…since the last update. Summer time is vacation time and I managed to read some of the Hugo nominated stories and I have even be able to finish the latest Gene Wolfe novel. On the chess front I can report slow but steady progress. My Blitz rating on ICC made a 100 point jump and I am able to consistently beat players with a Blitz rating <1300. They beat me as well but I feel that I understand chess better than I did 6 months ago. I haven’t played many long games recently but I will do so as part of the Team4545League (TL) and there is even a new opportunity. The site Chess9030 site organizes 4 player double round robins with a time control of 90 min + 30 sec increment. It’s not as professional as the TL yet but very promising. I have signed up already and it looks like my first tournament in the U1600 section will start next week. Participants are Signalman, ILRE and farbror.
Signalman is my old team mate from the chessmasters. He has to play board 2 now and is in the same position in that I was last season. He has to face strong opponents and they give him a hard time. I can completely understand how he must feel and I cheer him up as good as I can. If one can keep up his motivation and accept the challenge, the reward will be great. I learnt a great deal last season and he will do the same.
ILRE is also a TL player but from a different team. I have faced him twice. In our TL game he outplayed me nicely but had to settle with a draw in the end. The other game was a 15-min game with roughly equal chances until I blundered and lost. I am looking forward to two exciting games!
The fourth player is farbror, his rating is quite low. I haven’t seen any games of him yet and can say nothing about his playing strength.
I know that geezer pretty well! His New Year Resolution was to reach 1400+ at ICC but since he has no time for playing slow games, the progress is slow