tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75815301521383382642011-07-08T03:34:05.097+02:00Sir Piñohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449539020390588992noreply@blogger.comBlogger141100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7581530152138338264.post-69246044642821656922008-05-21T22:02:00.003+02:002008-12-08T21:57:39.442+01:00

The Global eBook Middlegame Collaborative, today announces its inception.Phaedrus, and Transformation, have organized themselves as a cooperative effort, to create an eBook generated from the lesser known--but perhaps the most comprehensively useful--of Lazlo Polgar's three books often referred to as Bricks. To do so alone would exhaust most mortals, so we purport to accomplish this by combined

Sir Piñohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449539020390588992noreply@blogger.com46tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7581530152138338264.post-29125716189269842282008-03-03T21:20:00.010+01:002008-12-08T21:57:39.709+01:00

It's time to get this blog back up and running, don't you think so ? I played a game in the club championship a few weeks ago. I won the game, but I could have ended it earlier, I missed a simple mate in 2 : White to move, I play white. My thoughts were fixed on winning his queen, so I played 14 Bxf6 without much thinking. I totally missed blacks answer : 14 ...Bf2+, winning back the queen...

Sir Piñohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449539020390588992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7581530152138338264.post-47987189580294514732007-06-14T19:30:00.000+02:002007-06-14T19:36:00.846+02:00

Some time ago I decided to start playing the King's Gambit. I don't know why exactly I'm so attracted by this opening. Probably it's tactical nature, the wild attacks, the rich history, or some great Andersson &Morphy games I looked at recently... .Since I'm trying to improve my tactical skills it seems like a good idea to adopt the king's gambit. BUT since I'm also trying to improve my rating, I

Sir Piñohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449539020390588992noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7581530152138338264.post-73334449575202585412007-05-27T17:16:00.000+02:002007-05-27T17:42:26.992+02:00

I finally finished my last loop through levels 2 and 3. I'm quite happy with my score (98,0% for level 2, 97,8% for level 3), so now it's time to start with level 4 ! I think I will do my first loop very slow (10 problems each day), so there will be some time left for other chess related things : Opening repertoire (Kings Gambit, GPA, Nf6 Scandinavian, Dutch Defense).Study master gamesEndgames (

Sir Piñohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449539020390588992noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7581530152138338264.post-38666793277469825002007-05-01T19:49:00.000+02:002008-12-08T21:57:39.955+01:00

The position below is from a game I played on FICS last week (I played the black pieces, black to move and win). I eventually won the game but I missed a nice mate: Solution : 22 ... Qf2! 23 Rg1 Rd1 24 Rxd1 Qxg2#

Sir Piñohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449539020390588992noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7581530152138338264.post-53748117543068958942007-04-28T13:45:00.000+02:002007-04-28T15:14:28.936+02:00

I finished my third circle on level 3 (296 problems) today :Level 3, circle 1 : 84,5%Level 3, circle 2 : 90,9%Level 3, circle 3 : 96,0%So what's next ? I'm gonna do one more loop through level 2 & level 3, when that's finished I'm finally gonna start with level 4...

Sir Piñohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449539020390588992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7581530152138338264.post-57377237146661012522007-04-15T10:32:00.000+02:002008-12-08T21:57:40.032+01:00

I won my OTB game (club championship) yesterday. I won a piece with a tactic (which I'm a bit proud of ;-) ) : Black to move (I play the black pieces).I wanted to bring my rook to e2, so I first looked at the Bh5 - Bg6 manoeuvre to exchange the white bishop on d3. I realised this plan was too slow and suddenly noticed that I could bring my rook to e2 directly ! I spent a lot of time calculation

Sir Piñohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449539020390588992noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7581530152138338264.post-75691695279039531652007-04-11T15:00:00.000+02:002008-12-08T21:57:40.154+01:00

I finished my first circle on level 3 today. Compared to level 2, the problems become trickier (I scored 84,5%). An example (white to move) :I immediately saw the discovered check which allows me to exchange my bishop for the black queen. My two options were Rd5+ and Rb7+. I couldn't find a difference between the two moves, so I thought both of them would be correct (Rd5+/Rb7+, Qxd7, Rxd7).As you

Sir Piñohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449539020390588992noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7581530152138338264.post-62839554906145883042007-04-08T20:01:00.000+02:002008-12-08T21:57:40.279+01:00

This position is taken from a game I played in an OTB tournament yesterday (I play the black pieces, white played 27 Qxf3) :I played 27 ... Be4, winning his queen. My opponent didn't resign and it took me 30 more minutes to win the game. After the game a guy from my club showed me a missed mate in 4 on move 27 : 27 ... h3+ whatever white tries, he will be mated.So I won the game, but I didn't

Sir Piñohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449539020390588992noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7581530152138338264.post-4385130588037095212007-04-04T20:31:00.000+02:002007-04-04T21:36:00.833+02:00

Behold my current opening repertoire with white :1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 The Bishops opening (main line 1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Nc6 3 d3)1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 The Closed Sicilian 1 e4 e6/c6/d5/... Improvise ;-) (since 95% of my opponents play e5 or c5 I'm concentrating on these lines only)I play these openings for a year now, and I realised that this is the wrong repertoire for me to play. The bishops opening and the closed

Sir Piñohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449539020390588992noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7581530152138338264.post-30004515393042625502007-03-30T21:20:00.000+02:002007-03-30T21:21:07.373+02:00

I finished the fourth and last circle on level 2 today. I solved all the problems (297) in 90 minutes and scored 98,3%, so I think I'm ready to move on to level 3 !Level 2, circle 1 : 90,9%Level 2, circle 2 : 94,3%Level 2, circle 3 : 95,3%Level 2, circle 4 : 98,3%

Sir Piñohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449539020390588992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7581530152138338264.post-71116152849485170902007-03-29T16:45:00.001+02:002008-12-08T21:57:40.455+01:00

I'm fully convinced of the fact that playing lots of games is an essential part of chess training. It's important to learn to use your tactical skills in real game situation. For some reason this isn't as evident as it sounds (for me it certainly isn't). An example : This position is from a game I played on FICS today, white's last move was Bb2. If this position would be a tactical problem I

Sir Piñohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449539020390588992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7581530152138338264.post-54100287322869749312007-03-26T12:27:00.000+02:002007-03-26T20:50:35.462+02:00

Chess improvement, where do I start ? One thing's certain : tactics are the foundation of chess. Since I'm far from a tactical genius (I don't drop pieces all the time, but my game analysis often reveals missed (simple) tactical opportunities) it seems like a good idea to start with tactics, tactics, tactics and some more tactics.I'm using the Brunia / Van Wijgerden books for tactical training(

Sir Piñohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449539020390588992noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7581530152138338264.post-16143580661016446312007-03-25T13:39:00.000+02:002007-03-25T15:23:47.769+02:00

Hello world ! I'm a 28 year old belgian (amateur) chess player who's desperately trying to improve his game.I started to play chess on january 2006 by joining the local chess club. Today, one year and three months later, my (provisional) belgian rating is 1396. I try to study chess each day , but I think I'm not doing it the right way. There's so much to learn (tactics, opening, endgame,

Sir Piñohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449539020390588992noreply@blogger.com4