Day 61 / 304 to go

I went for two endgame-puzzles - didn´t solve them. The one below is "thematic" for my current thinking: I stop too early! It is a sort of "yeah - now it is clear; no need to calculate any further"-attitude limiting me. I catch myself way too often doing that.  Unfortunately, I don´t yet know how to stop me from doing it...  8-/

Here´s the position where I "gave up" after being 100% sure that the g5-pawn is lost for White. (This not only would have cost me half a point in a match, it is even more annoying since I was supposed to solve a puzzle! Therefore it was somewhat clear that there had to be "something else"...) At least, I should have recognized that the h-file offers some sort of "potential" being typical for weaker side...

White to move - and draw:

However, after I consult the solution, it still takes me some 5 minutes to calculate each and every possible move order since the solution given is not really well elaborated. I take that as an additional training effect...

Due to an extraordinary long working day, I have no power left to go for anything else. Tomorrow I will, finally do some PAT-training next to some Lommer-stuff!

Day 60 / 305 days to go

I am relieved - really.  The hard month of May is over. I can now go back to a much more normal work- and chess life!
Today I did a brief post-mortem of round 7 of the last tournament. It was the only game where I ended up in a totally new variation with White which becomes part of my new repertoire.

After that, I worked with my Lommer: I tried to solve 3 puzzles (taking my well over one hour), but failed with every single one. Nevertheles, one included a helpful repetition of basic endgame knowledge.

Day 57-59 / Rhein-Main Open 2016

...as indicated after round 3, this tournament became my worst nightmare EVER: I never (ever) performed so louzy, never lost so many rating points! 3 out of 7 but with a performance of around 1750 only!
 I faced time trouble 6 out of 7 games -  and recognized that I sometimes couldn´t focus my thinking at all.
I assume that this was the result of both the transformation of the way I analyse positions and the circumstance that I played 4 tournaments within the last 5 weeks - next to a full time job. Hence, I am by no means demotivated!

Days 55 + 56 / first 3 rounds of the Rhein-Main Open

It´s always DARKEST before the dawn

Ok, this is it: I have reached a new record LOW! I can only hope that things will not go deeper from this point onwards:  0,5 out of 3 --- against an average opponent´s rating of 1800.
 Want to see my most shameful performance EVER? Ready to face it - but beware: I can´t guarantee that this louzy wanna-be chess will mark off...

First round (after 5 - yes five - hours of driving and 4,5 hours of work prior to the ride) - look at this:
Up to this point - ignoring that it took me much too much time, I made almost everything right (I even allowed an exchange of queens resulting in a double f-pawn - which I correctly assumed to be more of an asset that a lame duck). Actually, I saw/calculated this variation already at the point where the exchange of queens was offered!

Now, at move 16 and with 17 minutes left on the clock, I accepted a draw.  I did so, because I was NOT able to understand/"read" the position correctly: I knew I have to take the b-pawn, which he will take back with his a-pawn. After Rc1, he has d5 --- and now I stopped thinking properly, ignoring his massive weakness on the c-file which more than outweighs the circumstance that my bishop on g2 lost some of its power.   I accepted the draw...

But wait - I still can do better!!!

Round two
I am Black - I played a miserable opening (didn´t have a clue about this one at all); so my opponent simply deserved to reach a very comfortable position - sometimes up to +1.5 for him. He offered a draw when he was 0,5 better (and where I was left with 7 minutes for 26 moves). I declined! (Because I don´t really care anymore about rating points and I somewhat felt that I will get my chance.)  And, indeed, I got it:

 

You think the above position cannot result in a loss for a guy with rating of around 2050 - so would I!!  

But I managed!

Round three
I am White - with a comfortable plus of 2.2 (I actually stayed in a range of plus 0,3 to 1.2 starting from around move 10):

 

And here is the position where I resigned as soon as my opponent took on g3 - can you spot what´s going on?  This is so embarrasing... 8-(

In all - really all of the above matches I was in serious time-trouble already around move 7 or 15 (latest)!

It´s always darkest before the dawn - man, I can only hope that I did reach this point today!

Day 54 / 311 to go

On that day I - one day before the tournament; I did 4 tactic puzzles and applied my PAT to 2 positions.
Then I simply fell asleep!

Day 53 / 312 to go

Hmmm, I managed to go for 3 Lommer-positions, the first two were rather easy, but I lacked the focus to calculate to the very end. Have fun with the following - White to move (and win), but beware (hint: there is a reason why the black king is placed on the a2-g8 diagonal)!   8-)

What bothers me is the circumstance that I stopped calculating half way, simply relying on my gut feeling that "now it must be won anyway"!  A very silly mistake. Silly, because I really should know better by now and especially when tackling a puzzle (which has only one purpose - to make you calculate)!!! I knew already prior to my intense training that I need to force myself "somehow" to calculate more. Tonight was a good example that forcing oneself to calculate actually never stops (at least in my case; and I actually got prominent support by Edouard´s "Avoidable Mistakes"): Simply DON`T to be lazy!

In addition, I did a high level check (wouldn´t call it analysis) on some opening stuff for Black - I guess, I finally found something very promising to complement my opening repertoire with Black. I am actually a bit excited, awaiting the respective books to be read!  8-)   (Even if this realistically means that it will take me yet another few tournaments more before I will get used to the variations and patterns - and finally score well...)

Day 52 / 313 to go

My late remark that I currently don´t really care about my rating that  I excersise and train for the sake of it as a sort of "intrinsic motivation" is also reflected in "Chess for Zebras"..
(So while my results are not yet showing any impact, my mindset seems to have changed!)

In addition, I learned a new word which shall represent my new attitude:
Gumption ("Shrewd or spirited initiative and resourcefulness") - ever heard about it?!  8-)

Next to the above (working with "Chess for Zebras"), I was working with my Lommer tonight: I worked on and solved two positions (but rather easy ones). The one below is "nice" - as it finally pays off that I did some basic endgame training some weeks ago:

Can you spot the correct move by White?

.

Day 51 - day off

Yesterday, I actually didn´t exercise at all; I took the freedom to play some 45 minutes online chess. Actually, since I started to take training more serious, I hardly did go for online chess --- and today I hardly cared about the rating at all...   I assume that´s a good sign overall.

Day 50 / 315 to go

Yesterday I spent some 75 minutes with "Chess for Zebras" - and went over a nice chapter on the difference between an idea or plan, and its execution: sometimes the correct idea/plan is identified but lacks the correct move order! Actually, I read about the topic some 5 weeks ago. Ever since I actually kept it in the back of my head (and even told my son about it during our last tournament)! Now the book offered a pretty impressive example on NOT to rush into the direct execution too fast (Black to move):

It is obvious that White enjoys a nice position and that Black might have some chances for a perpetual with queen and knight... But how shall the plan be put into action?

In addition, I did one Lommer-position - but (partly) failed.
Then I added some 75 minutes on "Avoidable Mistakes" by Edouard: The first chapter is not that interesting as such, but the exercises are (always) welcome!

Day 49 / 316 to go

I did some 90 minutes with my Lommer today: some 60 minutes on one new position and another 30 minutes on a second, rather easy one...  I don´t know yet whether I solved them completely/correctly, as I don´t have the book here, but only received two pictures taken by my son!   8-) 
I am pretty done today - so it makes no sense to go for anything else.

Day 48 / 317 to go

After 10 hours of work and about 1 million emails written in the evening, I was simply not able to work through the planned schedule. Hence, I only did 2 PATs (and failed) plus a repetition of 3 Lommer-positions I already solved before...
 Tomorrow I will have a slightly less stressful working day - so it will be a FULL LOAD of Lommer for me then!

Day 47 / 318 to go

After a very long working day I started with a short post mortem on my last game of the tournament which finished yesterday. It was about the very aggressive (or better - "wanna be aggressive"?) h4-move early in the opening...  For many years I replied in acceptable fashion. Due to my intensified efforts, I made a switch and due to my analysis today (book+PC) I will now switch to the "third" option available...  8-)

In addition, I did work on/train with my PAT. Whereas I normally manage to work on 6 positions in some 60 minutes, today, I only covered 4 in 65 minutes...  here´s an interesting one:

White to move

Although "we all" can spot "what´s going on" and what White´s aim is, the question remains "how" - since even Gelfand himself didn´t spot the correct continuation during his game!


P.S.: Coach, I planned to work on my Lommer, but I forgot the book at home! I even told my son to take pictures of the puzzles - which he promised to send me, but he didn´t!!!  
So, I can only continue with my Lommer tomorrow...

To draw or not to draw - Make your choice in less than 3,5 minutes!

Here´s a nice one played just two days ago:

I managed to stay between +0,2 and +0,6 throughout the game, hitting Komodo´s top 3 moves pretty constantly. So far, so good. On the downside, it did cost me considerable time. So with some 3,5 minutes left for 7 moves, the following position was reached and my opponent offered a draw:

White to move

I actually melted things down to one variation where I get the g-pawn and we are both left with a light-squared bishop - fine! But the other variation I calculated was - again, White to move:

With some 20 seconds left, I was too scared that he would be able to get one of my pieces for free - then leaving me with a lost game...  and accepted the draw.
(Of course, the machine quickly revealed the correct pattern to get the job done: Bh6 and Rf8!)

Day 43 - 46 / Tournament Hassloch

Nope, yet another tournament where a clear development for the better - in terms of the results - was missing.
It becomes obvious that I still lack a decent understanding for my new opening with black. However, I have the feeling that it will not take much longer: As indicated last week, my understanding when and how to fight for the centre is getting better!

I don´t know why, but although 3 out of the last 4 tournaments went into the wrong direction, I suddenly feel a certain confidence - weird (as my games as such don´t really qualify for any such confidence)...  Once my performance with Black starts to kick in (and settles at the score before my switch) and I have advanced studying my Lommer, I am ready to sustainably advance towards 2100! (My coach was predicting that it will take me approx. 3 months before "something will change"...)

Day 42 / day off

...due to work + travel, I fell asleep some 2,5h earlier than normal - no chess training!

Day 41 / 324 to go

On this day I "only" worked on two positions with my Lommer. I solved the first (simply because it was an easy position) and took some 40 minutes on the second, but didn´t solve all variations correctly... 8-/
Nevertheless, I did what my coach advised: practise my calculation ability (incl. setting stepping stones).

Pawn Sacrifice

Who did already see it and who will?

Is it worth to watch it? I guess I will head for it with my son!  8-)

Day 40 / 325 to go

Today my coach provided me with a nice idea for my new opening with black based on a post mortem we did on one of my games from the recent tournament. In addition he made clear that my PAT shall not only be used on existing positions at the board, but ideally also on ex ante positions (i.e. when calculating variations)! Sounds like a true challange - which I am more than willing to accept.

After that 90 minute session and a little break (some food, some TV), I went for a 55 minute session  on endgame-puzzles.(My coach reinforced his claim that the most important to improve my chess is to work on these puzzles on a daily basis!) I solved one and did a recap on 3 I solved about two weeks ago. Let me share the one I solved by starting with the elementary rule of the key squares in order to identify if a pawn-ending is won (or not):

So, as you may recall/know - the key squares in this position are e6/d6/f6. If White manages to occupy one of these with his king (prior to moving his pawn), he wins (otherwise it´s a draw). Knowing this it is easy to predict the outcome (a) if White is to move or (b) Black it to move...
In the puzzle I went after this evening, the above rule needs to be applied in one of the main variations:

It is White to move - and to draw!

Day 39 / 326 to go

Believe it or not, but the whole day I was somewhat excited to have a training session in the evening! Indeed, I was looking forward to it and I caught myself a few times wondering what I should do (opening? or endgame? or practise my PAT?)...  8-)

I consider this to be a very good sign. Actually, for two reasons:

• my bad performance during the Wunsiedel Open did not surpress my motivation
• the absence of training or at least the considerable reduction in training during the last two weeks (based on my participation in two tournaments) makes me miss something I (obviously) like doing!

Ok ok, after some travel early this morning and a hard day´s work, my motivation simply has to fight a bit with some sort of fatique. Nevertheless, I spent the obligatory hour on practising my PAT. (BTW: Although I performed pretty bad in my latest tournament, I finally managed to include my PAT more often and somewhat more "regular". So the "PAT-thinking process" is finally kicking in...)
The following position (my fore-last for today; together with the last I did today) was an eye-opener; white to move:

The piece to move is rather obvious and there are - at least for me - two possible squares to head for. (The bishop could move to d2 and head for c3 or go via e3 and land on c5 - with the support of the b4-pawn.) But which one is the better one? Well, to be very honest, I simply answered this question prosaically, i.e. without any sort of concrete calculation/variation in mind, but by means of some "smart sounding buzzwords" convincingly whispered to myself!      A big mistake!
So from now on, even when the puzzle to solve may only ask for the very next move, my considerations have to include a concrete - and most important a decent - variation!

In addition, I did a one lesson (of slightly less than one hour) on basic endgame principles in de la Villa´s book; with a decent amount of time spent on simply doing a recap on stuff I did some weeks ago...

Day 38 / last day of the tournament

Game 6 - guess what, I fucked it up again: Around move 5 I took the wrong turn and went deeper and deeper into the ....; only an incorrect exchange sacrifice brought me back into the game; and I scored the point.
Game 7 - YES, back on track!!!  Although this was the ONLY match where I showed normal/good performance from start to finish, it makes me hope for better!

Soooo - 3 out of 7 and a loss of some 27 rating points.  SHAME on me!
But, nevertheless, I will continue my training programme!  Next to the achievements already stated in my last post, I am already looking forward to analyse two of my games with my coach on Tuesday...

Day 36 + 37 / 2nd+3rd day of the tournament

Wow - what a louzy performance. I assume I am already down some 35 rating points:
Game 3: I totally screw things up early in the opening, but somehow managed to cash the full point later on.
Game 4: I misjudged a won middle game, the resulting position was a dead draw but I didn´t want to accept my opponents offer (I knew it was a dead draw, but  I took a risk which I shouldn´t have). It ended in a rook+pawn versus rook+2 pawns ending, totally lost. However, I had absolutely no clue whether it was really lost or simply how to best fight for draw. It´s pretty embarrasing that my endgame expertise is yet so weak!
Game 5: Yet another instance of practising my new opening; I came out of it already with a decent minus (which I actually didn´t really recognise as such). On top I went for an "all in"-move with my king - on purpose to show my will to fight for the full point - and lost just a few moves later.

Conclusion:

• I need to sharpen up my endgame knowledge. (I already started with it, but due to the tournaments and the necessity to get the necessary depth on my new opening with black, I didn´t make much progress. There was simply no time yet.)
• I need to work on my calculation abilities - too many problems/losses occur simply because I lack to focus my calculation and get a decent picture of the future position! 
• (I did contintue to apply my new opening with black and the changed move-order with white. I start to get a better sense on when to push pawns in the center with black That´s a very important outcome for the future.  In addition, unlike recent years/tournaments where I would have "chickened out" and accepted a draw, I am happy to take risks and go for the full point.
  That is about it on the "asset" side of the balance sheet...)

Luckily, my coach already gave me a long-term task which actually address both! ("Unfortunately" there is yet another tournament next weekend. I would prefer to do some training, but my son is currently in good shape - he probably ends up with a rating plus of some 75 points after this tournament and wants to "ride the wave"... Who could advise not to?!  So I will accompany him and join in.  Let´s see...)

Day 35 / 1st day of the tournament

I lost the first round against a 2350-rated lady. I played my new opening with black and came out of the opening pretty well. I could have equalized easily and actually saw and considered the move, but aimed higher - and f... up! (At least the opening as such is "playable" and would have allowed to equalise; and I like the thought that I did aim for more and did not rush for the equalising move just because of my opponent´s rating...)

Second game of the day: Oh gosh, what a doubtful finish! Doubtful because it makes me doubt whether I will ever increase my game! I reached the follow position with great ease (not straight forward as such, but nevertheless without heavy thinking or time-consuming calculations):

White to move

Komodo evaluates this as +2.2; even the worst move (which I played) leaves White with +1. So how – ON EARTH – could I lose this position only 3 moves from now????

Even one move prior to my blunder I am still +1.4:

Now f6 is the route to victory (which I didn´t take)…   8-(

Shall I add that my opponent only had 40 seconds left for some 15 moves (and I still had some 20 minutes)? No, better not…

It is very hard to draw any sort of constructive conclusion from this game. I new my bishop and the half open g-file were my biggest assets. Nevertheless, I continuously did my very best NOT to exploit this easily winning strengths… A very tough loss!

Day 34 / Evening before the tournament

After over 6 hours of travel (some 2,5 back home, then packing my stuff and some additional 4 hours of driving) we arrived at the hotel, some 5km away from the tournament location. I didn´t do any chess lessons, but me and my son went for some blitz games (first time ever that my son asked me to blitz with him!)...

500 hits from 10 countries

After roughly 1/12th of my journey and some 34 days of blogging my (almost) daily chess activities, I would like to share some statistics about this blog:

By now, this blog received almost 500 hits from 10 different countries! Yes, yes, that is close to nothing, but yet it shows that there seems to be some sort of interest...
4 out of 5 hits come from Germany, about 10% from the US. Just last week Portugal took 3rd rank followed by UK, Russia, France, Lithuania, Latvia, China and Holland...
Most visitors come from kdfb-schach.blogspot.de - so, KaDe, thanks for adding me!
The most visited page - next to the daily posts - is the one about my training achievements.

(On top, four books have been ordered using the provided link - all received a discount of almost 15% for their order; and one chessbase product might be ordered soon. Just to get this clear: The discounts are for YOU - I am 100% non-profit, of course!)

Although the main purpose was and is to keep a diary - something advised by my coach - I am glad that my journey is not left unnoticed and seems to have some sort of value for others, too!

Thanks!

(Feel free to send any comments - any sort of communication/interaction can only be beneficial!)

Day 33 / 332 to go

Today I had a session with my coach regarding some of the openings I played during the last tournament. Although I did go throught them beforehand on my own (+ support from all these clever machines), it is still worth the time to have a good coach talking about it! One nice rule of thumb I just learned (since I actually never heardt about it before):
Put your pieces where your most advanced pawns are pointing to (especially in closed positions)!
(Something worth to be added to my overall training achievements.)

In addition to today´s session with my coach I did work with my PAT on Aargaard´s book - I scored miserable 2 out of 6...  8-/  However, in three positions even the world elite players misjudged! But this shall not mislead my perception on the reasons for such bad performance: I assume, my calculation accuracy and depth is simply yet not good enough...
Can you spot the correct move for White in the following position? Topalov didn´t back then (neither did I tonight)!

What has been left behind (my training schedule) is any advance on my endgame knowledge. But due to the next tournament lining up already in two days, I purposely go for middle-game positions as well as some opening studies tomorrow, instead of hard endgame facts...(Maybe, there is actually no true rationale for that sort of preference. But at least that´s what I did (not) a day before the last and the next tournament.)

Day 32 / 333 to go

First day after the tournament. I used CB13+Komodo+Hiarcs+MegaDB2016 to analyse some of my games. I spent approx. two hours on digging into 3 games and spent much time on a new variation I might use in the future, not sure yet...I will discuss things tomorrow in the weekly training session with my coach and get his insights!

Day 28 - 31 / Tournament: Ried Open 2016

All in all, I did quite well in this 7 round tournament: 5 points (4 victories / 2 draws) with a performance of slightly above 2150.

I fucked up (please excuse my French) one clearly won position by overlooking a pretty straight forward perpetual check, whereas I turned a clearly lost position into a win - better: my opponent did so. (I am not proud of that game or the outcome. Luckily, this happens approximately every 5 years and not more often - I am not interested in that kind of victories at all.). Apart from these two "exotics" I was able to apply new set-ups in three games - and actually scored 2,5 points (1,5 with black)!

However, I didn´t yet apply my PAT properly: I am not yet really sure when to apply it and/or how often within one game... But at least I did apply "parts" of it much more often than in any previous match/tournament. So there is a clear trend...

Next week - next tournament! Since it takes more than one swallow to make a summer I am pretty excited to see whether I can show an equal performance in the next tournament. My main goal for this coming event is to gain at least yet another slight rating plus; a performance around 2100 should be achievable... (It would be pretty disappointing to lose any rating points...)