Strategy in Action, Even in an Imperfect Game: Preview
I'll post the game later, but I won a game against a 1591 USCF-rated player last night, which, according to my calculations, now puts me at about 1556 USCF. So, I'm only 44 pts away from Class B.
What's interesting about the game was that I actually used strategy to win it. True, in Fritz 8's analysis afterward, there were some flaws in my game (and even one opportunity if my opp had seized it would have won him the game). Nevertheless, I was proud of myself for actually coming up with a strategic plan and then successfully implementing it.
The theme of the game, which I will post later with some analysis by both Fritz and me, was active, bad bishop vs. inactive, bad bishop. I won the minor piece battle and then found a way to leverage that into a win.
*Incidentally, if you have been following my blog, you might remember me talking about a fellow at chess club who used to win every game against me and who told me that I would never improve. Well, with this win, I have a 2-game winning streak against him.
What's interesting about the game was that I actually used strategy to win it. True, in Fritz 8's analysis afterward, there were some flaws in my game (and even one opportunity if my opp had seized it would have won him the game). Nevertheless, I was proud of myself for actually coming up with a strategic plan and then successfully implementing it.
The theme of the game, which I will post later with some analysis by both Fritz and me, was active, bad bishop vs. inactive, bad bishop. I won the minor piece battle and then found a way to leverage that into a win.
*Incidentally, if you have been following my blog, you might remember me talking about a fellow at chess club who used to win every game against me and who told me that I would never improve. Well, with this win, I have a 2-game winning streak against him.
posted by CelticDeath at 8:23 AM
11 Comments:
Heheh, alright CD!
PS
Maybe he was trying to motivate you so he could get better games :) :O :P
Congrats.
Good job. Look forward to seeing the game.
There is a current article in chesscafe.com about how strategic planning in chess is actually a communist plot.
No, I am not kidding. It turns out that all of Botvinniks' voluminous writings on the detailed plans that GMs make during a game, was all done to please the Soviet Chess bureaucracy.
Glad to hear it and can't wait for the game!
Maybe that's partially true, where it concerns Botvinnik's work, but I don't believe Euwe, Silman, Watson, and Reshevsky were in on such a plot!
Wouldn't surprise me at all. Stalinism had a stranglehold on science, for instance enforcing a thoroughly outdated form of Lamarckianism in genetics. It set Russian genetics back decades.
This makes it all the more cool that Fischer beat them.
It is kind of sad that we will probably never know the extent to which political ideology corrupted enterprises which are, and should remain, largely apolitical (sports, science, the press, of course religion (though it didn't corrupt religion as much as try to destroy it)). It is already starting to feel almost unbelievable that the Soviet Union did so many crazy things.
The torch of oppressive ideology simply passes from one entity to the next. Yesterday, it was Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Today it's Al Qaeda. Tomorrow, I'm predicting it will be Cuba/Venezuela/Bolivia.
I sure hope you are wrong Celtic Death. I hope that with each iteration the international community learns something new about how to handle totalitarianism.
China concerns me a lot more than Venezuala and Cuba. China is becoming a strange amalgam of capitalism and totalitarianism. No free press, no free speech, no freedom to march, of religion. But a strange western capitalism.
A country like China, with the economic resources of a free-market society. That scares me.
Yep, I see them as a distant threat, too. However, they seem to be patient, calculating like a chessplayer in the style of Karpov. Maybe 10-20 years from now they will strike. However, there is also hope. Maybe in that same span of time the old school will have disappeared to be replaced by the like-minded of the courageous few of Tienamin Square.
I forgot to mention Iran, though. How could I miss it. They're probably more of an immediate threat than any other country at this point.
Iran and N. Korea are crazy. I agree about China short term. They are making quiet moves right now :)
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