Solution : Favourite Puzzle (23 Nov)

Let’s look at the position again:

        

            White to move and win

We tend to jump straight into tactics because, yeah, of course we love tactics and what a feeling if we can finish a game with swashbbuckling tactics! So we try 1.b7+ Kb8 2. Bxa7+ Kc7 3. bxc8=Q+ Kxc8 or 1.b7+ Kb8 2. bxc8=Q+ Kxc8 3.Bxa7.

        

            Analysis diagram

When reach the above position, we start to think. Ah, ending! And anyone equipped with basic ending will straightly know that the position is draw and realizes that the combination isn’t sound! The black King just goes for the a-pawn or later, control the corner since white has a “wrong bishop” (the bishop does not have any power on a8!)

So, we try to find another alternative starting move.

The first two moves : 1. b7+ Kb8 2. Bf4+ Rc7. This is correctly mentioned by one of our responder at the comment. He has a correct idea but wrong execution.

        

Now, we should ask ourselves, how to finish the game? White has no more piece to help but King. So, how the King can help? Or is it the King cannot help at all and we accept the draw? (Haha!). Anyway, how we wish (wish! wish! wish! and then find the way!) our King would be at d8 to support the Bishop to deliver checkmate! But our King could not go there since black rook, despite being pinned, controls the 7th rank.

Wait! No! We have h7 square! Yay!

3. Kg6! the only move or else black will move g5 and the opportunity has gone forever! h5 (force!) 4. Be5! (or Bd6!) Careful! Careful! In the verge of winning, do not be so excited! Kh7 straightaway and you lost your bishop by g5+! h4 5. Kg8 and march to d8 square to support the bishop delivering checkmate: Bxc7++.

King is a strong piece after all!

Archive: Majalah Catur

Majalah Catur - actually, i’m not really aware of the magazine’s existence. But thanks to a friend of mine who sold a box of chess books and old magazines to me, i’m able to enjoy the articles inside. And what make it more unique is that it has been written in Bahasa Malaysia! On my desk right now, there are 6 issues of this magazine. I have scanned the front page of each issue and decided to share it here.


              

              

              


The first issue was published in January 1995. The following 5 issues came out monthly after that. I do not know if there was 7th issue but 6 is what i have in my hand now.

The people behind it as mentioned in the magazine:

Penerbit / Editor : Shaharudin A. Kadir
Pembantu Editor : Nor Azah Juperi

Penulis Panel :
GM Eduard Gufeld
IM Jimmy Liew
NM Mohd Kamal Abdullah
Quah Seng Sun
Eshah Hj Abdullah (M. Ed.)
Najib Abdul Wahab
Mohd Saprin Sabri

Pengurus Pemasaran :
Abdul Latif Mohamad F.I.A

Other than mentioned above, there are articles and analysis from strong names like Mok Tze Meng, Ismail Ahmad etc.

Curious, i sent an email to Mr Quah asking him about the magazine and below is his reply:

	Hi, Yusof, This Majalah Catur was not an official publication of any chess organisation in Malaysia. If my memory serves me right, some individuals tried to start up a magazine but these six issues may be all that came out. As I was an active chess writer at that time, it was quite natural for them to try and rope me in as a contributor. I readily gave them permission to reproduce some of my stories from The Star. You may find it amusing to know that personally, I haven’t seen any of the issues. Ha ha … The only officially sanctioned magazine that was ever published by the Malaysian Chess Federation was the Catur Magazine. Unfortunately, only two issues were produced and these were in the late 1970s. It has always been a big challenge to produce a chess magazine here because of the limited circulation. More so nowadays, chess news is readily available through the Internet and people don’t actually require chess magazines or chess books any more. SS Quah Penang, Malaysia

The email explains enough although i guess others behind the magazine has a lot more to say about it.

I should say i’ve a great respect to those who put an effort to make chess more popular in Malaysia. To publish a magazine is a very serious task. For example, the translation work - as i’m sure the late Gufeld didn’t write in Bahasa! haha! - would take a lot of time and it is not an easy task (i know because during completing my thesis, i’ve to do that also haha!). Kudos to them!

Anyone who has more information or stories about this magazine might contact me at chessdigest[at]gmail[dot]dom or just leave a comment.

Study Your Own Game! (vs Ronen Har-Zvi)

An old advice and repeatedly given by Masters when asked about on how to improve ourself is to annotate your own game. Desperately looking for ways to improve, i follow the advice and annotate a lot of my games and learn a great deal from the effort. The annotation is far from perfect and that's why we have to go back and see the game from fresh eyes, again and again.

To quote Kasparov:

	To play creatively without being afraid of taking chances and to posses a polished chess style in no way releases you from the need for persistent hard work. On the contrary, you must constantly perfect your playing, deepen and widen your opening repertoire, refine your techniques, and analyse complicated endgames. Chess, after all, is not just an accumulation of acquired knowledge; chess is dynamic, and apparently definitive conclusion may in actual fact be just an interim one. The truth has to be proved every time. Even my own annotations to games are not unshakeable as far as i am concerned. I like to keep updating them, making them more precise: many ideas come to be reaccessed, including, of course, one's own ideas. I willingly go over my own mistakes again and analyse them.

So, this in one of mine *wink* I'm sure will keep updating my analysis! How i wish the GM himself would be able to give his own annotation!

Yusof - GM Ronen Har-Zvi 2514,
Simultaneous Match World Chess Live, 31.07.2007.
[Time control: 45"+20']

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Ba6 5. Qc2 Bb7 6. Bg2 Bb4+ 6 .. c5 7. O-O cxd4 8. Nxd4 Bxg2 9. Kxg2 Bc5

7. Bd2 a5 8. O-O O-O 9. a3 Be7 10. Nc3 d5 11. cxd5 exd5 12. Ne5 Nbd7 13. Bf4 Rc8 14. Rad1 Re8 15. Qb3 c6

        

16. e4 To claim my supremacy of d5 square. Note the pawn could not be taken due to Qxf7+

16. ... Nf8! 17. Bh3 Perhaps better is 17. Be3 17 .. Ne6 18. exd5 cxd5 19. Be3 Knight at e6 is strong so 19. Bxe6 fxe6 20. Rc1 maybe a good idea.

19 .. Bd6 20. f4 Ba8 21. Nb5 Bb8 22. Rc1

        

22. .. h5 Very instructive move! 23. Rxc8 Qxc8 24. Rc1 Qd8 25. Nc6 Bxc6 26. Rxc6 Ng4

        

27. Bxg4?! After the exchange of my light Bishop, i have the feeling that i've weaken light squares around my King. Perhap 27. Bd2 is better

27 .. hxg4 28. Bf2 Qd7 29. Rxb6

        

29. .. Bxf4! 30. Nc3 30. gxf4 Nxf4 31. Qc2 Ne2+ 32. Kg2 Nf4+33. Kg1 (33. Kf1? g3!; 33. Kh1? g3!) 33 .. Ne2+ 34. Kg2 Nf4+

30 .. Ng5 31. gxf4 Nh3+ 32. Kf1? Mistake! 32. Kg2 Nxf4+ 33. Kg3 Qf5 34. Rb8 Nh5+35. Kg2 Nf4+ 36. Kg3 (36. Kf1 Qd3+!;36. Kh1 Qd3 37. Rxe8+ Kh7 38. Qd1 Qh3!!) 36 .. Nh5+ +/=)

        

32 .. Qf5!! -+ The only move that bring advantage to black! See how the Queen control b1-h7 diagonal, especially b1 and d3 square. Why i didnt see this?!

33. Qb5 My evaluation during the game that white is completely winning in this position. But, after next move, i just realize i'm in in big problem and begin to think hard

33. ... Re7! 34. Rb8+ Kh7 35. Re8 Qxf4! 36. Nd1? but all option is lost nevertheless!

        

36. .. Rxe8? The GM made a mistake which gives white chance to come back! 36 .. Qf3!! 37. Rxe7 Qxd1+ 38. Re1 Qf3 and mate in all possibilities!

37. Qxe8 Qf3 38. Qe1?! [38. Ke1 Nf4 (38 .. Qh1+ 39. Kd2 Qxh2 40. Qe5 +/-) 39. Bg3 Ne6 40. Nc3+-)

38. .. Nf4! 39. Ne3 a4?! [39 .. g3! 40. Qb1+ (40. hxg3 Qh1+ 41. Bg1 Qh3+42. Kf2 Nd3+ -+) 40 .. g6 41. hxg3 Qh1+ 42. Bg1 Nh3 -/+)

40. Qd1 Qh1+ 41. Bg1 f5! 42. Qc2 Qf3+ 43. Bf2 Qh1+ 44. Bg1 Qf3+

        

45. Qf2? Deadly mistake! Although in time trouble, i'm still stubborn due to the material advantage!

45. ... Qe4? 45 .. Qh3+!! 46. Ng2 Qd3+ 47. Ke1 Qb1+ 48. Kd2 Qxb2+ 49. Kd1 Qb1+ 50.Kd2 Nxg2 -+ 46. Qc2 Qf3+ 47. Bf2 Qh1+ 48. Bg1 [Repetition] 1/2-1/2

Favourite Puzzle

I do not know how long this puzzle has been in my head. And i could not remember as to who the composer is.

Notes (added: 26 Dec 2007)
[[ Referring back, this problem is composed by English composer Horation Bolton (1793-1873), Chess Player’s Chronicle, 1841. I read about it in “The Oxford Companion to Chess” by David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld under “Composition” entry (the book is like a dictionary). It is a first prize given to me in Teachers + Students chess tournament held in my school where i emerged as a champion. ]]

That aside, i have tested it against names like Abdullah Che Hassan, Masrin Erowan, Kaushal Khandhar, Nik Ahmad Farouqi, Noorullah Omar etc. ( Ah, don’t ask me whether they were able to solve it or not, ok? That’s a secret haha! ) So, let’s see how you fare!

       

        

           White to move and win

What i like about this puzzle is that it remind me to be human. If you want to solve this problem, see and visualize! A mere calculation will not help! Believe me, even computer find it’s hard to see from the initial position - because they are not human. Haha.

I will provide the solution later. Enjoy!

Improving your worst played pieces

I.

There is time when sitting there, looking at our pieces, we do not know what to do. There is advice mentioning that if we do not know what to do, move a pawn which i do not see the wisdom behind it at all haha. In rapid play, it is practical not to waste time so much so we just move our pieces sensibly waiting for our opponent making mistakes.

Back to the time when we do not know what to do. What should we do? What is the part of move our pieces sensibly?

I read local sites like Partzer blog by Andrew and Stonemaster.com by Fadli regularly. Andrew loves the idea of "Talking to the pieces" suggested by Rowson in his book. Fadli on the other hand has mentioned so many times (yeah, i've spotted it!) about the old rules: "Improving your worst played pieces". And maybe, we have heard about "talking to yourself, asking question!" too in the spirit of Einstein's: "The important thing is not to stop questioning".

I do not know if these are the same thing but they are good advices to improve our positional play. In fact, simple thing like this, IMHO, should be taught to all young players so they grow up with it. Once they do this unconciously, i guess they will improve.

A simple treasure. Millions dollar lesson!

II.

At Chesscafe.com, Steve Golberg has reviewed a Chessbase FritzTrainer which shows to us the Strategies of the Soviet School; namely The Secrets of The Champions by GM Adrian Mikhalchisin (here). The DVD contains lectures on certain subject of the most distinguished characteristics of each Champions of the past: Botvinnik, Tal, Petrosian and .... Makogonov!

Makogonov who? We might ask.

Let's forget about history for a while and straight to the teaching. Mikhalchisin explains to us about Makogonov's Rule or what we known as The Principle of the Worst Piece. The rule states that in a position in which there are no direct threats (from either side), it is necessary to spot the worst-placed piece, and try to improve it or exchange it. He then gives several example which you can see one of them at Steve's review.

While examining Mas' games (his being interviewed greatly moves me to do so! haha!), i arrived at this position:

        

Mas is white against the great Viktor Korchnoi and it is from round 9 of 37th Olympiad 2006 at Turin, Italy between Malaysia and Switzerland. It arises after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. O-O Bg4 6. h3 Bxf3 7. Qxf3 Ne7 8. c3 Ng6 9. d3 Bd6 (diagram above)

The position looks dull to those who loves the fireworks of tactics. And how to treat such position is what makes the difference between players like Mas and ordinary players. Sometimes we simply either do not know what to do, or just do a simple developing move like Be3. Anyway, curiously, i showed this position to my friend (he has completed his provision and will get FIDE rating soon at about 2000++). He has no problem to think that the knight should manoeuvre to queen's side, preferably to f5: Ne2-g3-f5. I'm positive he knows about the rule because he and i talked a great deal about the ideas before!

The game continues: 10. Ne2 c5 11. Ng3 O-O 12. Qg4 Kh8 13. Nf5 Rg8 14. h4 Ne7 15.g3 Qc8 16. Qf3 Qe6 17. h5 Rae8

        

18. h6 g5? At chessgames.com, there are kibitzer who wonder why black did not change the knight here or earlier and the white attack has perished or at least not deadly. And i ask the same question too. [18. ... Nxf5 19. exf5 Qf6 20. hxg7+ Qxg7 21. Re1] 19. Ng7 Qxh6?! 20. Nxe8 Rxe8 21. Qxf71-0 . Mas' win enabled Malaysia to make an upset against the stronger Switzerland 2 1/2 - 1 1/2.

I do not know if this is a good example to show as example. But i hope i have reminded myself enough to use it as part of my positional play. (Hey! This is my notebook for my chess improvement after all, haha!)

Solution for ETCC 2007 Exercise (07 Nov)

This is the solution to the puzzle from ETTC 2007 i published on 07 Nov. I will come back to this solution to make it more lucid for my own improvement sake!

            #1

        

            White to move

Alexander Morozevich 2755 - Vladislav Tkachiev 2661, EuroTeams 2007 [Russia-France].

Knight at a7 is hanging but black cannot take it since there is a pin to his rook at b6. In this position, how we wish that a pawn would be at c2 so c4 force the exchange. Anyway, when where there is a pin, whenever possible, it is customary to streghten the burden on the attacked piece so extra material advantage can be gained from such course of action. So, what piece can futher attack the knight at b5? Yeah, bishop! At what square? c4! So, Bd5! and threaten Bc4. Note that attack from c6 by Bc6 lead to equality since black can reply Ra6. So, after Bd5, black resigned.

            #2

        

            Black to move

Martin Neubauer 2453 - Gabriel Sargissian 2673, EuroTeams 2007 [Austria-Armenia].

The problem with white position is that, firstly, his King is too far away to protect his own pawns and secondly, his pawns at queen side are on dark squares. Black should attack pawn at b2. So, Kc6! 39. Kg2 (Be3) Kxc5 40. Kf2 Kc4 41. Ke2 Kb3 and white resigned.


            #3

        

            White to move

Maxim Rodshtein 2615 - Claude Landenbergue 2452, EuroTeams 2007 [Israel-Switzerland].

Here, of course everyone see the common idea of forking, Nc7+. Unfortunately, the square is well guarded by knight at e6. Only if we can remove the knight! And yes, only if we can prevent the knight from doing that job!! Futher examination shows that with our knight at e5, f7 can be attacked and black bishop at b5 can give us one tempo. 18. Qb3! Qa6 19. Nc7+! The knight at e6 cannot take at c7 since Qxf7+ is deadly and mate in few moves!


            #4

        

            White to move

Alexander Areshchenko 2638 - Maxim Rodshtein 2615, EuroTeams 2007 [Ukraine-Israel].

This is relatively difficult puzzle. Although black position looks under severe attack, but it has lot of resources to defence: Q at c6, B at h7, pawn at f7, B at e7 etc. Sequence like Nf5+ Bxf5 Qxf5 Qg6 or e6 fxe6 or Ng4 Qg6 won’t help white. Anyway, when examine Nf5+ (with the idea of forking King and bishop at e7 which guard the Knight at c5), how we wish that no bishop at h7 to guard f5 square. And how we wish that our knight at f3 not at that square but at d4!. Nd4 straight away make us lose our knight at h6 Qxh6. Yeah, the key to it is “intermediate move”! Nf5+ The only move to win! Bxf5 Nd4! Attack the queen and then Nxf5 forking the King and bishop while rook at c1 attack the knight at c5!


            #5

        

            White to move

Peter Svidler 2732 - Ivan Cheparinov 2670, EuroTeams 2007 [Russia-Bulgaria].

Bc5! cutting the King from hiding to King’s side and open the e-files for rook at h1. After Bc5, black simply lose. Taking the bishop, for example will lead to mate. In the game, black played Qb3 and it continue: Re5+ Kd8 Bxb4 Qxb4 Rc1 and black resigned.


            #6

        

            In this position, black moved 26. .. Rc8 which is inaccurate.
            How should white punish the black inaccuracy?

Levan Pantsulaia 2617 - Stefan Kristjansson 2458, EuroTeams 2007. [Georgia-Iceland].

This is a simple tactic. After black Rc8, black only help white to remove one defender of Knight at e5 so the battery Q at a1 and B at b2 become powerful now. 27.Rxc8 Qxc8 28.Nxb5! win a pawn. The game continue: 28. … axb5 29. Bxe5 Bxe5 30.Qxe5 Qc1+ 31.Bf1 Qxa3 32.Qxb5 and white then push his b-passed pawn and black resigned at moves 44.


            #7

        

            White to move

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2752 - Mikhail Gurevich 2627, EuroTeams 2007 [Azerbaijan-Turkey].

30. Rhg1! is the clean way to finish it. The game continue: Qd6 31. Re6 and black resigned.


            #8

        

            White to move

Gabriel Sargissian 2673- Constantin Lupulescu 2562, EuroTeams 2007 [Armenia-Romania].

White is a rook down but 2 pawns up. As compensation, white has more space and its pawn chain looks great. It is very tempting to push pawn e5 but this cannot be done straightaway: 35. e5 Bxe5 36. Re1 f6 and black is OK. If we start to support the pawn first by 35.Re1, then Be5 can stop white attack. A microscopic eyes will observe that after e5 Bxe5, it clears ways for Q at b6 to move to h6 and only if a piece will support it at h6, the life will be great. So, instead of support the pawn by Re1, 35. Rh1! prepares for the e5 attack and the only way to maintain the initiative. After intense struggle, black resigned at move 57.

Close your eyes: Revisited!

Reading back my writing on 6 Nov (Close your eyes!), i found the example given isn’t good enough. To calculate and hold position for many moves ahead with accuracy isn’t a simple thing. A strong opponent will not give you an easy life. They will create one problem after another. So, you have to “see” more than your opponents in order to outwit them.

Let’s look back at Saavedra Position, an old famous puzzle which recently posted by Andrew at his blog. (Yeah, he makes a video too on the solution! Nice effort!). So here we are, white to move and WIN:

        

When he published it, i looked at the position attentively. Looks familiar but could not recall anything. Anyone know that if black manages to capture the pawn, it will be a draw. So, 1.c7 is force since any King move will allow Rc5 and capture the pawn. Black has no direct way to stop the pawn from promoting so he has no option but to check, Rd6+.

So, i started visualize. Kb7 and Kc5 is no good. Kb7 is met by Rd7 while Kc5 by Rd1 and Rc1. I told to myself if King can move along B-files to c2 where black rook at d3 after its last check, then black rook has no more check without being captured and it cannot stop white pawn from queening. I could not believe i solve the problem so easily! So, 2. Kb5 Rd5+ 3. Kb4 Rd4+ 4. Kb3 Rd3+ 5. Kc2

        

So, happily i told Andrew at YM Messenger about the finding and asked what he would do after Kc2. I was like "what?!" at his reply: Rd4! (of course he knew the answer already lol!). Only then i realize that after c8=Q, black has Rc4+ and if queen takes, stalemate. I didn’t even see Rd4 (poor me!) which is a cute try! I asked Andrew to wait so i can look back at the position. Since i’m familiar with the idea that pawn isn’t necessary to be promoted to a queen, i directly told Andrew so and he answered: "Exactly!". So, let’s promoting the pawn to rook and no stalemate 6.c8=R

I still wonder for a while about K+R vs K+R. But it isn’t take long to realize that Ra4 to avoid mate by black will simply be refuted by 7.Kb3, attacking the rook and threaten to mate at c1. Fullstop.

You can find Andrew’s video on the solution here.

So, if you can calculate and visualize and see all this, especially Rd4! and c8=R! from the starting position, then, like what Seirawan said, you are improving!

Nice puzzle! And now, this is a good example! Haha!

ETCC 2007: Exercise

            

            Pic taken from official website


Russia won European Team Chess Championships 2007 which took place in Crete, Greece from 27 October to 7 November 2007. From 9 team match, the Russian scored 8 wins. Only Spain managed to draw with the team. Of course with such great line up (Peter Svidler 2732, Alexander Morozevich 2755, Alexander Grischuk 2715, Evgeny Alekseev 2716 and Dmitry Jakovenko 2710), they are expected to win. But they came to Crete not only to win, but win in great style! Hats off to them!

Going through the games from tourney PGN, i manage to extract the below tactical exercise for all to enjoy. It's fresh from the oven! So, Have fun!

            #1

        

            White to move

            #2

        

            Black to move

            #3

        

            White to move

            #4

        

            White to move

            #5

        

            White to move

            #6

        

            In this position, black moved 26. .. Rc8 which is inaccurate.
            How should white punish the black inaccuracy?

            #7

        

            White to move

            #8

        

            White to move

Close your eyes!

In yesterday entry, i talked about how i love Spragget’s writing at his homepage. One point he emphasized on becoming a master player is about “Board Control and Mastery”. He mentioned that a lot of players are having difficulty in visualizing a chess board. Players could not tell what colors for certain squares and what squares attached to certain squares in a diagonal, rank and files. Players hard to visualize the movement of pieces, the combination arise etc.

He shared with us his experience:

In the ’80’s appeared a new generation of chess stars from the Soviet Union who created quite a splash, not so much because they were such fantastic players, but because of what they did at the chess board: they spent more time looking at the cieling (or the spectators) than they did at the chessboard. I remember the first time I played Shirov. It was ‘90, Paris, and I was paired against this relatively unknown youngster from Latvia. I played my normal game, and was quite astonished when I noticed that he would only look at the board from time to time, and that most of the time he spent staring at the ceiling! I still remember thinking that there was something quite wrong with the fellow! “I will have no problem with this fellow”‘ I thought. But was I amazed by what this guy “saw”!! I still am impressed.

He suggests that we put on the effort to develop our own exercise to improve our board control and mastery. Practise continously things like thinking without moving the pieces or closing eyes for 5 minutes and think and then open and look at the board again.

I really believe this kind of exercise will help me to improve my in-the-head analysis. It will sharpen our blunt mind. (Only until now that i’m too lazy to use my mind to that effect.)

Yasser Seirawan when interviewed on how he improves his analytical skills, he said it is necessary to analyze and calculate in the head without moving the pieces and see how far we can hold and see the position until it becomes unclear. To him, it is a sign of improvement if we are able to picture with clarity, even if its get complicated with sacrifices.

Alexander Kotov thought so too and became master by having such training. He wrote a lot about this at his famous book:Think Like a Grandmaster (Nice read!)

Look at this example:

        

I played black in the above position in a blitz game. During the game, I evaluated this position as better for black because knight is more mobile and able to penetrate better in this kind of position. The truth is that the position is about equal. In time trouble, i looked at e4 and g4 squares and followed my hunch moving my knight to g8, 40. … Ng8. This moves is inaccurate since 41. fxg5 and later 42. h4 will give white advantage. But my opponent moved his bishop to d3, attacking the pawn at f5. So, 41. … Ne7 is a natural move, defending the pawn. White took pawn at g5 and taking back the pawn hxg5 should have come automatically in blitz; only that i have a better move - Nc6 checkmate!, end the game. This would not happen if both players have better visualisation of the board and pieces. (Pssstt, can you follow the move in this narration? If yes, you can visualize quite ok haha!)

So, start closed your eyes and visualize!

First Entry

I.
First entry, yay! It is a subdomain to gilachess.com. Thanks to Andrew for giving me this space to write personal notes which i hope can help me to improve myself as well as to have fun studying! And mind you, studying regularly in a correct way is one step to chess mastery.

It is my great delight and pleasure to read articles written by GM Spragget at his homepage. I actually printed it out and read it again and again. Although at some point i didn’t agree with him, i love what he wrote there. Among the suggestion on how to improve one’s self is to keep a notebook, where you write down an organised list of what you study for tracking purposes. Hence, this blog! I guess, it is more than that. it is more than purely games and variations. I will include whatever i find suitable in my way for self improvement.

And, yeah, i still regard myself as a street player who still learn how to play decently!

II.
I learnt the moves when i was 9 years old. It was not until i was 12 years old that i knew there is chess notation to record a game, and there are theories that can be studied. It came coincidently though. My dad bought Berita Harian daily and i discovered chess column written by Sabar Hashim. The year was 1990. I still remember how i searched back my chess set high and low to replay the game just published in the column!

I cut and collected the columns and played the published games , if any, again and again between weeks. In those days, at least happened to me, games are hard to get. There is only a small number of chess books in my school library and they are mostly for beginner. So, I felt very dissapointed if a week went by without any game in the column. Later i discovered Ismail Ahmad and Quah Seng Sun wrote for Utusan Malaysia and The Star respectively. ( I would like to extend my thanks to Mr Quah for his wonderful column because, apart from great writing, he also published more games compared to others! And, sorry to hear the column is no more there to give the same impact to others as it gave to me.)

Anyway, now is different. With the Internet easily become available at every home, people can download latest games. In fact, they can be watched live! With millions of games in my database, the appreciation of games by me has been deteriorating. If last time, i would write every moves of limited number of games carefully to my notebook, now i just download weekly TWIC database and consolidate them into a big one so easier for me to search certain games by player or opening or even position!

Yeah, time has change. And now, i can even write some chessic entries (read:crap!) for people throughout the World to read.

Yes, in this blog! Haha!