Thursday, December 31, 2009

New Year’s Chess Resolution


New Year’s Chess Resolution

In following my friend, Farbror The Guru, I too hereby invites all fellow chess improvers to join the New Years Chess Resolution Movement! I also strongly believe in simplicity, goals and peer pressure. I kindly invite blogging chess improvers to do the following:



  1. State a Long Term Chess Goal (possibly linked to a suitable number of short term goals)
  2. State a Chess Promise
  3. Defining a penalty for failing the chess promise
Hopefully the members of the movement will blog about their efforts and support fellow improvers with feedback on their blogs and or Tweets. Hope to hear from you.

My Chess Goals for 2010: Goal:
Seriously study endgame and win at least one CICL match this year.

Promise: Five times per week: -
Study: 30 minutes daily
-
Play: 40 minutes daily

Keep Public Study/Play Log
Play 3 Standard Time Control games per week minimum


Penalty:
Give away one of my favorite chess sets.

Midway Chess Club G/5 Tournament results

Hello Chess fans,

Last night we had a good turnout and had fast action. NM Len Weber of course won all his games but was gracious to bow out of the prize money. The Split was not much but for the $1 entry it was worth every penny. We plan on doing this again next month and hope to see more people next time.

The ratings are Club ratings created using the software ELO Rater.

Midway Dec 30 G/5 -- G/5

No. Name St Rate 1 2 3 4 5 Score

1. Weber, Len (11)............... 2009 -B- W5 W10 W6 W2 5.0

2. Arvanitakis, Dennis (4)....... 1878 W5 W10 W4 W8 L1 4.0
3. Adams, William (2)............ 1779 L8 -B- W13 W4 W6 4.0

4. Spitzig, Mark (10)............ 1547 W9 W13 L2 L3 W11 3.0
5. Shehan, William (9)........... 1604 L2 L1 W12 W11 W8 3.0
6. Wilson, Tony (12)............. 1618 W13 W9 W11 L1 L3 3.0
7. Russo, Steve (8).............. 1491 L11 W12 L8 W13 W9 3.0

8. Adams, Larry (1).............. 1585 W3 D11 W7 L2 L5 2.5

9. Ramirez, Juan (7)............. 1441 L4 L6 -B- W10 L7 2.0
10. Barajas, Tom (5).............. 1183 W12 L2 L1 L9 -B- 2.0

11. Archer, William (3)........... 1339 W7 D8 L6 L5 L4 1.5

12. Zack,Katherine (13)........... 0960 L10 L7 L5 -B- L13 1.0
13. Lillian, Darren (6)........... 1199 L6 L4 L3 L7 W12 1.0

Monday, December 28, 2009

MIDWAY CHESS CLUB LADDER TOURNAMENT
RULES OF CHALLENGE AND PLAY


The following procedures and rules apply to the perpetual ladder tournament of the Midway Chess Club.

1. Governing Rules:

1.1 The USCF Rules of Chess governs play with the following exceptions:

1.1.a. The game may be played without a chess clock.

1.1.b. If both players agree, the game may be played with a chess clock at a pace no faster than Game/20.

2. New Player:

2.1 Any new addition to the ladder populates a new rung at the bottom of the ladder.

3. Challenge Match:

3.1 A challenge match consists of three (3) games.

3.2 All games must be played in real-time either over the board, ICC, FICS, other any other live format.

4. Issuing a Challenge:

4.1 A player may challenge only the players on next two higher rungs.

4.2 A second challenge between the same two players cannot be held until each has played a challenge match against a different player.

4.3 Challenges may be issued verbally, by email or anyother electronic format. If you can't locate an email address, contact Club President.

4.4 In all cases, notification of a challenge must also be sent to Club President or the designated Ladder Tournament Monitor.

5. Challenge Results:

5.1 The match is won by the player who achieves at least a 2-1 score. A tie score is a drawn match.

5.2 The final match result must be promptly reported by BOTH players to Club President or the designated Ladder Tournament Monitor.

6. Mandatory Play:

6.1 A challenge may not be refused.

6.2 No player is required to play more than one challenge match concurrently.

6.3 Multiple challenges must be queued and played in the order received.

6.4 Resolution of challenge conflicts will be handled by Club President or the designated Ladder Tournament Monitor.

7. Ascending the Ladder:

7.1 The player who achieves at least a 2-1 score wins the challenge match.

7.2 If the lower-placed player wins the match, that player takes the rung of the other player, who then moves down one rung, possibly bumping another player down.

7.3 If the higher-placed player wins or draws the match, there are no changes in the ladder.

8. Duration of the Ladder:

8.1 The Ladder Tournament is perpetual. Standings persist across years.

8.2 A player may opt out of the ladder at any time. Placement upon re-entry is at the lowest rung of the ladder.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Holiday Greetings

Hello my Friends,

I want to wish you a
Happy Holiday Season
and a wonderful New Year.

May all your moves be brilliant
and your opponent's blunders.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Bishop Sacrifice Tactic

Lately it seems that the studies I have been doing are paying off! Our study group is coming along with Silman's Complete Endgame Course. My lessons with various NMs and Experts must be doing something. Below are a couple of games that I played this week and wanted to annotate them to share.

For the past year or so I have been studying two openings; the Vienna and the French Defense. The following examples are a good lesson in how they can be used. Yes, I know that my opponent may have found a way to stop me but he didn't. Enjoy.







Hope you enjoyed this little posting.

William

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Book Club Meeting

Today we had our first international meeting to discuss Silman's Complete Endgame Course Chess book.

We decided to meet weekly and then if the section more difficult we will continue on that section. Next week we will be discussing section two. If you are interested in join send me an email.

We meet using Skype at 15:30 EST time that is -6 GMT.

William

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Good Chess Concept

Tonight at my meeting with Chess Expert Jeff Caveney. We went over my games and we discussed one major item to remember.

"Look for ALL Checks and Threats after your opponents move."

Positions to show this tomorrow.

Tuesday Dec 8th Training

Today's training consists of making my moves on Chess.com, sending out my USCF correspondence games, making my moves on ICCF, continuing reading Silman's endgame book part two.

I also have a lesson with Chess expert Jeff Caveney tonight from 6-7pm.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Start of the Midway Chess Club Book Club

Hello all,

I conjunction with the Guru I am starting a blog to talk about the Silman Endgame book. We will be discussing it in detail and studying it together.