Delaware Chess Weblog

I just received the first issue of Susan Polgar’s free email Scholastic Newsletter. It’s fantastic! When I helped introduce her at the simul in the summer of 2004, I described her as one of the great world champions because of how much she has given back to (American) chess. And she continues to impress!

Her newest book has just been released, and my co-director Rick Martin is pretty impressed with it. Look for a review in a month or two when I can get hold of a copy…

Her latest endeavor is an email newsletter tailored to the scholastic community which has long been her passion. You can look at a pdf of the first issue here: http://bear.delawarechess.org/SP_Newsletter_June_2005_1.pdf

Contents:
I General Chess Tips
II Tactics and Combinations (exercises for varying levels up to about 1200 USCF)
III Endgame Corner (more exercises to help develop one’s knowledge of the endgame)
IV Opening Secrets (looking into the principles behind an opening. The first issue shows us the King’s Indian Attack for white vs. black’s French Defense)
V Questions from Parents and Coaches (some of these in the first issue have been taken from her ChessCafe column)
VI A detailed annotation (move by move!) of the game Susan Polgar - Pia Cramling, 1994. (All my students should look at this!)
VI Links, News, and Upcoming Events

and … 21 pages long!

Should you like what you see, you may subscribe by sending an email to Susan at either PolgarChessInc@aol.com or PolgarFoundation@aol.com

You can follow Susan’s interests at her websites:
www.PolgarChess.com
www.SusanPolgarFoundation.org
www.SusanPolgar.blogspot.com

Bob Wilder

This week’s review is about Chess Tactics Art 3.0, a program based on work by Russian GM Maxim Blokh. Much like the previously reviewed Intensive Course Tactics by Renko, this software program presents you with a variety of positions to solve. The positions involve a number of tactical motifs: distraction, decoys, clearance and more. There is also a whole section of combinational motifs to practice combination play. But more than that, this program deals with ideas in chess, such as winning a tempo, destroying a pawn shelter or playing for stalemate. It would take much more space and time to go into depth on the wealth of information available in this program so I am jut going to point out a few items - but trust me, there is more.

There are many nice features built into the program for helping you practice. First, you have the choice of ‘practice’ mode or ‘test’ mode, within a given tactical category. Once you start the position, if you choose the wrong move the program will show you why it was wrong and how the opponent could refute your attempt - that is nice. If you guess wrong again it will give you hints as to what piece to move. The next stage of help is a very cool feature - if you guess wrong again the program will load another window with a simplified position so you can review the particular tactic you are striving to achieve. I personally think this multi-level help approach is the best way to go because it continually makes you THINK about the position and the ideas involved in the position without just telling you the answer. And, as we all know, the program can’t tell you the answers while you are playing in a tournament somewhere - you need to find them yourself! Another great feature is that many of the positions can be played from both the white and black perspective. As is often the case in real life, the game changes dramatically based on whose turn it is. So, after you solve for the white position, the board will flip around and reset and ask you what black should do if it were their turn instead. This is like getting two puzzles for every one and is truly a nice addition to the learning experience.

All in all, there are over 1,200 practice problems in the software - more than enough to make you a much better player. The program claims to be for players rated 1600 - 2300 but I personally see no reason why lower rated players would not benefit from its lessons. The positions can also be practiced by difficulty level so yo can build up your confidence. Finally, another really nice feature is that the program keeps statistics for each user that you can view and find your strengths and weaknesses. The program will also estimate your elo rating after you solve a given number of positions.

All in all, I highly recommend this software for all levels of players and I thank Bob Wilder for pointing it out to me originally. And unlike many of the Chessbase products, this software is entirely self-contained - you don’t need any other software installed to run it (although, to be fair, Chessbase does usually include the reader software necessary to run their software for free).

Until next time…

Tom Fleetwood

The Bear Scholastic Chess Club is hosting another in their series of Saturday scholastic tournaments to kick off the summer. This Saturday, June 18th!! The library opens at 10am; registration until 10:40 - and you’ll be home for dinner (the library closes at 5pm!)

Information and registration form at the BSCC website

We’ve added a booster section to this tournament - no USCF membership/clock/notation requirements - so feel free to join us if you’d like to try out the tournament experience ‘for fun’! USCF rated sections are $25 at the site; the booster sections are only $15.

Bob Wilder (bob@delawarechess.org)

Chess for Vets is a program being sponsored by the USCF (United States Chess Federation) to provide chess sets along with chess instruction and playing to local VA (Veteran Administration) Hospitals. The Bear Scholastic Chess Club was chosen by the USCF to act as the local administrators for the VA hospital in Elsmere, Delaware.

We are asking you to help us with this undertaking by volunteering your time to meet, teach and play with some of the men and women who have served our country.

The Bear Club will start this program on June19, 2005. We will be at the VA Hospital nursing home every Sunday from 2:30-4:30 pm. Any time you are able to donate to this worthy cause will be greatly appreciated. If you are interested please speak with Mr. Martin.

Rick can be reached at (302) 832-2952 or by email at pilgrim19701@yahoo.com

Hello all,

This week’s review is about the Fritz Technique Trainer software made by Chessbase. As many, I am often frustrated by the feeling that I am in a winning position but that I am not sure how to go about securing my victory. To often, in fact, I go about securing my loss :-(. It comes down to that common phrase, “and the rest is a matter of technique”. That is where this software comes to the rescue…

First, I’ll jump to the bad part - in order to use this software you must have one of the Fritz playing programs - Fritz, Junior, Shredder etc… We have discussed these programs in a previous review. But that can also be a good part because it gives you one more excuse as to why you should buy a chess playing program for the ol’ computer and these programs are some of the strongest around. The other bad news is that this program does not give you some secret on how to beat Fritz and impress your friends. Rather, it uses the computer as a wonderful training aid - exactly what it should be used for!

So once you have Fritz and the Fritz Technique Trainer what should you expect? You should expect over 100 training positions mostly taken from real games. The beauty of these positions is that YOU should win - even playing against the grandmaster strength program! And trust me, nothing is better than beating down the computer program after being battered yourself time and time again by the silicon monster just because you make one little mistake - oh, sorry, I guess I digress a little. Now, these ‘won’ positions aren’t easy - although there are positions of various levels of difficulty - and you may play the computer and lose anyway (which can be extra annoying, I admit). So the program provides help in two forms - a feature I really like. The first help comes in the form of a hint. That way you can still figure out the ‘technique’ involved. The second form of help gives you the procedure to follow to secure the victory. That is the other nice thing about the program - these positions don’t rely on some immediate ‘trick’ or ‘tactic’ but on your ability to analyze the position and come up with a plan. The win can often be achieved in more than one way - it is the plan that is important.

Overall, I highly recommend this program if you have the software to run it - it can really improve your game. If you have any question feel free to stop by the Delaware Chess Forums and ask away.

Until next time…

Tom Fleetwood

The Delaware Elementary Championships were held on May 15th for grades 1-6. The tournament was divided into grades 1-3 and grades 4-6. The results are shown in the tables below. Congratulations to all the players - what a great turnout!

The players are listed in order of finish.

Grades 1-3



Grades 4-6