March 1, 2015

Been trying to play the tactics trainer on chess dot com almost every day. I miss a day or two a week. Only 5 free puzzles per day are free. So anyway I have climbed up to nearly a 700 ranking on this but have fallen back to near 650. I'm at 675 today. It is challenging with the time limits they give you. Hoping that my brain is not too old or unable to learn and improve. Played some live games too but rare.

Dec 2014

December 2014 So I am back at chess. Significantly, I joined chess dot com and am playing with others. First long game was against a Russian ranked at 1500. I resigned after I was doomed. It was fun. A real game. Not a computer. Well I guess the other person could use a program to cheat. It is still good practice for me.  It has given me some ranking figures/ estimates based on my play. It is changing a good bit as I go along.  From that I estimate I am like a 500 rank. Maybe higher.  I am also trying to do the 5 daily tactics training puzzles. I am on their free plan so that is the limit.  Got a vinyl chess mat that is green and white. It was cheap but it is nice and has the algebraic notations on the side. 

Movie : TCA

Watched an old 1968 movie with Steve McQueen called The Thomas Crown Affair. Had a very interesting and provocative chess game scene in it. I saw the opening moves as legit but wondered if the game was valid thruout even though they omitted moves from the movie.

Wonder what other movies had chess scenes in them. I think a Harry Potter movie had one with life size pieces.

Movie : TCA

Watched an old 1968 movie with Steve McQueen called The Thomas Crown Affair. Had a very interesting and provocative chess game scene in it. I saw the opening moves as legit but wondered if the game was valid thruout even though they omitted moves from the movie.

Wonder what other movies had chess scenes in them. I think a Harry Potter movie had one with life size pieces.

60 minutes - Carlson

60 minutes did a segment on Magnus Carlson "the Mozart of chess". It was superficial for a veteran chess player but good story on Magnus. It showed his early years and his play at 13 against Garry Kasparov. He played 10 people at once without seeing the boards. Very good to see a piece on mainstream newsshow.

Winter 2011/2012

Have not been active in playing chess these months. I do monitor the international scene thru posts from Susan Polgar. Need to at least play against the computer once in awhile. I need a new motivation.

Puzzles

Been spending about 20 minutes studying a chess "puzzle" that Susan Polgar posted.

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2011/12/sunday-chess-review.html?m=1