Monday, August 23, 2010

TCCC and USchess.org MSA stats

I will be in attendace tonight at the Twin Cities Chess Club, though will not be able to make it until around 8:45 or so. This will be my trend for the duration of the Fall semester at ISU, as I have a class from 5:30-8:20 on Mondays.

In other news, uschess.org has introduced some new functions to their Member Services Area. Now, located directly on the player card, one can find links which detail past performance based on year, rating of opponent, or specific opponent, or one can also view past rating history in graph form. I wanted to look up my lifetime stats as a master. I became a master in the late Summer of 2005, so I started with my first full year as a 2200+, which was 2006:

Year #Gms. W D L Score %
200686571019 72.1
200784581511 78.0
200854311112 67.6
2009282152 83.9
20103421112 77.9

Total 286 188 52 46

Total Draw percentage (Draws/Total Games): 18.2%
Win % in decisive games (Wins/[total games-games drawn]): 80.3%

I was interested to see that my win percentage does seem to be increasing slightly, though my number of games have obviously fallen off significantly.

Sorting according to opponent rating, I noticed in the last twelve months I have played only one player in the rating range 1700-1800, and NO players below the rating of 1700.

Also in the last 12 months:
-I have played the most games against players between the rating 2000-2099, and scored 9 wins and 2 losses, with no draws.
-Against fellow masters I am undefeated, with 3 wins and 6 draws
-Overall I have played 42 games with a record of 27W 12D 3L, or a 78.6 score %

Some other interesting stats:
-My most games ever were played in 2003, the year I broke the 2000 rating barrier. During that calendar year I played 142(!) rated games.
-In 2002 and 2004 I played over 100 rated games (132 and 111 respectively)

Monday, August 16, 2010

Twin Cities Chess Club

I will be in attendance for tonight's meeting of the Twin Cities Chess Club at Colley's Chess Cafe in downtown Normal.

Hope to see you there! Check back here for updates on my club attendance schedule.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Tournament Schedule

My next tournament will be the 47th Bradley Summer Open in Peoria, Illinois. Free entry to Masters!

The Bradley tournament has a special fondness in my memory. The first Open event I ever won outright was the 2002 edition (which must have been the 39th?). My rating, at the time, skyrocketed from 1890-1913.

I may also attend the upcoming CILG scholastic event as well, but that's a bit far off for me to be sure.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Position of the moment

I plan to post 'positions of the moment' periodically. As I study and review my own games, those of others, AND those from books, I will save interesting or unique ones and post them for discussion here.

Here is a position from Just the Facts, and endgame book by GM's Lev Alburt and Nikolay Krogius.

In the text white plays f5. But what if white instead simply sits on the position, for example Bc1-d2 and back? Can black demonstrate a winning plan?

Statement of purpose

I have created this blog with the intention of tracking both my playing and coaching endeavors. Herein you can expect to find:

1) Information on upcoming tournaments and events in the Central IL area or that I will be attending.

2) Information on my personal coaching- both goals and philosophies and more boring things such as contact information, schedule, and availability.

3) Annotated games, chess stories and news, and other interesting updates as they come along.

Thank you, and enjoy!

_pdk