Week 1: PRO Chess League Begins

Hi everyone! I am LM Aaron Balleisen, and I am excited to begin a series of weekly reports on the Carolina Cobras' performance in the PRO (Professional Rapid Online) Chess League (PCL). The Cobras were one of the founding members of the old United States Chess League, and will continue to field a local team under the new league format. PCL matches feature sixteen rapid games at a g15 time control, in which each of a team's four players compete against all four opponents. The faster pace is intended to make the games more accessible to audiences, who can view all games live on chess.com.

One interesting wrinkle in the new league format is that teams can choose to supplement their local players with "free agents" from around the globe. Many of the top players in the world, including Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, have taken advantage of this opportunity to join the PCL. Carolina is proud to field an all-local team, giving our up-and-coming players a chance to gain experience against some really strong competition.

The Cobras' season kicked off Wednesday, January 11 with a 5.5/16 performance against the Philadelphia Inventors. It was a solid effort by our local players against a team that featured two GMs along with strong masters on the lower boards.

Carolina's lineup for the match featured NMs Peter Giannatos, Steve Wang, Daniel Cremisi, and myself. We all played some very interesting games, some of which I have highlighted below with annotations and analysis.

NM Peter Giannatos scored a very respectable 2/4 in the match, taking care of business against Philly's two lower boards and losing tough games to GMs Erenburg and Vovk. Below is a clinical victory against FM Dov Gorman, which illustrates the lasting power of the bishop pair. At several moments during the game, Peter could have cashed in his bishops for a small, concrete advantage. Waiting for the right moment to turn a dynamic advantage into a concrete plus is always a challenge, and Peter waits until a nice tactic allows him to force a clearly winning endgame.


NM Daniel "let's just play chess and not embarrass ourselves" Cremisi did just that with a 2/4 performance. Like Peter, Daniel went 2-0 against the lower rated opponents, only losing to the two top GMs. In the following game, Daniel builds up a nice attack from an opposite-colored bishop middlegame, culminating in a nice tactical breakthrough.


NM Steve Wang had a tough night, losing all four of his games. He had some definite unlucky moments, most notably against NM Peter Minear, when a mouse-slip in time pressure dropped a queen and cost a full point. His game against GM Erenburg was extremely back and forth, and could have gone either way until the very end.


My games were all quite tense, a definite byproduct of the short time control and online playing environment. I scored 1.5/4, notching a win against NM Matthew O'Brien and a draw against GM Erenburg. Both games featured interesting endgames, and time pressure scrambles. In the game against O'Brien, I found a direct tactic which transformed the position into one where only two results are possible, win or draw. Positions like this are especially desirable in rapid time controls where there is an added advantage in being able to play "safe" moves quickly.



 My draw against GM Erenburg involved a difficult, pawn down rook ending. In the position below, I am already significantly worse, with weak light squares and passive pieces. Qd3! simplifies to a rook endgame at the cost of a pawn, where I have good chances to hold.


I hope you enjoyed this recap, and I look forward to continuing this article series throughout the PCL season! Our next match is Wednesday, January 18 at 6:40pm against the Columbus Cardinals. Games can be viewed live on chess.com.

Until next time,
LM Aaron Balleisen

Simple Chess: Tactics (Top 5 Training Methods)

Today is Thursday and that means another Simple Chess post. I've decided to name my section of the CCCSA blog: Simple Chess.When teaching material of any kind, I like to make things as simple as possible. As an adult trying to improve at chess, the simpler the better.

Since the start of 2017 (okay not really that long but long enough), I have been solving tactics for 30 minutes a day on Chess.com's Tactics Trainer. This has been a great training method for tactics (frustrating, but great). I use the rated method during this 30 minutes and the goal is to be as accurate as possible. That means I could solve 1 puzzle or I could solve 100 puzzles in those 30 minutes. There has only been one day that I got 100% accuracy. The other days I played too fast and just didn't analyze correctly, hence the frustrating part mentioned earlier. I have noticed the same weakness in my own games which is:

Playing without fully calculating all the lines. The same is especially true for all positions that have multiple in-between moves or different move orders.  

This got me thinking about what this post should be about. Of course any strong player is going to tell you that to improve one needs to get better at tactics. This is great advice but how to get better is the key element that seems to always be missing. Should you solve 100+ tactics a day? Do you need to solve every position in your head? Can you move the pieces around to learn? Should you be getting the puzzles correct or learning from the puzzles? Well, to keep it simple here are the top five methods that I have used. These methods have greatly improved my tactical abilities.

 

Tactics Training Method #1

• Get better at seeing simple tactics and simple mating patterns. For this I recommend the following books:
• Chess Tactics for Students by John Bain
• I put all of the positions into Chessbase so that I could quickly go over them even when I just have my laptop. I created a separate database for each chapter. Then I also created a database where I combined all the other databases. This way I could focus on a specific theme or I could just go through all of them if I want. In fact, I will still spend once a month going through all the different motifs at one time. It becomes not so much about knowing the solution as it does about being able to spot the pattern (this is the ultimate goal). 
• Chess by Laszlo Polgar
• I would do 50 Mate in One puzzles a day. For the Mate in Two puzzles I started off with the same ambitious goal, but that has dropped down to about 6 or 12 a day. There are 5,334 puzzles so this is a book I am still working through. Even though mating a king in a tournament game is not as likely as winning a piece or a pawn, this really helps to develop your calculation and visualization skills. 
• Chess Tactics for the Tournament Player by GM Sam Palatnik and GM Lev Alburt 
• I worked through this book only after I became confident in my knowledge gained from Volumes 1 and 2 of the Comprehensive Chess Course (you can read why I recommend these books in this blog) and the two books mentioned above. For this book, I worked from the book itself, never setting any pieces up. I followed every main line and analysis in my head. This was extremely difficult because I didn't just think that I got it. I forced myself to see every position clearly in my head before moving on.  

 

Tactics Training Method #2

• Once seeing the simple tactics becomes easy, then it is time to move on to more advanced materials. Seeing the simple tactics doesn't just mean in books, it means in your own games as well. If you are no longer missing a simple knight fork or discovered check in your games then you are ready to move on. If you are still missing simple tactics then don't move on. Some of my recommendations here would be:
• Improve Your Chess Tactics by Yakov Neishtadt
• I recommend actually setting up a board or using Chessbase to play over the instructional material. For the exercises I would set a chess clock up for 10-20 minutes and try to solve each exercise at the end of the chapters. Write down your own solutions, then compare to the author's solutions. If you are wrong, DO NOT be upset. Just play over the analysis (every single line) and try to figure out why you didn't see the correct moves. Was it move order error? Did you just not see the solution at all? Did you not see the resourceful defense by the opponent? These are the questions you need to ask about your tactics during study and during a post-game analysis. Finding out why you missed something is more important that figuring out what you missed. Fixing the why in your chess will give you better rewards than just trying to solve more tactics. 
• Forcing Chess Moves by Charles Hertan
• I recommend the same study method as Improve Your Chess Tactics. 

 

The goal of studying tactics should be to learn, not beat yourself up if you don't find the correct solution (you are probably going to do enough of that after your games). This was the hardest lesson for me to get. Studying is just that, studying. Perfection is not as important as understanding.

 

Tactics Training Method #3

Since time management is also a practical skill that most adult players need help with this method is perfect. It allows you to combine tactics training with time management. Thus fully maximizing your study time.

1. Get 4 chess positions that you want to solve (I use Chess Training Pocket Book by GM Lev Alburt as the positions are already 4 to page). You can also use positions from my Tactics Training Method #5 in an effort to combine multiple training methods. 
2. Set your chess clock to 20 minutes (You may adjust this more or less depending on your abilities, I just wouldn't make it too long unless you are adding more positions). 
3. Set the first position up, start your clock and try to find the best move(s). 
4. Write your calculated lines down (don't ever move the pieces during this training session). 
5. Stop the clock and compare your analysis with the solution.
1. If correct, set up the next position and repeat steps 3 through 5. 
2. If incorrect, go over the answer until you understand it and try to understand why you missed it. Then deduct a time penalty from your remaining time (I deduct 5 minutes for every position I get wrong even if I got the answer correct but I didn't analyze a defense that the author provides). Then repeat steps 3 through 5 until you finish all the positions.
6. Repeat on a weekly basis. This training method will greatly improve your chess intuition, visualization, calculation, and time management. These are all skills that will improve your chess faster than knowing more opening knowledge.  

 

 

Tactics Training Method 4:

This training method was already discussed earlier in this blog but here it is again. I prefer this method because it allows you to track your progress over time (shown in the pictures below). The trainer adjusts the skill level of the problem on your rating:

• Spend at least 30 minutes a day solving tactical problems on Chess.com's Tactics Trainer (or you can use any of the other sites that have tactics training). 
• Set a chess clock for 30 minutes, start the first position, and start your time. 
• Don't focus on speed, focus on accuracy during this training method.

My overall performance since January 1, 2017 with just 30 minutes per day.

Daily Breakdown For Problems Correct vs. Incorrect as Well as Rating Ranges

My Top 5 Tactic Categories

My Bottom 5 Tactic Categories

 

 

Tactics Training Method #5

• Once you get your information breakdown from the 4th training method you can then use the tactics trainer to focus on specific categories. 
• Go into tactics trainer and select "Custom (Unrated)"
• Now you can select your rating range for the problems. Set the rating low to get better at pattern recognition. Set the rating higher to work on calculation skills. For example if I wanted to get better at pattern recognition I would set the max rating at 1000. If I wanted to work on my calculation I would set my minimum rating at my current tactics rating and my max rating 400 points higher. 
• You can include all problems or just the problems you failed previously.
• You are able to select specific themes.
• I usually select the bottom 5 themes as shown before. This allows you to tighten up on any areas you are weaker in. 

Improve Your Tactics 

Good luck in your quest to become better at chess tactics. I hope you found this information valuable and that you can implement at least one of my methods in your training plan. I look forward to seeing you over the board soon!

-David

An Open and Shut Case

22 players showed up to compete in the 4th round of Tuesday Night Action 29. The top board is our feature game this week, where Sulia Mason(1981) took on Patrick McCartney(2053) in what starts off with a line in The Classical Fianchetto System of the Nimzo-Indian Defense where White attempts early expansion on the Queenside. Black tries to shut down White's attack, but in return he must give White one opportunity to open the position on move 14, and once White decides not to take, Black immediately locks the Queenside shut and at the same time, creates a protected passed pawn that White must keep an eye on all through the game. The next stage of the game sees a lot of maneuvering until Black finally shuts the position down completely with a Good Knight versus Bad Bishop scenario, and only then proceeds to open up once again, on the other side of the board that is with White's problem being that it's significantly easier for Black to rapidly get his heavy pieces across to the King side after it's opened up than it is for White's heavy pieces to get across, and when all is said and done, White's pieces are all bundled up on the Queen side and are unable to come to the rescue of their majesty in time. The game can be viewed below.



The win gives McCartney a half point lead with a round to go.

Elsewhere in the top section, Michael Uwakwe(2082) played an offbeat Anti-Sicilian (2...d6 3.Bc4) and proceeded to take down Vishnu Vanapalli(1960). Pradhy Kothapalli(1867) snagged a couple of pawns and it proved to be too much for William Clayton(1811) while Aditya Shivapooja(1750) defeated David Blackwelder(1706).

In the Under 1700 Section, section leader Daniel Boisvert(846) was defeated by Marnzell Hand(1607), but still has a one point lead while Ali Shirzad(1463) beat Andrew Jiang(1438) in order to be the only other player within a point of the leader. The upset of the night goes to Richard Trela(1118) who pulled off a draw against Ervon Nichols(1615). The other winners include David Richards(1673), Segun Kamara(1617), and Monish Behera(1228) while Aditya Vadakattu(1076) and Samuel Reiman(Unrated) declared peace.

The cross table can be viewed here.

Meet CCCSA Blog Contributor: Gary "Chess Bully" Newsom

Meet CCCSA Blog Contributor:

 Gary “The Chess Bully” Newsom

Hello! For those of you who don’t know me I am Gary Newsom, affectionately ( I hope…) known as “The Chess Bully” around these parts. We won’t go into how I received the moniker; just know that it was well deserved.

I have been involved in the game of chess for 40+ years. I, like many others in my age group, caught the fever when Bobby Fischer was making his march to the world championship title back in 1972.  I was 12 then. There used to be a feature on Saturday mornings called “In The News” in which a snippet of some news story that might appeal to kids was aired between Bugs Bunny and Scooby Doo. One fateful Saturday morning my brother and I caught a report on the Fischer-Spassky match and the rest is history. That afternoon we went to the library and came home with “Hoyle’s Book of Games” which included the rules of chess. We figured it out…mostly…on our own. For some reason we had the knights moving two squares diagonally and forward only but I think we got the rest right. That was the beginning.

Some of my best moments in chess include winning the Jr High School unrated tournament that allowed me to be one of the representatives at the Tennessee State Championship in 1974 (heck yeah that was one of my best moments….). Getting my first serious (with a clock) game published in the newspaper. It was a queen sac and I won in less than 10 moves. Qualifying for the Tennessee Invitational (adult..not scholastic) at age 18. Achieving the expert title for the first time at age 20. Achieving the title of Memphis City Co-Champion in 1988. Achieving the highest rating of my life (2141) at the 1994 Ohio Chess Congress with a 4-2 score vs all masters and wins vs Aviv Friedman (2400+) and George Umezinwa (high 2300) Winning the 2000 West Virginia Open. Winning the 2001 US Amateur South. Starting the long running "Reverse Angle" tournament series. Founding (along with Peter Giannatos and Mike Eberhardinger) the Queen City Chess Association, which eventually morphed into the CCCSA which Peter has done such a great job of developing.  Qualifying for the 2007 North Carolina Invitational. Being President of the NCCA from 2009-2012. Working with Walter High on developing chess in our region by first building the NC Open into a big event and then assisting Walter as it morphed into the chess festival we enjoy today.

Maybe you got bored reading all of that but the Cliff Notes version is that I have been around chess a long time. I have done a lot and seen a lot. There’s your takeaway.

My blog, which will be titled “The Bully’s Pulpit. Five Decades of Chess Intimidation” will be an eclectic hodgepodge of stories, opinions, observations on the chess scene and its culture, along with some actual chess board action occasionally. Basically wherever my head is at the time. I hope to keep it light,snarky and irreverant. We'll try to keep it PG, though I may have to sit on my hands occasionally. I will definitely entertain myself. We’ll see if it entertains the prospective reader.

OK out for now. Hope to see you at the board soon!

Learn from the Champs: Nicolas Rossolimo

Hi Everyone! I am excited to write my first blog post for the all new CCCSA blog! I have enjoyed reading the most recent articles by David Blackwelder, Patrick McCartney and Davide Nastasio. I heard through the chess-vine that known "Chess Bully" Gary Newsom will be writing for the blog as well, that should be entertaining!

On with the man of the hour, GM Nicolas Rossolimo. I knew of Rossolimo vaguely as I played his line of the Sicilian for many years (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5). Every Thursday at the CCCSA I give a lecture on champions of the past and stumbled across the games of Rossolimo. What a tactician! His game were a lot of fun to analyze especially with the great group of animated lecture goers on Thursday evenings.

Rossolimo was an Russian born Greek(yay!) and French Grandmaster! He later emigrated to the US and was a familiar face in the New York chess scene and played a few US Championships, even winning one in 1955!

The following quote by Rossolimo may tell you more about his style:
"What am I supposed to do, trade in my romantic style and become a hunter of points at any price? No, I will not do so. I will fight for the art of chess. I shall not turn into a monster"


READ MORE ABOUT ROSSOLIMO HERE
Below are game fragments that I find to be fantastic:

The first example may remind you of the famous "Gold Coin Game":

The next example is a very well conducted attack from start to finish. Rossolimo never lets his opponent recover from his very poor opening play:




I hope you enjoyed this great games from Rossolimo!

Until Next Time,

NM Peter Giannatos

View My Bio Here

Simple Chess: A Solid Foundation

A Course in Chess Improvement

To improve as an adult chess player it is crucial to have a solid foundation upon which you can build. Our time is already limited as an adult so having structure is of utmost importance. A lot of adult players jump around between books, videos, and other resources and never really get to put everything together. If you are tired of feeling like you are not improving even though you spend a lot of time studying and playing then my method may be for you.

There are two books which claim to bring a person from beginner to a Class A player (1800-1999) if you fully grasp the material presented in the two books. So far these books have brought me from Class C (1400-1599) to a Class B player (1600-1799) in a very short period of time.

Those two books are Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the Comprehensive Chess Course by Roman Pelts and GM Lev Alburt. These two books are designed for teachers to be used in a classroom environment. However, they also make ideal self-study materials.

A solid foundation

Several people will be quick to bypass Volume 1 because it's main objective is to teach someone who doesn't know anything about chess how to move the pieces. However, do not bypass this book. If you don't know the color of the g6 square without thinking or looking at a chessboard then you should go through Volume 1. Or if you can't move a knight from h1 to a8 without looking at a board then you need to go through Volume 1. Just a quick look at the different lessons:

• Lesson 1: The chessboard and the starting position. How pawns move and capture.
• Lesson 2: Chess notation.
• Lesson 3: How the Rook and Bishop move and capture. The center.
• Lesson 4: How the Queen and Knight move and capture.
• Lesson 5: How the King moves and captures. Check. Checkmate.
• Lesson 6: En Passant pawn captures. 
• Lesson 7: Castling.
• Lesson 8: Relative values of the chess forces.
• Lesson 9: How games are drawn.
• Lesson 10: How to record moves.
• Lesson 11: How to open a chess game.
• Lesson 12: Tests. 

 Each lesson covers material and then at the end there is homework. Each lesson is meant to be once a week. For adult players that already know the game of chess, the lessons could be done one a day. The best thing about Volume 1 is not only does it teach how the pieces move but it also works on developing one's visualization. One also needs to play slow games and analyze them afterwards while working through both of these books.

Some of the most memorable homework exercises included the following positions. Spend about 10 minutes trying to answer the questions. Work from the diagram with your efforts and when going over the solutions. It is better to discipline yourself now by trying to visualize moves as much as you can. This by itself will increase your overall playing abilities.  If you haven't figured it out, then scroll down to the solution and work through it on an actual board or your favorite chess playing software until you fully understand it.

Answers

Puzzle 1:
White wins.
1. Rh5, b4
2. Rxc5, a4
3. Rc4, b3
4. Rxa4, b2
5. Rb4, b1=Q
6. Rxb1

Now move all the pawns to the 4th rank and with White to move, who wins?

Puzzle 2:
White wins.
1. Bd5, e3
2. Bc4 and the black pawns will fall.

Now move all the pawns to the 3rd rank and with White to move, who wins?



Volume 2 will build upon these basic skills. Here is a quick look at the lessons included in this book:

• Lesson 1: The rules of play.
• Lesson 2: Abbreviated notation. Some chess terms and concepts. Attack and defense. Trades.
• Lesson 3: More symbols and terms. How to start a game. Mating with a Queen and Rook in the endgame.
• Lesson 4: Mistakes in the opening. Mating with two Rooks in the endgame.
• Lesson 5: Opening traps. Mating with a Queen in the endgame. 
• Lesson 6: The concept of planning. Exploiting a large material advantage. Mating with a Rook in the endgame.
• Lesson 7: Tactics. Double attack. Pawn endgame. The rule of the square.
• Lesson 8: Pinning. Endgames with King and two pawns versus King. 
• Lesson 9: The skewer. How combinations are created. Endgames with King and Rook pawn against lone King.
• Lesson 10: Typical mating combinations. The back-rank mate. Endgame with King and non-Rook pawn versus King.
• Lesson 11: Typical mating combinations (continuation). Mate by a major piece (Queen or Rook) helped by other men. Endgame with King and non-Rook pawn versus King (continuation).
• Lesson 12: Tests.

Lesson 2 is the most important lesson in Volume 2. It actually teaches you to count attackers and defenders. It also teaches to pay attention to the relative value of the attackers and defenders. This is such an important skill that most players never fully learn. For example:

Answers:

Puzzle 3
No. The pawn on e5 will have six defenders. There are also six attackers. In addition, the defenders and attackers are of equal value. Therefore, playing 1. ... e5 is safe.

Puzzle 4
No. This position is different from puzzle 3 because Black's h-pawn is on h7 instead of h6. Therefore, Black cannot safely play 1. ... e5. The sequence of exchanges on e5 will leave Black's back rank exposed. For example:
1. ... e5
2. fxe5, Bxe5
3. Bxe5, Ndxe5
4. Ndxe5, Nxe5
5. Nxe5, Rxe5
6. Rxe5, Rxe5
7. Rxe5, Qxe5
8. Qd8+, Qe8
9. Qxe8#


These two books combined are going to teach you not only chess knowledge but also give you the skills you need to fully grow into the best chess player you can. Pick them up now and start working through them.

Slop at the Top!

Round 3 of Tuesday Night Action 29 saw an unusually low turnout of 14 players. At the top board, Patrick McCartney and Dominique Myers met for the 27th time, and it turned out to be more of a blunder fest than a game one would expect between two players rated in the 2100s. White plays an unsound sacrifice on move 6. Black proceeds to drop a piece and converts a piece for two pawn advantage into a pawn deficit. White then wins another pawn, but in severe time trouble, completely fails to convert a two-pawn up endgame, and the game ends in a draw.

The draw allowed Myers to maintain a half point lead after three rounds.

Meanwhile, on board 2, Sulia Mason, playing White, takes down Michael Uwakwe. It was reported by White that due to extreme passive play by Black, showing no interest in conflict, White went on to aggressively dominate the entire board, and that not once in the entire game did a single Black piece get beyond the 5th rank, and every Black piece remained on his own half of the board. White after the game said his attitude was "You don't want to come after me? I'll do it for you in making your position passive!" In the end, the White pieces swarmed in at the Black King and it was too much for Black to handle.

On board 3, peace was declared between Pradhy Kothapalli and Aditya Shivapooja.

In the lower section, Daniel Boisvert maintains perfection after three rounds by defeating Adrian Moritz. Other winners include Hassan Hashemloo, David Blackwelder, and James Scott.