Here it goes!

Follow some advices, here it is =]



Analysis by Fritz ;)

Match Augustos

Yesterday I played the first of four games of a training match against a fried. He's also an Augusto, so it was the Match Augustos! ;)

For the very first time in my life fritz gave me a ! and put no ? on my moves =]

I'm very happy with Nemo's victory over a 2100+ USCF =] Take a look at his blog, it was a wonderful game!




Augusto,Saulo - Augusto, Daniel [B20]
Match Augustos - 1st game
[Daniel Augusto]

1.e4 c5 2.Bc4 e6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.d3 Nf6 5.f4?N (in post mortem analysis we realized that this move was the first error) d5 6.exd5 exd5 7.Qe2+ Be7 8.Bb5 Bd7 9.Nf3 0-0 10.Bd2?? (Cause further problems) Nd4! (wins a piece) 11.Nxd4 cxd4 12.Bxd7 dxc3 13.Bxc3 Qxd7-+ 14.0-0-0 Rfe8 15.Qf2 Qa4 16.Kb1 [16.a3 Bxa3 17.bxa3 Qxa3+ 18.Kd2³ (18.Kb1 Qxc3-+; 18.Bb2÷) ] 16...Rac8 17.Bd4 Ng4 18.Qg3 Qxd4 19.c3 Now take a look at the position and figure out a move for black ;)
Rxc3!! 20.bxc3 [20.Qxg4 Rxd3 21.Rxd3 Qxd3+ 22.Ka1-+;
20.Qxg4 Rxd3 21.Rhe1 Rxd1+ 22.Qxd1 Qxd1+ 23.Rxd1 Bf6 24.Rxd5 Re2-+] 20...Qxc3 21.Rhe1 [21.Rc1 Qb4+ 22.Kc2 Rc8+ 23.Kd1 Qa4+ 24.Ke2 (24.Kd2 Bb4+ 25.Ke2 Qxa2+ 26.Kf3) 24...Qxa2+ 25.Kf3] 21...Qb4+ 22.Ka1 Bf6+ 23.d4 Rxe1 24.Qxe1 Bxd4+ 0-1

Fritz gave me a ! in 19 Rxc3 and said that was a brilliant end! I'm very happy not for the win, but for the nice sac! I calculated everything since the beginning, and that tactical shot Nd4! that won a piece was calculated too! =]

I'm proud!

Day 3

Exercises Done!

Now I have a Chess.com account (damourax), i'll add this rating to the sidebar.
And my buho21 is growing up too!

That's all for today.
Bobby, Rest in Peace.

Results!

OMG! Before do CT ART training I played a horrible game when I blundered my queen beautifully...
After today 20 exercises I played a nice game, when I though tactically and won! =D
It was nice because I knew what I was doing, and i'm horrible playing blitz... Also the guy was 1379 and I'm 1225!
After the game I was so happy... but the game was unrated, and i still with 1225... .__.

But it's ok! =]
I don't care much about buho21 rating =]




antonisalva (1379) - damoura (1225) [A85]
Club Owl21 Owl21.com, 16.01.2008


1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 I was thinking, Leningrad or Stonewall Variation? I lost a stonewall today, so let's go with Leningrad! 3...g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bg5 0-0 6.e3 d6 7.Bd3 Re8 Better was Qe8 8.e4 e2-e3, Bd3, e3-e4... Lost a precious time... 8...fxe4 9.Nxe4 Nc6 10.Nxf6+ exf6+ Open this file for me please =]
And it's check! 11.Be3 Bg4 12.0-0 f5 And suddenly the bishop comes alive! =] 13.d5 Ne5 14.Bc2 I don't wanna trade my knight on your bad bishop =] 14...Bxf3 Tactical SHOT! =]
BAM! 15.gxf3 Nxc4 16.Bd4 Qg5+ 17.Kh1 Qf4 18.Bxg7 Kxg7 19.b3 Nd2 20.Rg1 Nxf3 21.Rg2 Re1+ 22.Qxe1 Nxe1 23.Rxe1 Qd2 24.Re7+ Kf6 25.Rxc7 Qe1+ 26.Rg1 Qxf2 27.Bb1 Re8 28.Rcc1 Re2 Now he blundered, like I'm used to do... 29.Rge1 Qxh2# 0-1


I'm very very very happy with this victory, means a lot for me =]
Now Fritz is analyzing =]

Another victory (rated) today! =]

mastercam (1382) - damoura (1225) [C55]
Club Owl21 Owl21.com, 16.01.2008

1.e4 I'm only loosing with sicilian, so I changed a bit. 1...e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.d3 Be7 5.Ng5 Losing time and trying to break my castle walls! 5...d5 6.exd5 Nxd5 7.Ne4 0-0 8.0-0 Nf6 This time I lost tempo... =] 9.Nxf6+ Bxf6 10.Qf3 Qe7 11.a3 Nd4 12.Qd1 Be6 13.Nd2 Bg5 14.Bxe6 Qxe6 15.Ne4 Bxc1 Take with the queen, take with the queen... And he heard my thoughts! 16.Qxc1 Ne2+ Tactical SHOOT! BAM! 0-1



Thanks Knights, for all support! =]

Day 1 (again)

Micro Drills done, then started the level 10 at CT-ART.
Almost finish, there's only 5 problems left.
Blunderprone told me to stay there until 95%, so i'm doing it again with a schedule. I'll try to follow de la Maza 127 days...
Twenty problems/days in circle one. Let's go!


105 problems down, 1104 to go
1 day down, 126 to go

My study room!

While Blunderprone studies in Ice I have a "super" chess desk which you can see in the photos. It's very comfortable...















Wood box + Old books + Seat(?) + Table + Chess board and pieces (Finally!)

The new Plan!

The other was too crazy to follow, so I'm changing, blunderprone showed me a good path to follow, thanks! =]

I can't stay the last seven days doing exercises all day so i'm modifying de la Maza's program a little bit.
I'll do severn circles with CT ART without thinking much about the 64, 32, days, etc... I'll do in my time.
First I'll complete level 10, 20, 30 and 40. If i fell confident to go to 50+ I will. And then after finish the level 90, I'll come back and do all of them 6 times more! If i don't have the confidence in my tactical skills, i'll do the 10, 20, 30 and 40 one more time.
I don't have a strong need in study strategy, to my actual level of play what I know it's sufficient.
My problems lies in tactics and openings. I studied a lot of variations and all, but when the movies covered by the security waters of others analysis it's done I found myself blundering pieces and loosing the games 5 moves later. So i'm really focusing on tactics. Openings study isn't much chess, it's memorization.

My goal is very hard, I really want to become a FIDE Master in short time.
My path is dangerous, but i'll do my best.

Hail the knights!

Trying to get help from the knights

OMG, I'M LOST!!

I found some problems on my program.
The PCT doesn't allow to do circles the way de la Maza and other knights did. But it's very fun to solve tactical problems there.

The CT ART it's ugly but the 5x5 board and those strange colors really help, and there aren't much dummy basics exercises like PCT (almost 300). The percentage showed when you stop playing is very nice.


OMG, I need help, don't know what software I must use!


And I think that my goal is such hard... =\

I'm getting desperate! So i'm commenting on almost every knight blog trying to get some help.

Day 1

My chess training consists in physical training also, so I run 30 minutes today, and i'm very proud of it! =]

OMG, I done the first micro-drills and it took 30 minutes! It's harder than I thought, but is ok. Now, to the bishops, knights and queens. And then the knight sight...
And finally, i'll continue on PCT, doing tactics, tactics, tactics, tactics... =P

I'm very excited with the training, hope to make it right.
After read this post and the improvement plan of Samurai, I think about use CT ART 3.0, and do the circles like de la Maza. I'm not sure of using PCT instead CT ART...

Regardless of being a knight, i'll upgrade constantly, 5 or 6 times a week.

Finished the micro-drills in two hours. I've done a lot of knight sights exercises since I started to play, so I skipped this one, but the "N moves of knight to get to ??" it's very fun! =]

Rest - Lunch - And PCT =]

That's all, no post in Portuguese yet.

The Plan | O Plano

I'll modify de la Maza's plan.

I'll start with the Micro Drills, doing the 3 in the same day for two weeks, like a warm up, and of course, improving my chess vision. =]
Then i'll go to PCT (i'm on unit 6 of the 1st module of tactics.), i'll do 2 or 3 units/day, +- (180-270) exercises.
For strategy, i'll use "Estrategia moderna del ajedrez" (PACHMAN), about one topic/day.
And for endgame i'm using some material found on internet. Alternating Endgame with strategy. And then, go play in buho21.

Resuming: (Micro Drills - 2/3 units of tactics on PCT - one topic on Pachman's book or some study of endgame in net material - about 3 games in buho21)/day.

Why i'm not doing circles clearly? It's because I'll repeat the exercises 6 times in the PCT =]

If i didn't got tired with it, i'll do more exercises on PCT (strategy or endgame) or play more. =]

I think that's a good plan, if something changes i'll edit this. Somebody can comment with a opinion? Knights, I need your help!

I think I could end the plan in 150-200 days including the difficulties on the journey. Of course this is not sufficient to become a Master, so I'll think in another plan when I finish this one! =]
Hope to finish the plan this year :S

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Esse é o plano:

Resumidamente: Micro Drills de de la Maza - 2/3 unidades de tática no PCT - Um tópico do livro do Pachman ou Fim de Jogo com material na internet - +- 3 partidas no buho21.

Caso não esteja cansado, farei mais exercícios no PCT ou jogarei mais partidas =]
Acho q é um bom plano, espero q consiga realizá-lo! =]

Espero terminar em +- 150-200 dias, ou pelo menos esse ano! :S

1st Post | 1ª Postagem

I'm a Brazilian guy who started to play chess two years ago and has a lot to improve. This year I'm studying very hard to try to become a FIDE Master in the next 2-4 years.

I found a article titled 400 points in 400 days, where Michael de la Maza says that tactical skills is the shortiest way to improve your chess ability. I will follow de la Maza schedule with the PCT program because i'm tired of blundering pieces and lose some simple 3 moves combination.

Well, I don't know if I'll achieve my plans but I'll do my best. Maybe i'll not became a master or so, but I'm not loosing the hope.
If i see that I'm not close, it's simple, I'll just give me more time, maybe more 4 years =P

I'll use here my buho21, CBX (Brazilian Federation), and FIDE (when I get one) rating. And i'll post in Portuguese and English.
My actual buho21 rating is 1329 and hope to get it to 2000+ =], and i've never played a Brazilian Rated game, so my rating is 1800 (floor).
Hope to get in "The Knights Errant", who is a group of bloggers who follows de la Maza methods (modified or not).

Sorry for the bad english, hope it get better with time =]

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Nesse blog irei postar coisas sobre o meu treinamento de xadrez. Pretendo me tornar um mestre FIDE nos próximos 2-4 anos, talvez seja querer demais, mas darei o máximo de mim.
Usarei o método de treinamento descrito no artigo 400 points in 400 days de Michael de la Maza, treinarei tática durante bastaaaante tempo. Para quem interessar é mto fácil achar o artigo no google.=]
Mta gente diz q temos de treinar estratégia e finais também, mas não adianta enquanto eu não parar de perder por não ver combinações simples de 3 movimentos.
Usarei aqui meu rating no buho21, CBX e FIDE (qdo tiver 1), respectivamente são 1329, 1800 e 0 hehe

Ah, é isso, vou tentar né, se der certo deu, se não der, talvez eu me dê mais uns anos de prazo. =]

Os posts serão feitos em inglês e português, um inglês chulo, mas acho q dá pro pessoal entender.