Friday Night Casual Training Game

It was a great feeling to see so many adult players in the QCD Chess League 2019 playing training games at the same place! I actually love the temporary location of the Thomson CC Chess Club's chess site at Bishan CC (first floor, just below Singapore Chess Federation).

Anyway, I was glad to have played this long game with Ms Zhemin. After losing 0-3 several weeks ago, I finally managed to even out our head-to-head records a little with a win tonight =) More importantly, I felt I learned something out of it. Truth be told, at certain phases of the game, I felt uncertain even though by the general principles, I thought that I have not committed any chess sin and surely I should be able to punish my opponent for breaching the opening principles and falling so behind in development speed. I guess this is something all fellow beginners / club players like myself need to experience and grow from.

Even though the game was played without the use of a clock, I took extra care to ensure that the time consumption was reasonable (i.e. I would not have flagged, or ran into time trouble, had the game been played under 90+30 conditions).

The game replay can be found in the following link. As per my current practice, I first describe my own thoughts and feelings during and after the game, without the use of engine, before checking for tactical mistakes using Chessbase 15's Tactical Analysis function, and compare the 2.

External link to game replay: http://view.chessbase.com/cbreader/2019/5/4/Game99188734.html


For this particular game, I'm glad that I wasn't too far off at large. Perhaps the big moment for me in the opening phase of the game was this:

I was playing the opening moves based on general principles. I wasn't even trying to play anything too fanciful after a standard-looking move of 7.Nc3, and then a question popped up in my head: What am I supposed to do against 7...Qb6 which targets against my d4 pawn? I was actually quite worked during the game, and even though my instinct of 7...Qb6 8.d5 seems passable by the engine's standard, it was uncomfortable enough to upset me. There is still much more imbalance for me to learn to appreciate, and I cannot just look at things superficially, that White seems to have dropped a pawn. White does get quite a bit of tempo for it.

Back to Playing Online Chess

It was around 3-4 years ago, when I stopped online chess completely after finding out the wonderful Singapore Chess Meetup started by Bradley Loh. Why would I waste time playing online, when I derive the greatest satisfaction playing chess games in person over the board? I think that was why I quit online chess. Another reason was the abuse and swearing online that sours the gaming experience.

But I have to admit, that blitz games have its important place in a chess players learning. I do find it useful in experimenting and checking one's familiarity with openings, coping with time pressure/stress, as well as tactical sensing checks. Yet I wish the games are recorded (I recall my original reason to buy a DGT Smartboard Set was to record the blitz games I play over the board!). Hence, I have decided:

• To play more games of slower time control (standard or rapid) at various chess sites. This allows me to record and review the games. Of course, given the practical considerations such as time constraint (we can play more games under rapid time controls) , I suspect I would be playing more rapid games at the various chess sites I visit, and the standard games would mainly be clocked during tournaments. I would play blitz games as a form of warm-up.
  
• To play blitz games online whenever I feel like it. The best part is that the games are all recorded as played. Also, I have agreed to play some correspondence chess with my QCD team mates as part of training and preparations. 

Now I really understand why they say chess is life. Because it takes up the bulk of your lifetime ^o^


Yours sincerely
Ong Yujing (Eugene)
a.k.a. newbie_learner
Siglap South CC Chess Quartet