Chesmaster 9000 tutorials

Originally posted by Dewi Jones
Yes, the material is split into Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and "Josh". The beginners stuff starts with the moves and rules, moves swiftly through pins and forks (and by doing it i've noticed how difficult i find it to spot moves that fork a piece and a square as opposed to two pieces or a piece and the king, so even in the basic stuff I've learnt so ...[text shortened]... ading list comes out, my aim was to hit 1520 this season, so hopefully, on course 🙂.

I have been playing blitz since yesterday and must have lost easily 200+ games, easily. Why do i suck at chess?

Blitz is bad for you Robbie 🙂

I've been trying to do the ten sections of the Chessmaster 9000 Pandolfini test in one sitting. I've done four of them, it's taken all day, I'm sick to death of chess!

Originally posted by Dewi Jones
Blitz is bad for you Robbie 🙂

I've been trying to do the ten sections of the Chessmaster 9000 Pandolfini test in one sitting. I've done four of them, it's taken all day, I'm sick to death of chess!

so people say Dewi, but some people are good at it. What i don't understand is how they make sound moves without having time to accurately calculate?

Originally posted by Dewi Jones
...i've noticed how difficult i find it to spot moves that fork a piece and a square as opposed to two pieces or a piece and the king, so even in the basic stuff I've learnt something

I have a tip for you in this regard, something that really helped me learn to deal with knights. It's basically a visualisation technique that can really speed up and improve your calculation and accuracy with knights.

Knights always jump to a different colour square (obviously). If you focus your sight on the square itself, you can catch all 8 potential moves as a hexagon around around that square.

Simple enough you might say. But with a little bit of conscious practice, you can train your brain to always see this 'halo' surrounding a knight. This is particularly useful when you are playing blitz or are short of time.

Once you get this technique down, you'll be able to look at a square and instantly see all the available moves a knight can make from that square. It sounds painfully obvious to point out, but like i say, if you consciously practise looking at a board this way it very quickly becomes second nature and your board vision will improve pretty rapidly. 😉

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
I have been playing blitz since yesterday and must have lost easily 200+ games, easily. Why do i suck at chess?

Do 50 tactics puzzles before you start playing. Make it a routine. If you are getting lots wrong, don't play! That's what i do. 😀

Originally posted by Marinkatomb
Do 50 tactics puzzles before you start playing. Make it a routine. If you are getting lots wrong, don't play! That's what i do. 😀

I like to do tactical puzzles, probably more than i like to play chess, trouble is, i like to think, sometimes up to five minutes before deciding if my variations is sound depending on the complexity of the problem. In Blitz either people can think very fast, way faster than me or they have some other method.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
I like to do tactical puzzles, probably more than i like to play chess, trouble is, i like to think, sometimes up to five minutes before deciding if my variations is sound depending on the complexity of the problem. In Blitz either people can think very fast, way faster than me or they have some other method.

It's simply to do wit style. I find good blitz players approach the game in quite a light manner. Here's a quote from Sergey Shipov talking a Nepomniachtchi at the World rapid (you might have seen this..)

Thirdly, Ian found the right balance between light and deep games. This is very important in rapid chess, where you don’t have the possibility to sink deeply into the game. He plays very quickly and thinks deeply only at critical moments.

I, like yourself i should imagine, struggle to play like this at fast time controls. I lay the blame firmly at the door of correspondence. Correspondence, if played with the correct degree of effort, teaches you to really search for the best move. When your opponent has days to consider a reply, shallow threats simply won't cut it. Blitz is totally different in this regard. Shallow threats force mistakes when you only have 1 minute on the clock.

What openings do you play at blitz?

Originally posted by Marinkatomb
It's simply to do wit style. I find good blitz players approach the game in quite a light manner. Here's a quote from Sergey Shipov talking a Nepomniachtchi at the World rapid (you might have seen this..)

[i]Thirdly, Ian found the right balance between light and deep games. This is very important in rapid chess, where you don’t have the possibility to rce mistakes when you only have 1 minute on the clock.

What openings do you play at blitz?

I play the same opening as i do in standard chess, ill play anything that begins with e4, d4 or c4, as black, obviously I need to be a little more accommodating, but mostly i play the meran and the caro kann. You are absolutely correct cheapo attacks win, simple one move threats rule! I have it in my mind to follow a hypothesis of total detachment, that is a plan of simply reducing all counter play. This may involve playing suboptimal moves, but is should be an interesting experiment.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
I play the same opening as i do in standard chess, ill play anything that begins with e4, d4 or c4, as black, obviously I need to be a little more accommodating, but mostly i play the meran and the caro kann. You are absolutely correct cheapo attacks win, simple one move threats rule! I have it in my mind to follow a hypothesis of total detachment, ...[text shortened]... er play. This may involve playing suboptimal moves, but is should be an interesting experiment.

You know, you should play through some games by Gelfand. He is really great at anticipating what his opponent wants to do, then laying a subtle trap or refutation against his opponents candidate moves. I think this sort of strategy at blitz time controls would be really strong! 🙂

Originally posted by Marinkatomb
You know, you should play through some games by Gelfand. He is really great at anticipating what his opponent wants to do, then laying a subtle trap or refutation against his opponents candidate moves. I think this sort of strategy at blitz time controls would be really strong! 🙂

I just finished a game on FICS, i played the stonewall, closed centre, no pins on knights, purely strategical at the beginning, first time playing it and I played it terribly badly, but my opponent loses, he then racially abuses me, (my handle is mirsultankhan), calls me a curry eating %$£""!, i laugh at him and tell him that i am European and a rather reddish shade of pink, he says dont ever play the stupid stonewall against me again, i remind him that we are irrelevant and that chess is an empty deception, he says that he will report me. I ask him what for what and he says for mocking him, i laugh at him some more and he becomes really mad. Ahhhh such fun.

Thanks for the advice, GM Leonid Kritz plays in this style, reducing his opponents counter play and eventually their position cracks.

Hi Robbie.

Knock out the message thing. You are there to have some fun.

I can only tell you how I play.
I get the bits out, sac something to get the initaitive and take it from there.
You have to spot one good tactic and play for it.

Me v some lad on gameknot. (3 mins)

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Hi Robbie.

Knock out the message thing. You are there to have some fun.

I can only tell you how I play.
I get the bits out, sac something to get the initaitive and take it from there.
You have to spot one good tactic and play for it.

Me v some lad on gameknot. (3 mins)

[pgn]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nxf7 Kxf7 5. d4 Kg8 6. Bc4+ d5 ...[text shortened]... it.} 13. O-O Kf7 14. Qf3 Re8 15. Rfe1 Rxe1+ 16. Rxe1 Nd7 17. Ne4 Qc7 18. Nc5 dxc5 19. d6 [/pgn]

I may give up chess, the learning process is too painful. i played in a tournament on FICS, got beaten in 26 moves by a 2200 rated player and then in even less moves, by a 2000 rated player.