Chess Blogging UK

Chess Puzzle

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:26:49 +0000

You can find a daily chess puzzle on the Chess Puzzle page!

See in the top menu

-T-

FIDE ELO versus English rating system

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:17:30 +0000

Today a little note on the grade rating, in England, and the FIDE ELO rating. I am new to this as I am born in the Netherlands and played for over 30 years with the ELO rating. I didn’t even know that was such a thing as a English Standard and Rapid Game rating until yesterday. I wanted to join a club and asked for the average rating of the club. The answer was very surprising as I thought that a ELO rating of 130 was a bit low .

Searching the Internet on this a see that I am not the only one thinking why we, here in England, should be different then the rest of the world. English masters have to grade, ELO and an English grade.

Of course every rating system have it flaws and will never be perfect but why not have all the same rating system and and adopt the FIDE ELO then at least when we compare players from all over the world we know what we are talking about.

Any comments on this are welcome.

-T-

Online chess

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:52:37 +0000

To improve your game you should play as much games as possible and try new things out. The problem with that is finding opponents.

In the old days I used correspondence chess, sending moves around by postcards. It was fun and you could play a lot of games at the same time. The only drawback was the time. I had games that took years to finish. With the internet that is now completely changed. There are several chess site where you can play online, in real-time and turn-based, against as many opponents you want. Must of them are free for a basic game of chess or to play in a tournament, although you can upgrade to a paying user and get all the option that those sites have, like: training in tactics, strategy, openings and much more (depending on the site).

I myself play at chess.com which offers a lot of possibilities. have a look:

Free online chess!

-T-

Fritz 12 – Analysis

admin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:45:16 +0000

I would like to show you what Fritz 12 can do to analyse your game and give you some lessons. This is a game I played today on chess.com, the site where I play online chess.

It was against a player who had an ELO 200 higher then that of myself but he had some difficulties in handling the opening well. After the game I let Fritz analyse it and this is the result:

B22
hahalera1 1972
stratum 1733
Let’s Play! Chess.com 28.01.2010

B22: Sicilian: 2 c3

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 Nf6 4.e5
Nd5 5.Bc4 Nb6 6.Bb3 c4 7.Bc2
Qc7 8.Qe2 g5 9.h3 Bg7

e5 is where the battle is

10.0-0 Nxe5
11.Nxg5 d5 12.Bxh7
[ 12.a4 h6 13.Nf3 Nbd7 14.Re1 Bf6
15.d4 cxd3 16.Bxd3 Nxd3 17.Qxd3
Nc5 18.Qxd5 Be6 19.Qh5 Rd8
20.Nd4 Bxd4 21.cxd4 Nb3 22.Nc3
Nxa1 23.Rxe6 Nb3 24.Be3 Nxd4
25.Re4 Nc6 26.b4 Rd3 Tiviakov,S
(2669)-Timman,J (2616)/Hilversum
2006/CBM 113/1-0 (35) ]
[ 12.Re1 h6 13.Nf3 Nxf3+ 14.Qxf3
e5 15.Qg3 Bf6 16.d4 cxd3 17.Bxd3
Be6 18.Bb5+ Nd7 19.c4 d4
20.Bxd7+ Kxd7 21.Qf3 Bg7 22.Na3
Rhg8 23.b3 Bh8 24.Kh1 Rg6
25.Bd2 Rag8 26.g4 h5
Mader,M (2130)-Gerigk,E (2295)/
Germany 2009/CBM 129 Extra/0-1
(33) ]

12…Bd7N
[ 12...Bf6 13.d4 cxd3 14.Bxd3 Nxd3
15.Qxd3 Rh5 ( 15...Bd7 16.a4 Bxa4
17.Re1 Bd7 18.Qf3 Qc6 19.Na3 d4
20.Ne4 0-0-0 21.cxd4 Bxd4 22.Bf4
Qd5 23.Nc2 Bxb2 24.Rxa7 Bc6
25.Nb4 Qc4 26.Nxc6 Qxc6 27.Qb3
e5 28.Qxb2 exf4 29.Rc1
1-0 Lazar,A (2259)-Atakisi,U (2302)/

Patras 2001/CBM 083 ext ; 15...Qe5
16.f4 Qf5 17.Qe2 Qg6 18.Nd2 Bf5
19.Qf2 Bd3 20.Re1 Bxg5 21.fxg5
Qxg5 22.Nc4 Qg7 23.Nd6+ Kf8
24.Qe3 1-0 Sermek,D (2515)-Tratar,
M (2435)/Bled 2001/CBM 081 ext )
16.f4 Bd7 17.a4 0-0-0 18.a5 Nc41
9.a6 Qc5+ 20.Kh2 b6 21.Nxf7
Rg8 22.b3 Bc6 23.Ra2 Be8
24.bxc4 Bxf7 25.Nd2 e5 26.Kh1
Be6 27.f5 Hanley,C (2387)-Jones,G
(2347)/Millfield School 2003/CBM 095
ext/1-0 (42) ]

13.Qh5?? there were better ways to
keep up the pressure
[ ÂÂÂ¹13.f4 and White can hope to
survive Bf6 14.fxe5 Bxg5 15.Bc2= ]

13…0-0-0. 14.Nxf7?? White has lost
his nerve… understandable when you
consider his position
[ 114.d4 cxd3 15.Bf4. ]

14…Nxf7.+ 15.Qxf7
[ 15.d4 is one last hope Nh6!!
Decoy: h7 16.Qg6.+ ]
15…Rxh7 16.Qxe7
[ 16.Re1 does not save the day e5
17.Qg6 Rdh8.+ ]
16…Re8 17.Qb4
[ 17.Qg5 is still a small chance Be5
18.d4 cxd3 19.f4.+ ]
17…Bxh3! Mate attack. 18.d4
[ 18.gxh3 Bd4 Mate attack ]
[ 18.-- Bxg2 Mate threat ]
18…Bxg2! Decoy: f4. 19.Kxg2
[ 19.Kxg2 Qh2+ Mate attack Decoy ]
[ Ä19.-- Qh2# Mate threat ]
0-1

Fritz 12

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:33:34 +0000

In the past years I have played around with an old version of Fritz I had(version 8 ) but turning back to chess after all those year I bought the latest version, Fritz 12.

In the coming weeks I will post tips and tricks in this blog on Fritz. How to create your own training opening books, databases and so on. This because I find that most players you play a game now and then but there is so much more your can do with it to make you a stronger player.

Further down the line I will try and make comparisons between different chess programs with there pro and cons.

–T

Hello Chess world!

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:45:26 +0000

Welcome to Chess Blogging UK my blog around Chess. We will provide everybody who would like to follow this with information around chess, annotate games and place puzzles and many more.

Theo