ChessTweets: The first game is drawn

This is the first ChessTweets game in full. Overall it was a good experience and like old-fashioned correspondence chess but with shorter gaps. In tough positions I would set up a board and play through a few variations which I think is probably the best way of learning.

[Event "Game 2051: @pgallagher34 vs. @catfunt"]
[Site "http://chesstweets.com"]
[Date "2010.08.18"]
[Round "1"]
[White "pgallagher34"]
[Black "catfunt"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]

1. d4 Nf6
2. c4 g6
3. g3 Bg7
4. Bg2 O-O
5. Nc3 d6
6. Nf3 c5
7. O-O Nc6
8. d5 Na5
9. Nd2 e5
10. a3 b6
11. b4 Nb7
12. e4 Ng4
13. Bf3 Nh6
14. Bg2 f5
15. Nf3 Ng4
16. h3 Nf6
17. Ng5 Qe7
18. Re1 Bd7
19. exf5 gxf5
20. Nb5 Rfc8
21. Ne6 Bxe6
22. dxe6 e4
23. Rb1 Qxe6
24. Qc2 d5
25. Bf4 Ne8
26. f3 cxb4
27. Rxb4 Nbd6
28. Bxd6 Nxd6
29. cxd5 Qg6
30. Qf2 exf3
31. Re6 Rc1+
32. Kh2 Ne4
33. Rxg6 Nxf2
34. Rxg7+ Kxg7
35. Bxf3 Rc2
36. Bg2 Rd2
37. Rf4 Kg6
38. Kg1 Ne4
39. g4 Rd1+
40. Rf1 Rxf1+
41. Kxf1 a6
42. Nc7 Ra7
43. gxf5+ Kxf5
44. Bxe4+ Ke5
45. d6 Kxd6
46. Ne8+ Ke6
47. Bf3 Rf7
48. Kg2 Re7
 49. Bg4+ Kd5
50. Nf6+ Kd4
51. Nd7
1/2-1/2

Final position: 51. Nd7 1/2-1/2

Update: BBC v Home Office

[Event "22:42"]
[Site "Shredder for iPhone / iPod touch"]
[Date "2010.11.11"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Keith Dunmore, Home Office"]
[Black "Paul, BBC"]
[WhiteElo "-"]
[BlackElo "1682"]
[ECO "E61"]
[Opening "King's Indian Defence"]
[Result "*"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 g6 3. d4 Bg7 4. Nf3 O-O 5. Bf4 d6 6. Qd2 Re8 7. e4 Nbd7 8. O-O-O
c5 9. e5 Nh5 10. exd6 Nxf4 11. dxe7 Rxe7 12. Qxf4 cxd4 13. Nd5 Nb6 14. Nxe7
Qxe7 15. Nxd4 Qc5 16. Nb3 Qf8 17. Qd6 Bh6 18. Kb1 Bf5 19. Ka1 Qe8 20. c5 Bf8
21. Qd2 Na4 22. Qe2 Qc6 23. Qb5 Bg7 24. Nd4 Rd8 25. Qxc6 bxc6 26. Bc4 Bxd4 27. Rd2
Nxb2 28. Rxb2 Bc3 29. Rc1 Bxb2 30. Kxb2 Rd2 31. Kc3 Rxf2 32. Rg1 Be6 33. a4
Rf4 34. Bxe6 fxe6 35. Kb3 Kf7 36. Rd1 Rf5 37. Rd7 Kf6 38. Kb4 a5 39. Kxa5 Rxc5
40. Kb6 Rd5 41. Rxh7 e5 42. a5 Rb5 43. Kxc6 Rxa5 *

Chess on Twitter: ChessTweets, update

This is the latest state of play. I'm happy with my position being material ahead and should win the white passed pawn soon.

Sicilian Kan: Railways

The second game of the season was against Railways for the BBC. We played at home so there's no excuse of intimidating venues. I lost on the black side of an ...e6 Sicilian, the opening I've decided to play against e4, to a stronger player than me although the initial Shredder analysis suggests I had chances while under the cosh and missed some obvious tactical plays.

[Date "2010.10.12"]
[White "Kocan, Barry A"]
[Black "Paul, bbc"]
[ECO "B41"]
[Opening "Sicilian/Kan Variation"]
[Result "1-0"]
London Commercial Chess League

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Be3 Qc7 6. a3 Bc5 7. Nc3 b5 8. Be2
Bb7 9. O-O Nf6 10. Bd3 d6 11. Qe2 Nbd7 12. f4 O-O 13. Rf3 Bb6 14. Rg3 Nc5 15. Rf1
Ncxe4 16. Nxe4 Nxe4 17. Rh3 g6 18. Qg4 Nf6 19. Qg5 Qd8 20. g4 Re8 21. Qh6 Nxg4
22. Qxh7 Kf8 23. Bxg6 Qd7 24. Qh8 Ke7 25. Qh4 Nf6 26. Qg5 Rg8 27. Rh7 Rxg6 28. Qxg6
Rf8 29. Qg5 Be4 30. Rg7 Bc5 31. f5 Bxd4 32. Bxd4 e5 33. Bc3 Qa7 34. Rf2 Qc7
35. Re2 d5 36. Bb4

The new season starts: BBC v. Shell

As well as the usual dives, I've played chess in various flash company HQs and the important thing is not to let the fact that the foyer is the size of a large department store intimidate you. Experience tells you you're just as likely to lose to an ungraded player in the damp basement of a church as you are to a guy in a sharp suit in an all glass building. This one has the huge building with the company flag on the roof and a foyer that takes five minutes to cross. So far so standard. What makes this one special is in the basement.

Lift doors open on the basement where we're playing. 
Me: There's a strange smell of chlorine.
The other guy: That'd be the swimming pool.
Me: You've got a swimming pool?
The other guy doesn't say anything but gives me a "doesn't-everyone-look".

The other team were pretty nice but you could tell they wanted to win. I guess you get to work for Shell that way. Anyway the team won and I won so it was a good start to the season.

[Event "LCCL, 2010-11 season"]
[Date "2010.10.05"]
[White "Paul Murphy, BBC"]
[Black "Joel Morales, Shell"]
[ECO "C24"]
[Opening "Bishop's Opening"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. Nc3 d6 4. d3 Nc6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 Be7 7. a3 a6 8. Nge2 Na5 9. Ba2 Bg4 10. f3 Be6 11. Qd2 Nc6 12. O-O-O Nd4 13. Bxe6 Nxe6 14. Bf2 c6 15. Kb1 b5 16. f4 Ng4 17. Bg3 O-O 18. h3 exf4 19. Nxf4 Ne5 20. Nxe6 fxe6 21. Qe2 Bf6 22. Rhf1 c5 23. Rf2 Nc6 24. Rdf1 b4 25. Na2 bxa3 26. b3 Qa5 27. Qg4 Bd4 28. Qxe6 Kh7 29. Rxf8 Rxf8 30. Rxf8 Ne5 31. Qf5 Ng6 32. h4 Qd2 33. Bf4 Qe1 34. Bc1 Qxh4 35. Ra8 Qh1 36. Rxa6 Bb2 37. Rxd6 Qxg2 38. Bxb2 axb2 39. Kxb2 Qg1 40. e5
Qh2 41. Qxg6 *
1-0

Chess on Twitter: ChessTweets, the never-ending saga

The game that I've been playing on Twitter continues. My poor opponent has been waiting a few days for me to move. Basically the position has started to get trickier - I'm not sure who stands better, if I've over-extended my position and what I thought was a forcing pawn centre is about to collapse. This is the current position, black to move:

I've looked at a number of moves for black and rejected them:
...d4 [fxe4]
...Ned6
...Bd4+
...Be5
which leaves me with ...cxb with the possible (I mean optimistic continuation) cxd Qxd5; Rbd1 QxN

Mostly I worry that the collapsing pawn centre will bring the g2 bishop to life  pinning the knight on b7.

If I had two moves I'd be happy. Like after a foul shot in pool.

You can download the PGN here: http://chesstweets.com/games/pgn/2051 and see the game on ChessTweets.

Chess tweets: He's just played Rb1

My continuing game on Chess Tweets.

Am I better? My initial thoughts are Qxe6 or a6. More later.

Chess Flash: chess game viewer

This is the Chess Flash viewer for PGNs. You copy your game in, generate some code and add it to your page. It could look better and fit on the page better but hey, it's better than anything else I've found so far. There's a list of sites that use it on the Chess Flash homepage including the Guardian's chess column where I first saw it.

So what have I learnt so far?

One of the ideas behind this blog was to provide a structure for improving my chess. One of the problems I'd encountered before was the lack of structure in any of the time I could devote to chess. Over the summer I haven't fared a great deal better.

What is focussing my mind at the moment is the arrival of not one, but both ficture lists for the two clubs I play for and a request to let them know my availability.

Now is not the time for learning I suspect. I'd probably be much better off immersing myself in some "find the mate/combination/fork/trap" puzzle book.

Appendix 1: BBC Chess Club fixtures

Tuesday October 5 -- Shell v BBC
Tuesday October 12 -- BBC v Railways
Tuesday October 19 -- BBC v GLCC (friendly)
Monday October 25 -- Met Police v BBC
Thursday November 11 -- Home Office v BBC
Tuesday November 30 -- BBC v HMC

Tuesday January 11 -- BBC v Railways (John Lewis Cup)
Thursday February 3 -- Railways v BBC
Tuesday March 1 -- BBC v Shell
Tuesday March 15 -- BBC v Met Police
Tuesday March 22 -- BBC v Home Office
Tuesday May 3 -- BBC v HMC

Appendix 2: Hackney Chess Club, Division 4 fixtures

Wed 13 Oct ATHENAUM 4 v HACKNEY 3
Thu 21 Oct METROPOLITAN 3 v HACKNEY 3
Mon 8 Nov WILLESDEN & BRENT v HACKNEY 3
Mon 22 Nov WANSTEAD 2 v HACKNEY 3
Fri 14 Jan MORLEY COLLEGE 2 v HACKNEY 3
Wed 26 Jan KINGS HEAD 4 v HACKNEY 3
Mon 7 Feb ALBANY v HACKNEY 3
Mon 21 Feb HACKNEY 3 v DHSS
Mon 14 Mar HACKNEY 3 v METROPOLITAN 4
Mon 11 Apr HACKNEY 3 v STREATHAM 3
Tue 3 May GLCC 2 v HACKNEY 3

Losing in 24 moves...

I thought it started quite well...

[Event "Game Without Clock"]
[Site "Fritz Chess for iPhone/iPod Touch"]
[Date "2010.09.02"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Player"]
[Black "Fritz"]
[Result "0-1"]
1.e4 c6
2.c4 d5
3.exd5 cxd5
4.d4 Nf6
5.Nc3 Nc6
6.c5 Bd7
7.Bg5 e6
8.Nf3 b6
9.Na4 bxc5
10.dxc5 Bxc5
11.Nxc5 Qa5+
12.Bd2 Qxc5
13.a3 Qb6
14.Bc3 Ne4
15.Qc2 Nxc3
16.Qxc3 O-O
17.Rd1 Rac8
18.g3 e5
19.Bg2 Nd4
20.Qd2 Bb5
21.Nxd4 exd4
22.f4 Rfe8+
23.Kf2 d3+
24.Kf1 Re2
0-1
Doh!

Chess on Twitter: ChessTweets

I've been playing a game on ChessTweets that I thought I would share. I'm black and it's started out as a standard King's Indian defence with white fianchettoing their white squared bishop. Having closed the centre (8. d5) white then advanced on the queenside with a3 and b4 which the Batsford book I have on the King's Indian doesn't think is the best idea for white as it messes up their queenside pawns. Naturally I didn't capture the b4 pawn but played ...Nb7 to support the pawn and withdraw the attacked knight. I'm happy with the arrangement of my queenside pieces: the knight is supporting d6 and c5 and the bishop is happy on the h3/c8 diagonal supporting ...f5 which is planned. The fact that the bishop is blocking the rook on the a file doesn't matter as the position is fairly closed and the rooks don't have much scope at the moment. My plan is based on ...f5 and following white's exf and my ...gxf pushing the e pawn to e4 bringing my black squared bishop on the long diagonal to life.

Conclusion: at the moment I'm happy with my position and the arrangement of my pieces. White has more space but the closed centre minimises any advantage and my pieces are well placed for a kingside advance, especially as white's bishop is misplaced on f3. Of course, I may have misjudged this all terribly.

Losing on the wrong end of the Sicilian

This is my latest loss to Fritz on the iPhone. It starts well (up to move 8 maybe) but goes down hill fast after that. the thing about playing good players (and computers) is that they punish small mistakes. I'll have a look at the game tonight on a board and maybe add some notes.

[Event "Game Without Clock"]
[Site "Fritz Chess for iPhone/iPod Touch"]
[Date "2010.08.26"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Fritz"]
[Black "Player"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 c5
2.Nf3 e6
3.d4 cxd4
4.Nxd4 a6
5.c4 Qc7
This is what I've decided to play as black against e4, the Kan Sicilian (also sometimes known as the Paulsen or Taimanov. I'm not sure if the last is strictly correct as many writers talk about the Taimanov's key move as an early ...Nc6).
6.Nc3 Nc6
7.Nxc6 dxc6
8.Bg5 Bc5
9.Qd2 f6
10.Bh4 Ne7
11.Bg3 e5
12.Na4 Ba7
13.Be2 O-O
14.Rd1 b5
15.cxb5 cxb5
16.Nc3 Bb7
17.Qd7 Rac8
18.Qe6+ Rf7
19.Rd7 Qc5
20.Rxb7 b4
21.Rxe7 Qxe7 1-0

Fritz and Shredder on the iPhone

Besides the games I play for Hackney Chess Club and the BBC Chess Club I don't really get to play in real life. I've played the 5, 10 and 15 minute games online and while they're fun (if feeling your heart in your mouth while sitting in front of a laptop is your idea of fun) I remain unconvinced that they help your overall chess skills.

The first games I played online before I joined the clubs and what probably got me back into chess were on Facebook. I used one of the many chess apps available but rather than live chess there would be a 3 day time limit on each move. This worked pretty well and at times I'd set up a board to look at a position.

So now I've started playing games on the iPhone but without a time limit using the Fritz and Shredder apps. There's time to think about the position, it's possible to go back, run some analysis in retrospect. Typically I play a move and look again a couple hours later. I was using the feature in Shredder where it adapts its ranking according to the result of the last game it played against you but I found its faux mistakes (like giving away a piece randomly) annoying. So for the last few games I've stuck to playing Fritz on the strongest setting. I've also stuck to playing the opening repertoire I plan to use when the new season kicks off.

In his very useful book Studying Chess Made Easy, Andrew Soltis points out that at the end of the day there is no silver bullet and the way to get better at chess is to spend a lot of time studying it on your own. At the moment given my time constraints playing on my phone seems like the best option.

[Update 14/09/10: There's a review of the Andy Soltis book (Studying Chess Made Easy) I mentioned above on the Guardian's website where it's been nominated by Daniel King on their "2010 Book of the Year short-list". I'm guessing he means "Chess Book of the Year short-list". Good as the book is you probably need to be a chesser to appreciate it.]

Holiday chess books: what did I learn

Away on holiday for 10 days and as usual I took a couple chess books and a set. The two books I chose were John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book and the Second Piatigorsky Cup. The Piatigorsky book was an old second hand copy from an excellent bookshop in Norwich. It features annotations by the competing grandmasters which is what I liked about it. It's all very well playing though games but the tricky bit is knowing why they did what they did.

The plan had been to do the puzzles while chilling on the beach (as it turned out I read Saul Bellow's Herzog instead) and to play though a few of the games in the evening while getting slowly hammered on duty free Bushmills Malt Whiskey.

As it turned out the only use the board got was to play a couple games with Russ, one of the people who we were staying with. I mentioned chess and he said he'd like to play. A quick brush up of the rules and we were off. He was pretty good and played a thoughtful game. I won both games but I suspect if Russ had played in matches over the last two years he'd probably be better than me. As we played we'd each give our thoughts every few moves on what was happening.

There were several interesting things that came out of the game and the ongoing analysis.

Russ was suspicious of early castling which I advocated when we were going over the first game as he didn't like the idea of putting his king in the corner to be attacked so early on. There are times when it makes sense to wait for the other player to reveal some of their intentions it made me realise the importance of tempo and threats. "You might know where my king is but I'll get my attack in first so it won't matter" might be a useful summary.

Also most of the people I play in matches are better than me so generally I think they're seeing more of what's going on than me. Also their feel for the positions is more refined. By that I don't mean they're calculating more moves or variations but that their understanding of the position, based on experience allied with an affinity for the game, is more advanced than mine.

This expresses itself in the fact that they 1. play better moves than me and 2. they do it consistently. The third thing is that they probably play to a consistent plan which I've constantly failed to do. It's called prevarication.

In this instance the tables were turned. It's nice to play but it's also nice to win occasionally.

British Chess Championships 2010

On the off-chance that anyone is reading this then have a look at the British Chess Championship website. You can follow the day's games live from around 2.15pm.

A game of the day is promised with annotation but yesterday's hasn't appeared as yet but should be worth checking out when it's done. The picture shows a Caro-Kann opening from today's games.

Shredder: in the spirit of sharing...

...here's the game I lost to Shredder on my phone on the way home. I mailed it to myself. The message was "By bond street I'd lost. Actually I'd lost much further west but still twitching I carried on pushing wood." My journey starts at White City.

[Event "18:04"]
[Site "Shredder for iPhone / iPod touch"]
[Date "2010.07.26"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Paul Murphy"]
[Black "Shredder Passive"]
[WhiteElo "1708"]
[BlackElo "1714"]
[ECO "B57"]
[Opening "Sicilian/Sozin Attack"]
[Result "*"]

1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 Nf6
5. Nc3 d6
6. Bc4 e5
7. Nf3 Be7
8. O-O Be6
9. Qe2 O-O
10. Bg5 Qb6
11. Rab1 Qc5
12. Nd2 d5
13. Bxf6 dxc4
14. Bxe7 Nxe7
15. Rbd1 Nc6
16. Nf3 Nd4
17. Qe3 Bg4
18. Rxd4 exd4
19. Nxd4 Rfe8
20. Qf4 Qxd4
21. Qxg4 Qd2
22. Rd1 Qxc2
23. Nd5 Qxb2
24. h4 b5
25. Qg5 Rxe4
26. Ne7 Rxe7
27. Qxe7 h6
28. Rd7 Qc1
29. Kh2 Qf4
30. g3 Qxf2
31. Kh3 Qf5
32. Kh2 Qf2
33. Kh3 c3
34. Rd8 Rxd8
35. Qxd8 Kh7
36. Qd3 g6
37. Qxc3 Qxa2
38. Qc7 a5
39. h5 Qe6
40. g4 gxh5
41. Qc2 Qg6
42. Qxg6 Kxg6
43. gxh5 Kxh5 *

White gives up in a sulk.

Update, later that same evening:

I had a look at the Shredder website. You can play against Shredder online to try it out. I managed to beat it on the easy setting. Sadly you can't get a copy of the game off it. (Full disclosure: I did use the takeback function when I gave a piece away early on).

Here's a screenshot of the final position:

So what's it about?

I started playing chess again two and a half years ago after a thirty year hiatus and six months later joined Hackney Chess Club. Last year I started playing for the team at work in the London Commercial Chess League.

I've played in whatever the bottom team for Hackney has been for the last two years. After my first season my ECF grading was 115. This year, in the gradings released yesterday, I have slumped to 107 which I is probably a fairer reflection of my abilities. The first year was boosted by a couple decent wins against much higher rated players while this year's has suffered by some tremendous losses to ungraded players. Just because a player is ungraded doesn't mean they're crap. All it means is that they haven't currently got a grade. Playing against the police (really) I got roughed up by an ungraded player. Like me he's just started playing again. Unlike me he said that when he was a youth player he was in tournaments with Nigel Short "and other people like that." He was very good and used around five minutes on his clock against my 90 minutes.

The aim is to try and get better at chess and to use this space to do it. Here are some pictures of places I've played chess in the last 12 months.

Yesterday I went to Hackney's AGM at The Prince in Stoke Newington. I ended up as captain of a four board team in a cup competition. I think it's because I have a car.