Hi and welcome to the first post of Caissa's Child - Chess blog following my fortunes and misfortunes as I aim to make my way up the rankings to a respectable 1400 grading.
First off on Lichess.org I am known as hejhog and my aim move-up from 1300 to 1400 elo. I feel I am a much stronger player than my current game would suggest.
First a little bit of background. I started playing competitive chess way back in the dim and distant past. 1985 to be precise. I still have a copy of the first friendly game I played at the chess game I played. I had been inspired by the romantic era of chess, the great players of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Players like Paul Morphy, Andersen, Blackburne, Marshall, Spielmann, Alekhine, Capablanca. I was also keen on many modern players (modern by the standards of the 1980s), players like Botvinnik, Tal, Fisher, Tony Miles. So it was I was drawn to chess and to join the local chess club. Our little club had never won any tournaments, titles in its 100 years of existence. It had never produced any great players and its only claim to fame - by association - is that the town hosted the British Championships. In that atmosphere I joined the club. My first game as recorded was not great. It was a friendly game with an opponent who had travelled with his team from a local town. They had come to play a league match but he was a substitute in case of the team couldn't get there. Fortunately for me he wasn't needed and we settled down to play a game.
Hejhog - D.Wolf (Felstead CC) -Friendly
1.e4e52.Nf3Nc63.d3h64.g3Nf65.Bg2Bc56.O-Od67.Nbd2Bg4
My next move was a blunder. I chose to play an opening that requires a good understanding of positional play,
It shows my complete lack of understanding of positional chess, strategy. However, as the game progresses,
my tactical ability does start to shine through. It is not a pretty game and my opponent made more blunders than I.
shines through. Even then I missed great opportunities.
e52.Nf3Nc63.d3h64.g3Nf65.Bg2Bc56.O-Od67.Nbd2Bg48.h3Bxf39.Qxf3Qd710.c3O-O-O
11.Nb3Bb612.c4 (this demonstrates my complete lack of positional understanding - I've created
a dark square weakness and a serious hole in my centre.
The game continued....
12...d413.Nd2Nb414.Qd1Nxd315.a4a616.Nb3Nxc117.Nxd4exd418.Rxc1c519.Re1Nd720.Qb3b6
21.a5Kc722.axb6+23.Ra1Ra824.e5d525.cxd5Nc826.Qa4Kb827.Rab1Nb628.Qc6Nxd5
29.Qd6+Ka730.Bxd5Qc7
As you can see not a very good game of chess. If black hadn't made more mistakes than I did, he most likely would
have won the game.
Over the coming years, I did get better but not much. I improved my tactical skills - honed them with gambit play,
but never really grasped even the basics of strategy. I just had no clue. It all culminated in the Great Easter Disaster
I forget the year, mostly because of the horrendous nature of the tournament result I played in. It was so bad I very nearly gave up chess. It was the Southen Easter Congress. A chess tournament for strong players open to overseas
players. I entered the tournament. They had separate tournaments for lower graded players but me being me decided it was time to test myself to the max! Well out of 7 games over three days I scored, as the lowest rated player in the tournament, a whopping half a point. I didn't even get that from drawing a game but from a bye as one of the players had to drop out. I was crushed. Not because I failed to register even a proper half-point, but because I was literally crushed in every game I played. Even in games where I got to play my favourite openings,
I never lasted more than 20 to 25 moves. I was in the deepest pit of chess depression.
However, I decided to go away, not give up but re-invent myself. I took a hard long look at my game look at all
aspects and fix the broken parts which was pretty much all of my game. The first thing was to drop English notation
for scoring a game. I practiced scoring games with an algebraic system. I practiced looking at the board turning away
and recalling the position of the pieces and writing it down in algebraic notation. I soon found I was thinking about
the board more clearly. I changed from playing 1.e4 to 1.d4 took up playing slow chess and looked to keep my
pawns on the board. I started to study the basics of positional play. And soon my results began to improve. My
first tournament outing at the Suffolk County Chess Tournament was in the under 125s section. I came third.
I did not lose one game. Drew a couple but proudly I took my 3rd prize - a check for a small amount of money
but I felt 10ft tall that day.
So there is hope if you tackle the bad points and strengthen the good points. Slow your game down and don't
react to your opponent's good moves with a knee-jerk reply without really thinking about it.
Well, that wraps it up. That's me in a nutshell. I stopped playing competitive chess back in the late 1990s and chess
altogether for several years until the pandemic started. I found I was out of practice, out of step with modern-thinkingin chess, dynamics of positions and their evaluations had changed. My ratings tumbled to just over 1100.
I needed to go back to the basics and start again. And it is this journey I want to share with you. I hope you will
come back again as we go through the basics of piece placement and centralisation in the opening, the basics of
chess strategy and pawn play. Hopefully, you'll learn tips and tricks, hints and food for thought along the way.
While on line please keep yourself safe - visit www.privci.io or watch this video to find out more :
