Archive for March 21st, 2026

Coming close to victory

Posted in My Own Games on March 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

After a most pleasant evening at the chess club last night and more than enough examples of play which brought victory rather impressively I must say…well only one or two actually but that’s enough, I decided to return to Lucas Chess to face the engine Greko98 once more in hope of giving it a good thrashing, after all, it’s only rated 2500! At the chess club last night I told someone my FIDE rating is 2 but it’s actually a little higher than that. As mentioned in a previous post, I beat an engine rated 2200 and 2400, so Grecko98 it is, rated 2500. What I like about playing it is I have to analyse my games and learn from my mistakes to stand any chance. The video below shows the closest I have come to beating it. I was celebrating half way through it, thinking the win was mine, forgetting I always take my foot off the pedal when I think I have won, so I lost instead! I just got carried away with my attack and didn’t evaluation the position, failing to notice I had poor king safety. I shall make a note not to get too excited next time if I have what I think is a strong attack, I think this game is a good ilustration of the fact that I am not used to playing such high rated opponents and do not realize just how difficult they are to beat. It could be argued that that was to be expected. Grecko98 is a tough cookie. I might nick a draw of it but that’s probably all I can hope for. It’s been fun as this is the toughest engine I have ever taken on, I decided not to play the ones that can beat the world champion! Although I like to play, I don’t like it when I’ve got absolutley no chance and will get thrashed every game, so I gave those engines a miss and me thinks me shan’t go above 2500 also as I am under the kosh a lot. What I liked most about this game was it showed I wanted to stick it to my oponnent despite suffering material loss.

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Weekend battles that lie ahead

Posted in My own endeavours on March 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

This weekend I am going to continue to play the engine rated 2500 that I can’t quite beat. I’m going to have to increase the time limit and become more conscious of critical moments in the game In following GM Gawian Jones’s recommendations in his book on the Grand Prix Sicilian I get middle games with the better position but just cannot convert them into winning attacks no matter how hard I try.

My level of focus and will power are very high. And I analyse all games to see where I went wrong. I’m up against it but well up for it. The program being used is Lucas Chess. Let’s see if I can nick a draw this weekend. Probably I shall post some videos soonish. I don’t like posting ones where I lose, but whatever, the calibre of the play is high and the games are instructive.

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