Monster inside of me

Monster inside of me is actually from a documentary channel that talks about parasites living of each human being, well, this is different! I am not going to cover about that show in this post, since I wasn't intend to talk about it.

Last Thursday, February 4, 2010, I was so tired because I woke up 7am in the morning to finish study some stuff, having some beer with my friend at Sushi Restaurant at noon and teach from 3 to 6:30pm. I came over at the Chess club roughly 7pm and play some blitz with my colleges and I came out with this self question "why I play so good at blitz without thinking"? to be frank, I felt that someone took over my body that day and I feel it is very extra ordinary.

I could perfectly describe this feeling by using this video of Yu Yu Hakusho in which there is a fighter named Yuremeshi thought that a human but it came out that he is a demon when his ancestor took control of his body and taught him how to use his power efficiently, watch this carefully.



I know by now that you guys are thinking that this is the most bizarre post here at web, but, what I am talking here is quite real base on my own experience. Way back to Tonopah Southern Nevada VS Northern Nevada 2009, I felt the same way too, and what was funny about it is when I need to use the Restroom I just get myself out of the playing room and take the way going to Restroom which I've been there for two years ago on that time.

That weird experience made me wrote this entry just to ask if anybody down here experience the same thing, in my own opinion, everyone has there own "monster inside of them" to dictate, guide, remind or even to demonstrate a beyond capability that yourself know how to do.

This is only my own experience and there is no scientific base on it, I would be really glad to hear anything comments, sharing same stories or professional opinion but please be respectful.

Learn from Nathaniel "Nate"

Its been 6 months since I posted my last blog. Those 6 months I was so busy (until now) playing with my Rubik's Cube (if Soapstone has his Scrabble, then I have Rubik's Cube) and having fun slaughtering fish at work (as a Sushi Chef in Oceano, Peppermill Casino) like anyone else whose reading this blog, Chess keeps pulling us back!

In my own description, Chess is an "Extreme Science" that even Super GMs can't solve the mystery of Chess, everything is just "theory" and there is no certain "laws". For instance "big center vs development" who has the advantage? what do you think? the answer, it is all depends! those things controlling the center and development are just a given to solve the problem, you are the examiner, judge and a solver.

Examine the position - as an examiner we want to come out with a most rational understanding of the position (this separates from amateur and masters) the deeper you can get the better. Basic things to consider while you are examining your position are;

1.) character of the position - you should ask your self, is it close or open? as easy as that. If your answer is incorrect, then your position will be doomed! for sure.

2.) Pacing of the game - this sometimes can be determine by looking the character of the position, if the position is close the chances of positional game is too high and positional game means slow pacing, in the other way around if the position is too sharp, you should think about flying pieces around.

3.) Prioritizing pieces - it is very important for a chess player to know which piece is the best piece at any certain position (for instance, close position knight is more like preferable) keeping pieces on the board will help you to decide which to exchange.

4.) Coordination - this is very important for every aspiring chess player to improve their games up to their threshold. Imagine that chess pieces are just real Army or even elite forces like SAS, Green Berret or Commando, if you send them in Iraq without "briefing" or "coordination" from their General, they might kill each other. You are the General of your pieces and your job is to put them in a good harmony.

Judgement- after learning the position by examining on it you must have a decision by now, you can't just sit on your chair and let your opponent beat you on time. There is a player that can't make his decision because he is scared or not trusting his own brain, if you have that kind of syndrome you must stop that now! otherwise you won't enjoy the real beauty and taste of chess instead you will suffer from misery and insomnia which eventually gives you schizophrenia, if that so, I recommended you to stop playing chess, buy popcorn and DVD go home watch it and have a good life, that way you'll be enjoying your life for sure.

Things to consider rendering judgements;


a.) Opponent's last move - your opponent's move is best source of your plan, this should be easy, ask yourself "why did he play that"? then again, you must get the real idea behind on it otherwise you will be in the loosing position. Actually this part is just a common sense, your opponent is not your friend (over the board) he is sitting in front of you to destroy you, so, if he pointed a gun in your face what you gonna do? ignore it or dodge it? same as Chess, always think the idea of your opponents move.

b.) First thing firts -by examining your position you should know by now which among of your pieces needs attention, so again, it is all about you! "The closest threat is the dangerous threat" that is the saying of the Army, which I think make a perfect sense, so in application in chess you should know which would be the serious threat of your opponent then deal with it, if you think his threat is not enough to create a damage in your side ( one theory can be applied at this situation "identify the threat, counter attack and pursue your attack" by Amir Perets former Combat Instructor, Israeli Defence Forces ) and if your threat is stronger, then go!


Solving the problem - this is the most stressful part of chess, it is commonly happen when the opponent make a surprising move or offer some pieces for the "initiative" this is known as "imbalance" lots of study, pattern, and experience can save your day, but your talent, intuition and instinct at the most!

One of the brilliant example of solving problem over the board happened between Anand, V - Kramnik, V 2008 World Championship, when Anand just needs draw to win the match and Kramnik has to win. Anand play 1. e4!! which was brilliant move for the right time and right person specially Kramnik, I will tell you why, Kramnik plays 1. ... e5 2. Nf3 Nf6!? (punctuation mark is just for this topic) that is what not happen on the game but Anand knew that Kramnik's "pet line" is Petroff Defense which is notoriously drawish. Since Anand just needs draw this is perfect for him ( that is why I put 1. e4!!) and Kramnik has to win playing Petroff would be not good idea for him.


There are more lesson that I can share with you guys, just stay tune at my page and if you guys have some questions or specific questions to ask (Opening, Middlegame and Endgame) I will be happy to help you guys.

You can leave your comments here or just send me an email at nathaniel_garingo@sbcglobal.net

Next posting will be my games against Bill Case, Fischer and Fedunov.

Stay tune!

Cheating?

Nowadays, it is very easy to cheat during at the tournament because of the modern gadgets, what makes this really interesting is, does strong players cheat too? the answer is "I don't know". In my own opinion it's nice to sweat, get exhausted and eventually earn the whole point because you have something to be proud of and the best way to gauge your level too. Well, cheating is just for a "weak" player (level of playing and also level of personality) I don't know if you guys would agree but this is just my opinion.

Personally, I knew someone had committed cheating and eventually got suspended for the whole year. I would say that I know them but we are not that close, those guys are the Coaches, Assistant Coach and Head Coach at one of the top University in the Philippines. This issue is on the record so any lawsuits and legal actions won't work to me. Anyways, what makes this issue so interesting is those guys are strong enough to cheat! GM Laylo and IM Dableo, so why are those guys cheating? isn't it so embarrassing to see a strong player cheating while we are all working hard to be a strong?

Well, if you guys think that is the whole point of this write up "you are wrong"! the following issue would be more stunning!

Few days ago I was trying to fire up myself playing more chess and finding some ways how to get some motivation to start with my serious study (normally I don't want to open my books if I don't feel like it, just wasting a time) so I had some idea to watch some elite GM's games at the youtube specially blitz, those games are so entertaining until I found this annoying thing, watch this carefully;




Did you watch it? watch it again and try to remember the position and each move they make, now watch this one and pay attention to the position of each games how they move the pieces and what the move they make.



I am not jumping to any conclusion here, but I don't really understand what is going on here, is there any way for the same player to play the same game from beginning up to the end? probably up to 23rd move after the theory ended is highly possible, but how about this? this is obviously a different game because as you can see they have a different board was using at that time.

It is so funny that these games ended with the same reason by "flagging down" and isn't it a coincidence that the last move is ... Kg3?, that's a whole bunch of coincidence then. If this is a drama I would say that these two elite US GM are great actors a Hollywood caliber and their rehearsal have paid off well.

As a professional chess player I am just wondering if there's anyone of you my fellow chesslover would try to enlighten this?

Play like a Rockstar!

It's been a long time that I haven't updated my blog, I can't even remember the sequence of my games that I played without looking the pairing board and names. Well, at this game I am a little proud that I play a bit Super GM's style but at the other part of it I wish that I could play this way against Master's from Russia!

I am so inspired after the Far West Open, because I don't play really bad specially against two IMs (but IM Sevilliano is basically worth as a Super GM) and two masters from Moscow and also a former Nevada State Champion. I felt that I overcome all of my bad habbits including playing hip-hop music while playing Chess, isn't weird?

My friend and I look at the game between IM Sevilliano- GM Kraii at the restaurant and I am so impress while asking myself "how could a strong GM losses like a poor Class-E player?" if i could do that to Mr. Viktor Pupols or Igor Marguilis I would be happy.

So I draw my games and try to find out something close to that performance level and I come up with this game CLICK HERE TO REPLAY

4th Round of Reno Chess Club Championship: Opposite Color Bishop

After my super busy schedule and being sick for at least 6 days last week I am back to post some instructive game for my lovely viewers through the best of my knowledge that I can share.

This is my 3rd round at the RCC Championship technically because I had a BYE at the first round, at this game I wasn't really satisfied at my performance, I felt that I am not fully grown enough as a Chess Player. George played the Bayonet Variation of King's Indian Defense the line that I haven't played for a long time, it was so interesting because I didn't expect that he is going to play such a super sharp line like KID. The game started as 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 0-0 6. Be2 e5 7. 0-0 Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. b4 Nh5 10. Qc2!? this line is so interesting because I never come across with this variation, although I know that Black scores well after 10. ... a5, but instead I chose to play the line that is not that much popular.

Anyhow, I think he played well and less mistakes for his rating, but at my side I wasn't that satisfied on my game because there are flaws that shouldn't appear on my game as a mature player. My mistakes here is not that quite obvious and probably won't be recognize by those players weaker than Class A but don't worry I will try to explain it in the instructive way that I know and I even put some games with same ideas so that you will get the the point on it.

Smith, George - Garingo, Nathaniel



After 17. Ne2

So this is probably the position that I would consider the critical position at the game, 17. Ne2 is quite tricky because I was so tempted to take it by 17. ... Bxe2 followed by 18. Qxe2 f3 19. Bxf3 with the idea of 19. ...Qf4 so that white won't be able to play g3 after 20. ... Be5 due to the bishop is hanging.

This is black to play, obviously you can see that white is two pawns up and they have opposite color bishops plus two rooks each side but the only winning key of the game is the two knights!

So black decided to play 1. ... Nf3+ forcing white to capture it by knight 2. Nxf3 Bxf3 3. Rxe8 Rxe8, now black accomplished his aim to exchange the pair of knights and a couple of rooks. Theoretically rooks and opposite color bishops endings are notoriously drawish, because of the long distance checks and also those bishops are sitting in the different channel, now, can white win this position with two extra pawns? let's see... 4. b4 Bd1 5. Ra2 Rc8...

After 5. ...Rc8

I would say this position should be drawn if white doesn't have an excellent resources that makes this position exceptional, so I come up with the idea that before entering a "drawish" materials you should think about your resources!

Here white plays an excellent 6. b5! temporarily sacrificing the Bishop on c3 but in return white will be able to achieve his dream to promote his poor pawn at b4, black losses after taking the bishop by 6. ... Rxc3 7. b6 Rc8 8. b7 Rb8 9. Ra8 and black resigned, I know that taking the Bishop on c3 is losing but what else black can do besides that? is any other reviving move left? what basically this mean is once a position becomes drawish you should squeeze your mind and try to find the "resources" that you have left on the board otherwise shake your opponents hand and accept the draw.

Here is the whole game [Click here to play] Enjoy!

Eye Versus Brain

This post would be interesting. It is all about my game last Thursday against Wesly Situ a kid has just joined at Reno Chess Club. Actually, I'm teaching this one too, it is pretty exciting to play your students at the tournament in the sense that you have to "schooled" and show them that you are stronger than what they think.

This game is actually not a favorite game at our club but it did attract alot of expectorates during that match, the highlight part of this is when Alsasua and Case (both expert players) were pondering at my board deeply and start shaking their heads while crunching their foreheads, that was funny because they were showing me that they don't get the point of my move!

I put Eye Versus Brain as a tittle for this post is because simply, in Chess we shouldn't always rely on what we see on the board it is because the pieces and all materials on that surface can be deceiving, it is better to rely on your theory, principles and sometimes instinct of playing Chess than relying to your eye vision. I mentioned about "physical vision" of the Chess position here because it is quite related at my game, whereas I sacrificed at least 4 pieces including my queen!

After 16. ... h4

Book theory ended prior to black's 16th move, from here you can see how this game goes, it is simply exploiting the white side's weak move by using the combination. White continued by playing 17. h3? and actually black can easily exploit that one by playing the normal 17. ... Bxh3, but I don't wanna win after 40 or 30 moves with accurate play.

Well, here is the starting position when the combination take place.

after 24. cxd6

I know that all players at the Chess Club expected me to win this game and I have no question about it, some players like this game it is not because of the score 0-1 it is because how I skillfully delivered the combination. This Game reminds me the National Geographic Channel where Fox was tearing the body of a cab, it is so pathetic. Click here to play the game

Playing with student.

The Reno Chess Club Championship Had started three weeks ago, at the first week I had a BYE which given me more time to relax and take my time to switch my focus from somewhere to Chess Board.

My First game was fun, that was January 29, 2009 I played Mr. Amaya Mauricio (one of my students) actually he is the last person that I played last year and the first person I played this year, that's funny.

Well, I kept thinking what line I should play against the person that almost all of repertoire is from his upcoming opponent. Before that game we met for the class and do things what we usually do and I told him that no matter what happen "just don't deviate" play the line that you leaned from me and play your chess, forget who is me and try to crash me as best as you can.

I came at the Chess Club ready to play him and also I am ready for the line that I want to play, he is there already and calmly shook my hand, we shared some jokes before we started and eventually pressed the clock. I started my first move with 1. e4 and he answered 1. ... c5 then we continued 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 Nc6 8. Bc4 0-0 9. Qd2 Bd7 10. 0-0-0 Rc8 11. Bb3 Ne5 12. h4 h5 13. Bg5 Rc5 now we reached the Sicilian Dragon Soltis Variation. Here, white has (g4, Kb1, Bh6, Rdg1 and Rhe1) I played the Rhe1, the line that is not that so familiar compare to g4 and Bh6. I chose this one for simple reason, first this is my real line and second I am just putting him in the test trying to find out if he grasped all of lessons that we've dicussed. Then, 14. Rhe1 I know that there is only one competitive move here 14. ... b5! after this move I prepared myself for a tougher game and not understamating him, actually, Black has two options here the text or the less favourite 14. ... Qa5 but that one takes a lot of studies and base on my studies I like the 14. ... b5 a lot.

And the game continued with heavy error free and I would say he played better compare as he played before, it makes me happy because now I know that I am helping him.

I will post our game here with complete analysis.