More Equals Less
The Trojan Horse
Here I am feeling the need to think out loud ala temposchluckeresque.
Last night I attained a big milestone. For it was only last July that I resumed my close study of Grandmaster Chessgames. And after ten months of sustained effort, I have completed the second major tranch of game viewing. Because not only did I actually view or visit at least four hundred games since then [1]--by itself alone this is actually quite a sizable accomplishment--but in so doing incorporated another 3,496 Classic GM Chess games to my collection. This often meant going back and comparing among game versions--using the chessBase reference function [2]--and comparing versions side by side, not analysis for sure, but in so doing learning to recognize on sight many famous games and growing my game knowledge. This also sometimes having to manually enter some of the games. Yes, I am too lazy as you all know. Smiles.
As those of you who in the last year saw the game collection (or one of it's earlier versions) already know, I had elected to preserve duplicates games (while marking them for deletion but NOT deleting them), so the entire collection now amounted to as many as 3,991 Classic GM Games once the file was copied then compressed, of which I have now viewed 1514 of them. More on this at the end of this post, to wrap up this summary.
Trailer Parks in Palm Springs, California USA: Row after row of pitiful sameness
Last night I attained a big milestone. For it was only last July that I resumed my close study of Grandmaster Chessgames. And after ten months of sustained effort, I have completed the second major tranch of game viewing. Because not only did I actually view or visit at least four hundred games since then [1]--by itself alone this is actually quite a sizable accomplishment--but in so doing incorporated another 3,496 Classic GM Chess games to my collection. This often meant going back and comparing among game versions--using the chessBase reference function [2]--and comparing versions side by side, not analysis for sure, but in so doing learning to recognize on sight many famous games and growing my game knowledge. This also sometimes having to manually enter some of the games. Yes, I am too lazy as you all know. Smiles.
As those of you who in the last year saw the game collection (or one of it's earlier versions) already know, I had elected to preserve duplicates games (while marking them for deletion but NOT deleting them), so the entire collection now amounted to as many as 3,991 Classic GM Games once the file was copied then compressed, of which I have now viewed 1514 of them. More on this at the end of this post, to wrap up this summary.
Trailer Parks in Palm Springs, California USA: Row after row of pitiful sameness
Also with my partner Phaedrus, I helped launch the gmC or Global Middlegame Collaborative, where we have produced much that has remained out of view and will remain so. Suffice to say, much writing and thus planning has already been accomplised since as early as March, and we have now assembled a truly great team, even including someone who was closely connected to GM Ram author Rashid Ziyatdinov. When you remember the wave coming from my post 'Raming GM Ram', this is for me evidence of true cosmic resonance and synergy.
And let me not fail to mention that we still have room for four more of the RIGHT persons. And this whole project takes a lot of time, since we must manage it. Each email takes time such as qualifying each person, answering questions, forwarding key emails, and the scope of the entire endeavor swells with each new person and the cross currents of implication mushroom each month. As Wittgenstein said [3]: "And the rest, is silence".
Corporal Life is one of the most unpredictable things there is
Along with that, we are now talking about my flying to Chicago for two days, to meet the Saxion University department chairman who must be there early this summer for a conference, and so the possibility exists that this could afford our first meeting, get acquaited in real time. This is wonderfull but of course involves more work. I say 'we' because while my application to be a professor at Saxion University of the Netherlands is seperate from gmC, early on it organically grew out of that collaboration, and so eventuated our now extensive communication. In fact, according to temposchlucker, I 'had hijaked Phaedrus'. Can you imagine!
At CTS or chess tactical server, as my friends already know, I have now attained the rank of number thirty two for 'number of tries' out of some 2,742 tacticians. But far more significantly, I have finally surpassed Morkovkin in both 'accuracy' and 'tries' all within a few days at 83rd in rank [4]. Since this might only mean something to those who make effort there (or anyone else active at a 'hosted chess training web site' where comparative results are illustrated), this note must be brief:
Don't Mess With My Shit
First: you all know how you try, try, and try and on matter how much work you do, there is always somebody ahead of you. So that when the day comes that you equal then surpass this person looming over you in a key measure (or two!), it is a most pleasant feeling, even if you know that their real chess strengtt far exceeds yours. So whom I like to call 'The Mighty Morkovkin' is now below me now and will remain so.
Second: I will do another 7,575 tries at =>97.4257% (or one wrong allowed in every 38.8 tries) and be at 90.05% at 49,800 tries. Initially in my future planned effort I will use the last 200 tries to 50k to reach towards 1600 elo =>90.1% thereafter, so that one in ten wrong will be remarkably different than the 98.5% that I am currently sustaining (recently: 31f/1,969 = exactly 2,000 tries @ 98.450%). My target is 90.1% and aught not to be 90.0% because if you get to 90.00% and start to slip, mathematically the real prospect exists that you can fall to a true 89.9501% and not even know it (where 90.0% would still be indicated). So when in the future 90.1% is shown at my user profile I will know that I am => 90.05%, etc. Wew.
Lastly, as far as chess goes, I am almost finished with the first Reinfeld book as planned. Admittedly it goes slow at times (I love the book. So no--not 'that kind of slow') but don't use a board or a game viewer, and can spend days on a problem.
Problem 738 from Reinfeld's:
1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations, Fritz 7 (5 sec.), 05.01.2003 1.Qxh7+ Fritz 7: 1) 1...Kxh7 2.Nxf6+ Kh6 3.Neg4+ Kg5 4.h4+ Kf4 5.g3+ Kf3 6.Be2+ Kg2 7.Rh2+ Kg1 8.0–0–0# #7/7 Line
Now, seeing Qxh7 is not difficult. Nor maybe even seeing Nxf6, but to see it through all the way to the end is not easy. I do NOT wish to rush this in seven circles fashion cum MDLM (and MDLM2), but instead experience the effort, instead of the imaginary realm of 'thinking that I did a chess problem' by memorizing it through seven interations all out of breath and never once 'seeing it', convering one's eyes like a child with one's fingers.
I get the same chills watching this video when I see Fischer, the younger Mohamed-Ali boxing, videos of Kasparov playing against Karpov. Impatient viewers go to the 3:17 mark for an astounding succession of volleys.
I have not been playing much chess, I must admit it. I had tried to play 'off and on' all winter, but gmC, Saxion, and the Classic GM Chess Game database, and finally CTS have all combined to take the best of me. For me, playing chess is all or nothing. I play to win. Of course, there is this same janus faced flip, where I do not play to win, but only to improve, but the tension is there between two distinct factors or feelings.
I continue to update my databases from my now beloved chessVibes, chessbase.com, The Week in Chess, ChessCafe.com, listen to audios such as John Watson's chess talk at ICC Chess FM, as well as of course, stay aware of if not view the major games of high level chess at the major tournement level.
In sales, there is a thing called 'call reluctance', which I never really suffered from, but all sales persons can have it. Well we can have what might in kind be called 'chess reluctance'. Playing live chess--for me--is not enjoyable when mentally spent, or mentally overstimulated. I am very, very, very 'type A' as a personality, and chess study gives me relief from that; chess play does not. I found enormous comfort in the routine of study, comfort in iterative programmed rounds of repetition.
Radjabov,T (2751) - Bu Xiangzhi (2708) [D15]
4th M-Tel Masters Sofia BUL (7), 15.05.2008
"White's next move is a bolt from the blue!" 24.Rf7
"Dennis Monokroussos writes: 'The game has a bit of everything: former prodigies who are now elite GMs facing off in a popular (but positionally grounded) line, a transition to a remarkable tactical moment too deep for many computers to handle, followed by an amusing and instructive endgame. It's a very smooth performance by Radjabov, demonstrating both his skill in positional play and his considerable tactical ingenuity (It also serves to remind us that tactics are generally needed to subserve strategic goals.)."
The game continued: 24...Bxg4 25.Bf6 exf6 26.Rxd7 Bxd7 27.exf6 a4 28.fxg7+ Kxg7 29.Kf2 h6 30.Ke1 Re6 31.Qg3 Be8 32.Kd2 g5 33.Kc3... and the Radjabov runs his white king runs up the board:
...Kf8 34.Kb4 Bf7 35.Ka5 Kg7 36.Kb6 Kf8 37.Kc7 Kg7 38.Kd7 Kf8 39.Qf2 Rg6 40.Qf5 h5 41.g3 1-0.
Alert readers might quickly associate this with the famous Nigel Short game (active link to chessgames.com applet) versus Timman:
'Black Resigns. There is no defense to 35.Kh6 and 36.Qg7#. 1–0'
I finally found time to get an additional two ram added to my dual core Dell XPS Desktop pc, and the first thing I did was to test this position (I plugged this in seconds after the Dell Service tech standing right here told me that the new ram was active!). Fritz8 couldn't find this move in forty minutes, but am sure that once I get a dual processor version of Rybka or the lattest version of Fritz11 will realize better use of all this speed. I went back to work after lunch, and when I got home, Fritz8 had of course finally seen 24.Rf7 but cannot know if this took only an hour, two, or four!
Radjabov is indeed a genius, as many of these guys are. How many billions of positions, at 900k per second, did it take to find what he realized over the board?
Speed and Power
I am now ready for a modern chess engine, but for long have resisted it, as I do not want to get too dependent on these 'critters', yet they do have their place in the search for 'real chess truth'.
And a few odds and ends: I continue to listen to every single IM John Watson 'Chess Talk audio'. The recent one from 05.13.08 where on GM Simen Agdestein discusses his training of 'The Mozart of Chess' was just fantastic. It was wonderful. But last night, I listend to all of his interview on 05.20.08 with GM Fabiano Caruana who currently lives in Hungary, but lived in The United States, Spain, and Italy (he has dual citizen there with the USA) [5].
If you are not an ICC member, then you are missing out. And if you are a member and not hearing the best of these interviews, then you are seriously missing out. I would have to say that this last one was the best of all of them, from Short to Shirov to Nakamura--but of course, all of these are really great. Here you get to walk into the training mind of a truly bright young man, in it's broader, heuristical senses. Please.
Did any of you know that Rybka lost a match in Mexico City, against Zappa (September 20-27, 2007 and concurrent with the epic WCC Chess Match where Kramnik gave up his crown to Anand)? I don't want to have to dredge up all the details now, but do recall something about the time frames not being ideal for it's creator Vasik Rajlich. Not my point. Did any of you know that Zappa was created by a student still in graduate school? You think he gets any job offers for his brain? Notes from Wikipedia:
Zappa (Zap!Chess) is a chess engine written by Anthony Cozzie, a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The program emphasizes sound search and a good use of multiple processors. Zappa scored an upset victory at the World Computer Chess Championship in August, 2005, in Reykjavík, Iceland. Zappa won with a score of 10.5 out of 11, and beat both Junior and Shredder, programs that had won the championship many times. In the speed chess portion of the tournament Zappa placed second, after Shredder. In Mexico in September 2007 Zappa won a match against Rybka by a score of 5.5 - 4.5. Zappa and Rybka are generally considered the two strongest commercially-available chess programs. Some speculate that Zappa's more efficient SMP parallel search could make it stronger on enough processors.
In March 2008 Anthony Cozzie announced that "the Zappa project is 100% finished", which includes both tournaments and future releases.
Displaced residents at Dujiangyan in Sichuan Province
I will have to continue this post latter, such as about some wholistic health things that have markedly improved, news of my father whom I fly east to see in nine days, and what I derive from all this chess work, and where I plan to go from here and specifically and concretely how I aim to make more out of less hereafter... It is very, very tempting to go on and write on gigantic post, but honestly, who wants to read it all? I must be realistic and split it up, when its banks already swell with gushing water!
[1] Since I took weeks off at a time from viewing classic GM games, this is actually a larger effort than might otherwise appear: when I view these games, it is at the rate of 25 per week (3 per day, and as many as 5 per day on days of--not as might seem only 1.2 games per day!
And let me not fail to mention that we still have room for four more of the RIGHT persons. And this whole project takes a lot of time, since we must manage it. Each email takes time such as qualifying each person, answering questions, forwarding key emails, and the scope of the entire endeavor swells with each new person and the cross currents of implication mushroom each month. As Wittgenstein said [3]: "And the rest, is silence".
Corporal Life is one of the most unpredictable things there is
Along with that, we are now talking about my flying to Chicago for two days, to meet the Saxion University department chairman who must be there early this summer for a conference, and so the possibility exists that this could afford our first meeting, get acquaited in real time. This is wonderfull but of course involves more work. I say 'we' because while my application to be a professor at Saxion University of the Netherlands is seperate from gmC, early on it organically grew out of that collaboration, and so eventuated our now extensive communication. In fact, according to temposchlucker, I 'had hijaked Phaedrus'. Can you imagine!
At CTS or chess tactical server, as my friends already know, I have now attained the rank of number thirty two for 'number of tries' out of some 2,742 tacticians. But far more significantly, I have finally surpassed Morkovkin in both 'accuracy' and 'tries' all within a few days at 83rd in rank [4]. Since this might only mean something to those who make effort there (or anyone else active at a 'hosted chess training web site' where comparative results are illustrated), this note must be brief:
Don't Mess With My Shit
First: you all know how you try, try, and try and on matter how much work you do, there is always somebody ahead of you. So that when the day comes that you equal then surpass this person looming over you in a key measure (or two!), it is a most pleasant feeling, even if you know that their real chess strengtt far exceeds yours. So whom I like to call 'The Mighty Morkovkin' is now below me now and will remain so.
Second: I will do another 7,575 tries at =>97.4257% (or one wrong allowed in every 38.8 tries) and be at 90.05% at 49,800 tries. Initially in my future planned effort I will use the last 200 tries to 50k to reach towards 1600 elo =>90.1% thereafter, so that one in ten wrong will be remarkably different than the 98.5% that I am currently sustaining (recently: 31f/1,969 = exactly 2,000 tries @ 98.450%). My target is 90.1% and aught not to be 90.0% because if you get to 90.00% and start to slip, mathematically the real prospect exists that you can fall to a true 89.9501% and not even know it (where 90.0% would still be indicated). So when in the future 90.1% is shown at my user profile I will know that I am => 90.05%, etc. Wew.
Lastly, as far as chess goes, I am almost finished with the first Reinfeld book as planned. Admittedly it goes slow at times (I love the book. So no--not 'that kind of slow') but don't use a board or a game viewer, and can spend days on a problem.
Problem 738 from Reinfeld's:
1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations, Fritz 7 (5 sec.), 05.01.2003 1.Qxh7+ Fritz 7: 1) 1...Kxh7 2.Nxf6+ Kh6 3.Neg4+ Kg5 4.h4+ Kf4 5.g3+ Kf3 6.Be2+ Kg2 7.Rh2+ Kg1 8.0–0–0# #7/7 Line
Now, seeing Qxh7 is not difficult. Nor maybe even seeing Nxf6, but to see it through all the way to the end is not easy. I do NOT wish to rush this in seven circles fashion cum MDLM (and MDLM2), but instead experience the effort, instead of the imaginary realm of 'thinking that I did a chess problem' by memorizing it through seven interations all out of breath and never once 'seeing it', convering one's eyes like a child with one's fingers.
I get the same chills watching this video when I see Fischer, the younger Mohamed-Ali boxing, videos of Kasparov playing against Karpov. Impatient viewers go to the 3:17 mark for an astounding succession of volleys.
I have not been playing much chess, I must admit it. I had tried to play 'off and on' all winter, but gmC, Saxion, and the Classic GM Chess Game database, and finally CTS have all combined to take the best of me. For me, playing chess is all or nothing. I play to win. Of course, there is this same janus faced flip, where I do not play to win, but only to improve, but the tension is there between two distinct factors or feelings.
I continue to update my databases from my now beloved chessVibes, chessbase.com, The Week in Chess, ChessCafe.com, listen to audios such as John Watson's chess talk at ICC Chess FM, as well as of course, stay aware of if not view the major games of high level chess at the major tournement level.
In sales, there is a thing called 'call reluctance', which I never really suffered from, but all sales persons can have it. Well we can have what might in kind be called 'chess reluctance'. Playing live chess--for me--is not enjoyable when mentally spent, or mentally overstimulated. I am very, very, very 'type A' as a personality, and chess study gives me relief from that; chess play does not. I found enormous comfort in the routine of study, comfort in iterative programmed rounds of repetition.
Radjabov,T (2751) - Bu Xiangzhi (2708) [D15]
4th M-Tel Masters Sofia BUL (7), 15.05.2008
"White's next move is a bolt from the blue!" 24.Rf7
"Dennis Monokroussos writes: 'The game has a bit of everything: former prodigies who are now elite GMs facing off in a popular (but positionally grounded) line, a transition to a remarkable tactical moment too deep for many computers to handle, followed by an amusing and instructive endgame. It's a very smooth performance by Radjabov, demonstrating both his skill in positional play and his considerable tactical ingenuity (It also serves to remind us that tactics are generally needed to subserve strategic goals.)."
The game continued: 24...Bxg4 25.Bf6 exf6 26.Rxd7 Bxd7 27.exf6 a4 28.fxg7+ Kxg7 29.Kf2 h6 30.Ke1 Re6 31.Qg3 Be8 32.Kd2 g5 33.Kc3... and the Radjabov runs his white king runs up the board:
...Kf8 34.Kb4 Bf7 35.Ka5 Kg7 36.Kb6 Kf8 37.Kc7 Kg7 38.Kd7 Kf8 39.Qf2 Rg6 40.Qf5 h5 41.g3 1-0.
Alert readers might quickly associate this with the famous Nigel Short game (active link to chessgames.com applet) versus Timman:
'Black Resigns. There is no defense to 35.Kh6 and 36.Qg7#. 1–0'
I finally found time to get an additional two ram added to my dual core Dell XPS Desktop pc, and the first thing I did was to test this position (I plugged this in seconds after the Dell Service tech standing right here told me that the new ram was active!). Fritz8 couldn't find this move in forty minutes, but am sure that once I get a dual processor version of Rybka or the lattest version of Fritz11 will realize better use of all this speed. I went back to work after lunch, and when I got home, Fritz8 had of course finally seen 24.Rf7 but cannot know if this took only an hour, two, or four!
Radjabov is indeed a genius, as many of these guys are. How many billions of positions, at 900k per second, did it take to find what he realized over the board?
Speed and Power
I am now ready for a modern chess engine, but for long have resisted it, as I do not want to get too dependent on these 'critters', yet they do have their place in the search for 'real chess truth'.
And a few odds and ends: I continue to listen to every single IM John Watson 'Chess Talk audio'. The recent one from 05.13.08 where on GM Simen Agdestein discusses his training of 'The Mozart of Chess' was just fantastic. It was wonderful. But last night, I listend to all of his interview on 05.20.08 with GM Fabiano Caruana who currently lives in Hungary, but lived in The United States, Spain, and Italy (he has dual citizen there with the USA) [5].
If you are not an ICC member, then you are missing out. And if you are a member and not hearing the best of these interviews, then you are seriously missing out. I would have to say that this last one was the best of all of them, from Short to Shirov to Nakamura--but of course, all of these are really great. Here you get to walk into the training mind of a truly bright young man, in it's broader, heuristical senses. Please.
Did any of you know that Rybka lost a match in Mexico City, against Zappa (September 20-27, 2007 and concurrent with the epic WCC Chess Match where Kramnik gave up his crown to Anand)? I don't want to have to dredge up all the details now, but do recall something about the time frames not being ideal for it's creator Vasik Rajlich. Not my point. Did any of you know that Zappa was created by a student still in graduate school? You think he gets any job offers for his brain? Notes from Wikipedia:
Zappa (Zap!Chess) is a chess engine written by Anthony Cozzie, a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The program emphasizes sound search and a good use of multiple processors. Zappa scored an upset victory at the World Computer Chess Championship in August, 2005, in Reykjavík, Iceland. Zappa won with a score of 10.5 out of 11, and beat both Junior and Shredder, programs that had won the championship many times. In the speed chess portion of the tournament Zappa placed second, after Shredder. In Mexico in September 2007 Zappa won a match against Rybka by a score of 5.5 - 4.5. Zappa and Rybka are generally considered the two strongest commercially-available chess programs. Some speculate that Zappa's more efficient SMP parallel search could make it stronger on enough processors.
In March 2008 Anthony Cozzie announced that "the Zappa project is 100% finished", which includes both tournaments and future releases.
Displaced residents at Dujiangyan in Sichuan Province
I will have to continue this post latter, such as about some wholistic health things that have markedly improved, news of my father whom I fly east to see in nine days, and what I derive from all this chess work, and where I plan to go from here and specifically and concretely how I aim to make more out of less hereafter... It is very, very tempting to go on and write on gigantic post, but honestly, who wants to read it all? I must be realistic and split it up, when its banks already swell with gushing water!
[1] Since I took weeks off at a time from viewing classic GM games, this is actually a larger effort than might otherwise appear: when I view these games, it is at the rate of 25 per week (3 per day, and as many as 5 per day on days of--not as might seem only 1.2 games per day!
[2] And on rare occassion necessarily instead refering to chessgames.com (filled with errors! Do not depend on it!)
[4] While 83rd in rank for accuracy sound trivial, let it be gainsaid that only six tacticians of out 2,746 users at CTS defined as 'Active' have accuracy =>than 87.7% AND tries => 27,375 and that I am one of them.
[5] Lev Alburt on 5.27.2008! Rock and roll baby! Silman on 3.04.2008.
posted by transformation at 11:50 AM
19 Comments:
Just wondering why you posted the photo of a trailer park with a denigrating comment?
I'm quite sure that anyone who can afford to live in better housing, would not choose to live there. Is it a put down on the poor?
Also, it is pretty well understood that the current fad (for those who can afford it) to build "McMansions" in locations that that require long commutes, contributes to environmental degradation in a number of ways, much more so than living in concentrated humble abodes.
Meanwhile, it's probably a safe bet that more than half of the world's 6+ billion people would those 'rows of pitiful sameness' a big upgrade to what they actually live in.
dear es_trick: first, my appologies sincerely. it upsets me to think that i have offended a reader who might well be living in such a place.
no, there is no swipe to the poor, when i have worked like a dog my whole life, and while we all went to college and are well spoken in my family, we never had any money or priviledge.
first, i am an architect. i am not a snob for great architecture. in fact, to me, many of the 'so called' great buildings can be real garbage. ill concieved, self aggrandizing constructs that dont function well and actually can start to delaminate. i prefer humble, simple straight forward buildings.
second, i have had many photos of human settlements for the last three months. i have had tuscany, paris, tehran, etc.
if i had it to do over again, id make more clear (but this is a chess blog with sidenotes rather than a general blog with chess in passing) that it is not trailer parks more filled with this so called mediocrity, but the whole american landscape.
to that extent, whether it be some big northern, southern, eastern, or western snarl of confusion and materialism or the suburban, urban, aggrarian, rural, wild or natural forms of settlement, then i would and could show those, too, but i only mean to provoke thoughts. to that extent i have succeeded, but if you or those you love live there, i appologize.
if you look at my other blogs, the presentation of my position that industrial man his pitifully and merceyless lost is extensive and his in all my work as a fundamental tenent of my own perception.
now, i dont want to talk red or blue or green. i am not a political blog, but note in passing in a way, that is what we are talking about, it seems to me.
take care, and i am visiting your blog right now. Thank you.
I've always found your placement of various photographs in these lengthy posts quite interesting. Even though at first glance they may have nothing to do with what you're writing about somehow they just fit right where you put them.
The trailer park photo was rather interesting. I find the pattern of how the trailers are laid out almost looks like a gigantic question mark. I guess as I look at the picture I think of how easy it is to fall into a pattern of sameness in our play, our studies, and life in general. I see you as someone who is breaking out of those patterns and taking on many new challenges inside and outside of chess.
I look forward to the second part of your post when you tie this all together. I'm always interested in what people feel they derive from their various pursuits. I think we can all learn from one another as we deal with the challenges of what ever it is we are pursuing.
Hello dk,
A lot of food for thought from your post.
As ICC Chess FM, I think John Watson is a fantastic author but as a presenter, he sometimes talks too fast and it can be a bit hard to follow. Attack With LarryC is also one of my viewing stops as well.
I find that at super-GM level, these fellas have adopted the ability to finetune their art and thinking process so efficiently that they are able to see long term strategic and positional ideas. In addition, chess engines also have a nasty habit of failing to take into account that the actual worth of a position is constantly changing. That's why chess programs struggle where some of these players make a positional move. To anyone who has played the King's Indian Defence and Sicilian Dragon, it can be quite confusing for the silicon beast and not uncommon at all to give a wrong evaluation because the positions arising from them can be horribly complex.
cheers
As I begin my own journey of catalogging master games I study and recording such an endeavor in chess base ( as well as for reference, research, annotations etc) I find I am just scratching the surface.
I just completed the London 1851 tour, found it completely facinating. Because a lot of these games were old school with odd move orders for openings, finding reference games was not easy if not existent. Pulling in Staunton's text was worthwhile but I did it all too late. Always room for more improvement.
I wish I was at the point like yourself who can now recognize game positions as images from games. That's an impressive level of memory recall. I won't press no more about wanting to see you perform OTB. I can appreciate and respect your situation.
For me, Chess is a means to exercise a weak short term memory damaged by years of self abuse in the years leadign up to college and through early college.
For me, I love the game and the arena... the gregarious side of me especially enjoys the human interaction at teh events. But my self inflicted brain damage limits how much I can have in my scratch pad. It takes mroe effort for me to push this info to long term. But Once its there... its there.
Doing the tournament study series adds other dimmensions for memory chunking that is critical for my success. The emotional aspect and trying to get inside the head of these old time players was something else for me. When Staunton started to lose to Williams in the final match in round 4, I could "feel" his agony, angst,and fatigue in watching the way he was struggling for a draw or trying to breath life into a position that was too exhausted to play.
I'll get there, I admire your role modeling in the game study forum.
Regarding 'chess reluctance', I think it is very common. One method I use to help is to try to lose the last game of an internet chess session. That is, not try to lose on purpose, but rather quit on a loss instead of a win. That way you're not so worried about losing.
Plus it will give you something to think about when you go to sleep :)
Cheers,
m1dnight
I meant to say, plus it leaves you thirsty for more!
@polly
@tanc
@blunderprone
@midn1ght
----------------
such voluminous and all well thought out comments touch my heart--truly.
however, i leave for a thirteen day vacation to see aging parents in five day, and the meter is full!
to get the time off--off course, i had to reconfigure work so that i work ten days straight. errr!
today i spent all day helping several hundred people at a gigantic hardware store (not home depot!) and need 'me time' to reconstitute my psychie in the private refuel area: chessbase right away! no one ask me where the 8/32 screws are, hex wrenches, halogen bulbs, or the fathers day shop vac please.
on vacation, i blog extensively, and will respond to everyone and kindly ask for a moments patience, when i can meet all this kindness with genuine regard and care--please.
love to all beings, dk
As is par for the course, the length and variety of subjects in the post causes me to forget a response to subject matter B after reading subject matter H.
A matter of curiosity: why did you chose Nigeria as the country on CTS?
I take joy in your "finally beating that guy". Most everyone can relate to that!
Enjoy your vacation as you can!
@liquidEggProduct:
like you, i am highly trained in all the visual arts, including caligraphy both eastern and western, life or nude drawing the figure, the old masters drawings, painting, photography, film criticism, merchandising, and of course, architecture, and last but not least color theory.
and, as you know, green is the complimentary color of red, and if you go back, you will see how at CTS there is an overwhelming preponderance of red, so that my solid green stands out markedly. i rotate this from pakistan to nigeria to saudi arabia.
also, in the old days of chessDog's quarrel with me now fully reconciled, we played a little inner game of making a personal stance based on country, so that when we became friends, i kept the habit for the color only!
of course, i choose photos based not only by message or gesture, but value, hue, cromatic value, negative space or the shape of an empty background as an object in itself...
hope that answers it.
and, lastly, nigeria touches my side of feeling discontent is way underepresented here in the united states, if i do say so myself.... so, yes, yes, i have deep reasons for everything that i do.
warmly, dk
That is a great quote. I think people only read that one line from the book, unfortunately :)
Transformation, I'm Back!
Can you link me again?
Thanks.
http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Training-Pocket-Book-Calculate/dp/1889323179/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213735155&sr=1-8
Yes!
I do NOT wish to rush this in seven circles fashion cum MDLM (and MDLM2), but instead experience the effort, instead of the imaginary realm of 'thinking that I did a chess problem' by memorizing it through seven interations all out of breath and never once 'seeing it', convering one's eyes like a child with one's fingers.
It's funny to survey the range of criticisms of the MDLM method in the blogosphere.
You may not have been here for quandoman, a good player from San Fran who said the circles were silly because you spent too much time ruminating on one problem. He said, look for 30 seconds, look at the solution, and move on. MDLM, spending ten full minutes on a single problem (as he recommends doing the first time through), was wasting his time.
Whatever helps you achieve your goals is the best method. It is fun to see people take pot shots though.
hello beloved everyone! thank you so much!
i have not forgotten my promise(s).
i am back east for fathers day, with my mother now, and plan to write back in reply latter.
love to all beings, dk
@polly:
thank you. i work hard at my selection of images, and none are inadvertant. on rare occassion, i repeat a photo, but never intend to, having better to do than go back and check it. sometimes i then replace them, but so much to do--live view the major non-draw games recently with Carlsen and Ivanchuk.
you do view high level games and, if so, systematically or catch as catch can?
while back east, i got to play with chessBase light, and will be posting about it. it is rare, maybe very rare for a chessBase user or indeed a heavy chessBase user to use it, so therein get to well see what it does and doesnt do. i went to google to research it, and no one really has a handle on this. zero.
i annotated many of the games from the Yerevan Chess Giants. Karen Asrian Memorial using it, and the turn key fritz 6. my sister has a dual core desktop with a 64 bit operating system, so fritz 6 on it is like a damn mainframe massively paralled processor compared to my fritz8 at home. i must get Vista and then finally get rybka! brain orgasm 1,345!
i live for chessBase. i love it. more on this latter, and thanks for reminding me of my commitment.
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@tanc you dear sweet man. Watson. dear man. the real deal. man must know how to type despite his stroke that disabled him in, was it, 2000 or so when he had no insurance. sorry, but i dont find him fast. but i dont speak malaysian and not sure if English is your first or second langauge? i knew a man from malaysia once, and man was he smart! and no jay walking or get cained?
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@liquidEggProduct:
a professor in college once calle me corns cornucopia. inside joke to those who know me. alcohol is very attractive to me, as it is one of the few things that so effectively turns off my brain. after 3.5 years, i now allow myself a few but mostly dont want it.
i asked my doctor: he said that it helped 'reset my neurotransmitters'. can you imagine? then what a fine job it does, but really, i am free of excess there, and it now fits with coffee [1] or cheeseburgers, things i dont often have but can when i want to. pleasure is quite distinct from medicating inner pain. so i am ok now.
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@bluderprone:
i thirst to play chess in OTBP. but it is not in my nature to do things half way, and as long as i work at Joes Home Disimprovement, cannot foresee it. hard to give up. im a senior non-management guy, and my commute is only 1.4 miles, which i value at 8k per year in being essence value. i get to go home for lunch, feed the cat, watch food tv or listen to npr, and brush my teeth and work on chessBase. honest.
i am very, very type A and for me to take on more tension, i must be set up correctly mentally and in my practical life. working 14 of 16 days once per month puts me way out of balance, and is required.
then all i want is down time, and alone. i am standing and walking and talking for 39 hours per week. its an overdose. go home and turn off phone and put the curtains down and make tea and look at GM games.
russian bride.
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@BDK
i know the quote and best referenced by you. i used it in our gmC program guide today, sent to everyone. seven great guys. it is happening royally!
a visti from you is always a treat. if only i had 1/3rd your brains, i wouldnt be so dumb.
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@nobis:
added you same day. moved you up in the que (sp?). so nice of you to come by!
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@home
my dad has cancer of the tonque and tore the rotator of the shoulder. since he is 81 and as recent as age 69 carried all the shingles up to his own roof (i find it hard to do at Joes to a 4'-6" bar, as a single packet or 1/3rd of a square, no up a damn latter, so he hates growing old.
i told him that i want him to live.
my mom is getting old, but her brain is still good. tiny lady. not a genius but a good heart.
love to all of you.
back to Seattle in 3.5 days and plan to finally publish the long writen post on ReAssembler, writen off and on since September, but need to do some more on it. honest this time.
dk
[1] caffine is a nervine, along with peppermint, licorish, and generally antidotive to homeopathic medicine (i take a deep acting remedy every eigh weeks, so am free of urge for coffee, using brown tea instead, similar affect without the shakes.
DK: I don't spend much time looking at high level games. Often the games I look at are quick games that I can show a group of antsy 8 year olds, and demonstrate some point I've been trying to get throught their thick skulls.
There are tons of wonderful games in the database that came with Chessbase. I just haven't really taken the time to look through the database and find good games to look at.
I admit it, I'm lazy and have trouble motivating myself to really spend some time looking at high quality games played using the openings I play. At times I get disgusted with some of my games, and think about changing openings. Then I think about the work involved in that, and say the hell with it.
For what I do with Chessbase, Chessbase light would probably be fine for me. However I received Chessbase as a gift, and I do like the ease at which I can look at my own games and do some analysis.
@takchess
thank you for the heads up. i had heard alburt mention that, at chessFm at icc radio with john watson on his chessTalk show, but didnt know that a publication date had been set. i checked amazon, and it is indeed set for this fall, according to their product data.
@polly, pls check your mailbox or spam box if applicable. i just sent you the dk Classic GM Game file in chessbase format with some annotated games also. 98% of the greatest chess games ever played are there, not to mention many of the games in the greatest chess books, as agreed by all. its about 3,950 games but cannot give you exact figure while traveling.
It sounds like de le meza found a happy medium between the rush-and-don't-learn at CTS and the spend-four-hours-on-one problem approaches. There is a tradeoff between speed and quality of learning, of course, and each must find her own optimum.
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