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Posted by novagold www6conf.org 5/11/2008 13:17:24 play online chess	Subject: How do you make your moves on GK? Message: I was just wondering what process other people use to make moves on this site. Do you use the analyse board feature or just look at it and figure it out mentally or both? How long do you spend looking and the board and how far ahead do you try to calculate? Do you write down your moves or just hope? How many moves do you generally consider? Personally I only consider about 3 or 4 moves (probably why I'm this rating :) ) and then use the analyse board feature to try and figure about 3 moves onwards or so.
Posted by ionadowman www6conf.org 5/11/2008 22:33:30 play online chess	How does one make moves...? Message: I keep a chessboard close by the machine, and if the position looks as though it will require a bit of thought (i.e. 90% of the time), set out the position on it. I have a small travelling magnetic set as well to keep the game position for reference. I have more than once set up the wrong position to decide my moves. You would be surprised how often a seemingly trivial difference in position can make a big difference in how to proceed. I'll occasionally use the "analyse the board" if I just want to go over a sequnce of moves before playing, or sometimes just to sort out a few "candidate moves". It could, of course, be used much more extensively than I do. Check out the games database, too, especially for openings. Until recently GK carried only the games played on GK (those played by at least one 1500+ plyer, but you could narrow this to "1900+ games". This has been replaced by master games, but these aren't complete games - only the openings (in some depth, mind you). I have no idea whether the GK game database has been retained in some obscure corner of this site, or has been eliminated altogether. I rather hope it has been retained. I'm inclined to think that database was more useful than has been alleged. Some of the "poorer" games might well have been valuable for showing what to avoid! Chhers, Ion
Posted by lighttotheright www6conf.org 5/12/2008 05:17:00 play online chess	Message: I often use a physical board too. I have a few tricks to make 100% sure that I've set it up to the correct position. I'll pick a couple of candidate moves and think as far as I can. Then I will set up the resulting position for each candidate move on the physical board and do the same thing all over again...unless it is a familiar simple position. If it is a position that I already know well, then I often can play very quickly without using a physical board. Note: sometimes I get lazy and don't use this method; but I will always think ahead as far as I can. Looking 3 to 4 moves ahead is not nearly enough in my opinion. I like to say that I only think only 1 move ahead because you cannot 100% accurately predict what your opponent will do in all circumstances; yet the truth is that looking ahead varies and depends upon the situation. Sometimes 8 or 9 moves is not enough. Sometimes 1 is enough. When looking deep into the endgame, I often don't need to count the moves. I'm looking for familiar patterns. Sometimes those patterns can give you assurance of victory 30 to 40 moves down the road. But I'm not actually thinking move by move that far. I use my intuition that I've gained from experience.
Posted by ganstaman www6conf.org 5/12/2008 11:56:47 play online chess	Message: For openings, I use databases and my current knowledge of openings. As the game leaves my brain's "opening book" I start to look more at the databases, playing through select games and then seeing what move makes the most sense (play a little bit with the board analysis). For the middle and end games, I start off staring at the board. Just getting an idea of what's going on. Then, I bring up the 'analyze the board' and go through my ideas. If it's seeming complex, I leave myself a note here with the variation tree written out. This allows me to come back later and add to it without having to repeat all my work. Also, it makes sure that I don't miss a move somewhere down the line that I analyzed but simply forgot. I go as deep as needed within the given time. Some moves fail at 4 ply. Others look promising, but if I don't trust them much I will take them out much further. In a game I have now, I have one line analyzed out 11 ply, and I'm going to add to this in length and in branch points (there are so far only 2 other branches I've considered for this move). I try to look at as many moves as possible, but only a few (1 to 4 on average) get serious analysis and consideration. When I don't have much time, I look at less moves, but try to take them deeper just so I can feel comfortable enough with them (if I can't see a winning shot for me, I'd at least want a move that doesn't lose for me). Even then, I at least toy with most moves for like 20 seconds. I think that if you have some idea of what you are looking for in a move, and you have a good way to organize your thoughts, and you almost NEVER make a move on the same day you do all your analysis on it (if you come back the day after, things will look very different), then you should be able to analyze deeper and find some better moves overall.
Posted by ionadowman www6conf.org 5/12/2008 13:14:48 play online chess	ganstaman mentioned something... Message: ... that I had intended to but forgot: using the "make a note" feature. In my view this is a very useful feature that I woefully underemploy - probably because i pencil my intentions all over the scoresheets that I keep (just A4 pages, 5 games the side). It is a useful aide-memoire when one has a forced sequence to play, or a clear-cut plan to follow. It saves having to rethink it (aside from routine checking for accuracy) especially for slowish games where you might not remember so well what's been going on. At any rate I have occasionally used it, and I do like that idea. Cheers, Ion
Chess news: It’s Gelfand vs. Ponomariov for the World Chess Cup -- Boris Gelfand of Israel and Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine will meet in the final of the World Chess Cup in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. Gelfand easily beat Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine in the semifinals, winning his match 2 to 0, while Ponomariov outlasted Vladimir Malakhov of Russia in a playoff to grab the other final spot. Ponomariov actually fell behind in the tie-breaker, losing the first game, but he then came back to win the last three. Gelfand and Ponomariov were more experienced than their semifinal opponents, so their victories were not really a surprise. In fact, at the start of the World Chess Cup, the two were clearly among the favorites. Gelfand was the No. 1 seed, while ... Bennett and King on chess: Carlsen-Nakamura, BNbank Blitz, 2009 -- The London Chess Classic, the strongest chess tournament to be held in this country for 25 years, begins today at Olympia. Magnus Carlsen, the brilliant 19-year-old Norwegian, is one of the favourites, but he was dealt a psychological blow when he lost to one of the other participants, US chess champion Hikaru Nakamura, in a blitz tournament in Oslo 10 days ago. Carlsen played the classier chess, but Nakamura proved to be the better hustler. This was the game that turned the match around. Carlsen is threatening to queen the pawn, but Nakamura, with just a few seconds on his clock, found a win. RB: One of the first chess books I owned was Practical Chess Endings by ... Soviet training methods still reign in the chess world -- Two decades after the USSR broke up, Soviet training methods remain potent at the chess board. When the field of 128 was reduced to the quarter-finals in the current World Chess Cup, all eight grandmasters remaining had their education from Soviet coaches. The final four-game match now in progress to decide who qualifies for the 2010 candidates is between Ukraine's Ruslan Ponomariov, who won the 2002 World Cup as a teenager, and Boris Gelfand, the 41-year-old top seed. In the semi-finals Ponomariov beat Vlad Malakhov 4-2 while Gelfand eliminated Sergey Karjakin 2-0. In both the semi-final and in the game below the Israeli chess veteran defeated ...