 (f1)
- two white (black) bishops who stand on the diagnals a1-h8 (a8-h1) and b1-h7 (b8-h1)
- a white (black) knight on g5 (g4)

4. Mate of Boden
Based on the mate with two bishops

The game Macdonell-Boden in 1869 is the first known game with this mate

Mate of Boden.pgn

5. Mate of Damiano
A combination of a queen with an open h-line with a pawn or bishop on g6.

mate of Damiano.pgn

6. Mate of Legal
Mostly seen in a game of beginners who cant resist to grab the queen.

Mate of Legal.pgn

With the above one has solved the first diagram in a flash. Or not? Well if you want to find the solution on your own i give you the advise to scroll up again and try to solve it because below i give the solution of the first diagram.

Solution of first diagram

Solution.pgn

A nice ending isn't it. :-)

GAMES (WITHOUT ANALYSE) 20TH OPEN INTERNATIONAL LEUVEN 2008

2008-11-17T22:02:00.002+01:00

As promised, here are my games i played in the 20th open international tournament of Leuven, Belgium, 7-11 november 2008. The games are without analyse because i didn't have the time to do so. Busy schedule prevents me from doing so. So again a plea, a wish, to hear what you (and / or your chess program) think about the games. Thanks in advance.

Round one:

LEUVEN2008R1.pgn

Round two:

LEUVEN2008R2.pgn

Round three:

LEUVEN2008R3.pgn

Round five:

LEUVEN2008R5.pgn

Round six:

LEUVEN2008R6.pgn

Round seven:

LEUVEN2008R7.pgn

TWENTIETH INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT OF LEUVEN

2008-11-12T22:45:00.002+01:00

November 7th until 11th november the yearly International tournament of Leuven had place. Since it’s close by home and since i have played by the organizing club it’s a tournament that i couldn’t miss, didn’t miss for years, so my participation was already given the OK sign many weeks before the start of the tournament.

Round One, Friday 7th november 2008, 19h30
After a day of work, not exactly the right preparation, i entered the tournament room at exactly 19h30 to find out i had to play Jeroen Claesen (2253 elo) with the black pieces. The game was a french with 2. d3 which i mishandeled badly. I played Nbd7 instead of Nc6 which took away an escape square for my f6 knight. Thanks to this and thinking to much on protecting d5, i had to resign on move 20.

Round two, Saterday, 8th november 2008, 14h00
I had hoped to get an opponent with less elo points then myself but helas, round two still was under quick swiss pairings. Tonoli Benjamin (2183 elo) was the next person i had to battle against at the chessboard. With the white pieces i played a decent game until a certain point where i lost my way and lost a few pawns. At move 34 i resigned after letting a black rook in my position.

Round three, Saterday, 8th november 2008, 19h30
Finally normal swiss pairings which gave me an opponent with less rating then myself. Rudy Valcke (1642 elo) made a miscalculation which cost him a pawn. Trying to recover he lost another pawn after which made the worse decision to exchange all pieces in a way that i got two connected passed pawns in the centre. He resigned at move 35.

Round four, Sunday 9th november, 14h00
Wouters Maarten (1683 elo) is a player i never have good games against. Now i had a relatively decent game but i wanted to force things to much and came in a worse position. Luckily my opponent blundered heavily in time trouble and with two pieces more i ended the game swiftly on move 68.

Round five, Sunday 9th november, 19h30
Rousseau Jean-Francois (1786) was a player who did play a bit passive but decent. My french rubenstein wasn’t good enough to get any advantage. On move 25 we agreed to a draw.

Round six, Monday 10th november, 19h30
My opponent Pleysier Simon (1800 elo) played good but made some mistakes which gave me a big advantage which i converted very easy but not in the quickest way possible. But still this was the best game i played in the tournament so far.

Round seven, Tuesday 11th november, 13h00
The last game, if i win i still have a chance to win a prize in the <2100 category. For a player with 1979 (fide rating) this isn’t a bad result. But before i start dreaming of me swimming in money i had to play a game.

The person who i had to cross swords with was Broekman Willem (2141 elo). Instead of starting to panic my narrative was telling me that i just had to play the game and if i lost then i lost, no problem, it’s not that i have to live from my chess income.

First dissapointment, my opponent opened with 1. d4 . The opening i play aswell but never have had good play against. But again my narrative did it’s work:’do the best you can, nobody can ask more of you’. And realitivily relaxed i began at the game.

I played a little bit different then i usually play against 1. d4 but had a good feeling about it. My opponent played the standard moves of theory. I patiently build up my position, not creating weaknesses. A misplaced draw offer on move 25 from me was politely declined by my opponent.

On move 27 my opponent didn’t exchange his queen for my two rooks after which i placed a sacriface that shocked my opponent since he hadn’t seen it coming. The sacriface gave me the rook against knight advantage. And on move 38 my opponent resigned because he would be mated in a few moves.

Time ticked away. I needed a few minutes to realize i had won the game and to say it with the words of two of my 2100+ clubmates: “It’s not that your opponent played badly, you just played good”. A compliment that made me blush.

The end conclusion
During the tournament i felt that i was playing stronger and stronger, if that goes up for a little player of 1979 elo. I felt that i had taken the next step in my chess progress and played and thought differently then i did in the past. Two thousand elo is in my reach but i still have to work hard for it.

With 4,5 out of 7 i ended at place 27 in the end ranking and was joined first in the <2100 rating category which earned me 75 euros. So i cant complain about my tournament but i hope that next year i can start the tournament with the chess strenght i had at the end of the tournament.

** games will follow next week

NIC 2008-2009, ROUND 2 & 3

2008-11-02T23:28:00.004+01:00

I have a busy schedule, both in chess and in real life. So busy that i cant even find the time to analyse my own games. So i decided to give you the two bare games, without comments, to you all. In the hope that you all can look at the game(s) and suggest improvements, moves that i missed, etc.

Offcourse i ask you look at the games without chess program, that i can do with fritz 11 myself, after you think you may have found an improvement then you may check with your chess program.

I especially ask your atention for move 20 in the game of round two. I played the move in the game going on gut. That move was yelling at me and made so much noise that i couldn't hear other pieces yell 'play me'.

In game of round three i want your attention at move 12. I wonder if Qa5 isn't better in that position. According to me i always win a piece then but that's after a quick analyse which i dont thrust completely.

Thanks in advance for your help!

NIC 2008-2009, ROUND 2.pgn

NIC 2008-2009, ROUND 3.pgn

My team played well in round two. On average we had 312 elo-points less then our opposition team, Gent 3. One of the big factors was probably that we had a non-rated player on board six. We had calculated a null on board six for us but our player surprised us and himself by beating a 1800 rated player.

Our second board, the only one with more rating then his opponent (+50 points more), drew in 5 moves. We couldn't laugh with it at first but the overall endresult made it more then bearable.

Our fifth board (115 ratingpoints less) also made us laugh with a wonderfull victory. He wasn't afraid to push all his pawns (h to f) in front of his king in order to crush his opponent.

Our first board did well again. A draw against 2102 opposite we give thumbs up. Helas, our fourth board couldn't follow the pace the rest of the team had set and lost as the only player of the team.

So we achieved a 4 - 2 victory. We happy, our opponents not so much especially since they had their hopes set on a 2 - 4 victory for them.

Division: 3 Série: D Round: 2
KGSRL 5 - Westerlo 1
1 HULPIA FABIAN (2102) ½-½ PEETERS TIM (2048)
2 REGNIERS GILLES (1976) ½-½ VAN GELDORP MARC (2026)
3 VERCRUYSSE VINCENT (1931) 0-1 VERDUYCKT JOHAN (1916)
4 REGNIERS YVES (1880) 1-0 VERELLEN JEF (1845)
5 VAN HOECKE ELENA (1854) 0-1 CLAES LUC (1739)
6 MOTTART FLORIAN (1800) 0-1 BELLENS STEVEN (0)
< 1924 > 2 - 4 < 1612 >

In round three we had more rating on each board then our opponents thanks to the return of one of our vast team one players. It should have been an easy victory but it seemed the fear of losing did make us all more carefull then usuall and thanks to that some of us struggled to win their game.

Lucky board three won easily and thanks to that we got the necessary boast. Board one and six could turn round their bad position into a win. Our board two played again a quick draw, this time in sixteen moves. While board five lost.

Division: 3 Série: D Round: 3
Westerlo 1 - Boey Temse 3
1 PEETERS TIM (2048) 1-0 VANSTRAELEN GEERT (1887)
2 VAN GELDORP MARC (2026) ½-½ VAN DORPE FILIP (1721)
3 VAN DER AUWERA JAN (1957) 1-0 SNIJDERS DICK (1693)
4 VERDUYCKT JOHAN (1916) 1-0 SAMMON SINEAD (1680)
5 VERELLEN JEF (1845) 0-1 DE JONGHE MARC (1659)
6 CLAES LUC (1739) 1-0 BARBIER WIEBKE (1636)
< 1922 > 4,5 - 1,5 < 1713 >

NIC 2008-2009, Round 1

2008-10-28T21:59:00.003+01:00

NIC is short for National Interclub Competition. It's an eleven round team competition between the clubs of the royal belgium chess federation, the national organisation of chess in Belgium. This competition has 5 divisions. One starts in division 5 (teams of four players), the highest division is the first (teams of eight players).

Two years ago my club's first team won it's serie in fourth division (teams of four players). I contributed with a 8.0/11 score on board three. That means that last year we played for the first time in clubhistory in third division. We didn't do badly with a 4th place at the end of the competition 2007-2008 out of the twelve teams in our serie.

Our goal for this years NIC 2008-2009 is not to end on one of the two spots that will give us a ticket back to fourth division. This because our first board of last year, a 2300+ player, will only play a few rounds this year. This fact makes that our team is one of the teams with the lowest average rating in our third division serie.

The first round was played on oktober fifth. I played on board six and had the burden to win my game against Philipsen Mathias, rated 1666, since i sport a rating of 1916 elo. It didn't help me that i had to play black. It didn't help that my teammates on board four and five lost so that Geel 1, the team that we played, had a two points lead halfway the round. So extra stress was added to my restless mind.

NIC 2008-2009, ROUND 1.pgn

Thanks to my victory and a beautiful game out of one piece by our first board player (2048 elo) against a 2100+ player and two draws on board two and three we managed to play 3.0-3.0 against the lowest rated team in our serie. Not a good start but the spirit in the team is still good since we didn't lose and the competition is only started. Still ten rounds to play, so the worries and nail-biting can be postponed for a later round.

A narrative: Opponent knows all

2008-10-28T21:54:00.003+01:00

With a disgusted gesture of my hand i pushed over my king. With a hard 'clak' sound wood touches wood. People from the other side of the room are looking up to see what is happening. This was the last chess game i played against myself. It's to hard. My opponent knows all my plans and thoughts.

BDK's Blog cred advise

2008-10-28T21:37:00.002+01:00

I am still a newbie in blogging, especially about chess. So i was pleasantly surprised to find the entry "getting-people-to-read-your-blog" in the archives of the superb blog of Blue Devil Knight. With that entry he launched a new fashion two word namely blog cred. The funny thing is that after a few hours BDK was already tired of his own created fashion two word: "I'm already starting to get sick of the term 'blog cred.' And I was so excited about it at first".
In this entry our beloved and highly appreciated chess blogger BDK gives 8 points to get people to your blog. I will list them all and will comment those that i want more explanation on, want to know your thoughts. So lets get started.

"1. Be patient. It will take a few months, most likely, to get to levels of readership you want."

A blogger does it indeed to get comments on what he has written. Otherwise he could just keep a paper journal or diary. But i am not sure if its good to go for a big pool of commentators. Afterall one wants insightfull and explanatory comments on how other people see what you have written down. So for a specialized blog, for example about chess, many commentators i dont find usefull, 15 to 20 people, with the same intrests as you, who write down their thoughts on what you have written down is more then enough in my eyes.

"2. Post frequently. At least once a week. Of course, if you have nothing to say, don't publish scat (see #3)."

I agree that one must post frequently will one be able to have a blog where people return to after the first few visits. Afterall, a blog that isn't updated at a regular interval will lose visitors and eventually will be described/declared death.

"3.Provide consistently good content. It will get you noticed. In an ideal world, this would be number 1. "

I wonder what 'good content' is. Afterall what one finds good another one finds complete garbage. So could somebody give me the definition of what good content is, especially chesswise.

"4. Let people know about you, but not with the pathetic 'Hey check out my new blog; hey why didn't you cross link to me?' Rather, post helpful comments at well-established blogs, comments that make people want to find out who you are."

True, if you are invisible people will not come look for you. You have to knock on the door and hope they let you in.

"5. Do something original that involves other people. Review other blogs. Post about other blogs. The first-and-only axiom of blogger-psychology is bloggers are pathologically narcissistic."

"6. Respond promptly to comments. When someone posts a comment on your blog, especially a substantive comment that obviously took some time to write, respond quickly. Don't wait two days, as it will be taken as a snub."

I agree but then there are people like me who dont have internet in the weekend so if somebody comments they will have to wait a few days to get a response and that has nothing to do with the owner of the blog being snub. But all by all one must respond as quickly as possible so that the commentator knows his effort of leaving a comment was appreciated by the blog owner.

"7. Don't have intrusive ads. Nobody is reading your blog anyway. Consider putting in ads once you get more than 500 readers a day."

To many clicks of the mouse to get to the real stuff makes most people click on the red x in the right hand corner real quick. Adds, using to much color and other fancy things that makes the blog hard to load and let the reader have to organize a search to the content that matters makes visitors put a cross over your blog and they will not visit again. The content, for which the reader visited the blog in the first place, must be easy accessable.

"8. Submit your best material to carnivals. If the entries are good, the well-established bloggers will see this, and bring you into the loop, where we want you anyway. "

I know of the carnival of Rio in Brazil but a blog carnival? What is that? A blog in Halloween style?
That's it. I hope i will get some excitment comments that will let me learn much more about this thing that we call blogging. See you all after the weekend which for me is OTB chess time!