Greetings,
Happy Father’s Day to all the chess playing dads out there!
For 9 years, I have published one of my dad’s victories over myself to honor my father. You can view the whole collection here:
cschess.webs.com/apps/blog/categ … ther-s-day
Final week of the JUNE MATING GAME (6/19, USCF-rated, G/30, only $5 at the club, PRIZES!)
Peace be with you,
Paul Anderson
Read The Newsletter!
( cschess.webs.com/apps/blog/entri … ss-part-ii )
- Game Of The Week: How To Improve At Chess, Part II
- This Week In Chess: Current Standings of the June Mating Game
- Game Viewer: Douglas Anderson v Paul Anderson ( cschess.webs.com/ )
2012 Calendar Of Events for the Colorado Springs Chess Club:
cschess.webs.com/apps/calendar/
For additional events, see the following websites:
Denver Chess Club: DCC (denverchess.com)
Colorado State Chess Association: CSCA (colorado-chess.com/)
Wyoming Chess Association: WCA (wyomingchess.com/)
Kansas Chess Association: KCA (kansaschess.org/)
ps - Newsletter preview with pgn (for board diagram and video see The Newsletter):
When I first started playing chess, it was by email to stay in touch with my dad and sister. I won both games, but my dad enjoyed it enough to continue in a 53 game match. He was a PhD in electrical engineering who had played in the Chicago Industrial Chess League when he worked for Bell Labs. He even got a win over FM Greg DeFotis. So, a loss to his son came as a challenge for him to solve. He refocused himself and won the next four games. I realized I needed to improve to beat him, but how?
Practice
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24)
I had already started playing chess online at a free chess server during my four-game losing streak. It was like practice for me. I would try out different ideas online and see which ones worked for me. Then I could use the most successful ideas in my real games against my dad. It seemed to have an impact on my play. I pulled even in our match. However, I don’t think practice made me perfect, by any means. We were just a couple of chess players who had knocked the rust off. My dad hadn’t played seriously in a decade, as he picked up the hobby of cycling instead. While I had never played seriously, I did sharpen my claws a bit on Sargon III before going off to college.
Email Match Results During The Online Days
Anderson,Douglas 011110½0 4.5/8 +4/-3/=1 56%
Anderson,Paul 100001½1 3.5/8 +3/-4/=1 44%
Patience
“The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride” [Ecclesiastes 7:8]
My next idea was to check out the local chess club. I met Dean Brown, an officer of the Colorado Springs Chess Club, who started me at a rating of 1500. I quickly bumped that up to 1700 playing at the club. It was an improvement over playing online, as the games were much slower. I had to learn to control my impulsive moves and look for better moves. I began to pull ahead in the email match but only slightly. However, learning to slow down only helped so much. Sure, I could eliminate a lot of blunders, but I wasn’t using that time to come up with a good plan. Here is an example of a game from the club days where I create for myself some problems in the opening, get back to an even game, but come up with a wild attack that only backfires on me…
[Event “6-5-2”]
[Site “http://cschess.webs.com/”]
[Date “1999.04.23”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Anderson, Douglas”]
[Black “Anderson, Paul”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B14”]
[PlyCount “81”]
[EventDate “1999.02.09”]
[TimeControl “0”]
- e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6.
c5 Be7 7. Nf3 Nbd7 8. Bd3 O-O 9. b4 Re8 10. O-O a6 11. Bc2 Bf8 12. Re1 g6 13.
h3 Qc7 14. Be3 Bg7 15. Qd2 b6 16. a3 Bb7 17. Bf4 Qc8 18. Ne5 Nxe5 19. Bxe5 Nd7 - Bxg7 Kxg7 21. Bb3 Qc7 22. Re2 Nf6 23. Rae1 Rad8 24. Bc2 Bc6 25. Qe3 Nd7 26.
Qg5 bxc5 27. dxc5 Nf6 28. Bd3 Nh5 29. g3 f6 30. Qh4 Qf7 31. Bxa6 d4 32. Ne4 g5 - Qg4 Qg6 34. Nd6 Rxd6 35. cxd6 e5 36. d7 Rd8 37. Qe6 Bf3 38. Qe7+ Kh6 39.
Qxd8 Nf4 40. Qf8+ Kh5 41. Qe8 1-0