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My Chess Life

I have too much free time and I love chess

"How to Play the English Opening" review

Submitted by ericmittens on Wed Apr 2, 2008 5:10pm.

I just finished "How to play the English Opening" by Anatoly Karpov so I thought I'd write a wee review while the book is still fresh in my mind.   Firstly I'd like to say that along with "The Dynamic English" by T... Read more »

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541 reads | 2 comments

Return from London

Submitted by ericmittens on Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:10pm.

The London March Open was a single-day 4 round 60min per game tournament with 2 sections (U1700 and pro). I finished with 3.5/4 and shared first place in the U1700 section. Good times! Rounds 1 and 2 were played against much weaker players than me... Read more »

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141 reads | 1 comment

London March Open

Submitted by ericmittens on Fri Mar 28, 2008 9:21am.

Tomorrow I play in the London March Open. There's been a bit of a dry spell in tournament chess for the last couple of weeks but now things are going to pick up again and I can look forward to playing every weekend.   Also, I might be mo... Read more »

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135 reads | 0 comments

Rafael Vaganian

Submitted by ericmittens on Wed Mar 26, 2008 11:12pm.

For a long time I've been looking for a strong player who's style I wish to emulate and who plays the same openings as me. At long last I think I have found him.   Rafael Vaganian played the English as white almost exclusively, he was... Read more »

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132 reads | 4 comments

10400 on CTS

Submitted by ericmittens on Sun Mar 16, 2008 7:56pm.

I've made it up over 10000 tries on CTS...I guess that makes me a veteran. I hear the #1 rated CTS tactician did 50,000 tries his first year, if I keep at it maybe I can get close to that. Read more »

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139 reads | 1 comment

A little update

Submitted by ericmittens on Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:38pm.

I thought I'd record my progress thus far. Ratings! OTB rating: 1545 Redhotpawn:1640 Chess.com:1710 Chess Tactics Server:1515 (73% accuracy) All in all not bad improvement so far, I'd like to get my OTB rating up over 1600 soon. This will ... Read more »

» posted in My Chess Life
107 reads | 0 comments

"Eric's Book Reviews" part 2

Submitted by ericmittens on Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:32pm.

I've just finished reading "My Chess Career" by Jose Raul Capablanca. It's a collection of Capablanca's games written before he won the world championship. Capa annotates it himself and gives many anecdotes concerning his car... Read more »

» posted in My Chess Life
116 reads | 2 comments

The Great White Debate

Submitted by ericmittens on Tue Feb 26, 2008 10:50pm.

I used to play 1.e4 as white (when I was first learning)   After I discovered that learning opening theory is hard work I switched to 1.c4 and have been playing it ever since. Now, as I've been playing in tournaments I have discovered the... Read more »

» posted in My Chess Life
146 reads | 3 comments

Back from Hamilton

Submitted by ericmittens on Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:53pm.

Well, I am back from the Hamilton Winter Open, which was a strong single section 5 round swiss tournament. I had a less than stellar performance point-wise but I was happy because most of my games were against players with ratings around 400 point... Read more »

» posted in My Chess Life
140 reads | 1 comment

Hamilton Winter Open

Submitted by ericmittens on Fri Feb 22, 2008 5:52pm.

I'm writing this from a hotel room in Hamilton where tomorrow I start playing in the Hamilton Winter Open. Unlike the last two tournaments this is a single section (I thought the last tournament was single section but I was mistaken) tournamen... Read more »

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129 reads | 0 comments