Man de la Maza

"What happened to your early moment of Decision?"

2007-06-20T17:00:00.000-07:00

Saw a comment from Blue Devil Knight on DG's site and I think I'd let the Gang know what I've been up to.

Chesswise -- not much. I have done no organized training since ... well , when was that last post? I've been pretty wrapped up in making a career change. For 14 years or so, I've been a computer geek. I enjoyed it for many years, but I'm ready to move on. Starting in August, I will be a middle school math teacher. It makes sense really. All the things that attract me to chess attract me to teaching -- the big money, the chicks, the fame.

So that's what I'm doing with me spare time lately. Not chess. I'm not sure when (or if) I will return to my Quest for the Holy Grail. If I do, you all will be the first to know.

It warms my heart to see the Knights are still thriving.

Still lurkin',
Don Q.
Knight Errant De La Maza

Week 1 : Early Moment of Decision

2006-11-20T06:03:00.000-08:00

I've started a bunch of quests in my life. Most wind up pretty quickly with a loss of interest, but the early going is usually pretty easy. When you charge forth with new enthusiasm, it doesn't take much effort to will yourself to do whatever you have choosen. Last week I embarked on a 25 year quest, so I figured I was good for a few weeks before my resolve would be put to the test.

Not so.

It was just one of those weeks. Though I was pleased to do my study, I just had a hard time working it in. My moment of decision came at 9:45 PM on Saturday night. The day had been occupied with a school holiday bazaar and the evening with my daughter's 12th birthday party. I was dog-tired and 2 hours and 15 minutes away from the end of the chess week. Left on my To-Do was 1 hour of study of "Survival Guide to Rook Endings".

Don't get my wrong. I like studying endgames. It's one of those strange character quirks like a taste for brussels sprouts or preferring plaid for formal occasions. Each bit of endgame trivia I pack in my brain feels like another nut saved for winter -- a nut I will someday use to smash in the head of some unsuspecting squirrel ... But, I digress.

At 10 PM on Saturday night, I came to view endgames as I think most people do -- a type of caissic root canal. The temptation to make it up Sunday was pretty strong. There was a pint of Ben & Jerry's and a movie downstairs to complete the picture. I knew though that it was too soon to make exceptions. Though cheating on the schedule is a necessary part of one'e routine, if I did it in week one, it was all over for the long haul.

So I sucked it up. Wasn't too bad. I am happy to report ...

1 week down, 36 to go in Year one, 1289 to go overall

PS I also ate the ice cream

Quest for Holy Grail: Plan for Year One

2006-11-12T13:28:00.000-08:00

25 years is a long time, so I don't want to head into a full sprint right at the start. On the other hand, it looks like years 2-4 could be kinda skimpy due to a planned career change. That said, I want to make a modestly agressive plan. My plan calls for 6 hours of quality chess work/week. That's not a huge commitment for a Knight Errant ( I was logging a whole lot more than that during the 7 circles), but it is probably more than I plan to do every week for the next 24 years after this one.

Year One Plan
1) 1.5 hours of tactical training/week

Somewhat modest. More intended to keep the tactical muscles in shape than to improve. I think I might start working in the Polgar book just because it would be really cool to say I made it all the way through this monster.

2) 2.0 hours of study of "Survival Guide to Rook Endings"

I listed all the chess books on my book shelf that I thought I'd really like to study. I came up with 18. My guideline is that I'd like to thoroughly study one/year. This again seems modest, but not when I consider that I've been reading chess books for 20+ years and have only finished one . 25 books in 25 years would be huge.

I think I should be able to go through this one a couple of times in the remaining 37 weeks. It's only 142 pages of material.

3) 2 hours of chess games

This would include rated OTB games, solitaire chess or blindfold chess. This also pushed numbers up a bit. I never have counted my playing time before. Note this does not count Internet games since I always play schlocky time controls.

4) Make 2 flahscards (approx 30 minutes)

Got this idea from "Chessmaster at Any Age". The idea is to pick 2 key postions/ideas that I come across during the week and make a flashcard about it.

Hmmmm. I'll need to work in some time to review the flashcards. Hadn't thought of that. I'll get back to you on that one.

Today is day 1 of week 1. The first year plan ends on July 29, 2007 when I turn 41.

0 weeks down, 37 to go in Year 1
0 weeks down, 1290 to go overall

Quest for the Holy Grail

2006-10-30T08:51:00.000-08:00

This weekend I was looking over the USCF top 100 lists. I noticed that with a particularly strong year my 11 year old daughter could end up one of the top 100 girls under age 13 in the US. To achieve this, she would need to achieve a rating of 1135 which would be a big improvement for her, but it certainly is in the realm of possibility if she wanted to do it.

I casually mentioned this to her because I thought it would be neat to be the top 100 in something in the country. She responded, "Could you be in the top 100 players in your age group?"

Insightful question.

Despite her geneological handicap, she is a smart little girl. What is this little chess thing for her about anyway -- me or her? I try to let it be about her, but there is a little me in there. This conversation about top 100 lists is definitely about me.

There are actually two valid responses:

1) "Hell no!"

I'd have to be a senior master to be in the top 100 players in the country. This is a citizen of the country of Not Gonna Happen and might even belong to Could Not Happen.

2) "I'm not old enough yet".

The next age list I can qualify for is the over 65. To do that, I'd have to be rated 1983. That's 300 points higher than my current rating, but certainly doable given that I have 25 years to get there.

So here it is at last, my quest for the Holy Grail:

To be listed as one of the top 100 players in the US over the age of 65

Outline of plan:
----------------
1) Not to die in the next 25 years (This is key!)
2) Not to quit playing chess
3)Improve 16 points/year over the next 25 years. (This will get me 2078 which would easily qualify me the top 100 over 65.)

Potential Problems:
---------------------
1) Premature Death -- I'm working on avoiding this.
2) USCF folds and there is no list -- Wouldn't that be a bitch!
3) Losing interest in chess -- Probably the biggest risk
4) Such a great idea that suddenly everyone wants to do it. Being an expert won't make the top 100 anymore -- Possible but then I get to claim it was my idea. USCF will make me an honorary master for boosting membership complete with a lifetime membership and a Jacques millennium chess set ... Or maybe chess geeks will buy me beers at tournaments.

Are you serious, Don?

Yes, you heard it here first.

This is my quest for the Holy Grail, and it will take at least 25 years to complete.

Bit behind. Second thoughts.

2006-10-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

I'm a couple days behind schedule here. I not infrequently skip a day and then do a full hour the next day. Well, that's happneed twice, so I have 2 makeups to do.

Having second thoughts in general about the 100 days. I have some school work that I have to get busy with now, and I don't want to necessarily give up an half hour of evening time to chess. I was ready to chuck the whole idea last night, but I decided to stick it out for another week and see how I felt then.

My tactical game is shaping up nicely. I have been playing a match against a buddy at chess club. The tactical sharpness has enabled me to enjoy the game more. Rather than a series of random battles, the game flows together much more as a whole.

39 days down, 61 to go

Did I say 100?

2006-09-30T19:18:00.000-07:00

I really ought to think twice before I lay out these challenges/quests. I've been doing some research and come to the conclusion that 100 days is ... like ... a long time. I'm still working out the math with leap years and all, but i'm pretty sure it's more than 3 months.

Oh well. Nothing for it except to keep going.

24 days down, 76 to go.

Perhaps Mr. Spasky would like his chair checked as well

2006-09-29T04:56:00.000-07:00

Oh Veselin, I was just starting to like you too. But, this?

If Kramnik was cheating in the bathroom, why was he not coming up with better moves? What did he do in the bathroom, for instance, that caused you to miss Rxg4 in game 2?

Methinks the Bulgar doth protest too much.

Creaky wheels

2006-09-20T17:38:00.000-07:00

Ahhh. It all feels vaguely familiar.

Staring at a computer in search of a tactical contiuation. Can't see I'm seeing much results except that I'm starting to feel vaguely sick of it. Was feeling this way much more in the beginning of this week. Half an hour is not a big deal and a little less onerous than working through a certain number of problems. I worked through the first 300 intermediate checkmates and have switched over the material section. When I reach finish there, I will do draws and then the last 400 in the checkmate section. I think I'll go through them all again before moving on to the exercises.

One other thing that was funny. Friday night I got home late and was just too tired to do tactical probs. As such I skipped and did a full hour the next day. Doing the full hour felt much more natural. Felt like I could get in the zone more.

14 down, 86 to go

Quest for the (somewhat) Holy Luncheon Butter Dish

2006-09-12T04:57:00.000-07:00

So I'm doing the blindfold and endgame thing. It's coming not so bad. I have a plus score on my 11 year old in the last few weeks (though last night she beat me like she was MY daddy), and endgame study is coming along nicely. I could now describe the correct procedure for winning a Lucena or drawing a Philador or Vancura.

A week ago I decided I'd like to do some tactics again. Nothing too extreme like the 7 circles, but something more than "Maybe I'll do some tactics problems every once in a while". I wanted to have a regimen but not something that would exclude all other chess study. Something that was a quest but not as significant the Holy Grail. More like a quest for the butter dish that was used for lunch on the Wednesday before the Last Supper.

And so it began.

My goal is to do half an hour of chess tactics problems for 100 consecutive days. I have now completed 5 days. I'm using Renko's Intensive Chess Tactics 2 CD. So far, I've been doing the Intermediate Checkmates. I'm thinking I'll switch over to material section when I get about halfway through the checkmates. In a pinch, I may do probs from Halls "Combination Challenge" or the mythic CT ART.

5 Days down, 95 to go

The Fundamental Theorem of Chess Happiness

2006-08-22T11:12:00.000-07:00

Despite my own dire predictions to the contrary , I have actually been playing pretty well. Well at least solidly. It seems that my disastrous tournament of the spring may have just been rust. so, to the future.

The Fundamental Theorem of Chess Happiness
Were you aware that there is a Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic? Every postive integer simplies into one and only one set of prime factors.

There is also Fundemental Theorem of Poker. If my opponent acts differently than he would if he could see my cards, I benefit.

It stands to reason that there must be a Fundamental Theorem of Chess Happiness, sort of a categorial imperative for the formulation of all Chess Training Plans. Here it is:

A chess player is happiest when s/he maximizes the number of challenging games won by training in the most enjoyable way possible.

I didn't say it was particularly surprising. Fundamental theorems rarely are. (Did you think there was more than one prime factorization for 256?) But it is very useful. Using the Fundamental Theorem I have come to the following conclusions.

1) I want to get better slowly.

The better you are the harder it is to find a challenging game. If I was a master level player today, I couldn't find but 2 or 3 players in a 50 mile radius who could give me a good game. As a 1700, challenging opponents are plentiful. I should be in no hurry to make them hard to find. Nonetheless, the game's no fun if it's not challenging, and it only remains challenging if your opponents improve.

2) Improvement should come from mastery of the game as a whole rather than one particular area.

I think Michael de la Maza is the prime example of how not to do this. He became a totally one sided expert; he could play a vicious tactical game, but that was it. In order to maintain that level of performance, he would have had to stay in remarkable "tactical shape". I don't want to get stuck relying on "keeping up" any particular part of my game.

"But Don, does this not contradict the whole idea of the Path de la Maza?"
Not really. I think everyone needs to go through a stint of intense tactical training as part of their chess education. Having done it though, there are other things to do.

"Still sounds like heresy to me, Don!"
Ahhhh, bite me!

3) Study should be fun.

Duh!

Da Plan

1) Blindfold play.

I'm going to start playing two blindfold games a week. My daughter, USCF 500, makes good opponent. So far, I am 1-2 against her blindfolded. (Yeah, yeah. It's harder than you think). As a backup, I might try playing against Fritz in blindfold mode. The only problem is that it is a big advantage to be able to look at board (even an empty one) rather than having to picture the whole thing in your head. A completely textual interface would be ideal. Anybody know of one?

The purpose of this is two fold. One, it's obviously good for visualization if you practice blindfold play. Two, I'm hoping that if I do this enough, I'll be able to read chess books without having to resort to setting up positions on the board. This would make the whole study process quicker and more enjoyable.

2) Endgames

God forgive me, I love endgames. I'd like to work some of these bad boys until I know them like the multiplication tables. Working on rook endgames, and going through Dvoretsky's Engame Manual on CD.

3) Play

Once a week at club. I'd also like to get in a weekend swiss this fall.

I think this will keep me busy for a few months.

Man de la Maza v. Dread Pirate Josh

2006-06-08T20:25:00.000-07:00

G/60. Fight to the death and for the lead in the hotly contested Kaissa May-June Ladder championship. Not a bad game. I was up the exchange and then I steered it into an endgame where I almost nullified my advantage. With time getting short, I squeeked a passer to bring me home the gold.

Evans (1650) - Dread Pirate Josh (1371) [D51]
08.06.2006

1.d4 As promised 1...d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 a6 7.a4 0-0 8.Bd3 dxc4 9.Bxc4 Nb6 10.Ba2 Bb4 11.0-0 Bxc3 12.bxc3 Nbd5 13.Qc2 b5 14.e4 Somewhat of a nut crusher. I had been looking at the c pawn advance for so long I forgot about the e pawn. The push starts blacks probs. 14...Ne7 15.Bxf6 [Fritz likes 15.e5 Nfd5 16.Bb1 g6 17.axb5 Bb7 18.bxa6 Rxa6 19.Rxa6 Bxa6 20.Rd1+-] 15...gxf6 I prefer the simple doubled pawn with kingside weakness. 16.axb5 axb5 17.e5 f5 18.Qd2 Ng6 19.Qh6 f6 20.d5 Rxa2 [20...exd5 This actually works fine because 21.Bxd5+ can be met by 21...Qxd5 and the queen defends the rook. Both of us missed this OTB] 21.Rxa2 Qxd5 22.Rd2 Qc5 23.exf6 Rxf6 24.Ng5 Qe7 25.Rfd1 Rf8 26.Rd8 Qg7 27.Rxf8+ Nxf8 28.Qxg7+ Kxg7 29.f4 Bb7 30.Kf2 Bd5 31.g3 Nd7 32.Ke3 Black's position isn't bad at all. He has a lot of compensation for the exchange, and white is playing like a big wussbag. 32...c6 33.Ra1 h6 34.Ra7 hxg5 35.Rxd7+ Kg6 36.fxg5 [36.h4 is much better] 36...Kxg5 37.Kd4 f4 38.gxf4+ Kxf4 39.Rg7 e5+ 40.Kd3 e4+ 41.Ke2 Bc4+ 42.Ke1 c5 43.h4 b4 44.cxb4 cxb4 45.h5 Bd5?! Good idea. I thought this held the draw. If the pawn on e4 is on e3 it might. 46.h6 b3 47.Rg2 b2 [47...e3 48.h7 Bxg2 49.h8Q+-] 48.Rxb2 Bg8 49.Rb7 Ke3 50.h7 Bxh7 51.Rxh7 Black Resigns 1-0

Talk is cheap. When are you going to so something, Don?

2006-05-22T05:47:00.000-07:00

Err, no time soon. August, maybe.

Why?
I do want to make another constructive jab at chess improvement, but taking a bite of a reality sandwich, it ain't going to happen before August. I've got a big project coming in at work, and I'm going away to school for the month of July. (I'm training to be a high school math teacher, but as Robert Howard would say, "That is another story".) Since I only go to school one month of the year, you can imagine when all my homework is due. 'Nuff said.

So what is this blog going to be about until then?
I offer you the rare chance of chess schadenfreude. In June, I will be playing one rated game/week at my local club. If my early results are any indication, I should go down in a blaze of glory. I think Zukertort's nervous collapse in his world championship match versus Stenitz will look dignified by comparison. My rating floor is 1500, a full 217 points below my current 1717, and I think I might even need that safety net before Fourth of July weekend. Here is your chance to watch someone flipping around like a fish on the dock.

You're kinda nuts.

You're just realizing this?

My purpose is not all masochistic. I am finding what has happened to my chess ability very interesting. I've come back after layoffs before. One is always rusty, but this is something new. My heightened pattern recognition combined with my severely weakened calculation ability has made me an abysmal player. I really do think I am playing worse than I have ever played. I think that my experience may shed some light on why people get kookie about their rating ("I couldn't pay because I didn't want to risk the rating points") and why people drop out of the game and never come back.

Is that really it?
Pretty much. That and it's kinda fun to think of new ways to describe how much I suck.

Cosmic Event

2006-05-17T05:06:00.000-07:00

Former knight, Dread Pirate Josh, and I will be meeting this Thursday. We have been working together to breathe some life back into our local chess club. To my knowledge, it is the first face to face meeting of two Knight's Errant, former or otherwise. Prepare for a disturbance in the chess force on Thursday May 18th, about sixish.

Embracing Suckage

2006-05-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

So I 've been playing a fair amount of chess in the past two weeks. Been doing about half an hour/day on CT-Art and playing on Pogo.com. In layman's terms, I suck, but let's go into a bit more detail, shall we?

I really do suck in a completely new and different way, and it makes me understand why people get so neroutic about chess. I think it highlights a big danger of the super-tactical regimen. As I waxed philosophical before on a number of occassions, I believe the De la Maza approach develops two related but distinct capabilities -- pattern recognition and calculation strength.

I am happy to report that pattern recognition capabilities do not fade so much. Of course I do not recognize patterns as well as I did after I completed circles, but I still have a pretty good sense of where things are leading. I remember a surpising amount of problems even though I haven't looked at them for more than 12 months, and I still "smell blood in the water" when my opponent's position strays into something ripe for a combination.

The calculation muscle, by comparison, has gone completely flabby. My calculation ability is little better than my 11 year old daughter's at this point. It's sort of like retaining an appreciation for caluclus but having to go back to adding with your fingers.

I don't think CT Art is really the ticket to helping me here. I am too familiar with the problems and thus working through them really works mostly on pattern recognition. That's great, but it's not what I need. I could pick up Renko's CD or delve into one of the 3 million tactics books on my shelf. If I do this exclusively, I'll just be right back where I started in a few months. That would be OK because I was playing at a 1900 strength, but I'd NOW like to explore something besides tactics.

So I'm changing openings. I'm becoming a d4 player.

"Big whoop", you say. "Who cares? Everyone changes opening nows and again."

Not me. I've been playing tournament chess since the Reagan administration, and I've played d4 exactly zero times. The license plate on my car is "1E4" (No, I'm not kidding).

Becoming a d4 player has a lot of benefits for me. First, it is my impression that the d4 game requires a bit more appreciation of pawn structures. Properly played d4 is a surer weapon for the club player. Second, since I am in unfamiliar waters, playing d4 forces me to calculate even in basic positions. I have to get back to 1+1=2, so I don't hang pieces. Finally, changing openings systems is a sure path to a long string of losses. This seems to be in the cards for me now, so I might as well embrace it.

So as of today, I play d4; I suck; and I'm proud.

Flowers for Algernon (only worse)

2006-05-06T15:51:00.000-07:00

It has been a year or so since I finished the De La Maza program. From the time I started to the time I finished, my rating shot up about 150 points. It probably would have gone up more, but I stopped playing in March 2005 when I finished. During the prior 3 months, I scored 9.5 of 11 with a performance rating of 1974. Impressive results, but were they permanent?

Last weekend, I was out of town on business, and I had a chance to play in a USCF tourney, U1800 section. I knew I would be a bit rusty so I ran through some level 1& 2 on CT Art the week before in my hotel room.

Results were worse than I expected. 1.5 out of 4 with a performance rating of 1050. My sole victory was over an opponent rated 560 (Beat the hell out of that middle schooler though!). My third round opponent looked at my dismal performance in our game and knowingly suggested that I must be sandbagging in an attempt to lower my rating. Can't say I blame him. I lost that game on move 10 when I hung a knight. Not "dropped a knight to a 3 move combination" but outright hung a knight.

I haven't done the math yet, but it is probably my worst performance in the 20+ years I have been playing tournament chess (and I used to play a lot of round 1 and 3's dreadfully hung over in my college years). If I had scored 2.5, I might have written it off to a bit of rust combined with a run of bad luck, but my performance required something extra. I was not playing nearly at the level I was before; I was not playing as well as I was before I started De La Maza training. In fact, I think I was playing worse than I ever had. I had become accustomed to playing very sharp lines that I could play better than my opponent. I had some good moves and saw a few choice patterns, but I couldn't calculate my way out of a (soggy) paper bag. I was thinking like a class A player and calculating like a class E player.

I play chess for recreation only, and I am always fighting the self-improvement rat race. It's just a game; and it should never be work. That said,

This cannot stand!

I absolutely refuse to be this bad.

Hiatus suspended.

I'm back.

Stopping By to Say Hello

2006-02-25T09:19:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I found myself doing something I hadn't done in almost a year -- chess problems. I actually picked up "Combination Challenge" and started doing a few. It was fun. (I still got it ... Mostly).

Haven't been playing much for many reasons (one of which was burnout). My daughter has been playing in scholastics, so I'm around it more. Been thinking I might like to hazard a tournament sometime soon (I think I could beat the crap out of most of those kids!)

I cleaned up the sidebar a bit. I hope it provides the casual reader to a quick tour through my chess quest. Glad the Knight's Errant continue to grow and flourish. Hope you will be inspired to give it a try.

Bowing Out

2005-04-21T04:35:00.000-07:00

I believe this will be my last entry in this blog. Rather than just let it fade away, I thought I'd bring it to a close. Though I'm still having fun playing chess, I don't really want to actively work on chess improvement, and that's what the Knights are about. It has also become apparent to me that I am no longer the right person to lead the Knight's Errant Order. I leave the choice of a successor open to the active knights. Whatever you decide, please post it in the comments to make it easy for future newcomers to find you.

Thanks to all. It's been a hoot!

-Randy

PS after reading some comments
Dear Knights,

You speak as though I am resigning my membership which I am not. I am and will always be a Knight Errant de la Maza.

My decision not to post is in my own blog is more a decision not to water down the record of my experience. It has been challenging and rewarding, and I want it to stand on its own. I don't want it to divert attention though from the active body of Knights.

I will still post in your comments, and if something particularly noteworthy happens (making class A comes to mind), I will post. I just want to make sure that someone who stumbles on my blog doesn't think the Knights are dead because I haven't posted in 3 months.

And another one

2005-04-14T04:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Mousetrapper. A self-described lurker, he has been doing the program since December. It seems his name derives from the concept of setting a mouse trap for the king. King of the Spill's fundamental checkmates provides a nice visual representation.

I wonder how many other questers are out there lurking in the shadows. We welcome all, so come on in. The water's fine!

Welcome Knightwiz and Vic

2005-04-12T05:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our newest members Knightwiz and Vic. I was just beginnning to think that membership was on the wane. New members seem to come in clumps. Must have something to do with solar flares.

Knightwiz seems well connected already having joined in conversations with a few of the knights. I hope he soon posts about the derivation of his name. I should think it short for Knight Wizard. There is the possible cheesewiz scenario or perhaps a habit brought on by a fondness for barley and hops.

Vic has actually been around for a few weeks, but his email has been languishing in my inbox. Should be an interesting blog to watch since he is a class A player working solely on endgames. Another interesting angle.

Welcome all and good luck!

Welcome Blue Devil Knight

2005-04-11T04:42:00.000-07:00

Sheesh! My phone line went out late last week, and I come back to find all this. A warm welcome to Blue Devil Knight. He appears to have jumped in with both feet. I have some bad news for you, J'Adoube. I was Duke class of '88. You are outnumbered, Sir!

Congrats to Celtic Death on his wild Danish win. That one looks like it must have been fun. I haven't played the Danish in a while. Perhaps it is time to get back to it.

Go Fussy! Go Fussy! Don't give up Fussy Lizard! You are getting close. Give him a shout, Knights, if you have a minute.

More reason to study rook endings

2005-04-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

Played a fine Closed Sicilian last night at club. Worked hard to win a pawn and get a protected passer. Then I fumbled in a double rook and pawn ending and had to take a draw. I messed up because I was pushing an advantage in time trouble.

This is another reason to study the endings. It's a rare person in time trouble in the opening, but most end games are played when one is short on time. Gotta get them to the point that they are like multiplication tables. On second thought, they probably should be better than my multiplication tables which are kinda crappy. Perhaps I should work on my math skills instead.

Rook Endings

2005-04-04T04:29:00.000-07:00

I have become interested in rook endgames of late. I think this shows that perhaps I should seek professional help. Who in their right mind would willingly study rook endgames?

I think it is because rook endings are a puzzle to me. They are quite common, and yet I usually don't have any idea what I am aiming for. I started by reviewing the offerings in "Essential Endgames Explained Move by Move" -- Lucena, Philidor, and a few other war horses. I also take more time playing through the endings in Saddler's book (which I 'm still moving forward with). I have Nunn's "Secret's of Rook Endings" if a question should come up. Ultimately, I 'd like to know the endings well enough that I could know in the late middlegame whether I should transition to a rook endgame because it is a winner. Since this level of knowledge is basically unknown at the club level, it would give me quite an edge.

Saddler -- Chapter 1

2005-03-28T10:48:00.000-08:00

Finished Chapter One of Saddler's "Queen's Gambit Declined" last night. I am enjoying it very much. He has put thought into the games selected and the method of presentation. The explanations are just at my level. At the same time I am watching Kasparov's "Queen's Gambit" CD which I am less impressed with. Though Kaparov's knowledge is far-reaching, one gets the impression that they set up a camera and said "talk about the Queen's Gambit Declined, Garry". Nonetheless, I find jumping back and forth between two different presntations of the same material to be useful. Kasparov paints a broad landscape and Saddler fills in the details.

Played a Queen's pawn opening in my club game last week against a B player. Naturally, he played the Slav, and I displayed my ignorance of the nuances of that opening system very well. By move 4, I had trapped my Queen's bishop behind an adavanced e pawn. I hung in there and was eventually able to bust up his queenside and win the endgame. Tactics never came into play directly, but I was able to do a few things because of tactical threats. He had back rank problems most all of the game which kept being useful. One thing I find different now is my evaluation of postions. I feel like I can smell danger a lot better which means I don't waste a lot of time calculating.

I'm not sure what kind of study pace I will be able to keep up with in coming months. I am on a new health and fitness quest which takes up at least an hour and change a day. The Empress and I also had words about how I was "sneaking off to play !!@$%^ chess" every chance I got. Sadly, I had to admit she was right and that I really needed to cut back on my caissaic activities (at least until the kids go to bed).

Man de la Maza v. Kramnik

2005-03-18T18:19:00.000-08:00

In a suprise move, Vladimir Kramnik has announced that he will play unknown Don Queue, the Man de la Maza, in a 12 game match for the Classical World Chess Championship. We bring you the transcript of their press conference.

Kramnik: Through generous sponsorship of the GP tobacco Company, match will take place in Holiday Inn in Cleveland, Ohio. Prize fund of $750 is modest, but I wanted to put silly unification talk behind me and get back to playing chess.

Press: Mr. Kramnik, do you think that there is much credence to a title defense in which you are playing against a player who is not even a National Master?

Kramnik: Yes, but he has done lot of chess problems and is club champion in home town!

Man de la Maza: Runner up actually ...

Kramnik : Yes, excuse me, runner up, but you were better in final game, you just should have kicked bishop on move 17. It is not always about titles; it is about creativity and excitement.

Press: But if you really wanted an exciting choice, why not play Annand?

Kramnik: Annand is great player and I am sure we will meet over board in a match in very near decade, but I feel future of chess is America. I want to play Amercian.

Press: How about US Champion GM Hikaru Nakamura? He is American.

Kramnik: That is interesting point that I would like to address directly ... Any other questions?

Press: For the challenger, Mr. Queue, what do you think your chances are?

Man de la Maza: I'm just here to kick ass and chew bubble gum.

{silence}

Man de la Maza: And I'm all out of bubble gum.

Press: Ah, exactly ...

Man de la Maza: This man ain't no champ; he's a chump. My grandmother plays better chess than him, and she doesn't know how to move her knights.

Kramnik: (Smiles) Oh yes, I see. In my country, we have no tradition of gamesmanship. Actually what you have said would be considered a little bit rude ...

Man de la Maza: I ain't gonna take a dive like Sugar Daddy Kasparov, and I ain't no rosy cheeked Hungarian marionette poster child for lederhosen abuse. Bring that weak ass Berlin defense against me and see what happens.

Kramnik: I think perhaps we should end ...

Man de la Maza: How many Kramnik's does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Press: How many?

Man de la Maza: I dunno but would you like a draw?

Press: (laughs)

Kramnik: This is not funny. It does not even make sense. If you want funny joke, I tell you one ...

Man de la Maza: Please don't trot out the one about the the man and the dog playing chess in the park.

(silence)

Kramnik: It is funny joke.

Man de la Maza: You're a joke Comrade Drawzavich! I'm gonna beat you like I was your Daddy.

Kramnik: OK, enough. Let's ...

Man de la Maza: Take the trophy off the shelf, cause I'm gonna do it in twelve.

Kramnik: Quiet, please!

Man de la Maza: Since you ugly as sin, I think I'll beat you in ten.

Kramnik: OK, Mr Nancy boy. Now you make me angry! I not take slow approach but blow you off board.

Man de la Maza: I'm too pretty to beat. No one who looks like Dracula's gay librarian brother gonna beat me.

Kramnik: AFTER match, only job left for you will be my girlfriend!

Man de la Maza: That's OK cuz she's been living large at the castle de la Maza for weeks now. Says I paint better than you too!

Kramnik: OK, THAT ONE WAS YOUR ASS! IT'S GO TIME!

At this point the press conference came to an abrupt end. In the ensuing scuffle, Mr. Kramnik glasses were broken and Mr. Queue spilled his Tab. The players were separated by their seconds, GM Peter Svidler and a guy named Dave. The match is scheduled to begin on March 30, 2005.

Hat Tip to DG and HarleyWriter.

Opening Theory

2005-03-15T18:09:00.000-08:00

So, I've been reading opening books lately. Yes, I know heresy, but I've paid my debt to society, so I'm moving on. My theory is that if one learns one opening really well one will be introduced to all the major themes in chess strategy. Sort of like great literature. It is said that you if you read the whole body of work of any one great author -- Shakespeare, Dante, Proust, Faulkner, or Spider Robinson -- you will introduced to all the major themes of literature.

I started a topic on Chessninja a few months back to come up with the opening to study. My main criterion was that the opening have an excellent resource for study, presumably a book. I had three recommendations.

1) Trompowsky (1d4 Nf6 2. Bg5) -- Winning with the Trompowsky by Peter Wells
2) French Defense (1e4 e6 2d4 d5) -- Play the French by John watson
3) Queen's Gambit Declined (1d4 d5 2c4 e6 3Nc3 Be7 4Nf3 Nf6) -- Queen's Gambit Declined by Mathew Saddler

It was hard to reach a decision without studying the books ... so ... I bought all of them. This may seem wasteful, but you must recall that the second criterion for admittance into Heaven is possesion of chess books. (First being completion of the MdlM training program). I took a look at the first two chapters of each.

Winning with the Trompowsky is a wonderful book that I will enjoy reading in 3 years. Undoubtedly a trenchant and incisive treatement of the opening, it left me a little lost. Statements like "This leads to a Benoni structure unless black plays c6 in which case we have a Siclian Robatch chocolate flavored structure". When I know all the pawn structures and their meanings, then I'll pick this lovely book back up. Lots of people love Play the French. I don't get it. It seems to be one of those repetoire books that lists variantions without explanations. "d6 can be played here but one must consider e3. The h pawn lends itself to Nxe5 Bxe5 Qxd8 RXd4 Nxe5 Bxe5 Qxd8 RXd4 Nxe5 Bxe5 Qxd8 RXd4 Nxe5 Bxe5 Qxd8 RXd4 Nxe5 Bxe5 Qxd8 RXd4 Nxe5 Bxe5 Qxd8 RXd4 Nxe5 Bxe5 Qxd8 RXd4 Nxe5 Bxe5 Qxd8 RXd4 Nxe5 Bxe5 Qxd8 RXd4 Nxe5 Bxe5 Qxd8 RXd4 with a postional advantage. Of course, Karpov once played d6 in a blitz in Minsk in 1992, but he was drunk and not wearing pants. The game proceeded ..." Again perhaps in a few years.

I was going to toss in the towel and just go straight to Alex Baburin's Winnig Pawn Structures when Queen's Gambit Declined arrived. This is exactly what I was looking for. Simple. Basic. Explanation of the ideas and plans involved. So there it is. I'm a QGD player until further notice.

PS Thanks to Fussy Lizzard who recommended Mr. Sadler's book

And One More

2005-03-15T17:04:00.000-08:00

A warm welcome to Salcido. My hats off to anyone trying chess improvement while obviously keeping an ear out for a baby. I am happy to see someone bringing the Knight's Quest to the open source world. Hopefully, Psalcido will discover a way one can do de la Maza's program without being dependant on the Dark Lord from Redmond (like me).

Welcome aboard!

New Category
Generalkaia seems to be taking a break but claims to not want to abandon his quest. To put him under "Abandoned Efforts" seems inaccurate and probably de-motivating which would be contrary to my purpose. Yet, one can't stay in limbo forever. Therefore, I'm trying out a "Sabbatical" category. Probably a bad idea, but a bad idea whose time has come.

New Knight

2005-03-14T09:51:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across our newest knight's website a few days back. To be honest, I haven't had time to read it all. He may be new to blogging, but he certainly has put a lot of material out there. He may give King of the Spill a run for his money as the Loquacious Knight. A warm welcome to José.

Adsense

2005-03-13T17:36:00.000-08:00

I've been doing a lot of thanking this week. There is one group of people who has helped me a quite a bit who I have not thanked -- the people at blogger. Having this blog available to me for free has been a great service. It occurs that the proper way to thank them would be to open up the site to advertising. I had avoided anything like this all along because I didn't want distractions. This isn't about money; this is about chess.

But, it is about money for the people at www.Blogger.com (ultimately the people at Google, a company for which I have a lot of respect). They are running a business. Though they have not asked for anything, it seems ungrateful to continue to use their tools and server space without offering them anything in return. As such, I propose applying to participate in the Google Adsense program . Whatever meager revenue that is generataed by the site, I will donate to charity, probably buying sets for local scholastic clubs and the like.

I am well aware that this has become a group effort though, so I would like to hear everyone's input. I will go with the simple majority of votes cast by the Knights and DG before next Sunday. I'd also be happy to hear the thoughts of our readers.

I'll miss you, Gary.

2005-03-10T19:58:00.000-08:00

I just read on Chessbase that Gary Kasparov is retiring from professional chess. I'm sorry to hear that, but I understand his decision. (Apparently, some are taking it harder than others.) He has always been a favorite of mine. Though occasionally a little high strung, I think overall he has behaved admirably as a top player and world champion. He may well be the greatest chess player ever to have walked the earth.

Of all that he ever did, he gained my respect most for winning game 24 against Karpov in Seville to retain his title. This was his hero's moment in my view. It was the equivalent of Muhammmed Ali beating George Foreman -- a task imposssible to accomplish (though in Kasparov's case he did not risk been beaten to death).

Thanks for all the games, Gary. Best of luck.

Back in the Saddle
Since I didn't have umpteen hours of chess problems to do tonight, I went to chess club for a change. I went 3-0 in the top quad. We played G/25 which I usually stink at, so it was gratifying. Two of my oppponents were not that good, but one was a solid class B player. Hope to play in a tourney or two in the coming months to take the new tactical me for a spin.

New Ratings Peak
It's unofficial, but I have reached a new ratings high of 1663. I just checked the USCF site, and I picked up about 100 points in the club championship. At the end of the month, I will officially be a class B player and achieve my highest rating ever. 137 points to class A. That'd be sweet.

Readers

2005-03-09T04:40:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all the well-wishers. One of the things that is very gratifying about the blog is when someone checks in who in retrospect you realize has been reading for a long time. A great example of this is a was the comment I received from Eerikki yesterday. He and I have been emailing on and off since the very early days of the blog. I thought he had long since stopped reading, so it was very nice to receive a note yesterday. Will of Soul Beaver fame and Bachsinger fall in this category as well. Thanks for the notes, guys. As long as I'm on the subject, thanks also to Cubefarmer for bringing me snacks midday on Circle 7.

Link of note
A week or so ago Nezha posted the idea that we should write a book. It got me thinking that Everyman press, the publishers of "Rapid Chess Improvement", might be interested in what we are doing, so I fired them an email. I got one back from Dan Addelman saying that he thought our blogging experiment was "very interesting". He has deemed us worthy of inclusion on the publishers list of Recommended Sites under "Organizations, Clubs".

Welcome Viking Sword

2005-03-08T10:53:00.000-08:00

I may be done, but Knights' roll ever grows. Welcome to Viking Sword. Clearly a man of style, I quote from his email to request joining the Knights.

My skill lacks luster, but my sword is sharp. Therefore, woudst thou add me to the list of Knight's Errant de la Maza. I am currently on day 7 of my long journey and would like to share my travel to promised land. If added, I would gladly add your blogs to my blog listing.

Not new to blogging though. Looks like his blog has been out there for a couple years. Best of luck Viking Sword and welcome aboard.

Isle de la Maza

2005-03-07T16:27:00.000-08:00

I stopped in on the old man who lives up the street on the way home today and found him in a terrible state. He was lying on the floor in front of a laptop showing a chess problem and a window that said "Test Complete". Two empty 5 lb bags of Cheetos and a plethora of Tab cans littered the floor. He looked not well. I was going to inquire if he wanted me to send for a doctor, but his time on the earth looked like it would counted in minutes, not hours.

"Shall I send for a priest, Don Queue?", I asked.

"No," he said, "I'm not Catholic; I'm a Quaker."

"Oh, shall I send for ... what do Quaker's send for before they die?"

"No one, but they often form a mourning committee. Never mind ..."

"Shall I send for the Scrivener that you may prounounce you will", I interupted. "It is time for your to renounce your knightship and tell your daughters they will get none of your estate if they marry a man who plays chess."

"What?" Don said.

"Yes, it's in the book", and I showed him the last chapter of Cervantes' masterpiece.

"Ah," he chuckled in a raspy voice. "I see your mistake. Many make it. I am not Don Quixote and never have been; I am Don Queue. Don Quixote was a lonely old man who thought he was a knight; I am a young man who is one of many knights -- Knights Errant de la Maza."

At this the old man started to cough, and I feared I had seen his last breath. But his words returned.

"You are a good boy," he said, "and I must call upon you for a service. I fear my time is almost done, and it is up to you to perserve the gift."

I was naturally puzzled as he wanly reached into his vest pocket.

"Take this and throw it upon a clear water."

"Ct Art 3.0?" I said

"It is the secret of those who quest," he said. "Someday a I king will come and he will need it. Go! Now. I have not much time."

He was a silly old man, and I should have rather gone for the doctor, but I did as he bid. I journeyed to the James River and hurled the CD like frisbee into the water. It floated such that I wondered that it would ever come down. But as it did, Caissia's silver white arm reached from under the waters and caught it. I should have thought I imagined it but that the arm stayed straight as God holding the disk aloft. And then in a wink, it disappeared to the depths below.

Naturally, I was excited, and I ran to tell the old man. When I arrived, he was gone. All that remained was a single scrap of paper on which was written, "Will".

God's speed to the old man. I was ever fond of him.

End of the Journey
I did it. It took 155+ days, but I did it. The last day was actually not that bad. It took about 12 hours chronologically, but I took a few breaks and went for a midday run. Sitting at home all day doing chess problems is not nearly so hard as doing a 3 hours worth after a full days work.

It was a good day, and I think I was in particularly good form. Damn near got the whole lot memorized now.

Circle Seven Stats:
-----------------
Level 10: 98%
Level 20: 99%
Level 30: 97%
Level 40: 97%
Level 50: 95%
Level 60: 85%

Future Plans
1) Finish this Arrogant Bastard Ale
2) Finish the other AB Ale in the fridge
3) There's some nice white wine in there too!

I don't plan on doing anything formal for quite a while. The words "chess" and "must" will not appear in my life for at least 6 months, probably a year. I think I shall take up some Opening Study for fun. When I want to get serious again, I think I'll try endgames.

Thanks
I shouldn't have been able to do this without the support of all of you. In particular, I thank:

1) The Empress. Though you thought the idea quixotic, you were ever supportive. I shouldn't have made it if you hadn't been willing to pick up the slack.

2) DG -- your site helped spread the word. I don't think I would have reached so many without you.

3) The Knight Errant de la Maza. After the First Circle, there was not question in my mind that I had to complete this. I couldn't dissapoint all y'all.

4) And especially, SANCHO. I would have given up without you, my friend. Thanks for giving me strength when I wanted to quit. Thanks also for being so damn funny. I needed that most of all.

Once More unto the Breach

2005-03-06T19:56:00.000-08:00

Circle Six is done. In a hat tip to the rigors of tomorrow's Seventh Circle, I am foregoing the traditional celebratory Ale. It's almost 11, but I want to look at the Level 50's I missed.

Coming together nicely.

154 days down, 1 to go
1039 problems to go

Circle Six Stats:
-----------------
Level 10: 98%
Level 20: 96%
Level 30: 93%
Level 40: 91%
Level 50: 82%
Level 60: 75%

In the Middle of Circle 6

2005-03-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

It's been quite the 24 hours of chess probs. Saturday morning I slept in. Slept "over" would perhaps be more appropriate since I did not arise until after noon. The Empress and my youngest daughter were out and about, so the house was quite nice. Unfortuantely, the eldest daughter told on me (I was supposed to get and do some of the problems in the morning, so I wouldn't be tied up all day). Thus I woke in Dutch with the Empress. Did a charity storytelling event in the afternoon, and all in all, it was after 3 PM yesterday when I sat down to start circle 6.

I finished sometime after 11:30 PM. Took a few breaks here and there, and I did some background studying of the level 40's I had missed on earlier rounds. Doing 700 chess problems in that span on time was more difficult that I thought. The problems themselves weren't that bad, but after about 600, my eyes started to glaze over. It's tricky because you can recognize patterns a little better when you think a little passively rather than actively. There is a fine line between doing this and spacing out.

Putting together a lot of problems that I had had trouble with before. In fact, I have achieved my goal of getting 90% + on both level 30 and 40. Just finished level 40 as part of today's probs. Visualizing things in a new way on some of the advanced problems. "Seeing" the whole combination in my mind's eye as though the collection of moves is a pattern. Hard to describe but definitely something new. A clearer picture somehow.

Having already knocked out 121 probs today, only 218 remain. That doesn't sound like a lot, but I have to remember that Friday night I did only 180 of these 218, and I was very difficult. I hope that better rest and another time having been through them makes it easier. If time permits, I want to spend some time with my Level 50 mistakes tonight. I should be very pleased if I could get that one up to 90% tomorrow. Bit of a tall order, but worth a shot.

153.33 days down, 1.67 to go
821 problems down, 218 to go in Circle Six
Level 10: 98%
Level 20: 96%
Level 30: 93%
Level 40: 91%

Circle Five Done

2005-03-04T21:53:00.000-08:00

Just finished Circle Five. It is after midnight. Boy, did that suck. I'm pretty sure I started to doze a bit in the last set. Always kinda at the end of my rope be Friday evening, but I had to do a school event and an extended family dinner today as well. Didn't sit down to get going until after 8 PM. Took a couple of breaks to talk to Dulcinea and to go to the store to buy the necessary post-circle 24 ounce Arrogant Bastard ale (which I am now drinking). Probably spent about 3.5 hours on the clock.

Level 50 and 60 are kind of a train wreck for me still. Though percentages are improving, I would really need to spend some more 10 minute problem time with them before I would feel comfortable. Almost feel like I am just going through the motions with them. The real question for circle 6 and 7 is what will happen in level 30 and 40. I'd like to see both over 90%. We'll see.

Tomorrow's a big day. 700 chess problems. Yikes! I should go to bed, but I'm a tad wired yet.

152 days down, 3 to go
1039 problems down, 0 to go in Circle Five
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 97%
Level 30: 89%
Level 40: 82%
Level 50: 75%
Level 60: 65%

Me and Willie

2005-03-04T04:54:00.000-08:00

Mama don't let your babies grow up to be patzers
Don't let 'em pick variantions and drive themselves nuts
Make 'em play baseball and meet girls and such

Mama don't let your babies grow up to be patzers
They'll never leave home and they're always alone
Even with someone they love

151 days down, 4 to go
858 problems down, 184 to go in Circle Five
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 97%
Level 30: 89%
Level 40: 82%
Level 50: 77%

Pattern Recognition v. Memorization

2005-03-03T04:14:00.000-08:00

The mind is a funny thing. Well, mine is. Even when focused on doing chess problems, it thinks about other things. Last night, I find that my second tier thinking was about the difference between pattern recognition and memorization of a problem. Clearly, I have just plain memorized some of the answers. In fact, in some cases, I have gotten so frustrated with a problem that I have "just memorized it" as a way to not have to deal with it. The more times I go through, the more I feel that my knowledge is more akin to memorization than pattern recognition.

I don't have particularly clear thoughts about the subject (I WAS doing chess problems while thinking about it after all). Both would seem beneficial, but pattern recognition ability is clearly the goal. The funny thing about pattern recognition is that what has been much more striking to me is how the 2nd and 3rd time through the problems, patterns have jumped out. For example, in level 30 and 40, there are a lot of kingside attack patterns with a sacrifice on the defending f-g-h pawn cluster. In Circle 2, I noticed that there was a whole sub-genre of these where f6 square was blocked (usually by a pawn or black bishop) and then because of this mate was unstoppable on the h 7 square by the white queen and bishop. I went through 5-10 of these in Circle One without noticing a pattern. It was all "bishop takes, and then rook check", etc.

Guess what I'm getting at is the fruit of these final circle may not be so much that I get more right because I know the patterns but that in the deluge of chess chaos that flies before my eyes I may discover a new hidden relationship between solutions. It might be interesting to go through the problems and give names for all the major patterns. Several famous mates -- Boden's mate, Anatasia's mate, and Blackburne's mate* -- appear again and again. Having a name for them helps as a sort of intellectual shorthand. "Knight to e7+, if king to h8, then we have Anastasia's mate. If rook takes ..."

150 days down, 5 to go
617 problems down, 422 to go in Circle Five
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 97%
Level 30: 89% (so close)

* These names come from "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess". Not sure how widespread their use is.

Exam Time

2005-03-02T04:39:00.000-08:00

Caught up on the probs yesterday and managed to make a passble repast for the Empress(Even managed to toddle out to the florist in the afternoon.). As the numbers show, I've pretty much got the level 10 and 20's down. The occasional miss is due to a finger slip or carelessness. I puzzled over maybe 5-6 probs last night total.

Doing the probs is now like exam time used to be. Not the studying part, but the actual taking of the tests. Once you sat down to take the test, your fate had been sealed. Good or bad, this was often oddly relaxing. There's not a whole lot of calculating I can do in 37.5 seconds (soon to be 30). For the most part, I either know it or not. The problems come so fast that I can't get too hung up on any one of them. Will be interesting to see what happens to my solve rate on the level 30's and 40's. I had solid improvement the last circle, but I'm wondering if I'll be able to improve (let alone hold) my current solve rates under the lower time constraints. I would sure like to get level 30 above 90% and level 40 above 80%. Fatigue is sure to start to be factor. If not on circle 5 then surely on 6 and 7.

Falling Behind
The one thing I have been falling behind in is reading the blogs of the the Knights Errant. There looks to be some interesting stuff out there, but I haven't had to take more than a cursory look. It is perhaps a sad comment on my level of geekiness that when I find myself in possession of 3 extra hours a day, I will spend it reading chess blogs.

149 days down, 6 to go
340 problems down, 699 to go in Circle Five
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 97%

The Flu

2005-03-01T05:32:00.000-08:00

Woke up yesterday in a pool of sweat. I had been feeling a bit dodgy the night before, so I went to bed at 8:00. I had expected to wake up refreshed and ready to go, not like I had been hit by a bus. Though I spent the day sleeping, I continued to get worse until by temp topped at 102. If you've never had the chance to try a chess problem with a 102 fever, well you're not missing much.

I was supposed to do 340 probs, but all I could manage was the 110 of Level 10. Fortunately, I had planned to take today off because it is the Empress' birthday. Assuming I can stay awake longer than 10 minutes, I should be able to catch up the probs and be right on schedule for tomorrow. Who knows? I might even get my act together and make Dulcinea a nice birthday dinner as well.

148 days down, 7 to go
110 problems down, 929 to go in Circle Five
Level 10: 97%

Playing Chess like Hawkeye

2005-02-25T20:57:00.000-08:00

I don't watch TV anymore. There are many reasons for this; chief among them is that I have already seen every episode of M*A*S*H at least twice. Every child has heroes. Mine was Hawkeye Pierce, and yesterday he came to my rescue.

I was up to my elbows in level 50 problems, and it wasn't going well. Some of these can go 10+ moves deep. Even though I have seen them 3 times before, they stumped me then and I haven't had time to study them since. I say, "I can't do it that fast, dammit" out loud several times. The first set of 33 takes me an hour. I'm exceeding the 1.25 minute max on every problem, and my solve rate is they same as prior circles. Very frustrated. Wife and children have long since run for cover. Even the cat is keeping a cautious distance.

This isn't Boston General, Charles. There isn't time to do it right. It's meatball surgery. Get in , get out and move on to the next guy.

Meatball surgery. The phrase rings in my head as I dive into the second 2 sets. Meatball surgery for chess problems roughly equates to the mindset one has when looking for cheapos in time trouble when losing. It works. I solve the remaining 65 problems in an hour, and my solve rate improves (albeit modestly).

I've recognized patterns before, but before yesterday, I don't hink I've looked at a position using only pattern recognition. This may be the gem in these last circles.

Meatball surgery.

Thanks,Hawkeye.

Another Gauntlet Thrown
Jens of Chessville fame has thrown a challenge to the Knights Errant on his blog. I haven't had a chance to give it a think, but I'll see if I have some brain leftover after polsihing off level 60 today. I could use the book which I don't have. Must solve by Monday to win.

147 days down, 8 to go
955 problems down, 84 to go in Circle Four
Level 10: 99%, 27 sec/prob
Level 20: 95%, 45 sec/prob
Level 30: 85%, 72 sec/prob
Level 40: 75%, 88 sec/prob
Level 50: 66%, 87 sec/prob

The Quiet Room

2005-02-24T19:50:00.000-08:00

Thanks you for joining us today, Mr. Queue. Do you know why you're here?

I'm not sure. Does it have to do with the "incident" at 7-11.

Yeeeesss. Can you tell us in your own words what happened?

Well, I wanted a Diet Coke. A big one. So I went to sleven to get me a Super Big Gulp, but the guy the guy there said they didn't have any Super Big Gulp cups.

Yes, then what happened?

Before or after the police arrived?

Before

Oh, I guess I kind of freaked out. You see, I'm under a lot of stress because I'm doing a lot of chess problems and ... well ... you see, I really wanted a Super Big Gulp ... and well ... I'm kinda embarrassed ...

It's OK. We're all yor freinds here.

OK, well. I beat him with a stick of beef jerky until he was unconscious.

And why did you do that?

Because the Twinkees weren't hard enough, and I couldn't lift the soda machine.

No, I meant why did you hit the clerk. It doesn't seem a cause for violence.

Yes well, I was also en prise, and I thought if I could take the clerk then the bishop could make a discovered check in aisle 5.

I'm sorry. I don't follow.

I was en prise -- means I was able to be captured. Like I was saying, if I take the clerk and the police take back, then the bishop in aisle 5 moves to aisle 7 -- right ? The pork rinds are now in check, so the cough drops have to interpose and ...

Yes?

Well, the RC cola delivers mate in aisle 3. Actually, it delivers mate on the "Moon Pies" which is kinda funny. It's like the Redneck Mate.

Ahhhhh Yeeees. Thank you, Mr Queue. I think you'll be staying with us for a while.

145 days down, 10 to go
738 problems down, 301 to go in Circle Four
Level 10: 99%, 27 sec/prob
Level 20: 95%, 45 sec/prob
Level 30: 85%, 72 sec/prob
Level 40: 77%, 86 sec/prob

Got Sleep

2005-02-24T04:16:00.000-08:00

Called it quits last night after my first set of 30 problems. I was not able to focus because I was too tired. It was clear that I needed a good night's sleep. I probably would have brassed it out, but I knew I would be in the same boat Thurs and Fri night. Seemed stupid to burn 3 days of a 8 day Circle. I made an executive decision and went to bed at 8PM. This will put me 90 probs behind. I will have to think of a way to work them in over the next 4 days.

New Knight(s)
A warm welcome to Nezha. He sounds a perfect candidate for the program -- already had lots of study under his belt but has not seen the improvement he was expecting. Let me be the first to ask, "Who is Nezhmetdinov?"

New knights seem to come in two's lately, so where's the other one?

144 days down, 11 to go
591 problems down, 448 to go in Circle Four
Level 10: 99%, 27 sec/prob
Level 20: 95%, 45 sec/prob
Level 30: 85%, 73 sec/prob

Need Sleep

2005-02-22T19:32:00.000-08:00

Did a bit over 3 hours on the clock last night which translated to about 3.5 hours in real time. To add insult to injury, I was so keyed up from buzzing through variations that I couldn't get to sleep until after midnight. My alarm clock started its inexorable toll this morning nonetheless. Sadly, a hammer was not handy, but I did teach my six year old some new vocabularly words.

Think I can make it for another 12 days if my coffee supply holds out.

143 days down, 12 to go
561 problems down, 478 to go in Circle Four
Level 10: 99%, 27 sec/prob
Level 20: 95%, 45 sec/prob
Level 30: 87%, 73 sec/prob

14

2005-02-21T20:35:00.000-08:00

Finished Level 20. There are maybe a handful of those probs that I need to review. Most all of the mistakes were just careless errors. Level 30 is off to a good start, but I've only done 15 probs. I doubt I'll be able to keep the 95% solve rate over the 150 I have to solve tonight, but it is nice to be off to a good start.

Glad I got ahead a bit as my meeting didn't go as late as I though it would, and I still didn't get to bed until after midnight.

142 days down, 13 to go
411 problems down, 628 to go in Circle Four
Level 10: 99%, 27 sec/prob
Level 20: 95%, 45 sec/prob
Level 30: 95%, 60 sec/prob

15

2005-02-20T17:36:00.000-08:00

Started Circle 4. Missed one stinking problem in level 10 and let out an emphatic "Oh!" the likes of which have not been heard in my house since Louis Lipps dropped a touchdown pass in the Super Bowl (in like nineteen-ninety-something). Level 20 went well too. These patterns are deeply ingrained now. It is shocking to think that they used to take me 4 minutes/prob, and I was missing 15%.

Yesterday was ... dare I say ... fun. I've pretty much got the first 2 levels licked. Blowing through them feels like I am one of those martial arts masters taking on 27 attackers ("You serve the evil Black Hand ... Fwap! ... and you stole my rice cakes ... Wonk! ... "). I did an extra 42 probs to get a head start on today. I have a meeting tonight, so I might not get to the problems until late.

Tried to do a little review of the Level 30 problems that have given me trouble in Circle 3. As I went through the problems on Circle 2 and 3, I would write down the problems I missed and maybe a hint or key to the solution. I have not gotten back to reivew all the ones I missed, but I try to get to the ones where I have made the note "Interesting mating pattern" or "Do not miss this one again, [expletive deleted]!" I note that once I see the "key" to the problem, I usually don't miss it again. I started dong this in Circle 2 because I noted I was not only getting the same problems wrong again but also calculating the same unfruitful lines.

141 days down, 14 to go
278 problems down, 761 to go in Circle Four
Level 10: 99%, 27 sec/prob
Level 20: 96%, 43 sec/prob

Stick a Fork in It

2005-02-19T19:46:00.000-08:00

because Circle 3 is done!

Tomorrow I start the eight day circle. 236 problems. That's a lot of chess problems, but a tomorrow problem.

For now, I am enjoying the traditional 24 ounce Arrogant Bastard Ale.

New Knights
We seem to be growing quite a bit lately. Welcome to Desperate Measures and Takchess.

Desperate Measures has been at it for a while and is considering doing a few pre-circle laps with "Winning Chess Tactics". (Fatboy might want to check this blog out. If I am reading between the lines correctly, he is our first representative from the Great White North.

Takchess comes to us via the interesting path of reading about chess politics in "Bobby Fischer Goes to War". Usually politics drives people away from chess. I'd like to hear what he thought of the book.

Welcome all!

140 days down, 15 to go
1039 problems down, 0 to go in Circle Three
Level 10: 96%, 44 sec/prob
Level 20: 93%, 79 sec/prob
Level 30: 78%, 114 sec/prob
Level 40: 70%, 141 sec/prob
Level 50: 65%, 148 sec/prob
Level 60: 55%, 160 sec/prob

Awoken by Jesus

2005-02-19T09:59:00.000-08:00

As I have cited earlier, I really need my sleep. The Empress and I have worked out a scenario whereby, we each get to do whatever the hell we want one weekend morning a week. (Being that there are two of us, the math works out rather nicely.) My morning is Saturday, and 9 times out of ten, you will find me sleeping in. Today as an added bonus, Dulcinea and the kids had gone shopping. A blissful empty quiet house.

Them: Knock,knock, knock!
Me: Wha ... RXN .... (snore)
Them: Knock,knock, knock! Ding! Dong!

I shamble out of bed and put on sweat pants and a T-shirt. I look approximatley like a piece of roadkill that a vulture would deem too unsavory to eat.

Me: May I help you?
Them: Hi, we're just dropping off information about out church if you don't attend a church already. I'm sorry. Did we wake you?

Many responses fly through my head. I'm just about to go with "No, I was busy sacrificing a goat to the Unholy One".I then recall that even though these people have woken me up and even though I did not invite them to my doorstep and even though I have had this conversation several times before, they believe they are here to prevent me from eternal damnation. This is a generous thing to do with your Saturdays, and such kindness should be treated with respect. I, for example, was obviously losing no sleep over their eternal souls. Thus, I suppose it is fair that I should lose some sleep from their concern about mine.

It is my practice to always talk to whomever comes to my door to save my soul. In fact, I usually invite them in and offer them a glass of water. (Used to offer them a soft drink, but I kinda freaked out some Mormons that way once.)

Me: Yes, but I needed to get up anyway. And yes, I attend the Quaker meeting ocassionally.

These people, however, woke me up. They get no water.

Them: Well great. Let me ask you this -- Are you sure that you are going to Heaven?
Me: No, I don't think any of us can be sure of that.
Them: Oh but you can. God has told us...

Pamphlets appear. She reads through some of the Bible's greatest hits. John 5:13, Romans 6:23, and the always popular Romans 10:13.

Me: Yes, but the Bible is a book. A book which has been translated many times.
Them: That's why we use only the King James version.
Me: Which was translated from ancient Greek.
Them: That's Right! I don't read Greek. Do you?
Me: And even that was someone writing down their revelations. We don't know anything about their experiences.
Them: Well that's why you have to have Faith!

I see Dulcinea pulling in with the children. She rolls her eyes as she has less patience with proseletizers than I. For their own safety, I wrap up our theological dialectic and send them on their way with my honest thanks.

I guess I want to reach out to these people because I see many of them as good-hearted folk who nonetheless accept everything they are told in Church. Spiritual life and worhip are good things, but I often see religion in my country being a weapon of cruelty. People accept beliefs wholesale because "That's what God says".

I don't think any us know what "God says" and the sooner we look at the issues as questions rather than answers the sooner we might make some progress. And who knows? Maybe we'll make it to Heaven one day.

New Knights

Welcome Fatboy and Margriet.

Fatboy comes from my old stomping grounds in Pennsylvania. I will be watching his blog with interest since he plans to follow the Don's Inferno program. I hope it makes a great program better.

Margriet and I share many interests besides chess -- singing in a chorus, philosophy and meditation. I hope I have not mistaken her desire to join our group, but as she cross linked all of us, I assume she desires to be a Knight de la Maza. (If not, just let me know).

Level 60 at 2.5 mintues per problem

Have you ever seen the movie "The Birds"? There's a scene where a woman walks into a room and birds start flying at her through a hole in the roof so fast that it makes me dizzy just thinking about it.

That's kinda what level 60 probs feel like in Circle 3.

139 days down, 16 to go
992 problems down, 47 to go in Circle Three
Level 10: 96%, 44 sec/prob
Level 20: 93%, 79 sec/prob
Level 30: 78%, 114 sec/prob
Level 40: 70%, 141 sec/prob
Level 50: 65%, 148 sec/prob

Not Eating, Drinking, and Being Merry

2005-02-18T05:25:00.000-08:00

OK. Now this whole chess thing is starting to hurt. Today marks the first day on my extended family's yearly pilgrimage to a ski resort up North. My clan had to give it a miss this year due to many factors, one of which was that the vacation fell right in the hot spot of the MDLM program. I was feeling real sorry for myself last night when I was slogging through chess problems instead of hitting the slopes. (OK, I could probably live without the skiing; it's really the "after ski" beer and dinner that's to die for).

People who are feeling sorry for themselves are fairly lousy tacticians. I seem not to be an exception to the rule.

To counteract this, this afternoon I plan to ski in the front garden of the my office during lunch. Since there is no snow and I don't own ski equipment, they might really call the men in the white coats this time. Better yet, at lunch I'm going to go buy some really awful shoes that hurt my feet. When I get home, I'll take them off. Should feel just like the real thing.

138 days down, 17 to go
946 problems down, 97 to go in Circle Three
Level 10: 96%, 44 sec/prob
Level 20: 93%, 79 sec/prob
Level 30: 78%, 114 sec/prob
Level 40: 70%, 141 sec/prob
Level 50: 65%, 148 sec/prob

PS Big shout to Sarah, Vanya, Anna, Olya, Sergey, and Sasha. We miss you guys!

Somebody Might Have Mistaken Me for a Chess Player

2005-02-17T04:23:00.000-08:00

I was dog tired last night and yet I did fairly well on the level 50's. In fact, I had my overall percentage damm near scaring 70% for a while. The last 10 probs were not that pretty though as fatigue started to set in ("Oh, that's wrong too. I'm crushed. How about this?") I might have just hit a nice run of probs. We'll see.

I started a thread on Mikhail Tal on Chess ninja. I've noticed that when I miss a problem completely, it is often from a Tal game. (Another knight mentioned this but I can't find the reference). I thought AFTER I finish this quixotic quest, I might pick up one of his game collections. This should either improve my tactical vision or hopelessly confuse me.

137 days down, 18 to go
898 problems down, 141 to go in Circle Three
Level 10: 96%, 44 sec/prob
Level 20: 93%, 79 sec/prob
Level 30: 78%, 114 sec/prob
Level 40: 70%, 141 sec/prob
Level 50: 67%, 135 sec/prob

Three Yards and a Cloud of Dirt

2005-02-15T21:54:00.000-08:00

My day ended at 10 PM tonight (actually yesterday) which means that I didn't start chess problems until 10:20 PM. My overriding thought at 10:21 PM was "This sucks!" And it did, but I made it through my 50 probs.

Finished up level 40 and started level 50. My level 50 perecntage has lots of room for improvement, but frankly, I'm impressed I didn't fall back on the "let's sac the queen and see what happens" school of chess tactics.

Now it is nearly 1AM, and I am too wired to go to bed. Perhaps I should look into to getting a life. Even the cat's asleep, for Crissakes. I wonder if I could eat that 3 week old chilli in the fridge and get food poisining. Nothing too bad, just enough to make me throw up credibly tomorrow at work. I would fake my own death, but I just did that last month. I'm still having a bit of trouble convincing the Department of Motor Vehicles that I'm not dead. After you show up two or three times with a death certificate they really start to get pissy about the whole matter.

I could always watch Braveheart again.

136 days down, 19 to go
848 problems down, 191 to go in Circle Three
Level 10: 96%, 44 sec/prob
Level 20: 93%, 79 sec/prob
Level 30: 78%, 114 sec/prob
Level 40: 70%, 141 sec/prob (Oh Yeah!)
Level 50: 61%, 137 sec/prob

posted by Don

70% or bust

2005-02-15T04:32:00.000-08:00

I have 24 problems left in level 40, and I am tantalizingly close to 70%. If I can really rock and roll on the last 24, I think I can make it.

Funny how one gets hung up on intermediate goals but something has to keep you going through hour after hour of chess problem. Although I am a relatively calm person, I find myself swearing loudly at my laptop and gritting my teeth. I received the green face of death once last night and hit my clock so hard I thought I had broken it.

Thus went my Valentine's evening with the lovely Dulcinea. She's a patient woman, but at least I remembered to bring flowers.

Two general questions today:

1) I note that Fussy Lizzard appears to be going through the problems in order. This way he knows what tactical theme is the basis of the problem. I let CT Art randomly pick the problems in each level, so I never know what is coming next. What are other knights doing?

2) I have some graphs that I would like to post. Can anyone recommend a good sceen capture and graphics tool? I want something that a) captures screen data, b) will let me simplify an image so it has a smaller footprint, c) and is easy to use. Free would be nice as well.

135 days down, 20 to go
798 problems down, 241 to go in Circle Three
Level 10: 96%, 44 sec/prob
Level 20: 93%, 79 sec/prob
Level 30: 78%, 114 sec/prob
Level 40: 69%, 142 sec/prob

3 Weeks to Go

2005-02-14T04:49:00.000-08:00

Spent the weekend whimpering in bed. Not exactly sick, but I think I was fighting off getting sick. Mostly I slept, ate, napped, did chess problems and read a bit ("The Glass Bead Game" is quite good. I am enjoying it immensely). One challenge for me of this program is that I need a lot of sleep. I like to get 8 hours/night and then at least one night of 10+ hours on the weekend. Needless to say, when one if adding 2-3 hours of chess problem onto a normal day, it is hard to get 8 hours of sleep. This week is gonna be particularly hard since in addition to normal commitments I have evening commitments on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Considering purchase of time machine.

Hit a couple of hiccups towards the end of last week. I only did 25 problems on Thursday instead of the scheduled 74. I went to 2 meetings Thursday night. Naturally the first made me late for the second, so I rushed in not realizing that I had left my keys in the ignition with the car running. Called the "Emergency Road Service" who took and hour and half to get to my car. I would have been indignant at the length of the wait except for my belief that people who are so !@#^&% stupid as to lock their keys in their running cars should consider themselves lucky to be allowed to live outside of a supervised facility. Friday night I only got through 35 (but I did get a date with the lovely Dulcinea). I was supposed to have today as a rest and review day, but I will be using it to catch up.

The problems continue to be a bear. I am working on the pattern recognition because the harder the problems get the more impossible it is to calculate any portion of the key lines. I am striving to keep improving my percentage correct at each level of each circle. So far so good, but frankly keeping the same percentage is challening enough when one halves the time to solve each time. In order to better track the average time it takes to solve, I am now timing myself on a chess clock to keep track of the overall time solved within a session.

134 days down, 21 to go
738 problems down, 301 to go in Circle Three
Level 10: 96%, 44 sec/prob
Level 20: 93%, 79 sec/prob
Level 30: 78%, 114 sec/prob
Level 40: 68%, 140 sec/prob

Picking up the Gauntlet

2005-02-10T20:47:00.000-08:00

I received a friendly invitation to a joust from my net friend, Patzer King. He proposes that as true test of methods that we should post our OTB ratings and see who's rating goes up the most in the next 6 months by playing between 20-40 games.

I accept.

I cannot guarantee the number of games I'll be able to play, but I am pleased to post my ratings. In fact, I was planning to let readers verify these things for themselves later (like you can for Michael de la Maza), but now seems as good a time as any.

My name is Randolph Evans. My USCF ID # is 12485113. Here's the link to my rating. My starting rating is 1573, but I have already played 5-6 games that have not come through yet.

Well met, Sir Knight. To your lance!

PS I'll stil go by Don and will answer to Randy as well, but only my mother and USCF calls me Randolph.

PPS I got so caught up in all this that I forget to offer a warm welcome to our newest knight, Yet Another Patzer. He claims to write blog entries only once every 2 years, so in his next entry we should get a good idea of the long term impact of the program. Also pleased that our network now reaches as far south as Argentina. Very cool. Welcome YAP and good luck.

PPPS OK, I gotta stop reading blogs and emails and goto bed, but just one more welcome tonight for King of the Spill. Sounds like he's been at it for awhile, and I should be interested in hearing more about solving chess problems and having a life.

In addition, Fussy Lizard has now got himself a blog too.

New Knights Errant

2005-02-09T04:04:00.000-08:00

A warm welcome to Celtic Death and Temposchlucker. It also appears that we may be joined by Fussy Lizard. Yeesh, three in one day. Planets must be lined up or something.

The Dark Knight certainly is laying it out there when he says he will "improve or die trying". As a Welshman, I am pleased to see a fellow Celt (they're not just the Irish you know) taking up the path de La Maza. At the same time, could anyplace sound more apple pie American than "Normal, Illinois"?

With temposchlucker, we have finally gone international as a group. Looking at his profile, he also appears to be quite the polymath. I shall look for "Once Upon a Time in the West" at the video store and would recommend the little known "Tombstone" back to you. "Beelzebub Tales" sounds interesting as well. Perhaps when I finish the "Glass Bead Game". (Who am I kidding? I don't have time to read.)

Fussy Lizard is well into the program. He and and I met on "My Study Plan" topic on chess ninja. Earlier in topic you can find the genesis of the name "Sancho Pawnza". Fussy may not set up a blog, but I'm listing him anyway. Perhaps DG will call him the Silent Knight.

While I'm at it, here is my criteria for membership in the Knights Errant:
1) Must be actively pursuing a chess improvement program based to some degree on de la Maza's program
2) Must indicate you want to join.

Criteria 1 is up to you. If you think your program is based on de la Maza's, that's good enough for me. Criteria 2 is my attempt at good netiquette. It seems only polite for me to wait and see if someone wants to be associated with us before I go slapping their name up in a list.

I also am very interested in listing people who are pursuing chess improvement via some other method. Please let me know if you would like to be listed in the "Other Chess Improvement Sites- Active" list.

Received a mild butt whipping from CT Art on level 30 last night. I would really like to get over 80% this time.

128 days down, 27 to go
484 problems down, 555 to go in Circle Three
Level 10: 96%, 44 sec/prob
Level 20: 93%, 79 sec/prob
Level 30: 78%, 114 sec/prob

Think fast

2005-02-07T18:16:00.000-08:00

Dipped into Level 30 tonight. Not a whole heck of a lot of time to think things through. Given that problems sometimes go a few moves deep, I'm going to have to make a move at about 95 seconds whether I see something or not. I think I got into the habit of settling into a problem over the first minute. I'm thinking I'll have to revamp that to be more like 10 seconds. 150 seconds is not a lot of time.

127 days down, 28 to go
410 problems down, 628 to go in Circle Three
Level 10: 96%, 44 sec/prob
Level 20: 93%, 79 sec/prob
Level 30: 80%, 107 sec/prob

One Month to Go

2005-02-07T04:39:00.000-08:00

I have 27 problem days and 2 rest days left.

In an effort to be organized, I sat down and calculated out my schedule between here and March 7th. Surprisingly, Circle 5 and the second half of Circle six are not problems. One of the biggest gotchas will be the beginning of Circle 4 where the first 3 days could average in the 4 hour range. Though Day 1 of Cirlce six and Circle 7 are montsters (6 & 9 hours respectively), I'll be in the home stretch by then.

Here is my schedule for the remaining time

Day	Circle	Target	Target Running	Max Time
1	3	90	405	3.75
2	3	74	479	3.08
3	3	74	553	3.08
4	3	74	627	3.08
5	3	60	687	2.5
6	3	60	747	2.5
7	3	50	797	2.08
8	3	0	797	0
9	3	50	847	2.08
10	3	50	897	2.08
11	3	48	945	2
12	3	48	993	2
13	3	46	1039	1.92
14	4	236	236	4.92
15	4	175	411	3.65
16	4	173	584	3.6
17	4	140	724	2.92
18	4	106	830	2.21
19	4	88	918	1.83
20	4	60	978	1.25
21	4	60	1038	1.25
22	5	340	340	2.83
23				0
24	5	272	612	2.27
25	5	241	853	2.01
26	5	186	1039	1.55
27	6	700	702	5.83
28	6	336	1038	2.8
29	7	1039	1039	8.65

126 days down, 29 to go (including rest days)
320 problems down, 719 to go in Circle Three
Level 10: 96%, 44 sec/prob
Level 20: 93%, 80 sec/prob

Feel the Need for Speed

2005-02-05T17:30:00.000-08:00

Circle 3 has started off with a lowlight. I scored a lower percentage on the Level 10 problems than I did last time. Second surprise is that I don't mind. I was focusing a lot on trying to complete the problems in less than 30 seconds. I can't imagine I will be able to solve any level 60 problems in circle 6 or 7 with the 30 second max because the level 10's were hard enough. Takes me a few seconds just to register color and material imabalance.

Level 2 is going very well. I am solving quickly and at 94%. In fact they don't seem a whole lot more difficult than the Level 10's. Who knows though? I was pretty tired friday night when I did the level 10's and very well rested today when I did the level 20's. We'll see.

126 days down, 29 to go
205 problems down, 839 to go in Circle Three
Level 10: 96%, 44 sec/prob
Level 20: 94%, 80 sec/prob

Circle Two complete!

2005-02-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

So the bishop takes the knight but what about the queen. Oh wait, it's pinned. Aha, take that! No wait, that's wrong. Rook takes knight and ... "test complete".

Thus finished my second lap around the track. Tonight at approx 10:30 PM, I finished problem number 1039 (I had counted wrong all along). In the past 96 days (and change), I have now completed 2248 chess problems. I don't have my Oxford English Dictionary handy, but I think that qualifies as a sh*tpile of chess problems. At approximately 10:32 PM, I opened the traditional celebratory beer, a 24 ounce Arrogant Bastard Ale.

Life is good.

32 days from now I should be done with the program (one rest day). I'm optimistic and would put my odds at 1-2 to finish. Quite an improvement over my original 10-1. Stay tuned! I think it's gonna start getting a bit crazy.

124 days down, 31 to go
1039 problems down, 0 to go in Circle Two
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 88%
Level 30: 76%
Level 40: 68%
Level 50: 63%
Level 60: 59%

Why play chess?

2005-02-02T06:25:00.000-08:00

Playing chess has many cognitive benefits. Children who study chess turn out to be better readers than those who don't (particularly if they are having trouble reading in the first place). It is good for improving concentration, spatial thinking, and memory. It helps develop personal responsibilty and self-control.

All that AND you might get to meet this woman.

122 days down, 33 to go
982 problems down, 54 to go in Circle Two
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 88%
Level 30: 76%
Level 40: 68%
Level 50: 63%
Level 60: 63%

The Nine (Ten) Circle Program

2005-01-31T20:34:00.000-08:00

I was going to wait until I finished the program before I doled out advice on how one might improve de la Maza's program, but there are a few knights in the early lap of Circle One, so I'm gonna sound off now.

I think there are a few problems with the Seven Circle program.

1) It covers too many problems.
2) It doesn't leave enough time to digest early material before moving on to more difficult material.
3) The first Circle takes too damn long. You have to go two months before you can claim victory.
4) The workload is a bit much for people who and not young and unemployed.
5) "Seven circles" is poetically incorrect. There should be nine circles to correspond to the nine circles of Hell in Dante's Inferno. You won't write the "Eight Commandments of Chess Improvement", would you?

As such, I present
Don's Nine Circles for Tactical Chess Improvement

First, my nine circle program can be completed in the same 127 as de la Maza's. I'm adding more circles, not more time. Second, it actually has 10 circles. This is because hell has expanded since Dante wrote the Inferno. There are several new classes of sinners -- televangelists, sandbagging chess players, spammers, etc. In addition, they had a bit of an overflow problem after the Third Reich started showing up. As such, they had to build an addition. That and I need 10 to make the math work out.

Circle One -- 32 days -- level 10-30 Max time -- 10 minutes

Circle Two -- 16 days -- level 10-30. Max time -- 5 minutes

Circle Three -- 8 days -- level 10-30. Max time -- 2.5 minutes

Circle Four -- 32 days -- level 40-60. Max time -- 10 minutes

Circle Five -- 16 days -- level 40-60. Max time -- 5 minutes

Circle Six -- 8 days -- level 40-60. Max time -- 2.5 minutes

Circle Seven -- 8 days -- Level 10-60. Max time -- 1.25 minutes

Circle Eight -- 4 days -- Level 10-60. Max time -- 37.5 seconds

Circle Nine -- 2 days -- Level 10-60. Max time -- 30 seconds

Circle Ten -- 1 day -- Level 10-60. Max time -- 30 seconds

I think this approach would work better. It would give you more of a chance to master the problems at the different levels before moving on, but it keeps the same last 4 cirlces to cement the pattern recognition.

In the words of Darth Vader, "It is too late for me, my son", but I thought I'd pass this along as future de la Mazians might find it more beneficial than the program as originally outlined.

Level 60 starts tomorrow.

121 days down, 34 to go
954 problems down, 84 to go in Circle Two
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 88%
Level 30: 76%
Level 40: 68%
Level 50: 63% (finished strong)

March 7 is the Day

2005-01-30T06:17:00.000-08:00

Back on the plan. Have a bit of catching up to do, so from now until the end of circle 2, I will need to do 30 probs a night. This is really too much. My brain starts to fizzle in the late 20's, and it takes too long to complete, but I need to keep my schedule.

I have targeted March 7 as the Seventh Circle date, and I'm starting to see that if I don't hit that date I might miss altogether. I will need to a take a full day off work, and I will also need not to work on the Circle 6 days. As such, I need a 3 day weekend. The Empress is going out of town the next weekend, so March 7 is the day.

I hope that I might work an extra 20 problems today and catch up. It would be nice to only have 24/night for level 60. I also hope that I win the lottery. I don't think either will happen today.

119 days down, 36 to go
893 problems down, 145 to go in Circle Two
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 88%
Level 30: 76%
Level 40: 68%
Level 50: 59%

Couldn't get it done

2005-01-27T19:06:00.000-08:00

Sorry, guys. I lost.

All I needed was a stinkin draw, AND I had white. Couldn't do it. Fell into a tough gambit position where I didn't really have enough comp for the pawn and was slowly ground down. I was pleased that I put up a good fight. I held my opponent off for a long time, but it wasn't enough.

I really wanted to win one for all of you guys as much as I wanted to win for me. Sorry.

Anyway, I've been slacking for a couple of days tyring to take it easy, so I'm way behind. Not happening tonight though. A couple of consoling beers and perhaps a viewing of Braveheart -- always cheers me up.

Though I'm very dissapointed (Ya think?), by any objective standard, it is the best tournament performance I've ever had. Should pick up about 85 rating points. Thanks for all your support. I wish I could have delivered.

Bite of Reality Sandwich

2005-01-25T05:27:00.000-08:00

Went back to the problems Sunday night. Was feeling pretty good after Saturday's tournament, but CT Art gave me a nice bite of a reality sandwich. My first set of 10 level 40's came in at an anemic 43%. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure I heard the laptop call me a punk. I pulled out the power cord and let it run on battery for a while until it adjusted its attitude. I have no patience for impudent electronic equipment. It eventually apologized in the form of a "battery low" message. I think we understand one another now.

Think I was getting a bit cocky. Was able to get back in the groove though on the following sets. Last night was better. I've started to write down problems that I hose up quite a bit in order to review them later. Perhaps can do this on the rest days. I also HAVE to be stricter about time limits. I found myself going over 5 minutes several times. I don't mind cheating a few minutes over 2 hours, but I'm starting to scare 2 and half hours on some nights.

114 days down, 41 to go
803 problems down, 235 to go in Circle Two
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 88%
Level 30: 76%
Level 40: 68%

Wahoooooooooooooooooo!

2005-01-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

OK,

I shouldn't make too much of it. I only played three rounds today, and my opponents were expecting to play Mr. 1573;

BUT

Today, I faced a 1910, 1810, and 1641. My score ------ 3.0, baby. The final round had been delayed tonight because of snow, but if I win in round 4, I will will my local club's champion. Even if I were to lose to fool's mate in round 4, I would be well pleased with the result. I will be squarely in class B.

No doubt. There's a big difference. Again, totally specious to put so much on one good day, but a few more stats. If the tournament were to end today, I would be rated over 1700. My performance rating for the day is 2310.

Rock and FREAKIN roll, baby.........................

Gentleman's Game

2005-01-21T04:51:00.000-08:00

Reading an article on chessbase about Wijk aan Zee. As usual, the article has a few pictures of grandmasters analyzing the games afterwards. This always make some feel a close kinship with these great chess minds. Even though they are fierce competitors, after the game they sit down and discuss it with each other. Part of this is a tradition of being a gentleman's game; part of it, I think, is our helpless love of the game itself.

Got a bit behind last night. Have a rest day scheduled for Sat since I'm playing in a tourney. Perhaps I can catch up then. Played a good game at club last night. My opponent was a solid B player, but I was able to capture the point. Hope I play as well on Saturday.

110 days down, 45 to go
718 problems down, 320 to go in Circle Two
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 88%
Level 30: 76%
Level 40: 69%

PS Somebody please throw Morozevich a life preserver.

Slap me around and call me Susan

2005-01-20T05:31:00.000-08:00

Got slapped around again by CT Art last night. Considering giving up chess and entering the priesthood. Haven't been to church in 15 years. Hope it hasn't changed much. Do they still get to finish the extra wine at the end of communion?

109 days down, 46 to go
708 problems down, 330 to go in Circle Two
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 88%
Level 30: 76%
Level 40: 68%

Butt Kicked

2005-01-19T04:25:00.000-08:00

So, I have taken a more sane approach to the program and doing less problems. I sit down last night well-rested and in a good frame of mind. I then proceed to get my butt waxed. I think I found about 5 complete answers all night. I was going to do 30, but called it a night after 27 as I heard myself thinking "Whatever, I'll just play the first move I see". Think it was just a bad night rather than me being a bad knight, but still hard to swallow.

Funny to hear this frustration for everyone. Sancho, who appears to be one of the strongest tactically, often expresses that he is having trouble but then posts pretty impressive numbers. I'd be doing kartwheels if I could get 91% of the level 30's, but he speaks about it like he is missing every other one.

In my case, I think it is the difference between seeing and understanding. The first hurdle in playing a combination is understanding how it works. If you just can't follow the sequence of moves or don't understand that the resulting position is a win for your side, then you don't understand it. Think of the postion that the club champion looks at in a post game analysis that he claims is a win for white because of x. You nod your head sagely and then go home and play it out in Fritz because you have no idea what he's talking about. "Ah, he's right. Black can't take the queen because the bishop is pinned". Now you understand. This is an important step forward, but it by no means guarantees that you will see the tactic when presented again.

My hunch is that I am understanding things a lot better here on day one hundred and FRICKIN eight but I'm still not familiar enough that I can see them. The result is that same on my scoring percentage. The only difference I now note is that I don't often have to fire up Crafty to go through a problem to see about another line. Once I see the solution I understand it immediately.

108 days down, 47 to go
678 problems down, 360 to go in Circle Two
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 88%
Level 30: 76%
Level 40: 71% (told you I got my butt kicked)

Meeting of the Knights

2005-01-18T05:04:00.000-08:00

Sounds like it's time for a meeting. I don't know that there is that much to talk about but it might be helpful to compare notes. If I don't have to be secretary, then I'm up for it. How's about Sun night at 10 PM eastern, 7 PM pacific? We could meet in a game room at www.pogo.com as Generalkaia suggests. If someone knows a better place for chatting, please let me know. I don't have AOL IM though. Please post your thoughts in the comments.

Stick it out, Sancho
I know you think the software sucks and that it may not be the best use of 15 days to grind out the rest of the program, but I am pretty sure that you will feel a lot better later if you finish these last two weeks. You have invested a lot of time, and it make sense to finish.

changing Gears
Based on yesterday's reflections, I've decided to alter my own plan a bit. I had been planning to mirthlessly grind out the remaining circles as originally planned, but I've decided to adopt Sancho's strategy of only doing through level 60. Much to the pleasure of the lovely Dulcinea, I am planning on limiting exercises to 2 hours. The Empress de la Maza is supportive, but there had been a few coments about me constantly doing chess problems.

Sancho truncated things because he was disenchanted with the software. In my case, I think those problems are just too hard for me. I may come back to them later, but I see more benefit in working the lower 60 more. As noted by the donkey-riding-peasant, this still is more than 1000 probs as suggested by de la Maza.

In future posts I think I will outline a a method for determining what probs one should tackle based on their ability. I think it is a good idea to go through the whole set once like Pale Morning Dun plans to do. If I were better at tactics, it might make more sense to hit all 1209. For the adult player too, I think it is important to figure out a strategy that limits comittment to 2 hours up until the last 3 circles.

In this vein, last night I did 35 level 40's rather than the originally planned 46. I've even put a few planned rest/review days in the schedule.

107 days down, 48 to go
651 problems down, 387 to go in Circle Two
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 88%
Level 30: 76%
Level 40: 75%

Keep to the road

2005-01-17T04:58:00.000-08:00

Tried to do review of the level 20 and 30 this weekend. Nice idea but probably better for me to just stick to the plan. Too easy for me to slack off, as I did this weekend, when I am not under the dictates of the Plan.

Continuing the program
I wrote my blog entry before reading eneryone else's this morning. Looks like there is a crisis of confidence brewing in the Knights Errant. My subject title this morning was intended only as a message to myself not others. My original post ended after the short paragraph above.

My Thoughts

1) Is this program impractical for an adult player with a family life? I think so. The time commitment this takes seems to keep getting larger. I have 46 problems to do tonight in Level 40. I will likely take me 2.5 hours or more. This type of time commitment is just brutal to make day after day. As the blog shows, I often miss days when I get overwhelmed and burnt out. I also feel like I can't make a statement one way or another until I finish the program.

2) Does the CT art software suck?I don't think so. I have not checked out the problems that J'aboube cites as being problematic yet, but I will tonight. (By the way, J'adoube, you can bring up the problem in practicemode in CT Art and play against the Crafty engine. This is usually sufficient to find the lines). I have found a few problems where I have found perfectly acceptable alternate line that is marked wrong by CT Art, but I have yet to find one where CT Art claims a winning move that is losing. A few such problems are bound to exist in a collection of 1209, and I think we should try to find them.

It is common though for a flashy line to be the main line whereas there is a much better, though still losing, defensive line available. I think this is OK. The idea is to recognize the pattern in the flashy line. In a real game, you want to make such threats even though you may end up grinding out the pawn up ending of the alternative line. As J'adoube notes, grandmasters have missed the better defenses OTB.

3) Should I stay or should I go? I have to admit that I have thought seriously about modifying the program several times, AND I have been unable to keep the schedule as written. It has simply been too much for me. What happened this weekend (try something a little different and end up blowing the whole thing off) is not uncommon. To use my Bruce Denton analogy, you want to do a good hard workout everyday, but not one that is so hard that you break down entirely and get no benefit.

4) What would an alternative program look like?
a) I think for my level of tactical ability, the problems are too hard. I feel like I got almost nothing out of the higher level problems. I like Sancho's idea of cutting back the number of problems to cut out the last few levels. Howard Goldowsky said he stopped at level 50 as well.

b) I would like to have a time cap on the first five circles for total time spent on any given night. Two hours would seem reasonable.

c) The program needs rest and review days. Common wisdom is that one should do problems every day. I seem to feel better after a day off here and there. I also note that two or three days off doesn't help any more than 1. Also, it feels like one needs time to review problem areas.

I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts.

103 days down, 52 to go

617 problems down, 592 to go in Circle Two
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 88%
Level 30: 76%

Grinding it out

2005-01-14T05:04:00.000-08:00

Worked through 46 level 30's last night. Even though I did 58 the prior two nights, 46 took it out of me last night. I have noticed that as I get further in the problem set and get tired, the problems get harder. Problems have been taking me 2.5 houtrs or more this week. I wonder if one builds up mental stamina.

I should like to spend a few days studying the problems from level 20 and 30 that I got incorrect. My plan is always to go back and work through them in my spare time. I'm thinking there will be no spare time between now and the end of Circle Seven though. Even if I could find the time, I only have so much energy for chess in a day. Perhaps I could pause for a day or two to work on review. Seems like a good idea, but I'm a bit afeared to start messing with the plan.

I am really getting problem 461 down though. For some reason, it never registers as complete, so I have done it approx. 8 times now. Rook check, sac on h8, knight check and discovered attack on queen.

103 days down, 52 to go
612 problems down, 597 to go in Circle Two
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 88%
Level 30: 76% (I was briefly in 77%)

100 Days!

2005-01-11T13:48:00.000-08:00

Well on the schedule anyway. It's actually been like 108 days on the calendar. Really never thought I'd make it this far, but it has kind of taken on a life of its own. Even after all this, I was ready to toss it in last night.

I had just started level 30, and it was not going well. I was scoring below the 75% mark I had achieved in Circle One. After all this work, I was doing no better! It was not at all comforting that I was approaching the problems in half the time. I don't want to spend 5 months to be as bad as I was at chess before, only 7 times faster. Very hard not to be discouraged, particularly when I have invested over 200 hours into this.

(Side note: 200 hours! Wow! The equivalent of 5 work weeks, and work weeks where you actually spend the whole day working and not screwing off making notes in blogs. That's a lot of time).

Two things helped me. First, I stopped trying to find the first move in the first 2 and a half minutes. A lot of times I felt obligated to move then so I could study the solution in the last 2.5 minutes. This worked fine with Circle One and 5 minutes, but it sucks for Circle 2. Now I don't look at the solution after 2.5 minutes unless I am completely stumped. I solved a lot of them in the 3-4 minute mark.

Second, I recalled that my first time through I redid erroneous problems thus making my solve rate a little higher. Even equalling my earlier mark is exceeding it.

In the second half of the problems last night I felt "in the groove" in a way I haven't since early December. The later probs in Circle One were so hard that it was hard to ever feel very accomplished. It was more trying to even understand it. The early problems for Circle Two weren't really requiring me to stretch, and I lowered myself to the occasion.

If I make it to the end of this, it will be because I don't lose site of the "keep on going" mentality. Have to just keep doin it and wait for whatever is going to happen to happen.

Welcome J'adoube
A warm welcome to the newest quester, J'adoube. After triathalons and martial arts endeavors, I think chess problems should be a breeze.

100 days down, 55 to go
460 problems down, 749 to go in Circle Two
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 88%
Level 30: 76% (and rising)

Jogging with Bruce Denton

2005-01-10T04:14:00.000-08:00

In the book, Once a Runner, the protagonist describes the process of training with an Olympic miler, Bruce Denton. The most striking thing is not the intensity of the workouts. In fact, when he arrives loaded for bear on the first day, he is a bit disappointed. He had expected a really challenging workout, but what he gets instead a good, solid workout. He and the other newbies can't believe how easy it is.Around week two, people start to bail out as it dawns on them the true grit of the program is that it is the same thing day after day. After a while you start to break down.

Definitely the same thing with this. It's not that doing 2 hours of chess tactics is that hard -- it is doing it every single day. I had my first hiccup this weekend and I'm going to have to drop back the schedule a day. This seems almost inevitable given my life and frankly level of commitment. If you really wanted to get the most out of it though, I would suggest sticking to the schedule without fail.

Between now and the end of Cirlce Seven I am actually planning to drop back a couple more days because of some commitments on the weekend of March 5th. I figure no need to plan for them, they will happen all by themselves.

99 days down, 56 to go
402 problems down, 807 to go in Circle Two
Level 10: 97%
Level 20: 88%

Brave New World

2005-01-05T04:47:00.000-08:00

Talk about a change in attitude. After reading my October entry about Level 20, I felt a whole lot better. I had been struggling to do 29 problems in 2 hours. Now I'm doing 60+ in an hour and change. Then I was fighting to make 85%, now I'm at 90%, and my misses are usually a result of carelessness. With new found enthusiasm, I scored in the mid-90's yesterday to raise my overall percentage to 92%.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!THIS MAY ACTUALLY BE WORKING!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought I was just a hopless loser wasting 2 hours day. Now I realize that I am a hopeless loser, but I'm getting much better at chess.

It also makes me realize that keeping the blog is very helpful. I had completely forgotten that level 20 was harder for me than level 10. If all I had to go on was my scoring percentage, I would have seen very little difference between Circle One and Two.

I haven't been this excited about chess since college when Mary Kay told me that if I gave her a chess lesson she's receive it in her underwear.

It's a brave new world.

Level 10 down

2005-01-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

97%, oh well. Maybe next time.

Level 20 is off to a rocky start as well. Hovering at about 88% I think. The 5 minute time frame means I have to come up with the first move in 2.5 minutes, so I am a little rushed. I blow through a bunch in 10 seconds, but I'm not accustomed to thinking quite so quickly for so long. I think I got a little sleepy at the end of the first circle. I would kind of stare at the screen for a minute on a lot of them since I was more or less waiting for time to run out. Also, even though the problems are easier, they do take some thought. Some part of me thought that I would blow through them without lifting a brain cell.

I am noticing that some of the mating patterns are second nature to me now which is cool. I'm not seeing magnetic fields yet, but I haven't entered Circle 3 and/or starting hitting the mescaline either.

94 days down, 61 to go
132 probs down, 1077 to go in Circle Two

PS Just re-read my post when I started Level 20 problems in the first circle. I feel a lot better. I have made a lot of progress.

One lap complete, six to go

2005-01-02T22:09:00.000-08:00

Been a bit pokey around the holidays, but I did fiinally manage to complete Level 90 and Circle One tonight. Instead of 64 days, the original circle took me 73. For the most part, this was due to skipping days. Up until Level 90, I felt like I was making real progress. I was really just going through the motions for the second half of December, but I didn't quit either. Some time earlier I said that I thought if I made it through Circle One, my chances of making it all the way would go up substantially. I'd rate myself as about even money now to finish. Much more support out there than I would have ever guessed. Thanks fellow knights and readers!

Welcome to Pawn Sensei and Generalkaia. I'm catching up on reading blogs, so I haven't had a chance to fully investigate their musings. I am pleased that Pawn Sensei did not develop the dreaded "sniffles". Sancho, you still haven't told me how it is that you know Norwegian.

Started Circle 2 tonight and scored a somewhat untidy 96%. Bad habits developed from Level 90 ("Let's try this..."). I wanted a nice clean 100%, but I'm gonna have to focus a little better. High hopes for tomorrow as I return to work and "the routine".

93 days down, 62 to go
66 probs down, 1143 to go in Circle Two

Scheckte the Elf

2004-12-24T08:39:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder why you often don't get what you ask for from Santa? It isn't Santa's fault. He delivers the list as he gets it, but his list is compiled by Scheckte the Elf. Scheckte has been in Santa's employ since the population thing started getting out of control after World War 2. He is a bit ornery and often changes the requests ever so slightly. By special arrangement, I was able to see some of this year letters to Santa and Scheckte's responses.

-------------------------------------------------
Dear Santa,

For Christmas this year, I'd like a Cloak of Invisibility like the one Harry Potter has.

Sincerely,
Vladimir Kramnik
Classical World Chess Champion (mostly)

PS Thanks again for last year's gift "Beating the Bum of the
Month" by Joe Louis. It was most instructive.

Dear Vlad,

Please enjoy the enclosed backbone. You may find it handy.

-S
-------------------------------------------------

Dear Santa,

I demand that this year for Christmas that I am released from prison.

Sincerly
Robert James Fischer
Chess Champion of the Universe

Dear Bobby,

I have arranged for you to have citizenship in Iceland. By the way,"Scheckte" is a Yiddish nickname. Enjoy eternity on a big ball of ice, you anti-Semitic f*ck.

-S
-------------------------------------------------

Dear Santa,

For Christmas this year I would like:

1) The Turkish Federation to sponsor my match with Kasimdzhanov (I'll take it from there)
2) A rematch with Kramnik (I'll take it from there)
3) President Putin out of office (I'll take it from there) and
4) Sales of a million plus on latest book about Bobby Fischer

Sincerely,
Gary Kasparov
World's highest Rated player (which really means the World Champion)

Dear Garik,

Quit writing. If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times that making Karpov cough up blood in the middle of your '85 match is all you're getting this liftetime.

-S

PS Find a real barber for God's sake. You look like an idiot.

-------------------------------------------------

Dear Santa,

I enjoyed match with Susan Polgar this year. Next year could you arrange for a rematch at a nudist colony.

-Anatoly Karpov
Former World Chess Champion (before the title got confusing)

Dear Tola,

I'll work on it, but you have to do your part. Read the enclosed copy of the "South Beach Diet". You look like you're having a reaction to a bee sting.

-S
-------------------------------------------------

Dear Santa,

This year for Christmas I'd like to be World Champion again and a goat.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Undisputed World Chess Champion (at least in Uzbekistan)

Dear Rustam,

I'd love to bring you the goat. Where in the hell is Uzbekistan?

-------------------------------------------------
Dear Santa,

This year I would just like a chance to sit down and play with the other great minds of my time to determine once and for all who is the World champion. I hope to win but frankly just want the chance for a good battle solved over the board and not through politics.

Humbly submitted,
Viswanathan Anand

Dear Vishy,

Finally somebody writes me to ask for something easy. You'll need to study hard because you are not as experienced as the other competitors. Please read the enclosed copy of Learn to Play Go to bone up before the match.

-S
-------------------------------------------------

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!
-Don

Level 90 and up

2004-12-22T05:49:00.000-08:00

I entered the last last set of problems last night. The were hard but solvable. It helped that the first one I got was a variation of Damiano's mate, so I knew the basic pattern; I just had to figure out a few wrinkles. Nothing like calculating a 10 move mating sequence where you sacrifice 2 rooks, 2 bishops, and 2 knights to help your confidence. I was very tired though and glad I only had 8 problems to do.
Sancho claims that the Level 90 are easier. Let's hope he's right.

I'm one schedule to finish on December 29th. My plan is to take it a little easy and on December 31. After all, I've got Christmas and a vacation in Florida between now and then. No sense rushing.

Does anyone speak Dutch? Swedish?
I was googling yesterday and came across this site. I'm guessing Dutch because I know we have one reader, Bach Singer, from the Netherlands. Could be Swedish. My ignorance runneth over.

Some other interesting places where the blog turns up:
The Progressive Republic and The Austin Film Festival

Orange Knight
I suggest we send out a search party for Orange Knight. He caught a cold on December 4th and has not posted since. Must be a nasty cold.

Intuition v. Calculation

2004-12-20T05:43:00.000-08:00

As I bumble through the Level 80 problems, soon to be Level 90, I wonder at what point tactical play rests on intution rather than calculation. I find it hard to believe that someone could calculate all the lines of these problems. Some run 10 moves deep in several branching lines. At some level, intuition has to take precendence in tactical decisions.

The most difficult problems for me are the ones where the king is pulled out into the middle of the board and then mated in the open. I need a lot of practice at this. I can rarely visualize the sequences.

82 days down, 73 to go
1121 probs down, 80 probs to go in Circle One

Chess Haiku

2004-12-16T04:38:00.000-08:00

Comments from my opponent, Raul Groom, in a French Defense correspondence game:

I must comment on the beauty and simplicity
of the French after

1. e4 e6
2. d4 d5
3. e5 c5
4. c3 Nc6

An ideal opening for a Buddhist, perhaps.

Avance
One man controls space
His opponent, the tension.
A knight, intrigued, leaps.

78 days down, 77 to go
1091 probs down, 118 to go in Circle One

In other news ...

2004-12-15T04:12:00.000-08:00

In a hastily organized press conference outside Walmart, Don Que, the "Man de la Maza", announced to the media that he is halfway finished in his quest to finish the 155 day tactical regimen outlined in the book "Rapid Chess Improvement". Representatives from several major middle school newpapers were in attendance.

Q: What results have you seen thus far from your regime?
A: I have seen a dramatic change in my OTB and correspondence play. I would estimate the difference is 150-200 ELO points. During the second half of the program, I hope to get those points back.

In addition, I have gained 10 lbs and seem to be breaking out.

Q: What are your thoughts on reunification of the Chess World Championship?
Sadly, neither Kasparov or Kramnik will agree to play me. They are hiding behind their lawyers and spam blocking programs. I have also been informed by representatives for Judit Polgar that the restraining order has been made permanent.

Q: What has been the hardest part of the program so far?
The divorce proceeding was definitely a low point as was the foreclosure of my mortgage.

Q: What advice do you have for someone wanting to embark on a similar journey?
Cheetos are available in 5 gallon bags in ailse 12. They have proved a welcome balm to the trials of the Path de la Maza. You might also want to pick up some handi-wipes for your computer keyboard.

Q: There's rumor of a movie deal? Comments?
Though it is a bit premature to comment, a major media conglomerate is offering me unlimited rentals for $24.99/month.

The press conference came to an abrupt end as several law enforcement officers thoughtfully escorted Mr. Que from the scene in a county-provided cruiser. The hometown crowd bid the hero adieu with an impromptu chant of "Wacko, Wacko, Wacko...".

Further questions for Mr. Que should be addressed to county officials for the next 30 days.

77 days down, 78 to go
1088 probs down, 121 to go in Circle One

Saved by Potluck

2004-12-13T04:35:00.000-08:00

I think taking Thursday night off was a good idea. Friday night was marginal, and Saturday was hard to justify (although it was nice just to curl up with Dulcinea and watch a movie). Blowing off Sunday would clearly have been a mistake, and I was halfway there.

Sunday evening, we went to the in-laws for a Christmas celebration. Special visitors from out of town. Waddled home with a belly full of dinner and put the girls to bed. My bed was looking very nice. Get a good night's sleep ... Start the week off right ...

Then I remembered I had promised to bring a dish to the company Pot Luck luncheon. Sadly I have no talent for cooking anything that requires less than 2 hours. Everything I make well has to bubble on the stove for half a day. My choice for the pot luck was red beans & rice. The recipe, with no intended sarcasm, says to "cook for 3 or 4 hours". Nothing for it. Pulled out the onions and started the saute. Had the pot a bubbling by 9 PM.

Since I was up 'til midnight in an sleeping house, it was no problem to get cracking on chess problems. I think from here until the end of Circle One I am going to focus on studying the problems more than trying to get them right. I spend nearly all my time trying to figure out the lines and don't leave enough time to study the solutions. Even when the whole solution is out, it sometimes takes me a a bit to figure out why the position is winning. I think this is better use of my effort.

The break I took delays my Circle One schedule to finish on December 29th. That's good. I probably will lose another day or two between now and then (ya think), but I'd like to push to finish before the New Year.

75 days down, 80 to go
1055 probs down, 154 to go in Circle One

Stale

2004-12-10T04:27:00.000-08:00

Played a G/25 quad last night at chess club. Though number 2 in my quad, I scored an anemic 0.5. Should have scored 2.0 (number 1 guy was out of my league). Three thoughts:

1) I really suck at Action chess. I always have, and I always will (and "That's OK".)

2) My brain is a bit scrambled. I think I'm having trouble assimilating all the tactical themes floating around in there. The board looked like a jumble of pieces all night long. I have heard of new skills making your game worse, and I think I am experiencing it.

3) As I sat down to me first game, I thought "I don't want to do this. I'm sick of calculating".

Only the third thing bothered me. It's a training thing that has happened to me with running before. Sometimes you get a bit stale. Usually the best solution is to take a day off.

So I did. Went home and went to bed. think it was the right decision.

74 days down, 81 to go
1039 probs down, 170 to go in Circle One

It's a small world (but I wouldn't want to paint it)

2004-12-09T04:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I received an email from someone I didn't know but had been meaning to write -- Howard Goldowsky. In fact, this may be the first time this has ever happened to me. I knew of him because he interviewed Michael de la Maza in 2001 for the Massachusettes magazine, Chess Horizons. I ordered a back isssue a few months ago. Mr. Goldowsky has been generous enough to allow me to post his article which I though might be interest. You might also check out some of his other chess journalism and fiction.

-------------------------------------------------------
A Conversation With Michael de la Maza

"For any player who has yet to reach the expert level, tactics should remain the principal area of study. You will probably notice in your own games that tactical situations provide the majority of decisive moments." -
Chesswire, Newsletter for KasparovChess.com

" Dwell not too long upon sports; for as they refresh a man that is weary, so they weary a man that is refreshed." –Thomas Fuller

Over the last two years, Michael de la Maza has drunk deep from the rewards of chess, but it is now time to put the cup down. Within the last 730 days, he has raised his chess rating 720 points, pocketed $10,000 for winning outright the Under 2000 section of the World Open, and has authored an inspirational piece titled "400 Points In 400 Days".

Most class players don’t even accomplish one of these feats in their entire chess playing career, where de la Maza has done all of them in only two years. At thirty-one years old, with a current rating of 2041 that shows no signs of going down, one would think this man would continue on with his original aspiration of making master. Instead, he has seriously thought about retiring from competitive chess forever.

I sat down with Michael de la Maza in late October amongst the tourists and street music at the Au Bon Pain café in Harvard square to talk about this decision, and how it came about.

Unfortunately, he will likely disappear from the competitive chess world as abruptly as he arrived. If he does decide to retire, what will remain is his inspiration on what and how to study; a recipe for the class player on how to create the same chess potion that has provided him with his own magic. Whether we drink or not, is up to us.

It is of note that during his two year run de la Maza had no job. He was fired from his previous one, and decided to take some time off. Currently he works as a technical manager for a small startup, and lives in Harvard square.

"400 Points In 400 Days", The Article

Most of Michael’s philosophy and approach to chess can be found in his 400 Points articles. If you read them, you’ll see that he recommends focusing study on nothing but tactics. I asked him how he came to this conclusion.

"I wrote the articles because I saw things that basically broke my heart. I saw a 1000 level player reading Kotov’s middle game book. That’s like someone who’s just learned how to add reading a calculus book.

"That’s one of the fundamental fallacies of chess, that there’s just no structure to the learning process. If you go anywhere else, if you want to learn about mathematics, you first learn how to count, then you learn how to add, then you learn how to multiply, then you learn how to do long division.

"In chess, you learn how to play, and then someone says, ‘Well, after you learn how to play, you can read Silman, or you can read Kotov, or you could read a tactics book, or you could read NCO…’ One hundred thousand books, any one is good, you’re expected to learn them all, and how can that possibly be?

"In every other subject, there is a very clean progression. You go to first grade, then you go to second grade, then you go to third grade, etc. How could learning Kotov at 1000 be good for you at 1500, and good for you at 2000, and good for you at 2500? There’s nothing else like that. In chess, there’s no order, and that’s why I wrote the article. [The order is], it’s basically all tactics until you’re a 2000 plus player."

None of the literature de la Maza read helped. He looked through many articles and books, but still didn’t improve. I asked him about what his first steps in chess were like, and he was quite animated about this initial stage of his career. What I heard was contradictory to common perceptions.

"The first book I actually read from front to back cover was Silman [How to Reassess Your Chess], and I actually got worse. I would spend half an hour thinking about where to put my knight, and then I would drop a piece…[Silman] has ten or fifteen move variations…if you’re a class player, you’re going to drop a piece while you make those ten to fifteen moves... I don’t mean to dis Silman. I think that he’s a great chess author. But first, class players should stop dropping pieces, and then they should read Silman."

In his article, he challenges any class player to take any winning position in Silman, and set it up against their computer. If you take the winning side, and set your computer to a relatively high level, say 400 points higher than your rating, before you can tell what’s happening, de la Maza guarantees that 99% of the time you’ll be lost within fifteen moves.

According to him, if you’re going to attach your hard earned entry fees to the false bottom of an unrealizable strategic advantage, they’ll both vanish, right into the hands of the guy sitting across from you studying tactics.

"What are the logical reasons why you need to do tactics before anything else? One of them is, a material change when you lose a tactical combination is far greater than the evaluation change when you lose a ‘positional combination’," de la Maza says.

He refers to this reading of the wrong material and meaningless study of strategy as "class player hell". As much as we would all like to stay out of there, there is no doubt that the habitual study of strategy (and openings) keeps pulling us back in.

We actually started to talk about openings, and de la Maza explained how he used to play the Caro Kann and the Colle system, two positional openings, and how as soon as he realized the importance of tactics he switched to e4 and the Scandinavian.

The Personality

Where Bobby Fischer loved the feeling of crushing his opponent’s ego, de la Maza doesn’t believe that the ego should be involved at the class level. "It’s just not about the ego. At the class level you’re losing games because you’re missing three move combinations, it’s not some guy strategically out thinking you, or crushing your brain down, or anything like that.

If you’re losing to a three move combination, you’re losing to a three move combination. I don’t feel sorry for you. If you beat me, you beat me because you see a three move combination that I don’t see."

When de la Maza is not at the board, he’s laid back and all smiles. At one point in our conversation, I brought up the first of two times we played. This was a time in his life when he was going through a self described "weird phase".

I recalled that the first time we played was a Tuesday evening at the Metrowest Chess Club, and that he had come to play dressed in a hooded black cloak. It was mysterious. The hood stayed up during our game, and to add to the mystique, his left arm never moved from under its cover.

It seemed as though I was playing the Headless Horseman, using his hidden arm to hold on to his horse under the table. As I recalled this, de la Maza leaned back in his chair, and laughed out loud like a little boy. It took him a few moments to settle down. When he did, he explained.

"Basically, I busted my arm at one point. At chess tournaments people are constantly bumping into you, walking behind you or what not, so I decided to put on a protective vest…but it was a bit extreme, I must say."

The explanation ended with a grin. Without pause, and with a direction of purpose refined by two serious years over the chessboard, we moved on.

During his run, de la Maza estimates that he has played about two hundred and fifty games. At one point, he played fifty games in a row without a loss against players rated below him. I asked de la Maza if he had a memorable win from his career, and the answer he gave me uncovered something else about his character: His most memorable game was a loss.

de la Maza -- Barry 1. e4 c5 2. c3 e5 3. Bb5 a6 4. Qa4 Nf6 5. Nf3 Qc7 6. Bc4 Be7 7. Ng5 O-O 8. O-O h6 9. Nxf7 Rxf7 10. Bxf7+ Kxf7 11. d3 d6 12. Be3 Be6 13. Na3 Nbd7 14. c4 Kg8 15. Rac1 Rf8 16. Nc2 Ng4 17. Bd2 Nb8 18. Qa3 Qd7 19. Qc3 Nc6 20. b3 Nd4 21. Nxd4 cxd4 22. Qa5 Bd8 23. Qb4 Qe7 24. Rcd1 Qh4 25. h3 Nxf2 26. Qxd6 Bxh3 27. Be1 Qg4 28. Qd5+ Kh8 29. Rxf2 Rxf2 30. Qxd8+ Kh7 0-1

Without a hint of sarcasm, he described his demise as beautiful. "Barry used every single piece on the board except his king."

Retirement

Most people improve their game over a chess career, and many even improve hundreds of rating points. It’s only a few who jump multiple rating classes to beat the averages. Jobs, family, social obligations, friends, and other interests, all provide the gravity to keep us down, ultimately keeping us playing for fun instead of for blood. Because Michael de la Maza didn’t have a job, playing chess for him was never just for fun. It wasn’t just that he wanted to improve, he needed to improve. If he wasn’t going to improve, he wasn’t going to play at all. This is the core of why he wants to retire. He feels that the potential for improvement isn’t there anymore.

Now with a job, he doesn’t get the chance to study as much as he used to. Playing is also more difficult. "I can’t understand how people play at the Metrowest [club] if they have a job. They get out from work at 5:30, drive for an hour, the game starts at 7:30, and they eat dinner in-between. I could never do that. I’m very impressed with people who can do that. The other thing is the next day. I don’t understand how people can wake up for work the next day."

Since he was never burdened with life getting in the way with an 8am Wednesday morning meeting, or with a family needing attention, he was able to focus one-hundred percent on chess improvement. "[Now with a job] it would basically be impossible" he said. For de la Maza, if improvement is impossible, there is no point in playing.

Improvement opportunities aren’t there like they used to be. "At the Metrowest, with the exception of Foygel and Curdo, I think that I’d be one of the highest rated players there. So in a four round tournament, it’s like kill, kill, kill, get killed [by Foygel or Curdo]. Then nothing happens.

When you’re killing people you’re not learning a whole lot, and in fact, you might even develop bad habits…you know, attack too early before developing or something like that. And then you might get killed by Curdo, and you don’t learn anything there [either], because you’re outplayed in every single facet of the game."

At one point in the interview, I asked Michael de la Maza if he would ever make a comeback like his namesake Michael Jordan, and try to make master.

"Maybe. If I have some ideas and if I have some time, maybe…it’s very different, it’s very different the higher you go." Later in the interview, de la Maza added, "That’s one of the reasons I’ve quit: I don’t know how to improve. Generally, it just gets harder as you get higher up."

But to the casual observer, he shows no sign of slowing down, and he could actually well be at master strength already. He confirmed this.

"At the World Open, there were at least three or four wins that were under thirty moves. Surprisingly or not, they were all blowouts." Even after saying this, and after acknowledging that you pretty much need to be as strong as 200 points above a class section to win it, de la Maza still didn’t seem enthusiastic to play his hand at master.

There seemed to be more to it than time and lack of ideas. When speaking of the World Open, he admitted to being under huge psychological pressure.

"Especially the last four games. I would have been happy if the other guy across the table had just croaked right there on the spot. I didn’t care about the other guy at all. So I was in a very nasty mood." It’s this pressure, not just in big money games, but in the constant need, the constant addiction to gain rating points, that he doesn’t like.

If he did decide to make a comeback, he hinted to me some ways he might consider improving to master. Very sporadic study of openings could help obtain middle game positions that are tactical in nature. Endgame study could also be helpful.

When asked if he would consider using tactics to steer the game to a point where you know you’ll have a good endgame, he responded:

"That’s an idea, but I certainly don’t believe in this below 2000. Below 2000, if you get to an endgame, that’s because you missed a tactical opportunity before then. Rook and pawn endgames are actually highly tactical. You penetrate into your opponent’s position with your rook, he penetrates your position with his rook, and the question is who’s going to gobble up the pawns first, and which pawns are going to be passed pawns? That’s not a positional question. It’s purely a tactical question."

Final Thought

"People shouldn’t be scared about improving. [There’s a myth that] the normal player sits and thinks where the knight should be, and after half an hour figures it out, while the grandmaster just throws up the knight in the air and it magically lands on the right square.

"I don’t believe that. Chess is like any other thing, like becoming a chemist, becoming an archeologist, or becoming a zoologist, you have to work hard, and you have to study. There isn’t some magic piece of your brain that’s devoted to chess that some people have and some people don’t. Anyone who can ride a bicycle and who can speak a language, can become a very good player."

And that takes care of just about everybody.

The oxen are slow

2004-12-08T04:57:00.000-08:00

Must be time to go up another level. I was just getting comfy with the level 60's. After last night, I note I only have about 10 left. Ah well, existential crisis coming my way probably starting tomorrow night.

I can definitely tell a difference. When I started, I thought there were two skills that I would be developing -- calculation muscle and pattern recognition. Calculation muscle makes it possible to hold larger and larger numbers of variations in your head. Pattern recognition enables you to know the answer wihtout thinking because you've seen it before. I would now add a third which I would describe as "jugular detection".

When I look at a problem, I now have a very good sense of where the weak point in the position is. On the level 60's, the problems have been well beyond my ability to calculate. I have been able to see all the lines to a solution very rarely before I made the first move, but I now usually know what the first move is without even knowing why. You could also describe it as "pattern unrecognition". Something looks out of place because you don't usually see it there. You may not be able to see the line, but you're pretty sure it starts here. Even though I may make several mistakes, I am getting a much higher percentage of the first moves right. And to quote my nephew, "it is way cool!"

Note to Pale Morning Dun -- The oxen are slow but the earth is patient, Grasshopper. I would suggest resisting the temptation to abandon the the micro drills and go headlong into the CT Art 3.0. You're going to have 127 straight days of chess problems soon enough. That said, I might have done a few of the problems before I was supposed to.

73 days down, 82 to go
1026 probs down, 183 to go in Circle One

1000!

2004-12-06T05:25:00.000-08:00

Made it. Inspired by reaching four digts, I caught up over the weekend and completed my one-thousandth chess problem last night. I celebrated with the traditional Arrogant Bastard Ale and leftover pizza.

The weekend started off very rocky. Friday night, I completed my problems at a 34% solve rate. This was disheartening to say the least, but I was very tired and knew I could do better. Nonetheless, I did contemplate going back to tic-tac-toe (which I freakin' rock at). Saturday and Sunday were much better. I am now at the much more respectable 53% solve rate for the level 60's. Everytime I start a new level I seem to go through a small crisis in confidence. My solve rate always dips low and then recovers. Some of this is no doubt the result of learning and doing the problems better, but I think the lion's share can be attributed to psyching myself out. We'l see. Level 70 is only a few days away. Here are my stats for Circle One:

Level 10: 95%
Level 20: 85%
Level 30: 75%
Level 40: 65%
Level 50: 65%
Level 60: 53%

Elo Start-Finish
Level 10: 1525-1820
Level 20: 1820-2056
Level 30: 2056-2103
Level 40: 2103-2165
Level 50: 2165-2312
Level 60: 2312-2320

Welcome to Orange Knight. Glad to have a class A player in our midst. I am very curious to see how much benefit the program provides for a higher rated player.

71 days down, 84 to go
1000! probs down, 209 to go in Cirlce One

How To Think

2004-12-03T04:25:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to welcome our newest quester Pale Morning Dun. I look forward to reading his posts. I thought his comments about Silman's review of "Rapid Chess Improvement" were right on target. Don't worry about the initiation ritual. It is only illegal in 9 states (reminds me Sancho -- we're due in court at the end of the month), and the hair grow back quickly. Please remember to bring your own goat.

I only did 5 exercises last night instead of the 15 I was scheduled for. I know, I know. I am a bad man. Very bad. BUT whatever IT is, I didn't have IT yesterday. I played a couple of G/30's at chess club last night with bad results. When I came home to do problems, I gave up after 5 (44% solve rate). Probably just having on off day. It is also possible that I am a moron. You know, come to think of it, some guys came by my house last week. Maybe I misheard them, and they were actually asking me to join the Moron church.

I am really dreading that this is directing me to part 3 of De la Maza's program "How to Think". This is the part of the book that I never liked and always ignored. First, I am always mistrustful of anyone who tells me how to think. It always sounds good, but before you know it, you are selling flowers at traffic lights dressed in a peach robe singing Kumbya. As such, I always stick to doing my own thinking in a manner that comes naturally. Second, his method seemed so geared to winning the game rather than exploring the position. Chess games, at the class level, are almost always won on tactics, but playing chess should be more than playing tactics until your opponent screws up. This points to one of the areas where I did agree with Silman's review. He said De la Maza "offers a philosophically bankrupt vision of what chess is". Much as I admire De la Maza's program, I have to agree that I did not like his approach to the game.

So it seems I may need to think about how to think before this is through because losing sucks. More on this later.

68 days down, 87 to go
948 probs down, 261 to go in Circle One

PS If you didn't see it in yesterday's comments, check out the Boylston Chess Club Weblog. A little write up of the Knights Errant De La Maza using the precise picture I wanted to use here. Liked the blog too. Got to figure out how to get pictures and what "trackbacking" is.

Christmas recommendations

2004-12-01T04:28:00.000-08:00

It's December 1 which means it's time to go out and buy a bunch of stuff to give to people who don't need it. It's the Amercian way. In fact, it is the engine of our consumer-based economy. As a public service, let me make a shameless plug for several shops I frequent.

1) www.wholesalechess.com -- Good quality chess sets priced much better than retail ($40-$150). I have been pleased the the quality and service of this site.

2) www.houseofstaunton.com -- If you want a high quality set and you are willing to pay for it, this is the place to go. Their wooden sets range start at about $125 and go up from there. I ordered a set from them for Christmas (theoretically the Empress de la Maza ordered it) and received the good service I expected. I'll let you know about quality on Christmas day or when I can figure out where the hell my lovely child bride is hiding it.

3) www.bgamers.com/gamesunl.htm -- There's a guy in a little store in Pittsburgh, Games Unlimited, who has 15 gagillion games stacked all over the place. I highly suspect some temporal wormhole in the back where he crams his inventory. Among them is an impressive selection of good quality chess sets (more than Wholesale chess, less than House of Staunton). He also carries every other game you might want to own, particularly good quality classic games. I have been buying games here since 1979.

4) www.fairplaygames.com -- The world of board games took an evolutionary leap in the mid-1990's with the introduction of a game called "Settler's of Catan". Since then, a new gaming genre referred to as "German" or "designer" games has taken off. If you want to get one of these, Fairplay will give you the best price in my experience. If they don't have it, try www.funagain.com (though you'll pay a few bucks more).

I am a confirmed gaming nut. I should be pleased to make specific recommendations on games. Send me an email if you are interested.

66 days down, 89 to go
928 probs down, 281 to go in Circle One

Home for the Holidays

2004-11-29T04:39:00.000-08:00

The four day Thanksgiving vacation is just what the doctor ordered. Watched a few movies, caught up on sleep (including a whooping 13 hours Friday night), raked some leaves and did a few chess problems. Had a good run last night , 80% solve rate. Even when I was missing, I was right on track. Nice to drop back to 15 problems. Those last few are always the hardest.

If I keep my schedule, I will have done exactly 1000 problems by this time next week. A week after that I will be halfway in time through the whole 155 days. Wow! Another interesting mathematical truth, I will complete the remaining 6 circles in less time than it took to complete the first circle. This is true of all the remaining circles. Bet it begins to feel like the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" towards the end.

I've been thinking about the other things I could do after this quite a lot over the weekend. In fact, I have been more excited about the thought of doing an hour a day of exercise than I am about finishing the chess problems. I imagine that if I dropped this and switched over to exercise in two months I would be much more excited about finishing chess problems than an exercise regimen. Though I need to improve my health, I think my carcass will hold together until the end of February. If not, let my epitaph read -- "He died of an obsession with the game of Kings".

Movie Reviews
Got a special rent all you want thing at Blockbuster so I watched a lot of movies over the weekend. Here are my rating using the patented chess piece rating scale.

Calendar Girls (bishop) -- light comedy but not entirely predicatable. Enjoyed it.

Supersize Me (rook) -- a good documetary with the appropriate sprinkling of humor. Michael Moore should see this one and review the basics. I may never eat McDonalds again.

Snatch (knight) -- OK. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was much better.

Elf (pawn) -- Sorry, just didn't think there was much to this one.

Seeing Other People (knight) -- Had the occasional moment but otherwise forgettable.

64 Days down, 91 to go
898 Probs down, 311 to go in Circle One

Playing the Percentages

2004-11-27T07:18:00.000-08:00

I see Sancho is posting his percentages which I think is a good idea. I will do that more religiously on Circle 2. In the beginning, I was returning to problems where I missed something and redoing them. As such, the stats of CT ART are not entirely accurate (Level 10 shows a 100% solve rate for example).

These are approximations based on my memory:
Level 10: 95%
Level 20: 85%
Level 30: 75%
Level 40: 65%
Level 50: 60%

Elo Start-Finish
Level 10: 1525-1820
Level 20: 1820-2056
Level 30: 2056-2103
Level 40: 2103-2165
Level 50: 2165-2240 (current)

It would be nice if there was some way to rework prblems you have missed without it affecting your overall score. Something for CT Art 4.0 perhaps.

Cruising along with Level 50. Doing 17 a night at current. Takes me 2 hours and change. Idea of the combination usually comes pretty quickly, but it is rare that I don't miss a move or two. Even rarer is when I have seen solutions in all variations. Seeing the whole solution feels like owning a problem to me and usually what I require before I will sacrifice material over the board. Perhaps I should take a few more chances.

Life after Michael?
I must admit I have begun to think that there are other things that I might like to try to accomplish after this is done. 1-2 hours per night for 5 months is enough to conquer a lot of things. Some thoughts (in random order):

1) Learn to touch type -- I type all day long. I could get about twice as much done if I bit the bullet and learned to type
2) Read the bible cover to cover -- Probably the most important piece of literature and spiritual instruction of my culture. I've never read it cover to cover.
3) Exercise -- Need to lose about 25 pounds. Should probably do this before my first heart attack. Five months or one hour a day exercise would do this easily.
4) Meditation -- I have wanted to establish a regualr mediatation practice for about 10 years. Hell, I could do this in 30 mintues a day.
5) Learn to play the guitar -- I could probably achieve a basic proficiency in guitar if I worked at it every night for an hour for 5 months. Could at least play "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "The Boxer".

62 Days down, 93 to go
866 probs down, 343 to go in Circle 1

Caught up enough to drop back

2004-11-24T04:47:00.000-08:00

Did 28 problems last night. Enough to be officially 17 problems behind and thereby drop back a day. Who knows, maybe I'll find time to catch up, but I won't plan on it. I also finished all the Level 40 problems. Will be going on to level 50 tonight. I don't want to break my arem patting myself on the back, but I have to admit that doing 800+ tactical problems in the span of approximatley a month shatters all previous chess efforts. The highlight of my chess student career to date was ... nothing leaps to mind. I have a lot of books. Does that count?

Had a nice run of problems last night. The ones that still give me the most trouble are the mating of the king when I have limited material. This is one area that I obviously don't have the right thinking process for. Perhaps, I should augment my study with a review of the Polgar book, aka the "Door Stop". Reviewing basic mating patterns may help with this.

I'd say the newest weapon in my arsenal is "interference" -- i.e throwing a piece in the way whose capture garbles up defenses. It's not something you usually think of -- "Well, I could just put the bishop here where it would be taken with nothing to take it back". It's so unexpected it almost feels like cheating.

59 Days down, 96 to go
814 probs down, 395 to go in Circle One

Sliding another day

2004-11-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

Still playing catch up. I am 28 problems behind on the Christmas day schedule. If I can get that number down to 17 , I think I will drop back another day as catching up sucks. It is hard enough to block out 2 hours a day without trying to add time at the end.

I got a reprint of an article in Chess Horizons about the esteemed Mr. De la Maza. It appears that during his run he was taking some time away from work. Apparently, he was laid off from a job and decided to take time off. I wouldn't begrudge him this time to devote to chess, but I must admit I am a bit miffed for a comment in his book. He suggests that if you have trouble finding the time to do the exercises you should get a particular time management book that outlines what is necessary to achieve your goals. Brave words from someone whose day was unencumbered by going to work or putting children to bed at night. Nonetheless, he was much more disciplined than I who would likely spend such time eating chesse doodles and reading Sci Fi books.

The article also gives an explanation about the mystery De La Maza -- why quit playing after such great success? De la Maza's answer was that it was hard to improve after Expert. He also, I believe, went back to school since he is now Dr. De La Maza. Perhaps new challenges were more exciting than chess for this obviously achievement-oriented, driven person.

Hope he returns to the board for fun on occassion.

59 Days down, 96 to go
786 probs down, 423 to go in Circle One

Believing but not entirely Seeing

2004-11-22T05:57:00.000-08:00

Worked hard this weekend. It was a stressful week, and I was pretty shagged by Friday night. To add to this, I had a house of 10 year old girls celebrating my daughter's birthday. Slumber parties have not changed much in the years, so it was not the most peaceful place to do chess problems. It was nothing but stubborness that got me through the run of Friday night problems. Stubborness is not real good at solving chess problems, but I felt I could claim a moral victory at least for doing them all. Saturday and Sunday were better. I managed to catch up 15 problems over the weekend. I am now only 32 problems behind on my Christmas day pace.

The problems are now frequently beyond my ability to calculate. Even when I get them right, when I make move 1 or 2, I am not always sure that I am making the right choice. On the other hand, I am getting very good at picking out the weak points in the position. Without calcuation, I have a feeling where I should be going. I wonder if at some level one makes "tactically strong moves" without seeing solutions in all lines.

58 days down, 97 to go
765 probs down, 444 to go in Circle One

Flashes

2004-11-19T05:55:00.000-08:00

9PM last night. Staring at computer. Not much sleep for about 4 days -- 5 hours/night at most. Like to get 8. Bed calling, "Don. Daaawn. Put down your heavy burden. Rest. Chess problems can wait for another day ..."

No. I may get the remainder of the problems wrong, but I'm going to get them wrong on schedule. I return to the screen with new found determination and immediately am rewarded with getting 3 problems in a row completely wrong. The next problem looks no better. I see no real threats. Hmmm ... Let's try this. What looks out of place in black's position? King position is a tad under-defended and his rook on the queenside is undefended and in an awkward spot. Calculate a few lines on a kingside attack, but not quite enough to break through.

Then it flashes. One kingside line forces the king to cature a piece on h7 where a queen check will fork the poorly placed rook. The 5 move combination flows effortlessly.

This happened several times last night. I was trying to start off my analysis with thoughts about what looked "wrong" about a posistion. What I was able to do more easily was to see how several themes could combine -- combining combinations. Much like what Sancho described as "stringing several ideas together". Very satisfying when a 5 or 6 mover pops into your head. Never thought 6 movers would feel like 2 3 movers.

55 days down, 100 to go
695 probs down, 514 to go in Circle One

Another hiccup

2004-11-18T04:55:00.000-08:00

Been away for a few days to visit my Dad who has just undergone heart surgery (He is done and recovering nicely). I have fallen a couple of days behind in the whirlwind of travel, etc, but I have not abandonded ship. In fact, there has been only one day when I did no problems -- the day before his surgery. The day of his surgery I actually completed almost a full run of problems while sitting in the waiting room. While my family read books and the like, I powered up my laptop and plowed through a few level 40's. Like at other times in my life, focusing on chess proved to be a pleasant balm for an anxious mind.

Still a little crazy, but hoping to return to a normal schedule starting today.

54 days down, 101 to go
674 probs down, 535 to go in Circle One

Triple Witching

2004-11-12T21:03:00.000-08:00

It's just after midnight as I have reached three significant milestones at once. First, I drove my ELO over 2100. In my last problem set tonight, I went over 2100 and stayed there despite dropping 7 points on the last problem (like I was gonna find the 7 moves Mikhail Tal made in 1962!). Yes, I am fully aware that this is silly fictitous number, but it is fun all the same. Second, I am halfway through the problems in Circle One. Woo-hoo!! Third, I have completed the level 30 problems.

Circle 1 should be the nastiest from my perspective. Circle 2, 3 and 4 will be work though not as much suffering. The last 3 cirlces will be taxing but mostly pattern recognition (either I'll get it or not). The big push will come between now and Christmas. Problems will keep getting harder. I see a lot of staring at the screen in my future. If I can keep really working at it and not sluff off, I think I will make some real progress in the next 40 some days.

All things considered, I have made it much further than I ever thought I would.

49 days down, 106 to go
617 problems down, 592 to go in Circle One

Charging back

2004-11-12T04:45:00.000-08:00

The CT Art software keeps a graph of your progress and makes a rough estimate of your ELO based on your success. The ELO is useless, of course, absent a standard timing, but it is useful to track your own progress.

When I started the program, I entered an ELO of 1500 which I thought a resonable estimate given that my USCF ELO is in the mid 1500's. It rose steadily and quickly through the level 10 and 20 problems to just under 2000. In level 30, it rose to 2050 and then flattened out. I jumped above 2070 once and dipped back down. this reflected getting about 75%-80% of the problems right. My first few nights I was getting in the low to mid 60's, so this was improvement.

This Monday and Tuesday, I was a man posssesed. Monday was a very solid 80%+, and Tuesday I was over 90%. "I have finally broken through", I thought. My ELO shot up to the tantalizing number of 2097. Alas, the past two nights have been disappointing. More in the 66% range, and my ELO is no longer scaring the 2100 mark. Hard to know whether you are improving, having a run of easier problems, or just having a good day (or the opposite).

One thing I have noticed in the past week. I am solving a lot more problems at the 4 minute mark. It seems that before this week when I would try a problem, I would either get it within the first minute or not at all. I am solving some of the problems in minute 4 now. At least twice yesterday, I was ready to throw in the towel on a problem but decided to give it one more try since only 4 minutes had passed and then went on to solve it. This is very satisfying. Usually in that fourth minute I am thinking about why a great looking combination just doesn't quite work. One of my assumptions about move order or the like gives way and a slightly different theme emerges.

This is very satisfying. It feels very much like when you are at the golf course slicing them into the woods all day, and then you hit that towering 3 iron that lands on the green and rolls to 10 feet from the pin. I can enjoy a whole day of terrible golf if I get those one or two shots that are just about perfect.

48 days down, 107 to go
586 probs down, 623 to go in Circle 1

The Dream

2004-11-10T05:57:00.000-08:00

I was wandering through a village after a long day of battle. I had vanquished two score evils knights blocking the road (who were perversely traveling with a man dressed as a shepherd). As I trudged into town, I came across a peasant. He asked for alms and I reached into my purse to give him some of my gold. When my hand came out, it contained only dented copper.

Suddenly the world around me changed. I was no longer riding the proud Rocinante but a broken down old plow horse. I was clothed in ridiculous armor with a barber's basin for a helm. My faithful squire Sancho appeared as a fat peasant on a donkey. All had changed. I remembered a far away home with a roof that needed mending.

I was not a knight errant but a foolish old man.

I screamed in agony and called forth the wicked enchater who had cast this spell on me. I drew my (rusty) sword, and all was a flash.

I must have slept for a long time to break off the spell. Back was my warhourse, my gleaming armor and my noble squire Sancho. (He will be governor of one of my islands some day, you know). There was much to be accomplished and I had lost 3 days in sleep. I worked out that even three days late, I would still arrive at my destination by Christmas day.

Come Sancho. There is evil just up the road. I have its scent like a hound to a fox.

To arms! To arms!

46 days down, 109 to go
536 probs down, 673 to go in Circle 1

Crossroads

2004-11-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

Not the most productive weekend. I went for a weekend visit with a friend. Never got around to doing any problems, so I am way behind. Having a nice relaxing weekend gave me time to reflect about things, and I have to say that there are a few things that seem important to me that I am not paying enough attention to.

Chess seems not so important and like a waste of time. Taking 2 hours every day to work through problems is quite a big commitment and one not warranted by the subject matter. So, I feel very ready to pack up my chess pieces and get to paying more attention to more important matters. I've done other "big efforts" before, and I know that usually you reach a place where you want to throw in the towel and can find no reason to go forward except your orignal vow that you were going to do it. Well here I am.

This isn't entirely about chess for me. One of my secret reasons for embarking on this quixotic endeavor was the knowledge that it is a good thing to lay our a challenge for yourself and then work to achieve it. The goal achieved is transient, but the memory that you can do very hard things stays forever. 5 or so years ago I learned this lesson by training for a marathon. I had always wanted to run one but could never quite make it through the vigorous training it required. To my own surprise, I was able to stick it out and complete 5 months of training and 26.2 long miles of running. I'm now back to being fat, out-of-shape guy, but knowing that I did it is a source of stregnth for me.

There is much that I yet want to do in my life. What I feel I lack at this point is the will to make it happen. It is a muscle that I never developed enough or perhaps exhausted at a young age. So I don't want to give up largely because giving up is a bad habit.

Couldn't stay away

2004-11-05T13:51:00.000-08:00

Played a rated game in club last night. Had the black side of a classical Ruy. Played pretty well with one stumble where I hung a pawn. Fortunately I had some compensation and was able to regain it. Ultimately, I was able to grind out the win at the end of 2 hours with a nifty zugswang.

I accepted the resignation of my 9 year old opponent. Chess is so humbling.

Sancho is taking a slightly different tack on the adventure. Rather than grinding on the probs, he looks at the answer if he doesn't see it after a minute. I try it for a full 5 miutes before giving up. His way certainly would do more to promote pattern recognition. My way would, I think, tend to build up the "calculation muscle" a bit more. I dunno though. I might not be able to see forest from the trees.

Still working it.

44 days down, 111 to go
470 probs down, 739 to go in Circle 1

Well, at least I did 'Em

2004-11-04T04:49:00.000-08:00

Very tired last night when I sat down to do problems. I really wanted to punt and go to bed early, but I struggled through 29 problems. I can't say it was my best effort of all time, but I did 'em. Still a bit shagged today. Might skip chess club, do probs and hit the rack early.

Sancho is flying through his problem set. He passed me sometime last week. Damm peasants have no respect for authority!

43 days day, 112 to go
441 probs down, 768 to go in C1