tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182389182011-10-09T22:09:12.383-04:00DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.comBlogger431100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-76811569082070071302006-12-01T11:12:00.000-04:002006-12-01T11:14:16.113-04:00

Here's the crazy mate pattern from my game last night. I completely overlooked that it was a checkmate. (I suck at chess)

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-7940180401045164922006-11-23T22:35:00.001-04:002006-11-23T22:37:20.206-04:00

I updateded to the new blogger but its not updating the feeds... hmmmmm.

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-37600559476549150772006-11-23T21:07:00.001-04:002006-11-23T21:07:43.664-04:00

test

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-62440325780286670892006-11-23T11:01:00.000-04:002006-11-23T11:02:02.659-04:00

test

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1152273461293278792006-07-07T07:50:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:29.992-04:00

Been a while. I'm still playing G/70 every Thursday in the club. I'm beating those lower than me and losing to those rated higher than me. The club has relatively few people that show up regularly and its a little disappointing. Also, if you're a member of a club you should seriously consider sending a thank you card to the TD and club officials because chess players are 1) Cheap and 2)

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1150723892464200342006-06-19T09:26:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:29.902-04:00

I lost another one last Thursday night at chess club against a 1600 player. Missed a simple little bishop fork that lost my knight for two pawns. In the ensuing engame it was B + 2 pawns vs 4 pawns and I lost it. He played well and I've yet to put it in Fritz but I bet you I had a good drawing chances.In other news I finished out around 450 in the blogger tournament (out of 2200). With blinds at

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1149852985717100802006-06-09T07:27:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:29.809-04:00

It's true, Don's license plate does say 1. e4. The strangest thing is his rear license plate says 2. f4, who'd of thought he's a Kings Gambit player?Just kidding about the f4 bit, but he does have some kick ass bumper stickers.I lost my rated game against him last night (see his post here). I felt like I played okay, I was just outplayed. I've been having fun the past few weeks at chess club, one

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1149552207597168382006-06-05T19:58:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:29.728-04:00

Just heard about this, here's the required post (winner gets a trip to the WSOP main event, but there are other prizes, its free, you just need a blog two months old and to have a post about it): I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.Registration code: 8663319

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1148842707528029902006-05-28T14:54:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:29.645-04:00

Here's one key moment in my game today. A moment that highlights my biggest chess problem (lack of a plan):I'm black and its my move.....What would you play and why?

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1148173392280644232006-05-20T20:54:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:29.494-04:00

I played a rated game in the local chess club this past Thursday thanks in no small part to the efforts of Don.I've analyzed the game and was going to post it but I've decided to just use a diagram or two.I was white against a person rated around 100 points lower than me. I've played him twice before in friendly games and in both games he was probably leading at one point before blundering.I

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1148055385057163682006-05-19T11:37:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:29.420-04:00

I just wrote a fairly extensive review of Chess for Zebras and I lost it because of damn blogger... that'll teach me to write a long post without saving.Anyway, a shortened version of my post.Bottom line: I was to low ranked to get a lot out of this book, I think you should be at least 1800 or, as the Kenilworthian says about it in this post "I may, in fact, be its [Chess for Zebras] ideal reader

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1147554935576866632006-05-13T17:13:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:29.293-04:00

I really want to change my blog's title to "Knight on Fire" and use this as my theme song (and movie):Click here for my new theme song and video.If I can find that guy's outfit then I have a new halloween costume...

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1147127391559505272006-05-08T18:23:00.002-04:002006-11-14T11:12:29.206-04:00

I played in another OTB tournament last weekend. I did okay except for the following game: GAMEDuring the game I thought I had a good position but Fritz put me down a pawn for most of the match, sometimes closer to 2 pawns down. My main problem was failing to castle and ignoring my opponents threats. I took over 60 minutes for the entire game and I felt pretty good about that, even though I

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1146528075239725192006-05-01T19:53:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:28.872-04:00

Here's a screen shot of my recent game on FICSI'm black and its my move, he just played c5. I thought for a bit and played d4, which drops a pawn. I have no idea what my problem is, two games in a row I take my longest think over a move only to drop a pawn. It's a blind spot / serious problem that I have on any long game. Part of the problem is I have poor time management, I play way to fast and

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1145841427002719682006-04-23T21:15:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:28.781-04:00

Click anywhere on this sentence for R2 of Fics league. I played fellow blogger Phorku. It was a crazy game until the end. (I just finished the game so the annotations were quick, but I wanted to get something down before I forgot).edit: phorku's comments have been added in the above link.

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1145650523661178242006-04-21T16:06:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:28.681-04:00

I finally finished "Chess: The Art of Logical Thinking: From the First Move to the Last" by Neil McDonald. Its very good and I recommend it for fellow patzers like myself. At times it's redundant, but how many things can you really say about Nf3?Does anyone know another book similar to that I might like?In other news: I'm still playing the Center-Counter as black against e4 and so far I like

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1145064997965078622006-04-14T21:35:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:28.596-04:00

Click anywhere on this sentence for my first round game on FICS. I think its one of my best games.

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1144431490482174682006-04-07T13:34:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:28.483-04:00

Graph of my horrible ratings slump at chessworld, the graph reads right to left, I'm currently below 1700 after a high of 1820 something. They use a "moving average" of your last 50 games. (the ratings at chessworld.net are inflated by quite a bit since I'm a solid USCF 1300).

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1144095046595662732006-04-03T16:04:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:28.342-04:00

Even though I hadn't played or studied chess in a while I decided to play in a tournament. I played 3 games OTB and here's how it went.Game 1:I haven't loaded it into Fritz yet or else I'd give a picture, but I went up a pawn early (move 11 or 12) and then up two pawns, and then I had a protected passer and then two connected passers and I ended up winning. He was unrated and I had black and

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1142600092845838832006-03-17T08:51:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:28.240-04:00

White to Move (no brainer)I missed the extremely easy move in the above diagram. Granted, it was a blitz game and I was down to around a minute, but that's no excuse.I've played 3 games in the past 4 weeks (minus correspondence, which I don't count) so I'm sure that has something to do it with it.

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1140037281161380822006-02-15T16:58:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:28.162-04:00

Here's a vaguely chess related comic:BREWSTER ROCKIT Feb 14

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1139260050461392632006-02-06T17:04:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:28.061-04:00

Apparently there's talk about the possibility of changing the time control for FICS teamchess games (since FICS teamchess is going to be seperate to ICC). Maybe even as long as 90 30. Of course, this was mentioned only once and I haven't heard anything more about it. BUT, 90 30 is way to much time in my opinion, and I hope they don't do it.My vote would be G/60

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1138463906580897812006-01-28T11:53:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:27.931-04:00

In my last post Freydus commented about the Sicilian and trying the Scandinavian instead. He made some good points. A may start playing a few games with it and see what happens.Here is my teamchess game that I lost from last night. Its just the teamchess page, I'm not going to annotate it.And here is my teamchess game win from this morning. Also just from the teamchess page because I'm not

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1137941781909539842006-01-22T10:47:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:27.840-04:00

Here's a link to a very good chess column called Chandler Cornered. (It's also quite funny)Also, from something C's Chess said a long time ago, coupled with what Blue Devil has said recently, I'm going to start playing the Sicilian. I realize that there are people out there who know variations of the Sicilian 20 moves deep, but who cares, the same can be said about the Murphy, so I might as well

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1137785140602555422006-01-20T15:12:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:27.767-04:00

I was out of town for a week for work (damn job) and I'm trying to catch up to everyone's blog and I have things to note.Make sure you read Bahus' current post titled "FANCY MOVE SYNDROME" which I have a bad case of and at leas now I know what to call it. (oh, you know you catch it every now and then too, it comes from to much tactics training and trying to find combos that aren't there).The

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1137266805592939482006-01-14T15:07:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:27.663-04:00

Here is the link to yesterdays teamchess game.I'm really upset at the blunder that cost me the game. A Big lesson learned from this game: even when I think I have calculated a series of moves correctly, I need to stop after every move just to make sure that everything is still like I though it was. Of course I still made moves that weren't "best moves" but that doesn't worry me as much as out

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1137118424728665182006-01-12T22:08:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:27.584-04:00

Here's a Big Nate strip from last week:Sorry that its so small, I can't seem to enlarge it. But its called Big Nate and you can check out the week long chess storyline from last week at www.comics.com. Its not too terribly funny, but at least its chess related. (The previous chess story lines have been funnier).Here is my annotated teamchess game from today. Its a horrible, horrible game and

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1136852577465377212006-01-09T20:17:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:27.482-04:00

Here's the links to two other teamchess games.A postponed round 2 game where I played a bad Smith-Morra Gambit but managed to get a draw.And here's an U1800 winSo midway through I'm +2 -2 =2 ... not too bad.I'm looking for a new opening as white, any ideas? I usually play 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 .... etc. etc. I want something different... anybody?

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1136683087704661382006-01-07T21:14:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:27.398-04:00

Here's the link to my annotated lose in Round 3 of the U1600 teamchess game. The highlight is below, with Black to play.Black to Play(its not that hard to see at all and I missed it!)

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1136336214587426652006-01-03T20:55:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:27.310-04:00

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1136047123032747982005-12-31T12:34:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:27.215-04:00

1. Play in 6 OTB tournaments (8)2. Play at least 75 slow games (100)3. Increase my USCF rating to 17004. Review 100 annotated games (125)5. Annotate 50 % of my slow games (75%)6. Tacticsa. Be able to complete CT-ART level 10-50 in one dayb.Work on at least one other tactics software program (2)7. Work on a solid “thinking process”8. Keep blitz games down to a minimum9. Write down my moves for

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1135949695417726272005-12-30T09:30:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:27.121-04:00

Thanks to the Druss Blog I'm starting to use bloglines to stay on top of everyone's blog. Its a handy site and it makes following lots of blogs rather easy.It will mean that some of you, most notably DG, will see a drastic decrease in the number of hits your page has been getting.

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1135439938198572362005-12-24T11:56:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:27.037-04:00

Here's a link to my latest game: ClickyThis is my first win this tournament (1.5/3).Annotating my games has been very helpful for me, I pick up a lot about the openings and "long-ish" plans that I could've/should've implemented, because my plans aren't always sound.HAPPY HOLIDAYS and I hope santa is nice to everybody

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1135364327506591582005-12-23T14:55:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:26.970-04:00

Here is the link to my Round 1 U1600 game: CLICKY. I sacced a knight, and then the exchange and ended up having four pawns for his rook. I could have won a fifth pawn but chose a draw by repitition instead of risking it. What would you have done in that position?I played another team chess game yesterday afternoon and won, so I'm 1.5/3 so far this season. I will annotate that game today and

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1134837876494970402005-12-17T12:43:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:26.868-04:00

I got the training feature to work, make sure to hit help so you can see what else it can do.....CLICK ME

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1134700435503532352005-12-15T22:28:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:26.778-04:00

Played a T29 teamchess game yesterday and lost.I also downloaded a new toy that I think is pretty cool (especially since its freeware).Here is my annotated game and the new toy, make sure you at least get to move 8. ... e5 to see what the toy can do, its pretty neat. Click me for a GAME(granted I went a little overboard with the toy midway through, but you get the idea).The game was a

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1134593483112783722005-12-14T16:44:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:26.697-04:00

I'm experimenting with new openings, The King's Gambit as white and the Caro-Khan as black (with a four game bout of the Latvian Gambit, which I did not like at all).The King's Gambit is quite fun and I may start playing it in my regular games.The Caro-Khan is fun to and I'm not sure why no one likes it, it seems reasonable to me. Is it supposed to be boring or something?I will play them both in

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1134354424584767312005-12-11T22:20:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:26.480-04:00

Last game from the tournament.White to MoveI went up a piece early in this game, we were both playing too fast. I just wanted to simplify things and I played Nxc7, thinking that would do it. But I missed something, can you see it? (nothing that made me lose, mind you, and Nxc7 may in fact be the best move, but I thought I would end up still a piece up but instead I ended up .......) (i'll put

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1134179038164193192005-12-09T21:34:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:26.397-04:00

The first key position:black to playI had just played Rxh2 and he played b5. I thought for the longest time here and what I played is okay, but probably (edit: definitely) not best. Its a strange position, obviously black is up and I felt like at this point I should win. I think I missed played it from here and plan on loading this into fritz and trying again. (I did and I won.... sort of)Second

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1134147176457626762005-12-09T12:42:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:26.302-04:00

I know I said I was going to post the second game from my tournament this past weekend but I don't think I am. I did learn a lot about the endgame by going over it. I was right in thinking that he could've drew, but only because the previous move I made allowed him to. In other words, when we got down to R + P vs R I had the advantage but played a lousy move, but thankfully he missed the

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1133786338949116232005-12-05T08:21:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:26.218-04:00

I played in another tournament this past weekend. A quad which turned into a three round swiss. I scored 3-0 and won first place. I'm happy with my play but...(G/90)First round: Unrated father (of two kids playing in the scholastic section) who only agreed to play so we'd have an even number of players. He wasn't very good, I'm not going to go over this game.Second round: The toughest round

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1132925890239577602005-11-25T12:26:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:26.145-04:00

Things have finally slowed down for me. (Although the new house still needs arranged, I own more books than than I know what to do with. I hate moving.)I'm in the MFO team at teamchess.org and I see that there is basically two de la maza teams in the U1800 section. Should be fun.When / if I play with fellow MDLM bloggers I will analyze my game on my blog so my opp can see what I was

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18238918.post-1130175575577996342005-10-24T13:26:00.000-04:002006-11-14T11:12:26.055-04:00

I killed my blog because it was taking to much time. What with the wedding, buying a house and an increased workload I had already slowed my circles work down to about 30 minutes a day and that and writing blogs was taking to much time.Along with too much chess in to little time I got burned out so after my honeymoon I decided to take a break. I just don't see the incentive to devote hours a day

DreadPirateJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00758323292473905225noreply@blogger.com5