Author Archives: waterman2010kir

Campaign, Schmampaign, What If My Opponent Plays Something Different?

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You funny!?! The whole point of having a campaign is that every move they make is either expected, slightly off the beaten trail, or bad! You actually have 3 choices every time your opponent moves… You can continue the campaign because you still have tons of stuff to do, abandon your original campaign for the alternate campaign, or punish them for making a mistake! Remember this is all about variations, transpositions, branchpoints, and errors. The only reason to abandon your campaigns is to collect your reward for your opponents errors. If your opponents are constantly causing you to abandon your campaigns and lose the game, your campaigns are too small, rigid, ill conceived, or not properly researched! Let’s get started.

Here white can play Qe2, h3, Re1, a4, Be3, Qd3, Bg5, d5,

No matter which one they pick, black’s move will be 7… c7-c6. The game continued, 7.Re1 c6 8. a4
Qc7 9. dxe5?! dxe5 10. Bg5?!

It’s highly unlikely that white knows they’ve already made 2 mistakes and black has the initiative!?

This is a vote chess game. A whole team of players had 3 days for each move. It’s obvious to me that they spent no time on books written by grandmasters, databases, or moving the pieces around. Having a campaign let’s me know that I already have a substantial advantage! More importantly, it let’s me know that my opponents don’t have a campaign or a plan. They are on their own, I’m still reading directly from my homework!! 10…Nc5!? 11. b4? (11. h3 Rd8 12. Qc1 Ne6 13. Be3=) 11…Rd8! 12. Qe2?! Because shadowing the queen is part of my campaign, I have to prepare for the most creative types of redevelopment for her. I actually got this idea after studying the London’s recapture of the knight on b1. Analysis taught me that if I refuse the queen a home on the e and d files, I’d need to be ready for this development of the queen… (12. Qb1! Ne6 13. Qb3 h6 14. Bh4 a5 15. b5 Bb4 16. Red1 Rxd1+ 17. Rxd1 Nc5 18. Qb2 Bg4 19. bxc6 Bxf3! 20. gxf3
Qxc6=/+) Diagram

Analyzing your campaign games prepares you for everything!

12… Ne6! This is the end of the campaign! From here black should be able to win! 13. Be6?! Bxe6 14. Rab1 h6 15. Bh4 a5! 16. b5 Bb4 17. Bxf6 gxf6 18. Qe3 cxb5 19. Nxb5 Qxc2 20. Rec1 Qxa4 21. Nc7 Rac8

22. Qxh6? Rxc7! 23. Qxf6 Rxc1+ 24. Rxc1 Rd1 and white resigned.

The next game is another vote chess game. I used to play a lot of vote chess until it got to be too much work! There was always early voting or garbage 1/2 moves instead of whole continuations to compare. It did teach me a lot about how lazy most chess players are. Fun, fun, fun, all the time. They lack the discipline to follow grandmaster advice to end or consistency!?! It was very encouraging to realize that learning to win more games was going to be infinitely easier than I had originally thought!?!

This early variation will transpose and/or be punished.

Alekhine was the 1st player to condemn Bg5?! in the Philidor. It is a relief that black will not have to deal with any fireworks on f7 or in the center since the f3 knight can’t get to g5. I’m getting help with my campaign on the 5th move of the game! 5… c6 6. dxe5 dxe5 7. Bc4 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Qe2 Qc7

Look Familiar? 2 errors already again!

Some you may be wondering why I’m not rushing to play …b5. My campaign analysis has proved that if I play it too soon, the pawns will become targets. It’s better to let my opponent play a4 and then a5 so that I get the tempos and the stealth I need to mask my kingside intentions. To run a campaign you must have patience! 10. Rad1? Wrong move and wrong rook. Remember, how many times I’ve said you must watch games in the openings you intend to play to learn where to put the rooks? They had to play 10. a4. (10. Rfd1 b5 11. Bb3 a5 12. a4 b4 13. Nb1 h6!?= would have kept things level) 10… b5 11. Bb3 a5 12. a4 b4 13. Nb1 Ba6 14. Bc4 Bxc4 15. Qxc4 h6??

Campaigns are more error tolerant than planlessness!

Campaign protect you because you always have possibilities. Here I could have played 15…Nb6! and followed it up with c5 and c4. Again, mistakes come in pairs so my opponent didn’t take. Knowing when to abandon the campaign for other gains can be as difficult as conducting the campaign itself! I played 15…h6?? with an eye to doubling in the knights, control of f4, g and h files, King lifts and slides, etc... Every time you analyze a game, there is room to tweak and improve your campaigns. Don’t miss them!! The game continued with the new campaign being to put the queen in jail!! 16 Bh4?? Nb6! 17. Qb3 c5 18. Nbd2 c4 19. Qa2 Rad8 20. Bg3 Bd6 21. Rfe1 Rfe8 22. h3 Rd7 23. b3?? c3 (the nail in the coffin)

Even when she gets out on move 31 sitting on f7, she only has 2 squares.

24. Nc4 Nxc4 25. bxc4 Qc6 26. c5? Qxc5 27. Nxe5 Bxe5 28. Bxe5 Rxd1 29. Rxd1 Rxe5 30. Rd8+ Kh7 31. Qxf7 Rxe4 0-1 Their team abandoned the game!

“Look for opportunities to play d5” I didn’t used to get many opportunities for d5 until I reread my analysis of the main line and realized that 90% of the time I would not take back immediately if they played e4xd5. Some of the best ideas in your campaign have been overlooked because of improper piece development and placement. This game breaks from the normal campaign and shows how you can still make a killing of what you have left. This used to be the main line of the Hanham Variation until I busted it. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. Bc4 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Qe2 c6 8. a4
Qc7 9. a5 h6 10. Bd2 Re8 11. Ba2?

Reexplore your main line!!

The bust goes… 11….exd4! 12. Nxd4 d5 13. exd5 Bd6! 14. Be3 Bxh2+ 15. Kh1 Ne5! and black has a complicated but real initiative. Now watch this game and see how they played something different but I still did the same thing!!

I don’t have to change anything about my campaign to deal with this novelty!
  1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Qe2 Be7 5. O-O O-O 6. c3!? Not a bad move in and of itself. The position is equal with white still having a little 1st move initiative left. The game continued with 6…c6 7. d4 Qc7 8. Rd1 Bg4! With the queen being the only protector of the e pawn, Be3 is unlikely for a while, and h3 may never get played. (induce h3 or f3) 9. Nbd2 Nbd7 10. h3 Bh5 11. Nf1 Rfe8 12. g4 Bg6 13. Ng3?
Different position, same combo because my campaign includes a rook spy on the queen!!

13. exd4! 14. cxd4 (14. Rxd4 d5 15. exd5 Bd6 16. Qf1 cxd5 17. Bb5 Bxg3 18. fxg3 Qxg3+ 19. Qg2 Qd6-+) 14…d5 15. exd5 Bd6 16. Qf1 cxd5 17. Bb3 Bxg3 18. fxg3 Qxg3+ 19. Qg2 Qd6 and black won. A 7 move winning combo that I didn’t have to give 1 thought to because the elements of my campaign were present. 19 moves of absolutely stress free chess! Schmampaign that!!!

Even if someone designs a campaign for you, there will be a good amount of material you will have to study. I’ve got more openings, games, and campaigns coming every week! Do you have a campaign? Do you want a campaign, or do you want to keep having fun, fun, fun, whether you win, draw, or lose? I want to work with some people that are determine to never lose!? Chess isn’t about winning all the time, it’s about never losing. You started with 1/2 not zero!! It’s time you learned how to keep yours and take theirs.

Your coaching dollars will never be better invested!?! Call Coach Mike and let’s get started today! 804-426-6058. If you are not ready for coaching, we’ll get you ready for free!!

Tools of Campaign Design!

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1st of all, Congrats to the ACC for it’s Grand Re-Opening! Chess is getting back to normal in so many places. Rumor is that the competition is fiercer than ever before. Some people have been pulling a Botvinnik! That simply means studying and not playing until it counts. They know their openings, they improved their tactics, they’ve even begun studying the endgame, but do they have a, “Campaign”? For the last 2 months this blog has been about variations, transpositions, branchpoints, errors, and now the campaign. What tools does one need to create a campaign? When does the campaign start? How long does it last? When is it done?

Your campaign starts 30-40 hours before you get here! lol

The tools you need are a grandmaster written book on the variation you are aiming for, a database of what has been played by masters, a chess board, a notebook, an engine, and most importantly, a willingness to watch whole games that were won, drawn, and lost by grandmasters! Leaving out any one of these items is a recipe for disaster, not a campaign. So let’s explain…

Books talk to you and give you key ideas about the opening and middlegame!

Books talk! I can’t stress enough about the tidbits, secrets, and maneuver information that’s in books. The books when compared to the database let you know how well the general field of players are preparing. Books also give you comparisons, contrasts, and history. There are gems in the notes of books that are rarely being played even when the results are both favorable and desirable! The best lines are always in the notes!?! Depending on the year it is published, the book should explain all the moves you are seeing in the data base.

A database tells you what was played, not what’s best!

The database you pick is very important. Chess.com, Lichess, and ICC have databases. You can not design a campaign strictly based on what online players are playing!! Why?! 2 reasons… 1.) It’s online… none of those players ultimately cares deeply about their performances. I watch 2600, 2700, 2800, and 2900 players make blunders all the time. I’ll guess a move, they play something else, I check it with the engine, and I was right, but that game still goes into the database. 2.) All the online databases are made up of games were at blitz or near blitz time controls. If you are preparing for a blitz tournament then it is a great database. If you are preparing for a real tournament with real time controls, you need to give more reliability to your books and your engine!?!

Chess engines are only as good as their users knowledge of how they work.

A student and I were going through a variation. We decided to ask the engine what was the best continuation. Even when we made sure to match our settings, the engine lines, evaluations, and order of priority never agreed!!! Do you know how to get the truth out of an engine?

Chess is simply not this complicated. People are constantly trying to get out of the work.

Let’s face it, if we could really just snap our fingers and have someone prepare, or teach us how to prepare a logical and reliable campaign that’s good for 15, 20, 25 moves, it would be a no brainer. Just pay for the training or pay for the preparation!?! Grandmasters know it’s possible but for the mere mortal, human, novice, amateur, or never read a chess book cover to cover chess player, it’s an impossibility… The beauty of campaign training is that you only need to be shown 1 time and you can use it for life! After that, you’ll always know if you are getting what you paid for!

This King’s Gambit position from the last blog will show you how a campaign punishes!!

This is a game played on line in 2015. We each have 3 days to decide on our move. Most players that are playing e games just look at the board without ever moving the pieces around, without checking a book, or a database!?! This is how that got punished. 1. e4 e5 2. f4 Bc5 3. Nf3 d6 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. d3 Nc6 6. a3?! It’s the 6th move of the game and already white has made a serious error!? 6… Bg4 7. h3 Bxf3 8. Qxf3 Nd4 9. Qd1 b5 10. Ba2?! Diagram (10. b4 Bb6 11. Ba2 O-O -/+)

I was prepared to answer Nc3 with …a6 but they never bought out the knight! What happens next is the result of a campaign!!

The game concluded with 10… Nxe4!! 11. dxe4 Qh4+ 12. Kd2 Qf2+ 13. Kc3 Ne2+ 14. Kb3 a5 15. a4 Nxc1+ 16. Qxc1 Qd4 17. c4 Qd3+ Resigns

The Kings Gambit Declined has no published theory for black about it’s campaigns, piece placement, maneuvers, strategies, or concepts. The chess world has no respect for it!?! lol If you want a theoretical walk in this opening, go back in the blogs to the 2019 World Open!!!

How long can a campaign last? I have documentation for a campaign lasting 22 moves!! That’s right 22 moves!! I published my campaign for the Callaham Attack in the Hanham Variation of the Philidor Defense in the 2010-1 issue of the VA Newsletter. All campaign work has to start with the main line and usually after castling. This was considered to be the main line of the Hanham Variation. 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nd7 4. Nc3 Ngf6 5. Bc4 Be7 6. O-O O-O. Every player can make it this far.

Campaigns should begin at every major transposition or branchpoint. You must have a campaign that governs your movements after castling!!

So here is black’s campaign: Gain space on the kingside to induce h3 or f3. Eliminate the useful forward movement of the knight on f3. Take 100% control of f4 to prevent the opening of the f file. Use the knights to pressure the g and h files as well as f3. The king will need to slide, lift, or both to allow the rooks onto the g and h files. The queen will need a couple of tempos to get over and out on the wing. The king may also need tempo help for his lifts and slides. Give away the whole queenside if you have to!! Eliminate white’s dark squared bishop if at all possible… pawns left on a5 or a7 will usually draw it out to where it can be taken with the a8 rook. Stay alert for opportunities to play …d5, and for bringing the knights into f4 and h4, even when g3 has been played!? Understand that any white pieces returning to save their king must use e2, f1, or the 3rd rank. Other squares are too far away and will take to much time. Lastly, remember that there is no turning back. Sooner or later something always comes if you’re ready to sac and attack.

1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nd7 4. Nc3 Ngf6 5. Bc4 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Re1 c6 8. a4
Qc7 9. h3 h6 10. Be3

This is white’s favorite position in the Philidor!? It is still subject to the campaign! The game continued… 10… Rd8! 11. a5 Nf8 12. d5 Ng6 13. Nd2 Re8 14. Qe2 Bd8 15. Rf1 Ne7 16. Qd3 Bd7 17. b4 cxd5 18. exd5! Nf5! 19. Bb5 a6 20. Bxd7 Qxd7 21. Nde4 Nxe4 Nxe4 Nh4! (…and for bringing the knights to f4 and h4 even when g3 has been played)!!

This knight paralyzes the kingside and gives black the time necessary for redevelopment!

The campaign has been a success. Now that the opponent has been softened up, it’s time to reap the rewards. This was a vote chess game. That’s right, vote chess. It was coach against coach. His rating was 2178 and mine was 2117. He had actually insulted me before the game asking, “The Philidor is an inferior opening?! Why would someone ask for that kind of beating with trainees watching”!?! The game continued… 23. c4?! f5 24. Nc3 Bf6! The trainees kept asking why we weren’t pushing the pawns. I explained that it would make it too easy for white, and that we should patiently redevelop and wait for another melt down! 25. Rac1 Qf7 26. Bd2 Rad8 27. Ne2 Rd7 28. Kh2
Rc7! Redevelopment is complete!

Once you’ve exhausted your campaign, checks, captures, threats, sacrifices, and the magic 10 will bring home the point!

29. c5? e4 30. Qg3 Ng6 31. Kh1 Bh4 32. Qb3 dxc5 33. bxc5 Ne7-+ They never responded and lost on time. No one on the whole team voted for 3 days to make that happen!!! This is the tip of the Iceberg!

Tournaments are back and they are close. Arlington has $1900.00 a month, The Atlantic Open 30K, The VA Closed in Sep, Fredericksburg Oct, Zofchak Nov, Eastern in Dec 25K, Northern VA Open in Jan, North Carolina Nov, National Chess Congress Philly Nov, K-12 Nationals in MD…

Every opening has a campaign, you just have to research it enough to discover what it is. If you don’t know how to do it, hire someone to show you how to do it or do it for you. We would love to be your coach or your 2nd to add campaigns to you road arsenal. Our rates are very reasonable and hurt a lot less than repeated weekend hotel stays that produce 12-15 rating points. At $600.00 + per weekend, (gas, food, room, entry fee, time off work, kennels, and baby sitters) not to mention the time away from your family, you are paying $40.00 – $50.00 per rating point?? That’s insane!

Call Coach Mike for a free consultation today. 804-426-6058. If you are not ready for coaching, we will get you ready for free. Let us save you some trips and some money!

Watch for more Campaigns and campaign games the whole month of August!

Thanks,

Coach Mike C

Need a ,”2nd” It’s time for Campaign Training!?!

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It’s funny how I stumbled upon the idea of chess campaigns. Most of the books I bought early in my chess career were books that were translated from Russian. I speak English and have learned to read write and speak Spanish fluently and I speak a little bit of German. In all of these languages the word for, “Campaign” is only defined in politics or war. Any other time, they translate the word, “campaign” to the word, “plan”!?! If you are bi, tri, or quadrilingual, you know exactly where I’m going with this. My chess books were telling me I needed a plan when the author had used the word campaign. That 1 word was enough to explain how the Russian Grandmasters could tell us everything and we still would never understand!! Context: A plan is the strategy and dong of 1 thing. Combine enough plans together and you get a campaign! At every BRANCHPOINT THERE IS THE OPPORTUNITY FOR A CAMPAIGN.

This is a transposition in the King’s Gambit Declined. After 1. e2-e4 e7-e5 2. f2-f4 f8-c5 3. g1-f3 d7-d6 white can play 4. b1-c3 and immediately gambit the e pawn with 5. c3-a4!? and have an equal game. It’s there earliest hope of ending the nightmare on the a7-g1 diagonal!?!

If they play 4. b1-c3 black takes the initiative with 4… a7-a6! and responding to 5. c3-a4 with c5-a7.

So White has to move the bishop, go after the Bishop from the center, or take the pawn. There’s a campaign for each. One of the best parts about putting together a campaign is how easy it makes it to take your opponent out of book without making mistakes! The other part to mention is there are a great many novelties to be discovered that have never been played or recorded when you know how to research and analyze!! The thing to understand about chess campaigns is that you can’t make one that will cover an entire opening. You have to pick variations, transpositions, and branchpoints that you can virtually force to be played. You must know the gift you have received if your opponent errors.

White does not know what a7-a5!? is for!?!

This is a branchpoint. This forces white to push or castle before the b8 knight is developed. The game is going off the grid. There must be a campaign for this position. Can you find out what a7-a5!? is for, the logic behind the move, and what the coming struggle will look like? I don’t think you can do it at the board or when you get home.

13… h7-h5!? Threatening to ruin the kingside pawns without a rook on the file is a surprise weapon in the campaigns against fianchettos!

Campaigns differ from plans because of their interdependence!?! Every time a part of a campaign is eliminated, another desirable option should take its place. I’ve been making moves from a campaign as late as move 22!!! Each tournament player that enters an, “Under 1400” should be actively researching, analyzing, and creating campaigns. They save time, they save money, and make chess a lot more fun and predictable. If you don’t know how to create campaigns, it’s time you learned! If you need a “2nd”, (someone to do your research and analysis for and/or with you), look no further. Custom campaign design and/or training for white and black can be done in as little as 3 or 4 weeks!!! There’s still time to prepare for the VA Closed Championship in September! Prices vary based on the openings, your rating, and the variations you want to play. Zoom, in person, or at our office. Nobody makes you better faster than SCBC! Call today for a free consultation and quote. 804 426 6058

Good luck and remember, if you are not ready for coaching, we’ll get you ready for Free!!!

Thanks,

Coach Mike C

Transpositions, Variations, Branchpoints and Errors!?!, (Strange) …

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Summer is 100% underway! Kids are out of school. Parents don’t have to drive somewhere every night. Everyone has free time to study! Charlottesville, The US Open, and the State Championships are all happening over the next 8 weeks. What’s the best way to invest this free time into chess? If your rating goal is currently 1400-1800, I suggest you watch whole games, (wins, losses, and draws) in a gambit you’re interested in, or whole games, (win, loss, and draws) in the openings that you intend to play.

The fastest way to learn how to use your rooks, and what your typical ending looks like, is to watch whole games in gambits or the openings you play!!

Gambits help you with the Magic 10, (Range, Speed, Power, Force, Time, Space, Mobility, Initiative, King Safety, and Material). Using your openings will exponentially increases the number of errors you notice in all openings. Gm’s are looking to make sure they stay properly anchored. We are studying games to become properly anchored! It’s a lot easier than people think!?! A 1200’s – 1800’s growth is about increasing their depths. Conversations that used to be a move and a half move bark, or just one area of the board, ( play this move, then I play this, then they play that or look at that square…) have to become 4, 5, and 6, move variations and sequences that explain and justify, variations, transpositions branchpoints, and errors!?! Going through whole games is how you stop wondering what to do so early in your games.

What is the purpose of a maze!?! The affects is that every creature will experience their way out of a maze even when thinking their way out was an option for some, most, or all the time!?! Playing is a maze, studying is not!?! Studying properly is exponential, Playing properly is not!

Amateurs think Anand is taking the position from the board and putting it on the computer. Gm’s think he’s getting a move from the computer to look at on the board!?! (STRANGE) lol!

This is the way I approach the analysis of a game I did not play. 1st I watch the whole game. If you are using a book, and books are best, that means the moves in bold. 2nd I go through the game again questioning which moves I want to improved for each color. 3rd I take the game explorer database to where the branch points are for what’s played. 4th Back to the board. With my new understanding of the variations, I try to understand when the game actually reached it’s branch point and which branches I preferred and hated. 5.) I try to correct their mistakes were with 3, 4, and 5, move sequences for all the moves I had questioned. 6.) I put the game on an engine to check my work . 7. After checking my work, I go through the game move by move with the engine to see If what they played or what I saw was in the top 3-5 best moves. 8. On the board, I watch the game a final time. 9. Write in my notebook what I think I learned from the game. 10. repeat!

That’s the end of the lesson. Once you finish 25 games using this procedure, you should feel very confident using or very confident throwing away the variations you have studied. The good news is you get to keep all the tools, weapons, strategies, and understanding that you anchored. Keep your notebook of this procedure. Come back to it in 30 days and reread your notes, thoughts, and ideas about the games. You’re almost better just thinking about it, aren’t you!?!

This is the game that inspired this article.

[Event “?”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “????.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “?”]
[Black “?”]
[Result “*”]

  1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. e4 Bb4 6. Bg5 c5 7. e5 cxd4 8. Qa4+
    Nc6 9. O-O-O Bd7 10. Ne4 Be7 11. exf6 gxf6 12. Bh4 Nb4 13. Qxb4 Bxb4 14. Nxf6+
    Kf8 15. Rxd4 Qa5 16. Nxd7+ Ke8 17. Nf6+ Kf8 18. Ne5 h5 19. Bxc4 Kg7 20. Nfd7
    Rhc8 21. Kb1 b5 22. Bf6+ Kg8 23. Rh4 Be7 24. Bxe7 Rxc4 25. Nf6+ Kg7 26. Rxh5 *

A Branch point is when you have 2 or more variations that are equally good but will never transpose.

Need some coaching? Rates as low at $25 per hour. Financing available! Free consultation. Coach Mike C 804-426-6058.