Recently my play has reached a new high, my chess is more consistent and I’m performing well against stronger players, but I can’t help feeling that I’ve run headlong into another brick wall.

Until recently, my games usually consisted of me throwing out some opening theory for the first few moves, then shuffling the pieces around in the middlegame waiting for a mistake to take advantage of, blundering myself, or allowing the opponent to get too much activity and overwhelm me.

Nowadays, I still throw out the same old opening theory, but I’ve strengthened my tactical play over the summer and so now I see those chances more easily, I can hold onto my material instead of chucking it away. The result of this is that I win more convincingly against the weaker player, but the games against stronger opponents seem to involve a titanic struggle for control before reaching a deadlock or else I simply crumble under the pressure.

This is where I run into my wall. Against the better player I’m hardly ever going to win unless I can capitalise on those small positional advantages, but as soon as I obtain these, the play is too subtle for me and equality is soon resumed. My games are starting to behave like an elastic band – to keep stretching till the band breaks you have to keep applying pressure, but more often than not, players round about my level don’t know how to keep applying that pressure and the band returns to its state of rest.

It’s apparent that working on my tactics is no longer as effective as it was as I’m not generating positions where tactics generally appear. The tactics which do appear are often hard to spot and would require a huge amount of study for a small return.

I’m looking for faster gains than that, so I think my next step is to work on building up those positional advantages and learning how to use them to create that extra pressure.

I think it’s time to learn some STRATEGY!

Our D team won promotion to the 4th division last season and it’s been a big step up. Going from being one of the strongest board 1 players in the division, I’m now probably one of the weakest.

The matches have been fairly sparse so far this season, having only played 3 games in the last 6 weeks. It’s tough going though! All three opponents were graded over 100 ECF, and averaged 137 ECF between them, way stronger than I’m used to.

Taking the white pieces in the first game last month I was up against an opponent rated 8 ECF points (~40 Elo) higher. The game wasn’t pretty, but there was never a dull moment and the 3 hour slugfest ended in a drawn rook-pawn ending. Probably my most exhausting match to date and both of us were struggling to see even the simple moves with not much more than a couple of minutes left on each clock – so much for a gentle start to the season!

A couple of weeks later the A team captain phoned, desperately looking for a 6th player (remember I play for the D team normally!). Happy to step in, I faced my strongest player yet in competition at 158 ECF (~2040 Elo) on Board 6. With the Black pieces I made a good effort of the opening holding an even position until I miscalculated and blundered, giving my opponent a stronger attack than I had foreseen. Grimly, I held on for a while longer as my position rapidly deteriorated, and after 28 moves I saw nothing better than extending my arm and resigning.

This week, my 3rd game of the season, I knew that I was likely to be up against strong opposition. I wasn’t let down – graded 151 ECF (~2005 Elo) to my 94 ECF (~1720 Elo), on paper it looked like another easy walkover for my opponent having already won his first 3 matches. They always say it’s best to play against stronger players to improve so knowing I’d at least take some valuable experience from the game I settled into my seat, and prepared myself for another harsh lesson…

A draw! I’m still without a win this season, but this is probably my best result to date. Having played 9 matches against opponents rated over 100 ECF over the last five seasons, I’ve lost 7 and drawn 2 (both draws coming this season). My highest rated win currently is against a 96 ECF (two seasons ago when I was rated 79).

I was very pleased with how the game went. I didn’t at any point have any winning chances admittedly, but neither did I give my opponent much to get excited about, probably making it my first error free game, tactically anyway, strategy was decidedly dodgy at times!

After 1. e4 I responded with my typical Pirc defence which I’ve come to enjoy over the last couple of years. White went down the route of the Austrian attack which is probably white’s strongest attack against the Pirc and I played 5…c5, a very sharp line with many, many variations. Black can get cramped very easily if he’s not careful in this line and indeed I suffered this problem to some extent by castling instead of taking the opportunity to develop my Bishop on move 8. It was another 12 moves before I could move the Bishop off the back rank and think about mobilising my a8 Rook. Meanwhile white was enjoying superior development but no weaknesses to attack seemed to leave him shuffling around looking for an opening.

On move 15 I exchanged my strong bishop for white’s knight on c3, which gave him the bishop pair but also double isolated pawns. I always torment myself in positions like these trying to evaluate whether giving up the g7 Bishop to create the weak c-pawns is favourable or not. It seems that each situation is different and sometimes it’s good, other times it’s not. Can anyone offer any nuggets of wisdom?

Continuing on, things got a bit strained in the middle of the board before opening up to give white the initiative in an otherwise equal position, but with solid defence black cemented the position. White’s doubled pawns couldn’t support each other and advance (one benefit of the Bishop exchange earlier) and black’s isolated d-pawn couldn’t be attacked easily. White, starting to get short on time, offered the draw. I had no counterplay so accepted.

I’ve never felt anger towards anyone over the board, not even when swindled by the opponent, however obnoxious he or she may be. If I play a bad move, lose a game, I always beat myself up over my own disgraceful effort – not the opponent.

However it seems that not everyone has the same morals that I have…

Iowa City man David Christian, 29, appeared at the Johnson County District Court this morning via video feed from the Johnson County Jail after being charged Sunday with the killing of his neighbor, Michael Steward, 39, over an argument about their chess game.

Johnson County Judge Stephen Gerard set Christian’s bond at $500,000 and scheduled his preliminary hearing for Oct. 30.

Christian faces a second-degree murder charge in the killing, a Class B felony. If convicted, Christian could face up to 50 years in prison. Christian is also charged with public intoxication.

The Iowa City Police and Fire departments and the Johnson County Ambulance Service responded to 418 Brown St. Apt. 6, Iowa City — Christian’s home — at 3:08 a.m. Sunday and found Steward unresponsive. He was taken to Mercy Iowa City and declared dead shortly after.

According to the criminal complaint, Steward slapped Christian during the chess match. Christian responded by reportedly putting Steward’s head between his legs and applying pressure to Steward’s neck while holding his hands.

Christian applied pressure to Steward’s neck on and off until he “didn’t look so good,” according to the complaint. When police asked Christian what “didn’t look so good” meant, he replied, “Have you ever seen a dead person?”.

Christian attempted to perform CPR on Steward with “negative results,” according to the complaint.

Steward lived in the same building in Apt. 4.

This is the sixth reported homicide in Iowa City this year.

Becky Sharp of 414 Brown St., Apt. 7, who has been neighbors with Steward for three years, said she knew something was wrong with Steward after seeing police cars parked outside his building for two hours.

"I knew something had happened to him," she said. "I knew in my gut he was dead."

Sharp, who also lived at 418 Brown St. before moving next door, described him as a really good person who had demons like everybody else.

"He drank way too much, but he was really nice guy," she said. "He would do anything for anybody."

She said Steward was planning on applying for a job at the University of Iowa and wanted to go to graduate school to study library sciences. He received a degree from the UI years ago in literature, she said.

"I just can’t believe we’ll never see him again," she said. "I’m shocked — just shocked."

Sharp added she tried to avoid Christian because he seemed a little "freaky" to her and acted erratic.

The woman who lives in the apartment between Christian and Steward, who spoke on the condition her name not be used, said Christian and Steward were good drinking buddies who would often play chess or Scrabble while drinking.

"It’s what they did," she said. "They would drink, play games, and get in arguments."

She was not at the building at the time of the reported killing.

She also described both men as "intellectual" and great cooks who could whip up some "really fabulous things."

They both lived by themselves in their one-room apartments, she said.

"Those two were always together," she said.

Susanna Strode of 315 Brown St., who lives a block from where the killing took place, said it’s a good neighborhood that’s mostly occupied by homeowners and families, except for a few rental properties by where the killing happened.

Preliminary results of Steward’s autopsy are expected back early this week.

Christian, who was also charged with public intoxication, is being held at the Johnson County Jail.

http://gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008710199918

I can’t think of much that would get me angry, perhaps blatant cheating, but even then not enough to lose my cool. What does it take to tip you over the edge?

I’ve just come off a 4 week break from chess as I felt that I was just going through the motions rather than learning anything, but kept some correspondence games going to keep my eye in.

Since the weather has turned a bit warmer I’ve spent the last month doing some different circles – circles of the local countryside on my bike that is! It’s nice and flat around here as I live by the Severn Estuary (the strong winds compensate for the lack of hills however) and I’ve been putting in about 3 or 4 hours on the bike each week. The gain in fitness has been a great help to my chronic fatigue (at least physically – the mental side is still lacking) and I can now cycle up hills without getting out of breath, I have strength in the legs which I’ve not had since my teens. Cycling is like an anti-depressant, just it’s a bit more effort than popping a pill in your mouth!

There are some great views around here too which helps with the motivation, low traffic means I can concentrate on having fun – here is the view of the estuary at high tide from the M48 cycle path.

Now I’m back with renewed energy, a greater motivation and a hunger to make some more progress. I’ve got one month before the new season starts and I’m looking forward to it again.

If you feel it’s becoming an effort to get the chess board out, take a break!

I’ve gone from ECF 83 to ECF 94.

http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getref.php?ref=261619B

Not too bad an improvement over the year.