Long story short -- I promised the chess femmes that I would play in the Hales Corners Chess Challenge XVIII. I just noticed tonight, how could I have missed this? - that Challenge XVIII is scheduled for October 12, 2013. That is the anniversary date of Don McLean's death (my Mr. Don).
What was I thinking??? Surely I knew that date before I made my promise? Oy! How could I have committed to playing in a chess tournament on the anniversary date of Mr. Don's death. What was I thinking? But - my memory isn't so good these days, which puts paid to trying to become a championship level chessplayer at this point in my life, har! Perhaps I had a good reason for saying I would do this, I just cannot remember it right now.
Ach! Well, I've lost my mind many times over the years, and maybe it happened to be lost at the time I made the promise that I would appear and play at Challenge XVIII. But I keep my promises, insane or not. It's a personal thing, and a family thing too. Grandpa Newton was very big on giving one's word and then keeping it, no matter what. These days giving one's word is a "sport" ala "Survivor," which has popularized lying with a phoney smile on one's face to someone who decides to trust you, all for the sake of winning fithly lucre.
Anyway, just a little while ago tonight I realized, while checking the date for Challenge XVIII, that I will, in fact, be playing in a chess tournament on the anniversary of Mr. Don's death. And I don't know whether to cry or to laugh.
Be that as it may, I have been "in training" since shortly after whatever date it was that I said I would play in Challenve XVIII. My buddies, Ellen Wanek and Shira Evans Sanford, are my chessly sparring partners, and right now I have a game going with a player at chess.com that I do not know. I've lost every single game I've played since the start of my training, and it's really ticking me off, let me tell you!
How could I have hung a rook on my back rank - it was like move 12? Geez Louise!
And I resigned my last game against Shira when I could see checkmate in 2. I mean, at that point, what's the point in playing to ignominious checkmate, I ask you!
Argggghhhhh!
Yes, I've thought about quitting, and now I have a very good excuse, don't I. But after licking my bruised ego for a few days for being such a crappy hopeless chessplayer -- and who DOES NOT hate to lose???? -- I challenged my buddies to new games and we are slogging along once again. Ellen keeps talking about openings and I'm like "What?????" Finally figured out, with her gentle prodding, that pawn to d4 as an opening move is a Queen's Opening. DUH!
Oh, I also know (I think) that white's first move pawn to e4 is something called the Ruy Lopez, after a dude who lived in the 16th century (or was it the 17th century?) and was a very famous chessplayer of the day. I could probably write a credible essay on Ruy Lopez and his influence on the modern game of western chess and earn an A from a non-chessplayer. Doesn't mean I know squat about playing chess, though.
And I don't know squat about playing chess. I ask myself all the time, how can that be, since you dream up the most brilliant games and are many times world champion, kicking the butts off players such as Shirov, Anand, Kasparov, and Carlsen is now in my sights...
Alas, dreams are not so easy to translate to the reality of the 64 squares in the light of day. Since I seem to have next to no memory these days (sad to say), even if I desired to memorize certain moves and sequences of moves, I do not know that I would be able to do so. But I see no practical reason to desire to try to memorize sequences of moves in an attempt to recognize "patterns" of play and how to respond thereto. I seriously lack motivation, other than to assuage my own ego. And right now, darlings, ego ain't winning this battle. How to reconcile the reality of my limited brain capacity, my limited amount of time to devote to learning (and do I want to?) and my overall lack of chessly skill with my generally competitive nature - well I guess that's a question for Plato or Aristotle, but both of those dudes are dead.
Doesn't sound very promising, heh? LOL! So, I'm slogging along, losing game after game after game, and I'm pretty sure I'm not learning a thing. Well, I did learn that d4 is a Queen's opening. Thanks, Ellen! Does that make a whit of difference to me or my chessly abilities? Nah. Not when I cannot remember the same moves that I must have played dozens of times over and over already, all to the same losing result.
Now I'm just moving pieces here and there, well -- try this Jan, try that Jan. When desperate, one is willing to try crazy things and frankly darlings, right now, I've no idea what is going on in any of my chess games except they all seem to be quite insane. Not that I'm the sanest person to begin with, mind you. I haven't the foggiest idea what I'm doing except trying to use the simplest and yet complex rules of Susan Polgar's learn how to play chess lessons to infants aged 2 and under: always guard your pieces with placement of your other pieces, always look for a way to attack, use retreats strategically. Ok. Makes perfectly good sense. Got that? NOPE!
Showing posts with label learning to play chess. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning to play chess. Show all posts
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Monday, November 14, 2011
First Chess Lesson Completed
Oh darlings, what a day, what a day.
It started out fine, including some mild weather for this time of year in Wisconsin, happy to have it! Things started going downhill with the noon Team Meeting. The firm has implemented a number of changes this year, all geared toward enhancing our "brand" and embracing a "green footprint." Unfortunately, the people who made the decisions didn't ask for an input from the staff, who actually have to implement these policies on a day to day basis. Many issues have arisen, including the new stationery being too thick for our printers to process efficiently, the new font that the firm wants used that violates the rules of the 7th Circuit District Court (Federal), and I could go on and on. I was not looking forward to this Team Meeting, and I was right. I was hungry, but the food that was offered was not anything I wanted to eat. Only the desserts looked good but I don't eat desserts generally -- too much sugar.
And so, while the entire Team was seated around me chowing down, I sat there with a rumbling stomach. The meeting didn't end until 2 p.m. -- I made a quick trip to Cousins but then was scarfing down the sub-sandwich in between bouts of frantic work. Not exactly conducive to proper digestion or stress reduction.
Then, issues arose with the high speed scanner, oh, I'm not even going to go there! I left the office about 3 minutes behind schedule and I knew, I just damn well knew, I was going to miss the bus to take me to the shopping mall where I was to meet the chess coach shortly after 6 p.m. That bus, my regular bus, would have delivered me to the door of the mall just before 6 p.m. As it was, I had to wait for the 5:16 - that is, the bus leaves the depot at the end of the route at 5:16 and a full hour later deposited me at the mall.
So, there I am, no cell phone (don't ask), even if I had a cell phone no way to call the coach because I didn't have his cell phone number on me. I didn't think I'd need it and if I did, it was in my email which I have access to at the office, of course, but not on a street corner with no cell phone that can tap into a wireless network, assuming one was available! My head, which had already been pounding, began to throb in earnest. I'm sure my eyelids were twitching too. I must have looked dangerous. Or strange. Maybe both. People did not stand close to me - a good thing. I can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke and without fail, there are always three or four people who light up right next to me while waiting on the bus. Also without fail, they always seem to somehow position themselves so that no matter where I walk to try to escape from the gagging odor of cigarettes, I can't get away from it! Also without fail #3, they ALWAYS STAND UPWIND FROM YOU, INSTEAD OF BEING CONSIDERATE AND STANDING DOWNWIND AWAY FROM YOU.
Now, you know, Wisconsin recently passed a concealed carry law. All I have to do is take 4 hours worth of training and clear a criminal background check and I can carry a gun around and pop anyone I want whenever I get pissed off, just as long as I have a good enough reason to convince a jury that it was just cause to kill that person. Or maybe now, with the current nut cases in control of my formerly sane state, I don't even have to have a good enough reason. I'll just start killing smokers who stand too close to me and are not wise enough to stand downwind - oh the folly of not seeing that power-mad look in my eyes, bwwwwaaaaahhhhhaaaaaaa......
So, the 5:16 finally arrived at my corner and, sure enough, I've got Mr. Pokey as a driver. He could have delivered me to the mall at least 10 minutes earlier, but that would blow up the schedule. Isn't it uncanny how the only time bus drivers seem to adhere to "the schedule" is when you absolutely need to get somewhere in a big hurry?
Fortunately, Tom was still waiting for me in the food court when I blew in as fast as my short legs could carry me, about 6:20. I had confirmed to him the night before that I would be there shortly after 6 p.m.
Poor man! Not exactly an auspicious beginning.
I have some things to practice, but not tonight. My head hurts too much. I shouldn't even be doing this, but I've neglected the blog of late, and in the meantime the Women's World Chess Championship Match between GM Koneru Humpy and GM Hou Yifan has crept up on me. I'm having a hard time dealing with the fact that I seem to have misplaced most of my summer. When did that happen? People put up CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS in the subdivision this weekend. OY!
A few encouraging signs during the first chess lesson. We went through my two longest games from Challenge XIV and I made some good moves. I also really really really need to either buy one of those damn Monroi thingies to keep track of my moves or I need to - I don't know what. I wrote several moves down wrong, like moving a queen in one game to a square where I already had a pawn parked. Oh, my head...
It started out fine, including some mild weather for this time of year in Wisconsin, happy to have it! Things started going downhill with the noon Team Meeting. The firm has implemented a number of changes this year, all geared toward enhancing our "brand" and embracing a "green footprint." Unfortunately, the people who made the decisions didn't ask for an input from the staff, who actually have to implement these policies on a day to day basis. Many issues have arisen, including the new stationery being too thick for our printers to process efficiently, the new font that the firm wants used that violates the rules of the 7th Circuit District Court (Federal), and I could go on and on. I was not looking forward to this Team Meeting, and I was right. I was hungry, but the food that was offered was not anything I wanted to eat. Only the desserts looked good but I don't eat desserts generally -- too much sugar.
And so, while the entire Team was seated around me chowing down, I sat there with a rumbling stomach. The meeting didn't end until 2 p.m. -- I made a quick trip to Cousins but then was scarfing down the sub-sandwich in between bouts of frantic work. Not exactly conducive to proper digestion or stress reduction.
Then, issues arose with the high speed scanner, oh, I'm not even going to go there! I left the office about 3 minutes behind schedule and I knew, I just damn well knew, I was going to miss the bus to take me to the shopping mall where I was to meet the chess coach shortly after 6 p.m. That bus, my regular bus, would have delivered me to the door of the mall just before 6 p.m. As it was, I had to wait for the 5:16 - that is, the bus leaves the depot at the end of the route at 5:16 and a full hour later deposited me at the mall.
 |
| What I look like after I remove my make-up. |
So, there I am, no cell phone (don't ask), even if I had a cell phone no way to call the coach because I didn't have his cell phone number on me. I didn't think I'd need it and if I did, it was in my email which I have access to at the office, of course, but not on a street corner with no cell phone that can tap into a wireless network, assuming one was available! My head, which had already been pounding, began to throb in earnest. I'm sure my eyelids were twitching too. I must have looked dangerous. Or strange. Maybe both. People did not stand close to me - a good thing. I can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke and without fail, there are always three or four people who light up right next to me while waiting on the bus. Also without fail, they always seem to somehow position themselves so that no matter where I walk to try to escape from the gagging odor of cigarettes, I can't get away from it! Also without fail #3, they ALWAYS STAND UPWIND FROM YOU, INSTEAD OF BEING CONSIDERATE AND STANDING DOWNWIND AWAY FROM YOU.
Now, you know, Wisconsin recently passed a concealed carry law. All I have to do is take 4 hours worth of training and clear a criminal background check and I can carry a gun around and pop anyone I want whenever I get pissed off, just as long as I have a good enough reason to convince a jury that it was just cause to kill that person. Or maybe now, with the current nut cases in control of my formerly sane state, I don't even have to have a good enough reason. I'll just start killing smokers who stand too close to me and are not wise enough to stand downwind - oh the folly of not seeing that power-mad look in my eyes, bwwwwaaaaahhhhhaaaaaaa......
So, the 5:16 finally arrived at my corner and, sure enough, I've got Mr. Pokey as a driver. He could have delivered me to the mall at least 10 minutes earlier, but that would blow up the schedule. Isn't it uncanny how the only time bus drivers seem to adhere to "the schedule" is when you absolutely need to get somewhere in a big hurry?
Fortunately, Tom was still waiting for me in the food court when I blew in as fast as my short legs could carry me, about 6:20. I had confirmed to him the night before that I would be there shortly after 6 p.m.
Poor man! Not exactly an auspicious beginning.
I have some things to practice, but not tonight. My head hurts too much. I shouldn't even be doing this, but I've neglected the blog of late, and in the meantime the Women's World Chess Championship Match between GM Koneru Humpy and GM Hou Yifan has crept up on me. I'm having a hard time dealing with the fact that I seem to have misplaced most of my summer. When did that happen? People put up CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS in the subdivision this weekend. OY!
A few encouraging signs during the first chess lesson. We went through my two longest games from Challenge XIV and I made some good moves. I also really really really need to either buy one of those damn Monroi thingies to keep track of my moves or I need to - I don't know what. I wrote several moves down wrong, like moving a queen in one game to a square where I already had a pawn parked. Oh, my head...
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Chess Miscellany
Wow - I just saw one of those "TODAY IN HISTORY" things that today, November 5: In 1992, U.S. chess legend Bobby Fischer clinched a $5 million chess match against Russian Boris Spassky, marking a triumphant return after 20 years in self-imposed obscurity.
Was it this match that led to the sad end of Robert James Fischer? He died a permanent exile who did not even attend the funeral of his only sibling, his older sister, Joan Targ. Perhaps they had been estranged for many years at the time. With Fischer, one never knew. When Fischer died in 2008 without a Will, a big fight ensued over what was left of his "fortune" - I suspect a very large junk of it was eaten up in legal fees! The Filippino lady who claimed that her daughter was Fischer's lost her claim when DNA testing excluded Fischer as the child's father. A Japanese woman, Miyoko Watai, a pharmacist and the president of the Japan Chess Association, produced documentary evidence of a 2004 marriage to Fischer to the satisfaction of the Court in Iceland that was probating the Estate, was determined her to be Fischer's legal heir. I suppose I'm a sap, but I do hope that in his final years Robert James Fischer found some happiness with a female companion.
Visiting some of the chess femme blogs:
At GM Alexandra Kosteniuk's blog, she posted an obituary/article for former chessplayer Andrija Fuderer (of the former Yugoslavia, later moved to Spain). One can only wonder - what might have been if he had continued to play chess as a full-time career...
GM Kosteniuk is playing on the Russian Women's Team (Board 4, alternating with WGM Natalia Pogonina) in the European Team Chess Championships currently taking place in Greece. So far, she is 2 for 2! You Go Girl!
At GM Susan Polgar's blog, I am thinking about putting her in my Will after she published this photograph of an absolutely smoking hot Vassily Ivanchuk from 1991. OHMYGODDESS! Be still, oh my heart. The game wasn't bad either... Come to think of it, I was probably pretty hot back in 1991 too. Oh time, time, time, what you have done to us? Thicker around the middle and, at least in Ivanchuk's case, much greyer hair too. Hmmm, actually I've probably aged fairly well. Okay, enough ego talk. I owe it all to my sister Yvonne's L'Bri products. Miracles in little jars and bottles...
A great way to help kids and chess - contribute a chess set and board! This article Mr. Solomon's Chess Gifts posted at SP's blog - what can I say? Inspirational, wonderful, awesome!
Visting favorite person Elizabeth Vicary's chess blog, she has posted several "snapshots" of board positions of her chess kids from a recent match and I COULDN'T UNDERSTAND ANY OF THEM. Oh my, my new chess coach is certainly going to face a daunting uphill battle - I'm hopeless! And he thought I was joking when I warned him about battle pay in an email. Hmmm... The photographs of the kids - how can anyone not fall in love with these kids? Oh, those faces! They make me want to cry - tears of happiness, tears of empathy. Gee, I really am getting sentimental in my later years. I've never been particularly fond of children, but they do seem to be particularly fond of me. Perverse.
This photo brought a smile to my face: It's Elizabeth Vicary analyzing with Michael Yu. I gave my very own second chess lesson to a co-worker yesterday, and I swear I had that exact intense look on my face, and that exact same body position - uncanny! Will the right answer out of him, Lizzy! Maybe it's a sort of universal position for coaches - except for the dorky yet fashionable hat, I aint gonna wear one of those, at my age I'd look like a bag lady.
Anyway, she - I mean my pupil - did very well. She remembered the names of most of the pieces and their respective moves even though we weren't able to have a lesson last week Friday. She confused the Rook and the Bishop but that's probably my fault, I should not have gone into that little bit of chess herstory about how the Rooks and the Bishops switched places back in ancient times, or how the game is said to have been invented in India, but everyone really knows it was the Persians who did it... I shouldn't ramble on so, but she seems fascinated by the ancientness of it all, and you should hear her say "Ja'doube"! She loves the word! She loves the concept! Oh my, I've got a captive audience and I'm playing the Ham to the Hilt. Sigh. Yesterday I explained to her how the Persian "ruhkh" became the "rook." What possible relevance this has to moving the pieces around on the board - NONE.
After our review, we went through some simple moves and I also attempted to explain "castling" and how to do it Queenside and Kingside. Her head didn't explode so I think she's okay. Next lesson we're actually going to start playing and move by move we will question each and every move. I may actually learn something myself.
Oh, the exquisite irony. Here I am, acting as a chess coach ("acting" is the key word in this sentence), and I don't know a damn thing about how to actually to play the game, but I do know a lot about it's ancient beginnings; and there I will be on the 14th of the month, sitting across from my own chess coach for the very first time, gulping and wishing with all my might that I won't make an absolute fool of myself. But, I probably will. Such is life, darlings!
But back to Elizabeth Vicary and the school where she teaches, IS 318 in Brooklyn, New York USA. A film crew who has filmed massive amounts of chess stuff with the IS 318 kids and is hoping to prune it all down to an award-winning documentary (like producer Lynn Hamrick's "Chess Kids") are looking to raise some money so they can refine a final product and tout it around all the various places that such films have to be touted in order to get enough recognition to be put on the list of nominees for film awards, etc. etc. Sounds absolutely exhausting! Why would anyone undertake such a project, Ms. Not-So-Innocent (me, darlings) asks? I saw the information/request for contributions at both Alexandra's blog and Susan's blog, so here's some more information. I think it's a great cause because it involves (1) chess and (2) kids and (3) IS 318 (but IS 318 could be any school in the country that has a great chess program).
You know what - since I lost my three faithful canine companions, Tasha being the last to die, she went to The Happy Hunting Grounds in 2004, I've become absolutely fanatical about chess. Am I substituting chess for not having had children, replacing children with dogs, and now that I no longer wish to have official pets (my assorted backyard wildlife faithfully fed for the past 21 years do not count as pets) replacing dogs with chess? What would Freud say? Okay, I can't say what I really want to say about Freud without a lot of profanity and vulgarity, so nix that thought...
WGM Alina L'Ami's blog always has such fascinating articles at her blog. If you come back to Montreal in 2012, Alina, to defend your title as Female Champion of the City of Montreal Open, I hope to meet you. I'm planning on being there. Just how I'm going to manage that, I don't know; if I make an appearance at every event we're sponsoring in 2012 I'll be on the road A LOT. Oh my poor pocketbook! In hindsight, I really should have married that millionaire back in 1974. Oh well. My life may not have taken a chessly turn if I had...
Alina has words of wisdom about losing in chess and Lady Luck, and her words could not be more timely as I am going from bad to worse in my online games with Shira Evans Sanford. Shira, I HATE YOU. I love you, but I HATE YOU. Hmmm, maybe I need some new medication. I'm definitely sounding more and more schizoid these days.
Alina also wrote about Chess Design. I absolutely adore this Chess Theme Bedroom - like WOW! I have yet to finish my black/cream/red country French-themed bedroom -- too busy writing here, darlings. It's been lingering and dying a slow death ever since Kevin painted out the room in 2009 from the dreadful pink I'd had since 1990 when I moved in - well, I did like it once. To be truthful, these days the house looks like crap. The only time I clean now is when I'm expecting company, but I sort of miss the days when I used to have House Beautiful. And it was a Beautiful House. No dust, no odd smells emanating out of the odd corner or from behind (or underneath) furniture, cleaned carpets, sparkling windows. Now it looks like the Castle of Sleeping Beauty, that hasn't been touched in (fill in your own number here) years. Cobwebs and spiders in the corners - I'm not kidding. WHERE THE HELL DO THEY COME FROM?
Oy, I see the shade has already overtaken the front lawn and I've got to move my large pot of three white geraniums back into a sheltered spot. We've been getting hard freezes here at night, but so far, thanks to draping them nightly in a big black towel and uncovering them when I hit the road at 7:15 a.m., those geraniums are not only blooming, they are setting more blooms! I may have another miracle set of geraniums like the ones I had some years back that lasted well into December. Time to move on to other projects - like laundry and baking that apple pie I picked up the ingredients for earlier today during the weekly Saturday trek to the Pick and Save supermarket. Cortland apples were on sale at only 0.98 USD a pound! I couldn't resist. They are such beautiful apples, and perfect for baking. I have a complaint though. Pick and Save did not have the ready-made roll-out pie crusts prominently displayed. I went through that damn gigantic store's dairy/cold and frozen aisles three times before I finally found them! Geez Louise! And how dare they try to foist off on me two ready-to-bake pie shells in cheap tin-foil pie plates for $4.99? I mean, PLEASE! I may have to finally resort to making my own. EEK. Double EEK. Oh well, how hard can it be? Certainly easier than learning how to play a sound chess game!
Speaking of which - one last word about me as chess coach: Yes, darlings, I did actually talk about controlling the center of the board, why that is beneficial, how it's supposed to be done (hello, Ruy Lopez - never thought I'd ever say that and that sure isn't the way I play), and never ever making an intentional move, unless you wish to sacrifice a piece, without making sure the piece is both simultaneously attacking and protected from attack from the enemy forces. Gee, I hate the way that sounds. Maybe that's why I'm not so good at playing. I don't like the premise.
Was it this match that led to the sad end of Robert James Fischer? He died a permanent exile who did not even attend the funeral of his only sibling, his older sister, Joan Targ. Perhaps they had been estranged for many years at the time. With Fischer, one never knew. When Fischer died in 2008 without a Will, a big fight ensued over what was left of his "fortune" - I suspect a very large junk of it was eaten up in legal fees! The Filippino lady who claimed that her daughter was Fischer's lost her claim when DNA testing excluded Fischer as the child's father. A Japanese woman, Miyoko Watai, a pharmacist and the president of the Japan Chess Association, produced documentary evidence of a 2004 marriage to Fischer to the satisfaction of the Court in Iceland that was probating the Estate, was determined her to be Fischer's legal heir. I suppose I'm a sap, but I do hope that in his final years Robert James Fischer found some happiness with a female companion.
Visiting some of the chess femme blogs:
At GM Alexandra Kosteniuk's blog, she posted an obituary/article for former chessplayer Andrija Fuderer (of the former Yugoslavia, later moved to Spain). One can only wonder - what might have been if he had continued to play chess as a full-time career...
GM Kosteniuk is playing on the Russian Women's Team (Board 4, alternating with WGM Natalia Pogonina) in the European Team Chess Championships currently taking place in Greece. So far, she is 2 for 2! You Go Girl!
At GM Susan Polgar's blog, I am thinking about putting her in my Will after she published this photograph of an absolutely smoking hot Vassily Ivanchuk from 1991. OHMYGODDESS! Be still, oh my heart. The game wasn't bad either... Come to think of it, I was probably pretty hot back in 1991 too. Oh time, time, time, what you have done to us? Thicker around the middle and, at least in Ivanchuk's case, much greyer hair too. Hmmm, actually I've probably aged fairly well. Okay, enough ego talk. I owe it all to my sister Yvonne's L'Bri products. Miracles in little jars and bottles...A great way to help kids and chess - contribute a chess set and board! This article Mr. Solomon's Chess Gifts posted at SP's blog - what can I say? Inspirational, wonderful, awesome!
This photo brought a smile to my face: It's Elizabeth Vicary analyzing with Michael Yu. I gave my very own second chess lesson to a co-worker yesterday, and I swear I had that exact intense look on my face, and that exact same body position - uncanny! Will the right answer out of him, Lizzy! Maybe it's a sort of universal position for coaches - except for the dorky yet fashionable hat, I aint gonna wear one of those, at my age I'd look like a bag lady.
Anyway, she - I mean my pupil - did very well. She remembered the names of most of the pieces and their respective moves even though we weren't able to have a lesson last week Friday. She confused the Rook and the Bishop but that's probably my fault, I should not have gone into that little bit of chess herstory about how the Rooks and the Bishops switched places back in ancient times, or how the game is said to have been invented in India, but everyone really knows it was the Persians who did it... I shouldn't ramble on so, but she seems fascinated by the ancientness of it all, and you should hear her say "Ja'doube"! She loves the word! She loves the concept! Oh my, I've got a captive audience and I'm playing the Ham to the Hilt. Sigh. Yesterday I explained to her how the Persian "ruhkh" became the "rook." What possible relevance this has to moving the pieces around on the board - NONE.
After our review, we went through some simple moves and I also attempted to explain "castling" and how to do it Queenside and Kingside. Her head didn't explode so I think she's okay. Next lesson we're actually going to start playing and move by move we will question each and every move. I may actually learn something myself.
Oh, the exquisite irony. Here I am, acting as a chess coach ("acting" is the key word in this sentence), and I don't know a damn thing about how to actually to play the game, but I do know a lot about it's ancient beginnings; and there I will be on the 14th of the month, sitting across from my own chess coach for the very first time, gulping and wishing with all my might that I won't make an absolute fool of myself. But, I probably will. Such is life, darlings!
But back to Elizabeth Vicary and the school where she teaches, IS 318 in Brooklyn, New York USA. A film crew who has filmed massive amounts of chess stuff with the IS 318 kids and is hoping to prune it all down to an award-winning documentary (like producer Lynn Hamrick's "Chess Kids") are looking to raise some money so they can refine a final product and tout it around all the various places that such films have to be touted in order to get enough recognition to be put on the list of nominees for film awards, etc. etc. Sounds absolutely exhausting! Why would anyone undertake such a project, Ms. Not-So-Innocent (me, darlings) asks? I saw the information/request for contributions at both Alexandra's blog and Susan's blog, so here's some more information. I think it's a great cause because it involves (1) chess and (2) kids and (3) IS 318 (but IS 318 could be any school in the country that has a great chess program).
You know what - since I lost my three faithful canine companions, Tasha being the last to die, she went to The Happy Hunting Grounds in 2004, I've become absolutely fanatical about chess. Am I substituting chess for not having had children, replacing children with dogs, and now that I no longer wish to have official pets (my assorted backyard wildlife faithfully fed for the past 21 years do not count as pets) replacing dogs with chess? What would Freud say? Okay, I can't say what I really want to say about Freud without a lot of profanity and vulgarity, so nix that thought...
WGM Alina L'Ami's blog always has such fascinating articles at her blog. If you come back to Montreal in 2012, Alina, to defend your title as Female Champion of the City of Montreal Open, I hope to meet you. I'm planning on being there. Just how I'm going to manage that, I don't know; if I make an appearance at every event we're sponsoring in 2012 I'll be on the road A LOT. Oh my poor pocketbook! In hindsight, I really should have married that millionaire back in 1974. Oh well. My life may not have taken a chessly turn if I had...
Alina has words of wisdom about losing in chess and Lady Luck, and her words could not be more timely as I am going from bad to worse in my online games with Shira Evans Sanford. Shira, I HATE YOU. I love you, but I HATE YOU. Hmmm, maybe I need some new medication. I'm definitely sounding more and more schizoid these days.
Alina also wrote about Chess Design. I absolutely adore this Chess Theme Bedroom - like WOW! I have yet to finish my black/cream/red country French-themed bedroom -- too busy writing here, darlings. It's been lingering and dying a slow death ever since Kevin painted out the room in 2009 from the dreadful pink I'd had since 1990 when I moved in - well, I did like it once. To be truthful, these days the house looks like crap. The only time I clean now is when I'm expecting company, but I sort of miss the days when I used to have House Beautiful. And it was a Beautiful House. No dust, no odd smells emanating out of the odd corner or from behind (or underneath) furniture, cleaned carpets, sparkling windows. Now it looks like the Castle of Sleeping Beauty, that hasn't been touched in (fill in your own number here) years. Cobwebs and spiders in the corners - I'm not kidding. WHERE THE HELL DO THEY COME FROM? Oy, I see the shade has already overtaken the front lawn and I've got to move my large pot of three white geraniums back into a sheltered spot. We've been getting hard freezes here at night, but so far, thanks to draping them nightly in a big black towel and uncovering them when I hit the road at 7:15 a.m., those geraniums are not only blooming, they are setting more blooms! I may have another miracle set of geraniums like the ones I had some years back that lasted well into December. Time to move on to other projects - like laundry and baking that apple pie I picked up the ingredients for earlier today during the weekly Saturday trek to the Pick and Save supermarket. Cortland apples were on sale at only 0.98 USD a pound! I couldn't resist. They are such beautiful apples, and perfect for baking. I have a complaint though. Pick and Save did not have the ready-made roll-out pie crusts prominently displayed. I went through that damn gigantic store's dairy/cold and frozen aisles three times before I finally found them! Geez Louise! And how dare they try to foist off on me two ready-to-bake pie shells in cheap tin-foil pie plates for $4.99? I mean, PLEASE! I may have to finally resort to making my own. EEK. Double EEK. Oh well, how hard can it be? Certainly easier than learning how to play a sound chess game!
Speaking of which - one last word about me as chess coach: Yes, darlings, I did actually talk about controlling the center of the board, why that is beneficial, how it's supposed to be done (hello, Ruy Lopez - never thought I'd ever say that and that sure isn't the way I play), and never ever making an intentional move, unless you wish to sacrifice a piece, without making sure the piece is both simultaneously attacking and protected from attack from the enemy forces. Gee, I hate the way that sounds. Maybe that's why I'm not so good at playing. I don't like the premise.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Chess Lessons!
I did it. I've hired a chess coach. My first lesson will be on November 14th after work. We'll work once a week for an hour or so, depending on what the weather is, of course, as we'll be going into winter and blizzards, sleet storms and way below zero temperatures will happen. The location is very convenient, Southridge Mall, so I can just ride all the way there from the office downtown and not have to get off the bus; going home, I can jump on the bus and turn a 40 minute walk home into a 10 minute ride and 12 minute walk.
I'm excited, but also a little scared. What if it turns out I can't learn how to play any better?
P.S. I am giving new consideration to my friend, Brian Wall's, book - How to Play Chess Like an ANIMAL!
I'm excited, but also a little scared. What if it turns out I can't learn how to play any better?
P.S. I am giving new consideration to my friend, Brian Wall's, book - How to Play Chess Like an ANIMAL!
Monday, October 24, 2011
Mastering Chess
How interesting that this article has appeared, when I'm seriously contemplating taking lessons.
From Science Daily
Mastering Chess: Deliberate Practice Is Necessary but Not Sufficient, Psychologists Find
ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2011) — Psychological scientist Guillermo Campitelli is a good chess player, but not a great one. "I'm not as good as I wanted," he says. He had an international rating but not any of the titles that chess players get, like Grandmaster and International Master. "A lot of people that practiced much less than me achieved much higher levels." Some of the players he coached became some of the best players in Argentina. "I always wondered: What's going on? Why did this happen?"
Now a researcher at Edith Cowan University in Joondalup, Australia, Campitelli studies practicing. He's written an article with Fernand Gobet of Brunel University in the United Kingdom on their and other people's research on chess for Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
In one survey of chess players in Argentina, Campitelli and Gobet found that, indeed, practice is important. All of the players that became masters had practice at least 3,000 hours. "That was not surprising," he says. There is a theory in psychology that the more you practice, the better you'll do in areas like sports, music, and chess. "But the thing is, of the people that achieved the master level, there are people that achieved it in 3,000 hours. Other people did, like, 30,000 hours and achieved the same level. And there are even people that practiced more than 30,000 hours and didn't achieve this."
Campitelli and Gobet concluded that practice is necessary to get to the master level -- but it's not enough. There has to be something else that sets apart the people who get really good at chess.
Similar results on practice have been found for music. A study published in Psychological Science last year found that musicians need a lot of practice, but that practice isn't enough. The researchers identified one additional factor: musicians who are better at sight-reading have better working memory, the ability to keep relevant pieces of information active in your mind.
But, for chess, that factor has not been pinned down. One possibility is intelligence. A lot of studies have found that children who play chess have a higher IQ than the general population. (Because of the ongoing debate on whether IQ really shows intelligence, Campitelli prefers to be conservative and call it "IQ.") But studies have found mixed results on whether adults who play chess have higher IQs than adults who don't play chess. And only one study -- of several that have been performed -- found that adults with higher IQs are better at chess.
Campitelli and Gobet suggest that more intelligent children may be attracted to chess, and use their good reasoning skills to play well, but later they need to practice hard to learn all the strategies and plans that make a good chess player -- and intelligence isn't much help.
Other things that set apart chess players are handedness -- while about 90 percent of the general population is right-handed, only about 82 percent of adult chess players are right-handed. This could indicate some difference in brain development that makes people better at the spatial skills you need to be good at chess. But it still doesn't explain what makes some people better at chess than others.
Campitelli was disappointed that he didn't get to be a better chess player, despite all his practice. "But actually, when I started studying these things, I was happy, because I don't play chess as well as I want, but I can do scientific research and I can coach other people."
From Science Daily
Mastering Chess: Deliberate Practice Is Necessary but Not Sufficient, Psychologists Find
ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2011) — Psychological scientist Guillermo Campitelli is a good chess player, but not a great one. "I'm not as good as I wanted," he says. He had an international rating but not any of the titles that chess players get, like Grandmaster and International Master. "A lot of people that practiced much less than me achieved much higher levels." Some of the players he coached became some of the best players in Argentina. "I always wondered: What's going on? Why did this happen?"
Now a researcher at Edith Cowan University in Joondalup, Australia, Campitelli studies practicing. He's written an article with Fernand Gobet of Brunel University in the United Kingdom on their and other people's research on chess for Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
In one survey of chess players in Argentina, Campitelli and Gobet found that, indeed, practice is important. All of the players that became masters had practice at least 3,000 hours. "That was not surprising," he says. There is a theory in psychology that the more you practice, the better you'll do in areas like sports, music, and chess. "But the thing is, of the people that achieved the master level, there are people that achieved it in 3,000 hours. Other people did, like, 30,000 hours and achieved the same level. And there are even people that practiced more than 30,000 hours and didn't achieve this."
Campitelli and Gobet concluded that practice is necessary to get to the master level -- but it's not enough. There has to be something else that sets apart the people who get really good at chess.
Similar results on practice have been found for music. A study published in Psychological Science last year found that musicians need a lot of practice, but that practice isn't enough. The researchers identified one additional factor: musicians who are better at sight-reading have better working memory, the ability to keep relevant pieces of information active in your mind.
But, for chess, that factor has not been pinned down. One possibility is intelligence. A lot of studies have found that children who play chess have a higher IQ than the general population. (Because of the ongoing debate on whether IQ really shows intelligence, Campitelli prefers to be conservative and call it "IQ.") But studies have found mixed results on whether adults who play chess have higher IQs than adults who don't play chess. And only one study -- of several that have been performed -- found that adults with higher IQs are better at chess.
Campitelli and Gobet suggest that more intelligent children may be attracted to chess, and use their good reasoning skills to play well, but later they need to practice hard to learn all the strategies and plans that make a good chess player -- and intelligence isn't much help.
Other things that set apart chess players are handedness -- while about 90 percent of the general population is right-handed, only about 82 percent of adult chess players are right-handed. This could indicate some difference in brain development that makes people better at the spatial skills you need to be good at chess. But it still doesn't explain what makes some people better at chess than others.
Campitelli was disappointed that he didn't get to be a better chess player, despite all his practice. "But actually, when I started studying these things, I was happy, because I don't play chess as well as I want, but I can do scientific research and I can coach other people."
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