My stupid chess habit: Three months later...[part one]

Some things that I remember about the last three months:


The Dutch defence for black [1. d4 f5 ]

I borrowed Neil McDonald's book on the Dutch defence from Hackney Library. [They've got three books on openings as far as I can see and two of them are on the French defence.] I flicked through it and decided it fulfilled my opening criteria:

• Easy to understand what the main objectives are
• Not too heavy in long theoretical lines [eg Sicilian Dragon]
• High likelihood that you'll get to play it as it starts on your first move.

I spent a couple weeks reading bits of the book on and off, studying the Leningrad Dutch. I chose the Leningrad Dutch because it's like the King's Indian [which I played as a kid] but with the king's bishop pawn already on f5 and I have a weakness for the king's bishop fianchetto.

Finally I was due to play it for the first time against a human opponent as Hackney were playing DHSS. That day at work I ran though a game with Fritz on my phone. Around move eight in the mainline Leningrad Dutch my position started to implode. The problem is that 1. Black's position is full of holes 2. The player of the black pieces needs to know what they're doing.

I decided not to play it. As it turns out I had black, my opponent played 1.d4 and I stuck with my usual 1....c5 and got a draw against a stronger player. He probably should have won but for some reason didn't swap his Queen for my two Rooks towards the end when he was running short of time. In that game I finally understood aboutv the importance of gain of tempo in the opening - in initiating an exchange of pawns and pieces I reached a position where it was his move. Had he initiated it and made the first capture I could have ended up in the same position but with the advantage of having the move.

I'm going to stick with playing it online or against weaker players. I'm also looking at a Stonewall-Leningrad hybrid [a Stonewall set up but the fianchettoed king's bishop. There's probably a good reason why it doesn't exist.].

Useful links:
The games in Neil McDonald's Starting Out: The Dutch Defence on Chessgames (buy it on Amazon UK)

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.