Mozart of Chess: Magnus Carlsen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc_v9mTfhC8

Chess Game

[Event "Utah Speed Championship"]
[Site "SLCC"]
[Date "Jan 26, 2013"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Bryan Leano"]
[Black "John Coffey"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5 Nfd7 6. h4 O-O 7. f4 c5 8. Nf3
Nc6 9. Bd3 cxd4 10. Bxh7+ Kh8 11. Bxe7 Qxe7 12. Ng5 g6 13. h5 Kg7 14. hxg6 Rh8
15. Qh5
1-0

Chess Game

[Event "Utah Speed Championship"]
[Site "SLCC"]
[Date "Jan 26, 2013"]
[Round "6"]
[White "John Coffey"]
[Black "Alex Hall"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 dxc4 6. e4 b5 7. e5 h6 8. Bh4 g5
9. Nxg5 hxg5 10. Bxg5 Nbd7 11. exf6 Bb7 12. h4 Qb6 13. Qg4 O-O-O 14. Be2 c5 15.
d5 b4 16. dxe6 Qxe6 17. Qxe6 fxe6 18. f7 bxc3 19. O-O-O Bh6 20. Bxh6 Rxh6 21.
Rxd7?? cxb2+ 22. Kxb2 Rf6?? 23. Rxd8+ Kxd8 24. Bxc4 Rxf2+ 25. Kc3 Bxg2
26. Rh2 Rf3+
27. Kd2 Bf1 28. Bxe6 Ke7 29. Bd5 Rd3+ 30. Ke1 Rxd5 31. Kxf1 Kxf7 32. Ke2 Kg6
33. Ke3 Kh5 34. Ke4 Rd4+ 35. Ke5
1/2-1/2

Chess game

[Event "Speed game"]
[Site "Coffee Club"]
[Date "Jan 22, 2013"]
[Round ""]
[White "Shahram Nazarinia"]
[Black "John Coffey"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Qb6 6. a3 c4 7. Nbd2 Na5 8. Be2 Bd7
9. Rb1 Nh6 10. O-O Rc8 11. Ng5 Be7 12. Ndf3 Nf5 13. g4 Nh6 14. h3 Ng8 15. h4
Qb3 16. Qd2 Qa2 17. Qf4 f6 18. exf6 gxf6 19. Be3 fxg5 20. hxg5 Bf8 21. Qe5 Nf6
22. Qxf6 Rg8 23. Ne5 Rg7 24. g6 hxg6 25. Bh6 Rg8 26. Qf7+ Kd8 27. Qxd7#
1-0

Re: Hi

Jeff,

It is really hard to improve.   I crossed over 1800 around 1985 mainly because I was good at tactics and speed chess but had few others skills.   I  stagnated there until 1988 when I moved to Lafayette Indiana where I lived for 39 months.  While there I played chess at least a couple times per week at the Purdue Chess Club and outside of the club as well.  It helped me that the Purdue Chess Club had really strong players.  I also used to practice against computers and memorize whole games.  I also studied king and pawn endings pretty thoroughly which has helped me enormously.     I saw my rating rise up to 2079 and then go down.  This is the point where I should mention that ratings then were inflated compared to ratings now.  The USCF has made major changes to their rating system, and the bottom line is that is my 2000+ rating now is much tougher to get than my 2000+ rating back then.

 

After moving to Utah in 1993 my rating dropped all the way to 1800.   There was a feeling in Utah a the time that Utah players were way underrated.  This isn't as true as it used to be. 

 

Back around 1999 I decided to make a big push to get to Master by memorizing 200 opening lines in 200 days.  This took more like 2 years and did not help me one bit.  It was a waste of time.

 

It was after this I began to feel that studying tactics was the better approach.   I studied the book Sharpen Your Tactics and some other tactics books and very quickly went from 1800+ to 1900+.  The amount of tactics study necessary to make this work is somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes per day, but I have seen other people have much more impressive results by studying 60 to 90 minutes per day.

 

Only recently I have been able to go from 1900+ to 2000+ by doing the following …

 

I like studying whole games and go over them repeatedly while trying to guess the moves.  I have spoken with a near master in Louisville who does the same thing.   This particular player went up a hundred points over the last year or two.

 

I am a huge believer in repetition because I think that the human brain is inherently forgetful. 

 

Getting a good source of games is difficult because there are so many sources out there that it is information overload.  It is hard to know what is the best to study.  I am going to suggest The Art of Positional Play and Logical Chess Move by Move.

 

But first I would start with the games on my website at:

 

 http://www.entertainmentjourney.com/openings.htm

 

 

I still tend to spend too much time studying openings even though I think that studying games is more useful. 

Best wishes,

John Coffey