Well, I was on last Thursday.. I guess... if you do want to play, we should just play it by ear... Next time you're free and can play, and if you see me online, just ask me if I'm free. If we can't that's okay too. How is everything going with you? Ttyl Nik
Hi, What's up? I just finished the tournament a few hours ago... I played very poorly. I've been playing very well in short games (10 minute + 10 increment), in fact I beat my mentor 8 games before losing one in the last two weeks! But I played poorly this tournament (relatively)... For instance, I outplayed this guy and won a pawn but then made a positional blunder that restricted my King-side bishop (as Black)... Then I ended up resigning prematurely in an unclear position (ugh!), but oh well.. I am thinking these days that I will take a break from playing, and only help out in tournaments or perhaps organize them... and in the meantime simply study. That way I can get stronger until I can win games more easily... I am excited about it though.
Hi, ktm, How are you? I am playing in the OK State Championship this weekend, the Jerry Spann.. it's fun so far. And someone donated a box of old NIC's, I took four of them.. Anyway, do you want to play a game?
hi do you want to play now? or are you just dropping in between other things?
Hm.. Never paid anyone for lessons myself. My mentors taught me that the best way to get better is to memorize games.. And that really worked for me. Once I met Grandmaster Gufeld, and he told me that if someone studied 1 hour a day for 6 months but didn't play, and met someone who had played 23 hours a day for 6 months but didn't study, the person who studied would completely crush the person who didn't. I could be wrong but I seem to vaguely recall that 2 bishops and a king should win against a single knight and a king. I'd be interested to see the game if you'll send it to me. Wednesday unfortunately doesn't work for me.. Thursday I am doing something in the day but I should have time to play. I don't know exactly what time... perhaps around 5 though.. I'll try to find out if I can commit to that. How was your day? I guess it was a busy one
I just got a lesson from my master friend today (he gives me a discount so it's only $25) and he showed me that the endgame was actually a forced loss! and that my mistake was in going into the endgame in a first place, since it was a very awkward endgame. But I am still interested in the theory regarding a bare king and a knight to a bare king and two bishops (i.e. how to draw it when the king and knight are close). I'm not sure if I'll be available tomorrow (or today, i.e. Tuesday, rather) since I have plans with three different sets of friends tomorrow: shoe-shopping, chess analysis, and then movie and drinks. I'm available all day Thursday, though, and Wednesday and Friday after 7 (since I get off work at 6.15). Are you available any days? It's almost uncanny how our schedules keep conflicting...
The best I did was a 2100 performance at the Denker in LA 7 years ago.. with 3-3 against 4 A players and 2 experts (I believe). But since then I lost a few games because I didn't care about my rating... and dropped some. . But last Thursday I also picked up Suetin's book Application of Chess Theory and found it thoroughly enjoyable! So I'll study that in depth in the future.. Is tomorrow good for you? Your best time of play is after 6, right? I can commit to being online then.. And did you ever get FICS to work with your library computer? As I said it runs on Jin, and I've always gotten it to work on any library computer
That's a good story! Tough endgame, though! I've been getting back into the feel of the game a little myself. Last Thurdsday only 3 of us were there, and I ended up playing and winning 6 games against Jim Berry, an A player and used-to-be-expert. I've always found him the most difficult player at the club. I know he's been busy for a while and his game has been slipping for the last year or so. I attribute it to this and the fact that I haven't had much stress in the last few months. I came to a theory about this. If you don't have much stress in your life, you'll play chess or anything a whole lot better... So I'm feeling really glad about chess, even though my last tournament wasn't really any good. I haven't even been studying very much, but I feel like I am understanding the game pretty well. My current rating is below 1800.
I just played in the Illinois Class and I did okay - 2 wins and 2 losses. I performed at 1900 so I'm not upset (I'm 1800 at the moment). It was fun though, and I went with a few of my friends. However I was very ashamed of a certain endgame that I lost - I had a knight and a pawn to two bishops and a bare king. The pawn was on the a-file. My opponent trapped my knight with his bishops (I stupidly didn't keep it close to my king... I played hastily and was surprised that he didn't accept a draw offer) and then he got my pawn... and unfortunately he knew how to mate with two bishops. I wasn't too upset with my other games, but I was very disappointed at that!
No problem. Sometime next week then!
