The Chess Archives

In memory of Robert “Bobby” James Fischer (9 Mar 1943 - 18 Jan 2008)

 The chess world was rocked by the news of Fischer’s death in an Icelandic hospital from kidney failure.  He had been granted amnesty there by the government since he would have been brought up on charges stemming from tax evasion.

There was a one minute silence before the games at Wijk aan Zee commenced.

 Bobby has been ill for some time.  According to Garry Kasparov, this was befitting of Fischer.  He died at the age of 64, denoting the number of squares on the board.

 Rest in Peace Bobby.  Chess has been revived because of your contribution.

thus far…

I was blown away by my opponent.  He was a strong player, although not rated.

He has never competed in a tournament.  I suggested that he play.

Here is the PGN that I created.

Knight moves.  From a1 to a8, and so on until I get to h8.

However, I am also coupling that with visualization exercises.  Mentally moving the pieces around in my head, from a given position.

But this is a foundation, properly created.  First things are first.  I won’t actually play until I train long enough to make it second nature.

It’s difficult, but I can feel the pieces now.  And that will make me a stronger player.

Knight moves.  Working from a1 to a8 and so on, so I can see the knight moving all over without moving all the pieces.  This is going to take months of hard work since I am working on the visualization of the moves also.

I also bought a book that I will work through by Jacob Aagaard.  Excelling at Chess Calculation.  You can find it on Amazon.  It looks rather interesting.  I will also be playing alot of slow games to just get used to the pieces.

The foundation has been ripped out, and I’m starting over.  It’s a wonderful thing, because I was really moving too fast, and I was missing important stuff.  It’s better to be patient.

I realize that as my wife checks the Mate in One’s, that there is a shoddy foundation.  I lack a profound amount of insight into this game.  The foundation could have been sturdy and stable if only I had followed my teacher’s admonition to learn how the pieces move.  I still can’t get the knights to move correctly without putting them in harm’s way.

It’s time to uproot this foundation, and put in a new one.  In a new place, in a room dedicated to this game.  A room I can sit and think; a room for the war that rages within.

It took two days to get through the Mate In One’s in my book that consists of nothing but chess problems.  However, in real life play, I have weakened.  I practice in the book, but when it comes to the unpredictability of the human brain, you find that playing against new prople is rather difficult.

But it seems that I’m able to see mate in one’s faster.  We’ll have to check my answers in order to verify that statement.  My wife has to check through all 306 solutions that I proposed.  We’ll have to see how it goes.  I seem to go in fits and spurts of creativity and analysis, and that proves difficult at times.

Loke and I analyzed the end of the game for the 4th match between Kramnik vs. Machine, and it amazes me that he missed mate in one, and it as all falling apart by 22. dxc5

I certainly hope that we can be stronger as humans, by seeing the whole picture, and not focusing on one little thing.  Sure, Kramnik could have went alead and did some pretty interesting moves, but against a calculating machine, you have to be just as calculating.  Feeling pressure from an outside source, where there could have been mate, or there could have been a draw.

It would have been a draw.  Humans are fallible beings, you may say.  But ever since Kramnik has been drawing the matches.  Will machines win the Man vs. Machine duel?

And it’s ended up dropping my overall rating in the Solitarie Chess pages by Bruce Pandolfini in teh Chess Life magazine.  I am going to work on that.  It looks like chess will be a steady taskmaster for a while.  I don’t really mind that though.

against Loke.

Here is the first game’s PGN. First game’s results 0-1 Starbright (Black) wins.

Here is the second PGN. Second game’s results 0-1 Starbright (Black) wins.

I have played three games today. However, I was not able to record two of them. These were games pitting myself against myself. Here is the PGN for it. Critique me if you would like.

As always, please right click to save the PGN file.