Kapiti Chess News Letter - 4 February 2019

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Greetings Chess Lovers, Happy New Year and Welcome to the 2nd edition of 2019s Kapiti Chess News Blog.  Catch up with what is happening at the Club  and see how the regions best players play, plus tips on how to improve your game and much more.....

* See our website at Kapiti Chess Club for Contact Details - Joining Fees and much more.

* For Information on Chess matters in Wellington Click Here Wgtn Chess News

* For Information on Chess matters in New Zealand Click Here: NZCF Web Site

Links for Chess Training

*  For Beginners and Novice players, Click Here Chess for Beginners with International Grand Master Yasser Seirawan (USA), to learn the basic set up positions of good development of pieces when starting a game of Chess.

AMERICAN GRAND MASTER VISITS 

KAPITI CHESS CLUB

GM Timur Gareyev with (L-R) Hamish Lester, Mark Summers

Velera Bonyushkin, Asher Te Whaaro

Leading the news this week was a special visit to the club by GM Timur Gareyev USA who took part and won the NZ Chess Open in Auckland last month.  Staying with club member and host, Ross Jackson, GM Gareyev popped in on Tuesday night to meet with members and spoke briefly to those present and answered a few questions along with giving a little advice to our juniors. 

GM Gareyev holds the world record for the number of simultaneous games played Blindfold and on Thursday 31st Jan, played 12 members of the Wellington Chess club Blindfolded, winning 8 games drawing 3 (two against IM R Dive and IM A Ker) and losing just one.

At the University of Navada, Las Vegas in December 2016 he played 48 games blindfolded with a score of 35W-7D-6L   The match has been accepted as a world record by "Guiness World Records" office.

The club appreciated and thanks GM Gareyev for taking the time to visit the club and giving inspiration to all.

JOHN KINGSTON MEMORIAL TROPHY

Round 1 took place on Tuesday and as normal with Swiss tournaments, the first round saw the top half of the group play the bottom half and though all games went to the top seeds, one or two of the juniors fared pretty well and made their stronger opponents work a little for the point.   

The game below (Mark Summers v David Paul) shows how well some of our juniors are doing.   Mark makes a losing error with move 13. h4, by not taking 13. hxg4 (the type of error many of us have made at one time or another) however, prior to this, "Stockfish" had white slightly ahead at every move

If you play through the game you will see David incorporates the Lion Defence which is usually played against 1.e4.   Mark however develops well, stakes a claim in the centre with his central pawns, places his knights on good squares, and when David expands on the kingside, Mark counters by attacking on the Queenside.

As mentioned above, the writer as well as others have made silly errors which costs us the game, however, Mark should take heart from how he played the opening and was a little ahead in assessment, prior to his "Chess Blindness"!!

Mark Summers v David Paul

Other results on the night:

Ross Jackson         1 - 0     Valera Bonyushkin
Rick Lowe             0 - 1     Alan Winfield
Gordon Lyall         1 - 0     Hamish Lester
Brandon Holman   0 - 1    Guy Burns
David Scott             1 - 0     Asher Te Whaaro

With just 12 members showing up, it appears the holiday programme is a little longer this year so hopefully a full house will show up on Tuesday.

CHESS BLINDNESS

In the analysis above I mentioned a term called "Chess Blindness" and yes it is an acknowledged Phenomenon.  It is generally used for what can be termed an "Extreme" blunder.

If no-one made a mistake or error no-one would win a game, so errors do occur all the time though of course there are different levels.  

So, when you make a move, and without realising you have left a piece "En Pris" (free to be captured)  it is generally because you get too focused on your own moves and fail to check what responses your opponent has to the threats you are making.

If you fail to see, when your opponents Queen is attacking a piece but at the same time threatening checkmate on the other side of the board, it is because you become too focused on the first threat you see and fail to check if something else was happening at the same time.

Like many ailments in the world today, the cure is not as simple as it seems, as people tend to be people of habit and its not unusual to repeat the same type of mistake in the next game.

What you can do however, is try to train yourself in the process of foresight.   When you are about to make your move, take a few moments to double check.  If your moving a piece to attack or defend, have you left another unguarded.    If your opponent has left a piece unguarded, is it safe to take it or is it a decoy to tempt you to move a major piece away from defending your king.  

If you get into the habit of making these checks prior to moving you will reduce the number of errors you make and will increase the number of games you'll win.   If it happens again, well - just call it "Chess Blindness".

Well, that is all for this week.  

Hope you have enjoyed this issue and always Remember - Keep your King Safe and don't be Blinded by Chess!!

Yours InChess

Alan Winfield

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