tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57387712981360729102024-03-12T16:38:31.393-07:002000 Before I CroakSparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-31586989737295925872008-06-12T05:50:00.000-07:002008-06-12T06:02:34.892-07:00get chunkyi am still around and playing just been busy. :-)<br /><br /><br /> biggest thing i have learned in the last few months is due to the ICC games i have been watching. the five minute blitz games of really strong players are pretty interesting. also i read the josh waitzkin book The Art of Learning. which is a bit less about learning and a bit less about chess but a lot about life and some good stuff on the micro digging needed to be good at something. i would suggest reading it - even though you will not learn any chess from it you will learn something of what a successful chess and martial arts guy does. one of his best comments is about investing in loss. you learn by losing more than winning. and winning makes you think you are doing things right. but losing gets you to become better.<br /><br /> but back to the five minute blitz games. i spent some time watching these guys play and sometimes they think for about 10-20 seconds and other times when things seem really complicated to me they just move really quick. and its because they are good at something called chunking. they chunk about 3 peieces together and know how they work. like Q-N-B and how to get something done with that. also they know when they can not get something out of that. both guys do. and so they dont have to work out how they attack or defend with 3 peices, to them its JUST ONE PEICE. they chunk it together. and so thats the great time saver. its just what the machine does, the Q-N-B machine can do this or that. and they know when to use it. unlike me who has to multiply all the different things together and then see what all it can do and whether each of the 30 different uses of a Q-N-B are applyable. to better players all that how a tool works is figured. all they have to do is drive it. sorta like a person knows how to drive a car. AND play with its radio, and adjust the AC and use a turn signal and turn on the wipers and... to a 4 year old the car is a bunch of separate tricky things. but not to the experienced driver.<br /><br />so i am going to learn to chunk stuff together. afterall i already know how to win with a Q-K vrs a K. ( as the easy example ) its just easy. but its because the options are limited and straight forward. i of course can do other stuff too... more difficult things. but i would guess i am about a 3 on the 10 scale for depth of such Chunks. so this is my busy beaver thingy i have been working on.Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-33996216299917425712008-04-16T05:08:00.000-07:002008-04-16T05:11:09.409-07:00a3 counter attackjust hanging out workin on the old house. :-) been working on the dutch system a bit. having trouble with<br /><br />d4, f5<br />a3, Nf6<br />b4...<br /><br /><br />computer says go ahead and grab dem pawns. so i do. but then trouble is not far behind usually with a Q comming and rooks and all sortsa unleashed madness.<br /><br /><br /><br />:-) i love puzzles!!!Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-10070386442678928422008-04-01T05:33:00.000-07:002008-04-01T05:37:38.666-07:00Dutch Treatjust got the leningrad dutch book by some german guy in english. hmmm...<br /><br /> so its dutch, russian, german and english. just like me. :-) if only my american indian ancester chief kickbutt was in there someplace it would really be like me!<br /><br /> well, anyway it looks pretty interesting, you know what you are going to play against d4 and a couple of the other starts you can use it too. some people think its not too good so thats also the kind of stuff i like.<br /><br /> in other news we have started to look for houses in ohio, so if any of you want a tour of the football hall of fame... :-)Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-43211161673022313802008-03-10T19:16:00.000-07:002008-03-10T19:19:11.870-07:00fricken sharks with fricken laser beams on their headsso i got my eyes lasered the other day.<br /><br /> which should help my chess vision i am thinking.<br /><br /><br /><br /> how bout that norway dude eh?Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-33158636300739916102008-02-15T16:21:00.000-08:002008-02-15T16:56:19.146-08:00under standmemory versus understanding.<br /><br /><br />here i think is the crucial point. to say that a grandmaster dude has 100,000 patterns in memory makes me want to quickly get 100large into MY memory. just think, if i had 100dogs worth of patterns in my bean i would be like... like a guy with a huge bean that's for sure.<br /><br />but... i have been thinking. about two things.<br /><br />1 - why tempo hasn't said "welcome to the new knight Sparfy, the "Retard Knight" or something. and...<br /><br /><br />2 - the 100,000 patterns. and here is my thinking: do they know 100k because they memorized them? or do they now know how to see those things and that makes 100k?<br /><br /><br />ok - let me explain... or at least make it more difficult for you to follow.<br /><br />i can recognize a crud load of hockey attacks. like with 3 on 2 and 2 on 3 and when you get a guy at such and such a place and all. but show me a specific play and i wouldn't be able to tell you if they score on it. my memory is not that good. but i could tell you how dangerous it looks. what the odds of scoring. and so i think that chess is the same in some ways. the granddaddy dude can look at a board, and maybe he can remember some of the position - but i am thinking he can look and tell you how dangerous it is. based on his UNDERSTANDING of the way it works. and so i think that the 100k is a SIDE EFFECT of learning the amazing basics of chess.<br /><br />so. i would say it would be better to learn to understand WHAT makes a position good or bad... not to try to just add to your memory. i don't want to rely on my memory i want to rely on my thinking.<br /><br /><br />in other news i have my CTS rating up to the 1440s now... so 60 points to go :-)Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-81631646649469958312008-02-13T05:44:00.000-08:002008-02-13T05:46:31.681-08:00open up and sat AHHH!!!so i think i am weak in opennings. just saying. so i have been trying to figure out some good weird ones. things i can just learn a bit - not spend 3 years mastering. been fun. playing new opennings for me the dainish and smith-mora-less gambitSparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-43565268101002777632008-01-31T06:46:00.000-08:002008-01-31T07:38:56.524-08:00deer vrs the terminatorhar har har! i found one!<br /><br />wow am i both happy and surprised and a bit ... sad i guess. as a part of me needs to die to get better.<br /><br /><br /><br />some times when i watch those african nature shows where the whatever runs after a whatchamacalit and they run and run... i am always hoping the whathcamacalit gets away. i guess i dont like to see things get ran down and eaten. an honest dual however - thats ok. if both want to fight just fine. go at it.<br /><br />and. here is my break through.<br /><br />i am going to try in my spare minutes here and there to get my rating at CTS up a bit. just for fun. i have a provisional otb rating of about 1260ish something. i feel of course it really should be about 1998. maybe 1997 on a bad day. you know, one big win from 2000! and champagne!!! and hot chicks!!!!! and... and... late night with dave letterman and tv commercials, more hot chicks!!!!<br /><br />ok, but its not really 1998 or even 1997 yet.<br /><br />and here is part of the problem. i dont like to see innocents killed. especially if its not a fair fight.<br /><br />a pawn fork is awesome. its the little guy throwing up two middle fingers, one to each side. waaaahoooo take that biatches!<br /><br />horseys are pretty much the next weekest peice. but they fork pretty good and its fun. bishops... not as much fun, but ok. rarely do i rook fork, queens of course all the time. but then its more contempt when i do that. like. come on you didnt notice i still have a queen, you think you might have looked for hanging peices.<br /><br />then the clever stuff i like. the... umm... well smoothered mate and other trickyness to make me feel all clever.<br /><br />and i was playing on CTS, you know i think i have solved almost 300 problems!!! i would like to get my rating to 1500. *shrug* i dont know.<br /><br />and just before i started, like i was saying in the last post, i talked to the little guy in the celler of my being. *maybe* the subconscence? i dont know what you would call it. i call it jerry. he says no. call me something else. but... hasnt said what yet. so, until that time... he is jerry. so jerry said, "yeah, on it bud" when i asked him to keep a lookout for anything unusual while i was busy failing the problems.<br /><br />after doing maybe 30-40 today it came to me. ( which is what people say when their jerrys are giving them info ) jerry said: "you dont like to see the little guy get beat up by a couple of bigger guys."<br /><br />and i stopped. and wrote this. because i dont want to forget it.<br /><br />"whatchamean?" i asked jerry.<br /><br />"what i farkin just told you. tard." jerry is not an a-hole, just... not really happy with word games. but thats another story.<br /><br />so, since jerry knew all about what was going on. and i am afterall jerry. i just sat for a bit so that the idea could become words and i could store it as a rule. and i am planning on implementing that rule and hopefully it becomes habit or maybe an acquired motor skill or somesuch.<br /><br />i had just failed a problem. and jerry said that was the THIRD time today i failed the same type of problem. a bishop had just moved to a square and there were no queens on the board. as in the other two problems. and i looked furiously for the fork to kill it. none. then the other peices, nope. king was out of reach. gads.... tick tick tick. fark! fark! fark! fail. bad luck. more like bad move, not luck. no luck really in chess. well, luck means you moved better than you thought you could. or the other guy moved worse than you thought he would. the more i practice the luckier i get! well. anyway. back to the problem.<br /><br />i clicked the "show the stupid answer since i am too stoooopid to figure it myself" link. and it showed the answer, just like the other two times. and this is it:<br /><br /><br />double up the attack on the now pinned bishop.<br /><br /><br />easy!<br /><br /><br />easy, but not nice. the poor defenseless bishop. sitting there, just munching on some praire grass, not hurting anyone, soft little bishop fur blown by a gentle breeze from the west. ahh... munch... just happy happy little cute bishop. and the computer wants me to SMASH THE LIVING CRAP out of it. with two HULKING saliva dripping ROOKs. no emotions. just DEADLY KILLING MACHINES BENT ON TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE WEAK.<br /><br />disgusting. i felt like vommiting.<br /><br />cant we just let the bishop go? like its hurting anyone anyway? it doesnt even CARE about the dark squares. i mean come on.<br /><br />i avoid that pressing overloading over and over. i know it now. i sometimes load up on a pinned piece in a game. but only to draw defenders away from what i really want. and its not the pinned poor piece. i know this now. i let that one go more often than not. a free peice!<br /><br />i think, its not its fault. its the kings fault. he is the one placing you in danger poor little pawn. dont worry, i just want you to bring your friends from the king. i will get him not you. sorry to scare you little guy!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />so i need to change my thinking on this. after all when i go kill the king the whole set of peices die. all of them. struck down whether a rook lounging on the first rank with his feet up and the tv on, or a set of pawns busy holding hands in the middle of the board. or a knight on some secret glamorous and dangerous mission. so i guess they are dead in the end anyway.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />sarah connors?<br /><br />duh-duh-duh, duh-duh, ta-duh! <br />duh-duh-duh, duh-duh, ta-duh! <br />duh-duh-duh, duh-duh, ta-duh! <br />duuuh - duuuuh - duuuh.... dut-da-tah. DUHHH, DUHHH, DUH!<br />duh-duh-duh, duh-duh, ta-duh! <br />duh-duh-duh, duh-duh, ta-duh! <br /><br /><br />i'll be back...<br /><br />duh-duh-duh, duh-duh, ta-duh!Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-53422447820871302272008-01-30T19:53:00.000-08:002008-01-30T20:08:18.474-08:00green lightok, i am moving to ohio in a few months and have decided to take a few months off when i do. i have prety much spent the last 3 years building my little house on the plains and am kinda burned out a bit from all the fun times figuring out house problems. so... when we move and dump the motherscratcher i plan on starting a few things. one is to write a book. as you can tell from my awesome blogging skills this should be no problem at all. the other is of course to get really good at chess. i figure i want to start the clock of how many points in how many days at that time. i dont know if that is allowed, hopefully it is. right now i am more interested in not losing touch with the chess world rather than skaking its foundations. so i am probably not improving much right now.<br /><br />thinking back on stuff i am still convinced that the best way for me to improve is to try to get to the point where i am creating problems for my opponant, not just happening apon them and then capitalizing. i think, that i must... hmmm... i guess the way to describe it is to say i would like to be able to step slightly sideways of the game, to run not quite parallel to the most logical path, but to run slightly away in such a manor that i can create a problem. maybe as a card shark is doing slight of hand. but more subtile. more... i dont have the words maybe. more... ahhh. there is not the word. hopefully you follow my meaning a bit. to be able to jump from rock to rock across the creek with your arms all in a weird place to keep your balance. thats the look i want in my play. the jumping and the movement. :-) but with skill.<br /><br />my and my enormous ego beleive this is possible. i have asked the little man that lives down in the celler of my being, and he said, "yeah, its possible, hell, grand masters do it. if those dweebs can..." so i have a green light from that area.<br /><br />sorry for the lame holding pattern blogs of the last month. just a bit distracted by the real world sadly.<br /><br /><br />in other news the superbowl is on sunday. i think thats like the biggest sports event in the known universe? so we decided to ask over some friends. i will try to get a pic of the group.Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-26454221316377717962008-01-24T06:39:00.001-08:002008-01-24T06:40:45.741-08:00windy chess peices.hey - i decided to do the chicago open in may... at least i think its may. anyone else going?Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-13603289489840471352008-01-17T14:52:00.000-08:002008-12-11T13:59:44.995-08:00Distracted<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeGXgIwwtF3o2l1Qjjy1tUnEx31tLABIwgnk_aUGssffPawxKdCNDrzM3qgIdIime1WZLz4HwDfVgzbGNqrUlIF7UM-683BTv7dzXoLTR-S4PvILPdpRxTcTQKMSskkKIUOoV1SdE5xqzU/s1600-h/01jan2-hot-girls-billboard-causes-accident.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeGXgIwwtF3o2l1Qjjy1tUnEx31tLABIwgnk_aUGssffPawxKdCNDrzM3qgIdIime1WZLz4HwDfVgzbGNqrUlIF7UM-683BTv7dzXoLTR-S4PvILPdpRxTcTQKMSskkKIUOoV1SdE5xqzU/s320/01jan2-hot-girls-billboard-causes-accident.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5156582576415910210" /></a><br /><br /><br />so i have been a bit distracted lately. the distraction section of the CT-ART program. and... in a milestone for me, i solved my first ever 3 digit rated problem with no errors yesterday. weee!!!Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-54782079775212078502008-01-10T06:38:00.000-08:002008-01-10T06:43:32.737-08:00Blockagesi am about halfway through the ct-art thingy. some of the problems i am not too happy with. you have to make about 6 correct moves and in the end you lose a pawn or about halfway through you could have picked up a rook or something. and it keeps telling you no,no,no...<br /><br />but i guess its not the GAME of playing the ct-art, but the learning to look for those weird thingys it shows you. which is something i didnt really do before starting that program. so all in all i am very happy with it.<br /><br />i dont move all that fast on it though. i think i will pick up the pace over the next few months.<br /><br />currently i am learning about interception. which is something i never thought of before, sacrificing a major peice just to block something. gads. thats like the ultimate in stubborness i guess. i like it.<br /><br />in other news i think i might have the infloor heating up and running in the next day or so. :-)Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-66127901784920620652008-01-06T04:59:00.000-08:002008-01-06T05:13:40.210-08:00Happy New Year :-)Got the trench done finally. So all set with that! I guess i did some conversions wrong on the metrics units or something. so the correct depth was actually 13.36 UberLiters.<br /><br />and i spent a ton of time thinking about the way to learn. and i believe its like playing golf or most other sports. except maybe that rugby game. not sure how that works with guys grabbing you and all. but say... golf. ( golf ) in golf you have to just hit the ball. like in chess you have to just move the pieces. monkey easy. but in golf you have to hit the short shots, long ones, putts... chips, lobs, punches, sand, some shallow water...<br /><br />and in chess you have all sorts of things going on too. as some of you may know. so. to get better at golf you need to practice all of the shots. but you also need shot management - when to hit it less than the max because you want to set up the next shot.<br /><br />now to my thinking.<br /><br />i believe i am on the correct track with my Create Really Awesome Problems scheme. CRAP for short... now with CRAP i believe i will become much better. but, chess is not all CRAP, its learning how to set up CRAP. like setting up a nice 100 yard (347.234 uber liter) shot rather than trying to bomb the drive the whole way to the green and ending up chipping out of the woods.<br /><br />so. here it is:<br /><br />1 continue the tactics until i get em down a bit.<br /><br />2 at the same time (now) also learn how to get to the point where i am setting up the problem. back up the position a few moves. see how i could make that problem happen in a game. after all by setting up the problem i am already going to know the solution to it. hopefully my opponent does not!<br /><br />that's it. learn to move into a problem and ta-da! 2000 in a few years.Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-49729399518478838022007-12-22T17:10:00.001-08:002007-12-22T17:31:51.746-08:00Trench Warefareso i was doing some thinking.<br /><br /><br />and i figured it out. :-) i was digging a trench in the back yard. 6 feet deep, i think that's like 14 meters for you guys in the rest of the world.<br /><br />so there i am digging away with a mini excavator. just going about it. both hands and sometimes my feet playing with the levers. left hand left, then forward... then right hand left then forward then slowly right while back... then more right, left hand going from forward to neutral to back... and up comes a big ole bucket of dirt. then dump it and do it again. then again.<br /><br />and there i am digging a trench. great fun. great fun. digging. and thinking. and i was thinking about chess. as that was my plan from a few days ago. to think about chess and as always something will come peculating up from the inner dungeons of my brain and give me the answer. and it did. took a little more time than usual. but i think this is a bit bigger question than i usually assign to my sub conscience. so... i guess i am not all that upset at the delay.<br /><br />if you missed the last post... go read it! just kidding. it said i had to think about how i should best learn how to learn to play chess. well the answer that came up wasn't really the path to getting better. but, the thing that has been bothering me a bit.<br /><br />that's the tactics thingy. doing the exercises. and figuring out the correct move.<br /><br />and i suddenly had one of those feelings. about it. and its this:<br /><br />why does all this great information on how to see a tactical solution not improve my skill a huge amount?<br /><br />now... i think it HAS for SURE improved me. for sure. i now look for things i never even thought of before doing the CT-ART, and i am only about 1/4 of the way through the first cycle. and i feel a huge increase in skill. but playing on FICS i don't see it every game, just once in a while. which is great i say... but wouldn't it be even better if i was godlike all the time?<br /><br />and that's what i was thinking while digging a trench.<br /><br />why... why not FREAKING INSANE IMPROVEMENT?<br /><br />why... why... why... hmm.... dig... why.... dig dig... drink beer... dig... hmmm... why... hmmm.... AAAHHH-FARKING-HAAA!!!<br /><br />yes.<br /><br />BECAUSE: the problems that i am trying to solve in CT-ART where played to that point by SOMEBODY ELSE! and then i have to figure out what the tricky part is. BUT!!!! <strong>NOT HOW TO GET THERE!</strong><br /><br />that's it.<br /><br />that's how to get better.<br /><br />don't follow in the footsteps of those who created those problems. CREATE THEM MYSELF! create the problems don't solve them.<br /><br />create the problems don't solve them.<br /><br /><br />yes. all very good. but how to do that?<br /><br /><br />THAT IS THE ESSENCE OF MY LEARNING. not how to solve great problem. but to make them.<br /><br /><br />:-)<br /><br /><br />gads.<br /><br />how very cool this blog thing is for my thinking.<br /><br /><br /><br />so. as the zen (i like zen) saying goes: dont follow in the footsteps of those ahead of you. SEEK what they SOUGHT.Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-79367454614413484302007-12-14T19:01:00.000-08:002007-12-14T19:28:23.883-08:00Blitheringok. i have been doing <em>some</em> thinking on getting better at chess. i have never been much of a student. actually i am a pretty bad student. i, hmm... for some reason i feel its somehow cheating to take lessons. i know i learn a lot, but there is something in me that says if i don't figure it out myself then i cant really take it to heart. feeling this way i taught myself to play softball, how to hit the darn thing really far. well. not always but plenty enough. and to hit a golf ball pretty well. also how to build a house, play guitar and bass and hockey. also pretty much taught myself how to write software. which is what i do when i am not building my house.<br /><br />so... how hard could it be to learn to play chess better?<br /><br />i have decided to learn how to learn to play chess better.<br /><br />a while ago i wanted to write a science fiction story, its about 60% done now. but when i started i couldn't figure out where to start. what should i do first? so i asked a friend. she said "start at the beginning." seemed pretty good, and i was off and running on it, off and on of course or it would be done already.<br /><br />where should i start learning how to learn how to play chess? the blogs i have been reading, and i have read plenty of pages so far have actually helped a lot. its a good set of people out there. :-)<br /><br />when i was working on the house i had a friend help out for a while. sometimes he did the strangest ( to me ) things. things that seemed kinda weird to me. it brought back memories of myself a few years ago. i was at my wife's parent's house. they had a kids swing in the back yard - one of those metal monsters. the 6 legged thing with the swings and the slide. all from about 1972. and it was rusted all to fark. and they just got some new grand kids and the swing was getting upgraded. so we are sitting there. me, resa and mike who is resa's brother. he works construction. and we are sitting there and wondering how to get the old swing down. its just sitting there looking at us. and we are looking back at it. maybe a hacksaw i said. resa nodded. mike frowned. hmmm... maybe if we cut all the pieces up and then we could toss them into the back of the pickup. hmmm... so mike stands up and walks over to the swing. looks at it. hmmm... and grabs ahold of one of the metal poles and leans all his weight into it and over it goes. the rusty mess just collapses. and i remember thinking - hey you cant do that! you need to take it apart with tools and structure. but he just thought: Farkit. its going over. and it did. what a change this made in me. wow. just knock the farkin thing on its ass. easy. so i ran with this. now we had the 2 foot deep cement blocks to get out of the ground. so i ran the truck over to it and chained them up and yanked them right out. no digging. easy.<br /><br />chess.<br /><br />must be in some way the same.<br /><br />i think, i am certain, somewhere in my head is some little guy telling me. not shouting, just a certain know it all kinda condescending voice saying "you will see someday. its there. you can get it."<br /><br />i believe i am REALLY close to this thing. but i don't know what it is. or. more likely i think, somewhere inside me i do know what it is. and i just have to let myself both believe and trust in that something. i have always picked things up fast. but not chess. as a child i was pretty talented if unschooled.<br /><br />and...<br /><br />and i just figured it. or... more likely it was just told to me by that little guy inside me. i have it.<br /><br />just now. kinda cool :-)<br /><br />effort.<br /><br />*shrug*<br /><br />i don't try hard enough at those things i feel i can do naturally. i try hard at hockey because i am big and slow. but i don't try to hard at softball which i am much better at because i am big and somewhat strong. selected effort in those places where i know i need it. less where i don't need it.<br /><br />ha. wonderful. i knew i was close when i started this, the reason for writing it was i thought it would come out and it did. all very clearly therapeutic. cathartic. cool.<br /><br />now... whether to upload this. heh. seems like i will be embarrassed to see it up on the page. but what the heck. maybe someone will learn something of themselves from reading this. plus! i think only 3 people have ready any of the others anyway, you guys are pretty cool :-)<br /><br />i can always delete it later! at least i think.<br /><br />getting wifed! time for bed.Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-10253785976085217362007-12-08T20:12:00.000-08:002007-12-08T20:14:58.392-08:001280 trapped in a 1230 body...i was on-line a few years ago and some guy as black just made like a tent of pawns in the middle of the board. and didnt trade any - just locked up the middle. and then stuffed his king in there and put the horseys and bishops in close too. then sent the wing pawns out to get trouble starting. it was pretty fun playing against him - i think i lost all 4 games this way. so i tried it myself. and it was a blast playing that. i think i did pretty well with it after a while.<br /><br /> anyone ever see this?Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-25145431559478093032007-12-06T17:32:00.000-08:002007-12-06T17:42:59.746-08:00Golfing and Pawnsthanks everyone for saying hello! i need the go, sparf go! cheer at least in my own head now and then for motivation.<br /><br /> just openned up the CT-Art program, and closed it really quick. gads i get some nasty ego shots from that thing...<br /><br /> i think i will spend the evening working on endgames. pawns and such. speaking of pawns, i have another question for you guys. its about the H pawn. i mean, the guy looks like every other pawn out there. but, i like to run him up on the kingside as white - attack the badguys. but lately, i have been feeling some un-ease when i do it. it rarely amounts to much. and it takes about 4 moves to get it up there and then just traded off. it does get the H file open, but... i dont know, just something doesnt feel right about it. i never see any grandmaster games where they do that. its not in ct-art ever as a part of some great set of moves. i kinda feel like, well, you know when you are golfing and you see some newbs playing in front of you or with you. and you get to the green. and they put with one finger pointed down the stick? you know that feeling you get? hmmm... gads.<br /><br /> well, thats the same i have been feeling for myself about this lately. like, the guy playing me is rolling his eyes thinking "crud, what a newb. sending the H pawn like that."<br /><br /> just wondering your opinions on this i guess :-)<br /><br /> i think i am too impatient!Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-32538361600220490342007-12-03T07:39:00.000-08:002007-12-03T08:02:37.594-08:00It's always tease, tease, tease...opponents happy when on my knees...<br /><br />one game it's white, the next it's black.<br /><br />so if you want me off your board...<br /><br />this is what i gotta know:<br /><br />should i castle fast or should i castle slow?<br /><br />indecision's bugging me...<br /><br /><br /><br />i was playing some guy at a tournament lately. and the opening had us trade off queens really fast. and also a minor piece. i watched him castle and since all of the pawns were still on the board, or maybe one was gone i thought maybe it would be better for my king to stay in the middle anyway, i could see it having to be there after another couple of trades anyway. turns out i probably still should have castled. but it just seems that i shouldn't have to after the queens and some minor pieces are off the table. but! here is my question to any of you guys:<br /><br />when is it safe to not castle?<br /><br />i would just hate to run the king to the corner - not really wasting a move as the rook is now out - but, i would hate to run him there and then have to spend 3 more moves getting him back out.<br /><br /><br />any thoughts ?Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738771298136072910.post-55106528657520469102007-11-30T06:32:00.000-08:002007-11-30T07:04:25.714-08:00First StepsAh, where to start. first words and all. someday when i look back at this entry, and my rating is over 2000 i will probably have tears in my eyes. well, i will probably at least have a ton of booze in my eyes to look through. :-) Might as well start with my history. i am 43 years old. my favorite color is blue. or green. i am married and have no kids. when i was a child in the 60s my dad didn't like the tv on while we ate dinner. except for star trek. my dad looked exactly like spock without the make up. he still does. i don't at all strangly. hmm... well. anyway, he would only let us watch ST. and watch we did. and spock would play chess. he could beat anyone. even the computer when it was all messed up. i thought wow! what if i could play chess against the computer!??!? awesome! someday i will get a job and get money and get a computer. to play chess on. well, i grew up playing baseball ( i live in michigan in the states ) and other sports. i didnt really play much chess. at about age ten i beat my dad. then went on to win against all my friends. then the school kids i didnt know. about this time we moved to california. i won a local tournament of about 30 kids aged about 11-12ish. i was awesome! nobody could touch me. so my dad entered me into a real tournament, in about 1975. i got smoked. i think i won 1 game. maybe. strangely i remember almost beating the eventual champ. but loosing to everyone else on the planet that day. my dad decided i wasn't going to make him extrodinarily wealthy by playing chess. i guess i also thought maybe chess is something to dabble in, not actually study.<br /><br /><br />twelve or so years go by and i dont play a single game. until after college my best friend asked me to come over and fix his computer - i went to school to be a computer geek (still following in spock's footsteps). i am fixing the computer and he says "heya, sparfy, thanks!" so i say "np" and we are looking at the computer sitting there all fixed and happy. hmm... what to do... he says "OK, try this out - it's a chess program for computers." i smile, well, yeah, i guess - but no program is all that good anyway. "...and it will kick your ass." he further suggested. so i take the floppy disk, and say thanks.<br /><br /><br />chessmaster 2100 i think it was. and it kicked my ass. not once, not twice... but about 200 times. in a row. wtf?<br /><br /><br />in about 1990 i decided i really sucked at chess. which, actauly, was mostly true. i was good, just naturaly good. like someone who can throw a sponge ball. they can throw it so it hits the dog, or hits the back of the girlfriend's head. but. can they strike out alex rodriguez? no... but maybe could they strike out some goofball in the minors? hmm? no. same as my chess skill. i could beat the dog, maybe even some of the girlfriends. but, a real player? no. i had no idea what to do. i was, and sometimes still am, somewhat bright. but not skilled. so i gave the floppy back to my friend and gave up chess. again.<br /><br /><br />a couple of years and marriages later i was watching CNN. gary kasparov was playing some computer on tv. you could watch it on line at msn! wow! well, whatever. i didnt watch any of the games and later i remember him storming out of the hall. gads he was worked up over a game. foreigners sure are weird. well, maybe i will try that msn thingy. so i get on line and load up the game program and start playing guys at that site. gads i was bad. well. i did get a bit better after a while. the site is pretty much closed down now - at least the version i was playing. i met some great people there. after a while i got pretty good. so i entered a real over the board tournament in vegas. got crushed. gave up chess for 5 more years.<br /><br /><br />now its 2003ish. i am in the book store looking at SF books... nothing new is out that i am interested in, and the resa (my wife) is looking at plant books or how to frame a house books. so i am killing time and i head over to the donut area. ahhhh doooonuts!!! and of course i eat one. afterwards i notice resa is now looking at a book of power tools, nail guns and compound articulating miter saws or something. maybe it was flowers. i dont know so i am leaning against a bookshelf. dum-dee-dum. and i look over at some of the books that i am leaning against. "The scicilian najdorf advanced variation counter gambit twice declined attack." hmm... sounds pretty good. i flipped open the book. maybe i could use this to explode my opponents on the internet! bomb them back to the once declined dark ages! biotches gonna get it now!! so i bought the book. and another that looked like it was about 30 pages long. something about getting good really fast. whatever. i don't have that kind of time... i put it away for a few years. the other... well... i dont remember anything now from the one on the old SNAVCGTDA.<br /><br /><br />so i move to africa and play on-line once a month - on line in africa was a bit different from what i was used to. try dealing with telscum. in 2005 i move back to michigan. resa decided to build a house completely by hand. so we did that for a few years. its now mostly done. just a few more years to go! but at least we are living in it now. so... at night... i CAN PLAY CHESS ON LINE! wooo hooo. again i started out playing the same way i did before. again after about 1/2 a year i realised i was not getting any better. i mean i was slightly better. but not much. gads.<br /><br /><br />wtf?<br /><br /><br />wtf? wtfwtfwtfwtf?!?!?! w.t.f? so i was doing it wrong. thats what i remember thinking. "you are still losing badly. you are doing it wrong."<br /><br /><br />i remember being afraid of many things when i was young. what if i do it wrong? and then over the last two years i built basement walls, poured concrete, framed the house, sheathed it. wired the whole thing, plumbed the whole thing. hvacd the heck out of it with geothermal... installed all of the windows, mixed mortar, painted, sanded, scrapped, trimmed, caulked, hammered, screwed, cut, dusted, spackled, insulated, broke and blasted the motherscratcher. friends asked how i leared to do it all - being a computer weasle. "picture books" i said. "werent you afraid to make a mistake?" "constantly" i replied. "well, didn't you make any?" "yes. i made thousands of mistakes. thousands. an absolutely crushing tonnage of mistakes." "well then, how come the house is up and looks good?" they asked. and i told them what a wise old man once said to me: "its not a mistake until you dont fix it."<br /><br /><br />jan 2007 i am online, and i run a pawn up to see whats going on, you know, just looking around on the kingside. and bam! its gone. so i send in a knight. that will fix his greedy wagon. and poof. no more knight. and i had just won about 30 of my last 32 games and was feeling hot. and i lose this one. and the next to some guy. and he's like from europe or something! gads. imagine some spanish or russian or ugandon guy beating me. me! and he says "you are not bad." heh. thanks sparky. so i asked "what should i work on?" and he says "pretty much everything..." great. where's that book about getting good? so i read it in about... oh... 3 hours maybe. and... hmmm... whats that word, appathy? no... not that one, the other one. epiphany? yeah. thats it. so i bought CT-ART.<br /><br /><br />holly carrot sauce on a stick! jumping santa claus and 25 farking reindeer in a meat grinder!!! crap. wow!<br /><br /><br />wow.<br /><br /><br />i mean wow. i learned more in the first 100 practice items than the rest of my life combined. so i have completed about 400 practice puzzles and am feeling pretty good. so i go to a tournament. about 2 weeks ago. i do not get crushed. i played rediculously aggressive. i won the first easily. the second game i lost after tossing a horse and a rook on a bad sacrifice. third was an easy win. forth was a very very tough draw. the last game i had the guy totally beat. so i decided to end it with a sacrifice with a few pieces. bad idea. i got 2.5 from 5.0 and i think... playing those games again i could get 4.5 from those same people. the draw is pretty hard to find a win in... well, not for fritz. but for me over the board i was pretty happy getting a draw in that game as black. i did not quit playing chess this time.<br /><br /><br />that was 2 weeks ago. and i have "solved" another 100 puzzles since then. i know for a fact i won the two games on tactics. things i didnt even think about before. i also know for a fact i lost the two games i did on bad tactics. trying to make a ct-art position out of nothing. but i think i can know the difference in the future. after all its not a mistake until you dont fix it.<br /><br /><br />and thus ends my first ever chess blog entry. long and winded i know. my current rating is 1233P the P standing for peon or provisional. my goal is to raise it to 2000 before i leave this earth.Sparfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266650557446587308noreply@blogger.com2