The Chess Mind

Anatoly Karpov once wrote a book called Learn From Your Losses, and it was a good idea. (Even if his book may have had the deeper purpose of showing himself gaining revenge against those who had the temerity to beat him.) While one's wins are often imperfect, it's guaranteed that we managed to do at least one thing wrong in every game we lose. Regardless of how much we'd like to put those failures behind us, it would be foolish to ignore them. It's much better to figure out not only what we did wrong but why, in the hopes of avoiding or at least minimizing the possibility of similar errors in the future.

Accordingly, and also because it was a very interesting game, in this week's show and its successor I'm taking a close look at my recent game against GM Rogelio Antonio. In the first installment, which you can watch here (free, on demand, and without need for special software), the very complex opening and early middlegame is examined. I've analyzed it pretty deeply, but if readers who are dedicated analysts (or have very powerful hardware, which might be good for me though not necessarily useful for its owner if used in place of his own mind) find something new I'd like to learn about it. Next time, we'll see the transition to a quieter middlegame and then the endgame; a phase of the game which has its own set of lessons.

I hope you'll watch, and if the foregoing isn't incentive enough, there's always schadenfreude as a motivation!

In this week's show, I take another look back at last month's IM norm tournament in Chicago. This time around it's my round 7 game with Stamnov that gets examined, a quick and entertaining game that put me back in norm contention after a difficult start. Time may be limited as Christmas approaches, to say nothing of attention spans due to holiday overeating, so this week the show is light and relatively brief. (But hopefully as enjoyable as ever!)

Here it is.

This week's show focuses mainly on topics of chess self-improvement, but it also includes the presentation and discussion of three instructive endgames as well. Have a look!

Right here. The next few shows will cover some highlights (and lowlights) from my last IM norm tournament in Chicago, and this week we start on a high note. One of my first shows covered a very rich loss to IM Emory Tate back in 2007; this time, I cover a slightly less rich - but more successful - battle against the same opponent.

The game is interesting, and there are three illuminating aspects therein. First, it's a very good example of logic in the opening - playing the opening well isn't always about home prep! Second, my one error was psychologically based, and the discussion of that error is instructive. And third, the rook ending featured good play from both of us - Tate did everything in his power to cause me difficulties in realizing my advantage, and I was able to rise to the occasion against his resourceful play. Overall, I think it was a very good game, and one worth taking the time to watch!