http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/-t1.htm Talk about general chess topics here Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:47:31 GMT 10 http://i88.servimg.com/u/f88/13/78/00/75/chesss12.gif http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/-t1.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/opposite-side-castling-t194.htm HangingKing I have computed some statistics regarding castling in my games, i notice that 60% of the time i castle on the same side as my opponent and only 15% on the opposite (stats are almost identical for black/white). First question, what are your stats ? Second question, is this aspect discussed in ICS course ? Till now, i have not seen it. I wonder if i should do more than this. Mainly opposite castling occurs in Sicilian positions for me, but not always. General chess discussion Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:47:31 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/opposite-side-castling-t194.htm#1663 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/opposite-side-castling-t194.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/online-chess-id-t191.htm HangingKing I'd like to put a summary of our online identifiants so we can play together (if you wish to do so). Keep this topic clean, discussions takes place in "where do we play" topic instead. Just indicate the site where you play, your id there, and in partenthesis any additionnal info you want to share (frequency, time control, etc...). ICC : zwim (very often, mostly 15 0 chess, sometimes 5 0, and loser's or atomic) FICS : zwim (sometimes, mainly for atomic) Chess@work : zwim ... General chess discussion Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:05:13 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/online-chess-id-t191.htm#1631 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/online-chess-id-t191.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/need-help-t188.htm ChessChamp Hi guys, I'm new to using chess programs. How do i save a game in rybka 3 so i can look it over again another time. The reason I'm asking is because I like to run the annotated games in rybka and on my chess board at the same time SO i want to save the games for the next time i study. On a side note this is the first time I've studied chess, does anyone want to suggest the order i should go about Month 1 and/or Study methods. Any help Will be greatly appreciated General chess discussion Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:12:49 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/need-help-t188.htm#1621 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/need-help-t188.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/i-m-cutting-back-on-blitz-t48.htm Blue Devil Knight Right now in my chess trajectory I'm trying to play only slow games. Blitz feels wrong when I'm in this mode. Not only do I suck at it, but it seems to drag me into sloppy thinking habits. I think blitz has its place, but I think the best way to improve at blitz is to improve at slow games. General chess discussion Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:08:23 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/i-m-cutting-back-on-blitz-t48.htm#256 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/i-m-cutting-back-on-blitz-t48.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/just-checking-back-in-t180.htm Bilbo I've not logged on here for a while so thought it was about time to give an update on my progress. We are a few weeks into the 2009/10 season here in the UK and this season so far is not nearly so fun as the last! With my first grade being 122 I just finished abover the beginner/patzer level known here as minor. I am officially an intermediate now but only barely. Last season I played people who were mostly very poor or casual players and I won most of my games. This year I'm playing ... General chess discussion Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:17:30 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/just-checking-back-in-t180.htm#1557 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/just-checking-back-in-t180.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/chess-news-t173.htm HangingKing http://tournaments.chessdom.com/kasparov-karpov-valencia-2009-day-2 Live coverage of exhibition match with old legends Kasparov-Karpov Well Kasparov did stop not so long ago (2005 i think), but Karpov is in the circuit since very long time, and didn't stop playing tournaments, despite his elo i going down and down. At the moment the score is 2-0 for an easy Kasparov, it's always interesting to see them playing. The match is playing in 4 rapid games (25/5) and 8 blitz games. General chess discussion Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:10:48 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/chess-news-t173.htm#1524 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/chess-news-t173.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/calamity-t161.htm Bilbo The British championships started last week and I entered two tournaments, a weekend 5 rounder which finished today and I'm in the British Graded 100 starting tomorrow. I played the worst I have ever played in my life and lost EVERY game in the weekend tournament. Mercifully in the 4th round I had no opponent so got a walkover win which spared the humiliation of an 0-5 drubbing but I played 4 and lost 4. My previous tournament I entered I finised 2nd out of 51 and played great. This ... General chess discussion Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:41:26 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/calamity-t161.htm#1403 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/calamity-t161.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/how-much-rest-do-we-take-t113.htm hoopy
4 days 5, 6 or every day?
Do you feel you are learnig when you practice all of the time or do you feel that you need a break sometimes?]]> General chess discussion Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:06:21 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/how-much-rest-do-we-take-t113.htm#829 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/how-much-rest-do-we-take-t113.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/potentially-great-new-book-about-to-be-released-t116.htm Bilbo This book looks like perfect material to complement this course! It's release in July sometime according to Amazon and I can't wait for it, just look at the contents and course layout, it covers the same themes and should be really helpful. http://www.newinchess.com/Chess_Strategy_for_Club_Players-p-925&utm_campaign=925_Chess_Strategy_for_Club_Players&utm_medium=mailing&utm_source=newinchess.com&utm_content=text-link.html There's a few sample pages in acrobat format ... General chess discussion Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:57:27 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/potentially-great-new-book-about-to-be-released-t116.htm#853 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/potentially-great-new-book-about-to-be-released-t116.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/got-my-first-grading-today-t163.htm Bilbo Finally the ECF have got around to updating their annual ECF grades. Mine is 123 which is not bad for a first year, equating to around 1600 as explained below, actually 1584 under elo conversion and 1634 Fide so 1600 is a solid middle figure. CONVERSION BETWEEN FIDE ELO, OTHER NATIONAL ELO RATINGS AND ECF GRADINGS ECF x 8 + 650 = FIDE (FIDE - 650) / 8 = ECF ECF x 8 + 600 = National Elo (National Elo - 600) / 8 = ECF This means that in some minor level tournaments ... General chess discussion Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:06:05 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/got-my-first-grading-today-t163.htm#1435 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/got-my-first-grading-today-t163.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/new-chess-improvement-plans-t162.htm Bilbo After my less than satisfactory tournament results at the British this week I've decided I need to restock and come up with a coherent and efficient training plan. If anyone cares to give some imput that will be great. 1) My first idea is JUST to concentrate on ICS alone now as far as studying is concerned. I'm the kind of person who loves to dip in and out of books, starting one, then dropping it for another. Since my harddrive crash and the loss of the first 5 chapters of Yusupov's ... General chess discussion Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:23:34 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/new-chess-improvement-plans-t162.htm#1421 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/new-chess-improvement-plans-t162.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/computer-evalutation-variance-based-on-interface-t146.htm Bilbo This is just a weird thing I've noticed with my own setup and wondering if anyone experiences this or has an explanation. When computer analysing my games I initially do it in Fritz but using the latest Rybka engine. When playing games back however I play them in chessbase 10 as I prefer the layout, font and colour is more attractive, but I have the Rybka engine running whilst I play through them in the background. However the engine gives slightly different evaluations in Chessbase ... General chess discussion Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:08:39 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/computer-evalutation-variance-based-on-interface-t146.htm#1207 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/computer-evalutation-variance-based-on-interface-t146.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/has-anyone-changed-their-chess-style-as-a-result-of-ics-t157.htm hoopy I Have. I have noticed that I can no longer play my "normal" style of chess successfully. Before ICS I always played overly complicated positions well and could generally support dodgy sacrifices. My speed of calculation was very quick. I tended not to play well in positional games. After ICS(well half of it). I am so busy evaluating PEMs blockades etc, I no longer have the speed or depth of thought in tactical exchanges. When I try ro complicate I always make an unsouind ... General chess discussion Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:56:38 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/has-anyone-changed-their-chess-style-as-a-result-of-ics-t157.htm#1369 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/has-anyone-changed-their-chess-style-as-a-result-of-ics-t157.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/artur-yusupov-build-up-your-chess-the-fundamentals-t132.htm Bilbo I just spent most of this afternoon working through the first chapter of this fine workbook. I'm really enjoying it so far. I know somebody else said they had or were considering this book so thought I'd put a quick review up here. So far it looks excellent and more immediately suited to my level than the ICS course, being a book aimed at giving you all the knowledge you need to reach 1500. It's not really an instructional book, there is very little prose basically it covers 24 fundamental ... General chess discussion Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:02:45 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/artur-yusupov-build-up-your-chess-the-fundamentals-t132.htm#1013 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/artur-yusupov-build-up-your-chess-the-fundamentals-t132.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/elo-rating-distribution-t151.htm HangingKing I have compiled data from FIDE rating list that i have downloaded here : http://ratings.fide.com/download.phtml And put it into excel, here is the chart. You can download a bigger picture and the excel file on my webspace. http://zwim.free.fr/ics/rating_distribution.gif http://zwim.free.fr/ics/rating_distribution.xls The list contains 217 139 people. The column with 113 431 people with rating 0, correspond to people that join FIDE but do not have a rating yet. As ... General chess discussion Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:49:34 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/elo-rating-distribution-t151.htm#1306 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/elo-rating-distribution-t151.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/selection-of-endgames-t150.htm HangingKing While reviewing my games, i have made a selection of endgames that i learned from. I wish to share this with you. It was difficult to select games, because a lot of them are poor play, or easy wins. I think there is no reason to review games with big material difference, since i believe everyone here is able to figure out what to do in such a case. So these games are games where there is something to learn, some have very simple, some are much harder. Of course it is not "perfect ... General chess discussion Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:47:36 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/selection-of-endgames-t150.htm#1274 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/selection-of-endgames-t150.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/i-m-bored-t149.htm hoopy I am at the stage of I cannot be bothered with the course anymore. I am sure it is not just me. It may just be midsummer blues & lack of football at the moment that are getting me down. I feel I am reading the material but nothing is registering. Any good motivational techniques to get me back into the learning mood. Any reasonable(legal) suggestions will be attempted. Thanks in advance team. General chess discussion Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:05:21 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/i-m-bored-t149.htm#1267 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/i-m-bored-t149.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/need-to-get-back-to-basics-t127.htm Bilbo I'm going to pause from the ICS for a while and just go over Month 1 again, whilst working through Artur Yusupov's Fundamentals workbook, and maybe breifly looking at openings. I've lost my last two OTB games, both to higher rated players but its the nature of the defeats that has annoyed me. The first was to a much higher rated opponent (150 ECF) and although he outplayed me early and went an exchange up I managed to fight my way back into the game and with him in serious time trouble ... General chess discussion Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:24:28 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/need-to-get-back-to-basics-t127.htm#946 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/need-to-get-back-to-basics-t127.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/what-would-you-play-t137.htm HangingKing Let's try a new topic, i propose one post a chess position that preferably occured during one his game, and he faced a critical choice. The idea is to tell what you would play (in short, 1 or a few moves) so we can gain new ideas from each others. Of course, I do not search for the "best" move, i have Rybka or Fritz for that, i'm interested in the continuation ideas at my (your) level. Let's begin with a very simple example that happened in an endgame, material ... General chess discussion Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:35:39 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/what-would-you-play-t137.htm#1061 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/what-would-you-play-t137.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/where-do-we-play-t74.htm hoopy I thought it would be useful if we knew where we played so that we could have social (or non-social) games with each other. Last night I played a couple of games with "chess?" on playchess.com & I think we learned a lot - mainly that 10 mins or less is almost pointless for using what the course is about. But interested where everyone else plays. Maybe we could have a tournament every 2 months or so. To see who is progressing & to give us short term targets to aim for. I know ... General chess discussion Mon, 18 May 2009 11:43:20 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/where-do-we-play-t74.htm#482 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/where-do-we-play-t74.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/i-m-liking-the-ics-approach-to-learning-openings-t139.htm Bilbo This week at my local club in our annual summer tournament I played a much higher rated opponent, the current tournament leader, (ECF rating 140) so I decided I needed to prepare for him, the first time I've done any preparation speficially for an opponent. Anway my research into his games showed me he would almost certainly play the Nimzo Indian or Bogo Indian Defense to my intended Queens Gambit setup and I knew I didn't want to face his Nimzo, so I prepared some lines against the Bogo ... General chess discussion Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:21:37 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/i-m-liking-the-ics-approach-to-learning-openings-t139.htm#1100 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/i-m-liking-the-ics-approach-to-learning-openings-t139.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/pdf-editing-t130.htm Bilbo Do any of you guys have the means to edit the PDF openings documents for the Ruy Lopez and Sicilian? I like to print off each opening reportoire and store them seperately in paper pockets but they have now gone and lumped all 32 pages of the Ruy Lopez with dozens of different systems into one big pdf file. They did originally split the first Ruy Lopez variations into seperate pdf's and I have printed them off individually but now with them all in one big block I can't print them off as seperate ... General chess discussion Sat, 27 Jun 2009 10:51:10 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/pdf-editing-t130.htm#999 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/pdf-editing-t130.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/how-many-openings-do-you-use-generally-t47.htm HangingKing Small precision, count only for one color. Thus if you always play french advance as white and sicilian defense as black, your answer will be 1, because you always do the same games. I guess you can answer 1 also if you always do the same with white, and has only 2 for black wether you have to answer a king's or a queen's pawn game. For the other responses, i think it's not so important. I think i'm using a lot of openings and would like to know about you. I generally do : - sicilian ... General chess discussion Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:37:31 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/how-many-openings-do-you-use-generally-t47.htm#248 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/how-many-openings-do-you-use-generally-t47.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/bird-brain-t65.htm Blue Devil Knight http://chessconfessions.blogspot.com/2009/05/cock-fight.html

If anyone here has insights, ideas, please let me know! There is a lot of good talent on this site so I value your inputs.]]> General chess discussion Wed, 13 May 2009 01:05:50 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/bird-brain-t65.htm#422 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/bird-brain-t65.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/chess-books-in-addition-to-ics-material-t35.htm fanat I'm curious as which chess books people might be reading in addition to ICS material. Perhaps some books on endgame or openings or to supplement the openings? I'm trying to take a stab at Shereshevsky's "Endgame Strategy". For the openings I've got "Winning with the Catalan" which gives complete games to pretty much all variations for what ICS provides. The only thing is that annotations are not as detailed as in other books. It's mostly variations in the opening. For ... General chess discussion Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:11:10 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/chess-books-in-addition-to-ics-material-t35.htm#134 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/chess-books-in-addition-to-ics-material-t35.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/help-site-is-slow-t99.htm hoopy ]]> General chess discussion Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:43:10 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/help-site-is-slow-t99.htm#716 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/help-site-is-slow-t99.htm http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/chess-database-t31.htm Chess? Chess data base. What is everyone using? I am using the Chessbase light 2007. But its piss-in me off. I can't save positions the search is limited. I guess for a free “light” data base it’s not bad. To buy the ChessBase 10 starter it is $219.00 cdn, before taxes and shipping. For one, that is a lot of dough and the other I am not sure if I need it? The other is my experience with Chessbase software is that it is not that user friendly. It can do an amazing amount of tasks it you ... General chess discussion Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:15:29 GMT http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/chess-database-t31.htm#95 http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/general-chess-discussion-f4/chess-database-t31.htm