Coach Leopold's Chess Blog
On the Road to Expert/Candidate Master or how I try to raise my rating over 200 pts. in 365 days
Welcome to Coach Leopold's Chess Blog. I have created this blog for my students to read my journal as I try and raise my rating 200+ pts. in one year. My Current Rating stands as follows:
United States Chess Federation: OTB 1721: Correspondence Rating 2204: American Chess Federation: OTB 1658: Chess.com 1763
My goal is to achieve an OTB rating of 2000+ by the end of year 2008 by both study and one heck of a lot of playing.
Scroll Down to see my 2008 Blog Entry's
| Wins | Draws | Loses | % |
| 13 | 2 | 17 | 43.75% |
| Colour | Opening | Win | Loss | Draw | Percentage of Wins |
| White | Blackmar-Diemer Gambit | 1 | 9 | 10% | |
| White | Queen's Pawn Opening | 2 | 100% | ||
| Black | English Opening | 1 | 100% | ||
| Black | Dutch Defense | 1 | 0 | ||
| Black | Tchigorin Defense | 1 | 2 | 1 | 37.5% |
| Black | Colorado Defense | 2 | 0 | ||
| Black | Nimzowitsch Defense | 3 | 0 | ||
| White | French Defense | 2 | 100% | ||
| White | Queen's Indian Defense | 1 | 100% | ||
| White | Smith-Mora Gambit | 2 | 100% | ||
| White | Alapin's Opening | 1 | 100% | ||
| Black | Sicilian Kan | 1 | 100% | ||
| White | Grunfeld Defense | 1 | 0 | ||
| White | Old Ben-Oni Defense | 1 | 100% |
012508 Playing Black, I dropped a piece on move 18, but was able to fight my way back in an endgame to win!
(1) kenan2007 (1737) - KingLeopold (1743)
Online Chess Chess.com (1), 03.01.2008
1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 f6 4.f4 Bf5 5.g4 Be4 6.Nf3 Bxf3 7.Qxf3 Nxd4 8.Qd1 c5 9.c3 Nc6 10.e6 g6 11.f5 Qd6 12.Qf3 Bh6 13.Na3 Bxc1 14.Rxc1 Nh6 15.Bd3 Ne5 16.Bb5+ Kf8 17.Qf4 a6 18.Qxh6+ Kg8 19.Be2 Rd8 20.Rd1 Qb6 21.Qd2 Qc6 22.Qf4 Kg7 23.Bf3 Nxf3+ 24.Qxf3 b5 25.Ke2 b4 26.Nb1 a5 27.b3 Rd6 28.c4 Rhd8 29.Rxd5 Rxd5 30.cxd5 Qxd5 31.Qxd5 Rxd5 32.Rf1 Rd4 33.h3 c4 34.Rd1 Re4+ 35.Kf3 gxf5 36.gxf5 Rh4 37.bxc4 Rxc4 38.Rd2 a4 39.Rb2 a3 40.Rg2+ Kf8 41.Re2 Rc1 42.Nd2 Rc3+ 43.Re3 Rc2 44.Ne4 Rxa2 45.Rb3 Ra1 46.Rxb4 a2 47.Nf2 Rb1 48.Ra4 a1Q 49.Rxa1 Rxa1 50.Kg4 Kg7 51.h4 h6 52.Ne4 Ra4 53.Kf3 h5 54.Kf4 Kf8 55.Kf3 Ke8 56.Kf4 Kd8 57.Kf3 Kc7 58.Nf2 Rxh4 59.Kg3 Ra4 60.Nh3 Kd6 61.Nf4 h4+ 62.Kf3 Ke5 63.Nd3+ Kxf5 64.Kg2 Rc4 0–1
012408 Practiced 25 draw positions this morning scoring 75%
012108 Went to the gym today. Something I've been doing a lot of recently. Trying to get back into shape or at least build up some strength and endurance. As Bobby Fisher says..."Your body has to be in top condition. Your chess deteriorates as your body does. You can't separate body from mind."
012008 My loses are piling up as I lost to my friend John last night in the Supergroup. Believe it or not, my losing move was 0-0.
(3) Hallman,John (1647) - Lacrimosa,Leopold (1721) [B00]
Sonny's Supergroup Phoenix, Az (2), 19.01.2008
1.e4 Nc6 The Nimzowitsch Defense 2.d4 d5 3.e5 f6 Nimzowitsch liked this immediate attack on the pawn chain. - Myers 4.f4 Bf5 5.Nf3 e6 6.Bd3 [6.Bb5] 6...Be4 7.Nbd2 [7.c3 Qd7 8.Qe2 f5 9.Be3 Nh6 10.Nbd2 Be7 11.h3 0–0 Duras-Nimzowitsch, Ostende, 1907] 7...f5 8.Bb5?! [Possibly 8.c3 or; 8.0–0 is better.] 8...Be7 9.c3 Nh6 10.Nxe4 dxe4 [Better is ¹10...fxe4 11.Ng5 Bxg5 12.fxg5 Nf5 With nothing to fear. 13.g4 Nh4 14.Qa4 Kd7 15.Bxc6+ bxc6 16.c4 Qf8 17.Rf1 Nf3+ 18.Kd1 Rb8 19.Qxa7 Qb4 20.Qc5 Qa4+ 21.b3 Rxb3 22.axb3 Qxa1–+] 11.Ng5 Bxg5 12.fxg5 Nf7 13.Qh5?! A wasted tempo. [13.Qa4 Qd7 14.0–0 0–0 15.Bxc6 Qxc6 16.Qxc6 bxc6] 13...g6 14.Qe2 [14.Qh4 h6!] 14...Qd7 15.Bf4 a6 16.Ba4 b5 17.Bb3 Na5 18.0–0–0?! [¹18.0–0] 18...Nxb3+ 19.axb3 0–0?? The losing move. [19...h6 20.gxh6 (20.Qe3 h5 21.Qd2 a5 22.Kc2 Qd5 23.Qe2 Kd7) 20...g5 21.Be3 Rxh6] 20.h4! White's attack is lighting fast. 20...Qe7 21.g4 c6 22.h5 Nxg5 23.hxg6 a5 24.Kc2! hxg6 25.Bxg5 Here my game is just lost. 25...Qxg5 26.Qh2 Kf7 27.Qh7+ Ke8 28.Qb7 Qd8 29.Qxc6+ Ke7 30.d5 Qc8 31.Rh7+ Rf7 32.d6+ Kf8 33.Rh8+ 1–0
Bungled the opening in a Colorado Defense and dropped a piece and had to resign a few moves later. Arrrgggghhhh.
adeeb84(1705)-KingLeopold(1718)
Chess.com 2008.01.16
1. e4 Nc6 2. Nf3 f5 3. exf5 d5 4. Bd3 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. fxe6 Bxe6 7. O-O Bd6 8.
Re1 Qd7 9. Bf5 Nd8 10. Ng5 Ne4 11. Ncxe4 dxe4 12. Rxe4 O-O 13. Bxe6+ Nxe6 14.
Nxe6 Rf6 15. Qe2 Re8 16. Nc5 Rxe4 17. Nxe4 Re6 18. d3 Qe7 19. Be3 1-0
011308 Finally, a nice win with the Tchigorin Defense
(1) Freeman (1863) - KingLeopold (1740)
Online Chess Chess.com (1), 02.01.2008
1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 e5 7.d5 Nb8 8.Nf3 Nd7 9.Bb5 Bd6 10.0–0 0–0 11.Qe2 a6 12.Ba4 Nc5 13.Bc2 f5 14.exf5 e4 15.Nd4 Qh4 16.g3 Qh3 17.Ne6 Rxf5 18.Bxe4 Rh5 19.f3 Bxe6 20.dxe6 Bxg3 21.Qg2 Bxh2+ 22.Kh1 Qxe6 23.Qg4 Qe5 24.Kg2 Nxe4 25.fxe4 Re8 26.Rf3 g6 0–1
011208 Updated the above chart to reflect all the games won or loss on Chess.com. Most of the BDG were played against >1900 rated or up. I played a nice game tonight in Sonny's Supergroup for coaches where I won in 13 moves as White in an old Ben-Oni defense;
(1) Lacrimosa,Leopold (1721) - Thomas,Andy (1616) [A43]
Sonny's Supergroup Phoenix, Az (1), 12.01.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 c5 3.d5 d6 4.e4 g6 5.f4 Bg7 6.Bb5+ Nfd7 7.Nf3 Qa5 8.Bd2 Na6 9.a4 0–0 10.0–0 Qb4 11.Kh1 Bxc3 12.Bxc3 Qxe4 13.Ng5 1–0
Sonny's Supergroup class is the first formal training I've had in years. Hopefully the 6 weeks will prove fruitful. Tonight's lessons were on King pawn and King rook pawn endgames. There were two sets of 16 problems. In the first set I got 11 right and 16/16 in the second set.