Chess Tactics #2

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f3z21ciaKg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Chess Tactics #1

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FUQDCXDnoQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

iPod/iPhone chess tactics problems

I saw an app for $2.99 that had 1200 tactics problems.   I can no longer find this app.  I am thinking that it was removed from the app store.  I also read online about an app with the same description, but I could not find the app name in the app store.

 

I am thinking of paying $7.99 for the full shredder to get the extra 1100 tactics problems, so that I can have them on my trip.

John Coffey

 

Great Quote

Chess is an example of something that is just beyond human mental abilities, but not so far beyond them that we cannot make a decent stab at it. We’re very good at language, no better than rats at mazes, and somewhere in between at chess.

– Noam Chomsky

The Kings of iPhone Chess

http://blog.chess.com/DeepGreene/the-kings-of-iphone-chess

Chess Lessons

Message:

Hi John: I live in Brigham City and was wondering if you ever give chess lessons? Let me know. Thanks, Kevin.

I give chess lessons at my club (Coffee Club, 4879 South Redwood road, Salt Lake City, Utah), one on one, for free, on Tuesday and Thursday nights, usually for just 15 minutes at a time.  I want to spend most of my time playing.

My blog page at http://www.entertainmentjourney.com has a link to my free online chess lessons at http://www.entertainmentjourney.com/index1.htm

Best wishes,

John Coffey

More GameKnot chess puzzles

This problem only took me about 20 seconds to solve ...

It took me about 30 seconds to solve this one ...
http://gameknot.com/chess-puzzle.pl?pz=4115

This one was about a minute.  It seemed impossible at first.
http://gameknot.com/chess-puzzle.pl?pz=2473

This one took a little over a minute.  I failed to get the main idea at first ...
http://gameknot.com/chess-puzzle.pl?pz=4114

Chess game

 [Event "Quick Tournament"]
 [Site "Salt Lake Community College"]
 [Date "2010.11.13"]
 [Round "1"]
[White "John Coffey 1930"]
 [Black "Charles Rasmussen 1640"]
 [Result "1-0"]
 [ECO "D38"]

 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Bb4 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Qb3 Bxc3+ 7.
 bxc3 h6 8. Ba3 c6 9. e3 Qb6 10. Rb1 Nbd7 11. Bd3 Qxb3 12. Rxb3 Nb6 13. O-O Be6 14. Rfb1 Kd8 15. Ne5 Kc7 16. Bc5 Rhb8 17. Ra3 Nc8 18. c4 b6
 19. Bf8 Ne8 20. cxd5 Bxd5 21. e4 Be6 22. d5 cxd5 23. Rc1+ Kd8 24. Nc6+
 Kd7 25. Bb5 1-0

 This is a good one.   Click here for diagrams and analysis.
 Sent from my iPhone

Chess Game

[Event "Quick Tournament"]
[Site "Salt Lake Community College"]
[Date "2010.11.13"]
[Round "2"]
[White "David Catalini ~1700 "]
[Black "John Coffey 1930]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C00"]

1. e4 e6 2. c3 d5 3. e5 c5 4. Na3 Nc6 5. Bb5 Bd7 6. Bxc6 Bxc6 7. Ne2
Qg5 8. O-O Qxe5 (d4!) 9. d4 Qh5 10. Qd3 Bd6 11. Bf4 Bxf4 12. Nxf4 Qg4
13. Qe3 cxd4 14. Qxd4 Nf6 15. Rae1 O-O 16. Re3 Qf5 17. f3 Nd7 18. Nd3
Rfe8 19. Ne5 Nxe5 20. Rxe5 Qf6 21. f4 Qg6 22. Rf3 f5 23. Rg3 Qf7 24.
Nc2 Re7 25. Qf2 Rc8 26. Nd4 Ba4 27. Rge3 Rce8 28. Qh4 Bd7 29. Nxf5 Kf8
30. Qxh7 Bb5 31. Qh8+ Qg8 32. Qxg8+ Kxg8 33. Nxe7+ Rxe7 34. Rxe6 Rf7
1/2-1/2 because black eventually swindled a stalemate. The score
toward the end is not totally accurate. It is as close as I can get.

Sent from my iPhone

Chess Game

[Event "Quick Tournament"]
[Site "Salt Lake Community College"]
[Date "2010.11.13"]
[Round "3"]
[White "John Coffey 1930"]
[Black "Vishwa Srinivasan 1332"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E71"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. h3 O-O 6. Nf3 e5 7. dxe5
dxe5 8. Qxd8 Rxd8 9. Bg5 Rd6 10. Nb5 Rc6 11. Nxe5 Rc5 12. O-O-O Rxe5
13. Rd8+ Re8 14. Bxf6 Rxd8 15. Bxd8 Nc6 16. Bxc7 Be6 17. Be2 Bh6+ 18.
Kb1 Rc8 19. Bg3 a6 20. Nd6 Rc7 21. Nf5 gxf5 22. Bxc7 fxe4 23. b3 e3
24. fxe3 Bxe3 25. Bg4 f5 26. Re1 fxg4 27. hxg4 Bxg4 28. Rxe3 Nd4 29.
Re8+ Kf7 30. Rb8 Bf5+ 31. Kb2 1-0

Sent from my iPhone

Chess game

[Event "Utah Championship"]
[Site ""]
[Date "2010.11.06"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Harold Stevens 2267"]
[Black "John Coffey 1905"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C02"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. Qg4 cxd4 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. h4 h5 7. Qg3 Nh6
8. Bd3 Nf5 9. Bxf5 exf5 10. a3 Be6 11. O-O Rc8 12. b4 a5 13. b5 Na7
14. Nxd4 Qd7 15. a4 g6 16. Be3 Bc5 17. Nb3 Bxe3 18. Qxe3 Ra8 19. N1d2
Nc8 20. Nc5 Qc7 21. Nf3 b6 22. Nxe6 fxe6 23. Qg5 Qf7 24. c4 Ne7 25.
Rac1 O-O 26. Qh6 Qh7 27. Qxh7+ Kxh7 28. Ng5+ Kg8 29. Nxe6 Rfc8 30. c5
bxc5 31. Nxc5 Rcb8 32. Nd7 Rb7 33. Nf6+ Kf7 34. Rc5 Ke6 35. f4 Rc8 36.
Rxc8 Nxc8 37. Rc1 Nb6 38. Rc6+ Kf7 39. Kf2 Nxa4 40. Nxd5 Rxb5? 41. e6+
1-0

Sent from my iPhone

Chess game

[Event "Utah Championship"]
[Site ""]
[Date "2010.11.05"]
[Round "1"]
[White "John Coffey 1905"]
[Black "Brenda Ahlemann 1670"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A57"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. b6 d6 6. Nc3 Nbd7 7. e4 g6
8. Nf3 Bg7 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O Qxb6 11. Nd2 Bb7 12. Nc4 Qc7 13. Bf4
Rfd8 14. a4 Ne8 15. a5 Rdb8 16. Qc2 Bc8 17. Na4 Ra7 18. Rfc1 Bd4 19.
Nab6 Nef6 20. Ra3 Rab7 21. Rd3 Nxb6 22. Nxb6 Rxb6 23. axb6 Qxb6 24. b3
Qb4 25. Bd2 Qb6 26. Be3 Nxe4 27. Bxd4 cxd4 28. Qc4 Bf5 29. Rxd4 Nxf2
30. Kxf2 Rc8 31. Qxc8+ Bxc8 32. Rxc8+ Kg7 33. Rc4 e5 34. dxe6 fxe6 35.
Rb4 Qc5 36. Kf1 e5 37. Rdc4 Qe3 38. Rc7+ Kf6 39. Bxa6 Qd2 40. Rbb7
Qd1+ 41. Kf2 Qd2+ 42. Be2 e4 43. Rf7+ Kg5 44. Rb5+ d5 45. Rd7?? Qf4+
46. Ke1 Qc1+ 47. Bd1 Qe3+ 48. Kf1 1/2-1/2

Sent from my iPhone

Chess game.

 [Event "Utah Championship"]
 [Site ""]
 [Date "2010.11.06"]
 [Round "2"]
 [White "Steve Hoisington 1887"]
 [Black "John Coffey 1905"]
 [Result "1/2-1/2"]
 [ECO "A46"]

 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. c4 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 Bxd2+ 5. Nbxd2 b6 6. e3 Bb7 7.
 Bd3 O-O 8. O-O d6 9. Qc2 Nbd7 10. Rac1 Qe7 11. Ne4 Nxe4 12. Bxe4 Bxe4
 13. Qxe4 Nf6 14. Qc2 Nd7 15. b4 a5 16. b5 f5 17. Ne1 f4 18. Qe4 fxe3
 19. Qxe3 Qf6 20. Nd3 Rae8 21. c5 e5 22. dxe5 Nxe5 23. Nxe5 Rxe5 24.
 Qb3+ Qf7 25. Qxf7+ Rxf7 26. cxb6 cxb6 27. a4 Rf4 28. Rc6 Rxa4 29. Rxb6
 Rb4 30. Rxd6 Rexb5 31. Ra6 a4 32. g3 Rb6 33. Ra7 Rb7 34. Ra6 R7b6 35.
 Ra7 Rb7 36. Ra6 R7b6 1/2-1/2

 Sent from my iPhone

Want To Be A Chess Master?

http://lascruceschessclub.com/us-chess/2009/want-to-be-a-chess-master/

RE: 12-year-old Utahn #2 chess player in the world (for his age group)

Yes.  I know.  I am on the board of directors of the Utah Chess Association that donated money to help him go to Greece.

I have played him in tournaments a number of times.

From: Witmer, Robert C.

http://www.abc4.com/content/news/slc/story/12-year-old-Utahn-2-chess-player-in-the-world/v8rD-QNpfk6o2x9q5YaQ0Q.cspx

Fire chess engine

On Oct 21, 2010, at 8:53 AM, <granthodson wrote:

John,

Q:  What's this cool new chess program you mentioned that is free?  Do you need to be a programmer to know how to use it?

The Fire chess engine is a separate download from the UCI front end.  I recommend using a commercial program as the front end.   From Fritz you click on "Add UCI engine" and then "Change main engine". 

 If the Fire download is a .zip or .tar file then you might want to download the free 7zip utility to extract the files.  

Best wishes,

John Coffey

Interesting game

Click here for a tricky mate in 3!

Playing a guy in Belgium

I am playing a chess game on itsyourturn.com.  I was able to find a picture of my opponent on the internet.

GEICO - Soccer meets Chess

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ixwKBwfT38&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Re: Chess Rating

From: John 
Subject: Re: Chess Rating

Glicko is enough.   The Glicko weights recent results more based on how infrequently you compete.  

Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Sent from my iPhone

Larry wrote:

Do you think the Glicko system is good enough, or could you design a better one?

Chess Rating

From: larry.r.trout@
Date: September 22, 2010 6:50:39 

'The Elo rating system was invented half a century ago by Hungarian-born physicist and chess master Arpad Elo. It is the most famous technique for rating chess players and is used throughout the chess world. It has been applied to many other contests as well, including other board games, sports, and video games.  However, it has never really been demonstrated that the Elo approach to calculating chess ratings is superior.  Elo's formula was derived theoretically, in an era without large amounts of historical data or significant computing power.  With the benefit of powerful computers and large game databases, we can easily investigate approaches that might do better than Elo at predicting chess results.

There are several alternatives to the Elo approach. Professor Mark Glickman developed the Glicko and Glicko-2 systems, which extend the Elo system by introducing additional parameters to represent the reliability and volatility of player ratings.  Ken Thompson uses a linearly weighted average of a player's last 100 results to calculate a weighted performance rating.  Jeff Sonas (who put together this competition) developed Chessmetrics ratings to maximize predictive power. More details are available on the hints page.

We want to see if somebody out there can do even better.  Competitors train their rating systems using a training dataset of over 65,000 recent results for 8,631 top players. Participants then use their method to predict the outcome of a further 7,809 games.'

http://kaggle.com/chess

Halfway point:

'We have just passed the halfway mark of the "Elo vs the Rest of the World" contest, scheduled to end on November 14th. The contest is based upon the premise that a primary purpose of any chess rating system is to accurately assess the current strength of players, and we can measure the accuracy of a rating system by seeing how well the ratings do at predicting players' results in upcoming events. The winner of the contest will be the one whose rating system does the best job at predicting the results of a set of 7,800 games played recently among players rated 2200+.

So far we have had an unprecedented level of participation, with 162 different teams submitting entries to the contest! There is also a very active discussion forum to promote the free flow of ideas, although many teams are still hesitant to share too many details about their approach (especially considering that the winner will receive a copy of Fritz signed by Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Anatoly Karpov, and Viktor Korchnoi). Both Chessbase and Kaggle have donated generous prizes, to be awarded to top-performing participants who are willing to share their methodology publicly.

A wide range of approaches have been tried, including almost every known chess rating system as well as other tries involving neural networks, machine learning, data mining, business intelligence tools, and artificial intelligence. In fact over 1,600 different tries have been submitted so far, and we anticipate far more submissions as the competition heats up over the final seven weeks.

The #1 spot is currently held by Portuguese physicist Filipe Maia, who confesses to little knowledge about statistics or chess ratings, but is nevertheless managing to lead the competition! He is also the author of El Turco, the first-ever Portuguese chess engine. Out of the current top ten teams on the leaderboard, seven use variants of the Chessmetrics rating system, two are modified Elo systems, and one is a "home-grown variant of ensemble recursive binary partitioning". That last approach belongs to the #3 team on the public leaderboard, a team known as "Old Dogs With New Tricks". This team is a collaborative effort between Dave Slate and Peter Frey, both prominent leaders in computer chess for many years.

Although the "Old Dogs With New Tricks" team clearly has a lot of chess expertise, and the #2 spot is held by Israeli mathematician and chess player Uri Blass (FIDE rating 2051), the top ten or twenty teams are primarily comprised of mathematicians, data miners, and other scientists having minimal direct experience with chess or chess ratings. This suggests that experts on chess rating theory might still have a lot to learn from experts in other fields, which of course is one of the desired outcomes of this contest. We have attracted interest from around the globe, with the top twenty comprised of participants from Portugal, Israel, USA, Germany, Australia, UK, Singapore, Denmark, and Ecuador.'

http://kaggle.com/blog/2010/09/21/elo-vs-the-rest-of-the-world-at-the-halfway-mark/

Do you think you either have, or could come up with a good rating system?

Chess Engine Controversy

http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/chess-engine-controversy/

Nathan Chen wins national figure skating championship

See the link below.  In chess tournaments going back many years I have played with almost all of the Chen siblings...

John Coffey

                       http://www.goldenskate.com/articles/2010/081510.shtml

 

Chess game

[Event Utah Team""]
[Site "U of U"]
[Date "2010.09.18"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Tim Stacklin 1730 (BYU)"]
[Black "John Coffey 1920 (coffee club A Team) "]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO ""]

1. d3 d5 2. Nd2 e5 3. Ngf3 Nc6 4. e4 Nf6 5. Be2 Bc5 6. c3 O-O 7. b4
Bb6 8. b5 dxe4 9. dxe4 Ng4 10. O-O Ne7 11. h3 Nxf2 12. Rxf2 Ng6 13.
Nc4 Bxf2+ 14. Kxf2 Qe7?? 15. Ba3 Qf6 16. Bxf8 Kxf8 17. Ne3 Nf4 18. Nd5
Nxd5 19. Qxd5 Qb6+ 20. Kf1 f6?? 21. Bc4 1-0

A fine example of how not to play chess.

Utah Team Championship

> [Event "Utah Team"]
> [Site "U of U"]
> [Date "2010.09.18"]
> [Round "1"]
> [White "Isaac Balter (Coffee club B team) "]
> [Black "John Coffey (Coffee Club A Team)"]
> [Result "0-1"]
> [ECO "B23"]
>
> 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 e6 4. Nf3 d5 5. Bb5 Nf6 6. d3 dxe4 7. Bxc6+
> bxc6 8. dxe4 Qxd1+ 9. Kxd1 Be7 10. Ke2 Ba6+ 11. Kf2 O-O 12. Be3 Ng4+ 0-1

Utah Team Championship

> [Event "Utah Team Championship"]
> [Site " U of U"]
> [Date "2010.09.18"]
> [Round "2"]
> [White "John Coffey 1920"]
> [Black "David Vasquez 1906"]
> [Result "1-0"]
> [ECO "C29"]
>
> 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 d5 4. fxe5 Nxe4 5. d3 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Nc6 7.
> Nf3 d4 8. cxd4 Nxd4 9. c3 Nxf3+ 10. Qxf3 Be7 11. Be2 O-O 12. O-O c6
> 13. d4 Qd5 14. Qg3 Rd8 15. Bg5 Bxg5 16. Qxg5 Be6 17. Rf4 Qa5 18. Qg3
> Qa3 19. Bd3 b5 20. Rh4 g6 21. Rf1 Qxc3 22. Bxg6 Qxg3 23. Bxh7+ Kg7 24.
> hxg3 Bxa2 25. Rg4+ Kxh7 26. Kf2 Be6 27. Rh1# 1-0

I was lucky.

Fwd: White to play and win

Utah Senior Championship

On June 26th, 2010, I tied for first in the Utah Senior Chess Championship.

[Event "Utah Senior Championship"]
[Site "Sandy City Library"]
[Date "2010.06.26"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Thomas Martin 1400"]
[Black "John Coffey 1922"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B21"]

1. e4 c5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 Nf6 4. Bb5+ Bd7 5. Bxd7+ Qxd7 6. c4 Na6? (e6) 7. a3 O-O-O 8. Nf3 e6 9. Ne5 Qc7 10. dxe6 fxe6 11. O-O Bd6 12. Qe2 Bxe5 13. Qxe5 Qxe5 14. fxe5 Ng4 15. Re1 Rhf8 16. Re2 Rf5 17. Nc3 Rxe5 18. Rxe5 Nxe5 19. b3 Nd3 20. Ne4 Rd4 21. Ng5 h6 22. Nf3 Re4 23. Rb1 g5 24. h3 h5 25. Bb2 g4 26. hxg4 hxg4 27. Nh2 Nc7 28. Bc3 e5 29. Nf1 Ne6 30. g3 Nd4 31. Ne3 Ne2+ 32. Kg2 Nxc3 33. dxc3 Rxe3 34. b4 Re1 35. Rxe1 Nxe1+ 36. Kf2 Nc2 37. a4 cxb4 38. cxb4 Nxb4 39. Ke3 Kd7 40. Ke4 Ke6 41. c5 Na6 42. a5 Nxc5+ 43. Ke3 Kd5 44. Kf2 Kd4 45. Ke2 Ke4 46. Kf2 Kd3 0-1


[Event "Utah Senior Championship"]
[Site "Sandy City Library"]
[Date "2010.06.26"]
[Round "2"]
[White "John Coffey 1922"]
[Black "Wayne Larsen  988"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B50"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. c3 Nf6 4. Be2 Nxe4?? 5. Qa4+ Nc6 6. Qxe4 e6 7. d4 d5 8. Qd3 c4 9. Qc2 Be7 10. O-O O-O 11. Bf4 b5 12. Nbd2 Bb7 13. b3 Bd6 14. Bxd6 Qxd6 15. bxc4 bxc4 16. Rab1 Rab8 17. Rb2 (Maybe Rb5) Qc7 18. Rfb1 a5 19. Rb6 Rfe8 20. Qb2 Nd8 21. Qb5 Qe7 22. Ne5 (intending Nd7 Bc6 Qc5) Qg5?? 23. Qxe8# 


[Event "Utah Senior Championship"]

[Site "Sandy City Library"]

[Date "2010.06.26"]

[Round "3"]
[White "Franklin Gonzaliz (1800)"]
[Black "John Coffey"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B50"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. h3 Nc6 5. Bb5 Bd7 6. O-O g6 7. Re1 Bg7 8. d3 O-O 9. Bg5 a6 10. Bxc6 Bxc6 11. Qd2 Re8 12. Re2 b5 13. Rb1 b4 14. Nd1 d5 15. e5 Nd7 16. e6 fxe6 17. Rxe6 Rc8 18. Qe2 Nf6 19. Ne5 Bb7 20. Ng4 d4 21. Bxf6 exf6 22. a3 Qd7 23. Rxe8+ Rxe8 24. Qd2 h5 25. Nh2 Qd5 26. f3 Kh7 27. c3 Bh6 28. f4 Bxf4 29. c4 Qg5 30. Qf2 Bg3 31. Qf1 Re1 32. Qxe1 Bxh2+  0-1
See the finish of this game here!

I blew a won game against a higher rated player and former state champion, was lost, and fought back to get a draw. Damir and I are nowUtah Senior co-champs...

[Event "Utah Senior Championship"]
[Site ""]
[Date "2010.06.26"]
[Round "4"]
[White "John Coffey 1922"]

[Black ""Damir Trtanj 2000]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A15"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 c5 3. Bg2 Nc6 4. Nc3 g6 5. Nf3 Bg7 6. d4 cxd4 7. Nxd4 O-O 8. O-O e5 9. Ndb5 a6 10. Nd6 Ne8 11. Nce4 h6 12. Be3 Kh7 13. Qd2 f5 14. Nxe8 Rxe8 15. Nd6 Rf8 16. Bc5 Qc7 17. Ba3 e4 18. Rad1 Ne5 19. b3 b6 20. Qd5 Nc6 21. Nxe4 fxe4 22. Bxf8 Bxf8 23. Qf7+ Bg7 24. Bxe4 Ne5 25. Qe7 Bb7 26. Bxb7 Qxb7 27. f4 Nc6 28. Rxd7 Nxe7 29. Rxb7 Nf5 30. e4 Nd6 31. Rxb6????? Bd4+ 32. Kg2 Bxb6 33. e5 Nf5 34. Rc1 Bc5 35. g4 Ne3+ 36. Kf3 Kg7 37. b4 Bd4 38. c5 Nd5? 39. Rd1 Bxe5 40. Rxd5 Bc3 41. a3 Bb2 42. a4 Rb8 43. c6 Rxb4 44. Rd7+ Kf6 45. c7 Rc4 46. Rd6+ Ke7 47. Rxa6 Kd7 Last couple of moves might not be exact.  Stopped recording before this point.    Eventually traded all the pawns and with my 11 seconds to his 20 minutes, he offered the draw.

Below we see Steve Gordon play Damir Trtanj while others watch.

Utah Class Championship

On May 22, 2010 I tied for first in the top section (Expert/A) of the 2010 Utah Class Chess Championship.  I was fortunate enough to get the top trophy on tie breaks.