To Blitz or not to Blitz...

The topic of tactics has come up amongst many blogs and, after taking all the ideas in, I've changed my routine to reading a concept from Seirawan's Tactics book and then practicing the same tactic in the "303 Tricky Tactics" book. That is all I plan to do for now in terms of tactics as I'm still an emerging player...I need to play and play often. I do think that I could be ready for the "Chess Tactics for Beginners CD" someday soon. Is there a better way to invest my next $23???

.

Perhaps the best and worst that I've done the last few weeks is playing almost all of my games from the correspondence sites of: www.playtheimmortalgame.com (see my games here) as "edukator" and www.gameknot.com as "recess_bully" (see my games here ). I did this to slow down my games and perhaps lower my blunders (and perhaps it has done this) but it has also probably lowered my blitz ratings. I attribute some of this to the fact that I love to play the Scotch opening as white in blitz and I am certain that it confuses people at first (a definite plus in blitz) but it does little in the correspondence games. I also wonder, however, if the fact that I've played fewer chess games as a whole in correspence than in Blitz has something to do with my lower blitz ratings as well.

.

I have been playing with the French defense with black just out of interest as it really seems to change the type of game in ways I'm not sure I understand (more later)....

.

Blitz (mainly 5/12 Blitz) as "edukator":

ICC: 899

Playchess: 1163

Average: 1031

Disseration: Proposal to be worked on for President's Day :)

Addendum (correspondence chess):

Playtheimmortalgame (RedHotPawn): 1409

Gameknot (as recess_bully): 1301

.

I have collected a series of "checkmate-in-one" games and my students seem to enjoy them...I can see them pointing to the sheets and trying to find the checkmate before their buddies. This is promising...perhaps I should add "Checkmate-in-two" soon.

A Surprising Change of Pace...

I've found a wonderful way to tone down the blitz habit. I (re)discovered this site, which is really Red Hot Pawn in disguise, on many other blogs but didn't seem to make any connections until recently (click here for my games). It has allowed me to play six games at once but spend a good amount of time digging into the positions...and has greatly limited my blunders. The irony of it all was that I had joined it a few months ago but now vaguely recall thinking it was boring. I didn't do a thing with it until now. I've continued my solid play on the site and even improved my ratings on ICC and Playchess even though I've probably only engaged in 4 or 5 games on these sites over the last few days.

Ultimately it is wonderful having the time to attempt grasping the details of each game and also more time to read other chess blogs (from the incredibly advanced to clubs [esp. in England] to people like me [or were like me not to long ago]).

Blitz (5/12 and longer)
ICC rating : 948
Play Chess: 1165
Average: 1057
Dissertation: HELP!

Plans: Continue with "303 Tricky Tactics"
I am thinking of purchasing: "Chess Tactics for Beginners" CD on advice from BDK's Blog.

Reconciling Both Marriage and a Burgeoning Chess Habit.

Just a few observations on my part...but perhaps others could add to this?! (or is that "!?").

I don't want to have my wife feel like a "chess widow" and I've went to a few extremes to show her how I appreciate her patience. I have found a few promising practices:

1. Show "Searching for Bobby Fischer" and promise to work with children on chess.
2. Start a workout routine between internet chess games. I gained a few pounds that I can directly attribute to chess. Now I am beginning a regime emphasizing a different set of exercises after a game. So say, two sets of push-ups, then a game, a few sets of push-ups, then a game, etc.
3. Similar to #2...solve chess problems (for circle training) while on treadmill. I even have enlarged and laminated around 100 problems (mainly mate-in-2) for this purpose. Could this mean I am running circles around my competition? How about calling the session "circuit and circle training"?
4. Avoiding humor such as the last comments on #3.
5. Attempt to play people from the Philippines and then brag about how good they are (actually those on chessbase are almost always at least 500 to 600 points better than myself). My wife is orignially from the Philippines.
6. Time for her.

Any suggestions for a spouse?

Ratings Inflation: You too can improve 112 rating points in two weeks...I'll show you how.........

Tip for rapid improvement: It isn't quite as hard to gain 400 points in 400 days (if that is your goal) if you start in the low 900s.

Joking aside...certainly the biggest lesson I've found so far in this game is that of making sure to be alert and rested before I play. Caffine in moderation is a plus :) Since cutting the late night "doh" sessions ("dohhhh...why'd I do that?", "dohhhh...I never saw that coming!", "Dohhhh...I fell for that AGAIN!") , and playing when I'm alert, I've clearly made gains -- in a very big way. In many ways this has very little to do with actual chess skill though.

My goals have been to gain at a pace of ~25 points a month. I figured this based on the fact that I'm starting very low to begin with...I have "regression to the mean" on my side!! I'm sure this will not be so easy to do if/as I improve. My goal for January was to average (between ICC and Chessbase/playchess) 975, February 1000, March 1025... all of which would lead me to 1400 by the end of June 2008 (my 40th b-day). But I've been playing very well this week...very well. These are ratings from blitz games but I can only recall one game below 5/12 or 10 minutes (it was against one of the 'bots' on ICC). But...officially for January:

ICC Rating: 952
Chessbase: 1128
Average: 1040
Dissertation Progress: Desperately needed!

Basically I really did well...gaining over 110 points in two weeks. I know reality will set in sometime as if I had continued success at this rate I'd be at 1400 by the middle of March!! LOL. I'm sure there will be times when I regress but it has been fun to be on the winning side more often. Furthermore, I have played a lot of games and, as noted above, I will need to tone down and get more finished on my dissertation. Next week my plan is:

• Continue playing (toned down) on ICC and Chessbase/playchess.
• Continue working through "303 Tricky Chess Tactics"
• Play challenging games with "Chess Genius" on my PDA and study moves w/ blundercheck.
• Next Thursday (Feb.8) I have penciled in a trip to a chess club in Marietta.
• Paying less attention to ratings...especially when seeking opponents!
• Purchase a chess clock for my classroom (I use chess as a "center activity" and a 5 or 6-min blitz would work well in a class that often has 15 minute centers).
• Optional: Begin replacing "Blitz" with "Standard" (based on numerous posts on other blogs...clearly seems like sage advice!)