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Saturday, March 12, 2011

A Journey of Chess Enlightment

Last year while meditating on the Universal Truth of Chess Improvement, I saw a flash of white light and a voice said, "Oh, stupid one, you thought you were good! Wake up and become enlightened like us!" So, this is what I came up with:

A big part of this game is finding out who you are or your capabilities and limitations as a chess player. For years I told myself that I was the second coming of Tal and I tried to emulate his style, much to my displeasure. It took years to finally wake up and realize that's not my style, and it was a long delay in my improvement as a player.

Over the last year or so I began to take a more critical look at my games. One of the first things that needed improvement was my tactical ability. Another more serious weakness of mine was the inability to assess even simple positions. So I was weak in two critical areas of the game: Calculation and Assessing Positions.

Its easy to improve at calculation but honestly I'm not so sure about how to improve on assessing positions. That's something I'll have to investigate and to start working on.

Do you want to stagnate your progress? Then take this handy tip and you are sure to remain at the same level. Just don't look at your losses and you are guaranteed to stagnate. I know a few club players who abide by this tip and they even take it a step further. They avoid anyone who can beat them--even if the opponent is a few points higher. I would also suggest that one or two players purposefully remain in the lower section to avoid having to face playerw who would beat them. Even last Thursday, I tried to arrange a rated-game between two players who had similar ratings. One player was 1600 and the other was I guess around 1550. The 1550 player refused to play and I really think he was afraid to lose. It's not the first time for him. He's a "bottom-feeder" who will only play those below him.

The following game is really intended to be an exhibition where I beat a lower-rated opponent. In the games before I was beating up on some high 1900-rated players. Admittedly I lost one game due to a telephone call. I blundered the queen in a position with a forced mate that I could have played. Geez, I was mad! The purpose of the following game is to show you how a higher-rated player can play down to his competition. It also showed me just how weak I can play and will provide me a few things to improve on.


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