Assorted N.P. Team News

[Narz]

Geez WhiteEagle, how could you?!



Seriously man, just enjoy your games, no one's expecting you to go 2-0 if you're outranked by hundreds of points but if you do win or even draw we'll all cheer.

 

[peter grimes]

Hey WhiteEagle - want to play a couple live games at some point? I've starting playing against a guy in my neighborhood each week, and I've got to say it's pretty helpful.

Just blasting through 5 or 6 games in an hour leads to a different mindset

 

[WhiteEagle22]

Sure, I'm off Thursday and Friday this week. Let's PM and find a good time for both of us! Next week, I will be off Friday and Saturday (Friday for orb scan in Edmonton, Saturday because it's my 24th b-day ).

 

[Narz]

In our second game GatoNegro went in for an interesting Pirc sideline where white (me) sacs his queen & two pawns for three minor pieces and a lead in development. I've never actually played this line outside of blitz so the results'll be interesting.

 

[peter grimes]

Sure, I'm off Thursday and Friday this week. Let's PM and find a good time for both of us! Next week, I will be off Friday and Saturday (Friday for orb scan in Edmonton, Saturday because it's my 24th b-day

Sounds good

 

[Panzar75]

I just noticed that at the moment of writing this I and Narz have exactly the same rating, 1934. I'm not sure where I wanted to go with that but there it is...

 

[Narz]

That's it! We must face off!

I'm hoping to get back above 2000 but it may be difficult (and also difficult to stay there). For some reason the 1900 & 2000 players seem tougher than they did four or five months ago.

 

[WhiteEagle22]

I just lost game 3 to attilla22 (It's the third time I've accepted a challenge from him.), and mowque beat me finally to officially knock me out of the tourney, even if I somehow pull off a turn-around win against loki130. Not the best, as my rating is down to 1122.

 

[peter grimes]

Don't focus on your rating so much as why it is that they out-played you. All that matters is that your game is improving. If I were worried about my rating I wouldn't leave the house

 

[col]

Good advice - its just a number at the end of the day.

I must admit though that I get upset when my tactical rating drops below 2000!

 

[Narz]

All that matters is that your game is improving.

That's true. IIRC there was some study done showing that people's level of satisfaction with a skill or hobby is related to whether they feel they are improving or not rather than their current competence level.

I know that holds true for me. It would be nice to break 2000 again but it doesn't mean much if I can't stay there & keep inching my way up. I probably felt the best (so far) in my chess career where I started noticing all sorts of tactics in my games (pins, skewers, double attacks, etc.), this was when I first started playing in college & my chess.com equivalent rating (had chess.com existed back then) would have probably been at least 800 points lower.

 

[col]

I'm sure thats right. It was a big factor in me giving up the game. I'd gone as far as I was going to go. I knew who I could beat and who would beat me.

I may reach that stage again - but right now I'm still getting a kick out of finding out where my level is.

 

[Narz]

I pretty much know my upper limit now & it's frustrating when I hit it.

I know it will take a fair amount of work for me to get there but I have the constant dissatisfaction of feeling stuck to motivate me.

 

[WhiteEagle22]

Hey Peter,

I'm off the next two days, so send me a PM here or at Chess.com (or just challenge me to a live game) so we can get together and play. I don't like playing the AI, mostly because it takes so long to move sometimes.

 

[azzaman333]

I'm about to promote a pawn in my match against CowboyNoel in the First Blood match, on top of a significant material advantage. Hopefully can make up for my loss as black.

 

[Sashie VII]

Won the first game against sinke71 in the NP-Calipha match.

 

[Narz]

Yeah I saw that, good work Sash, I knew you could do it.

 

[WhiteEagle22]

Congrats Sashie!

 

[Narz]

Hey WhiteEagle!

 

[Panzar75]

Okay, seriously... I and Narz both have a 1916 rating now, this must mean something.