Flu: 1 Me: 0

Ah well, a nasty flu got me earlier this week and I won’t be playing in the Southern Congress. Still quite weak and sleeping close to 18 hours per day. I tried ignoring the threat and seeking counterplay, but this is one tough bug. Even refused my draw offer yesterday.

Preparing for The Southern Congress

I’m currently preparing for the 36th Annual Southern Congress, or is it the 35th? They called last year’s the 35th, and they’re calling this year’s the 35th, but I’m going out on a limb and calling this year’s the 36th. Has it been a year already? Last year in this tournament I was rated 1689 and managed to lose 11 rating points with a 2½ score (out of 5), and one of those match points was a full-point bye in the last round. Now I’m unofficially rated 1840 (gained another point last night — woohoo!), and I’ve survived tactics boot camp.

I’ve adopted more of a GM Michael Adams approach to preparation (when he was an early Grandmaster). Mickey’s idea of good preparation was watching a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie and having a beer. I don’t really like Van-Damme movies (I mean if you want to watch a martial arts movie starring someone who can’t act, at least go for Steven Seagal, who could take out Van-Damme in a heartbeat). So I watched Underworld last night instead. And I’m not a big fan of beer either, so instead I sipped on my Starbucks Coffee. Yum. But hey, it’s kinda like Mickey’s approach, don’t you think?

The House of Pain

No, I’m not talking about Helga’s S&M business; I’m talking about The Atlanta Chess Center. Known by the local regulars as The House of Pain, because visiting IMs and GMs who come here looking for some easy cash in a weekend Swiss tournament frequently leave with their wallets lighter and their egos bruised.

GM Aleks Wojtkiewicz

For example, in December 2003 GM Aleks Wojtkiewicz and GM Petr Kiriakov came to Atlanta to play in the 33rd Annual Atlanta Open. The only two GMs in the tournament, they were clear favorites to win. Local expert Anthony Ritz (2166) drew with both GM Wojtkiewicz (2653) and FM Grigoriy Kapranov (2396). Georgia’s top-rated player IM Carlos Perdomo (2459) drew with GM Kiriakov (2645) to win 1st place in the tournament. FM Kapranov also lost to both scholastic star Xiao Chang (2096) and Brandon Hutchinson (2002).

GM Petr Kiriakov vs IM Carlos Perdomo

The Chess Drum describes Atlanta players as a “scrappy bunch” whose “monthly 5-round Swiss tournaments are always competitive.” In this article, you can read how the House of Pain regulars scored well at the Emory Castle Grand Prix, where local David Vest (2162) beat IM Irina Krush (2460).

David Vest vs IM Irina Krush

Even though I’m still a class player, it’s nice to know I’m paying my dues at Atlanta’s infamous House of Pain.

Welcome to the A Class

Yay, it finally happened. I officially made it into the A class. Now my goal is to reach expert and break 2000.

My First Annotated Flash Game

I’m playing around with a neat little program called Camtasia, that makes it super-easy to capture any part of the screen in real-time along with narration, and then edit everything afterward. My first attempt is an annotated game I played earlier this year.

Please give it a look and let me know what you think (of the software, and even of the game if you’d like). You’ll need the free Flash player if you don’t already have it. If anyone doesn’t have Flash, I’d love to hear what happens when you try to watch the game before downloading Flash. (The game is about 1.66 MB, so dialup users be forewarned.)

Thanks!

How To Defeat a Weaker Player

Playing weaker players can be frustrating. Sometimes it’s easy. You just wait for them to make a mistake and they usually do. But sometimes they are having a good day, and they aren’t making the usual mistakes. Suddenly you find yourself scambling to make sure you at least draw! I talked about this in a recent post. IM Timothy Taylor has released his next article in the series of how to beat a weaker player. He says there are four basic ways:

1. Attack
2. Opening knowledge
3. Experience
4. Endgame

In his current article, he talks about the first way, Attack. I’m very interested in seeing what he has to say about this subject. Attacking makes sense. The idea is that a weaker player won’t be able to defend against the stronger player’s knowledge of how to attack and tactical strength. There’s also a psychological element here. A weaker player may be defeated well before the position is lost, because of the pressure of an attack from a stronger player. But I’m curious as to what IM Taylor has to say about the other three ways. Don’t you just have those qualities or not? How can you use them in a way that you wouldn’t ordinarily use them anyway?

Georgia Chess - March/April 2005

My Georgia Chess magazine finally arrived in the mail today! The GCA (located in Georgia) sent it out bulk mail on February 14, and I (also located in Georgia) just now got it. Bulk mailing gives new meaning to the term “snail mail”. On the cover are the winners of the 2004 Georgia Class Championship, held November 2004. Chris Wiley (middle row, right) won the C section, Shomari Mosi (bottom row, left) won the D section, and Hartley Chiang (bottom row, right) won the U1200 section.

I played in the B section that tournament and did not do so well. It seems to be my destiny that whenever a really nice trophy is being awarded, I will not do well ;)

Kazim Gulamali won the Expert section, which surprisingly only had three players.

Joe Couvillion won the A section. Joe is really tough. I’ve lost two games to him so far.

Eddie Shaw won the B section. I wish I could have given Eddie a better game this tournament, but he played well and deserves the title.

Also covered in this issue is the 2004 Atlanta Open (won by FM Todd Andrews).

A fairly new tactics problem page contains examples from Georgia tournament games. I’m the proud contributer of two moments from my games where I missed a tactic :)

Mike Mulford gives us his typical high-quality book reviews of Secrets of Chess Transformations, Play the 4.f3 Nimzo-Indian, and Starting Out: The Queen’s Indian.

And it looks like I made it into the Georgia Top 100 List at last at #94, based on the December 2004 USCF supplement.

Georgia Chess magazine won the 2004 Best State Magazine award, and it’s a must-have for the Georgia tournament player.