Chess Improvement 2022

Contenchess

Contentious

Only Chess

05 Feb 22

Contenchess

Contentious

Joined: 01 Sep 21
Moves: 14125

05 Feb 22

Anyone taking their Chess Improvement seriously this year? Any specific goals?

I'm about 1700 at this website and my goal for the end of 2022 is to have an 1800+ rating and my opponent average rating is 1800+

Updates every 2 months 😉

Contenchess

Contentious

Joined: 01 Sep 21
Moves: 14125

05 Feb 22

First stage is get my rating back up to normal 1700 range.
About one month to do that I reckon 🤔

Contenchess

Contentious

Joined: 01 Sep 21
Moves: 14125

05 Feb 22

1 edit

Second stage is to study "Tarrasch's Best Games" by Reinfeld and of course Tactics.

Greenpawn keeps advocating that book to everyone so I'm going to try it 😉

(Currently studying Zurich 1953)

mike69

Joined: 20 May 16
Moves: 41742

05 Feb 22

@contenchess said
First stage is get my rating back up to normal 1700 range.
About one month to do that I reckon 🤔

I’m trying to get to 1200, I don’t think I’m going to make it 🤪🤪.

greenpawn34

Joined: 06 May 08
Moves: 43363

05 Feb 22

Hi Contenchess

Hopefully you will get a good lift from the Tarrash games. I did and the games
with Reinfelds notes (often taken from Tarrasch's own comments) are a joy.
Of course the openings are dated but your are not there for the opening you
are there for the middle and end game and the tactics.

One way to sneak your grade up is to do what I did to get on page one of
the One Day Ladder. I mentioned it in a 2018 blog, here is the part from Blog Post 366

I finally did it. Page One of the One Day Ladder Tournament. I can now meet
my maker full of confidence and when he (or she) asks what I have done with
my miserable life. I shall point to this page and gushing with pride I’ll say:

“I made page one of the Red Hot Pawn One Day Ladder Tournament.”

I got the idea from a poster who asked way back in September 2015
wondering how long it would take to get to page one of the Ladder.

It took me 118 carefully chosen games selecting opponents who had played
a large number of games and had a rating of less than 1500. If given a choice
I’d choose the player who was playing the most games at that particular time
looking for and often getting bad T.M.G. errors (T.M.G. = Too Many Games)

Apart from forays into the occasional Hardcore Tournament I usually had just
that one ladder game to look at. Of course as I got closer to page one I could
not get the opponent I always wanted, some had very few games on the go.

But eventually I did it and although I cherry picked my opponents and played only
one game there were a few games where I had a lost position due to some N.E.G.
play. (N.E.G. = Not Enough Games.) I sacced unsoundly because it looked good.

Here is one encounter. it is not the worse lost position I saved. In some I was very lucky.

greenpawn34 - Colgorm, One Day Ladder RHP 2017

1. e4 {I've never played anything else on here. 'Best by Test' and still too great to date.} 1... e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 {Looks a Berlin Defence is coming....} 4. d3 {....I'm having none of that.} 4... Bc5 {Drats, I've met a developer. I hate players who develop soundly. I'm doomed.} 5. Bxc6 {Reverting to an old favourite set up of mine. After dxc6 Black now has no equalising d5. But if truth be told the position is already equal.} 5... dxc6 6. Qe2 {Plan B. wait till he castles Kingside then I 0-0-0 and thrown my Kingside at him.} 6... Bg4 {I don’t mind that. I get my Kingside pawns going with tempo.} 7. h3 Bxf3 8. Qxf3 O-O {Good because I had little faith in Plan C. which is him 0-0-0 with me 0-0 and then throwing my Queenside at him.} 9. Nd2 {With the Black light squared Bishop gone this little chappie is heading for f5.} 9... Re8 10. Nf1 h6 11. Ng3 Re6 {Removes Bxh6 and Qxf6 ideas should the Black Queen takes her eye off f6. Also in some lines Rf6 comes with a double hit on f2. (keep your eye on that loose Bishop on c5.} 12. Nf5 {Looking good. Knights on f5 usually gives one all kinds of ideas. Sadly my latter idea is to sac it.} 12... Nh7 {Possibly thinking of Ng5 chopping wood and Rf6 pinning ,my Knight.} 13. h4 {Takes out the Knight g5 idea.} 13... Rf6 {Not as bad as it looks. I have g2-g4 and g5 plans.} 14. Bd2 {First tuck his nibs out of the way and bring the a1 Rook into the game.} 14... g6 15. g4 {Why? 15.Qg3 breaks the pin and suddenly Black's h6 and e5 pawns both hang.} 15... gxf5 16. gxf5 {I have an open file v the Black King and very little else. Infact nothing else.} 16... Kf8 {Now the open file is looking less than useless.} 17. Rg1 Ke7 18. Qg3 {A threat on the e-pawn. Plan D. is 0-0-0 and f4. The further down the alphabet these plans go the more desperate I become.} 18... Qh8 {Yippee! He was worried about me playing Qg7 (Why?) I'm now winning.} 19. Qxe5+ Kd7 20. Qxc5 {I love it when plans B. C. and D. work out.} 20... Rg8 21. O-O-O b6 22. Qd4+ Kc8 {To a casual passer-by it would appear Black had castle Queenside in this game.} 23. Bc3 {My turn to pin a piece.} 23... Rxg1 24. Rxg1 Qf8 {Breaks the pin but the f6 Rook has only one square.} 25. e5 Rxf5 26. Qg4 {And that is a pin that cannot be broken.} 26... Kb7 27. Qxf5 {Black resigned and I climbed up the ladder.}

Kevin Eleven

Joined: 06 May 15
Moves: 27445

06 Feb 22

@mike69 said
I’m trying to get to 1200, I don’t think I’m going to make it 🤪🤪.

Aim for 1400. 😉

Contenchess

Contentious

Joined: 01 Sep 21
Moves: 14125

06 Feb 22

@greenpawn34

My goal of 1800 has to be accompanied by an opponent average rating of 1800 so I can't pick weak opponents to inflate my rating 😉

1800/1800 by the end of the year 💪

mike69

Joined: 20 May 16
Moves: 41742

06 Feb 22

@kevin-eleven said
Aim for 1400. 😉

It was just a joke (kind of 😁). I can play well above 1400, I just have a really hard time putting more than 20, 30 seconds or less on most of my moves? It drives me nuts, I just don’t have the patience right now.

mchill

Cryptic

Behind the scenes

Joined: 27 Jun 16
Moves: 3283

06 Feb 22

@contenchess said
Anyone taking their Chess Improvement seriously this year? Any specific goals?

I'm about 1700 at this website and my goal for the end of 2022 is to have an 1800+ rating and my opponent average rating is 1800+

Updates every 2 months 😉

Anyone taking their Chess Improvement seriously this year? Any specific goals?

Yes, but it's OTB for me. Lots of practice games on another site + tactics w/ the Woodpecker Method book. Entering the Senior, NW, WA and US Opens this year, w/ possible OR Open as well. Goal 1500+ Update in April after the Senior Open. 🙂

Contenchess

Contentious

Joined: 01 Sep 21
Moves: 14125

06 Feb 22

@mchill

It might be only you and me with improvement updates.
Good luck in April 😉

mchill

Cryptic

Behind the scenes

Joined: 27 Jun 16
Moves: 3283

07 Feb 22

@contenchess said
@mchill

It might be only you and me with improvement updates.
Good luck in April 😉

Thank You 🙂

mike69

Joined: 20 May 16
Moves: 41742

07 Feb 22

@mchill said
Anyone taking their Chess Improvement seriously this year? Any specific goals?

Yes, but it's OTB for me. Lots of practice games on another site + tactics w/ the Woodpecker Method book. Entering the Senior, NW, WA and US Opens this year, w/ possible OR Open as well. Goal 1500+ Update in April after the Senior Open. 🙂

That’s great it’s nice to see your passion for the game, I wish you the best. I also wish I had your dedication, though at my age to try and start learning everything now would be overwhelming and probably mess me up more than help??

Contenchess

Contentious

Joined: 01 Sep 21
Moves: 14125

07 Feb 22

@mike69

I've heard adult improvers have to be very careful with what they study or it can make their Chess worse.
With the right study material I think anyone can improve regardless of age. 😉

mike69

Joined: 20 May 16
Moves: 41742

07 Feb 22

@contenchess said
@mike69

I've heard adult improvers have to be very careful with what they study or it can make their Chess worse.
With the right study material I think anyone can improve regardless of age. 😉

I’ve just now in the last couple months started to get whatever mixture/combinations of moves worked out from over the years in my head to be somewhat productive now and then😁. I do know I need to add a more I guess structured/taught knowledge of the game to get a lot better. I’m sure there’s many simple common sense things I miss constantly that could be easily be taught.

Contenchess

Contentious

Joined: 01 Sep 21
Moves: 14125

08 Feb 22

@mike69

I go through strategy books and the lessons seem so easy and common sense but when we play we never use that common sense...

It's like a mental block...I don't know 🤷