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The pink fish chess club - your move!

I've been playing a few games against the "easy" bots on chess.com for the last few days and I think I'm making a few less stupid errors and getting a little bit better. Note I said "less"! I still miss obvious moves and do stupid things. I have very little idea of the tactics and deep analysis yet. Been watching a lot of youtube and Twitch; Its a whole new world watching Grand and International Masters giving freely advice and talk throughs. Most of it is WAY above my head, but if I keep watching some might sink in by osmosis=)

I bought and have set up in my living room a lovely chess set- Proper weighted wooden sized pieces and a very nice board. Working my way through a couple of old books from ebay... well I've read the prefaces. That's a start, right?
Who knows I might even feel brave enough to play a human one day, but not today=)
 
Dik Dolan said:
Who knows I might even feel brave enough to play a human one day, but not today=)
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I started out by playing the computer for the same reasons, and then some good players suggested that playing the computer was a bad idea simply because it doesn't play like a mistake-making human being.

I can only vouch for Lichess, but after about fifteen games, it sorts out your rating and matches you with players of your ability. You get over the nerves after a few games and I really believe that playing humans is better for your development, and more fun.

I started out by playing correspondence games where you could take all day to think about your move, and then started moving to 30 minute games, and fifteen minute games. No I’ve developed a habit of whipping my phone out if I’m sat on the bog or waiting in a queue and playing a quick 5 minute blitz game. I loose as often as I win...


Just surprised myself with this game;

https://lichess.org/Sa67SCdS


For me, the Saint Louis Chess Club channel on YouTube has the best videos for learning. Particularly Eric Rosen and Yasser Seirawans lectures to kids.


Can we just take a minute here to appreciate a short chess video which contains Magnus Carlson, Liv Tyler, and a squirrel...

 
Cheers Harry.
I'm mostly enjoying learning (re-learning really) just for the fun, my anxiety levels stop me from competing against people- same with my sim racing. I practice and have fun, but dare not enter a race (or a game). I used to sim race, but it got more and more stressful, now I just drive alone for fun, same with chess=)

Thanks for the names, I'll check them out. One I have been liking is John Bartholomew on youtube
I think that squirrel would beat me=)
 
As The guy doing the breakdown of this says
“That’s why the King’s Indian defence is, in its essence, unleashed beautiful violence”


I... I'm... just wow. I guess this is why they are Grand Masters.
I have so much to learn... and even if I had several lifetimes, I know I'd never be able to play a game this well. From my noob level, I wish they had played it out, I still find resignations a bit of an anti-climax, but as I say: much to learn.
 
As one of her lockdown activities my wife is starting to clear out boxes in the loft. One of those was an old one of mine that, as well as stuff like 3 x ZX Spectrums and a ZX81 with a 16K ram pack, had a pile of notes from when I used to compete at chess in my uni days. It'll be interesting to run through a few of those again now (although it's over 30 years since I last competed and maybe the best part of 20 years since I played anyone at all).

One of the notes is from my first competitive game for the uni as a 17 year old 1st year, which was a league match against one of the local clubs. I was playing board-1 for the uni (I'd beaten the uni champion a few times in social matches by then, which was why I was playing board-1) and was matched against a guy with a grading of 1920 (which was pretty decent if I recall). I was playing white and I don't think they guy took me seriously as I opened with the Queens Gambit, which he accepted - but didn't look like he really knew how to play black in Queens Gambit Accepted so he ending up resigning after the 22nd move. He was not a happy bunny when he found out I was ungraded at the time, as I think that losing against an ungraded player wasn't going to help his own grading. Prior to uni I'd competed when at school but only the regional/national level school competitions counted for grading purposes and I didn't play enough of those to have received a grading.
 
I have started playing again too, and reading Fundamental Chess Openings. On chess.com I only have a ranking of 800 so very much a novice.
 
I've also started digging out my old books and playing thru' games lately and I play the occasional game with a friend who also used to play in school. Unlike my younger days, I enjoy playing over the games of the great masters (game collections are my favorites) and reading more basic, wordy books as opposed to advanced works (the folly of youth!). And I've found that I really like the writing and games of the great Paul Keres.

Interestingly, I now much prefer to play slower games (e.g. 30-60mins per side) rather than blitz. I think they are different games really; these days I want to have the time to think and plan my games.
 
hockman said:
I've also started digging out my old books and playing thru' games lately and I play the occasional game with a friend who also used to play in school. Unlike my younger days, I enjoy playing over the games of the great masters (game collections are my favorites) and reading more basic, wordy books as opposed to advanced works (the folly of youth!). And I've found that I really like the writing and games of the great Paul Keres.

Interestingly, I now much prefer to play slower games (e.g. 30-60mins per side) rather than blitz. I think they are different games really; these days I want to have the time to think and plan my games.
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In my youth I played fast and from those notes of my uni games I'd often used half the time my opponent did, and there were several wins when the opponent ran out of time. I recall I used to sometimes wind up my opponents when I had 30+ minutes left and they maybe only had 1 or 2. After they'd made their move I'd wander off to get a coffee and come back 20 minutes later - knowing they'd have to sit there and wait for me to come back as they could take the risk of me coming back and making a move when they weren't there. Sadly I don't think my mind works that quickly these days, although that's possibly a good thing as I was prone to mistakes that taking more of the time available might have eradicated.
 
david ellwood said:
I was a bit of a dick in my youth too, some would say I still am.
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I cringe to think what a prick I was at times in my youth, but hopefully am at least a bit better now. The arrogance was unwarranted as well, because as well as winning games against folks graded way above me, I was equally capable of losing games through inattention etc.
 
I love chess but am quite rubbish at it. I enjoyed the Netflix series Queens Gambit. Private eye ran a dummy add for a chess set that stuck on your ceiling. Have a nice olive wood set and olive wood board at home but it has only seen chess action about 6 times over 20 years. I'm sure there was a record with a chess title by Gryphon "Red Queen to Gryphon 3"
 
I play online and enjoy reading up. I always get lost trying to follow the book openings.

I get frustrated playing the bots as I invariably make a silly mistake that they never fail to capitalise on.

Heres a game I played recently where I got my King chased from the bottom rank only to score a very cheeky and unexpected win.

 
SteveG said:
I cringe to think what a prick I was at times in my youth, but hopefully am at least a bit better now. The arrogance was unwarranted as well, because as well as winning games against folks graded way above me, I was equally capable of losing games through inattention etc.
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Prick or not, it sounds potentially counter-productive: why give your opponent time to think on your clock, when they are running out of time?
 
droodzilla said:
Prick or not, it sounds potentially counter-productive: why give your opponent time to think on your clock, when they are running out of time?
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It made them nervous, and often when I came back I wouldn't play the obvious move - meaning their time would have been wasted. In practice it was quite successful (i.e. I don't think I even lost a game where I did it, although usually it'd have meant the opponent was already struggling - hence why they were almost out of time) although with hindsight perhaps not very sporting!

I used to play unusual moves as a general technique at times, including with openings, plus it was quite common to come up against people who were much better read than me on opening techniques etc. so it was good to get them out of their comfort zone. I also used to try and get to an even endgame early as lots of people had poor endgame technique, especially when short of time.
 
SteveG said:
It made them nervous, and often when I came back I wouldn't play the obvious move - meaning their time would have been wasted. In practice it was quite successful (i.e. I don't think I even lost a game where I did it, although usually it'd have meant the opponent was already struggling - hence why they were almost out of time) although with hindsight perhaps not very sporting!

I used to play unusual moves as a general technique at times, including with openings, plus it was quite common to come up against people who were much better read than me on opening techniques etc. so it was good to get them out of their comfort zone. I also used to try and get to an even endgame early as lots of people had poor endgame technique, especially when short of time.
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Crafty!

When I played chess for my school, my favourite opening as White was the Orang-Utan (1. b4). It caused a lot of trouble for the unprepared.

As Black, I favoured the Pirc in response to e4 - mainstream, but still quite unusual. I don't think I ever settled on a response to d4.
 
droodzilla said:
Crafty!

When I played chess for my school, my favourite opening as White was the Orang-Utan (1. b4). It caused a lot of trouble for the unprepared.

As Black, I favoured the Pirc in response to e4 - mainstream, but still quite unusual. I don't think I ever settled on a response to d4.
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We might have had the same openings book as I won a lot of games against higher rated opposition using the Orang-Utan! It wasn't unusual for my opponent to waste 10 minutes of "WTF" thinking time as they'd never seen it before. One guy I thought was going to burst into tears when I played it!

It also worked well in social situations where the person you were playing didn't know you'd played a fair bit of chess. Usually if you opened with the Orang-Utan they thought you'd just picked a pawn at random. I used to deploy it when I was visiting folks who'd tell me how good they were at chess, and what team they played for and what their rating was etc. I'd then say something like that I knew the moves, but hadn't played a while (both statements having the benefit of being factually correct!) - and then they'd ask me if I wanted a game...

Going by the notes from uni games it definitely looks like my standard opening was P-Q4 unless I was playing some with a high grading, in which case I'd tend to try something more unusual as it usually also meant they were far better researched on openings that I was.
 
A few minutes ago, I felt ready to try my first game against a human online at chess.com. My first game against a human opponent for decades. I was shaking so hard I could barely move my mouse. What have I got myself into... After a few moves; still shaking, but seem to be doing ok. Few more, still doing ok. steady, steady, don't mess up. focus..... few more moves, still ok, i seem to be ahead maybe. *shaking intensifies*. Few more moves and I'm pretty sure I'm winning.

We are both playing cautiously, not many piece swaps, but I'm advancing and pressuring. The clock (10 minute game) says we are about equal, with me a few seconds behind, over half our times used up and almost all the pieces still on the board. Will I run out of time? Is that a gap and a way in? I think so, but what if i'm wrong and I'm blundering all my pieces? *Intense shaking intensifies* but...... I win with a checkmate. yay and phew and wow. Thank you for the game maisyviolet, and thank you for being gentle with me, it was my first time=)

Analysis says I missed several earlier checkmates, and had 33% accuracy. I don't care. I won=)

I'm still shaking, but now I think it's adrenaline, not fear. For what it's worth my online elo jumped from 400 to 589. At that rate I'll be a GM by monday=) Except I'm too scared to try again now. Maybe after the buzz fades and the shaking stops. Time for a nice cuppa I think.
 
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