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I am beginning to be able to recognize my skill relative to other chess players. Before, chess rating 700 meant nothing to me. It was a number between 0-3000, wherein I was in the lower 1/3rd, however I did not really know what that was. Now I've come to recognize that my skill level is that of a young child who has been taking chess lessons.
I've been rediscovering that skill based fields have these profoundly different levels. It's difficult to explain in english, and I do not know of a language that has a word for it, but let me try to explain. In Starcraft I have known for a long time that I play a different game than silver league Joe, and I also play a different game than IMMvp. On the surface, we are playing starcraft, we are all making scvs and supply depots, we are making marines, tanks, and medivacs, yet there is a profoundly different way the game plays. Skill does not quite explain what I am trying to say, because IMMvp is not the best terran as far as skill goes, yet he has 4 GSL titles. There was also an article on teamliquid talking about the new generation pro players of Broodwar having the mechanical skill of gods, yet losing key matches due to the will of the old generation. There is something to say about the spirit between players in different skill brackets, that is outside the realm of physical existence. There is something else that is mental, that is profoundly different between players of different skill levels. And the last realization I had about this topic, is that Joe in silver league is struggling to get to gold league just as much as I am struggling to get to grandmaster league. Joe's challenge takes very little mechanical skill, and much more of a true mental understanding, whereas mine encompasses a lot more mechanical skill, and slightly less mental understanding.
There needs to be words that explain the struggle to improve in a skilful field, and the profound differences between different levels of skill. And it must encompass the true meaning of skill, will, and spirit.
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As far as my chessic learning goes, I am still terrible, nothing new. However, what IS knew, is my rediscovering of what I had forgotten from Starcraft.
As a bit of a preamble I would like to bring up a russian saying:
"A talented man is talented in all things."
Why is Josh Waitzkin a chess grandmaster, and a tai chi quan world champion? He is not the smartest player in the world, he does not have the build of an extreme athlete, so why is his prowess so strong in these two VERY different fields of competition. The truth is, that what one learns about learning in one field, can be applied to a different field. I can take my understanding of learning music from 10 years of experience and apply it to Starcraft. I can take my learning of how I learn in Starcraft, and apply it to chess. I can not apply the actual learnt skill of playing long runs on the piano to chess, but I can apply the learnt skill of learning to learn the run. Again, english fails to allow me to truly express my meaning.
Right now in Starcraft, I have discovered weaknesses in my play, and am doing strategies that directly confront these weaknesses and forces me to fix them. My multitasking is weak, so lets do complicated build orders by Thorzain, while having a high amount of harass. I have been trying to apply the same logic directly from Starcraft to chess.
The issue that is cropping up, is that when I begin to stress my skills in chess by attempting to create very positional games that rely a lot on deep understanding of tactics to prevail, I am not stressing any skills. I am asking a beginner piano player to play this:
Now, for myself, since I have difficulty playing chords quickly, playing a fast rachmaninov piece with deep russian style chords would be excellent for working on that weakness, however if I apply that logic to chess, I can't play a positional game to save my life. First I should play open games, the way I started. This is exactly equal to a new piano player learning to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"
First I must build a small understanding of what I am playing, before I understand how to fix it.
I recommend that the blog be read as so, so you can read my comments throughout while also being able to see the board for yourself. http://imgur.com/fDqKN
http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=389722621
I will be playing black, against world renowned 768 rated player somendradhaka, no introduction required.
>He opens 1.e4.
>I play 1.e6, planning to play 2.d5
>He actually pushes his pawn with 2.e5 making my space really cramped.
>I respond with 2.Nc6 to pressure the pawn.
>He plays 3.d4, supporting, and bringing his queen in to play from a distance.
>I play 3.d6 to get shit going.
>He plays 4.Nf3 to not get shit going.
>I play 4.dxe5, because I want things to happen.
>He also plays 5.dxe5, and I cackle as I get to throw my Queen at his.
>5.Qxd1+, now he cant castle because he is forced to play
>6.Kxd1
Now if we look at this position, I feel that I am in a greatly advantageous position. His e pawn is in an untenable position, meaning that in a few short moves I should have full center control.
>I have played 6.f6 to get that centre pawn out of there.
>He plays 7.Bf4, but I respond with
>7.g5 which forces him to retreat to
>8.Be3
>Now I can take the middle pawn with 8.fxe5
>When he responds with 9.Bxg5, I do not mind that much because I know I still have the positional advantage.
>I play 9.e4 to threaten his king, and he retreats his bishop with 10.Bd2
>I, continuing my theme of terrible play, do not realize that he can threaten my rook, and I move 10.Bd7 to be able to castle.
>He plays 11.Bc3, netting him a rook kill
>I just castle, I wish to do as much posturing as I can, as it is my advantage right now.
>He plays 12.Bxh8 obviously
>I just continue to develop and play 12.Nh6, maybe not the best move, but I made it.
>He responds with 13.Ng5, which threatens both of my middle pawns.
>I play 13.Be8+ because I need time to be able to defend my middle pawns.
>He moves his king with 14.Kc1
>I resign that one of my pawns will die, and move 14.Nd4 to defend the back E pawn. I should have defended the forward E pawn, but hindsight is better than foresight as always.
>I am very behind in force, and I lose the forward middle pawn after 15.Nxe4
>I respond with 15.Nhf5
>He plays 16.Nf6, I do not like this move because It basically allows me to get a free development move, after 16.Bg6
>He then takes away a part of my developmental advantage with 17.c3, forcing my kngiht back to c6
>After he plays 18.Bc4, it is apparent that in a twisted way, in this position, I am actually up in force. I say this because I can currently field 2 knights, 2 bishops, and 1 rook, whereas he can field 1 knight, 2 bishops, and 1 rook. The other knight and rook are too far away from the action to be of concern.
>I defend with 18.Rd6
>He plays 19.Ne4 which threatens my rook.
> It is nothing in the face of what is to come.
>19.Bh6+
>Oh 20.Kc2?
>20.Ne3+
>21.Fxe3, just as I planned
>21.Bxe4+
>22.Kc1
>22.Bxe3+
>23.Nd2
>23.Rxd2
This heroic set of checks, a brilliant sacrifice, and a complete reversal of the state of the game, wins me the game. Here, if I play ANY move with my rook on the D file I will win the game because he has no way to stop the next check.
>That would be if I was good. I am bad.
>He responds to this shitstorm with 24.Bb3
>I play 24.b6...
>He plays 25.Rd1
>I play 25.Rxg2+ To kill some pawns.
I've missed the window. I had a check that any chess player in the world would have been proud to witness and I didn't even notice what I had on my hands at the time.
>He plays 26.Rd2, which nets me a free rook. This is still an atrocious position for white, but I can no longer apply the principle of me being super ahead in the force count, because it is only a matter of time until he develops properly.
>I play 26.Bxd2+ to which he plays 27.Kd1.
The position is really shitty for white. But not unwinnable.
>I take another free pawn with Rxh2.
>I don't know why he played 28.Rc1, it does alleviate the pressure from his king a bit because I take it with 28.Bxc1, and he retakes with 29.Kxc1
>I play a silly check with 29.Rh1+ because it is me telling him to develop his pieces for free, while I do nothing really.
>He plays 30.Kd2
Now I'm going to tell you that the game is going to be a lot more stupidity, and will go from 30 moves now, until 66 moves later. And I don't think either of us went past 5 minutes on our 10 minute clocks, haha.
The game gets interesting again at 41
As black I am immensely ahead. I have two pawns that are possible for queen promotion, and his one pawn is all but dead.
Another 5 moves, and I have somehow lost my rook (because I am terrible), and I have also not killed his one pawn yet. However, I have two different pawns that can be promoted to queens, and one is just about to.
Another 5 moves. I have 2 queens, versus 1 bishop. Prepare to cry.
This is how the game ends.
Rofl.
  
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United States10135 Posts
+ Show Spoiler +damn i hate when that happens to me xD really sucsk cause you know you won and the other guy stays in there only to get lucky and maybe get the stalemate. owell xD
spoilered because of result xD
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your Country52797 Posts
Don't worry, you'd destroy me in chess :D
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Another awesome chess blog, man. I've been trying to improve myself for some time now, but I always end up ditching chess and only ever coming back to it every few months. None of my friends play chess even though I keep telling them to get into it, and it's kind of hard to keep motivated when it's just you and your craft and there's no one in the world to share it with.
But still, gratz on your progress. I think I'm like 1200 on Chess.com if you ever want to play some friendly games. (I seriously (and perhaps wrongly) believe that I'm usually playing better than this rating but I just throw games because of awful blunders(ie A-moving my queen into my opponent's base) But that's why I'm not better I guess.)
Also,+ Show Spoiler +CHESS HWAITING!! FUCK YA!!
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@FlashFTW Not lucky, just me being rather stupid there 
@shizaep I do not get discouraged personally by being isolated. I play piano for myself, I play starcraft by myself, I play chess with no real life friends, being alone just does not bother me.
My chess.com ID is Thaniri, if you're ever online just send me a challenge in live chess.
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+ Show Spoiler +I have no idea how you threw that game so hard. All you had to do is keep your queens/king of the black tiles and the bishop is basically useless.
Edit: Turn 60 to win all you had to do is Qb5. I don't play chess often so I'm quessing that is how you write it.
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@iTzSnypah
I'm really terrible at chess.
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That happens to me all the time too. I get really big early game advantages, sacrifice a few pieces here or there and the games end up like that even against people who have barely ever played chess before.
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I wonder how high of a rating the Microsoft windows chess AI has. I played against the level 10 computer (on vista if it matters), I've managed to win a few times but I'm pretty sure it was partially due to luck. I distinctly remember one game...I looked as far into the future as I could. The computer was doing some strange build up on the right...but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was. Then a brilliant series of moves...and I lose the game. Its crazy how deep the strategy can be with this.
I'm too scared to play competitively. I'm sure I would be embarrassed somehow. Especially because I'm sure I'd be playing against some 13 year old, and they'll be running halfway through the game to get candy at a nearby shop, then come back and say "are you done yet"? I would hesitantly say yes, then he would move while casually talking to his friend overlooking the game. Then a few moves later he would start looking at me weirdly, as I make obvious and bad mistakes that lose me the game. That is how I envision things .
Still I take pride in beating the computer. Its ridiculous how smart my computer is. You're one smart computer!! ^.^
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Canada8031 Posts
Random notation note: you should prefix black moves with "..." in order to help differentiate them from white moves. For instance, instead of 4.dxe5, it'd be 4...dxe5. It makes things a lot more readable. Also, your pictures should be placed after the moves they depict for maximum clarity.
And as hp.Shell said, take a look at the rook+king and queen+king endgame. These two endgame scenarios are incredibly common, so knowing how to successfully finish them is great.
The basics of pawn+king vs king endgames are also good to know. It's very easy to get a stalemate if you're not aware of what needs to be done.
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"Joe's challenge takes very little mechanical skill, and much more of a true mental understanding"
Really, it's the exact opposite, both in Starcraft and chess. In Starcraft, you can get to at LEAST platinum on practically just mechanics. Sure, you need to know that you can't beat mass colossus with pure marines or whatever, but with even a basic understanding of the game you can beat most people in lower leagues with pure mechanics.
I first started playing Starcraft 2 multiplayer September of 2011. Before that, I'd pretty much just played the campaign and a few games against the AI. But, because I'd played Brood War for so long, I placed in platinum despite not knowing what warp gates did, and made it to diamond pretty shortly after.
It's very similar in chess: if you're good tactically, you'll beat people at the lower levels. It doesn't really matter how bad you are positionally most of the time. For example, in this game, you blunder by losing your rook (e5 could have saved it), then he blunders, then you blunder by not mating him, but you're still winning, then you blunder again later by stalemating.
For the most part, positional play means very little in this game. After move 8, positionally, you're doing very badly. You have doubled isolated pawns, one of which you're very likely to lose eventually. Ultimately, however, this has no effect on the result of the game other than the tactics it allows to have happen.
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On November 05 2012 08:25 hp.Shell wrote:Argh, rough way to draw. It's times like these when you should probably start learning the rook+king vs king checkmate and queen+king vs king checkmates. Good QKvsK# http://chess.about.com/od/tipsforbeginners/ss/KQvsK.htmRKvsK# http://www.chess.com/article/view/rookking-vs-king-mate(second diagram with annotations) BBvsK is hardly worth learning because it's pretty rare to have both bishops survive without another piece or a pawn. BNvsK is something that some GMs don't even bother to learn because of how rare it is.
I've only ever had bishop + knight vs king once ever. It was in a bullet game where I had like 4 seconds left. Incidentally, I didn't remember how to win it in time.
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Ouch. Sorry about missing the sweet mate opportunity at move 24, that always stings.
Three quick notes:
1. This blog is awesome, keep it going, and good luck!
2. I know you're focusing on basics for now, and rightly so (learning the KQvK and KRvK endgames as mentioned above is critical), but seeing a possible tactic here and there can't hurt at any level. At move 24 when you saw that you could have had discovered check[mate], it's good that you recognize discovered check as a very powerful move. However, it's real power isn't just that it gives you mate opportunities, it's that you could have safely moved your rook anywhere on the board that wasn't directly attacked by the king, and since he needs to respond by getting out of check, he can't respond by reacting to where your rook went. In particular, you could have moved ...Rd1 and taken his (inactive) bishop for free next turn.
3. Along similar lines, look at the a file on move 26. Any time you have an enemy king and rook "in the wrong order", i.e. the reverse of where they would be if he had castled, look for back rank rook checks. If he can't block and has to move his king away, he can't do so and defend the rook, and you get a free rook. In your game if you had moved 27. ...Rg1+ right away, you'd be losing the bishop your rook was protecting but taking his rook. That's already a positive trade for you, and if you move your bishop back on move 27 instead, you're threatening to take his rook for free, which is a must-defend situation for him.
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To look at the first mistake of the game: At move 8, you had a different move you could have made, that wins you a pawn instead of trading pawns. See if you can find it. Check the spoiler after a minute or two.
+ Show Spoiler +
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OP, it's great to see more people getting into chess! It's an interesting game.
If you need some help getting an analysis engine set up, or just figuring out some good openings or whatever let me know(and this goes for anyone here on TL). I know how intimidating it is off of the bat.
Also, on move 24 I think you could have moved your Rook back 2 spaces to the square d4 and it looks like mate. This would be done in notation as 24 ... Rd4 (24 to represent move 24, ... to represent that it's black's move, R stands for Rook, d4 is the square it's moving to). Your Bishops block off the diagonal, and your Rook attacks the only space left for the King to go to.
EDIT: Woops, most of this has already been covered... my bad haha
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Canada8031 Posts
Out of curiosity, why didn't you take his knight on move 10? You mentioned that you didn't see the threat on your rook, and castling is nice, but free material is still nicer.
On November 05 2012 11:22 Salivanth wrote:To look at the first mistake of the game: At move 8, you had a different move you could have made, that wins you a pawn instead of trading pawns. See if you can find it. Check the spoiler after a minute or two. + Show Spoiler +
This doesn't work.
+ Show Spoiler +8... Nxe5
9. Nxe5 fxe5
10. Bxg5
And we're in the exact same position, with two less knights.
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Endgame:
Always keep queen far away from oppo king. Use long range limiting movement to force king down to last rank... profit $$
Edit: anyway. from your blogs, it seems you have a tendency to overdevelop your pawns and not your pieces in order to move your king to safety or to position pieces for attack.
As a result, one side of yours is always exposed and very vulnerable to open file/ diagonal attacks. This is OK in one of your game where it was a closed game but for the open games, your positions can lead to discovery attacks or pressure to your pieces unnecessarily.
Anyway, it was nice to read up on some chess.. Been so long since I played... no one IRL plays chess so sad...  (
Edit Edit: LOLOL Dat move 24... missed opportunity indeed.
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On November 05 2012 12:17 Spazer wrote:Out of curiosity, why didn't you take his knight on move 10? You mentioned that you didn't see the threat on your rook, and castling is nice, but free material is still nicer. Show nested quote +On November 05 2012 11:22 Salivanth wrote:To look at the first mistake of the game: At move 8, you had a different move you could have made, that wins you a pawn instead of trading pawns. See if you can find it. Check the spoiler after a minute or two. + Show Spoiler + This doesn't work. + Show Spoiler +8... Nxe5
9. Nxe5 fxe5
10. Bxg5 And we're in the exact same position, with two less knights.
If you want to win a pawn, you actually play 8...g4 right? Knight anywhere, Nxe5 and black's position is beautiful
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On November 05 2012 16:01 huameng wrote:Show nested quote +On November 05 2012 12:17 Spazer wrote:Out of curiosity, why didn't you take his knight on move 10? You mentioned that you didn't see the threat on your rook, and castling is nice, but free material is still nicer. On November 05 2012 11:22 Salivanth wrote:To look at the first mistake of the game: At move 8, you had a different move you could have made, that wins you a pawn instead of trading pawns. See if you can find it. Check the spoiler after a minute or two. + Show Spoiler + This doesn't work. + Show Spoiler +8... Nxe5
9. Nxe5 fxe5
10. Bxg5 And we're in the exact same position, with two less knights. If you want to win a pawn, you actually play 8...g4 right? Knight anywhere, Nxe5 and black's position is beautiful
Yeah. Black's just winning there.
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I wonder how well a chess GM would do if he got diamond-level mechanics in SC2... You guys think he'd be able to steamroll everyone on tactical strategy alone?
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I think you should try to change your approach to chess.
Chess is not so much a game of attack, but rather a game of defense and positioning. Blitzkrieg doesn't work. When I started playing I focussed on defense. Just try not to lose anything without an at least even exchange. If you've got the initiative be cautious. It's better to not win outright because you played cautious than losing because you had no patience.
One of my friends (about 2200 real life elo) said everyone below 1500 kills himself anyway, no need to do anything risky to win.
nice blog, will definitely have a look again 
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On November 05 2012 21:44 Bahku wrote:
I wonder how well a chess GM would do if he got diamond-level mechanics in SC2... You guys think he'd be able to steamroll everyone on tactical strategy alone?
Nope. Firstly, I doubt that's even possible for anyone: MVP with diamond-level mechanics would get creamed imo. Secondly, Chess and SC2 really are very different games. A Chess GM would probably be able to learn SC2 strategy quickly, and would have the mindset of training hard, but still. Hell, look at Kespa players. They took months to cross over, and they already had professional-level RTS mechanics AND were transitioning to a game with huge similarities. I'd say a diamond-level mechanics chess GM who wanted to go pro in SC2 has a better chance than most Masters players, but it would be more due to his mindset and work ethic than anything else. I don't think the best strategy in the world could let you beat pros with diamond mechanics very often.
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Is the word your looking for dedication?
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@hp.Shell
Thanks, I'll learn that.
@Spazer
I didn't know that, I will do all the next blogs like that.
@GolemMadness
I think the mental hurdle for new Starcraft players is greater than the mechanical one. I personally went from the depths of bronze to the top of diamond on strategy and macro, my apm in high diamond was 20-30. I'm going to be playing simple games in chess first, before I learn complicated games.
@lazyitachi
One of my practice partners in chess says the same thing to me. I just feel cramped when I make efforts to develop middling pieces.
@Bahku
I'm pretty sure I saw a blog or reddit post wherein a chess master decided to learn starcraft, I assume he failed because I haven't read anything since.
@sephiria
I will make it work.
@MrF
Not even close.
@Anyone who suggested moves, I'm at school right now so I can't actually check the game. I will try to reply to these posts later today or tomorrow.
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wtf... 20 - 30 apm!?!? HOW?
Anyway, suggest you take a look at some popular openings and see how to develop your pieces.
Strong moves like knight at the center behind pawns, controlling open diagonals with bishops and ranks with rooks are always good principles to go by if you are just winging it.
Also you can read up on some principles in pawn structure. Double pawn, unsupported pawn, passed pawn etc etc... If you think your endgame is strong, it is good to try to exchange pieces while maintaining a better pawn structure to force mistake/ value inefficient trade from opponent.
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Canada8031 Posts
In that first game, you missed a mating combination on turn 15.
15...Bd2+
16. Kd1 Bh6+
17. Ke1 Qd2++
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Not sure at this point if you are trolling to draw or for real.............
If not... you REALLY should work on mating moves
Game 2:
15 NG5+ for queen fork
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Well, you learn from your mistakes, right? Now that you've stalemated like this a couple of times when you were ahead, it really shouldn't happen again. When you're close to a win and you're about to make a move, ask yourself in your head, "Am I about to throw it all away?" If you just learn to become more careful, and think about the consequences of every move, you'll definitely see an improvement in your game. Good positional understanding and deeper knowledge such as this won't help you much if you still throws games with blunders.
Don't worry, making mistakes such as these is necessary...to remember them and to never make them again.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/x1.png)
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