Well, Mr Fischer! You Win again!

After working through a chunk of the fine book "Chess Exam: You vs Fischer" I have to assume that Mr Fisher is too strong for me. So far My best effort is 5-7 loss (12 games) and My predicted final rating is 1394

Loosing and Learning

My "Chess Exam: You vs. Fischer" Half-time Score

I am half way through Igor Khmelnitsky's excellent "Chess Exam: You vs. Fischer". As a professional statistician I could not resist predicting my final scores in the different categories based on the half time score. I did not interpolate to the last decimal as I only wanted a feel for the overall picture.

The overall score (1329) is a bit depressing and some of the scores in the different categories somewhat surprising. The Big surprise was my crappy tactics score. My Chesstempo rating has been floating upwards and I am currently rated around 1830. My Chessmagnetschool (CMS) rating has reached a plateau at 1540 and I expected the Overall score and my CMS score to agree.

On the other hand, my ICC rating has been rather stable around 1225 based on a fairly low number of recent games. I suppose the overall score is a better approximation of my true playing strength.

My middlegame skills are just non-existing. That is no surprise. However, I expected my Strategy skill to be just as bad.

Category	Score	%	ELO
Overall	116	38.6%	1329
Middlegame	51	26.8%	1059
Endgame	65	59.1%	1779
Calculation	32	40.0%	1408
Strategy	40	57.1%	1668
Tactics	44	29.3%	1040
Attack	46	46.0%	1319
Counterattack	43	47.8%	1447
Defense	27	24.5%	995
You are Better	58	52.7%	1769
Equal	38	38.0%	1245
You are Worse	20	22.2%	980
No Sacrifice	64	53.3%	1581
Sacrifice	52	28.9%	1108

Ergo: There is still a lot of hard work to do!

To Set Goals or Not to Set Goals

There is a lot of tools, ideas and dogmas about how to reach your goals. Does it work to your advantage to make your goals public or does it work the other way around? I have no strong opinion and if I have to guess then "whatever makes you happy" gets my vote.

One huge advantage with public goals is that they might help you to find you some company on your way to Greatness. There are a number of wonderful chess blogger who have helped me a great deal and in all sorts of ways.

My Long Term Goal is to reach approximately 1750ELO before turning into an even grumpier 50yo. Is it doable? Well, it will be a struggle but I think that I am just a slight underdog to reach my goal. I try to find comfort in IM Andrew Martin's statement that fifteen minutes of quality training per day is enough for a gain of one ELO-point per week.

Approximately fifteen to thirty minutes of tactics training is part of my daily routine. The huge challenge is to make room for more slow games in the calender.

The Short Term Goal will be to play and analyze ten slow games before the Holiday Season. That does not sound like much but ad two lovely kids into the equation and you realize you will have to rescale 24/7 into 48/7 or worse.

I am very optimistic about the Smart Chess iPhone application soon to be released. I just sound sweet to have quality chess study material available in your cell phone.

Rusty

This game was by far better than the Tuesday night Team League game in which I made a strange blunder and never overcame the Blunder Chock. Still, I feel very rusty and lost in the opening.

Act Your Age!

Opening Phobia strikes again! The symptoms are the same but the remedy will be different:

A repertoire under investigations for Public Health concerns for being overly sleep inducing and by chess authorities for being an insult to the spirit of Chess.

In the mean spirit of genuinely grumpy old geezers, my three legged Milk Stool Repertoire will from now on be based upon: The London System, Stonewall Dutch and French Fort Knox.

Why spreading the word? Well, the surprise value for all three openings is a fine approximation of zero. Furthermore, I do not mind playing well prepared opponents as it will help me to learn and understand the openings to some degree.