It’s Saturday Open Forum!
Kramnik is leading Amber. Jakovenko is joining the elite by breaking the 2700 mark. Sargisian scored a 3021 performance at the Ruy Lopez event. The USCF election is getting more ugly and nasty. Aronian is challenging Kramnik in a rapid match. Anand will be the new world #1.
What would you like to talk about? The forum is yours!
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
I am curious to know what, in your opinion, are the significant differences between, say, a player rated 1600-1800 and those rated above 2000. If a Class B player aspires to reach Expert level, on what should s/he focus specifically? Thank you.
Gad,
Just better endgame, better tactics and better understanding of the middlegame.
I believe most players can get to expert/master level if they keep working on their tactics, middlegame and endgame.
Good luck!
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
I am impatient about Mtel Masters. The official site is down, only veselintopalov.net posts official info. i am happy for Kamsky, but why is not Anand playing?
Answer to Gad:
Years ago,being a teenager, I was rated 1900+(now 2150)…I had not a lot of idea of positional game and endgames,but I calculated everything:once I crushed a opponent rated 2185 calculating a 8 moves(with sacrifices) checkmate…but my usual games were bad.
The jump from class A player to expert arrives if you know all the usual endgames(rooks endgames are very important,they are the 50% of all possible endgames) and more ideas about middlegames.Now I do not waste all that time calculating stranges lines,because I have a more clear idea about what candidates moves to analise.
And openings?You do not need them until be 2000+.Later choose something working well with you style of play. No cheap openings!,if the professionals are not playing one opening probably there is a good reason.
GM Polgar…can you PLEASE tell us when the USCF elections will be held? I’m getting tired of hearing about it and hope it ends soon (hopefully in your favor).
Once that happens THEN we can discuss chess.
In the meantime, I’d like to see some kind of announcement on introducing Fischer Random Chess into the USCF regulations and allow clubs to hold these kind of chess matches.
Personally I cannot afford to buy chess books anymore as they clutter up my closets and bookshelves. I even had to give away old ones. Fischer Random would eliminate the need to “book” up on opening theory and just let people play.
For instance…I’d love to see you play Fischer Random say…against GM Kasparov, Kramnik or any other in blitz mode. Would be fun to watch just to listen to commentators be flummoxed into trying to explain the opening phase of THAT kind of chess match.
“no cheap openings” !?!?
On class level ANYTHING is playable!!!
It’s just ridiculous that lower (even to ver low) level players just copy the memorized openings, without understanding them!
Play ANYTHING at class level! It will even gain you many victories playing something that is not ‘main line’ theory because opponent won’t know it.
I love cheap openings.
I learned a lot of chess playing bad openings. won a lot of games too. I do not want to give my opponent time to set up a good structure. Once he has a solid structure in place it can be much harder to win.
The Halloween Attack is a good one to play a few times. I studied that one for a long time. But have since given up on it. It can be difficult when the opponent plays correctly. But a few times people tried to play it against me and I knew how to defend.
I have played most gambits. it teaches me how to keep the tempo and the attack going. how to make the most out of each move. How to fight hard when down a pawn. valuable lessons.
Kudos to IM Josh Friedel for his outstanding reports on the USCF website. For those who haven’t seen Friedel’s reports yet, they do a great job of conveying the excitement and tension at Cappelle la Grande.
If we want to popularize chess, we need to promote it as a sport, not a game. ChessLife and US Chess Online should concentrate on tournament reports. Give us the rush to the finish, the thrill of victory and even the agony of defeat.
I realize that this is difficult. ChessLife, for example, is often several months behind on the tournament news and there are internet sites that give almost instantaneous reports.
No matter! We just have to take an approach more suitable for a monthly magazine. Cover the angles that the internet sites aren’t covering. An obvious example — and one we need more of — is coverage of international tournments from the perspective of the American participants. As I write this, Alexander Onischuk is in 2nd place in a major international tournament and there has been almost no press coverage of it here in the United States.
Just a few thoughts.
Thank you, both Susan and Jose. I note that very few if any high rated players advise a focus on openings, but rather the areas of chess you both have identified. I assume that regular play and analysis of one’s own games fits in there, too. 🙂
Answer to the anons who love cheap openings:
OK,probably for a better understanding of chess we need to check each opening.I agree: bad openings can teach you something about chess.
By the way:I play crazy gambits and
very sharp lines sometimes with my friends(for fun),but I have a “good repertoire of openings” for championships.
Of course you can play what you want just for fun!
@jose – from the knight’s opposition fraction – i suppose your standards are too high, aren’t they?
greetings from the 1478 TWZ down unders …
beautiful, isn’t it?
Kramnik won again 🙂 Leko 0-1 Kramnik (blindfold) Kramnik won in a drawish endgame that Leko could not manage equal attention, Kramnik is really impressive in blindfold. Now in blindfold Kramnik leads with a score of 6.5 out of 7! Great job.
Leko (2749) – Kramnik (2766)
Amber 2007 Blindfold Monaco
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.d4 Bd6 13.Re1 Qh4 14.g3 Qh3 15.Be3 Bg4 16.Qd3 Rae8 17.Nd2 Re6 18.a4 Qh5 19.axb5 axb5 20.Qf1 Bh3 21.Bd1 Qf5 22.Qe2 c5 23.Nf3 Bf4 24.Qd2 Nxe3 25.fxe3 Bh6 26.Qf2 Rfe8 27.Ne5 Qxf2+ 28.Kxf2 f6 29.Bg4 Rxe5 30.Bxh3 Bxe3+ 31.Kf3 cxd4 32.Rad1 dxc3 33.bxc3 Bb6 34.Rxe5 Rxe5 35.Rd5 Re3+ 36.Kg2 Rxc3 37.Rxb5 Rc2+ 38.Kh1 Bc7 39.Be6+ Kf8 40.Bb3 Rc3 41.Kg2 g6 42.Bd1 Ke7 43.Rb2 Rd3 44.Be2 Re3 45.Bf3 Ra3 46.Re2+ Be5 47.g4 Ke6 48.Be4 h5 49.gxh5 gxh5 50.Rf2 Bd4 51.Rf3 Ra2+ 52.Kh3 Bg1 53.Bf5+ Ke5 54.Kh4 Rf2 0-1
Won by endgame expert WCC VK!
It was sad to me both you and Gata Kamsky my two favourite US Player are unable to play in US Championship due to prior commitments, but I understand, you both are professionals and need adequate advance notice for an event to compete in.
On another note: I also would love to see a Fischer Random tournament with our top US Players all competing, it could even be a blitz event during the US Championship!
I also see how our US Players abroad even when doing well do not get enough mainstream media coverage. I have seen some of your thoughts on this issue, but except for Bobby Fischer, it seems mainstream media just does not care. What can we do to change this? It seems there are a lot of chess players. What are your thoughts to rectify this?
11:21
{
On class level ANYTHING is playable!!!
It’s just ridiculous that lower (even to ver low) level players just copy the memorized openings, without understanding them!
}
I disagree. When all or most of the pieces sit on their back ranks, there is very little structure to guide move selection.
A common weak class level player does not understand what to do in these early vague positions (beyond “develop a piece”).
So his choice is either:
(AA) To make a move that GMs would make even tho he does not fully understand that move.
(BB) To make a move that he does not see GMs playing, and which he does not fully understand.
I do not agree that it is “rediculous” that most class players choose AA over BB.
That class player might feel better about his chess game IF chess960 (FRC) were offered, because then he would not have to feel incompetent about his lack of opening preparation. Feelings matter.
GeneM
P.S. Why are you posting anonymously?
because we (and the number of us is legion) are lazy to register
How is Kramnik doing in Rapid session ?
He just won his rapid game, as well as his blindfold game, against Leko. This gives him a commanding lead in the tournament.
In order to learn a opening you have only three good choices(they are basicly the same)
1)You can study database games with good comments.You need chessbase or something like that and fritz to verify all the possible traps.
2)A good book/CD/DvD explaining why you are doing each move(tactically and general plan).
3)A teacher, and he/she answers your questions too.
Probably if Fischer Random Chess became more popular is going to be more difficult to understand the middlegame, and it works too with the openings.
FRC increases complexity a lot…that means the last chance of men against machines is over(I can copy a 4 millions games database and it is nothing for a modern HD,but Kramnik himself said he can only remember 4,000 or 5,000).
With FRC you are forcing professionals to design and study new opening lines, the openings theory will not stop with FRC,it will increase a lot!
In anycase probably we have no other option…actually,in the most popular lines people discover a novelty beyond the 30th move. I know Queen Gambit declined lines where you can draw playing 40 theorical moves.
Congrats to the Rutgers women stunning #1 Duke 53-52 in NCAA’s !!
The election will take place in June of 2007. The next few months will be very ugly.
I expect anything from some of these people. So many dirty tricks and destructive tactics have been employed already.
I believe at the end it will be worth it because this is the first time the USCF will have real changes in the past few decades.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
Hi Susan.
As the Melody Amber tournament is taking place at the moment I would like to ask you if you think that trying to play blindfold chess is a good use of time for Class players?
It just seems to give me a headache!
Thanks.
Not really. Play it only if you have fun. And don’t try to start out playing the entire game. Try to increase it a little bit each time. My elder son can play blindfold into around move 20. My younger son can do about 10-12 moves. Just go at your own pace and enjoy.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
Do you have a significant other?
Yes, I have two very significant people in my life, my two children.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
USFC Election….. yesterday i was thinking about,….. thinking about….. what u think that Zaratustra cuold have said about that??
Susan,
You posted that clip from Seinfeld earlier which was quite hilarious!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc4IPH7XQBA
But I hope that was an exaggeration and that men don’t really act that way around female chess players. When you were growing up playing chess did you really meet people like George Costanza?
Susan, what do think of the option of using blindfold chess as an alternative tiebreaker to rapid games? Are they just too tough mentally, or perhaps that is rather the point. Kramnik’s sensational scoring (yet again) seems to suggest that he has something here that the others do not.
Zarathustra (or Zoroastro) was just a profhet and founder of his own religion in Persia(Iran+Irak) about 25 centuries ago.
But if you are speaking about “Thus spoke Zarathustra”,a Nietzche´s book then it is different…
In its prologue says that:” is the designation of human beings as a transition between apes and the supermen”
…then I must agree with you: your federation is controlled by apes and it need to be controlled by a new supermen/woman team in order to survive!
Do not worry Susan, it will be worse until June
Good night to everyone!
yep Jose Delgado….but the fight for the power??, what he said about it??….about in a that have becomed???
When you win the USCF election,
the status of this country as a
chess nation will improve in a
big way. We are #4 according to
FIDE in terms of overall chess
strength. Look for that ranking
to rise and look for the U.S. to
become a strong contender in terms
of producing an overall world
champion.
Look for us to find ways to make
chess as popular and as presti-
gious as in Europe. Look for
ingenious ways to promote chess
into the mainstream of American
culture and consciousness.
With all that Susan has accom-
plished in her life already –
the world champion, Olympic
champion, her son a national
champion, her sister having a
chance to play for the overall
world championship. Ask yourself:
is there anything she cannot
accomplish? I say that she will
be able to accomplish pretty much
anything she puts her mind to.
In this instance, it will be even
more exciting, because we will
help her from the grassroots level
to the elite of this nation’s
players. It won’t be easy, but it
will be interesting and exciting!
Hi,
I’m a USCF life member but not a US resident. Why am I not entitled to vote and what can be done about it.