The dance of the knights

I played a simul yesterday where I won 4 and drew 2 games and today I won 6 games and got 1 draw. I have very little time, because I am preparing for a chess course. I will fly to Germany to teach a group and play in the team championship. 

I show only a small game, where the knights are really enjoyed the game. Hope you will enjoy it too! 

Starting rating: 2533
Best rating: 2533
Current rating: 2462 

Difference from the last day: +4
Games played: 13
Overall result: 5-8
Time used for games: 1 hour 13 minutes
Puzzles solved: 350

Simul time: 2 hours 15 minutes

Simul result: 15-2 

Time used for puzzles: 1 hour 6 minutes
Time used for all studies: 1 hour 51 minutes

A small simul

I played a simul with 15 minutes time control against 4 players. I like to play simuls. I give possibility for many players to play with a master and also it gives me good challenge.

I played 2 nice games.

This game was a good example how to make a good pawn exchange to make weak pawn for the opponent. I played a2-a4 to exchange pawns and then a6 was a good target. I won it and then the endgame was easy. I created a passed pawn and pushed it.

In this game the king were on the opposite side. I made a pawn storm to exchange pawns to open files to attack the king. Later I was able to make a winning attack on the dark squares.

Starting rating: 2533
Best rating: 2533
Current rating: 2462 

Difference from the last day: +4
Games played: 13
Overall result: 5-8
Time used for games: 1 hour 13 minutes
Puzzles solved: 350

Simul time: 45 minutes

Simul result: 3.5-0.5Time used for puzzles: 1 hour 6 minutes
Time used for all studies: 1 hour 51 minutes

First day in the heaven

Today is the first day, when I improved my rating. Good feeling :) I was  very busy today. I only solved 3 (35-37) puzzles from the 1001 combinations book in 5 minutes. Then played 3 games in 18 minutes.


In the 1st game, I played against a strong player and the game was fairly balanced, we got only 2 kings left at the end.

In the 2nd game I played again against the queen pawn opening and this time I played better and got a fine position, but when I was a pawn up I blundered a checkmate.

Then in the 3rd game I won against the sicilian dragon in a long game. This is my 2nd victory against the dragon from 2 games. Do I have the support of Saint Michael? :)

Starting rating: 2533
Best rating: 2533
Current rating: 2462 

Difference from the last day: +4
Games played: 13
Overall result: 5-8
Time used for games: 1 hour 13 minutes
Puzzles solved: 350
Time used for puzzles: 1 hour 6 minutes
Time used for all studies: 1 hour 6 minutes

I wish you a great day! 

Hard start

Starting rating: 2533
Best rating: 2533
Current rating: 2458
Games played: 10
Overall result: 3.5-6.5
Time used for games: 55 minutes
Puzzles solved: 347
Time used for puzzles: 1 hour 1 minutes
Time used for all studies: 1 hour 1 minutes


I solved other 20 combinations (15-34) from Reinfeld 1001 combinations in 32 minutes. I started to solve combinations yesterday after a very long break and I find it very hard. I try to do it step by step. I try to find the solution and if I did not find in 5 minutes, then I look the solution.

Then I decided to play 30 minutes. I played 28 minutes. Once I waited 2 minutes to get an opponent and I solved a combination.

I continued to lose in the first 2 games. First I faced the Nimzovich defense and we went to scandinavian defense. I got the better position, but then I allowed to open up the h-file, where he mated me.

In the next game I lost again against  the Trompovsky. This time I got an extra pawn and then a winning position, but then I lost on time

After 4 loses I played a mini match of 4 games and won 2.5-1.5 against the 1988 World under-18 champion and 1993 British champion Michael Hennigan International Master.

I gave a pretty checkmate with 2 bishops. I wish you like it too :)

14 combinations and 0-2

I solved 14 combinations (1-14) in 14 minutes from the 1001 combinations book from Fred Reinfeld, then I played 2 games in 10 minutes and lost both of them. The first was a queen pawn opening where he played early a4 and I made a mistake in the development, I really need to check that opening. In the 2nd game, I sacrificed a knight and then an exchange, but I forgot a defend against the checkmate. I needed to come back with the knight to e4 and push up the g- and h-pawns instead.

Current rating is 2496 after 4 games, overall result is 1-3.

313 checkmates, 1-1 in games

I solved 306 1 move checmate and 7 2 moves checkmate from the Polgar book in about 15 minutes. Then I played 2 games. I lost the first against a turkish interational master in the trompovsky with black. I want to review the line we played tomorrow. I got fine position, but I could not go forward and lost in time pressure.

Then I played with white against the sicilian dragon. He played a rare line and I got a better position when I overlooked a fork. I got a pawn for a knight and wanted to win an other. He defended it intead of castle and I was able to open the position with a bishop sacrifice. I wish you enjoy it :)

Current rating is 2527 after 2 games.

3000 in ICC blitz rating

Hello :) We met long time ago, I had a long break in blog writing. I hope to post daily from now. I wish you get some good ideas and enjoy to read it :)

I set up a the goal to get rated 3000 in blitz on ICC. My current blitz rating is 2533 in 08.02.2011 and my best blitz rating was 2922 in 29.02.2004. I plan to solve combinations from the Chess combination book from Laszlo Polgar and then play same amount of time. I plan 30 minutes of combinations and then 30 minutes of playing. I wish you also great games! Ciao! :)

Master tourney round 2: Solid game

Yesterday I played the postponed game from round 2. I played with an international master with black and decided to save energy for the coming games and played a fast draw.

Today I used 1 minute for the daily 5 checkmates. Have a great day! :)

Master tourney round 4: Sicilian blood

Yesterday I played a new idea the Sicilian defense against a young Norwegian player. I wanted to avoid his preparation. He got a good attack. I build up a nice defense on the dark squares, but I overlooked a nice rook sacrifice. He won 2 pawns. I posted a Ne5 strongly. Then he gave back a pawn for the queen exchange. I then started an attack on the queenside and won back another pawn. I entered a rook endgame a pawn up, but his passed pawn was strong enough to keep the balance. We played it out until only the two lone kings remained on the board.

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Would you like to improve your chess? I am accepting new students again. Please send me a message if you want to study with me! Thank you.

Master tourney round 3: Fantastic French

Yesterday my opponent played the French defense. I played the exchange variation with the aggressive c4 move to open up the position, because most of the french players like to play closed positions. Soon I got a great position and sacrificed a a bishop to destroy the king position. He moved his king in the center and defended very well. Later he started to counter-attack and won by a nice move.

Today I drew a 70-move game which ended with only kings on the board. He got an advantage in the middlegame. Then I created counterplay and saved the position. In the endgame I may have had some winning chances. I will post the game tomorrow. I used 1 minute for today's 5 checkmates. It was a long day :) I'm going to sleep. See you soon!

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Would you like the services of a professional chess coach? Please send me a message, if you would like to study with me! Have a great day!

About teaching

This evening I spoke to a friend in Germany. He teaches chess and has many students. He invited me to to teach in Germany. I am thinking about it. I am also available again for online lessons. I had a break because I finished a long term relationship and I was a bit down. I am fine again and ready for new life :)

Junior victory, Russian dance

I had a great game with sacrifices in my round 3 game. My opponent won with a pretty move. I will show the game tomorrow. After the game I ate bread from an organic store. I also cooked a potato dish with some red onion. I went to the library to get books on rebuilding my broken life. That's an important goal for me. I will summarize the main ideas in it soon :)

Friday I played a pretty game in the online 45 45 team league. I won a pawn with an in between move. He captured back the pawn, but that opened up a file against his king, which allowed me to win a bishop and the game.

Would you like the services of a professional chess coach? Please send me a message, if you would like to study with me! Have a great day!

Quite-checkmate

I used one minute for five checkmates today. It was a warm-up for my tourney game which will start in 1 hour. I postponed rounds 1 and 2 because I was travelling in the weekend. Today I will play a talented junior from Vietnam. I got up at 5:30 and worked between 7am-1:00pm in the book warehouse. I ate around 10 bananas for lunch. I'll have 20 minutes rest and then go to play. I will report the result when I arrive home and post the game tomorrow. Until that I show the checkmate I liked most today. It had a solid move which created a winning threat. Can you find it?

Have a great day! :)



Would you like to improve your chess? I am at your service! I am available for lessons and for training games.

Side-file checkmate, training with Alex

We had an around 1 hour long lesson with Alex.

1. First he solved 5 checkmate exercises in around 2 minutes. He was so fast and great! He improves very well, He played 2 long games in this week and won both of them!

2. We analysed one of his games. He played very well the opening and middlegame and got a winning position.

3. We studied about the isolated and double pawns.

4. About pinning and Qh4 check motives if white plays f2-f3.

5. We studied about creating weak squares by pieces exchange when a pawn captures back.

We agreed with him about homeworks:

1. playing a blind game

2. solving at least 1 puzzle daily

3. study examples about weak pawns

4. play at least 2 games in the next week

After the lesson I solved my daily 5 puzzles in about 1 minute. One puzzle I called a side-file checkmate, because it looked similar like the back-rank checkmate but it was on the last file on the board. Is a new name for this type of checkmate? :)

Knight checkmate, tourney

I used 2 minutes tody for the 5 checkmates. The last one was a nice queen-knight cooperation. Today will start the tourney, but before the invitation I decided to go to a spiritual conference this weekend. So I asked the tourney director to postpone my weekend games. I travel in minutes and will be back at sunday. See you then!

Daily checkmate - Queen sacrifice

I used 3 minutes today for the 5 checkmate puzzle. I would like to show the 1st one which was easy and pretty. What do you think? :)

Daily checkmate - The power of the king

I solved today's 5 puzzles in 1 minute. In this one we can look the great cooperation of the king and rook. The idea of taking away squares instead of direct checks, sometimes we not attack the king, but we attack his available squares to force him to the mating square.

I plan to give checkmates. Again.

I am invited to play in an international master tourney in Budapest at the Hungarian chess federation. It will be a round-robin tourney of 9-11 rounds depending on the number of players. The tourney will start Saturday and we'll play a one round every day. My goal is to play my best chess. The instructive games will be analysed and and shared here. The time control will be 90 minutes/players plus 30 seconds per moves for 40 moves, then 30 minutes and 30 seconds/move for the rest of the game.

Queen-Knight cooperation

I solved my daily 5 puzzles. The first 4 was easy and needed only 1 minute for all of them, then the last one was hard, I used 3 minutes to solve it. So Today I worked 4 minutes on the puzzles.

Can you solve the puzzle which gave me the challenge? :)

The pawn-knight-rook checkmate combo

Today I used 6 minutes for the 5 examples, 4 were very easy and took around 15 seconds each, but the 5th was quite hard and I used 5 minutes to solve it. It shows a nice motive when a pawn, a knight and a rook can checkmate the king which has 2 pawns which block him.

Can you solve it? Can you post a comment on this post where you write how many minutes did you use?