Full Time - Day 34

Walked to the library under a white toxic sky, a blue sky and a bare sun no longer a reality on earth. Studied 2 hours of chess.

Read Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces -

g39 Rubinstein/Duras g40 Rub/Marshall (J)

Full Time - Day 33 part II

Came across this random journal entry from 2016, when I was just beginning my chess quest -

Feb 17, 2016

Took the Howard train and 97 bus transfer to the Evanston Chess Club tonight. Arrived early and helped M set up the boards then watched her play through a Candidates game between Fisher/Larsen 1971, Denver. Half way through the game a man joined us in analyzing the game, and I admit I was irritated by his manner and words, one of those chess know-it-alls, bragging seemingly to build his own self worth. Does he realize how much a single snapshot in that game contains? He went on and on, his words exhibiting not only his arrogance, but also his ignorance. When G walked in M suggested I play him, but the loudmouth braggart said "no, I'm playing G". I did not say anything to that, and ended up playing S. Encountering this kind of ignorance/arrogance is a reason for me to shun attending club nights, and sticking to tournaments where people are forced to be quiet during play.

After playing S a few games the casual blitz round robin started, I did ok, but ended up a bit scattered once my clock was below one minute. When I played the braggart it was pleasant enough, but he had the awful habit of speaking out my moves when they caused him surprise. He played a good game and beat me, but he missed some kill shot moves to put me away sooner. I'd guess he is a grade B player, which is decent enough, but his attitude is grade F.

Dealing with people like F isn't too difficult, and although I am complaining about him in this entry, I realize that his words, just like mine and everyone else's, are meaningless clouds which quickly scatter and disappear - mere illusions meant to deceive with both their beauty and ugliness. The thing I need to keep in mind is that all words are deceptions, and although I can form judgments about the state of someone's mind through his actions and words, when it comes to the final analysis I know the judgments are inaccurate and the best thing to do is to always let go of the impressions, as easily as the words themselves let go of their own flimsy reality.

Full Time - Day 33

Ran 4 miles at 7:00am and the sky was gray and the air cool, then walked to the library for 4 hours of chess study, a man named Dmitry asked to play, he was decent with tactics but his openings and positional sense was below standard, in the middle game I had built up a strong position against his un-castled king and was threatening Bxd3 -

Dmitry made his move, Nc1, I wrote it down and continued playing, not realizing that Nc1 is an illegal move.

After Nc1 I lost the thread of the game and made a number of poor moves and lost the rook on b2 in exchange for his bishop. Later in the game I was teetering on the ledge of defeat when I was gifted with a chess miracle, checkmating Dmitry with a rook and 2 bishops, a karmic gift to perhaps make up for Nc1!

Read Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces -

g38 Tarrasch/Rubinstein (J)

Library game - Dmitry/J

Read First Steps : Caro Kann (Martin) -

g55 Anderson/Hawkins (J)

Full Time - Day 32

Cold and gray in the morning with a bit of blue peaking through, enough to remind me of more beautiful and healthy times. Walked the Navy Pier route then walked to the library for a 5 hour chess study session. A man named Jawanza stopped at my table for a game, he played a tight hedge hog position as white so I had to think hard about how to proceed and find a strategy to exploit it. I had a satisfying moment when I found an indirect way to defend against 27.Nc3, creating a pin on his bishop at c2, I was not too surprised when he quickly played 27.Nc3 because he tended not to think too long on any move so after 27...RxN the game was technically over.

Jawanza/J -

1.g3 Nf6 2.Bg2 d5 3.b3 g6 4.Bb2 Bg7 5.d3 O-O 6.Nd2 c5 7.e3 Bg4 8.f3 Bd7 9.Qe2
Na6 10.O-O-O Qa5 11.d4 Bb5 12.Qe1 c4 13.Nb1 Qc7 14.b4 c3 15.Nxc3 Rac8 16.a3
Bc4 17.Rd2 Nb8 18.Nge2 a5 19.b5 a4 20.Bh3 e6 21.g4 Qa5 22.g5 Ne8 23.f4 Nc7 24.
Ng3 Nxb5 25.Nxb5 Qxb5 26.Ne2 Ba2 27.Nc3 Rxc3 28.Bf1 Qb6 29.Rd3 Rxd3 30.Bxd3
Rc8 31.c3 Bc4 32.Bc2 Bb3 33.h4 Bxc2 34.Kxc2 Qb3+ 35.Kc1 Bf8 36.h5 Bxa3 37.Qd2
Rxc3+ 38.Qxc3 Qxc3+ 39.Kd1 Qxb2 40.Rf1 Bb4 41.hxg6 Qd2#   0-1

Read Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces -

g37 Speilmann/Rubinstein (J)

Library game - Jawanza/J

Read Application of Chess Theory (Geller) -

g12 Geller/Vatnikov (J)

Full Time - Day 31

A cold rainy toxic sky day, nothing unusual for the year 2019, which marks the year that is the beginning of the end of life on earth. If something positive can be said about it, from an individual perspective, it is that being aware of impending death I am reminded to live each day as mindfully and aware as possible, to take not a single conscious moment for granted.

Walked Navy Pier route in the early morning and then walked to the library for a productive 6 hour chess study session. A man named Jerome stopped at my table and asked to play a couple of games, I had played him last week, he thanked me after the game and said "that was great therapy, I came to the library to clear my head, now I can't remember why I was so angry". Today I asked him if he was having a better day and he said not so much, his 90 year old mother was giving him cause for concern. He sat down and these were the games -

game 1 -

Jerome/white  J/black  Sicilian Defense

1.e4 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Be2 e6 5.d3 Be7 6.Be3 O-O 7.Qd2 d5 8.exd5 exd5 9.
cxd5 Nxd5 10.Qc1 Nxe3 11.Qxe3 Nd4 12.Qc1 Bg5 13.Qd1 Bf5 14.Nf3 Nxe2 15.Nxe2
Qa5+ 16.Qd2 Bxd2+ 17.Nxd2 Bxd3  0-1

 game 2 -

J/white   Jerome/black  Philidor Defense

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 Qe7 4. O-O Nc6
5. d4 Bd7 6. dxe5 Nxe5 7. Bd5 c6 8. Bb3 Be6
9. Nd4 Bxb3 10. axb3 Nf6 11. Nf5 Qc7 12. Bf4 O-O-O
13. Nd2 g6 14. Ne3 Nh5 15. Bxe5 dxe5 16. Rxa7 Kb8
17. Qa1 Kc8 18. Ra8+ Kd7 19. Rxd8+ Qxd8 20. Ndc4 Bc5
21. Rd1+ Kc7 22. Rxd8 1-0

Read First Steps : Caro Kann (Martin) -

g53 Stebbings/Trois; g54 Itkis/Van Wely (J)

Read Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces -

g35 Rub/Schlecter g36 Schlecter/Rubinstein(J)

Read GM Performance by Polugaevsky -

g13 Pol/Rossetto; g14 Pol/Bilek (J)

Full Time - Day 30

Holiday so the library was closed, ran 2.5 miles in the morning under a blanket of toxic material, sky white, moon barely visible. Studied chess at home today.

Study M's cherry blossom g rd 2-5 (J)

Read First Steps : Caro Kann (Martin) -

g51 Riazantsev/Jakovenko; g52 Sambuev/Gonzalez (J)

Full Time - Day 29

Artificial toxic sky covering today creating a sunblock which lowers the temperature at the earth's surface. Walked to the library under the mucky sky and had a typical chess study session.

Read First Steps : Caro Kann (Martin) -

g49 Portisch/Wade; g50 Harini/Amin (J)

Read Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces -

g34 Rub/Alekhine (J)

Study M's cherry blossom g rd 1 (J)

Full Time - Day 28

Ran 2 1/2 miles in the mid morning then walked to the library under a rare blue sky day, although the sky was streaked with numerous toxic airplane trails nonetheless. Quiet in the library, had a good study session.

Read First Steps : Caro Kann (Martin) -

g47 Rodshtein/Arkell; g48 Glacomini/Adly (J)

Read Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces -

g33 Rub/Lowenfish (J)

Full Time - day 27

Colder and wet and rainy this morning, studied at the library from noon - 5:00pm, mainly played games with a couple of beginning players.

Read Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces -

g31 Rubinstein/Duras; g32 Alapin/Rubinstein (J)

Full Time - Day 26

Walked to the library for another chess study session -

Read Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces -

g29 Rub/Z-Borowsky; g30 Rub/Capablanca (J)

Read GM Performance by Polugaevsky -

g11 Pol/Maslov; g12 Pol/Padevsky (J)

Full Time - Day 25

Walked to the library in the late morning for a short chess study session. It was short because I had plans to meet my nephew P at Lake Shore Park at 4:30pm, so at 2:30 I left the apartment and ran 4 miles to Diversey Harbor and then walked 2 miles to Lake Shore Park where I met P and we walked to Lincoln Park along the lake shore path talking of various things, at the zoo entrance I left him and walked 3 miles home for a longer than normal exercise session. The sky was shredded with toxic materials being dropped from many airplanes and it was the first hot day of 2019 in Chicago, mid 80's and my thirst was high because I had lost all of my heat acclimatization from Se Asia.

Read Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces -

g27 Duras/Rubinstein; g28 Spielmann/Rubinstein (J)

Read Application of Chess Theory (Geller) -

g10 Geller/Keres (J)