MY RAPID CHESS.COM GAMES

Today I played my 5000th game in the rapid category of chess.com chess server. I would stop playing the rapid games as it is clear that I could not play fast nowadays. Many of those games I lost due to time pressure, and in quite a lot of them I was in the winning position. I am now playing in a slower time control category and I think I am doing quite well. 

Here is the stats for my chess.com games:

In my 5000th game, I luckily won although we were both in time trouble. It was a sharp Sicilian game where both of us castled on the opposite sides and raced to get to the enemy's King. In the end, he lost on time at the point where he would be checkmated in two moves. 

The diagram below shows one of my lost due to the rapid time control when I could not find the checkmate. By the time I was giving him a perpetual check in order to search for the mate, time was out. You might think that 'This is an easy one!', but try to imagine that you only have seconds to search for it, coupled with the server lag.

WHAT IS THE BEST PLAN?

I'm sharing with you here an ongoing game against an online opponent in chess.com. We can see that Black just endured a 'wait and see' policy by placing his pieces on the first three rows of his kingdom. How can I (playing White) continue from this diagram?

White to move

QUIZ

Black's King was being too adventurous and went surprisingly forward after a Knight check at e5. Was it a journey to remember or a point of no return?

QUEEN ENDING

White to move

I like endings. But endings like this will burst our heart, especially if played in time trouble. Queen controls so many squares, but which squares are more important? And then the exchange to pawn endings. Is it advantageous? All this questions must be answered before you make your move.

FUHH....

I just creamed somebody rated higher than me. I managed to checkmate him when my clock was running out of time. At the final position, he had 0:15.6 secs to my 0:00.1 secs. Maybe I had 2 Queens in the end, but it was balanced until he made a crucial mistake on move 43. It started as a Sicilian, albeit without the normal move order, and Black skillfully transposed into the Dragon variation. After the exchange of a pair of Rooks, White started to attack the centre. Black then blocked the centre, and stole the loose a-pawn. However, White quickly regained the pawn, and gained the initiative afterwards with the Queen dominating the board consisted of 5 opposing pawns and a dark-coloured Bishop each. Finally, the final mistake was made, and the rest was a matter of technique.

INFERIORITY COMPLEX (cont.)

From this position, White continues with 21.f4!.

Black's reply 21... exf3 en passant is practically forced so as not to lose a piece without any compensation. 22. Rxe5 fxe5 23.Bxf5+ Kc7

Now, Black has to rely on his passed pawns on e and f files to counter White's extra piece. White, on the other hand, has to find the way to exchange the Rook, or else, he has to play accurately using the combination of his Bishop and Rook (and his King, if needed) to stop the pawns. But first, White has to disrupt Black's pawn formation while at the same time solving his problematic double c-pawns.

24. c4 e4 Black continues his pawn march. Any of 24... d4 or 24... dxc4 will cost him the passed pawns. 25. cxd5 e3

The pawns look menacing, but in actual, it can easily be stopped by the Bishop. All White has to do now was to exchange the Rooks. White continues 26.d6+ Rxd6 27.Rxd6 Kxd6 28.Bg4

The pawns are stopped. 28... f2 29.Be2 Ke5 30.c3 Ke4 31.Kc2

White has to bring his King to visit Black's Queenside pawns. For this, he has to use his a-pawn to help the King. If Black scurries back to defend the pawns, White can switch the plan by attacking the passed pawns instead. 31... h5 32.Kb3 h4 33.Kb4 b6 34.a4 Kd5 35.Kb3 a6 36.Kc2 Ke4 37.Kb3 b5

38.Kb4 bxa4 39.Kxa4 Kf4? Black misses his chance to draw. He should try 39... f1=Q! and the game should draw. For example, 40.Bxf1 Kf3 41.Bxa6 e2 42.Bxe2+ Kxe2 43.Kb4 Kf2 44.Kc5 Kg2 45.Kxc6 Kxh3 46.Kd6 Kxh2 47.c4 Kg3 48.c5 h3 49.c6 h2 50.c7 h1=Q 51.c8=Q 1/2-1/2

40.Ka5 Ke5 41.Kxa6 Kd6 42.Ka5 Kc5 43.Ka4 Kd5 44.Kb4 c5+ 45.Kb5 Kd6 46.Kb6 Kd5 47.Kc7

White has a luxury of time in targeting any of the Black's pawns at c5, h4, e3 and f2. While Black has to constantly guard the squares around them in order to stop White's King. Still, Black's best chance is to queen the f pawn and escorts his e-pawn to force the exchange of White's Bishop. 47... c4

A big mistake. Now White switches his target for the c-pawn. The end is near. 48.Kb6 Kd6 49.Kb5 Kd5 50.Bxc4+ Ke4 51.Be2 1-0

Final position

INFERIORITY COMPLEX

The above position is a game between me and an online opponent. White's position is a nightmare with inferior pawn positions - two doubled pawns, 4 pawn islands and on top of that, a pawn less than Black. However, Black's last move 20... c6 was a mistake. He failed to see White's dangerous threat. I'll let you work out White's 21st move.

HOW MUCH DOES A QUEEN WORTH?

This position is taken from a game I played last night at chess.com. Black just moved 23...Bg7. What is the best move for White?

MY GAMES AT CHESS.COM

Currently, I am a regular player at Chess.com. This is mainly because of its simple interface which is easy to use, and the opponents are really challenging. There are 4 categories of play - the blitz (anything from 3 minutes to 15 minutes), the standard (more than 15 minutes), the bullet (below 3 minutes) and the online chess, which is often mentioned as the correspondence chess. As for the end of this year, my ratings for each categories are:

KNIGHT ENDGAME STUDY

Knight endgame is always fascinating. Those who dances gracefully and purposefully will win the game beautifully. Here is a position I was in last night against an online opponent. I was down a pawn, but I managed to put my King in a commanding position. His last move was 55.Nb6, attacking my d5 pawn. What is the best move for Black?

ARE KNIGHTS REALLY ARE BETTER THAN THE BISHOPS?

This is a recent endgame I played against an online opponent. A thorough assessment on this kind of position is essential if you are to be a good chess player. Pawn structures, king position, minor piece arrangement should be considered very accurately. Knight versus bishop always has been, and will be, debated fiercely as who is better, but really, it is only a matter of who realizes the advantages better.

From the above position, white made a mistake when he played 43.f4? to which black strongly replied 43...e4! creating a passed pawn. The play continued 44.h4 b5, 45.axb5 axb5, 46.h5

White tried to create his own passed pawn by exchanging his pawn majority on the Kingside. 46...gxh5, 47.g5 Nd6! The black knight blockaded the passed pawn. 48.Ba7 Nf5+, 49.Kh3 e3, 50.Kg2 The King scrambled back to stop the intruder. 50...Ke4, 51.Kf1 Kxf4, 52.Ke2 Kxg5, 53.Kf3 h4, 54.Bc5 h3, 55.Bb6 e2!

The pawn marched on, knowing that it cannot be captured because of the threat of 56...h2 queens. 56.Bf2 White tried to stop both pawns with the bishop and the King, but yet the knight delivered a stunning blow 56...Nd4+!

57.Kg3 Nxb3 Creating another passed pawn. 58.Kxh3 Nc1!

This knight heading for d3 to control the queening square e1. Game over. 0 - 1

Here we can see that the knight was powerful enough to jump all over the place creating havoc and defending at the same time, while the bishop was helpless when all the opponent's pawn were on the light squares. The King was tied to defend the queening of the two passed pawns, but the third one proven to be too much.

However, when both bishops are still on board, they pose powerful threats. The next game shows the power of the two bishops against the two knights.

In this diagram, the knights movement were severely restricted by the bishops and the phalanx of pawns. Even after exchanging all the rooks the bishops will still dominate the knights. Nothing fancy about black's attack - it was straight forward towards the King. Enjoy.

BUILDING THE BRIDGE

I managed to build a bridge, again (I did it against another online opponent here). This is a basic rook ending any chess player has to know by heart. It was quite easy to find it, through enough training. So, my young padawans, please don't play truant. Training continues this Sunday and please be ON TIME!

The critical endgame position started with the diagram:

After 46.Re4

Black eliminates one of White pawns by exchanging it with 46...h5! The game continues 47. gxh5 Rxh5 48. Rg4 g5 49. Kc3 Kb5 50. Kb3 Rh3+ 51. Kc2 Rh4

After 51...Rh4

Black kills any hope for White to win the game by exchanging the last pawn. From now on, it is Black who has all the initiative. 52. Rxg5+ Kxb4 53. Rg8 c5 54. Rb8+ Kc4 55. Kd2 Rh2+ 56. Ke3 Kc3 57. Rc8 c4 58. Rc7 Rh3+ 59. Ke2 Rd3 60. Rc8 Rd4 61. Ke3 Rh4 62. Ke2 Kc2 63. Ke3 c3 64. Rg8 Rh3+ 65. Ke2 Rh2+ 66. Ke1 Kc1 67. Rc8 c2 68. Rb8 Rh5

Starting the bridge

Rook on the 4th rank is the starting of 'The Bridge'. White is helpless. 69. Rb7 Re5+ 70. Kf2 Kd2 71. Rd7+ Kc3 72. Rc7+ Kd3 73. Rd7+ Kc4 0-1

The final position

ENDGAME BATTLE

Hanif vs IIUMChessmaster will resume the battle with Rook endgame. Black has the upper hand with an extra passed centre pawn while White has the pawn advantage in the Queenside of the board. Black's King is closer to the centre and his Rook controls the only available line. Who will prevail?

THE POWER OF TWO ROOKS

Last night, I was lucky to slam a Queen sacrifice against an online opponent. Starting from the above position, I exchanged my Queen for his two Rooks. The rest, as they say, was history. I'll leave it to you to calculate the remaining moves.

CHANNEL 64 FOR CHESS, ASTRO?

Move aside from the couch, football fans! Here come the chessmasters! Malaysia's Olympic Council is currently developing a sports channel for chess at our beloved private cable operator, .

Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary Sieh Kok Chi said,

"Many games like the Selangor (state) league football matches and less popular sports like chess matches don't get any airtime as TV stations normally ask us to pay for the crew or get sponsors to pay for the costs"

Read the AFP article here.

ROOK ENDGAME

White to move

White: iiumchessmaster (2294)
Black: mariomar (2346)
online game

Rook endgames are the most common type of chess endgames played in chess literature. Every chess players need to know how to play the rook endgames correctly to achieve victory. Even when you are a pawn up, there is no guarantee that you will win the game. Here, my opponent is a pawn up, but his rook position is passively guarding the passed d-pawn which I promptly block with my rook.

1.Rd5
Blocking the passed pawn and at the same time attacking the queenside pawns.

1.... Kf7
Trying to bring the King to more aggressive squares in the middle. The King also likes to replace the rook as the guardian of the passed pawn.

2.a4!
Giving Black no time to regroup by attacking the pawns.

2... bxa4 3.bxa4 Ke7 4.Ra5

Now Black has to choose between guarding the a-pawn or trying his luck with the passed d-pawn. He chose the latter.

4... f4 5.Rxa6 Re3 6.b4
Starting the passed pawns rolling.

6... Rb3 7.b5 Rb2+ 8.Kf1 Ke6

The Black King tries to cross over through the middle to help in delivering checkmate. In the meantime, White is banking on crowning one of his pawns to win the game.

9.Rb6 Ke5 10.a5 Kd4

Black throws away his passed pawn in his haste to checkmate White's King, which White duly accepts.

11.Rxd6+ Ke3 12.b6 Kxf3

Here Black should have take the draw with 12... Rb1+, but with his rating at stake, he tried to find a win. A quick glance at the board shows an ugly sight for White, but he has defensive resources.

13.Rd3+! Ke4 14.Ra3
Rook behind passed pawn, a basic rook endgame theory.

14... Kd5?
Again Black tries for a win, but this time there is no saving the game. He should have took the draw with 14... Rb1+.

15.a6 Rxb6 16.a7 1-0

Final position

Me vs ex-UKM, position after 19.Qg3

MY BATTLE WITH THE EX-UKM
Venue: Yahoo! Messenger (YM)

Last night I played a game through the YM with a formidable ex-UKM player, now a Math teacher in Selangor. It started with the Sicilian Defense until it reached the above position before we decided to adjurn it. I hope we will continue it in the near future.

NOTHING IS FREE

Last night I had to watch game 8 of Anand vs Kramnik at the UKM library. As it happened, I forgot to bring my broadband modem. So, I used the wireless connection readily available at the library compound. Although it was quite fast, it blocked some features from the Internet. As a consequence, I cannot watch the game live at Chesscube, so I had to find some quick alternatives. I tried Playchess and ICC, all of which I had to download some .exe files and register in order to watch the game. It was troublesome, until I came across Chessdom. The drawback, however, was that I had to continuously refresh the browser. I cannot wait for my wife to finish her class and head home to watch this game using my broadband connection, in the comfort of Chesscube.

Back to the game. Kramnik was blown out of his preparation again as Anand sprang a novelty as soon as move 10. After sinking into deep thought for most of the game, Kramnik had to make a perpetual check to draw the game.

Anand's novelty 10...Bxb5!

You can replay the 8th game here:

ANAND LEADS BY TWO POINTS!

... and both games won, incredibly, with the Black pieces! Today game 6 commences, and Kramnik has an Everest mountain to climb in order to cut the deficit. I follow the games at chesscube.com, with comments from Mark Levitt and analysis by Fritz 11. So far, it is Anand who states his intention of ever winning this championship, to retain his World Champion title, while Kramnik still has not reveal (I'm being kind, I know) his secret weapon yet. Can he do a Liverpool, or die miserably by Anand's onslaught, we just have to see. Replay game 5 here:

CHESS ONLINE

I like playing chess online. Pitting my brain skills against opponents from all over the world. There are several places where I usually play online chess.

1. Gamecolony.com


The graphic is quite okay, but the bubble sound is a little bit intimidating. There's only one playing hall to choose from, and it is the biggest drawback of the site, even though the strength of the players are good sometimes. It sends your games to your e-mail.


2. Chesscube.com


Great graphic display, easy to play, and save my games in .pgn format by just a click. It has plenty of chess cafe to choose from, even though the quality of the players remains to be seen.


3. ItsYourTurn.com


This is actually is a correspondence chess, where moves being made without the players sitting in front of their computers at the same time. You can also send a message with each of your moves and keeping notes on what you intended to do for each position. It is a good place to make your best moves on the board.