Current Skill You Are Developing

['Chair]

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Let me know how that Asterix box turns out, I was thinking of doing one for football season next year. here is a link if you need it:

http://revision3.com/systm/asterisk

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yeah, I used to follow that site a while back...good site for geeks.

so far so good. only thing tougher than finding time to work on it is deciding which analog adapter to use...external sipura3000 (mentioned in the video above) or the TDM4000 (4 port PCI card made by Digium)...only must is that I need to have fxs and fxo ports to connect my POT line to the box for local outbound/inbound...gonna sign up for a free voip service for long distance. Also planning on borrowing a voip phone from work and adding that to the mix...

if you are interested in a simplistic implementation check out Trixbox. All in one, CentOS os, Asterisk backend, FreePBX frontend...one cd iso.

[TimM]

I have not read many of the beginner chess books suggested in this thread, since they simply did not exist when I started, other than the Reinfeld and Horowitz books which I got past quickly, so I dove into pretty advanced stuff right away. I started by playing chess computers in the early 80's when they were very weak (Fidelity Sensory Chess Challenger, Micro Chess and Sargon II for the TRS-80, etc). I eventually taught myself how to beat them just by playing. I played my first USCF tournament in 1983, and lost every game. About 10 years later I broke 2200 USCF for the first time, and have pretty much hovered around that level ever since.

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I do ok at chess puzzles, especially if they tell me that I'm looking for a pin, or a fork, or whatever; I get those pretty much every time. But the problem is that in a real game, there's no one to stop you and say "ok now this is a puzzle. Find the best move." I never know whether I should stop and not move until I find a tactic, or whether I should just make some completely non-obvious positional play.

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You have to train yourself to spot the patterns that lead to tactics and mates. It can only come with practice - either playing of solving. eventually you develop a sense of chess "smell" where you say "hey in this position it looks like there should be a winning tactic for me". Sometimes you look and don't find one, but that's OK too.

Some books to look at:

Art of Attack in Chess

Fairly advanced book but covers a lot of mating patterns and various attacking situations.

The Chess of Bobby Fischer

I loved this book. It may be hard to find but worth it. Using Bobby Fischer's games, the author has created a nice treatise on the basis of tactical combinations. The Endgame section is very good as well.

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It's these "in between" moves that give me the most trouble. I am starting to get feelings like "I want my knight on that square" or "my opponent's weakness is f7," but it's getting to those squares where I have trouble. In the middle game, I never know how to decide which piece to move, whether I should have a definite goal in mind, or whether I should just move to "generally good" areas. If I don't know what to do, should I just make general developing moves? How do I know when to look for specific moves and when to just develop?

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Another thing that really helped me, and most people don't do this now, was playing in real over-the-board chess tournaments with slow time controls. Recording your games, and then going over them afterwards, both with your opponent and later alone at home is a big help. Without the clock ticking you can spend a lot of time thinking about each move and how you could have played better. I often work on my games backward, trying to find the last mistake, then the next to last, etc., because towards the end of the game it's much easier to define which side has a winning position, and the move that allowed it. This lets you find the critical points in the game where either side could have made a better play. As you work on this you will get a better idea of when it is necessary to really work hard to find the best move.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

Maybe this is getting to the point of a thread-jack (should we just start a chess thread?), but what is everybody's opinion on software like Chessmaster? I remember having something like Chessmaster 6000 a while ago and cruising through some of its basic little lessons and playing a few games against its AI and also on Yahoo.

[MusashiStyle]

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Maybe this is getting to the point of a thread-jack (should we just start a chess thread?), but what is everybody's opinion on software like Chessmaster? I remember having something like Chessmaster 6000 a while ago and cruising through some of its basic little lessons and playing a few games against its AI and also on Yahoo.

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Fritz (chessbase) is the standard program to get I think.
It's basically a little bit stronger than the top GM's and comes with a huge database, plus it will give u full opening coverage. It's good for training, but it's more fun to play actual people if you are just picking up the game.

[The Yugoslavian]

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I have ordered "The Game" and "The Complete A**holes Guide to Handling Chicks" in an attempt to be better in relationships.

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The Game doesn't really contain anything that will actually help in attracting women. I haven't read the a**holes guide but judging from the title it likely has some pretty dumb/bad stuff in it.

That being said The Game is a v cool story and is inspirational to some...if it inspires you, hollatyaboy and I'll hook you up with the how-to that's missing from The Game.

Yugoslav

[ScottieK]

The project for this spring and summer is to work on my golf game. Right now, I don't shoot well enough to keep strict score...I probably shoot in the 120's or so. I did take a beginner's class last year, and it helped quite a bit. The goal is to play a lot and see if I can shoot consistently below 100. Right now, I'm using my dad's old Ping irons and a mix of woods that I got from all sorts of places (including a wooden 3 wood [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] If I start getting better, I might replace some of my clubs and take intermediate lessons.

I've been in a handicap bowling league for about six months now, and my team is easily the worst of the bunch. We all use house equipment and bowl relatively straight. Basically, we suck. I've got a co-worker who is a pretty good 200 average bowler, and I may get him to teach me a few things like how to throw a hook.

For everyone interested in getting better at chess, there were a lot of chess improvement threads in POG about six months ago, I think.

ScottieK

[Kintamayama]

Spend some time working on your short game and you should start breaking 100 with little problem.

[SuitedSixes]

[ QUOTE ]
The project for this spring and summer is to work on my golf game. Right now, I don't shoot well enough to keep strict score...I probably shoot in the 120's or so. I did take a beginner's class last year, and it helped quite a bit. The goal is to play a lot and see if I can shoot consistently below 100. Right now, I'm using my dad's old Ping irons and a mix of woods that I got from all sorts of places (including a wooden 3 wood [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] If I start getting better, I might replace some of my clubs and take intermediate lessons.

I've been in a handicap bowling league for about six months now, and my team is easily the worst of the bunch. We all use house equipment and bowl relatively straight. Basically, we suck. I've got a co-worker who is a pretty good 200 average bowler, and I may get him to teach me a few things like how to throw a hook.

For everyone interested in getting better at chess, there were a lot of chess improvement threads in POG about six months ago, I think.

ScottieK

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Scottie, if you're shooting over 120 you're using too many clubs. You need to stop thinking in terms of the course's "par." You need to begin thinking about your personal par and work on course management skills.

Turn every par 4 into a par 5 in your mind (5's into 6's). Divide the distance from tee to green in 3 even distances and use the same club. If that means teeing off with a 7-iron so be it. You have a better chance of keeping the ball in the fairway and lowering your score than by (probably) taking too big a swing with your woods and developing bad habits.

[ScottieK]

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Scottie, if you're shooting over 120 you're using too many clubs. You need to stop thinking in terms of the course's "par." You need to begin thinking about your personal par and work on course management skills.

Turn every par 4 into a par 5 in your mind (5's into 6's). Divide the distance from tee to green in 3 even distances and use the same club. If that means teeing off with a 7-iron so be it. You have a better chance of keeping the ball in the fairway and lowering your score than by (probably) taking too big a swing with your woods and developing bad habits.

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Hmmmmm...interesting idea. You're right about my woods. Sometimes they look great, other times they slice hard and out of bounds. I can hit my irons relatively straight but don't have great distance with them. After taking that class, my chipping has improved quite a bit, and so has my putting. Mostly I'm out there for fun and drinking with my buddies, which doesn't help my score. I'll give this a shot next time I go out, which should be Sunday. Thanks [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

ScottieK

[Magic_Man]

I'm working on memory techniques. I was actually thinking of running a memory competition at MIT some time. I used the major system for a while (1 = t/d, 2 = n, 3 = m, etc), but I've since switched to the Dominic Method. I have pi memorized to about 100 digits, and I can memorize a deck of cards in about a day. I have a list of topics that I carry with me on the subway (US presidents, famous scientists and their inventions, famous dates & battles, etc), and I work on adding them to my set of "memory journeys" when I have a free chance. Does anyone else use a journey or memory-palace type method? I have some specific questions that I need to discuss with fellow mnemonists.