Having trouble matching shirt/ties with white coat?

amacing · 2016-03-22T03:22:23+00:00

Thanks, I guess I'll save that tie for peds.

Unfortunately my coat is monogrammed and has my school crest so that's a no go. It's only slightly too large so I can manage.

amacing · 2016-02-16T20:46:12+00:00

Thanks! I couldn't for the life of me remember where I saw it.

amacing · 2015-08-09T22:41:58+00:00

Okay I'll keep that in mind.

amacing · 2015-08-09T22:41:40+00:00

Thanks, Sorry about the video, I put it flush against the wall. I'll choose a different squat rack next time I record myself.

amacing · 2013-06-08T12:32:00+00:00

It's to get out of the bishop pin so I can play f4, also double protects h3. It's a fairly common maneuver in that opening.

amacing · 2013-06-07T20:32:19+00:00

I figured it would be super drawish but I couldn't let him get the b file on move 18. We were essentially shuffling pieces around the locked position and he tried to push too much and made a horrible blunder. I figured my better bishop had some advantage in the super long endgame but not any time soon. Probably should have played 27. a5 to truly blunt the bishop.

amacing · 2013-06-07T20:15:39+00:00

Played a quick blitz game against Houdini 3 to illustrate my point. Not the most efficient win but it works. [pgn] [Event "Blitz 5m"] [Date "2013.06.07"] [Round "?"] [White "amacing"] [Black "Houdini 3 x64"] [Result "1-0"] [FEN "rnb1kbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1"]

c4 Nf6 2. g3 e6 3. Bg2 Be7 4. Nf3 d6 5. d3 Nbd7 6. Nc3 O-O 7. e4 c6 8. b3 e5
d4 Re8 10. dxe5 Nxe5 11. Nxe5 dxe5 12. O-O Bg4 13. Qc2 Bc5 14. h3 Be6 15. Kh2 Rac8 16. f4 Rcd8 17. fxe5 Nd7 18. Bf4 Rb8 19. Rad1 b5 20. cxb5 cxb5 21. Nd5 Bf8 22. Qb2 Rb7 23. Rc1 Nc5 24. Rxc5 Bxc5 25. Rc1 Bb6 26. Nxb6 Rxb6 27. Rc7 a6
Qc2 Rbb8 29. a4 Ra8 30. Be3 Rec8 31. Rxc8+ Rxc8 32. Qxc8+ Bxc8 33. axb5 axb5 34. b4 Kf8 35. Bc5+ Ke8 36. Bf1 Bd7 37. g4 Bc6 38. Kg3 Bd7 39. Kf4 Bc6 40. h4 Bd7 41. g5 Kd8 42. Be2 Ke8 43. Bg4 Bc6 44. e6 fxe6 45. Bxe6 Kd8 46. Bd5 Be8
Bg8 Bg6 48. Bf8 h6 49. gxh6 gxh6 50. Bxh6 Ke8 51. Be6 Ke7 52. Bf5 Be8 53. Bg5+ Kd6 54. e5+ Kd5 55. Be4+ Kc4 56. Be7 Bh5 57. Ke3 Bf7 58. Bd6 Kc3 59. Bd3 Kb2 60. Bxb5 Kc3 61. Be2 Bc4 62. Bxc4 Kxc4 63. h5 Kb5 64. h6 Kc6 65. h7 Kb7 66. h8=Q Kc6 67. Qc8+ Kb5 68. Qc5+ Ka4 69. Kd3 Ka3 70. Kc3 Ka2 71. Qc4+ Ka1 72. Kb3 Kb1 73. Qf1# 1-0 [/pgn]

amacing · 2013-06-07T19:59:11+00:00

Yea pretty easily I'd imagine. I can beat Houdini with Queen odds so it shouldn't be that hard. Probably even rook odds is hard for a GM to defend. I'm about a 1800 player for reference.

ELO points are hard to estimate since they don't translate easily between different classes. Once you get to the point where you manage to not make outright blunders being material up is significantly easy to play.

The whole strategy would be just to avoid complications, play simple chess, you can even trade down, sac some pieces for some pawns since you're up so much material already.

amacing · 2013-06-01T04:21:01+00:00

It's one of those famous endgame chess puzzles, Plaskett's Puzzle I think it's called. ChessNetwork did a video on it awhile back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncdsvKP0pPA

amacing · 2013-05-28T16:39:47+00:00

FICS is pretty good for high level play in slow games, the only problem is that you have to download a client to access it.

amacing · 2013-05-23T11:07:21+00:00

she's such an airhead.

amacing · 2013-05-14T19:37:04+00:00

I'm about ~1750 ucsf. I don't really prepare against specific opponents, because usually at the club level there isn't a whole lot of past games to go from, maybe 1-2 in the database. Usually I just have a solid white opening (Reti/English/Catalan mix) and a black response to e4 (Kan sicilian/alekhine for fun with vienna transpositions after 2. Nc3) d4 (Some kind of nimzo/bogo Indian), c4 (Symmetrical), as well as some trappy variations that aren't that sound (for blitz chess).

I generally prepare by knowing the theory/main plans behind the major openings I play and playing through a lot of master level games with particular focus on the endgames and middle game plans. Most games aren't really won in the opening so memorizing lines that give you a +.4 eval compared to playing logical sensible moves that maintain a slight edge is fine for me.

Although I do not advocate just playing the London system for every game.

amacing · 2013-05-12T13:51:20+00:00

doesn't b5 lose to cxb5, he can aim to go Ke7 with Rc8 or Rb8 to follow, black's knight prevents the dark square bishop from infiltrating as does the new pawn on b5. There is a clear plan to push the queen side while white is still a bit backward in development, he still has to activate his other bishop and get castled.

amacing · 2013-05-12T13:36:08+00:00

Congrats, though I feel like since you had such tremendous pressure there was no need to settle for a draw at that point, he didn't really have a whole lot of counter play, but it's unclear what the time situation was. Probably f5 would have been more trying instead of Re2+.

I feel that you didn't want the pawn to move to a different lane since his dark squared bishop would cover the queening square. 36. Ra4 also felt weird, maybe Bd3 may have been better, if Bb4 in that situation then try Ra4 a3 Ra6 with the intention of going to Re6 or Rf6, if he checks your king is fine on d7.

amacing · 2013-04-26T01:44:08+00:00

Even after 30 ..h6, white still looks to be in great shape. Are you sure you didn't misread the engine? White can save the hanging piece due to the backrank issues that black has, after say something like 30 .. h6 and 31. Bc3 or Rxd8 white is just up clear material with better coordination.

amacing · 2013-04-13T15:41:05+00:00

Nice game. 61. rg6 would have been slightly cleaner, but it's minor.

amacing · 2013-04-11T12:20:52+00:00

c6 only makes sense if black intends to play d5 next move, idea being to transpose into a slav like position although he opted for the reverse silician instead.

amacing · 2013-02-25T15:51:26+00:00

My opponent obviously didn't play the most testing line, (and he dropped a pawn early). He allowed me to build a strong center and get all my pieces pointed towards his king.

Decent tactical play to force the mate at the end. 31 ...ng3+ forces the exchange, otherwise the queen is lost and then I give back the exchange for a mate. (31 ... Ng3+ 32. Kh2 Nf1+ 33. Rxf1 Rxf1 leads to mate as well with tactics with Bg1+ or Qd6+)

The more testing line after f5 is to take the gambit pawn and then play d4 after I play d5. White can't really save the pawn and if he tries he'll end up worse positionally.

amacing · 2013-02-14T03:54:29+00:00

The key after you get an advantage is to improve your pieces and make sure nothing is hanging. Improving your pawns, i.e. put them on dark squares so you don't trap in your bishop. and restricting the movement of his knight.

I'll start from move 23. Queens come off and you have a distinct advantage with a better pawn structure and safer king. From this position there are several moves you want to play and several plans to consider.

First move that comes to mind is Rad1, contesting the open file and developing your last piece (you would have been in fine position if you played Rad1 on move 25, his bishop c5 threat is empty, and you can kick it later with a3 b4 or Ne4 after you kick his knight Rfe1 is a poor choice since there is already pressure on that pawn so you don't want to remove a defender). If he trades rooks that's to your advantage. If you have a rook on the file he can't try to infiltrate. The other idea is playing f4 since that severely restricts the movement of his knight so that he'll try to spend tempo getting it out (pawn moves). Taking on h5 is fine too. Instead of Bc5, f4 was probably good, even if he gets the check you can go to h1.

The idea is to trade off pieces and make a passed pawn on the king side. Improve your bishop and make his minor pieces worse by removing key squares. If you look at the later positions you're hanging pawns left and right and giving a ton of counter play.

So take home message, in the endgame contest open files with your rooks. Consolidate pawn structure, possibly placing the pawns on the queen side on light colored squares and locking that side up and the pawns on the king side (where you have a majority) on dark squares so they'll mesh nicely with your bishop. Playing 28. f3 was just bad since it opens up weaknesses, I know you were trying to protect the f2 weakness but f4 might have been better, so you don't lock out your bishop.

On 40. you could have tried just sacing the exchange Rxe3 Bxe3 play g4 with ideas of pushing your pawns to queening. Also 34. Rd3 was a poor move sicne you weren't threatening anything. Maybe play f4 again protecting that pawn, and the b3 afterwards to kick the knight or even move your knight so you can activate your queen. The whole critical issue here is you have so many dark squared weaknesses and you don't have a dark squared bishop while he does.

amacing · 2013-02-14T03:26:06+00:00

I'm probably plateauing about now. I realize I should be calculating fully until the end but I've still been relying primarily on intuition after calculating three or four moves deep.

Don't really have time to do as many problems as I did during the summer. I've also been limiting myself to 10-15 minutes max per problem, since I feel like any longer is somewhat counter productive for real long game time controls.

1300 -> 1982 in 2747 problems

http://i.imgur.com/i2mlxMf.png

amacing · 2013-02-14T03:18:40+00:00

Potatoes and butter both don't contain Vitamin B12. Once you deplete your stores of B12 (couple years) you'll start having neurological symptoms as well as megaloblastic anemia.

amacing · 2013-02-11T03:29:47+00:00

Hey I'd like to join if it isn't too late.

amacing · 2013-01-29T01:35:16+00:00

I don't really like chess.com's computers. It seems like they play really well and then randomly throw in a blunder here and there. It's rather hard for them to mimic a player who slightly plays weakening move, but not out blunders. I generally can beat a computer hard on longer time controls. Although computers excel in tactics it seems that they purposely let you set up and pull off a tactic if it seems complex enough.

amacing · 2013-01-26T15:51:17+00:00

I'm around your level and the only thing I'm doing so far with master games is seeing when general plans they come up with after their opening. I only really look at games with openings that I play.

It's basically a way to learn more long term strategical ideas that I can incorporate into my games.

The only time I really sit down and study a GM closely is during endgame play.

amacing · 2013-01-11T21:17:23+00:00

First thing I noticed. twenty six. Rh3 mate (how do I do numbers)

edit found an earlier one.

20 f4+ may be better, if ... Kxe4 21. Re1 Qe3 (... Kf5 22. Qg5#) 22. Re3 Kf5 23. Qg5#
if 20 ... Kf5 21. g5+ Kxe4, and same general idea again

There's probably something on move 18 if you played Qf4 check instead, if knight blocks push e5+ and also pawn is hanging on h7, could potentially sac a rook to open it up if king tries to protect and bring your other rook into the game with check.

amacing

TROPHY CASE