Drawn game?

What is the best continuation here for black? Is this position a draw? Can we say this is the endgame? Or we are still in the middle game? With the presence of both queens, many for sure would say the game still is in the middle phase.

But it gives the feeling that the game is already in the final phase. This is an adjourned game of mine from FICS. My opponent just went off after my white move of Ne3. I still had 7 minutes and 30 seconds and him 33 seconds.

Since last night, I have had 3 drawish endgames but I went on to press for a win which cost me all of those three games. From the position below, I feel it would be better to draw this one. My opponent, just like the three previous ones has higher rating points than mine. But still, with my Q+N+B against his Q+B+B, I have a slight advantage right?

Oh well!

After 42. Ne3

Open Up with a Knight Sac

Here's a game I had this morning before going to one of Morocco's ancient city of Fes:



My 18. Nh4 was a bait to open up my opponent's King side which black took with 18...Qxh4. From there I knew I could penetrate into his castled King. I had a couple of sacrifices which turned out to be fine. My 19. f4 move started my "boa constrictor". Hehehe! I thought I could be a copycat of the original boa constrictor world champ.

Some of the positions that made me use much of my 30 minutes:

After 22. Nc6

After 30. Qh4+

After 40... Ke8

A series of sacrifice that gave me space advantage and lots of tactical motiffs which allowed me to seize the attack. I like this won game of mine!

Serve All, Earn More

Chess tournaments organized for ratings of 1000 and Under, 1200 U, 1400 U, 1600 U, 1800 U, 2000 U and Open division in the Philippines anyone?

Most of the tournaments I find listed at Hector Santos Jr' Pinoychess Portal are either Kiddies, Junior and 1950 and below. Aside from the major tournaments, there are no chances for those I-want-to-experience-playing-in-a-chess-tournament people.

Although the USCF is really shaky and looks like on the verge of a meltdown due to internal fighting and financial politicking, I still believe they had or have one of the best marketing plan to promote the game and improve their federation's self-sustaining financial growth.

By providing categorized tournaments based on their ratings or lack of it, you allow the chess playing and paying population to spend some of their money and help in the development of the game in the country. Financial income help support and promote any sports and in the Philippines it has always been about funding issues.

Aside from the Executives Tournaments, where master strength players rule the circuit, I don't find any events suited for the the I-W-T-E-P-I-A-C-T people.

Would there be any master strength player trying to register in 1800 U tournaments and be a clear winner of the PhP 5,000 cash prize for the champion?

Definitely, these organizers would know who and what rating these players have. Unrated division would definitely be a surprise hit among us and this would be an avenue to increase the population of the chess community.

Serve all and earn more, any takers?

Professionalize NCFP slowly but surely, one brilliant move will swing the position towards a winning game!

Free Downloads at Chessgambiter

Here is another chess blog full of giveaways like chess ebooks, instructional videos, funny photos and a lot of cut and paste articles. This one is a haven for those who loves pressing the download load button for free.

The owner of the blog wisely organized the downloads for everyone's content! Visit the site at Chessblog for chessfuns.

Not much FICS activities for me as my account was suspended for a week due to unplayed tournament games. Anytime now my suspension will be lifted, until that time I'd have to content myself with other tactical training servers and do some uploading of the photos I took over the past week.

Gears for the Serious Chessplayer and Blogger

I've been chess blogging for the past four years and thanks to chess and blogging for it brought me to a place where I can blah blah my thoughts here to suit my heart's content. I met people from all walks of life who have a lot to say about the game. For some, chess is their life while for some, they hate the game with a big H. There are kinks and there are stinks in any field of endeavor and fortunately, the chess kingdom was and is continually blessed to have most of the nuts and skunks around the royal squared circus.

From my standpoint (which I could not even call a vantage point), I have quietly classified but not stereotyped residents of the kingdom into two:

1. The Players. These are the the major residents of the kingdom. They make life easier for everyone and they sustain the addiction for everyone to enjoy. They produce a lifetime of specimen for everyone to look into and positively or negatively criticize. Hence the word analyze should be replaced with ass-ess (pun intended). But still, I can still differentiate the types of players we have. The Professionals, the school varsity, the amateur, the rising stars, the hopefuls and the hopeless. All of these tags are based on the question"So why are you playing chess?"

The modern chess player have gizmos and gadgets to rely upon. They use numerous datebase and store them on reliable laptops and notebooks. It's important to know where to buy them and for the players with loaded schedule, there is only one place to go and it's at GearZap.Com.

I can't imagine anyone among these players who have not in anyways used a computer once and checked for a variation in their choice of opening, or analyzed and endgame database. A chessbase analysis I found on YouTube:

Most of them own either a notebook or a laptop and for sure they have Laptop accessories, from headphones to screen protectors (man the hours of staring at the glare) to external drives where they store millions of chess games not including their own games.

2. The Kibitzers. Some lightyears ago, kibitzers were simply defined as those who gives comments on a game still being played. But now we have a lot of kibitzers, from bloggers to anonymous blog commentators. There are types of kibitzers and they fall on three categories: The informed, the misinformed and those who thinks they are the information themselves. Where do I fall? The misinformed!

Just like the players, these bloggers have the need for laptops and notebooks. My own 3 year old laptop is on it's way to "hand-me-down" lane and I have been contemplating which brand I'll be getting when I come home in July. One important factor I'm really looking into is the laptop weight and the accessories that goes with it.

I am using the Acer Aspire 4310 and I guess I'll be getting a new one but am not switching brands. Acer Aspire One Accessories seem to be a good choice.

Although I have decided on getting another Acer notebook, this did not prevent me from looking into the Asus products specially the Asus EEE Accessories. Lots of choices, good choices at that with reasonable prices and customer friendly assistance.

The best thing with this is that one can buy these stuffs online!

One thing I regret the most is that I never bought the external drive and extra battery for my laptop before going overseas. I knew there would be lots of games to store and my need to plug on the electric power is very evident now as I write this post.

These are the gears for the serious chessplayer and bloggers. We all kow the capability of each resident of the kingdom, we just have to appreciate what they can do to further the revolution, chess revolution.

Sounds Of Chess

Saw this SoundColor Of Chess Blog link advertised at the main console of Free Internet Chess Server, something to sleep on after a tiring day full of chess:



Ignis of the SoundColor blog and Abuscadoser of YouTube maybe one and the same person responsible for the beautiful and creative work of art. Congratulations to you and may we see more of your works!

Still on the topic.

Unidentified Sound Object Blog featured Deep Green: Sound Design for Iphone App and creating sounds for the pop culture's consumers' gotta to be one of the best in the world.

Let me have my hat tipped to all the creative creatures of chess before I go to sleep!

Saved By The Fork

I played a 30/G at FICS and it resulted in a draw this time with the black pieces. Below is the position after 47. Bf4 and it felt drawish but then I wanted to push it to the limit. Since I was down by two pawns and from the previous 46 moves we played, I felt too that I can take on my opponent further.

I was again at the crossroads between 47...BxB4 and 47... Bxa3. I took the pawn and 5 moves later I was hanging on for my dear life.

I knew I had to keep my knight for a possible fork that would save this game which I had to survive from the opening until the end. I was confident by the way during the middle game while the white pieces were breaking down the barriers to my king. I knew he would overreach and again, I felt his moves were not as fatal.

The position after white's 69. Kd2 which I gladly replied with 69...Nc4+:

Oh I wish I could show you the entire game but this game took 99 moves for white before we agreed to a draw. We ended the game with me having 7 minutes and 3 sec to spare while my opponent had 30 sec.

Right after the 47th move, I had to keep in mind the three features of an endgame which were discussed in the Just The Facts: An Endgame Book post namely 1) Zugzwang 2) Active/Aggressive King and 3) Importance of passed pawns.

This game I played against berrard of FICS. Thirty minute games are long enough to have an endgame to ponder on!

Chess Terminology

From our last post, we received one helpful reminder from on of our readers and this led me to check out for the first time the web definition of the term "book draw". Wikipedia has one good page meant for inquiries like this.

Book draw is

"An endgame position known to be a draw with perfect play. The name reflects that traditionally the analysis has been found in the chess endgame literature, but in simplified positions (currently six pieces or fewer) computer analysis in an endgame tablebase can be used."

We all know what a book draw is but it helps if we know what are the elements contained in it. And here I did not find any web entries for such queries.

Here is the page to go to for your Glossary of chess - Wikipedia.

Just The Facts: Endgame Book

Yesterday I spent my day in Casablanca and Rabat with my ward. In Casablanca, he attended his weekly Yoga-3C sessions and in the afternoon he did a two hour ice skating in Megamall, Rabat. Don't be misled, Megamall they call it but our minimall in the Philippines is even mega than theirs.

So what has the book got to do with it?

I brought my newly printed Just The Facts! Winning Endgame Knowledge In One Volume by GM's Lev Alburt and Nikolay Krogius. This is the seventh and final volume of Comprehensive Chess Course, one of the all time bestseller.

There are three distinguishing characteristics of an endgame according to them:

1. Endgames favor an aggressive King;
2. The Importance of passed pawn is greatly increased in the endgame;
3. Zugzwang- the "compulsion to move" when doing so forces a player into a worsened or even losing position - is often a factor in the endgame while almost unheard of in the other games.

I read up and finished the first chapter and early morning today, I played white with a 10 minute time control at FICS and reached this position below:

It was my 35th move and I did a Kg2 hoping to go up the rank and protect my f4 pawn then trap his N on f5. The game continued: 35...f6 36.Kf3 fxe5 37.fxe5 Ke6 38. g4 Nf6 39. exf6 gxf6 40. h4 c5 41.Ke3 f5.

I was at the crossroads between trapping his Knight and positioning my Bishop on c5 square but I chose to overpower the enemy and did the former.

After black's 41...f5



I was way up on time here, my clock was just hitting the 5 minute mark while my opponent has less than 3 minutes to use. It took me about a minute to decide whether I'll take the pawn on f5 or push my g pawn to 5th rank.

I also had to consider with fear the dominating center control of black's pawn with his King on e6. Whew!

The game continued with 42. gxf5+ gxf5 43. h5 passed pawn right? I wanted to push as much as I can to distract the black King 43...Kf6 44.Bc7 at least activate my sleeping Bishop 44...Kg5 threat on my passed pawn but I can't do anything to protect it so I tried to inch closer with another threat 45.Bd6 d4+ 46. Kf3 I did'nt want to allow his f pawn to march further on 46. Ke2 Kxh5 47.a4 Kg4 48. Bc5 a6 I thought he would move d3+ before he pushes his a pawn on the 6th rank but he did not 49. Bxd4 Kf4 Now I can breath better when I saw my Bishop controlling the a7-g1 dark diagonal. It's time to wait for the zugzwang and I think Bishops are a good piece for this.

The game continued with 51. a5 I wanted to make sure that my Bishop will be placed protected on b6 square no matter what 51...Ke4 52. Bb6 f4 From here I knew I'll take the point here or I'll draw at least.

After 52...f4



Sixteen moves later my opponent resigned with the position below:



I had to be patient as I had to wait to win any King opposition he threw but with a Bishop on my side, it was easier. Both Kings had to sway to the rhythm zugzwang and opposition were playing in the end.

The game was perfectly amateurish with a lot of wasted opportunities but I learned a lot from this game. I hope I can play more long games on FICS and read further on the book.

Bye for now! I'll go out and feel the wind and the heat of the sun. I just might watch another French film at the downtown.

Coordinated Tactics

While half of the world is asleep including my household, I was helping my body degenerate more of my healthy cells by playing games at FICS in the middle of the night until the wee hours of the morning. I could not join any tournaments since I was included in the suspended for not playing last night in the tournament I joined in.

Heck! They should know better than this, haven't they heard that I multi-task on my computer? Since I mix my post session documentation (Yes, it's a self-imposed safeguard for my teaching job) with my online chess playing, I had to do meet my deadline before moving those pieces!

Another 3/G time control with multiple tactical traps set by black which white fell into. Lucky me!

Gotta go now!