Just a quick note - I think congratulations is in order for my countryman Mr Wesley So. Rumours has it that he defeated a super GM.

In a land where dark news commet, it is nice to breathe a little fresh air once in a while.

Incidentally, he's just 16 years old. Exactly half my age.

I remember when I was that young. All I cared about was how to defeat saga with ken (Streetfighter for all you old geezers out there)

But - Sheesh, the kids of today. They grow em different!

I need to finish a software project. It will take just a few weeks, but project is in the critical phase right now so its kinda hectic. No time for almost everything. I go home wasted at 2 in the morning and go to work again at 7am. I think, even my kids don't know me anymore :(

The only chess-related thing I am able to do is chesstempo and there are only so many ways to describe what I do there.. so right now, writing interesting chess things would be slow and far in between I guess.

Oh, in case you already didn't know, I'm a software developer. Used to do C/C++ but lately everything is all about the web so PHP is the current "in" thing.

I tried doing system administration work for a couple of years. I think, administering servers is way, way, way better than developing software. Servers are quite robust nowadays and so the amount of time one spends in panic-mode is relatively small. Whereas a brand new piece of software can only be delivered through tears of blood. (No kidding)

If you are a recent graduate and you have a choice between something like marketing, or sales, or system administration, or anything as opposed to doing development for a software company AND you value your free time. Don't even think about it. Burn that application form and turn that software development job down. You'll thank me later on. Trust me.

People don't know, they just don't know..

EeEeeEEEeeeYaaAaaaGGgggHHHhhh...

I've been doing chesstempo everyday for about 30 minutes or so and my standard rating is slowly rising. But more importantly, it seems that I've getting back my feel for tactics.

Although this so called "feel" is hard to explain. Is it intuition? I dunno.. Its just that my brain "suggests" moves when I encounter certain positions.

I seem to notice too that the pieces seems to have their own favorite moves.

For example, the queen seems to like moving in a triangular fashion. That is to say, it would first move along a rank then along a diagonal to deliver a fatal blow somewhere. Sometimes it makes the sign of Zorro.. (The 'Z' pattern)

The rooks remind me of crabs.. it almost invariably wishes to go sideways..

The knight seems like a wheel turning round and round in circles..

The bishops are daggers.. but it is one way. It moves to an extreme edge of a diagonal never to come back..

The hardest thing to see are pawn moves. They are the silent ones. Moving with great difficulty but with terrible force once they do.

Well, anyway.. yeah, I've been solving too many puzzles lately..

Well, I'm now addicted to solving tactical puzzles on chesstempo. In fact, I prefer doing that to playing standard chess games. Its been weeks since I last logged onto FICS..

Perhaps this is why I will never be a tournament player. I just don't have that drive to play over and over again.

(Its not like pizza. I could never stop eating pizza. I go crazy if a three days go by and I taste not a whip of my delicious triangular addiction.)

But playing chess games is something like a fad. It goes in and out of style.

Anyway, its good that whats distracting me right now is somewhat chess-related. The last time, the guitar called, and before that I wanted to learn java. But this time, I find that solving tactical puzzles can be quite relaxing. Maybe its because I don't have a time-table where I want to finish x-amount of puzzles in y-amount of time. I just go with the flow.

Anyway, I'm hovering at 1700 on chesstempo. My goal is to take that to 1800 at least or even 1900. This way, if I play another game again, Ill be so good tactically that it would be almost like never stopping to play at all.

But now, what to do about 'My System'..

hmmm.. a very good question.. a very good question indeed..

Well, I've finished reading half of 'My System' finally. Half here meaning, what Nimzowitsch considers as elements of chess strategy

I would say that as of this moment, the chapter that had the best and most immediate impact on my game was chapter (1). The chapter containing information that 'evolved' my chess play are chapters (6) and (9). I was delighted to be able to learn how to win this position for example -

And I solved it purely inside my mind to boot!!

And the illustrative games(For example this, this, and this) regarding the pawn chain, chapter (9) - is so interesting that I am quite considering taking the french as a defense against e4.

The chapter that is most difficult are chapters (4) and (6). And lastly the chapters which is quite puzzling would be chapters (7) and (8) - The pin and the discovered check, aren't they wholly a member of the realm of tactics? I still don't get why they are considered to be atomic elements of chess strategy.

Now if it isn't obvious from the title, the book is actually not a treatise on the middlegame or the endgame. The scope is much broader than that. It is an attempt to teach an all encompassing 'system' of play. It is a no less than a way of thinking about chess.

If someone where to apply themselves dilligently and model their play according to the system, that someone would play very very differently from say a Magnus Carlsen. (I followed Mr Carlsen's victories on the recently concluded Nanjing tournament, and let me tell you.. the moves was very forcing. Not at all like the illustratrative games of Nimzowitsch)

'Overprotection has never gained the support of most grandmasters.'

Misses the mark. It doesnt really matter if every GM on the planet from Morphy to Capablanca to Tal to Botvinnik to Fischer to Kasparov doesnt support the system's concepts. All that matters is that Nimzo believe in what he wrote and made it work for him and followed it until the very end.

As best as I can see, the system involves around the pawns. They are strategic points of attack and defense e.g. Chapter (9) but more importantly, Nimzo above all else was really preoccupied in how to prevent the passed pawn. The word 'Blockade' crops up almost every page (I've read just half of the book, but if I have a dollar everytime I read the word 'blockade' Id have a thick fat wallet by now) The blockade of a position and its ramifications is the one thing that permeates the entire book.

Seriously, you'll know youre starting to play like Nimzo when the first thing you ask yourself is not 'How do I improve my position' but rather 'How do I block this thing?'

But

Anyway, maybe I should re-read the chapters again and review the salient points. (But I'm really anxious to start reading the next half.) Or maybe I'll post what I think is the salient points here and ask for opinions, I dunno. I'll just see what goes I guess.

1. Problems involving threats on a square instead of threats against a piece.

Forking a knight and a rook, A threat involving just pieces, for example I rarely miss. But if the threat is to made against a square, I rarely get it right. Forking a knight and the g7 square for example (i.e. if my queen was allowed on the g7 square on the next move, mate will unavoidably follow)

Actually, it goes simpler. Even if there isn't a double-attack, even if the tactic just involves attacking a square - i do not see them.

For example, in this position


I looked and I looked and couldn't understand the motif or find the key move(*). I thought there wasn't any tactic and it was all a cruel joke. I just gave up and in the end and just moved randomly.

I can see where being proficient with such a motif can helpful. Threatening a square is a 'subtler' form of tactic harder to see than your regular run of the mill pin or fork. Well, harder for me anyway.

2. Knight fork that need multiple hops.

I see the fork if the fork just requires me to move my knight once, and then the fork is there already. But a tactic that involves me first moving my knight to an initial square, and then on the next move then and only then will the fork materialize - this is hard for me to see.

Something like this:


Its too bad I cant force chesstempo to serve me tactics having these two themes only. I am forced to wait for my turn, so to speak.

Anyway, for the next month or so, I'll be sharpening this area and holding off on learning strategy for the moment. The concepts I just learned from Nimzowitzch takes time to percolate and sink into practical play anyway. There really isn't any need to rush and finish off 'My System' during the weekend. Heck, Mr. Nimzo thought over the blockade for years before he was able to synthesize and make the system into a coherent whole. I reckon the book should be studied for a year slowly.


So i need to properly digest the book, and only then will I deem myself ready.

Ready for what?

Why to conquer the world and dominate all the chess world of course. I

'll start by defeating that kid who won the Nanjing tournament. Heard he's pretty good.

I'll show em.. I'll show em all!!! Gyahahahaha!! :Lightning crackles in the background:

61% "success" rate.

A problem takes me about a minute to solve. So yes, the 192 problems took me about 3 hours or so to finish. I refuse to believe that I just wasted 3 valuable hours of my time, but egad.. this is wholly unexpected.

Considering that I am rated 1814 in FICS, the amount of problems I miss is unbecoming of my level.

Makes me think of what I can accomplish and how much rating I can add if I can boost my tactical acumen by just 10%.

There goes that word again - rating. I actually don't want to care about it, but it is the one of the leading indicators to tell me if I am improving or not so.. I an unable to discount it just like that.

And to top it off, I am angling to get a nice little round number rating of 2000. I dunno if that is possible, but I am thinking about it.

I probably need to make a coherent plan soon on how to accomplish this.