WEEK 1 REPORT

Week 1 Report (30 April – 5 May 2012)

Opening

Toying with the idea of changing my opening’s wardrobe to something not to sexy …perhaps something solid and did not take much time to study. ..Dragon, Najdorf, Marshall is a no-no. Benko, Slav, Catalan…maybe. Or should I continue to play what I am playing now but study it much deeper?

Decisions!, decisions! By week two I have to come up with at least  6 openings that I need to study.

 

Middlegame

I have to study the classic 

1.  Re visit Capablanca’s Chess Fundamentals

2.      2. Study Nimzowitsch’s My System

(This lies a problem…I could not find those books)

Endgame

Back to basic. Spend many hours learning to checkmate a lone king with knight and bishop. After going through this ending via Nunn’s Understanding Chess Endgames and Kastern Mueller’s Fundamental Chess Ending, I feel Mueller’s explanation is easier to understand ( W manouver and all) and more systematic.

Apparently there  is debate whether is it worth to study how to execute this checkmate since chances are very small that one is going to encounter it in real game. Well, to me… Definitely it is worth it since it boast your confident in endgame, it also makes one appreciate the power of knight and bishop more (did you know it is possible for bishop and knight to imprison opponent king? now  I know) and ofcourse, my old favourite quote...

“An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less”

Wrap the lesson by testing my ability to execute this endgame against computer…manage to do it below 40 moves. I pass the exam! And hopefully did not forget it when I encounter it over the board.

By the way, wikipidea informed that few GM also sometimes did not know how to checkmate with knight and bishop…ok, since now I self considered myself expert on this type of endgame…basically now I am better than some of the GMs :)

Also spend few hours looking at Q vs R endgame (Offensive side should aim for Philidor Position) but not really satisfied with it, still much to know/learn about this tricky Q vs R endgame.  

Things to do on W2

Opening

Come up with list of openings to play/master as white and as black.

Middlegame

Find those two books or any good middle game books, most likely at Kinokuniya KLCC.

Endgame

Study Q vs R, B and R vs R…maybe starts studying  Rook endings.