I am alive.

I've been busy lately, so didn't have much time to update. So here's the condensed version.

1. My laptop is slowly dying and its becoming difficult to use it, thus the inability to study and update.
   
2. Placed 2nd at a local tournament with 4 wins and 1 loss to a 1300, team winning 1st place
   
3. Graduated, now officially a freshman. Summer break has started, so I'll be finishing my circles soon.
   
4. Went and returned from Washington DC. 52 sicknesses followed (including me) with about 5 confirmed cases of swine flu. Freaky.
   
5. Managed to get a copy of Winning Chess Tactics, along with other assorted books.
6. Still on section 5, Circle 2

I have a pretty good track record

This is data from 01-01-1991 to 05-19-2009

Current Official rating is 1098 Current UnOfficial rating is 1185
Best Unofficial rating = 1185 Best Official rating = 1104 Lowest rating on record = 343
88 Opponents Total Rated Games = 101 ---> 51 Wins 16 Draws 34 Losses

Best Upset = 471 points -- WILLIAM BARTLING -- 1207 CHEESE MONKEY QUADS 08-29-2008
Worst Loss = -268 points -- CASEY LAU -- 323 2006 NJ K-12 GRADE CHAMPIONSHI 11-19-2006

Highest Rated Opponent Win = WILLIAM BARTLING -- 1207 CHEESE MONKEY QUADS 08-29-2008
Lowest Rated Opponent Loss to = ADAM FERRARA -- 315 2005 NJ GRADE SCHOOL CHAMPIONS 11-20-2005

Most Recent Wins in a row = 5 ending on 12-02-2008 at SPARTA MS CHAMPIONSHIP
Most Recent Draws in a row = 2 ending on 03-08-2009 at NJ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPION
Most Recent Losses in a row = 4 ending on 01-27-2008 at 42ND GREATER NY SCHOLASTICS!

Results against 47 higher rated players: Wins = 11 Draws = 9 Losses = 27
Results against 2 equally rated players: Wins = 1 Draws = 1 Losses = 0
Results against 52 lower rated players: Wins = 39 Draws = 6 Losses = 7

Results against 37 players rated + 100 : Wins = 6 Draws = 6 Losses = 25
Results against 18 players rated +/-100: Wins = 8 Draws = 5 Losses = 5
Results against 46 players rated - 100 : Wins = 37 Draws = 5 Losses = 4

A Testament to My Progress

The Chess Club Pasta dinner was two days ago, and they gave out the annual awards. I was given the award for "Most Improved". It was a giant knight. Appropriate, right?



I was also given the trophy for our team at the nationals. We got twelfth place and the trophy is waist high. Waist high for 12th! It was pretty awesome.




Polly, I used the picture you took of the youngest player falling asleep at nashville in my documentary. Hope you don't mind. :)

Also, I'm doing circles again.

Three week chess break? Yeah right.

Remember my three-week-long break from chess? I must be pretty weak when it comes to willpower. Every single day I was "taking a break" I ended up playing an hour of blitz or playing Fritz 11 or intensively reading chess-related websites. Its almost sad, this game has absorbed me and now I can't get out. I've finally come to my senses and given up this long streak of boredom. Note to self: Do not start smoking.

BAM!

Lets see now... I was in a U1200 section among the highschoolers with mostly people 4-5 years older than me, I faced two people below me and 5 people above me rating-wise, and I ended up with 4.5 out of 7.

Whoa.

That's right, I had two upset wins (an 1140 and an 1180) and an upset draw, (a 1328!!) bringing my rating up a whole 88 points. My only losses were to people that placed individually, and I got a win against the 18th place player. Our team placed 12th place overall, beating Christian Brothers Academy, the high school's arch rivals, by one place. Chris, a guy on our team, scored 6 wins out of 7, landing 7th place. Since he got that trophy, the team trophy was given to the second highest score on our team.

Me.

Frankly, I'm pretty satisfied. My rating went up a little bit over 450 points in a single year. I'm not even done with the first phase of my training and I've already shot above my expectations. This really does work.

However.

I am ridiculously glad I studied that endgame book for a few days before this. Both my upset wins were the result of a marginally won endgame (I.E. one pawn). While tactics certainly helps, in a four-hour game you can't expect your opponent to make a tactical mistake. My first loss was a result of me trying too hard to keep the queens on the board and that led to my losing a rook.

Now that all my goals are complete, I move on to the goals set by my coach and peers.

1 - Achieve second board as a freshman
2 - Overtake Scotty, Junior rated 1400, as first board
3 - Reach 1623, highest rating achieved by our program, by senior year

Sadly, one of the Sophomores playing in the U1200 had a bad tournament, scoring 1.5/7. Had he done better, we may have been 2nd as opposed to 12th, realistically, but it happens to everyone.

Another thing I didn't like was that godawful blitz tournament. The rounds took no longer than 20 minutes and the pairings took nearly 30 minutes to print out and be put on the board. Not to mention the mob of people who thought it was a great idea to riot to see their pairings first. Add that to the delay added from a tornado evacuation (!!!) and the tournament director adding on another round. Now add THAT to ruined plans for sushi due to it closing moments after said tournament ends. Awful. I did end up beating a 1700 though, but that was about it.

All in all, a fun trip. No more major tournaments for the rest of the season, until summer, possibly. I am in line for middle school MVP, and middle school most improved. I doubt they'll give me both, but I'm definitely going to get one of the two.

Other team successes included...

Austin, who won most improved last year, got an individual trophy in the U750 (He was rated 800-ish). The ironic thing is that he gained virtually no rating points the entire year.

Lizzie, a little girl, won an individual trophy in the K-6 U800 section going in as a 300 and winning 5 (!!!)

Chris, a 1200 who played with the U1200 and won 7th place and the signed book from Kasparov for best overall score.

Alex, a 900 who played with the U1200 and won 3, beating 300 1100's, winning the signed book for most upset points and gaining 107 rating points. (The book came down to a coin flip between him and Brice Bartling, who was 1500 going in and beat a 1800 and a 1900. I personally believed the book should've been his, but nonetheless Alex did do amazingly well.)

AJ, an 800 playing for the U750 who won 5.5 games an an individual trophy. (which surprised everyone, since he normally hovers at below or at a plus score.)

And the high school Varsity, who played up from the U1600 to the open and did amazingly well in that section, while they could've all scored easy 7's in the U1600.

As a group we did very well, and many of us got trophies despite us going around 2.5/27 in the last round as a group. Now I'm off to take a much needed break from chess, considering the club will not meet for two weeks and there are no tournaments, I see no reason why not to. Games with analysis will come soon.

So much for that

I'm back down to 1098. Went to a tournament saturday and was highest rated in the open section. I hung my queen against my brother, and just to add insult to injury I had an in-plain-sight mate in 3, but moved to the wrong square. Managed to get a draw, though. I got kinda demoralizied, so I lost the next match and drew the next one. Got second place. lost 6 points. Not too bad.

Edit: Strike that, I was second highest rated. The person I got a draw against was a 1200, which means I'm shaping up good for the nationals. The one I lost against was a 1073 at the time, but is now a 1220. Not so bad, in all.

I am flying.

My rating went from 1045 to 1104 as a result of the last tournament. That's 59 points. I may do well in nationals yet!

Also, that puts me at 2nd highest rating ever achieved by my age. Once I become a freshman and all the seniors graduate, I will be the 2nd highest rated in the club, ahead of all the Sophomores and Juniors. The highest rated hasn't gained more than 100 points in the last four years.

Section 4 Circles 2, 3, 4, 5

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Just to let you all know, I am desperately trying to do all of these. I'm averaging about 360 problems a day. Today I did 720. My eyes are starting to hurt, but I'm seeing massive improvement. Only a few days remain until nationals. Can I do it? Who knows.

Thinking like a grandmaster

I just finished reading "Think Like a Grandmaster". Very interesting approach to chess, in my opinion, and it really made me realize something.

I don't really think when I play chess.

All of the principles outlined in that book seemed like common sense to me until I realized that I didn't actually go by them. Things like "consider all promising moves" and "focus on one variation at a time". In my play I generally just played what seemed like logical moves until tactics appeared. Those games where people outplayed me strategically were the ones that killed me, since I had no idea what to do until a tactic surfaced. I've really got to step it up if I want to do well in Nashville.

Time remaining:
2 weeks, 3 days.

Tactics to complete:
Section 4 Circles 2,3,4,5
Section 5 Circles 2,3,4,5
Final Circle of all sections

Books to read:
My System
Chess Praxis
Art of Attack in Chess
Silman's Complete Ending Course

Mental Status:
In a severe state of stress and dementia

Section 3 Circle 5

Moving on to section 4 now.