Life Master or Bust

2010 Iowa Championship

2010-04-12T21:16:00.001-07:00

I won the Iowa State Championship for the fourth time this past weekend. It was a very challenging event and I was lucky in both instances where I drew to escape without a loss. In the first round, I played listlessly against Weiss and missed a few ideas (for both myself AND him) which nearly cost me, but I finally found the appropriate resource and saved the game. Against Keating I allowed a tactic thinking I would win material, only to discover he had a saving move. Down two pawns, I should have lost, but found a setup that was just frustrating enough to hold the half point. My best game was probably against Jim Hodina, where I found a nice pawn sac to open the position and finish the game, or againt Tim McEntee, where I played a complex English. Tim wasn't on his game the whole tournament, though, but he did play well against me in round 5.

The numbers:

New Rating: 2264
Games Played: 287
Games left: 13

This last stretch is reallllyyy going slow, it seems. I will miss Okoboji this weekend, too, so that pushes my next tournament all the way into May. Wow.

Chess.MN 3rd FIDE Invitational

2010-03-07T20:09:00.000-08:00

I participated in the 3rd FIDE Invitational run by Dr. Sisira Amarasinghe of Chess.MN. The tournament was held in St. Paul, Minnesota and was a round robin that saw nine rounds played over two consecutive weekends.

Of course, in such an event, I knew the player list in advance. My initial goal going into the event, based on rating, was to score 6.5/9 which would raise my rating by 10-12 points. However, Robert Donahue (2101) was replaced by Kevin Wasiluk (2279) just before the start of the tournament and so I needed only 6/9 to gain rating. I set my sights on 6.5 nonetheless, and looked at how I migh accumulate those points. My goal for the first weekend was a quick 4.5/5, as I was paired with 4 of the lower rated players in the event and one of the four masters. I came close, hitting 4/5 in week one. Coming back, I wanted a 2.5/4 score but knew that would be difficult as I would be up against the remaining two masters as well as P. Amarasinghe (2130) and B. Purcell (2137).

In the end, I scored above my goal, hitting 7/9. Going into the final round, myself, NM Iwu and NM Wasiluk were tied with 6.0/8. Iwu drew Odeh and in a very tense encounter, Wasiluk had to settle for a perpetual against Amarasinghe, so I was left in clear first place when the dust settled. I will put some games up on chessunderground.org when I have time.

Crosstable:
http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201003077341-12542549

For now, the recap as it applies to my quest:

Round 1: WIN vs. Ratliff, David (2072)
Round 2: DRAW vs. Mattson, Dane (2080)
Round 3: DRAW vs. Iwu, Okechukwu (2211)
Round 4: WIN vs. Odeh, Kenneth (2050)
Round 5: WIN vs. Hortillosa, Andres (1980)
Round 6: WIN vs. Dahl, Matthew (2200)
Round 7: DRAW vs. Amarasinghe, Prashantha (2130)
Round 8: DRAW vs. Wasiluk, Kevin (2279)
Round 9: WIN vs. Purcell, Brendan (2137)

New Rating: 2255
Games Played: 282
Games left: 18

Eight More

2010-02-17T19:19:00.000-08:00

So close now. Three games from October of '09 (Yeah. I've been busy). Five more this past weekend at the 2010 USAT North, including a draw against GM Yermolinsky (my second in the past year) and an amazing final round tactical explosion, which I posted on my facebook (friend me if you wanna).

For now, the numbers related to my journey:

New Rating: 2239
Games Played: 273
Games left: 27

The end is near!

55th Iowa Open

2009-09-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

This year's 55th Iowa Open was quite strong by Iowa standards, with 3 masters, 6 experts (including newly 2100+ Iowan Robert Keating), and a host of A-players. I won with 4.5/5.

Here is the crosstable:
http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?200909069141

The average rating of my opponents was 2089! I won the event and played fairly well. I will try to post some of my games on the much-neglected chessunderground.org later this week. For now, the Life Master progress update:

Round 1: Win vs Juett, Jason (1913)
Round 2: Win vs Reynolds, Robert (2002)
Round 3: Win vs Keating, Robert (2116)
Round 4: Win vs Weiss, Mitch (2221)
Round 5: Draw vs McEntee, Tim (2200)

New Rating: 2242
Games Played: 265
Games left: 35

CCCP Open

2009-07-13T18:45:00.000-07:00

No, it's not the USSR Open. It's the Capitol City Chess Players Open.

I scored 3.5/4, drawing a former student in the final round who made his expert rating for the first time. Matt Anzis was 1996 going in, now 2019. Congrats Matt!

Round 1: Win vs Brent Walker (1700)
Round 2: Win vs. Brent Aronsen (1762)
Round 3: Win vs Jason Juett (1910)
Round 4: Draw vs. matt Anzis (1996)

New Rating: 2221
Games Played: 260
Games left: 40

Cychess 37

2009-05-17T19:52:00.000-07:00

I tied for first with 3.0/3 at the Cychess XXXVII at Iowa State University.

Round 1: Win vs. Kent Campbell (1516)
Round 2: Win vs. Tim Crouse (1800)
Round 3: Win vs. Jason Juett (1932)

That brings us to the new totals:

New Rating: 2222
Games Played: 256
Games left: 44

What a difference a year makes?

2009-04-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

Wow. I came back to this blog to track my progress and saw it had been more than a year since my last post. In that time...

-I had a second daughter
-The first African-American in history was elected president
-The Bears got a franchise quarterback
-The economy went down the tubes
-Anand became world champion
-I played in 10 rated events

That number, to me, is shocking. At my peak, I recall calculating I played in 53 rated events in a 1 year span- more than one event per week. Of those 10 events, one was a dual event (the US G/60 and 30 were the same weekend) and another was a 3-game match. In my college years I would estimate I averaged 35 events a year, at a minimum. Ten events is likely an all-time low for a 1-year span, though to actually go back and sift through all of my MSA records from month to month is a job too tedious and time consuming to interest me.

OK, so, where am I on the path to LM? My last update included all events through the 2008 US Qualifier. Therefore it did not include the following past events:

-2008 Iowa Closed (5 games)
-2008 US G/60 (4 games)

After those two events my rating slipped into the higher 2100s for a good portion of the year- nearly 10 months. I just competed in the 2009 Okoboji Open (results and games here) which will push my rating back above 2200 for the first time in 2009 and the first time since June of 2008. The Okoboji Open was also 5 games, so, the official numbers:

New Rating: 2218
Games Played: 253
Games left: 47

On the trail to LM

2008-03-31T06:22:00.000-07:00

New Rating: 2206
Games Played: 239
Games left: 61

10 more games on the road to Life Master- still no significant progress to 2300.

Tournaments included:
Cyclone Club Championship
US Championship Qualifier (Oklahoma)

Hawkeye Mind Challenge

2008-02-17T21:21:00.000-08:00

New Rating: 2217
Games Played: 229
Games left: 71

I am stuck in Williamsburg, Iowa due to a huge snow storm and poor road cleanup services.
Full report to follow.

Iowa FIDE Swiss

2008-01-13T21:20:00.000-08:00

Somehow my game history was changed and I lost one rating point. This may take 3 games away from my total. I can't tell. For now, to be safe:

New Rating: 2210
Games Played: 224
Games left: 76

Ames Futurity 4

2007-11-21T11:04:00.000-08:00

New Rating: 2213
Games Played: 221
Games left: 79

I will have some of the games annotated and available for review on www.chessunderground.org sometime this week. I played extremely well, and should have won my last round for a 27 point rating gain, but I messed up.

C'est la vie.

Ames Chess Festival

2007-10-29T20:22:00.001-07:00

http://chessunderground.org/live-games/ameschessfest07.htm

3 games from the event

Off track and back on the beaten path

2007-10-28T18:51:00.000-07:00

After a few tournaments and a few weird games (including being up a piece and losing... and up 2 pawns and drawing...)

New Rating: 2201
Games Played: 214
Games left: 86

CyChess XXX

2007-09-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

New Rating: 2209
Games Played: 205
Games left: 95

This is the 6th CyChess I have played in, and I can never seem to take sole first.
I scored 3.0/3 but was tied by fellow master Tim McEntee.

Round 1: White vs Gregory Ward 1-0
A Dutch defense soon went sour and I was able to install a bishop on e6, as white!

Round 2: Black vs. William Polzin
Will played into one of my better prepared lines and I made one move past my preparation to win an exchange.

Round 3: White vs. Tim Crouse
I played the Chigorin French... 1. e4! e6 2. Qe2! and won a very complicated, closed position.

2 More Games

2007-09-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

For posterity:

New Rating: 2205 (ouch!)
Games Played: 202
Games left: 98

I am into double-digits for games left!

I lost a game where I was up 3 pawns, and stopped paying attention... sigh...

3 More Games

2007-09-07T23:48:00.000-07:00

For posterity:

New Rating: 2220
Games Played: 200
Games left: 100

I broke the 200 mark! I am precisely 2/3 of the way to my goal.

...and 80 points from 2300.

53rd Iowa Open

2007-09-05T18:51:00.000-07:00

New Rating: 2218
Games Played: 197
Games left: 103

The 53rd Iowa Open was held last weekend in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was directed by Hank Anzis and Shawn Kmetz and organized by Jim Hodina. The Open section drew 32 players while the Reserve and Beginner sections saw a combined attendance of 47.

I tied for first with 4.0/5 having 3 wins and 2 draws. Jim Hodina and Ryan Butros also had 3 wins and 2 draws, while Andy Applebaum joined the group with one loss. I was able to get first on tiebreaks, playing both the 2, 3, and 4 seed, though the tournament was closely contested throughout.

After a very narrow 2nd round victory, I was paired with expert Robert Keating (2021 rated, the 4th-seed). He repeated the same variation I had played againt Crouse (1800) in round 1, all the way to move 15! Afraid of preparation, I deviated, using an improvement I had found against Crouse. Later, I learned Robert had not seen my round one game, but the improvement worked as he dropped a piece due to a miscalculation soon thereafter. Meanwhile, Applebaum knocked off the other master, Tim McEntee, due to a one-move oversight while Butros beat A-player Don Bloomquist to leave 3 perfect scores going into the second day.

I will try to post a game or two, but have been busy!

3 More Games

2007-08-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

Played again as house man:

New Rating: 2213
Games Played: 192
Games left: 108

Had an interesting game against one of my students. I will try to post the critical position here.

Missed Goal

2007-08-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I missed my goal of a plus score in the 3rd Billy Colias Memorial Tournament, but overall I'd say the tournament went fairly well. I wasn't totally out of form and was able to cause havoc in the majority of my games.

For now:

New Rating: 2211
Games Played: 189
Games left: 111

Midstate Open

2007-08-14T12:30:00.000-07:00

New Rating: 2223 (est)
Games Played: 184
Games left: 116

I have decided to post this at the top since it makes it easier for me to keep track of my progress (I don't have to scroll down as much!)

On August 11th I played in the Midstate Open in Peoria, Illinois. There was one other player rated over 2000, and I won it with a perfect 4-0 score. Second was a large tie at 3.0/4.

Round 1- BLACK Win vs. Crum, Randy (1500)
A Leningrad Dutch by me quickly won a piece.
Round 2- WHITE Win vs. Leali, Matt (1751)
An unusual opening by black led to a weakening of his queenside which resulted in material loss.
Round 3- BLACK Win vs. Chien, Jason (1861)
Jason is a strong junior player. This was by far my most interesting game. I have posted a position from the game, which started as a boring symmetrical King's Pawn, below.
Round 4- WHITE Win vs. Voss, Andy (1658)
Andy was 3-0 and gave me a tough fight in the Old Indian, but found himself in a very pressured and cramped position and tried a faulty sacrifice.

Here, Jason Chien has sacrificed a piece to open up my king. Black to move and try to hold!

Des Moines Open

2007-08-05T06:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went 4.0/4 to win the Des Moines Open in a tie for first with Jeremy Madison, of Ankeny, who upset the only other 2000+ player, Ron Deike, in the penultimate round. In the last round I was left to play the still-streaking Jason Juett, who had won 3 in a row, while Madison knocked off John Roth, who had 2.5. I had a very interesting game which I will show parts of below.

The tournament overall was a success- 29 players showed up, probably the highest turnout for a mini-qualifier in some time, though that is purely speculation. We even saw attendees from as far away as Minnesota and South Dakota.

Anyway, here is a round-by-round breakdown.

Round 1: Black vs. Rolfe, Adrian (1609)
I was the black side of I guess what would be called a King's Indian Attack by white, though it became strange. I sacrificed a piece for two pawns in the late middle game after obtaining a dangerous passed pawn. Rolfe felt the pawn should be eliminated, and sacrificed back leaving me up a pawn in the ending, which I soon won.

Round 2: White vs Wangen, Michael (1823)
The game started as a theoretical Queen's Indian by black until he deviated with d5, entering into a many-kingside-tempo-down Queen's Gambit Declined. I played a strong early middle-game idea, prevented him from castling for a few moves, and he did not handle a particular sequence well, leaving me with a dangerous pawn on c6 that quickly won.

Round 3: Black vs. Kakar, Jasvinder (1852)
Definitely the most interesting game of the tournament. Let's pick up the action on move 17.

From Kakar, Jasvinder v. Karagianis, Pete:

In this position, I spent too little time and played

17. ...cxd4???

-a horrible blunder. I had visions of Qe6+. This move is terrible because it allows the d2 bishop to enter the game, whereas if Nc6 or any other reasonable move, the Bishop on d2 is cut from play and my defense is easier.

18. f5 Qd6 19. exd4 e5!

e5! was the only move to keep equality, according to Fritz, though in our post-mortem of the game, Jasvinder and I both felt this was a mistake for black. It seems to me that white is winning here, while black is trying desperately to get some action against the white king, or defend by bringing his queenside pieces over to the king.

20. Qg3

(20. O-O {I felt 0-0 was the move to crush me, but it appears I have more resources thanI had thought: 20...Nd7 21. g5 hxg5 22. Bxg5 exd4 {! This capture offers enough counterplay.} 23. f6 (23. cxd4 Bxd4+ 24. Kh1 Re8!) 23... Nxf6 {And where is white's next plan?})

20... Qe7 21. g5 exd4+ 22. Kd1 Qe2+ 23. Kc1 dxc3 24. bxc3

24. ...Be5!!

Not ...Bxc3? right away, because of 25. gxh6+! Kf8 26. Qd6+!

25. Qg1

(25. gxh6+ {I gave this variation serious credence for a moment, before realizing there was nothing to fear, for example: ...Bxg3 26. hxg3 Nd7 {I had originally felt 26. ...Kh7 was necessary, but I can allow the white pawn to get to h7 since the bishop on d2 can never reach the long diagonal.} 27. h7+ Kh8 28. Rb1 Rc8 29. Rb2 d4)

25... Bxc3 26. gxh6+ Kf8 27. Qg5

Here it would have been easy to get nervous, with less than 7 minutes on my clock, and played the hasty Bxd2+, where the resulting Rook versus two pieces ending would have been a challenge, to say the least.

Instead, I calmly played:

27. ...Nd7

...and sealed the game. Now there are too many threats.}

28. Re1

All other moves lose as well, this one happens to be mate in 6.

28. ...Bxd2+ 29. Qxd2 Rc8+

And white resigned.

Round 4: White vs. Juett, Jason (1940)
Jason mixed up the move order in a King's Indian Defence and soon found his queen trapped. Though the variation was not forced, white had a big initiative. When I asked him after the game why he took the poisoned pawn which allowed his queen to be caught, he said, "Well I thought if I didn't take it I was going to lose and that maybe there was a 1% chance that my queen could get out of there."

Overall, that leaves me at:
New Rating: 2219
Games Played: 180
Games left: 120

I am exactly 60% of the way there!!!

The road goes ever on and on...

2007-08-03T21:05:00.000-07:00

I played three more games tonight at the Friday Night Weekly Action.

Round 1- The first game I have played 1.e4 in since a victory over Dan Vasto in late 2004. It turned into a King's Indian Attack vs. the French, I guess. Anyway, I won.

Round 2- Sprung a surprise variation on the streaking Jason Juett. I say "Streaking" in a good way, he is playing well and just earned his official FIDE rating which should be somewhere around 2070. Anyway, he never recovered from the opening and I soon simplified to an easy ending.

Round 3- Got an easy attack going on the white side of a KID. Soon made it harder than necessary on myself, but the point was never far from reach.

+3 -0 =0

New Rating: 2214 (est)
Games Played: 176
Games left: 124

the road goes ever on and on...

I always feel like this song is playing in the background whenever I post, since the numbers seem to change so slowly.

Shaking off the rust

2007-07-24T21:17:00.000-07:00

I haven't played what I would consider to be a "serious" tournament in a long time, but finally did last weekend in Oklahoma.

Wow...

I have a lot of rust to shake off. I got into a good position, declined a queen trade, let the other guy open everything up on my king, and was lucky to hold the draw.

Later, a different opponent took a pawn and allowed my knight to enter the game, otherwise, I was worse.

Later, I forgot my opening on move 3 and was lost by move 15.

Later, I had to rely on my opponent hanging a piece to win the game, as I was down a pawn and under pressure.

Overall, it was a miracle that I scored +2 =1 -1. Should still be over 2200.

New Rating: 2207 (est)
Games Played: 173
Games left: 127

One more game

2007-07-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

Once again I played a game as the House player.

+1

New Rating: 2220
Games Played: 169
Games left: 131

At least I am making progress on the LM goal, if not the 2300 one.

Friday Night in Ames

2007-07-01T22:51:00.000-07:00

I played a g/30 on Main Street in Ames on June 29th as the House Man.

+2 =1

New Rating: 2219
Games Played: 168
Games left: 132

And the journey plods slowly onwards.

Marshalltown Open Results

2007-06-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

+2 =2, share 3rd place.
Had a strange draw in the 2nd round, will try to post games later.

For now:
New Rating: 2218
Games Played: 165
Games left: 135

Marshalltown Open

2007-06-08T18:49:00.001-07:00

I decided to play in the Marshalltown Open this weekend. 4 rds g/60. I will take a last round bye, though, so only 3 more games towards my life master goal...

Chess and Daddy

2007-05-10T16:55:00.000-07:00

I have taken an anticipated break from playing chess and, obviously, posting here. On April 23, I became a dad for the first time. I have heard this kills your rating-- we'll see. So far my ICC rating has only suffered slightly, though I have played no OTB games since Dad-dom.

Our girl came a little early. We hadn't expected her for another month. I had really hoped to get into the 180 game range before she came along but now things will plod along much more slowly.

I hope to play in the US Action on June 16th, and maybe will be lucky enough to pick up a local tourney before then.

Tax Day Chess

2007-04-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

I pulled my hammy pretty bad in our morning soccer match, and went to play chess at the Valley Club drugged up and sleepy. I should have known better. :)

Still, I played alright. Joel had to play a nice game to beat me... I got involved in a very transparent idea and before I knew it my 30 minutes were up and I had nothing left to play for. I won my other two matches.

New Rating: 2222
Games Played: 161
Games left: 139

Easter Action

2007-04-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

Today, Easter Sunday, I played 3 games of rated g/30 at the weekly Valley Chess Club. They were my first three games since dedicating this blog to tracking my Life Master quest.

Round 1) White vs. Michael Oldehoff , WIN
Michael got into trouble early and went on an ill-advised knight tour. The errant piece ended up trapped, and things went downhill from there.

Round 2) White vs. Richard Smouse , WIN
See below for analysis of the critical position.

Round 3) Black vs. NM Joel Johnson, WIN
A complicated Schevenigen/Najdorf/something hybrid, where I was black. The position was unclear, with the slightest of edges for Joel, when he miscalculated and I was able to win an exchange. After that, some nice back-rank tactics ensued to close the deal. You can replay the game, which most of the onlookers found exciting, here.

Overall, I should gain 8 rating points.
New Rating: 2229
Games Played: 158
142 games to go...

from Karagianis-Smouse.

Here, black played 18. ...Qd6 and after 19. d5! Qxc7 20. Rxc7, white went on to win easily.
The interesting complication was:
18. ...Qxc7?! 19. Rxc7 e6 20. d5!! exd5 21. Bxb6 dxe4 22. Bb1! Rd8! 23. Rc1! Rd5 24. Bxe4 Rd2 25. Bxa5! white wins a piece, despite the messy sequence.

Life Master- The Introduction

2007-04-03T08:33:00.000-07:00

Roughly around the time I was beginning to really improve at chess I learned, to my dismay, that "Master" rating was actually 2200 instead of only 2000. Soon thereafter, I was also made aware of a title known as "Life Master." To achieve Life Master status, a player must play 300 rated games above the USCF rating of 2200. After obtaining my National master title in 2005 from the USCF at the First Ames Futurity, I next set out to play my 300 games so that I may earn the Life Master designation.

Inspired by other such goal-oriented improvement blogs, including my friend Ivan's, I have decided to start this blog halfway through my journey to chart the remainder of my progress. As of this writing, I have played 155 rated games above the rating of 2200, and thus have 145 left to go. My current unofficial rating, after all the games on the MSA Database have been put in order, should be right around 2220. I hope to also increase my rating to 2300, but that is a side-goal to the main initiative.

I also blog on the chess_underground, but I wanted to make that more of a mainstream, news-oriented blog, with only recaps of my important events. This blog will be restricted only to my own personal chess games, playing, and improvement, with emphasis on my long journey to Life Master.

What is the next step after Life Master? FIDE Master, perhaps, or just a long break and revitalization of my own chess study, I have not decided.