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Happy New Year!

Time for another of my infrequent updates:

I have not been playing many FIDE-rated games, but my appearances in the French League and 4NCL have been reasonably successful so far, and I hope to cross 2100 by the end of the season. My French team, Cavalier de Neuilly, has secured promotion from Division IV to Division III with a round to spare, but my British team, West is Best, is currently struggling.

My study has been inconsistent of late, with my failure to establish regular habits partly due to shift work. I have now left my job, and will be moving to Paris in the next month or so to study programming at 42. I do not anticipate this giving me more free time overall, but it will give me a great deal of flexibility with my schedule, which I believe is important. Going forward, my approach to chess study is going to be based on habit formation, aiming to establish a consistent routine rather than the study binges and burnouts I have been guilty of in the past.

Wishing you all chess success, and a happy and prosperous Year of the Dog!

July Update

The last month or so has been a busy one for me.  The Yusupov Challenge has stalled, as I have been focusing on activities I think will be more immediately beneficial for the British Championship, which starts next week.  I am really looking forward to playing in the main section of that for the first time, and hope to have some interesting games.  I do not have a target score, but am instead just aiming to play as well as I can and at least make different kinds of mistakes from those I habitually make (a similar sentiment was expressed somewhere in ‘Thinking Inside the Box‘, which I read recently, though I can’t find it now).

Yusupov: Book 2, Chapters 1-3

I have managed a few chapters of the next Yusupov book, and so far it seems to be a step up from the first (I haven’t managed a 100% chapter yet), though still not overly challenging for me.  Here’s how I got on:

Chapter 1 – Time spent: 1 hour 30 minutes (10 reading, 70 solving, 10 marking)

Chapter 1 – Score: 20/23

Chapter 2 – Time spent: 1 hour 40 minutes (15 reading, 70 solving, 15 marking)

Chapter 2 – Score: 13/17

Chapter 3 – Time spent: 1 hour 5 minutes (15 reading, 40 solving, 10 marking)

Chapter 3 – Score: 14/19

I hope the rest of you doing the challenge are still making progress; do let me know in the comments below.  I will be resuming it after the British (though possibly not immediately afterwards, as I want to analyse my games thoroughly while they are fresh in my mind).

Railsport Games

On 8th-9th July I participated in the Railsport Games chess tournament, which is the annual rail industry championship.  I was the second seed, but managed to beat the first seed en route to victory with 5/5.  The event was a good warm-up for the British, and I was generally quite encouraged by both my play and my time management (the latter has historically been a big problem for me).  Naturally, there was still plenty of room for improvement, for example in the position below:

I am White, playing the top seed, and my main plan is to put pressure on the weak b6-pawn.  I did this slowly, starting with Rfe1 so that Nf4 could be met with Bf1, preserving the bishop, and continuing with Rb1 and Nc4.  Whilst this procedure retains the advantage, it does allow Black some counterplay by pushing the h-pawn, and a much more incisive way of executing the plan would have been Rc6!  I did see this, but felt giving up the exchange carried some risk.  In fact, if Black plays Bxc6 he is totally helpess after dxc6; the knight will come to c4 and the b6 and/or d6 pawn(s) will fall, the king is stuck in the centre, and none of the Black pieces is active.  I am particularly annoyed that I did not go for this, as I missed a very similar tactic in my game against Peter Jaszkiwskyj earlier in the year.  I will be trying to guard against being too materialistic in the British.

Other chess study

My two main areas of study over the last month have been openings, which I am trying to memorise using Chessable, and Jacob Aagaard’s ‘Thinking Inside the Box’, which I mentioned above.  Both are worthy of full reviews, which should be forthcoming at some point after the British; for now, suffice it to say that both are highly recommended.

Endure 24

The weekend before the Railsport Games, I undertook by far the greatest physical challenge of my life so far by participating in a 24 hour relay running race (‘Endure 24‘).  I entered as part of a team of 5, running as many 5 mile laps as we could manage in the allotted time.  In the end we completed 195 miles, of which I did 40, coming third in the ‘small teams’ category.  I am in awe of the people who chose to do the event solo, a number of whom completed over 100 miles.  The first few laps were quite pleasant, completed at a good pace in the afternoon sun; by the end I had revised my understanding of the term ‘pain threshold’ several times, and a moderately nimble earthworm would have run rings around me.

I realise this has little relevance to chess, but I am hoping that the experience will serve me well next time I find myself suffering after seven hours in a difficult endgame.  The lesson I learnt from the weekend is that even when you think you have nothing left to give, there is almost always some energy left somewhere.  The picture below is of me (second from left) finishing my final lap, with the rest of the team joining in for the final few metres.

We raised money for the Against Malaria Foundation, which is one of the most effective charities in terms of money spent per life saved.  Should anyone wish to donate, you can do so here.

That’s all from me for now.  As always, let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, and I will be back with another post in August.

My Study List

The promised ‘lessons learned’ is in the works, but it has expanded from one post to a series.  I do not want to rush out a half-finished effort, so hope you will forgive me for the delay.  In the meantime, here is a list of the books and other resources I have found useful in the last year, as well as those I am intending to dig into soon.

Books

Calculation – Jacob Aagaard

A challenging exercise book (with explanations), which I am sure will improve my calculation significantly when I finally manage to finish it.  Not recommended for players rated below 1900.

Chess Tactics from Scratch – Martin Weteschnik

An interesting look at some well-known and less well-known tactical motifs.  I have finished this apart from the exercises at the end, and plan to re-read it at some point.

100 Endgames You Must Know – Jesus de la Villa

An excellent book, focusing only on the endgames the author has identified as being most useful for practical players.  As with ‘Calculation’, I am expecting significant improvement when I finally manage to finish it!

A number of opening books, mostly by Quality Chess and New in Chess.  These will remain secret for now, to avoid giving my future opponents too much information. 🙂

Next on the list: I got the complete Yusupov series for my birthday, and am planning to work mostly on that for the moment.  For those who own these books or other QC improvement books, I suggest you have a look at Jacob Aagaard’s recent post about the best order to read them in (and his answer to my question in the comments).

Videos

Chess24

I became a premium member during the last World Championship Match, lured in by the promise of a free mug and t-shirt.  I never got the promised freebies (in their defence, I haven’t bothered to chase them about it), but have enjoyed the video series immensely.  The only problem is that it is extremely tempting to dive into series like Peter Svidler’s one on the Grunfeld, even though I know working on an opening I do not play with either colour is hardly the most effective use of time. 🙂

Websites

Chess Tempo

Chess Tempo is a website with free tactics puzzles.  It is my home page, and I have a rule that every time I open my browser I must solve at least one puzzle before going to another site.

There are many other resources I have found useful in the past; the selection above is just what I have been working with recently.  Let me know what your favourite chess books, videos and websites are at the moment in the comments section below.

The Road Continues

A year ago, I gave myself an ultimatum: reach 2100 strength by September 2016 or give up this project.  Here is what I wrote:

If I have not reached at least 2100 strength by the 1st of September 2016, I will set aside my goal to become a GM and discontinue this blog.  (A small disclaimer: by 2100 strength, I mean that ideally I would have passed 2100 ELO, but if it is abundantly clear that I have reached that level (e.g. I have performed well above it in my last few tournaments) but I haven’t been able to play enough games to gain the points, I may continue.)

For most of the year I have struggled to make significant rating gains, and to an objective observer it must have seemed unlikely that I would be able to continue in September.  Whilst I felt I was becoming stronger, most of my games were not FIDE-rated, and in those that were I was frustratingly inconsistent.

That all changed over summer.  I played in three FIDE-rated tournaments: the British Weekender Open, where I placed equal second with 4/5; a strong Open in Figueres, where I defeated an International Master for the first time in classical chess; and finally the 10-round Open Internacional d’escacs de Sants, where I drew with a FIDE Master and achieved some other good results.  As a result, my September rating has shot up to 2054, and the last tournament has not yet been included; by my calculations I should be 2076 when it is.  Whilst this is still short of 2100, I have performed at 2160 level over my last 24 games, which I feel adequately meets the disclaimer quoted above.  (Regular readers will also be aware of my missing 24 rating points from Belgium, which would have taken me to 2100 exactly.)

In light of the above, I am delighted to be able to say that I will be continuing my chess improvement journey, and continuing to blog about it here.  🙂  For now there is no new goal or study plan; I will be completing my ‘Road to 2100’ study, and hope to achieve a published rating of 2100+ soon.

A longer post will follow in due course about lessons learned from the past year.  As always, please share your thoughts in the ‘Comments’ section below.

Road to 2100: T-3 Review

I have played in two tournaments since the last update, both of which have gone well.  The first was an international team event in St. Petersburg, open to teams comprising people who work in the rail industry.  I scored three wins and two draws, which would have netted me 20 ELO points, but sadly despite the official nature of the event (Kirsan turned up for the closing ceremony) it was not rated.  One of my wins is given below:

 

 

Although some of my team did not fare as well (we ended 11th out of 14), the event was hugely enjoyable, and St. Petersburg is highly recommended to anyone looking for an interesting holiday.

The second of my tournaments was the British Championships Weekend Open, where I got off to a storming start with 4/4.  Facing the top seed (2226) with black in the final round, I needed only a draw to win the tournament, but despite getting an excellent position out of the opening he was able to outfox me.  Losing in the final round pushed me down to shared second with two others.

Ratings

FIDE standard: 1983-2020 (expected), +27 points

All of these points came from the British Weekender.  As previously stated, the railway event was unrated, and I may come to rue these lost points (together with the last railway tournament, that’s 44 extra points I could have).  Still, this is the first time I have pushed significantly above the 2000 mark this year, and it may still be just in time to make 2100 by September if the next two tournaments go as well as my last two.

I will be playing in Figueres and Sants back-to-back over the next few weeks.  Both are strong events in the Barcelona area.  If I am able to maintain my energy and play well in both it is certainly possible to gain the required number of points.

Assessment: Red (cause for concern)

Study

I have not (yet) returned to using my study log, and will not be doing so over the next few weeks either.  Still, I have been reasonably productive and have managed to patch up a couple of critical holes in my opening repertoire.  Naturally I will not be studying as normal during the upcoming tournaments, and will just be doing opponent-specific opening preparation and looking to go into each game well-rested and energetic.

Assessment: Amber (some cause for concern)

As always, I encourage you to post any questions or comments you have below, but I may not respond until after my tournaments.  This will likely be the last ‘Road to 2100’ review – for better or worse, see you in September!

Road to 2100: T-8 Review

Hello all, and apologies for the lack of updates recently.  Please rest assured that the fact I have not been posting does not mean I have not been playing and studying; quite the contrary, in fact.

Ratings

FIDE standard: 1985-1980 (expected), -5 points

Despite gaining a few points at Frome, this period will see a rating loss (my first since December) due to a poor performance at the e2e4 Gatwick Open.  To date I have played in two e2e4 events, each of seven rounds, but did not manage to win a single game until the (combined) thirteenth round!  (This was not my first full point though, as I got a bye in the twelfth…)  A combination of factors, including tiredness, a dislike for the time control used (game in 90 minutes, plus 30 seconds increment) and just coincidence are probably to blame.

Of course, this rating loss comes at an unfortunate time, and the path to reaching 2100 by September now looks very difficult.  Having said that, I have enough games planned to make it possible, if I am able to perform at around 2200.  I have not managed to qualify for the British Championships, so will be playing in two Spanish events instead, as follows:

5th-8th July: Railway Chess Olympiad, St. Petersburg, Russia

11th-18th August: XVII INTERNATIONAL CHESS OPEN MIQUEL MAS 2016, Figueres, Spain

19th-28th August: XVIII INTERNATIONAL OPEN CHESS SANTS, Barcelona, Spain

Assessment: Red (cause for concern)

Study

I have been studying with a renewed sense of urgency in recent weeks, though you would be forgiven for not guessing that from my study log.  I have been using an innovative method for recording my study, pictured below:

chess training diary

Yep, good old-fashioned pen and paper.  I have found I prefer writing notes by hand, and just the act of carrying this around with me helps with motivation.  At least I have the information recorded, and may get round to putting it online at some point.

One thing I have been working on with my coach, Tom Rendle, is my habits at the board.  I have been using a pre-game mental checklist for a while now, designed to remind me of and help me avoid some of my bad habits, which goes as follows:

1.  I will calculate short, sharp variations, and commit to conclusions.

2.  I will only continue to spend time when I think there is a reasonable chance my decision will be improved.

3.  I will not allow adverse events to affect my focus.

I have made decent improvement in these areas, and consider the next big area to be my concentration several hours into the game.  I have lost count of the points I have thrown away late in the game recently (including several at Gatwick).

Assessment: Amber (some cause for concern)

If you have any bad (or good) habits at the board, I would be interested to hear about them in the comments section below (and how you try to combat them).

Road to 2100: T-16 Review

Here is a position from one of my games in the final 4NCL weekend.  White to play and ramp up the pressure.  The solution is given further down.

McAleenan

Ratings

FIDE standard: 1993-1985 (expected), -8 points

A few disappointing results will see me shed 8 points in the next list.  A steady performance in the Central London Chess Congress gained me 2 points, but I did not play well at the 4NCL.  In the position above, I had played reasonably up to this point, and was looking to increase the pressure on black’s weak e6 pawn.  This can be achieved with the simple Rfe1, when Qxd4 runs into a fork after Nxe6, and Rfe8 allows Nxg6.  I saw both of these points, but strangely thought that Kf7 was holding things together for Black.  I can’t quite remember what was going on in my head at this point, but imagine I noted that Black had e6 adequately defended in terms of number of pieces, without bothering to check what those pieces were.  Of course, after Kf7 I can simply take on e6, emerging up material.  Instead of Rfe1 I complicated matters with Qc5, leading to an interesting rook and knight ending which was eventually drawn.  This was followed by my first and only loss this 4NCL season the following day, after another bad calculation error.  I recovered slightly on the final day by beating an underrated junior, but the damage had already been done.  This will make the uphill climb I face over the next few months even steeper.

Whilst my rating is not yet close to 2100, my performance for this year is getting there.  Over the 14 FIDE-rated games I have played in 2016 my performance is 2068 (sadly down from 2140 before the last 4NCL weekend), and in my 38 ECF-graded games it is 179, which equates to 2080 FIDE.  Combined that is a decent sample size, so I am confident that I am getting stronger.  Even so, another sizeable jump in performance will be required in order to get close to 2100 by September.

Assessment: Red (cause for concern)

Study

I have only hit the 6 hour weekly target in two of the four weeks this period, due to busy weekends.  The weekends have been busy with tournaments, so I have still been doing chess, but I would like to be able to fit at least 6 hours in during the week.  I studied during my lunch break at work today, and am going to see if that is sustainable.

Assessment: Red (cause for concern)

This weekend I am playing in the Frome Congress, in a last ditch effort to qualify for the main section of this year’s British Championship.  In the UK, winning the Open section of a weekend tournament is generally required to qualify for the British, but if the winner has already qualified the qualifying place moves on the next finisher.  This late in the season a lot of people have already qualified, so I am hoping finishing in the top 5 or so (still a big ask) will be sufficient.

As usual, do let me know if you have any thoughts or questions by posting in the ‘Comments’ section below.

Road to 2100: T-20 Review

Here is a position from one of my recent 4NCL games.  Black to play and draw.  The solution is given at the end of the post.

Screenshot_1

 Ratings

FIDE standard: 1991-1993 (expected), +2 points

I have played only one FIDE-rated game in the last three weeks, which was a win against a 1606 in the last game of the season in the French league.  I hope to report some real movement in my rating next time, as I will be playing four games in the Central London Chess Congress and three games in the final 4NCL weekend before my next report.

Assessment: Red (cause for concern)

Study

The study has taken a bit of a hit this period, as I had flu over Easter, so did almost none in that week.  It has got back on track since, though I have not been particularly good at keeping my study log up-to-date.  I have updated it today with some estimates of my recent study, and will endeavour to keep a more accurate record going forward.

Assessment: Amber (some cause for concern)

Finally, the solution to the problem posted above.  I was pleased to find this move, and feel I have improved at defending tough positions in recent months.  Saving half points like these could be key in my efforts to get to 2100 over the next few months.

 

 

Road to 2100: T-23 Review

Rather than putting out a T-24 review last week I have decided to bisect the 6 week gap to T-20 and do a T-23 review instead.  Thereafter we should revert to the four-weekly schedule.

Ratings

FIDE standard: 1973-1989 (expected), +16 points

I have played three FIDE-rated games this period; a win against an 1841 in the French League, and then a draw (vs 1943) and a win (vs 2023) this weekend in the 4NCL.  I was made to work very hard for that draw – 105 moves of suffering – but managed to hang on.  The rating continues to move in the right direction, but the real points will be won or lost in the tournaments I have planned for the summer.

Assessment: Red (cause for concern)

Study

I have again met my 6 hours per week target this period, and the ‘deliverables’ idea I introduced last time has meant that I am starting to make headway on Jacob Aagaard’s ‘Calculation’, which I had been putting off.  Whether 6 hours a week is really enough is an open question, but given that I am also playing 2-3 evening league games most weeks and working full time it is about as much as I can manage at the moment.

Note: my study log is not quite up-to-date at the moment; I’ll try to get round to updating it soon.

Assessment: Amber (some cause for concern)

If you have any thoughts you would like to share, please comment below.