A Great Chess Event on 29 July 2018 (part 2)

A continuation of my earlier post on yesterday's Nanyang Racial Harmony Team Chess Challenge 2018! 

In this post, I shall talk about the 2 games I should not have won.

Games I should not have won



Learning Points / Reflections on this Game:

• Apparently, more often than not in 3.Bb5 (after 2...Nc6) lines of the Sicilian, it is more effective for White to try and build up the pawn centre with c3 and then d4 instead of d4 directly.
• In a position whereby you are (slightly) better or equal, NEVER try to beat the opponent struggling on the clock if there is at least 10 seconds increment.  At the very least, do not compromise the quality of your own moves in trying to do so! I actually feel sorry for my opponent going for the wrong approach of the game. Of course, for his own good and development, I hope he learns this lesson as he plays more tournaments (this was his maiden tournament, I believe).
  

Another game whereby another opponent made the exact same mistake in trying to win on time while compromising the quality of his moves:

Learning Points / Reflections on this Game:

• Never make a move that even the player himself feel suspicious about!
• A plan that does not fall to immediate tactical refutation is a good-enough plan. Even though not recorded, I love my slow approach to play Rec1 followed by mass exchanges on the c-file and slowly push back Black's aggression while keeping the pawn centre adequately defended (I also introduced f3 later to keep the defence compact.)
• While the experience playing against the Sicilian Defence was fun, it is very evidently not my true cup of tea.
• Can't say this enough: do not compromise the quality of your own moves in trying to beat the opponent on time (when there is time increment of at least 10 seconds per move). I am surprised this opponent with vast tournament experience did not apply this in the game. Maybe "common sense" in chess is not so common after all.

In my subsequent post on this event, I will be talking about the more painful games -- Games that I should not have lost. I am still not sure if I will stop at part 3 and spare myself the humiliation to publish games that 'didn't matter'.

Anyway, thanks again for reading!


Yours sincerely
Ong Yujing
(a.k.a. newbie_learner)

A Great Chess Event on 29 July 2018 (part 1)

It was the Nanyang Racial Harmony Team Chess Challenge 2018! (You can probably play around with this link to see how much fun everyone had ^o^)

As per my usual style, I have randomised the order of the games and not identify my opponents to discourage their identity be linked to the specific games. But I do want to do some special shout-outs on the following!

First, there were many more teams consisting of players from the QCD Adults Chess League! I did a quick "conversion table" below:

QCD Team -> NYCC Team
1. Woof! Woof! + Woof! Woof! Woof! -> I Move You Resign
2. Pokemonsters Resurgence -> Pokemonsters Rapid
3. Wolverines + Thomsformers + 8.c4! -> O-O-O (my team!) 
4. The Asia-Squared Bishops -> Knight Promotion Team

Second, but more importantly, I wanted to zoom into my encounter with Knight Promotion Team. I happen to know all the 4 players from the team and I have played chess games with all of them at least once. I didn't know I was so "hated" by their team captain, Julien, telling his team mate and my opponent, Anthony, that he would have wanted to play on Board #3 to face me, lol. What's more important, was the sportsmanship display from Knight Promotion Team. During the game, there were multiple occasions of my team including myself pressing the wrong clock (because the boards were packed so closely together to cater to the over-whelming response). And there was 1 occasion whereby I had even forgotten to press my clock, but my opponent, Anthony, was sporting enough to remind me about it. I think their team fully deserves to beat us 4-0 in round 3 =)

My team 0-0-0 on your left, the Knight Promotion Team on your right.

Enough said. Here are the "Best" and "Most" games I played:

Most Educative Game (we learn most from our losses)
So much I have to say about this game -- you have to read all the text I wrote in the annotations.

Learning Points / Reflections on this Game:

• For true improvement, I think I should've bite the bullet and learn to play against KID head-on. Right now, I have been trying to side-stepping the issue with 1.e4, hoping to get into specific setups I like against it, but see how fragile things become when even I got lost in the whole set of complications/transpositions. I should not have betrayed my nature (to be honest 1.e4 doesn't go well with my personal style -- though I have to say it does generate quite interesting games of more direct attack / defence). 
• No complaints about the loss -- I was genuinely outplayed from start to finish. My opponent demonstrated clear understanding of the demands of the position. Also, from a chess-karma point of view, I deserve to lose for betraying my own nature =)
• Maybe I should just go back to what I play best and forget about 1.e4 altogether...

Too tired to finish up the coverage in 1 go, but these are remaining category of games I have:

Games that I should not have lost (2 games -- lost because of endgame grind. poor time management played a part too)

Games that I should not have won (2 games -- 1 was against an opponent who lacked tournament experience. His general play was good but his mistake was to try to beat me on time and he compromised the quality of his moves as a result Another game went similar -- just that surprisingly, it was against a regular tournament player -- goes to show that "common sense in chess" is not so common after all.

Games that "didn't matter" (2 games -- 1 was against pure beginner who unfortunately still hangs pawns and pieces -- no shame as we were all there once, another was a horrible blunder-fest committed by myself under fatigue). 

My team consisting of Santoso, Warren, myself and Thai Ee

Last but not least, let's end this first part with my team's photo and the Name Plate Card I stole after the end of the tournament  =) 

Thank you for reading!

Yours sincerely

Ong Yujing

(a.k.a. newbie_learner)

A Lost Game with Great Learning Value (at least to myself!)

So my "unbeaten" record in the QCD Adults Team Chess League was broken by my own chess friend, Yogesh in Round 6. How else to better lose it than to a good friend? I do remember the excitement when I found him at 1 of the Asia Square Meetups to rope him into the new team, subsequently known as Team "Marinus Deep". Because I didn't have his contact number, and he did not come to the Singapore Chess Meetup at Asia Square, I was so afraid to miss him out when the recruitment deadline was ticking! I even remember shouting out excitedly when I saw him at the meetup right on time for the team registration =)

(Side-note: my "unbeaten" record was not that impressive, out of 5 games played, 3 were draws, so with today's loss, I'm exactly at 50% =3 + 1 - 1. Of course, I did take Black pieces in 4 out of 5 rounds, but I have no particular bias with either colours. More importantly, I have shown much improvement from last year's +1 =1 - 5)

So my team Team 8.c4! eventually edged out Team Marinus Deep with a close score of 2.5-1.5 despite my personal loss. While my team was happy (and justifiably so) to celebrate the winning streak (only our 2nd win out of 6 rounds played, and we did not win a single round of the 8 rounds played in the year of 2017 -- so as a team we improved a lot too!), I do feel we were lucky -- okay, team mates, please don't kick me, but this is honestly how I feel ^o^ 1 of Team Marinus Deep's player (Board 1 with the White pieces, and another personal chess friend of mine, was unable to play, and that game was forfeited). If we did not count the forfeit/walkover game, our scores over the actual games played was 1.5-1.5.

Team 8.c4!'s celebration after their Round 6 victory

(from your left to right: Gabriel, Mark, LPK and me)

I have been suffering a bad cold since the beginning of this working week, but that was no excuse for my loss. Overall, it wasn't all bad. I do like some of the major decisions I made. I'm also grateful to Yogesh for his generous sharing -- okay so now I learn that ...b6! after ...0-0 is deemed by the engine to be objective best against this c5 setup, even though admittedly, I'm not sure if I can appreciate the complexity / demands of the position. But it is a good to know for sure. In the end, I kept missing tactical shots (I really didn't see it, also didn't see it in my own review without checking with the engines), and in the end, the endgame conversion by White was really sweet, notwithstanding that Black blundered big time in the final move, losing a minor piece for nothing.

Also, I'm glad that Yogesh is not concerned that our game be published -- some (not just 1) of my opponents have requested for anonymity so that others can't study their games, but both of us can't be bothered by this concern -- like I always say, I'm more than honoured if anyone respects a newbie_learner enough to study my games and prepares against me, giving me the toughest challenge possible. After all, this is the fastest route to improvement -- you help me do half of my homework in that sense. In fact, I personally feel this is what all chess training partners should do.

Regardless the results and the "misses" in the game, I found this game extremely educative for myself.

Enough of the blabbering, this is the game that I am proud to record, despite me losing it.

Learning Points and Thoughts About This Game:

• I think my treatment of the opening was fine. To me, I'm most proud of giving up the Bishop pair through initiating 10...Bxf3 and 11...e6. No matter what the engine says (Engines tend to over-value Bishop pair as they are programmed so, in my opinion anyway), to me, this is the whole spirit of the Caro-Kann Defence -- if Black is not prepared for this, bringing the light square Bishop out before chaining the pawns in, I think the Black player might as well find a completely different opening to play.
• The idea to challenge White's c5 pawn with ...b6! after ...0-0, I really didn't know or find it so good. (Thanks again for your generosity, Yogesh!) But it's indeed the engine's top suggestion. I don't know if I can ever incorporate it into my play (I also know it is a bad idea to memorise things you don't understand, so we'll see). Separately,the engine's idea of preferred Rook placement (13...Rad8) was also enlightening to me.
• All of my major chess problems today (time management! pawn breaks and making threatening/attacking moves instead of "natural" defensive ones) are exposed together in this game ^o^  The repeated missing of possible tactics was bad. Also, the wrong approach to stop the outside pass pawn turned out decisive. On the bright side, at least I realised it was going downhill after the mistake was done. #alwayslookonthebrightside!
• My gamesmanship draw offer continues to pose some chess etiquette dilemma here. Chess etiquette is by no means "easier" than chess as people can have completely different views over the same gesture. 

Some other interesting minor episodes / "trivia" I can offer for this Round:

• Quite a number of players were talking about the Singapore Chess Meetup. In fact, as Dr Mark Liew, the sponsor of the event was saying, it was all thanks to Bradley Low starting the meetup that inspired him to do more for local chess, leading to the creation of the Adults Chess League in Singapore! Hence, I have also been wanting to do some chess cross-promotion between the Singapore Chess Meetup, the QCD Adults Chess League , PubXchess (free to play blitz tournament at a pub setting, imagine having fun with chess while enjoying beer and food!). Let's just say that there are a notable supply of chess players in the QCD league who are regulars from both the Singapore Chess Meetup and PubXchess.
• Just before the commencement of the round, I had the urge to visit the washroom. But there was only 1 male toilet (there were 2 female toilets, which made sense most of the time, but there are many male players than female chess players) at our playing floor. So instead of queuing, I simply led a couple of chess players (from other teams -- in case you feel embarrassed, I shall not identify you guys) to the level below. We didn't find "toilets", but I found male changing room with cubicles in it. So after checking that it is flushable, I just proceeded to do my small  business. And I had to assure some other chess players that it was alright -- can't be wrong since with flushing any "wrong" would be corrected at no cost, lol-- for them to also use the other cubicles.
   
• Chess-wise, I really feel that the QCD Adults chess league is the BEST training ground for players who want to prepare for their maiden tournament, as well as for inactive players to "de-rust". It mimics real competitive conditions, which is completely different from a casual/social play setting. (Yes, use a chess clock -- the time factor is a HUGE part of the game. If you cannot appreciate this, maybe over the board chess is not so suitable for you, and you may like to consider correspondence chess instead.) Because this is an unrated event, the rating points of inactive players are also protected. Otherwise, one should consider doing national chess service by joining the HPE training league (search for "Highlights" under the Singapore Chess Federation Webpage! You get to play rated games with the young players undergoing training and if your rating is 1,500 or above, you actually get paid for each game as compensation for your time. Think of it this way -- earning money doing something you like (playing chess!)
• The rubbish generated has significantly reduced compared to Round 5 2 weeks ago! yeah =) Don't know if any of the other players have saw my previous post about the huge amount of rubbish at the end of the game, but I was told there were are couple of "silent followers". Oh well, in any case, it is a change for the better!
• Last but not least, an honorary mention of my favourite "Sunday Chess Uncle", Eric, from the Siglap South CC chess Club I volunteer in, has come to enjoy the chess atmosphere again!  (I think he might have regretted not joining the league when I approached him earlier this year, but because he doesn't even have a mobile phone, contacting him when discussing about team line-ups would be a huge headache.) I'm glad he was able to play a couple of friendly games with other players (not part of the competition) and he also offered to stay behind and help us clear up tonight.

I am still nowhere near my 100%, but after taking myself out of the HPE training league tomorrow (Sat, 28 July) I hope that at least gives me adequate rest before our unrated rapid team event at Nanyang CC (with different team mates, outside of my team in the QCD league). Last but not least, a big thank you shoutout to William for volunteering to keep Siglap South CC chess club open on Sunday, 29 July. 

That's all!  Thank you!

Yours sincerely

Ong Yujing
(aka newbie_learner -- my preferred nickname for chess. Always a noob but learning ^o^)

(aka scorekeeper -- given by Bradley Loh / Singapore Chess Meetup as I always record my moves)

Sunday Rapid Games Adventures @ Siglap South CC

Played 4 games with players of different levels today. Gotta say I felt I learned the most from the last game with the strongest opponent. But I don't mind playing players of various levels -- there are mistakes from all 4 games worth going through / seek improvements on.

VS Weaker Opponents

Specific Learning Points

• White was better from the first move to the last. 
• The best decision made in my opinion was 14.Bf2 over 14.Bxf4 (which the engine agrees).

Specific Learning Points

• It is really difficult to realise an opening advantage -- you need to know "the whole thing" rather than knowing bits and pieces here and there. Again, up to the player him/herself whether it is worth the time investment.
• Convenient moves need not necessarily be bad. If you feel that the defensive move is necessary, just determine whether you have enough time to play it!

VS  Equal Opponent

Specific Learning Points

• Be careful of counter-attacks. Often, after gaining material advantage, we will need to endure an initiative from the opponent (because we spent time to capture the material). Have to minimise the threats of this initiative. In a way, Black's downfall in the game was caused by inability to recognise potential pawn break.
• If a move feels dubious or uncertain, it's probably a bad move. Don't make it unless in desperate situation!

VS  Stronger Opponent

 Specific Learning Points

• Whenever in unfamiliar situation, stick to general guidelines! Here, I love my move 10...e5! in response to 10.h4, based on the general guideline that when the opponent advances in the wings, advance in the centre (and vice versa). 
• I didn't play very well in this game, making a couple of slips I usually won't (I blame this on my inability to handle the surprise position, LOL), but it was not too one-sided overall. Main reason for loss was actually time management -- I allowed my opponent to gain too much clock time against me.

General Learning Points

• Against weaker opponents, it might be a valid match strategy to play safe and let them collapse on their own. Conversely, when playing against stronger opponents, we should not allow ourselves to crumble on our own.
• I tend to have this bad habit of losing in the 1st few games against players of certain standard. But once I  "figure the opponent out", I think I have at least decent chances, no matter who I play against. (At least, this would be a good way to motivate myself before a game, LOL)
• In any case, staying composed is the most important!

Sunday comes to an end... back to the much dreaded work week =( 

A Well Fought Training Game on 21 July 2018

Just finished a fateful encounter training game with 1 of the local rising girls. I'm quite pleased with my play, considering that I was also fighting against a cold. The time management on both sides was good. I'm actually quite pleased with my play overall, just that there were a couple of major slips that could've been well avoidable had I not played the moves on "auto-pilot".

As always, please feel free to share your views and comments on the game. Thank you for seeing this!

Last but not least, a special shoutout to my chess friends, Santoso and Marcel -- sorry to bother you observes to bring my opponent and I the 2nd scoresheet to record the moves after move #50. I'm glad I can thank you guys with a win eventually!


Learning Points for Me

1. This is one of the rare times my general sensing of the opening worked well. Hope to keep this up! I do believe this opening suits me well -- when I have time to arrange and re-arrange my pieces for optimum placement, I tend to play well =) 
2. There were "moments of brilliance" from me in this game! However, it would have left a real bitter taste if Black failed to win. Missing obvious winning moves like 24...Bxh2, simply winning another free pawn, was painful. Do NOT go on auto-pilot (unless due to extreme time pressure, which is perfectly understandable.) 
3. My endgame play is still horrible. I admit it. But surprisingly, I saw a couple of even worse endgame play from the young players in our local training league =( Never mind, let's all take some effort to improve our overall endgame play, together!

Yours sincerely

Yujing

(a.k.a. newbie_learner)

My chess adventures at Singapore Chess Meetup (18 July 2018)

Lost this game as the underdog (his rating is higher than mine), but am thankful for my young opponent for sharing his views on where I started slipping in the game. On the bright side, at least I was actually playing the game (and not playing against his rating points -- i.e. I was not too scared to play him before the game even actually started.)

I did manage to play decently with 2 of my peers whom I regard as stronger opponents. (unfortunately, those are blitz games which I can't make record of, but I'm quite satisfied with my opening play in those games). 

A "Good Loss" Against a Local Rising Champ!

Learning Points

• The bad initial plan of ...d5 and ...c6 is typical of "newbie" players like myself who only think of 1 feature in the position but ignores other details. Here, Black can probably go safely with ...d5 and ...c5 followed by ...Nc6. Or if Black really doesn't like this, just go 4...b6 followed by ...Bb7 mirroring White.
• The opening phase is important --I played it so badly, there was nothing much I can do to improve the situation after the damage has already been done. Even though my opponent did not play "perfectly", I have completely missed the few opportunities I could have gotten back into the game.
• This shows that I don't really understand the demands of the opening position. Can't blame it on the opening surprise, my general understanding is just not there =( 

Anyway, am looking forward to see some improvement in my future games already! Please feel free to share any tips of advice you may have for me. Thanks in advance, as always ^o^

Yours sincerely

Yujing
(aka. newbie_learner)

Sunday Chess @ Siglap South CC on 15 July 2018

Game 1


Learning Points:

• Players who know a variety of openings have the flexibility and advantage based on the "matchup". It is fair, since they put in the effort to learn more than "specialist"
• I'm quite pleased with my overall play, even though I did make some inaccuracies, White was never in serious risk of losing.
• Also, some of my judgement is incorrect. The same old issues (pawn break, attacking in general).

Game 2

Learning Points:

• What an opening trap! I've not seen this, but thankfully I did!
• Other than that blunder, I also like my general understanding of opposite Kingside castling and how to approach the position.

Game 3
Learning Points:

• Need to remain objective in "nothing to do" situation-- don't go overboard trying to simplify the position by offering exchanges. When in doubt, stick with general principles!
• Need to improve calculation and visualisation -- was so close to see the win in that critical line but didn't see it to the end. 
• Like my resourcefulness to steer the game back from bad position into equal / "playable" ones, but I'm really bad in pressing the position for more (and finishing off the opponent). Again, it's all about "attack".

An Interesting Training Game Played on 14 July 2018

Summary

Missed a couple of opportunities to gain a huge advantage. But overall, it was an interesting game. In the opening phase, I was purely playing on instinct, and it turned out that we were following an actual game played before until move #18. And I didn't even memorise any opening book on purpose =)



Learning Points / Reflections

• I am really enjoying the way I study and play chess now. Other than chess knowledge that can be found from various resources, I'm quite into "practical" chess in terms of time management, energy management, stamina/conditioning, fighting spirit and so on. These things would help a player play consistently well to the best of his own abilities.
  
• The Bad: I suck at attacking. I really do. I missed so many chances to get a huge advantage by simply "attacking". I tend to over-value my opponent's threats.
  
• The Good: Whenever I feel I am worse (sometimes correct, sometimes wrong), I do tend to find good resources to steer the game towards equality.
  
•  I am pleasantly surprised that we were following a game played in the online database! Isn't it amazing to be thinking the same way as other chess players? And I didn't know about that game beforehand, it was genuinely played like this OTB =)
  
• We won't get to play a "perfect" position all the time. In this game, I (White) had to live with an IQP for the whole game. Don't be scared for nothing!
  
• When all else fails (when you can't evaluate the position due to "complexity", or down on time / energy level, stick to general principles -- they are there to guide you when things are not so clear cut!
  
• Dozing off in the midst of the game while waiting for opponent's move suggest my lack of stamina. Need to exercise more. Also, it makes me feel for my opponents when I used to play games without clock and move (too) slowly. Not happening again, all / most of my games shall be clocked.
  

A Rich Experience: Round 5 (second half) of the QCD Adults Chess League

Warning:
This is gonna be a really long post. I hope I am doing the QCD league justice!

So after a 2-month break, the QCD Adults Chess League continues with the 5th round. Just a quick summary of how things work:

• A team can have up to 8 players at any time;
• All games are unrated (so players inactive for a long time can use this as an opportunity to derust at no cost of rating points);
• Teams of 4 players will play against other teams in a 10-round swiss.
• The 1st 4 rounds (first half) was held at Cairnhill CC, while the remaining 6 rounds were held at tonight's location, the Rooftop level of AQueen Hotel @ Paya Lebar
• Before the start of the 2nd half, teams are allowed to have up to 2 of their players replaced by new players, on the condition that these new players must not have been part of any of the other teams (it does not matter if the player has played any games or not)

Just take a look at the pictures of the playing venue yourself. What have adult chess players in Singapore not in the league been missing out? 😂

A look at rooftop outside the playing hall.

A look at the playing hall -- I am actually glad we are playing inside and not outside because I have an extreme phobia of heights -- I actually feel scared when I walked out to search for my friends, LOL.

Free-flow of coffee and tea provided to us at no charge. Extremely great news to me as a tea person. I only wish everyone co-operated 100% and did not leave their used cups and water bottles lying around for others to clean up after their games. Oh well, I feel Singaporeans including myself have much to learn from the Japanese people! Don't mind my non chess-related digression, this is just a personal opinion.

Another picture of how it looks outside. No more, since I can't afford to be too scared before playing. Nah, the pictures were not taken by myself ^o^

Before going into my badly played game, let's give some contextualisation and spice things up a bit:

1. This is the 2nd season my team, 8.c4! (choose 4 players to be playing out of the team of 8, like the mathematical nCr and the factorial '!' sign resembles the "good move" sign in chess, hence our name) is playing in. Believe it or not, we have not scored a single team victory since the first season. Of course, we are "hungry" for our maiden team win.

2. Personally, I have drew all 3 of my earlier games (our team took a bye in round 3) in the current 2018 season. This is already a huge improvement over my performance last year (+1 =1 -5, or overall -4 lol). Hence, it remains to be seen if the streak will continue.

3. My closer chess friends (i.e. mainly the regulars from the Singapore Chess Meetup) would know that I have taken painful decision to cut down my frequency of visit from weekly to monthly, so as to "gain" some time for chess self-study. I am so happy to see so many of my friends again! 

4. Other than my personal game (last priority), I am also happy to see so many interesting games by other players. There were a couple of interesting games that really left me a DEEP impression, including:

• A game whereby a player was playing so fast, his clock went to 42 minutes or so. And it was already in the endgame! Usually, we often run into time and energy trouble towards the endgame, and the format of our play was 30 minutes + 30 seconds increment LOL
  
  With no intended offence, we would usually only see this in beginners / kids games (whereby they don't appreciate taking time to think through and just play the first move that comes to mind like playing blitz).
  
  But in this particular situation, it was arguably the correct thing to do because it was a Rook + pawns ending whereby the superior side was dangerously low on time. So the reason the inferior side played so fast was to deny the opponent of enough thinking time to work things out. Also, because the side with the inferior position was so bad, he didn't have that many legal/logical moves to think of!
  
• A game whereby 2 players got engaged in a long grinding game -- the game probably lasted more than 30 minutes after the 2nd last game concluded. And I think a lot of the players,  including myself, with our games concluded earlier, owe these 2 warriors an apology for making too much noise and causing distractions. Please pardon us as we were simply too passionate for the game!

Okay, finally it comes to my badly played game. It was badly played in that I got into a very bad, if not completely lost position out of the opening phase of the game AGAIN. My typical game goes like this: Get into a worse position out of the opening, *try* to survive. If somehow I manage to get away with it, I will try to crawl back slowly. And this one fits in. I really need to break out of this cycle for my own good!

Of course, it was not all bad -- after the game, I gave my candid views that I thought my opponent had me, and as a parting "gift", told him about the Singapore Chess Meetup, writing down the location and nearest MRT station 😇

Every Wednesday, 6:30pm, Downtown Station, Downtown ("Blue") Line -- the lowest turnout would be easily 20, with many adult players of all playing strength, from complete beginners to titled players). Also, I have made some improvements to my mental fitness. I am no longer scared of mutual time trouble. 

A more in-depth (move-by-move) look into my personal game can be found below.

Learning Points / Personal Thoughts Overall

1. My glaring problems persist: Queen placement (developing the major piece too early) and pawn break (preventions).
   
2. The good: my sense of "I'm (getting) in(to) trouble" is decent -- it helps me find good defensive resources now and then to fight for equality from a worse position
   The bad: more often than not, I'm giving away chances to get advantage too.
   
3. The good: I'm no longer scared in mutual time trouble. After all, it is natural to be scared in time trouble, but are human players and the opponent would be equally scared too!  So it's not objective to feel scared -- fear doesn't help your case anyway.
   
   The bad: My time management in today's game was ridiculous. To have < 5 minutes when I have not even castled my King to safety is totally unacceptable.
   
4. It is good etiquette (at least to me) to make visual cues when offering a draw, just to make sure that the opponent notices your offer (in case it was not heard). I actually got inspired while looking at how other players offer a draw in their games, thinking through in my head and agreeing to the advantages of making a draw offer this way. But not to extend your hand for handshake in case the opponent sees it as an "emotional blackmail" to accept the offer.

As always, please feel free to share any feedback for sharing and mutual learning. Once again, thank you for your time and attention.

Yours sincerely

Ong Yujing

aka newbie_learner, scorekeeper

2 Rapid Training Games Played @ Siglap South CC on 8th July 2018

Still feeling the fatigue from yesterday evening's standard chess. Still, it was fun!

I'm glad I got the "Sunday Chess Uncle" to play using the clock -- it would help prepare him for his maiden tournament after decades of absence from chess very much!

Game 1: "Anti-Sicilian"
(Again, I goofed up the opening play, but I was never truly worse throughout the game)


Learning Points

• I like my decision making where exchanges are concerned. E.g. 14.Nxf6 instead of 14.Nxe7 was an improvement over my old self!
• Got to be a bit more careful and familiar with the opening phase.
• It is really possible to play against the Sicilian defence using a "quiet style". There is no need to fight fire with fire in the most open / dynamic fashion. Furthermore, because Black is likely to prefer an open fight, playing anti-Sicilian arguably takes Black players away from their comfort zone. See how Black was unable to deal with the slight squeeze and went berserk and collapsed on his own.

Game 2: "Handling Opening Gambit through its acceptance"

(I do believe that to truly refute a gambit, you need to accept it and show that there is inadequate compensation for the pawn.)

Learning Points

• On one hand, I need to grow more balls courage to accept the "gift" pawn on d5. On the other hand, the way I handled it was not that bad -- Black is simply better just that he missed out having a decisive advantage right from the start.
• I like my consistent approach in denying counter-play from my opponent =) 

Any comments / feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you again for your time and attention!

Yours sincerely

Ong Yujing
(aka. newbie_learner)

An Interesting Training Game Played On 7th July 2018

Standard time control (90 minutes initial time + 30 seconds increment per move)

Learning Points

• I like certain type of decision making over "innocent" piece exchanges (e.g. 21...Qxd2 initiating the Queen exchange, 22...Red8 and not 22...Rad8)
• I am still bad with pawn breaks -- many opportunities lost. 
• My mental strength and mind games are relatively well played!
• Was lucky to survive the opening after messing up a normal move (9...Ngf6 should be played instead of 9...Ne7). But interestingly, it is not bad to the point of becoming unplayable.
• This opening (Caro Kann defense) suits my playing style very much: try to survive the opening, then slowly crawl back into the game. I think it also helps that I enjoy playing this opening on both sides.

Thank you for your time looking at this. Please feel free to share or exchange any pointers for learning purpose!

Yours sincerely

Yujing

(aka newbie_learner)

(aka scorekeeper @ Singapore Chess Meetup)

4 Fun Training Games @ Siglap South CC (Sunday, 1 July 2018)

I think my play was decent. More importantly, I manage to record all the moves of the game (played under rapid control of 15 minutes initial thinking time + 10 seconds increment per move).

Game 1

Learning Points:

• Need to be careful initiating Nf5 in future Sicilian games
• Opposite side castling is really about who is faster. Dropping a pawn is insignificant if you can keep your attack going
• Never be cocky =)

Game 2

Learning Points:

• Don't be scared playing out a winning / superior position in time trouble -- the opponent with an inferior position in mutual time trouble will feel (and play) worse!

Game 3

Learning Points:

• Need to improve in making the correct "pawn breaks".
• Need to be careful about over-simplifying won positions into draws.

Game 4

Learning Points:

• Overall, it was good -- I don't think there were any major slips from the beginning to the end.

Thank you for taking time to read this =)

Yours sincerely

Ong Yujing
(newbie_learner)