Chess Tyro [.] com

Just when I thought I had my time commitments well under control, more non chess related surprises were sprung my way that just made it very difficult for me to spend time on more important chess matters and, by extension, this blog.

This led me to make the unpalatable decision to temporarily – I hope – take a break from chess blogging. I initially did not want to do this, and the five or so astute followers of this blog would have noticed my sporadic attempts to continue blogging. But just the thought and compulsion to write a blog post can sometimes be an unnecessary and distracting exercise.

I have also started to feel that the lack of regularity and continuity in my blogging had not really given me the chess improvement benefits that I used to get out of it. And while vanity was admittedly one of my strong motivations in starting this blog, the main reason for its existence has always been to help me in my chess improvement effort.

Since I’m not really getting my desired benefit out of the blog, I thought it’s just best to give it a rest for now rather than continually stress about when I can make my next post. I still believe in the chess improvement benefits of blogging, though, so I’m not ready to totally give it up just yet.

Fresh from winning his first major international title at the 10th Dubai Open, Filipino GM Wesley So (1540) has won an exhibition match against Indonesian number one GM Megaranto Susanto (2561) at the latter’s own home soil.

So, currently the world’s youngest GM, swept through the first three games before conceding two draws and a loss in the remaining three to comfortably win their six-game duel.

By this tyro’s calculation, the win tops So’s FIDE rating up by another 11 points (he is reported to have gained 15 points from Dubai). Below is one of So’s victories (I believe this was in the second round).

From this Chessbase story, it looks like So has a full summer schedule. We’re all for getting the young GM’s rating up to 2600 level as soon as possible, but we also hope he does not overextend himself.

I played my first open Sicilian with white at this year’s Doeberl Cup. I had shunned the open Sicilian in the three years and a bit that I have been playing club level tournament chess as I consider it too sharp for me, and I always assume that the black player who chooses to respond to 1. e4 with the Sicilian is fairly knowledgeable with the open lines.

ChessTyro – Musaeva, Aina [B89]
2008 Doeberl Cup Major

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 For most of the second half of last year, and virtually all of this year so far, I’ve played 2. Nc3 against the Sicilian.

2. … Nc6 3. Bb5 And this is my standard response to 2. … Nc6.

3. … Nd4 The point of the opening. White’s threat to mess up black’s pawn structure not only causes black to “waste a tempo” moving her knight twice, but she was also “forced” to put the knight on an awkward square.

4. Bc4 White uses this tempo to place his bishop on its ideal opening square.

4. … e6 5. Nf3 Nc6?! (D) Yet another knight move. 5. … Nxf3? Qxf3 gives white a massive lead in development. White also has the possibility of taking on d4 himself should black decide to ignore the knight, once more resulting to doubled pawns.

This third knight move so early in the opening suggested that black was not really familiar with the opening, but since this was also the first time I’ve faced this knight retreat, I was not sure how to respond: I knew the knight retreat was bad because of all the tempi concessions, but white can only really realise these benefits if he transposes to an open Sicilian, something I’ve never done before.

6. d4! I made what I thought was the principled move, the best way to take advantage of the position. But I did not know much about the open Sicilian systems, so my heart was also racing. I should note that I was also spotting my opponent close to 200 ACF ratings points here, adding to the anxiety.

6. … cxd4 7. Nxd4 d6 8. Be3 Nf6 9. f3?! In a post-game analysis, my coach said that this was a very conservative, potentially tempo-losing move. He said the immediate 8. Qe2 is better. The computer also suggests 8. 0-0 as another alternative, but I did not even consider this as I was already thinking of continuing the “principled” way by castling long and storming the black king.

9. … Be7 10. Qd2 0-0 11. 0-0-0 I could have castled a move early had I not played 9. f3?!.

11. … Na5 12. Bb3 a6 13. g4 Qc7 14. h4 b5 15. Rdg1 This move looks like I’m continuing with my attacking plans, but this was actually me putting my defensive hat on: I was clearing d1 as a potential retreat square for my knight on c3. The computer assesses this position as already slightly better for black, a significant turnaround after just a few moves.

15. … Bb7?! I thought this was inaccurate. There’s nothing really wrong with the move, but 16. … Nxb3 17. axb3 Bb7 was probably the more accurate move-order.

16. Bxe6!? (D) Here I am again, going with “principled” moves. I thought this was the only opportunity for me to do this, as it was likely black was going to trade her knight on a5 for my bishop in the next move. My coach said he would probably not have played this move, the computer said it would. From hereon in, my heart was getting a very good workout.

16. … fxe6 17. Nxe6 Qc6 18. Nxf8 The computer suggests 19. g5 Nc4 20. gxf6 Bxf6 (20. … Nxd2 21. Rxg7+ Kh8 22. Rxe7 Nxf3 23. Bh6 b4 24. Bxf8 Rxf8 25. Nxf8 bxc3 26. Ne7 cxb2+ 27. Kxb2, winning) 21. Qd3 b4 22. Nd1 Rf7 +/= as an alternative.

18. … Bxf8 19. Bd4 White seems to have some initiative here, but the computer assesses the position as fairly equal. But of course, the pressure is on the defender to find the correct moves.

19. … Nd7 20. Nd5 Nc4 21. Qg5?! I had lots of “safer” squares for my queen, but I noted that black was starting to run out of good moves to make and thought that I’d best keep the pressure building.

21. … Nde5 (22. … Nce5) 22. Rf1 Rc8 23. Rh2 Once again, the computer assesses this position as fairly equal.

23. … Nf7? Black succumbs to the pressure of the position.

24. Ne7+! Kh8 25. Nxc6 Nxg5 26. hxg5 Bxc6 This is a forced sequence. 27. Rfh1 Ne5?? Black’s final blunder. 27. … Kg8 28. Rxh7 Kf7, while still probably losing, could have provided more resistance.

28. Rxh7 Kg8 29. Bxd5 exd5 30. g6 and there’s no stopping mate next move. 1-0.

This was a very special win for me: I triumphed over an opponent who was rated significantly higher than me, playing an opening system that I am not only unfamiliar with, but was also quite scared of.

The way I played was far from perfect, but my coach said that if there’s one game that shows that I am really starting to gain confidence in my ability to improvise over the board, it’s this one. I played through this game again and again for the rest of the tournament.

Just because I have not really had much time to blog this year, I thought I’d just give a bit of a generalist update about how I’m traveling, at least as far as chess is concerned. The time is an opportune one, as the first weekly tournament that I played in this year finished a couple of weeks ago, and I have a week and a bit left before the next one starts.

My single most important goal for this year, as stated in the chess plans that I laid out in early January, is to improve my performance in weekenders. I have played in three weekenders so far, and I’m pleased to report that I not only performed higher than my rating in all three, but I even took home rating prizes in two of them. So in this regard, the year is so far a resounding success.

But of course, there are also some disappointments. The biggest disappointment so far is my having to forego playing at the SIO. I really set myself up to playing the Begonia, Doeberl, and SIO this year. Unfortunately, work once more got in the way, so the Begonia-Doeberl-SIO treble will just have to wait another year. At least.

Then there’s my supposed training program. I burned myself out with a 10-hours-per-week program last year, so I decided to cut it down to just six hours per week this year (see here). But with the increasing demands on my time, even that cut down version had to be thrown out. I’m currently in the process of making another revised (and quite likely further cut down) program.

Thankfully, the lack of chess training/exercise did not really reflect negatively on my tournament results. I was initially afraid that this was going to be the case, and was even seriously contemplating temporarily stopping playing tournament chess. But then I sort of convinced myself that this was probably an as good a time as any to apply my supposed learning. Pleasingly, my results indicate that I might have just learned a thing or two about playing better chess.

What the lack of chess training/exercise seems to have most affected is my tactical vision. Most of my losses and squandered wins were due to my missing pretty basic tactics. See the below diagram, for example.

I was black here, and white just played 1. Bxb7. I spent a good deal of time thinking here, and I knew taking the bishop loses, as the only way for black to stop white’s two passed pawns from promoting is to give up both his rook and bishop. I unfortunately could not find a better move, so I decided to take the bishop anyway and hoped for an inaccuracy from my opponent. I resigned after a few moves.

The correct response would have been 1… Bxc5!. I did see this move, but I dismissed it very quickly, as I thought my bishop would just be pinned after white retreats his with say, 2. Bf3. I did not see that I could do 2. … Bd6 or 2. … Bb6, defending my rook. That was a mere two moves, and I did not see it.

My CTS results further confirm this suspicion. I thought my rating was going to stabilise at around 1530, and I even got it to above 1560 a few times. But it’s back down to around 1480 now, and until I am able to spend some time to do this fairly regularly again, I’m not really very enthusiastic about it improving.

I have made my own conclusions out of all these, but I’ll leave it up to you to draw yours.

Grandmaster Wesley So (2540), currently the number one player in the Philippines and the world’s youngest GM, has won the Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup of the 2008 edition of the Dubai Open Chess Championships.

So finished with 7 out of a possible 9 points (6-2-1), and a performance rating of 2708. He shared the same score with three other GMs: Merab Gagunashvili (2553) of Georgia, Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (2604) of Iran, and Chao Li (2581) of China; but took custody of the winner’s cup by virtue of a superior tiebreak.

Five other Filipinos played in the tournament: IM Julio Catalino Sadorra (2455) and Jobannie Tabada (2057) finished with 5 points, FM Antonio Molina (2150) and Ernesto Yap (2038) had 4.5 points, and Robert Arellano (2023) finished the tournament with 3.5 points.

So’s sensational result included victories against higher rated and higher profile opponents. Below is his fourth round victory against current world junior champion GM Ahmed Adly (2578) of Egypt. Followers of the young Filipino GM’s progress might remember that Adly beat So in the 7th round of last year’s World Juniors Chess Championships.

After some three months of semi-inactivity, I’m back to more regular chess blogging. At least that’s the intention.

Things have been very hectic at work since the start of the year, and I was really forced to cut down on the time I spend on other pursuits. As far as chess was concerned, it was my study and blogging time that had to be significantly reduced. I still continued to play in tournaments whenever time permitted, and I was afraid that the lack of chess study was going to affect my performance.

It quite surprisingly didn’t. On the contrary, this has been my best start to the year as far as chess tournament results are concerned. I have not really had much time to reflect on this, but I suspect the results of my chess improvement effort over the last two years are just starting to manifest now. The pessimistic view, of course, is I’ve just been enjoying a bit of a purple patch.

Anyway, work is still quite demanding, and it’s likely to stay this way until the end of the year. But as with anything, it’s also really just a matter of getting used to and given some time, you eventually get to make some necessary adjustments.

The ratings list for April 2008 was released this week, and it shows current world champion Viswanathan Anand (IND) reclaiming solo leadership. Anand gained four points during the period and once more breached the magic 2800.

Russian Vladimir Kramnik, who shared top spot with Anand in January, shed 11 points to drop to 2788, but he still holds second spot. Bulgarian Veselin Topalov did not have such luck: he lost 13 points this period and had to concede third spot to Russian Alexander Morozevich who gained nine.

But the biggest mover of the big names this period is 17-year old Norwegian Magnus Carlsen. He gained 32 points to rise to 2765 (just two points shy of Topalov) and catapult himself to fifth place in the rankings.

Completing the top ten are: Armenian Levon Aronian (2763); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2752) and Teimour Radjabov (2751), both of Azerbaijan; Russian Peter Svidler (2746); and Hungarian Peter Leko (2741). Vassily Ivanchuk (2740) of the Ukraine who was number two as recently as October last year, has dropped out of the top ten.

In Australia, retired GM Ian Rogers remains on top with 2545. His heir apparent, IM Zong Yuan Zhao (I thought he would have been ratified as a GM already) is number two and just four points down with 2541; Zhao will most likely overtake Rogers when the July list is released. International masters Stephen Solomon (2472) and David Smerdon (2462), and GM Darryl Johansen (2453) complete the top five.

In the Philippines, young sensation GM Wesley So has taken over top spot with 2540. Following him and just three points behind is the once very promising GM Mark Paragua, who seems to be regaining some of his old form. Evergreen GMs Rogelio Antonio (2529) and Eugenio Torre are third and fourth, respectively. International master Joseph Sanchez (2507), who I believe is now based in Europe, is number five.

As for this tyro, I gained a very encouraging 15 points (all these points were gained from the Begonia) to reach a personal best of 1797. Onwards and upwards, I say.