Lichess game from 2017 03 22 - Pawn Race in the rook endgame

Online game played on my phone; for analysis - see https://lichess.org/eODwgzVonWbL

Join a Thousand Other Chess Fans

Recently ChessVideoGuy Youtube channel hit a milestone that I had anticipated for a while, but was pleased to see finally happen, as the thousandth person subscribed to my channel.

Let me know if there are any particular topics you’d like me to cover in future videos, otherwise, just feel free to watch existing almost 200 videos I made over the last decade, and … subscribe.

Setting Up Chess Goals - 2015

Setting up goals in chess or in anything can be eye opening if you've never done this before; it can also be therapeutic as it makes us more realistically consider what we can and cannot do in the near future. As time passes, goals are the measuring sticks that allow to see how much of what we set out to do – we are actually achieving. Not everyone does best with this paradigm, but for obsessive compulsive types – there is no use resisting this idea of being to set objectives and achieve them, or at least re-calibrate from time to time and reset those goals.
 I have attempted to have several chess-related goals for the next year that I think are both reasonable and appropriate for where I am in my life now (there is a place for chess in it, but I want to free up space for other things too). So here are my goals for 2015 (and maybe slightly beyond it):

Chess Improvement

• Achieve a rating of 2400 in one of the ICC categories (blitz/active/etc)
  
• Related to the above – I want/need to play at least 100 standard rated games on ICC in the same year
  
• Improve my confidence in the opening with the Black pieces (avoid quick losses or unpleasant positions due to being unfamiliar with the opening)
  
• This one is a challenge because it is hard to quantify what I am trying to achieve here
• Solve about 1000 tactical puzzles, roughly 3 puzzles a day
• Qualify for the provincial championship
• The qualification requirement has gone up to 10 rated games a year, so this one has just become that much harder

These goals won't be easy to reach, they will require continuous focus and addition of some regular habits:

• solving puzzles whenever I have a couple of spare minutes
• improve ability to focus during blitz games, as without focus - the rating objectives are clearly not achievable, not in the next year, not ever
• better planning of other activities so that I find the time to play a couple of half hour games every week

In addition to the usual desire of expressing thoughts in writing, another reason for sharing this set of goals is that as a reader of this blog – you might help me with quite a few of these goals, while also looking at chess study materials that you might have missed before.

I find chess improvement difficult without frequent reflection, and it currently it takes the form of writing on this blog, and making ebooks. [In my head] this has taken a life of its own, and lead me to a set of goals in Chess Publishing:

• Make my chess materials available on 4 platforms or more. Currently I cover 3, so I need maintain and improve on this
  • Amazon
    
  • Youtube
    
  • Kobo
  
  
• Have at least 10 additional Amazon reviews on my books in the next year
  • I have several reviews so far, so if you’ve read my books or their previews – please feel free to add your comments, on amazon or here, as feedback is what helps everyone do better
• Reach 1000 Youtube subscribers
  • After 7 years of posting, and with my channel at around 180 videos - I am now sitting at 900+ subscribers. Subscribe to get notifications of new videos!
    
  • 
  
  
• Publish all previously written/drafted books
• I have about 3 books that are nearly ready to be published, but still have that remaining 10-15% percent of polish that is still clearly required

If you've read this far, maybe you'd want to leave your comments:

• What are your chess goals?
• Do you find it useful to set goals in something that is really a hobby for 99% of those of us that call ourselves chessplayers? 
• When your results improve - is that a result of setting goals, or a natural part of studying the game?

Kramnik - Aronian - the Olympic Struggle - Deadly Pin in the Slav

Kramnik - Anand - Quick Win in the Slav

Karpov - Nunn - Strategic Masterpiece in the Sicilian

Kamsky - Mamedyarov, World Cup 2013 Sicilian Clash

Grischuk - Kamsky - Rapid Victory in Slav Defence

Botvinnik - Denker - Opening Disaster in the Slav Defence

Learn the Spanish Opening from Anand's Classic game

Improve your Chess with a Free Chess Database program - Scid Vs Pc

Scid Vs. Pc is a Chess Database program. You can get it at http://scidvspc.sourceforge.net . In this video I give an overview of the program, show how to enter new games, annotate the move, and batch annotate the games with an engine (aka "annofritz").

Topalov Defeats Anand - Bishops of Opposite Color Endgame

This game in the video is taken from my E-book about endgames with bishops of opposite color.
http://www.amazon.com/Bishop-Endgames...
The book is formatted for electronic readers and can be read on devices of various sizes, from tablets to phones. The free sample includes 3 thoroughly annotated games and the full book comes with dozens of training positions to help develop a good sense for positions with bishops of opposite colour.

This bishop endgame is a good illustration of thinking in schemes. Black had to keep track of the functions of each of his pieces - in the final position the king had to block the pawn 'd', and the bishop - defend the 'h7' pawn. Because they reversed the roles after Anand's mistake, White had an option of breaking through to the 'd' pawn and winning a piece.

Chess Position Trainer - Study and Practice Chess Openings

 The video shows how to 
- review and import a repertoire in Chess Position Trainer 4.0
- train against an existing repertoire, from a specific position
- review statistics to see how well you know your repertoir
I use Slav exchange for Black to illustrate the tool's main capabilities.

Classic Bishop Endgame by Botvinnik - video

This game is taken from my E-book about endgames with bishops of opposite color.
http://www.amazon.com/Bishop-Endgames...
The book is formatted for electronic readers and can be read on devices of various sizes, from tablets to phones. The free sample includes 3 thoroughly annotated games and the full book comes with dozens of training positions to help develop a good sense for positions with bishops of opposite colour.

In this game Botvinnik aimed for having 2 distant passed pawns that his opponent's bishop could not block from the same diagonal. At the same time he was not concerned about giving opponent passed pawns - as long as his own bishop could stay on the same diagonal while guarding them.
Modern computer engines have a hard time correctly understanding the position and finding Botvinnik's moves. A lot of his play is very conceptual and requires calculation deeper than 10 moves ahead, but can be described verbally by a human.

Tactics from Chess World Cup 2013 in Tromso - Ebook

As many chess fans, I followed this year's Chess World Cup, and it inspired me to create a collection of best combinations from that tournament.
Here is the video describing this book (http://www.amazon.com/Play-Like-Grandmaster-Practical-ebook/dp/B00F785SJS/)

How to Think in Chess - Preventing Opponent's Combinations and Prophylactic Thinking

Keres Memorial 2013, Vancouver, Highlights of my Round 5 game

How to Think in Chess - Preventing Opponent's Plan and Prophylactic Thinking

Keres Memorial 2013, Vancouver, Highlights of my Round 3 game

Chess Game against an IM - Prophylactic Thinking and Anticipating Opponent's Moves

Keres Memorial 2013, Vancouver, Highlights of my Round 2 game

Chess game analysis - Prophylactic Thinking and Anticipating Opponent's Moves

Keres Memorial 2013, Vancouver, Highlights of my Round 1 game

Training games for chess improvement – Botvinnik’s method

Mikhail Botvinnik was a big supporter of training games as a tool for the chess improvement.  He himself played a number of such games and later published some in the collection of his games. He showed how ideas developed in training games helped him to win the competitive games. In fact, Jan Timman published an entire book dedicated to Botvinnik’s training games.

As for myself, about 10 years ago I played a match of 10 training games against an opponent of roughly my strength. I lost the match by 1 point and overall it was a good experience. Both me and my opponent noticed that we were willing to take more risks than in usual tournament games. It also helped my opening repertoire to include the Open Sicilian.

Here is my analysis of one of Botvinnik’s training games: Part 1

Part 2