Friday, September 22, 2017

Leap PQ-9907

Somebody at the Columbus Chess Club has this little chess clock, and said that they only paid $18 for it.  For $18, I think that it is pretty terrific.



Wholesale chess has their own version of this clock which costs more:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHgneZ-7GY8 

The clock has a low profile, which means that it is not as tall as most chess clocks.  It is also a little smaller than average.  For me, with a bad, and recently often painful shoulder, it took a little extra effort to hit the button.  I had to reach ever so slightly further, but my shoulder noticed the difference.  I don't think that it is noticeable for anybody else.

The clock has options for both increment and delay, but according to the manual you cannot use both at the same time, which is no big deal.  It also has a count up mode. 

The clock is really easy to set.    I thought it was easier to learn how to set the clock by just experimenting with it, than it was to read the slightly confusing English/Chinese manual.  The clock only remembers the last time control you set.  This is not as a big of deal as it sounds, because it is pretty easy to change the time control.  You reset the clock by turning it off and on.

The clock only supports one time control.  If you had more than one time control with the same level of increment or delay, then maybe you could use the count up mode, or for something like 40/2 d5 followed by G/60 d5 you could set the time to 3 hours.

At this price it was for me a no brainer to order one.  The clock appears to be well made made enough, although a little on the cheap side, naturally.  However, even if it wears out in a year, I still will have gotten my money's worth.

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Friday, September 8, 2017

Response to someone studying "education equality" in college.

Took my last college course almost 30 years ago, so I may not understand the nuances of modern education, but equality sounds to me like a liberal buzz word.  The reason a person goes to school, gets good grades, and then works hard, as I did for 30 years, is to produce inequality, i.e. Get ahead.  My take is that people worried about equality are the ones who didn't work as hard.  However, I understand that there is this concern over inherent unfairness, but this is mostly a false narrative.  There is, and has been for some time, ample opportunity for people to get an education.  We educate too many, because 40% of graduates have to take jobs that don't require a degree.  And despite those who try to stir racial tension in order to divide us, race relations are better than they have ever been. 


Best wishes,

John Coffey

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

1st place in online speed tournament.




Against tougher competition, I wouldn't have expected to come in first, and would have been pleased with 3rd place, but I scored 3 upsets to come in first in the USCF Online rated Chess.com speed tournament.

​First, I beat a National Master, who was the top player.

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2017.09.06"]
[Round "?"]
[White "john2001plus"]
[Black "Dare-Dare"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A04"]
[WhiteElo "1777"]
[BlackElo "2135"]
[Annotator "Coffey,John"]
[PlyCount "91"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[TimeControl "180+2"]

1. Nf3 f5 2. e4 fxe4 3. Ng5 Nf6 4. d3 h6 5. Nxe4 e5 6. Nbc3 Bb4 7. Bd2 O-O 8.
Be2 d5 9. Nxf6+ Rxf6 10. O-O Nc6 11. a3 Bxc3 12. Bxc3 Bf5 13. Bg4 Qd6 14. Re1
Raf8 15. Bf3 Be6 16. Qe2 d4 17. Bd2 Bd5 18. Bxd5+ Qxd5 19. f3 Qd6 20. c4 Rf5
21. b4 Nd8 22. b5 R8f7 23. Bb4 Qg6 24. Qe4 Qg5 25. Qd5 Rxf3 26. Rxe5 c6 27.
Rxg5 cxd5 28. Rxd5 Rxd3 29. Rxd8+ Kh7 30. Rf1 Rc7 31. c5 b6 32. c6 a6 33. Rd7
Rc8 34. a4 axb5 35. axb5 Rb3 36. Be7 Rxb5 37. Bf6 Rg8 38. Bxd4 Kh8 39. Rff7
Rb1+ 40. Kf2 Rb4 41. Rxg7 Rxg7 42. Bxg7+ Kg8 43. c7 Rc4 44. Rd8+ Kxg7 45. c8=Q
Rf4+ 46. Kg3 1-0


Then I beat Mohamed Elshazy, who is a local FIDE member.

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2017.09.06"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Coupra"]
[Black "john2001plus"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A46"]
[WhiteElo "1977"]
[BlackElo "1794"]
[Annotator "Coffey,John"]
[PlyCount "68"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[TimeControl "180+2"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. Bf4 c5 4. e3 cxd4 5. exd4 Qb6 6. b3 Nc6 7. c3 d5 8. Bd3
Bd7 9. O-O Rc8 10. Nbd2 Be7 11. Re1 O-O 12. h3 Na5 13. b4 Nc4 14. Nxc4 dxc4 15.
Bc2 Nd5 16. Bd2 Bf6 17. Ne5 Bxe5 18. Rxe5 a5 19. a3 axb4 20. axb4 Ra8 21. Rb1
Ra2 22. Be4 f6 23. Rh5 g6 24. Rxh7 Rxd2 25. Qxd2 Kxh7 26. Qe2 Kg7 27. Bxd5 exd5
28. Qf3 Qe6 29. Qg3 Ra8 30. Qc7 Qf5 31. Re1 Ra2 32. Re7+ Kh6 33. f3 Qg5 34. g4
Qc1+ 0-1


​Finally, I beat  a higher rated player to come in first.​

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2017.09.06"]
[White "john2001plus"]
[Black "SpeedyChess11"]
[WhiteElo "1809"]
[BlackElo "1877"]
[TimeControl "180+2"]
[ECO "E17"]
[Termination "john2001plus won by checkmate"]
[Result "1-0"]
[CurrentPosition "1Q6/8/8/7B/R7/6K1/k4P2/8 b - - 10 81"]

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 e6 3.c4 b6 4.a3 Bb7 5.Nc3 g6 6.Bg5 Bg7 7.e4 h6 8.Bxf6 Qxf6 9.e5 Qe7 10.Bd3 Nc6 11.O-O O-O 12.Qc2 Kh7 13.Rfe1 Na5 14.Ne4 d5 15.exd6 cxd6 16.b4 Nc6 17.Rad1 Rad8 18.d5 Ne5 19.Nxe5 dxe5 20.d6 Qe8 21.c5 Bxe4 22.Bxe4 bxc5 23.bxc5 Qb5 24.Bd3 Qc6 25.a4 a6 26.Be4 Qe8 27.c6 f5 28.d7 Qe7 29.Bd3 e4 30.Bxa6 Be5 31.c7 Rxd7 32.c8=Q Rxc8 33.Bxc8 Rc7 34.Qd2 Bc3 35.Qd7 Bxe1 36.Qxe7+ Rxe7 37.Rxe1 Rc7 38.Bxe6 Ra7 39.Bb3 Kg7 40.Ra1 Kf6 41.Bc4 Ke5 42.Bb5 Kd4 43.Kf1 Kc5 44.Ke2 Kb4 45.Kd2 Ka5 46.Be8 g5 47.Bg6 Rd7+ 48.Kc2 Rc7+ 49.Kd2 Rd7+ 50.Ke2 Rd4 51.Bxf5 Rc4 52.Ra2 Rd4 53.Ke3 Rd1 54.Bxe4 Re1+ 55.Re2 Rh1 56.h3 Kxa4 57.Kf3 Rc1 58.Kg4 Rc7 59.Kh5 Rf7 60.Kxh6 Kb4 61.Kxg5 Kc5 62.Kg4 Rg7+ 63.Kf3 Kd4 64.Ba8 Rf7+ 65.Kg3 Kd3 66.Bf3 Rg7+ 67.Kh2 Rf7 68.Re3+ Kd4 69.h4 Rh7 70.h5 Rh6 71.g4 Rf6 72.g5 Rf4 73.g6 Rh4+ 74.Kg3 Rxh5 75.Bxh5 Kd5 76.g7 Kd4 77.g8=Q Kc5 78.Qd8 Kb4 79.Re4+ Ka3 80.Qb8 Ka2 81.Ra4#  1-0


​I thought that my first round was amusing just from a tactical perspective:

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2017.09.06"]
[White "JoeKempsey"]
[Black "john2001plus"]
[WhiteElo "1250"]
[BlackElo "1777"]
[TimeControl "180+2"]
[ECO "C01"]
[Termination "john2001plus won by resignation"]
[Result "0-1"]
[CurrentPosition "1b2r1k1/pp1n1pp1/2p4p/8/7P/Q4BPK/PPb2q2/8 w - - 0 25"]

1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Bd6 6.Be2 O-O 7.O-O c6 8.Re1 Re8 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bxf6 Qxf6 11.Qd2 Bg4 12.Rad1 Nd7 13.h3 Bf4 14.Qd3 Bf5 15.Ne4 dxe4 16.Qa3 exf3 17.Bxf3 Bxc2 18.Rxe8+ Rxe8 19.Rf1 Bb8 20.Rc1 Qf4 21.g3 Qxc1+ 22.Kg2 Qd2 23.h4 Qxd4 24.Kh3 Qxf2  0-1


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Saturday, September 2, 2017

Columbus (movie). Copy of Facebook Post.

So somebody made a movie in the hometown where I grew up, staring of all people, John Cho. I have always felt a strong bond to Columbus, Indiana, a town of 45,000 people, which has some national fame for its architecture. Every week I go to the Columbus Chess Club where I started playing chess 42 years ago. I actually wanted to move back to Columbus, but for various reasons chose a house about 30 miles away, closer to Indianapolis.


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