Gameroom Chess Tourney?

[shlin28]

No idea, I'm fine with whatever, so let's see what 'khaan thinks.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Won first game against Caius:

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=11198236

[seireikhaan]

'khaan didn't make a move for three days so I won my first game

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=11351672

Sorry, I lost internet for a few days while visiting relatives in Edgewood, IA.

If you've never heard of it, join the 299,999,999 other Americans who haven't.

But ya, in the next few days, I'd like to get another game going.

[Crazed Rabbit]

So I've played a couple games, and I remembered something: I really suck at chess. Especially online chess, which I seem to do worse at than normal chess.

So I was wondering what you guys would recommend in the way of reading and the like in order to get better?

CR

[Quintus.JC]

Two of my tourney game is underway against Pevergreen and Glyphz, although it probably won't be finishing in some weeks due to time differences.

[shlin28]

Sorry, I lost internet for a few days while visiting relatives in Edgewood, IA.

If you've never heard of it, join the 299,999,999 other Americans who haven't.

But ya, in the next few days, I'd like to get another game going.

Game invite sent, we'll redo the first game

[Martok]

So I've played a couple games, and I remembered something: I really suck at chess. Especially online chess, which I seem to do worse at than normal chess.

So I was wondering what you guys would recommend in the way of reading and the like in order to get better?

CR

I second this question. While I've gotten a (very) little better since we started the tourney, my game definitely still leaves something to be desired.

[Wasp]

So I've played a couple games, and I remembered something: I really suck at chess. Especially online chess, which I seem to do worse at than normal chess.

So I was wondering what you guys would recommend in the way of reading and the like in order to get better?

CR

Chess.com has a lot of articles and forum posts that should be helpful for you

[pevergreen]

how2castle using it?

[Rhyfelwyr]

how2castle using it?

Just drag the King along to where he should be placed, the Rook moves automatically.

EDIT: I just lost my Queen to Caius for his Bishop, and so I fear my chances of qualification may now be gone.

[Askthepizzaguy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Seirawan

I studied books by Yasser Seirawan when I was little. Pawn structure, space, development, tactics, etc are all important basics and are all covered by Play Winning Chess.

http://www.joshwaitzkin.com/books.html
Attacking Chess

Josh is the guy that the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer is based on.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Chess.../dp/0385004648
My mom bought this book so she could keep up with me. She never finished it and I devoured it myself.



As for online stuff, give yourself a few days or more per turn, and work things out on a plastic chessboard at home. Play both sides and really try to beat yourself as your opponent, dont pretend your opponent will go easy on you.

Try your best to beat yourself, and perhaps your opponent will not be able to.

[FactionHeir]

So when are we moving on to the next round?

[Beefy187]

Just drag the King along to where he should be placed, the Rook moves automatically.

EDIT: I just lost my Queen to Caius for his Bishop, and so I fear my chances of qualification may now be gone.

Aww cheer up. Your going to beat me alright

[CountArach]

Honestly if you want something simple that will help you learn the basics of the opening move, look no further than wikibooks "Opening Theory In Chess":
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Opening_theory_in_chess

It helps to explain a lot of the basic variants on the openings - I finally understand how to use the Sicialian Defence...

[CountArach]

Great news! For those of you (Like me) who can't be bothered to order in a large, complex program to play against on the computer, you can download Fritz 5.32 for free, completely legally!
http://www.chess.com/download/view/fritz-532 (Note, the installation is in German, but the program is fine)

You can search databases (if you download one) and run computer analysis of your own games. I'm downloading it an trying it now...

[Rhyfelwyr]

Great find CA, I'll give it a go!

I really need to work on my openings, they are my real weakness. I always end up on the backfoot, even as White.

[CountArach]

Great find CA, I'll give it a go!

I really need to work on my openings, they are my real weakness. I always end up on the backfoot, even as White.

My pleasure.

I found the databases for downloading here. Place them in your ChessBase\CompBase directory. It is also recommended that you download an opening book, which can be found here (The second download). It is put in the same location.

[Askthepizzaguy]

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=10927982

[Event "Online Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2008.11.13"]
[Round "1"]
[White "askthepizzaguy"]
[Black "AndresTheCunning"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1720"]
[BlackElo "1006"]
[TimeControl "1 in 3 days"]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 e6 3. Bg5 Be7 4. c4 d5 5. Nc3 O-O 6. Qc2 Nc6 7. e3 Bd7 8. Qb3 dxc4 9. Bxc4 Na5 10. Qc2 Nxc4 11. O-O-O Ng4 12. h3 Bxg5 13. hxg4 Bxe3+ 14. fxe3 Nxe3 15. Qxh7# 1-0

This game was interesting, because I accidentally allowed Andres to fork my queen and bishop. He snagged the piece and I was in a losing position. A couple of moves later, he had my queen and rook forked too, but that one was just a little bit premature... the king was not safe and that led to a sudden checkmate.

Pointless commentary and general observations by me:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Dangerous positions and paralyzing tactics

We've all made moves which leave our king exposed, so remember the principle of King Safety. Castling in the opening or early middlegame is usually advised, but once the King is castled, keep an eye on any and all pieces that are currently attacking the squares around the king, or near the king, any knights which could attack a pawn or square near the king or check the king, and any rooks, bishops, or queens which are aiming themselves at these squares. Also be careful about sudden piece sacrifices. A bishop, pawn, or knight, even the queen, could throw themselves at these pawns like a suicide bomber, ripping open the pawn shield, exposing the king, and if there are enough enemy pieces in range, this could result in an immediate and unfortunate king hunt.

You can be up in material by several pieces, but if the enemy army is gunning for your king, your forces can become paralyzed. Especially dangerous are any discovered checks. Discovered checks allow one piece to move and reveal an attacking piece behind it, which checks the king. The opposing army has to respond to the check immediately, and that allows the moved piece a free hand to cause massive damage in an attack which would otherwise be a kamikaze maneuver, another turn is allowed for a safe return or another, second attack. Double checks are particularly devastating, if the discovered check is coupled with a check from the moving piece, the king is checked twice by two different pieces from two different directions. It is impossible to stop both checks without moving the king, which means double checks literally paralyze every piece on the board for one turn.

The King is the biggest target of them all, even if checkmate is not threatened, any check must be responded to, and that can lead to other pieces being captured. Also beware of any check the opponent can give which forces the king to move, which could lead to another check which forces the king back. That could draw the game no matter how well you're doing. Draw by perpetual check.

All of this is stuff most chess players know, but we forget that it's the top priority. We could use tactics to win material, like a fork, or a check, but before we do, we must ensure that we aren't open to any kind of sudden checks or forks ourselves. Defense is more important than offense, because once your position is secure, you are free to make the brilliant sacrifices and aggressive moves, secure in the knowledge that your opponent doesn't have an even better counterattack. Everything depends on the position itself, so don't move unless you know for sure your opponent doesn't have a devastating reply tactically.

Strategy is a different matter, and that is less about tactics and more about long term positional struggles and goals.

We shouldn't be so cautious that we never seize the moment, by all means do so. But before you make a good move, check to see if your opponent has a great reply. And always sit on your hands and look for an even better move. Had I done that in the above game, I would not have lost my bishop unnecessarily, and potentially the game. I was only saved by my opponent, and you should never put yourself in such a desperate position.


Overall strategy:

I admit my own long term strategic thinking has big gaping holes in it at times. But sometimes the strategy is obvious... come up with an idea which could win you a better position, maybe not the game, but a better position.

Imagine for example that you can win a knight for a bishop, and in order for your opponent to take the bishop, he must move his kingside pawn shield, thus making his castled position or potential castled position more dangerous. If you can rapidly mobilize your queen or rooks near that area, or send a knight in, you could expose and drag down the king. Also important, your opponent will usually have to respond to your threat.

When your opponent is busy responding to your threats, assuming they are sound ideas, often times their options will be limited and will not be able to think so much on how to attack you. If your position is safe and secure, and you're attacking with real threats or real long term threats, they may be forced to simply react to you, cramping their position, binding their pieces down to the defense of their king, and they become more passive and easy to control.

Some things like grabbing open files with your rooks are important strategically, they allow you to control a lot of squares even in the enemy position, which gives you a foothold and limits the movements of certain pieces for fear of being captured.

In this game:

I faced Quintus.JC and my whole idea was to trade my bad bishop for his good bishop, and a bishop for his knight. With the position closed, and no way to attack a knight placed on d4, I knew I would have a positional advantage. I could not force this position, but Quintus made several pawn moves which caused the dark squares to become weak, so I formed a plan around that very small weakness.

My second plan was to make the Queenside become very cramped and closed to his bishop, queen and rooks, so I could safely castle there. Then I would focus everything on the kingside and try to bring about an endgame where I have perhaps some passed pawns and force a queen.

If he makes weakening pawn moves around his king, I intend to capitalize. For now, his options would be quite limited and I would have the positional advantage, the initiative, and the all important concept of King Safety, whereas his King would be castled on a cramped side of the board under attack by my forces, which is less safe in my estimation.

We will see how the game progresses.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I second ATPG's sentiment on the importance of protecting your king. Look for example at my recent friendly game with shlin.

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=11538819

I made some absolutedly criminal moves early on, and things didn't stabilise until I was 10-0 down in points. I had lost a knights, rook, and two pawns. However, using my queen and a bishop I was able to pin shlin back, and take dominance of the game. By the time I had just about pinned back the deficit, I made another criminally stupid move, sacrificing my queen because I thought his would check-mate me (what was I thinking). There was no recovery from that, but the resurgence after the early mistakes shows how vulnerable shlin's king was, and the consequences it nearly had for him.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Won my first game v Beefy:

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=11170657

[Askthepizzaguy]

I'm about to log onto chess.com, if anyone is interested in lobbing moves back and forth. I should be active for several hours.

[Beefy187]

Won my first game v Beefy:

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=11170657

Very well played Rhy. I should've moved my king out of the way when I had the chance.

[shlin28]

'Khaan hasn't done anything for days

I think we may need a replacement.

[seireikhaan]

'Khaan hasn't done anything for days

I think we may need a replacement.

Sorry. Busy week at UNI. I'm good to go this weekend sometime. Probably tomorrow would be best.

[CountArach]

I won my first game against shlin
http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=11650354

[shlin28]

I have already lost two games to CA

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=11113562

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=11650354

So we do not need to play another game.

[CountArach]

Yeah forgot about the first.

[Quintus.JC]

My game against Glyphz is coming to an end. Having be completely out-classed by the fellow.

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=11284790

My other game against Pevergreen was won by resignation, Pever said he conced the next game as well.

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=11277539

My game against Seamus is just starting

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=11736962

[Askthepizzaguy]

I'm up for games against anyone, anytime. Question is, who is my next tournament opponent? I only played two games so far, both against one opponent.

Thanks be to anyone who possesses this information and is willing to share.

:grouphug:

[woad&fangs]

Since you replaced Horus you are in group A. The opening post contains the groupings.