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November 16, 2006

Advancing the Knight

If you look at the dates for the posts in this section, it has been quite a while since I blogged about chess. But the lack of posts is not an indicator of the lack of progress. For the first year, I bumbled around and started reading several books - none of which I finished. I picked up the occassional game, but I didn't get to play regularly and didn't see much improvement. It was quite a struggle.

Then I got the bright idea of joining the USCF. It was a very good move. I joined just so I could get a rating. Granted, I knew it would be a very low rating, but somehow it seemed more official that way. From there, I found my way into the MetroWest Chess Club. I was a bit hesitant about joining, but gave it a shot. My hesitation came from the misconception that you had to be at a certain level of proficiency to play at a chess club. I joined because of the classes - and stayed because of the playing.

The classes are much less frequent than I expected. You only get one or two classes per month. Some of the lessons are beyond my current understanding, but that's okay too. I still sit and listen. I thought there would be a class every week, but the activites rotate. The first week of the month is the mad rush to enroll in the monthly tournament. The classes rotate around weeks where a vendor arrives to sell books and equipment. And it all gels nicely so that you get a little of everything and are not overwhelmed by anything.

And I have been improving. I can see it in my playing from week to week. I can't really point to any one thing that has been helpful. The studying, playing and instruction have fed off each other to bolster both my confidence and ability. I'm no longer making dumb mistakes. Granted, my games are not without their blunders. But, I'm no longer saying...dang, I forgot the knight moved there or I didn't see that bishop. I used to play many a queenless middle game - not from a trade, but from pushing my queen out where it can be taken for free. Now you have to work to take my pieces from me.

The weekly playing is much different from what I expected. We're paired according to our ratings in ability groups. Since my rating is provisional (not official until after 25 games), the pairings end up seeming like an adaptive IT test. But there's a core group of us in the bottom layer that seem to band together and are fighting chess itself rather than each other. Quite often I'm in a game where it really doesn't matter who wins or loses, as long as we both play our best and challenge each other. I have to say that I've gotten some really good pairings. I've even had previous opponents approach me the next week and discuss our previous game so we can both learn from it. In some ways, it's better than a class since it's specific to my particular weaknesses.

And we play everyone in our group. I've played against children and men. The pairings don't differentiate between male and female or adult and minor. I really like that. It's getting me used to 'playing the board' rather than playing the person. Hopefully I can keep this idea fresh in my mind so that I don't get intimidated by my opponent's rating or personage. Another thing I hope to keep fresh is that I play to the end of the game. Although I've only played 9 games, I've already run into two games where that idea has paid off. Since I don't have a lot of endgame experience, I've required myself to play the game out - even if I'm very obviously behind. I did this on one game and although I was very far behind in material, I managed to pull off a back rank mate and win a 'lost' game. The other game where it paid off was actually a happy accident. My opponent was creaming me - and I went to take my turn and realized that I had no legal move. I was down to a pawn and a king and the king was trapped by a multitude of my opponent's pieces. I really didn't know what to do, so I asked the tournament director. He congratulated me. Apparently when someone is behind, they purposefully attempt to force a stalemate - which results in a draw instead of a loss. We both learned something that night.

I've also found some very useful software to help in my learning process. Although I haven't had the chance to use it yet... I bought Fritz. I found it for $9.99 at CompUSA. All the players at the club rave about it and it's as well-known as the Ruy Lopez opening. If you enter your game (into Chess Base first and then import it into Fritz), you can see an analysis of the game - move by move. It will tell you what better moves you could have made and where you went wrong in a lost game. That will probably be my next step in the learning process. For now, I'm using "Chess Tactics for Beginners" - which is a great software program. It instructs you step-by-step through short training exercises and then tests you on the concepts. I'm finding that the short exercises where you look at a position and recognize the opportunity (be it mate, pin or skewer) is helping me to notice the same opportunities in my game. The practice must be paying off - I won this past Tuesday.

The ratings system is a bit confusing at first. I started out with a 1300 rating after my first game. Although my play is improving, my rating has been dropping steadily. I'm sure that it's discouraging to many beginning players. However, there was a nice article in Chess Life where Mark Glickman discusses the ratings system. For right now, I'm ignoring my rating and not letting it bother me. After all, it's not really my true level of play at this point. It's actually an attempt at trying to hone in on a number which represents my playing level. This is not easy since at the same time I'm rapidly improving. If you think about statistics ... naturally, any jump in improvement is going to be the first number tossed out as an anomaly. You have to consistently score in the 'anomaly' area in order for it to become your 'normal' level. And it's not official until after 25 games anyway.

Posted by BlueWolf on November 16, 2006 09:14 AM