nm_pete_k

ChessBase Problem 2 Spoiler

2011-12-26T17:31:00.000-08:00

See the comments section of this post for the Solution to ChessBase 2011 Christmas Puzzle Challene no. 2.

chessbase christmas puzzles

2011-12-26T16:56:00.001-08:00

http://www.chessbase.com/puzzle/christmas2011/chr11-02.htm

compared to years past, this one is a very, very easy starting puzzle.

ChessBase Puzzle Challenge

2011-12-24T18:49:00.001-08:00

interesting tactical positions from the Euro Rapid champs:

http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7783

Closed Sicilian, game 3

2011-12-06T21:27:00.001-08:00

[White "nmpdk"]

[Black "Storchnoi"]

[Opening "Sicilian: closed"]

ICC 5-min pool

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. Nge2 d6 6. d3 e6 7. Be3 Rb8 8.

Qd2 b6 9. O-O Nd4 10. Rac1 Ne7 11. Bh6 Nxe2+ 12. Nxe2 Bxb2

Black won a pawn but cost himself a lot of tempo. 11. Bh6 was probably a mistake- for example 11. h3 0-0 and then 12. Bh6 does not allow the Nxe2 trick to win b2. Still, white's extra tempo and black's inability to castle should give some advantage.

13. Rb1 Bf6 14.c3

Extra tempo? Active moves in the center.

...Ng8 15. Be3 Bg7 16. d4 Ne7 17. dxc5 dxc5 18. Qxd8+ Kxd8 19. Bxc5

The extra moves resulted in winning back the pawn with a better position.

...Ba6 20. Rfd1+ Ke8 21. Nd4 Rc8 22. Bb4 Bc4 23. a4 f6 24. Nb5 Bxb5 25. axb5 Kf7 26.

Rd7 Rhe8 27. Ra1 Rcd8 28. Raxa7 Rxd7 29. Rxd7 Bf8 30. h4 h6 31. Rb7 g5 32.

hxg5 hxg5 33. Bf3 Kg6 34. Rxb6 Nc8 35. Rb8 Bxb4 36. cxb4 e5 37. b6 Kf7 38.

Bh5+ {Black resigns} 1-0

Closed Sicilian, game 2

2011-12-05T18:49:00.000-08:00

nmpdk [2059]
wanderingpawn2 [1932]
ICC 5-min pool

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 d6 4. Bg2 Nf6 5. Nge2 Bg4

an interesting move, but not strong.

6. f3 Bh5

so, how do we take advantage of this strange Bishop sortie? by exploiting the lack of squares the bishop has to use.

7. d3 e6 8. Nf4 Be7 9. h4

with the idea of g4 and h5, trapping the bishop.

...e5 10. Nfd5

of course we won't trade for the bad piece on h5.

...Bg6 11. Nxf6+ Bxf6 12. h5 Bxh5 13. Rxh5 g6 14. Rh1
h5 15. Be3 Nd4 16. Nd5 Bg7 17. c3 Qa5 18. b4 cxb4 19. cxd4 b3+ 20. Bd2 Qb5
21. Nc7+

a final mistake.

{Black resigns} 1-0

I have decided to start playing my students' openings

2011-12-05T18:36:00.000-08:00

...on ICC.

First up: closed Sicilian.

[White "nmpdk" (2064)]
[Black "Nicademus" (2002)]
[5-min pool]

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. Nge2 Nf6 6. O-O O-O 7. d3 e6 8.
Be3 b6 9. h3 d5 10. exd5 Nxd5 11. Nxd5 exd5 12. Nf4 d4 13. Bxc6 dxe3 14.
Bxa8 exf2+ 15. Rxf2 Bxb2 16. Bg2 Bxa1 17. Qxa1 Re8 18. Nd5 {Black resigns}
1-0

how not to play the king's gambit

2011-12-04T19:03:00.000-08:00

[White "chessproking"]
[Black "nmpdk"]
[WhiteElo "1973"]
[BlackElo "2165"]

1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 h6 4. h4 Nf6 5. e5 Nh5 6. Nd4 Ng3 7. Rh2 Bc5 8.
Nb3 Bg1 9. Rh3 d6 10. Rxg3 fxg3 11. Qg4 Bxg4 {White resigns} 0-1

yikes. 5. e5 was the first mistake, the knight eyes the g3 square after 4. h4.

2011-12-04T18:27:00.000-08:00

Upcoming supergroup in January will be three sections:

K-1st grade
800-1200
1300+

If between 1200 and 1300 contact me for group designation.

2011-12-01T13:38:00.001-08:00

[White "nmpdk"] [Black "Astigmatist"] [Result "1-0"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 d4 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. g3 Be6 6. Qa4 Qd7 7. Bg2 O-O-O 8.
O-O Kb8 9. Bg5 Be7 10. Bxe7 Ngxe7 11. Nbd2 Ng6 12. Nb3 Ngxe5 13. Nxe5 Nxe5
14. Qb4 b6 15. Nc5 Qd6 16. Na6+ Kc8 17. c5 Qe7 18. Rac1 Bd5 19. cxb6 Qxb4
20. Rxc7# {Black checkmated} 1-0

Nice miniature, ending in mate.

SFEA Update, Tournament Attendance Schedule

2011-01-06T13:14:00.001-08:00

Please note! The SFEA Lecture Series (Lecture 3) has been moved from January 15th to January 22nd. The location (Northbridge Baptist Church) and time (6pm) remain the same.

The reason for the change is so that we do not overlap with the Decatur chess tournament which will be held January 15th. As a result, I plan to play in the Decatur event.

Also, I will make an appearance this Saturday, January 8th, and the TCCC Scholastic tournament here in Bloomington-Normal. I will be passing out signup fliers for my upcoming Super Group January 16th.

SFEA Lecture Series

2010-12-14T15:08:00.000-08:00

My next lecture for the State Farm Employees Association will be January 15th @ Northbridge Baptist Church. This will be the third in a series of four lectures. Don't worry, attendance at previous lectures is not required. The topic will be Advancements in Opening Theory. All are welcome.

More info coming soon on BNASC.org.

Interesting Position

2010-11-03T21:17:00.001-07:00

The following position also occurred at the Twin Cities Chess Club and was played between Nathaniel Sobery (white) and Johnathan Bonwell (black).

We have come to a critical moment in the game:

Very exciting stuff!

White to play and keep an edge.

Twin Cities Chess Club, 11/1/10

2010-11-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

This past Monday, I visited the TCCC at Colley's Chess Cafe and played two G/20 matches- one against my student, Niranjan, and the second against an old friend, Dennis Bourgerie.

My match with Dennis was actually quite exciting, and so I have annotated it lightly:

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bb5 Nd4

One of the main "book" moves. The idea is to prevent the exchange on c6, which would weaken black's pawns.

6.0–0 Nxb5 7.Nxb5 a6 8.Nc3 b5 9.a4 b4 10.Ne2 Bb7 11.d3 d6

A flexible move. 11. ...c4 or 11. ...Rc8 or even 11. ...e6 were worth consideration.

12.c3 Nf6 13.Ng3

A move I had been waiting for. I already had the following idea in mind a few moves ago:

13...h5 !?

The point is to pry open the light square diagonal, if allowed. Also, black is trying to avoid castling short, as white may have a typical attack with f5 and a queen transfer to the kingside via e1. Now it is black who will attack on the kingside, and the game takes on a very sharp nature.

14.Re1

[14.h3 Was worth considering, with the plan of preventing a black pawn from reaching h3. 14...h4 (14...Nd7) 15.Ne2 Nd7 16.Qb3]

14...h4 15.Nf1 h3 16.g3

Now black has g2 and h1... nice spots for a queen.

16...Qb6 17.e5 dxe5 18.fxe5 Nd5 19.c4 Nc7 20.Ne3 0–0–0 21.a5

Pushing the queen to the perfect square.

21...Qc6 22.Rf1

Now, I missed a nice opportunity. Can you find it?

22...Rh5 was the move played, but...

[22...Bxe5 !! instead, was much better. Can you see all the variations if white takes the piece? 23.Nxe5 Qh1+ 24.Kf2 Qxh2+ 25.Ke1 (25.Ng2 Qxg2+ 26.Ke3) 25...Qxg3+ 26.Kd2 Qxe5 And h2 is coming.]

23.Kf2 Bxe5 24.g4

A nice shot, which I missed. Fortunately, I have plenty of compensation after ...

24...Qxf3+ 25.Qxf3 Bxf3 26.Kxf3

[26.gxh5 Bxh5 27.Rh1 Rxd3 Black has plenty of compensation for the exchange.]

26...Rhh8 27.Rf2 Rd4

[27...Rxd3 Not this move! Now white wins a piece: 28.Ke4 with a fork.]

28.Bd2 Rf4+ 29.Ke2 Rxf2+ 30.Kxf2 Bxh2

The rest of the game finished in time pressure. 31.Rh1 Be5 32.g5 Bxb2 33.Ng4 Ne6 34.Be3 Bd4 35.Bxd4 Nxd4 36.Nh6 f6 37.Rxh3 fxg5 38.Kg2 Ne6 And whites flag fell. 0-1

Nanjing 2010

2010-10-18T19:53:00.000-07:00

The "Nanjing Pearl" tournament, one of the major Super-tournament circuit, starts tomorrow, October 19th, in Nanjing, China.

According to chessbase.com, this will be an historic event:

"Nanjing 2010 is possibly the hottest round-robin tournament of the year, and is the first in history with three players rated 2800 in it."

In fact, this is one of the few times in history we have even had three 2800+ players in the world - Magnus Carlsen, Vesselin Topalov, and Vishwanathan Anand. (Perhaps the first time ever?)

Want to watch the event, or read analysis? Check out www.chessbase.com and www.chessdom.com.

(Image courtesy Nanjing Pearl official website)

Chess Olympiad, 2010

2010-09-30T17:16:00.000-07:00

For those of you who didn't know, the 2010 Chess Olympiad is currently underway in Khanty-Mansiysk.

You can visit the official site for standings and round-by-round updates.

I strongly suggest all Internet Chess Club Members check out the "Game of the Day" segment (under your events tab when you log in) for great video lectures from Grandmasters Joel Benjamin, Gregory Kaidanov, Larry Christiansen, and Alexander Yermolinsky.

After 9 rounds, the U.S. currently sits in 6th place with a team score of 6 wins, 2 draws, and one defeat.

Bradley Summer Open

2010-09-02T10:07:00.000-07:00

I went +3 -1 at the BSO this past weekend. My final round was an interesting game. I achieved a micro-advantage against 2352-rated fellow master Nikhilesh Kumar, of Peoria.

The opening went:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Be7 7. Re1 O-O 8. c3 d6 9. h3 Na5 10. Bc2 c5 11. d4 Qc7 12. Nbd2 cxd4 13. cxd4 Nc6 14. d5 Nb4 15. Bb1 a5 16. a3 Na6 17. Nf1 Bd7 18. Be3 Rfc8 19. Ng3 Nc5 20. Nd2 Na4 21. Ra2 Rab8 22. Bd3

Which led to this position:

Here I evidently went wrong with 22. ...b4?! which allowed the intrusion Ba6! Still, the game was probably equal though I mishandled later play.

What could I have done to keep the advantage?

TCCC and USchess.org MSA stats

2010-08-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

I will be in attendace tonight at the Twin Cities Chess Club, though will not be able to make it until around 8:45 or so. This will be my trend for the duration of the Fall semester at ISU, as I have a class from 5:30-8:20 on Mondays.

In other news, uschess.org has introduced some new functions to their Member Services Area. Now, located directly on the player card, one can find links which detail past performance based on year, rating of opponent, or specific opponent, or one can also view past rating history in graph form. I wanted to look up my lifetime stats as a master. I became a master in the late Summer of 2005, so I started with my first full year as a 2200+, which was 2006:

Year #Gms. W D L Score %

2006	86	57	10	19	72.1
2007	84	58	15	11	78.0
2008	54	31	11	12	67.6
2009	28	21	5	2	83.9
2010	34	21	11	2	77.9

Total 286 188 52 46

Total Draw percentage (Draws/Total Games): 18.2%
Win % in decisive games (Wins/[total games-games drawn]): 80.3%

I was interested to see that my win percentage does seem to be increasing slightly, though my number of games have obviously fallen off significantly.

Sorting according to opponent rating, I noticed in the last twelve months I have played only one player in the rating range 1700-1800, and NO players below the rating of 1700.

Also in the last 12 months:
-I have played the most games against players between the rating 2000-2099, and scored 9 wins and 2 losses, with no draws.
-Against fellow masters I am undefeated, with 3 wins and 6 draws
-Overall I have played 42 games with a record of 27W 12D 3L, or a 78.6 score %

Some other interesting stats:
-My most games ever were played in 2003, the year I broke the 2000 rating barrier. During that calendar year I played 142(!) rated games.
-In 2002 and 2004 I played over 100 rated games (132 and 111 respectively)

Twin Cities Chess Club

2010-08-16T14:26:00.001-07:00

I will be in attendance for tonight's meeting of the Twin Cities Chess Club at Colley's Chess Cafe in downtown Normal.

Hope to see you there! Check back here for updates on my club attendance schedule.

Tournament Schedule

2010-08-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

My next tournament will be the 47th Bradley Summer Open in Peoria, Illinois. Free entry to Masters!

The Bradley tournament has a special fondness in my memory. The first Open event I ever won outright was the 2002 edition (which must have been the 39th?). My rating, at the time, skyrocketed from 1890-1913.

I may also attend the upcoming CILG scholastic event as well, but that's a bit far off for me to be sure.

Position of the moment

2010-08-09T18:16:00.000-07:00

I plan to post 'positions of the moment' periodically. As I study and review my own games, those of others, AND those from books, I will save interesting or unique ones and post them for discussion here.

Here is a position from Just the Facts, and endgame book by GM's Lev Alburt and Nikolay Krogius.

In the text white plays f5. But what if white instead simply sits on the position, for example Bc1-d2 and back? Can black demonstrate a winning plan?

Statement of purpose

2010-08-09T16:35:00.000-07:00

I have created this blog with the intention of tracking both my playing and coaching endeavors. Herein you can expect to find:

1) Information on upcoming tournaments and events in the Central IL area or that I will be attending.

2) Information on my personal coaching- both goals and philosophies and more boring things such as contact information, schedule, and availability.

3) Annotated games, chess stories and news, and other interesting updates as they come along.

Thank you, and enjoy!

_pdk