Joplin Chess

Posted By Daniel Todd on May 8, 2013
Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Today I was scouting for a game on ICC and accidentally missed a number on my seek.  What should have been an ad for a G30 + 15 sec increment got put in as a G0 + 15 sec increment.  Quite the difference!  I’ve really grown to dislike playing blitz because I usually get to a promising position and then blow it cause I can’t think quickly, but this game didn’t go so bad for me…

I didn’t annotate this one, but White played a few moves that didn’t do much for him and in the end Black got a nice attack on the king side.  I particularly like the coordination of the queen and knight in conducting the final moves.  Thoughts…questions…suggestions?

Posted By Daniel Todd on March 24, 2013
Category: Articles, Games | 1 Comment »

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the chess is quite delightful.  Yes friends it’s snowing so what better to do with my day than play some chess and get a few games posted.  First up we have a game featuring the French Defense.  I do not like playing against the French.  White I’ve done fairly good against it, I can never seem to get the types of positions I would truly like to play.  Having played a large number of White attempts to overrun the sturdy 1…e6 (including the Winawer, Tarrasch, and various gambits) I have recently set my sights on the Exchange Variation.  While the Exchange Variation has a history of being draw-ish, it was recommended by IM John Watson in some video lessons on ICC.  I figure if a French expert like Watson recommends it, it definitely deserves a closer look and he certainly provides enough compelling evidence that I am paying close attention.

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Posted By Daniel Todd on March 7, 2013
Category: Articles, Study | 1 Comment »

Typically I’ve done annotated games when I’ve posted, but it takes a while to do that and my time has been limited lately with work and family.  So I’ve been focusing on trying to take a snapshot from a game and use it to demonstrate something.  Hopefully this is entertaining and instructive.  We’ll see.  For my first one I decided to focus on an endgame position that arose in one of my recent games on ICC.  Here is the position…

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Posted By Martin Stahl on January 2, 2013
Category: Articles | 2 Comments »

One bad move nullifies forty good ones. – I. A. Horowitz

If the quote above doesn’t make it clear, I’m not going to talk about politics; just tactics. The more fitting quote may have been the one about chess being 99% tactics but I decided that what tactics really come down to, most of the time, is being able to recognize and punish the bad moves. Sometimes, the one bad move.

I have been working through my backlog of games, trying to find all the places where my opponent or I made the really bad moves. I’ll describe my current process below but want to start off with a couple examples from some of my games. This first example is actually an opening blunder I made at the 2012 Kansas Open during the third round. I started playing the opening too quickly and blundered into a position I have previously read about but neglected to fully analyze during the game. Seeing what appeared to be a free pawn, I took it; big mistake.

OK, so now I’m down two pawns and the queens are off the board. Not really a good start but I thought I would play it out and see what I could do.
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Posted By Martin Stahl on December 29, 2012
Category: Tournaments | 1 Comment »

3rd Annual Four States Winter Open

Date: March 9, 2013

Location: La Quinta Inn (Room A)
3320 South Rangeline Rd
Joplin, MO 64804

Hosted by the Joplin Chess Club USCF affiliate

Format: 4 round Swiss, Game in 60 with 5 second delay  (G/60,d/5), dual rated
Two sections; Open and Under 1600, sections may be combined for pairing purposes
One 1/2 point bye available if requested before the beginning of round 3

Round Times: 9:00, 11:00, 2:00, 4:00. Lunch break between rounds 2 and 3

Entry fee: $30 if pre-registered, $40 at site. MCA membership required for MO residents; available on-site.  $10 discount for siblings under 18 after 1st full-paid entry.

Prizes: $480 prize fund based on 25 full-paid entries. Discounted entries count as half.

• Open: $120, $100, $80
• U1600: $80,  $60, $40

Registration: Advance Registration requested. Entry fees may be paid in cash in person on 3/9/2012, or checks  (payable to Martin Stahl) can be mailed, to be received by 3/8/2012. Preference that all players must be current USCF members by 3/8/2013 and current through 3/9/2013. USCF membership can be processed online at uschess.org and membership can be accepted on site for CASH ONLY. Please check the USCF site for rates or contact TD for details for membership renewal or purchase on site.

Registration info can be sent to:

martin.stahl@joplinchess.org

or

Joplin Chess Club
2609 New Hampshire
Joplin, Mo 64804

Please include name, address, phone, e-mail, USCF ID# and rating.

On-site registration begins at 8:00 a.m., first round at 9:00

TD: Martin Stahl (417) 483-1554

Please bring set, clock, board, and score sheets.

No outside food or drinks

Posted By Martin Stahl on December 11, 2012
Category: Tournaments | 1 Comment »

Date: January 5th, 2013

Location: South Middle School Cafeteria
900 E 50th St
Joplin, MO 64804

Hosted by the Joplin Chess Club USCF affiliate and South Middle School Chess Club

Format: 5 round Swiss, Game in 25, no delay (G/25,d/0)
Two Sections; Open and Scholastic

Open Section requires USCF membership and is Quick rated
Scholastic section, non-rated

Round Times: 1st Round at 9:45, second round starts ASAP. 30 minute break between rounds 2 and 3; remaining rounds ASAP.

Entry fee: No Entry Fees.
Prizes: No Prizes; Open is play for rating only.

Registration: Advance Registration requested. Preference that all players must be current USCF members by 1/4/2013 and current through 1/5/2013. USCF membership can be processed online at uschess.org. Please check the USCF site for rates or contact TD for details.

Registration info can be sent to:

martin.stahl@joplinchess.org

or

Joplin Chess Club
2609 New Hampshire
Joplin, Mo 64804

Please include name, address, phone, e-mail, and USCF ID# and rating for Open

On-site registration begins at 9:00 a.m., first round at 9:45

TD: Martin Stahl (417) 781-9091; (417) 483-1554 day of the tournament

Please bring set, clock, board, and score sheets.

Posted By Daniel Todd on December 10, 2012
Category: Games | No Comments »

Cicindelinae (1835)    —    AnotherFineMess (1717)
ICS rated standard match  (-)   chessclub.com
2012.12.09     1-0     C44p

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3

This is the Ponziani opening and goes all the way back to the 1500′s. It’s an opening I’ve been toying with for a while. The Ruy Lopez may be the Cadillac of the 1.e4 openings, but there are a lot of variations to learn. The Ponziani is a little simpler and there aren’t too many variations where White can get into trouble right off the bat. To add to it, Black is often unfamiliar with “the Ponz”.

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Posted By Daniel Todd on December 9, 2012
Category: Articles, Games | No Comments »

I recently joined ICC and have been playing some games when time allows.  I’ve been doing pretty well lately and so yesterday when the opportunity came up to join a simultaneous event with IM Milanovic Vojislav I thought “why not”.  Well it turned out to be a pretty healthy reality check and a reminder that I need a lot of work to be where I want.  At any rate here’s the game…

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Posted By Martin Stahl on October 17, 2012
Category: Tournaments | 1 Comment »

Come join the Joplin Chess Club for the last tournament of the year.

Date: November 17, 2012

Location: Christ’s Community United Methodist Church
2700 E 44th St.
Joplin, MO 64804

Hosted by the Joplin Chess Club USCF affiliate

Format: 4 round Swiss, Game in 60 with 5 second delay (G/60,d/5), dual rated
One 1/2 point bye available if requested before the end of round 2

Round Times: 9:00, 11:00, 2:00, 4:00. Lunch break between rounds 2 and 3

Entry fee: $20 if pre-registered, $25 at site.

Prizes: $400 prize fund based on 25 paid entries. Two sections for prizes:

• Open: $120, $80, $60
• U1600: $80, $60

Registration: Advance Registration requested. Entry fees may be paid in cash in person on 11/17/2012, or checks  (payable to Martin Stahl) can be mailed, to be received by 11/16/2012. Preference that all players must be current USCF members by 11/16/2012 and current through 11/17/2012. USCF membership can be processed online at uschess.org and membership can be accepted on site for CASH ONLY. Please check the USCF site for rates or contact TD for details for membership renewal or purchase on site.

Registration info can be sent to:

martin.stahl@joplinchess.org

or

Joplin Chess Club
2609 New Hampshire
Joplin, Mo 64804

Please include name, address, phone, e-mail, USCF ID# and rating.

On-site registration begins at 8:00 a.m., first round at 9:00

TD: Martin Stahl (417) 483-1554

Please bring set, clock, board, and score sheets.

Posted By Daniel Todd on July 11, 2012
Category: Articles, General, Reviews | 3 Comments »

Chess Books: Electronic vs Paper

Here a while back I was perusing Amazon for chess books and I came across Christopher Scheerer’s Blackmar-Deimer Gambit: A Modern Guide to a Fascinating Chess Opening. Given my love for Unorthodox and Gambit Openings, I simply had to have it. I didn’t want to wait for it to ship so I purchased the Kindle version. Now that I’ve had it for a while I figured it’d be a good time to contemplate the pros and cons of electronic chess books.

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