What's this? I still know this blog exists?

I know, I know. It has been more than two months since my last post. I haven't really been playing very much while adjusting to my new job and life in Madison.

I've played in two tournaments since moving in September. The first tournament I tied for 3rd with 3.5/5.0 (+3 =1 -1) and one game that I will probably make a video out of [Theme: Gradual build-up of an attack]. The second tournament I tied for first (1st on tiebreaks!) and went 4.0/5.0 (+4 -1) with one game that I will make a video out of [Theme: Exploitation of pins, notable opponent].

I am hoping to be motivated enough this week to try and make one, if not both, of these videos.

As always, I welcome any input. As per a reader request I am going to try to put subtitles in my videos from now on. If there is one video of these two you would rather see, send me an email or comment on this post and if one is more popular then I will make it first.


**EDIT** Figuring out how to do subtitles without obscuring the board is proving difficult, so look for an ETA on a video for Monday.

Slight Delay

So, I went out with some friends after work and stayed later than I intended to, so I am pushing back my post to tomorrow night. I know you are all just dying because I didn't post tonight, but don't despair, it will just be that much more special when I post tomorrow.

Upcoming videos

Hi everyone who still occasionally check this! I've been gone a while continuing unsuccessfully to find a job. I've also been working through some personal problems as of late. Hopefully the job situation improves since I am close to having to start repayments on my student loans, but at least the personal problems are all done with for now. That means I can get back to making the super-duper-mega-high-quality videos that you have come to love. I played in the North American Open in Stillwater, Oklahoma over this past weekend and had several games worth making videos out of, so you should be seeing some more activity from me quite soon. I plan on having the first video up sometime tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon my time, so until then you will just have to settle for this text post.

Maybe in a day or so?

Sorry everybody. I have the next game ready for video, but I have not been feeling well enough to actually record it. For now, I will post the game in pgn form (for some reason you can't embed files on Blogger) and you can save the text as a pgn and view it if you would like. Once I get feeling a bit better I will turn it into a video post for those of you that are lazy or don't have a pgn viewer. What is below is more or less what I will say in the video, so if you want a sneak preview of it then you can go through what is below.

[Event "Cedar Rapids Leatherjackets"]
[Site "Cedar Rapids"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Tyagi"]
[Black "Madison"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A40"]
[Annotator ",Jeremy"]
[PlyCount "36"]

{Annotated by Jeremy!} 1. d4 e6 2. c4 b6 3. Nc3 f5 4. g3 Bb7 5. Nf3 Nf6 6. Bg2
Be7 7. O-O O-O 8. b3 {This is where we leave my database, although I am sure ..
.d6 has been played before.} d6 9. Bb2 ({The main alternative is:} 9. d5 e5 {
The e6 square is where the entire game revolves.} 10. Ng5 Bc8 11. Ne6 Bxe6 {
Black has to be careful not to lose this exchange with the light squared
bishops off the board.} 12. dxe6 c6 {Will this pawn mean victory or defeat?})
9... Nbd7 $2 {Sometimes development is wrong.} (9... d5 {
Immediately was much stronger.}) 10. Nd2 $2 (10. Ng5 {Outright wins a pawn.}
Bxg2 11. Kxg2) 10... Bxg2 11. Kxg2 d5 {Now the fight is being taken to white.}
12. e3 {This light square complex is a lot weaker without the light squared
bishops on the board, which is why black was more than happy to trade them off.
The difference is that the light squared weakness in black's position are in
an area that cannot be exploited anytime soon. White's light square weaknesses
are right around the king, where several black pieces can immediately attack
them.} c6 {
Indirectly supports the attack by tightening the grip on the light squares.}
13. Nf3 {Eyeing e5, but this game is about light squares.} Bd6 {"Defends" the
e5 square, but more importantly is aiming at the pawns in front of the enemy
king.} 14. Qc2 {An attempt at fighting for e4, but this needed to be done
earlier with the Knight on d2, so that f3 and e4 could be tried.} Ne4 {
Now there is just not enough time for white to get in all of the moves they
want. Black has an advantage no matter how you slice it.} 15. Nd2 {
f3 is the obvious followup, so what should black do?} Qg5 {Trying to get the
knee-jerk f4 played, when there are more permanent weaknesses around the white
king. This also sets a most devious trap on f3.} 16. f3 (16. f4 Qg6 {The idea i
s to throw the h-pawn to break up the pawns in front of the white king. If
Rook support is needed on the h-file, Kf7 is perfectly safe to play followed
by doubling on the h-file.}) 16... Nxg3 {Black is completely won now. White's
only option for continuing the game is to move the f1 rook and just hope.} 17.
f4 (17. hxg3 Qxg3+ 18. Kh1 Qh2#) (17. Rfe1 Ne4+ 18. Kf1 Nxc3 19. Qxc3 Bxh2 {
With a winning edge for black.}) 17... Nxf1+ {
But that's just losing for black right?} 18. fxg5 Nxe3+ {Black has seen one
move more than white, and that is the cause of this win for black. Notice that
black did not really have a particularly clear plan until the exchange of
light squared bishops, when the plan of light squared play became simple to
find. These are the kinds of things to look for in your own games. Slight
differences can radically change the correct ideas.} 0-1

In Production

Ok, I am running through my older games, looking for anything worth putting into video form. I have found a few games and will have them in production and posted in the next few days. Hopefully posting multiple videos in a couple days will make up for my not having posted in over a week. Also, fun fact: my hit counter glitched a few days ago, so it reads that I have about 203,000 more hits than I have actually had. I of course, don't mind, but I found it pretty humorous when I first noticed.

Back to it!

So after a bit of a break, and an as of yet unsuccessful job hunt, I am posting again. I am going to attempt a special treat. I am going to attempt to make a video post by the end of today (Monday, Feb 1st). If all goes well, I might start to mix in video posts with regular posts. So for the 2 of you that will see this before I post again later today, be on the lookout and tell everybody. *shakes fist* Everybody!

Thursday the game will be posted

I am all finished moving now (Yay!). All that is left between me and being able to annotate and post the game from Saturday is my Differential Equations Final tonight (ah summer classes). That said, I will have all the time in the world from tomorrow until the fall semester starts up. I expect to have the game posted by 2-3 PM Central Time, so in case you are just itching to see it, that is when to stop by. Anyway, back to studying for me!

I have a game to post...

...but I won't be posting it for a few days since I am in the process of moving to my new apartment. On a side note, I hurt my back during the 8.5 hours of moving stuff yesterday, and today I get to move the really heavy stuff, i.e. couches and TV. Goodie gumdrop.

Coming Up: Training Quad

This Saturday I will be playing in a training quad to help Iowa's Denker representative prepare for the Denker tournament.

The Players are as follows:

-Matt Anzis (Denker Rep)
-George Eichhorn
-Jason Juett
-Myself

Should be able to get some good games, and ideally something interesting that I can post.

Something to post in a few days?

So, for the past week or so I have not played a single game. That makes it a little hard to post anything. Since I am actually getting consistent views on this thing, I should really play more so that I can guarantee being able to post every few days/week. Long story short, I will spend a lot of time playing blitz this week so that I will have something to post in the next couple days.

Games Coming, I Promise

My Internet has been down for most of the day, so I have not been able to put any games from this past weekend up. Hopefully I will be able to post at least one tomorrow after getting back from the archaeological dig I am currently working on.

Also: I plan on playing in the Hugh Myers memorial tournament this coming weekend in Moline, so be prepared for results from that.

Upcoming Tmt: Chicago Open

I will be playing in the U2100 3-day section of the Chicago Open this coming weekend. Hopefully, I will have some interesting things to post, but I will probably play relatively low energy for a while, since I have been on an archaeological dig all week, which is quite draining. If I get really ambitious, I will post a video report with the webcam in my laptop, otherwise, it will likely be similar to previous posts. Wish me luck!

**UPDATE** 5/22

I switched to the 3-day Open after seeing 9 GMs in the 4-day Open.

Closed Results

Every once in a while you play in a tournament and never really get off of the ground. Unfortunately, this was one of those tournaments for me. I scored 1.0/5.0, which wasn't so bad in itself, but I was playing atrociously. In 3 of my 5 games, I simply dropped material for no reason. On move 11 of round 1, I got so far ahead of myself that I missed a simple knight fork that instantly gave me a losing position. Needless to say, I just never mentally got into the tournament, and it cost me dearly. I did manage to win one game, in quite possibly the best use of castling I have ever had.

I will have an annotated game for you by the end of the week. I would have had it done today, except I am exhausted from both the tournament and having to stay up until 4:30 this morning doing homework.

Iowa Closed Championship Preview

Hello fellow woodpushers. A few points of interest coming up:

-I just got a new laptop, and am in the process of moving my chess files over, so I will likely not have an update on here until next week.

-The Iowa Closed, which I qualified for will be held this coming weekend in Marshalltown. More specific details can be found at the IASCA site. Here is a preview of what I think the tournament situation will be:

Round 1: White vs. Bob Keating
This is an important game to get on the scoreboard with to set the tempo for the tournament. I have won my last 2 games with white against Keating, but he is a tough player to beat. As long as I don't get too anxious from this being the first round, this should be a good game.

Round 2: Black vs. Pete Karagianis
I have yet to score with black against Pete, but the last time we played I did manage to win a piece with white while Pete was in time pressure although I did lose the game in the ending. The main focus of this game will be to see if all of my recent training will make me competitive against master level players.

Round 3: White vs. Matt Anzis
This will probably be the defining game of the tournament for me. I am currently +1 against Matt overall, but he has recently shown incredible skill development and could be out of reach soon for almost any of us.

Round 4: Black against ???
I still don't know who the 6th player is, so I can't say much about this game.

Round 5: White vs. Tim Mc Entee
This game will either be very long and interesting or very short and boring varying on the course that the tournament has taken. In previous years, if a draw would clinch at least a share of 1st for Tim, he has offered draws, which would not be unexpected here if he were in such a position. However, depending on my own results, there may even be room for me to play the game out for a shot at 1st myself.

Of the 5 currently known players, I am the lowest rated, but I believe given the correct mindset I could win any game in this tournament. My goal is to emerge with 3.0/5.0 or better, but I would gladly take a higher amount. Following the tournament I will provide some sort of tournament report on either Monday or Tuesday.

So everybody, wish me luck!

Updates coming

Sorry for the extremely long delay everyone. I had a rather rough semester on both a school and personal level. Now that I have an easier semester coming I will be able to update this more frequently. In the mean time, here is an update on how things have been going:

Almost all of 2008 was a slide for me, all in all dropping to 1900 exactly from a peak of 1941 in January. I recently played in Illinois at Tim Just's Winter Open where I scored 2.5/5.0 and managed to only lose 2 points. On the bright side, I actually think I am a much stronger player than at this time last year. In the next couple days I will post a very interesting game from that tournament in which I really get to use my imagination, starting from move 2! Here is a preview:

Simpson-Madison, Tim Just's Winter Open
1. e4 d6!? (I have not played this in several years!) 2. d4 f5!?(!!) a very unique way to handle the situation. More to come later.