This week, for my freshman school year, I have been studying French, for my language credit.I have had to complete two of the following choices: an art project from a french artist, cook and devour french recipe, listen to two to three french pieces, or a selection of a interactive reading. this week I listened to four french pieces the first was carnival of the animals.




This is the finale of the "Carnival of the Animals" from the 2000 Disney "Fantasia"


The second set of pieces I listened to was the "Gymnopedies" by Erik Satie




This set of pieces is a very sad collection. It emanates something of loss, and depression.The sad truth of the matter is that I find many songs played on the piano to have that same kind of sadness to them.



The second project I choose was making a french recipe. The recipe I picked was a blueberry Clafoutis, a french dessert.





This is not the Clafoutis I made, but mine turned out well. The recipe basically consisted of a creamy batter covering a pan of blueberries. On the whole, it turned out very tasty, although a little doughy.



Thanks for reading, see you next time.

Chess depression

     Today I am suffering from chess depression, an illness that has caused me great grief in the past. The symptoms are unmistakable: lack of interest, difficulty studying chess books, and lack of any real blitz battles in months!
     I am not sure I can survive this ailment hanging over me. But wait! There is a treatment. One that is risky and possibly life threatening, the only thing that might save me in this deathly illness. Of course! Two hours of Internet blitz!
     In truth I am afraid I won't be able to snap out of this depression. Will two hours of blitz be enough? Will I need more drastic measures? Will chess just pass in to the mists of forgotten interests? Only time will tell.
    

Halloween Gambit

It's 'All Hallows Eve', and for this haunting holiday I have a frightening opening to show for your delight.

The Halloween Gambit is a feared opening for its brave (or foolish) sacrifice: 

                      

                      

After the normal moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6, White comes up with the shocker 4. Nxe5. Now I'm going to refer to a game I played with my chess friend.

4...Nxe5, Otherwise black's just down a pawn for no compensation,  5. d4, This move ensures a large center, some compensation for the knight.(Later I realized that the far more common move is 5. d5, because after 5...Ne5 6.f4 Ng6 7.e5 Ng6 8. d6, this makes it very uncomfortable for black) 5...Nc6 6. e5 Ng8. With no other place to go the knight is forced to go backwards. 7. Bc4 d6 8. Qf3, It's do or die now, if I don't checkmate or get material advantage soon black will have a won endgame.(also playable was 8. Qh5, though it probably would have transposed)  

 8...Be6 9. Bxe6 fxe6, I am in deep trouble. Black has successfully traded one of my attacking pieces and is threatening to win a pawn. 10. Qh5+, At this moment I panicked and played a check hoping to buy some time. 10... g6 11. Qg4, Yes! I have defended my pawn while keeping up the pressure by attacking e6. 

 11...Qe7 12. Bg5 Qf7 13. O-O-O h6 14. Rhe1?! Charge!!! Who needs bishops, but seriously I had nothing to lose, so why not go down fighting? 14...hxg5 15. exd6?! at this moment I thought I had decent attacking chances. I was sorely mistaken. 15...Qf4+! This move takes away almost all chances of attack I had.  

 16. Qxf4 gxf4 17. d5 O-O-O, Apparently my opponent had little fear of losing a knight due to the fact he was already up two pieces.  18. dxc6 bxc6 19. dxc7 Rxd1+ 20. Kxd1 Bb4 21. a3 Bxc3 22. bxc3 Kb7 23. c8=B+, Right about now I have a #1 for style, but a #10 for opening choices. 23...Kxc8 24. Rxe6 Kd7 25. Rxg6 Ne7   1/2-1/2 at this point in the game, it was time for me to go to an eye doctor appointment, and my friend said that there were drawing chances later in the game.

In conclusion this was a very instructive game about the Halloween Gambit; including: crazy attacks, awe-inspiring defense, and good old fashioned draw.

For more information on the Halloween Gambit watch the video below for the refutation, deeper analysis and alternative ways of playing it.

 

October Chess Goals

For my October chess goals, I am working on the Sicilian Dragon, Classical Dutch, and King's Indian lines. The variation I am using for the King's Indian is the 7...Na6 variation, as opposed to 7...Nc6. The book I am using for Dragon lines is Andrew Martin's Starting Out: The Sicilian Dragon, starting with Chapter 1: Yugoslav Attack: Introduction.

Next, I will be working on my chess endgame. I'm planning on studying Section 1 of The Silman Endgame Manual, and at the end of the month I will take the test at the end of the section.

On the tactics trainer on chess.com, I will try to complete at least ten tactics a day. Right now, my tactics rating is about 1600. My goal will be, within a year, to get over 1700.

For my online games, I have high hopes for several tournament games with Team USA. Though I'm worried that I'm not going to reach my goal of 1700 within a year's time.

Finally, I have my blind chess study. I will be studying out of Roldofo Pardi's book on chess visualization. The first problem presented is this: start with the Knight on a1 then without touching the Knight calculate a path to b1 Then from a1 to c1, continuing until all the squares have been visited by the Knight. My goal is to do the whole tour in under three minutes.

At the end of the month, I will be taking a 'guess the move' quiz written by Bruce Pandolfini. Pandolfini writes these articles every month for Chess Life magazine, so I'm expecting to do one of these every month.

Thanks for reading!

Chess

Chess has been a part-time passion for me, for a couple years now. It has enveloped my spare time, and is one of my favorite pastimes. However, in the last couple weeks, I have been slightly bogged down. In my last tournament, I had a won game, but I blundered in the endgame. After that game I completely botched the next one. I have found, I can't seem to get the positions I want, and can't seem to calculate long enough.

This has been really depressing lately, so I have decided to stop most of my tournament activity and focus on my chess game.

First, I wanted to make some goals:

1. I want to get my online rating over 1700
2. I want to get my tactics rating over 1700
3. I want to finish the "Silman Endgame Book" and pass all of the tests
4. Know all of my openings like a grand master
5. Learn blind chess

The final goal is to focus on my calculating in chess games. The better you can play blind chess, the easier it is to calculate positions.

As a schedule, I want to do at least 10 tactics on chess.com. Then, study one section out of the Silman book. Last, work on my blind chess by playing a blind game with myself.

Please comment if you have any ideas on how I can improve my goals or my schedule. 

Tai Chi Week Two

Today, I'm going to start learning the 8 form and formulating a more in-depth workout plan.

1. First, in the morning, I'm going to follow this small exercise described in the video below:

I am planning to do this first thing in the morning, and last thing before I go to sleep.

2. Later in the day, I want to do the exercise routine in the video below:

 

3. Last, I am going to find some part of the day to the first step of the 8 form: rising and sinking:

It's best if you can do your Tai Chi in nature, sadly,  I usually have to do mine inside. However, I make it a point to get outside and at least do the part I know of the Tai Chi 8 form in the outdoors.  

Tai Chi: Day One

Today is a day for evaluation. I want to figure some goals and establish some routines.

Self-Evaluation:

I have been doing Tai Chi for about two months, I have gained pretty good balance and control and I have started on one of the more simple forms.

Goals:

If you want to increase your level of ability in one thing or another, you have to start with goals you want to fulfill.

1. Learn the 8 form of Tai Chi
2. Learn the 24 form 
3. Learn a Tai Chi sword form 
4. Flexibility

The last one I have listed is a very large one for me because I am extremely inflexible, and I would like to have some normal flexibility.

Routines:

For now I am sticking with holding several Tai Chi poses (which I will include in later posts) and several supplementary Tai Chi workouts by the Jake Mace youtuber.

In my next blog post I'm going to put more about my routine in there.

I hope that you'll join me again in my Tai Chi journey.