User Profile: Annie K.

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Annie K.
Member since Apr-02-04

Annie Kappel
This profile needs an update badly, but I don't have the time... :)
My YouTube channel, featuring pronunciations of non-English chess player names: http://www.youtube.com/user/AnnieK1...
I'm 45 y/o, of Transylvanian origin, living in Israel since childhood. I speak English (no, really), Hungarian (great language!), and Hebrew (if I must, which is often, for some reason).
Afflicted with an uncontrollable sense of humor and other highly controversial characteristics.
I learned chess as a child, but had no further opportunities to practice the game. Returned to it seriously around 2004, and have been hanging out here since.
Note: if I am not home (i.e., here), you can probably find me at the Domdaniel chessforum, the SwitchingQuylthulg chessforum, the visayanbraindoctor chessforum, or the chessgames.com chessforum! :)
---
<My City of Moscow skits:>
<<<<<<>>>>> Kramnik's Party -> City of Moscow (kibitz #752)
<<<<<<>>>>> Sochi 2008: An F-Files Production -> City of Moscow (kibitz #774)
---
<Game Collection: My GotD Puns>
<My favorites:>
All Your Baze Are Belong To Us - L Baze vs T Palmer, 2004 - GotD Mar-21-10
Y Yu No Claim Repetition? - Yu Yangyi vs M R Venkatesh, 2012 - GotD Jun-30-12
He Who Has E Tate is Lost - E Tate vs Y Shulman, 2001 - GotD Sep-22-16
How Many Roads Must Aman Walk Down? - S Shankland vs A Hambleton, 2014 - GotD Dec-23-16 (besides the obvious reason for the pun - a long King walk - note also the terms 'shank' and 'amble' embedded in the player names)
So me the Wei - W So vs Wei Yi, 2013 - GotD Jan-29-17
This Won't Borya Ider - B Ider vs Wei Yi, 2014 - GotD Apr-01-17 (follow-up to previous day's GotD, 'This Won't Borya')
Injun vs Engin' - Anand vs REBEL, 1997 - GotD Jan-06-2018
---
<My other (linkable) site contributions:>
* The Player Names Pronunciation Project: http://www.chessgames.com/audio (or look for names with a loudspeaker icon in the Player Directory)
* Created on my suggestion: Biographer Bistro
* The first (now retired) Carlsen Dancing Rook: https://web.archive.org/web/2013040...
* The Caruana Dancing Rook:
http://www.chessgames.com/chessimag...
* The Hou Dancing Rook:
http://www.chessgames.com/chessimag...
---
<<<<<<< MAJOR CHESS SITES <<>>>>>>>>>
<< Correspondence chess <<<<<<>>>>>>>>
< ChessWorld -> http://www.chessworld.net
ChessWorld is my new main chess playing base. It's a rather restrictive site for non-paying members, but one of the best sites for paying members. The full features include excellent interface options and first class study and analysis resources. Nice community, likeable admin. Paid membership recommended.
< Update: while I will leave the original entry for ChessWorld as-is, I have by now been a member of the site for 2 years, and am now an admin there. I still think the site is one of the best, and the <other> admins are nice. :p >
My ChessWorld profile: http://www.letsplaychess.com/chessc...
< Queen Alice -> http://www.queenalice.com
Queen Alice is a charming site - well behaved players, decent admin, site design visually very pleasant. It is also completely free. Unfortunately, it lacks team play, the interface and resources are relatively simple, and it can be frustratingly slow (loading times). Nevertheless warmly recommended.
My QueenAlice profile: http://www.queenalice.com/player.ph...
< GameKnot -> http://gameknot.com
GameKnot is technically an excellent site, however I would not recommend it to the serious player who is looking for a site to settle in, due to an anti$ocial admin with ju$t one $ingle intere$t in hi$ $ite... oop$, $orry about the typo$.
My GameKnot profile: http://gameknot.com/stats.pl?annie-....
<< Other chess sites <<<<<<>>>>>>>>
< FICS - the Free Internet Chess Server -> http://www.freechess.org
FICS is a great site to play chess at various faster time controls. There are a few difficulties getting started with it - first, it can be hard to find an email they will accept for registration; and second, there's a lot of site code to learn. But it's worth the hassle. :)
< ChessCube -> http://www.chesscube.com
ChessCube is quite good for fast time control games - provided you have a strong computer with broadband, as the site is entirely Flash based, which means it takes considerable computer resources to load. The site is nominally free, but heavily commercialized with all sorts of frills that can be purchased on it.
< Emrald Chess Tactics Server -> http://chess.emrald.net
Emrald is not a playing site - it is an invaluable tactical training asset. The only problem with it is also the difficulty of finding an "acceptable" email address to register with; but once past that hurdle, the site deserves nothing but praise.
It's a completely free site. You can play (practice) there as a guest, but they recommend registering, so that their program can keep track of your progress, in order to assign you puzzles best suited to your current level. I strongly second that recommendation. Register and always play logged in! It will make a huge difference in the site's ability to help you improve. An issue that scares some people off Emrald is that your progress is tracked via a "rating system", and because of the high importance they assign to speed, if you are not used to finding tactics fast, your rating will be very low at first - and many people are simply embarrassed to play logged in for that reason. Don't let it bother you! If you let embarrassment hold you back from letting the site help you improve to the best of its ability, you are only shooting yourself in the foot, and nobody else really cares that much anyway. ;p
A few of the people I've recommended Emrald to, had dropped it after a brief trial with remarks along the lines of "Oh, it's a blitz training site. I don't play blitz, so I don't like their obsession with speed." That reaction is absolutely wrong - and it's also one that many people who try the site out for only a short time are likely to have, if only because players who are used to being rated, say, 2000 and above, at corr. chess sites, are going to be annoyed and put on the defensive about finding themselves rated as low as 1200-1300 at Emrald, and will wish to dismiss the "insulting" site.
Yes, the Emrald rating system is heavily influenced by speed. But thinking that the site's purpose is blitz training is a complete misunderstanding of the lesson taught. The real purpose of Emrald practice is not to improve your blitz skills, but to train you to recognize dozens of tactical themes and opportunities AT A GLANCE - which will not only save you time in games of any time control, but is often the only way you will catch them AT ALL. Those brilliant tactical shots that can be seen in anyone's collection of "most memorable games", are often moves that will either occur to you as soon as you glance at the position, or you will miss them altogether. That's what Emrald really teaches - tactical chess intuition.
<Intuition in chess can be defined as the first move that comes to mind when you see a position. --- <Viswanathan Anand>>
<Personally, I am of the view that if a strong master does not see such a threat at once he will not notice it, even if he analyses the position for twenty or thirty minutes. --- <Tigran Petrosian >>
<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>
^ TL;DR.

Any other questions, feel free to ask. I might even answer. ;p

>> Click here to see Annie K.'s game collections.

   Current net-worth: 990 chessbucks
[what is this?]

   Annie K. has kibitzed 8212 times to chessgames [more...]

   Sep-15-20 S Mariotti vs A Geller, 1990

Annie K.: The Black player in this game has been corrected from Efim to Alexander Geller. Thanks. :)

   Sep-14-20 chessgames.com chessforum

Annie K.: <MissS> ah, yes, the key term "I challenged her" - that pretty much describes the previous post too, which was a blown out of all proportion tirade about the severity of the Player of the Day (not the entire homepage as claimed, which I check on almost every midnight, ...

   Sep-12-20 Champions Showdown Chess 9LX (2020)

Annie K.: Note: if you can't see the games, please set your game viewer to pgn4web (in the box under the game score) - but remember to set it back to our default viewer Olga in the end, as it is about to be upgraded soon, and will be the best of our viewers. :)

   Sep-04-20 Chessgames Bookie chessforum

Annie K.: The logs have been checked, and the top places are cleared. Congratulations to winner <moronovich>, the other 5 qualifiers, and the rest of the top 10! :) We have opened the Fall Leg, so if anything turns up, betting can start immediately, but we have no official schedule for

   Aug-01-20 Biographer Bistro

Annie K.: <Tab> The WCC pages are tied in with some special functions, and changing them can cause far-ranging problems at this time (remember when merely changing the WCC page titles caused stats to disappear from the pages of participating players?), so let's take this up again after

   Jul-29-20 Ding Liren vs Leko, 2020

Annie K.: Identical to K Stupak vs E Shtembuliak, 2020 .

   Jul-24-20 Annie K. chessforum

Annie K.: A fun conversation from 2016... :) <Daniel:> I’ve come to learn a lot about what sports broadcasting must be like. Actually I learned about it long before CG when I worked at a newspaper. If there is a sporting event you MUST be excited about it, from a business ...

   Jul-22-20 Biel (2020)

Annie K.: It gets worse - the chess24 intro says "In case of a tie for first place chess960 rapid games will be played", but in fact the official site specifies that the chess960 tiebreaks in question are the ACCENTUS 960 games - which have already been played on the 18th, the event's first ...

   Jul-21-20 Csom vs A Yusupov, 1982

Annie K.: The only requirement for this excellent pun is to pronounce Csom correctly. Which means, as "Chom". :)

   Jul-17-20 K Pedersen vs G F Kane, 1972

Annie K.: <jith> thank you for the always helpful directions. :) So all 12 Pedersen games we have in Chess Olympiad Final-A (1972) games are about to be reassigned from Eigil to Karl.

indicates a reply to the comment.

Procrastinators' Club (planned)

< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 128 OF 274 · Later Kibitzing>
Jan-28-12		Annie K.: Thx for report! Your Black results continue to be quite impressive. :) White... heh, you could accidentally play 1.e4, which you do know how to play, akshly. ;p Or maybe the 1.a3 idea could work... Where is that tournament anyway? Forgot to ask. And how many games per day and in total?

Jan-30-12		Domdaniel: Too many games per day. In Cork. A little annual weekender called the Mulcahy memorial open. Used to attract GMs in the 70s and 80s, when it ran over a long weekend, with adjournments. Now it's a shrunken affair, with a dozen or so tough players in the 1700-2000 range, and a long tail of lessers. I finished with 3/3 as black, and 3.5/6 overall. A last-round win would've been joint 2nd-3rd, but I lost on time in a time scramble. My last 3 games went right to the wire - no increments, just 90'/game - and my brain is still mush. Both my losses were to higher-rated players, but I'd drawn all previous games with one of them (the eventual winner) and I'd beaten the other guy twice. Last round syndrome strikes again. Two of my black wins weren't even the French. On a whim, I played the Gruenfeld twice and won both.

Jan-30-12		Domdaniel: I did, however, manage to win one game quickly, in rnd 3 -- against the same 1020-rated player who beat me in the first round last year. Last time, I played the Symmetrical 1...c5 against his English opening, and got into a typical dense tangle. This time, trying to think of something more dynamic and forcing, I came up with the Gruenfeld-English, though it meant abandoning my usual 1...e6. 1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 d5 3.cxd5 Nxd5 I remember losing to this against some master type in my English days. And, while the Gruenfeld itself is trendy, this particular line seems to be less fashionable. 4.e4? Nb4 5.d4? Oops. click for larger view 5...Qxd4

Jan-30-12		Annie K.: Heh - sweet revenge. :) 3.5/6 is quite ok, but 0.5/3 as opposed to 3/3... you really have to change something there, yanno, and preferably not on the Black side. Just saying? ;) I can't even imagine playing more than one classical time control game per day. It's just not done here. Must be a nightmare - I'm usually exhausted after one. :s Get lots of sleep!

Jan-31-12		Annie K.: Another one for my <Blitz is fun> series... :) [Event "FICS rated blitz game"] [Date "2012.02.01"] [White "AnnieK"] [Black "NN"] [WhiteElo "1430"] [BlackElo "1155"] [TimeControl "600+0"] [Mode "ICS"] [Result "1-0"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 h6 4. c3 Nf6 5. d3 Bc5 6. Bb3 d6 7. O-O Bg4 8. Nbd2 h5 9. h3 Be6 10. Bc2 Qd7 11. Ng5 O-O-O 12. Nxe6 Qxe6 13. Nb3 Bb6 14. d4 Ne7 15. d5 Qd7 16. a4 a6 17. Be3 Rdg8 18. Bxb6 cxb6 19. Qe2 g5 20. Nd2 g4 21. h4 g3 22. Bd1 Rg4 23. fxg3 Rxg3 24. Rxf6 Qh3 25. Rf3 Rhg8 26. Rxg3 Rxg3 27. Qf2 Qxh4 28. Bxh5 Qg5 29. Bxf7 Ng6 30. Nf3 Qg4 31. Be6+ 1-0

Jan-31-12		Annie K.: ...and another... :D [Event "FICS rated blitz game"] [Date "2012.02.01"] [White "AnnieK"] [Black "NN"] [WhiteElo "1433"] [BlackElo "1107"] [TimeControl "600+0"] [Mode "ICS"] [Result "1-0"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 e6 4. c3 g6 5. O-O Bg7 6. Bb3 Nge7 7. Bc2 a6 8. d4 cxd4 9. cxd4 d5 10. e5 Nf5 11. Bg5 Qb6 12. Be3 Qxb2 13. Nbd2 Ncxd4 14. Bxf5 Nxf3+ 15. Nxf3 exf5 16. Bd4 Qb5 17. a4 Qd7 18. Rc1 O-O 19. Ba1 b5 20. axb5 Qxb5 21. Nd4 Qd7 22. Re1 Re8 23. Nf3 Bb7 24. Qd4 Qe7 25. Qb6 Rac8 26. Bd4 Rxc1 27. Rxc1 Rc8 28. Rb1 Rc7 29. h3 Qd8 30. Qb2 Re7 31. e6 Bxd4 32. exf7+ Rxf7 33. Nxd4 Ba8 34. Ne6 Qe8 35. Ng5 Re7 36. Qf6 Re1+ 37. Rxe1 Qxe1+ 38. Kh2 Qe8 39. Ne6 Qf7 40. Qd8+ <Black forfeits on time> 1-0

Feb-01-12		Thanh Phan: Some nice games <Annie K.> :) they look fun Found another version of food as progress lol Oh my God please do not eat this http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic...

Feb-01-12		playground player: Am I still banned? Looks like I'm not. Thank you, Annie K.

Feb-01-12		Thanh Phan: Google Classic Wallpaper ~ http://en.wallpapers-3d.ru/wallpape...

Feb-01-12		Domdaniel: <A> I guess this is where I should talk chess, yes? I find your games bizarre and incomprehensible, apart from the cute tactical finishes. But those openings with 1.e4 e5 are just totally alien to me. I started playing 1.c4, 1.Nf3, 1.b3 and even 1.e3 at the age of sixteen, and never looked back. I've played almost everything at one time or another, and I'm distinctly uncomfortable in positions where (a) centre pawns are advanced and exchanged in the opening (b) bishops are not fianchettoed, and (c) the object of the game is checkmate. Well, I can adapt to condition (c) when the occasion demands it. I could play 1.e4, of course. I have some familiarity with the King's Indian Attack, the Grand Prix Sicilian, etc. Just. Not. Open. Games.

Feb-01-12		Domdaniel: <Thanh Phan> -- <Would we break bread with our brainy cohabitants or be locked in a constant battle for supremacy?> My theory is that we wouldn't even see them, or be aware of their existence. They'd use their superior cognitive power to stay in camouflage. And we'd just live in endless dread of some nameless predator. We'd even invent myths and make movies about them.

Feb-01-12		SwitchingQuylthulg: <Domdaniel> Practically everyone is used to playing against 1.e4, even me - so 1.e4 would mean switching from a repertoire you feel comfortable with to one that your opponents feel comfortable with. I'm not sure why <Annie> thinks this would be an improvement :)

Feb-01-12		Annie K.: <Dom> you can talk chess anywhere you like! ;D <Switch> well, two things. :) One, <Dom> has said before that his problem playing White is often that he reaches a good position out of the opening and gets overconfident. So mebbe taking himself out of his comfort zone would eliminate that problem. Two, whatever the reason for the poor White stats, when you see someone get incredibly good results, like 3/3 here, with Black, then this guy can obviously play chess. Yet his White results don't reflect this. So, looking at a White 0.5/3 score, I'd say that <any> drastic repertoire change would most likely be an improvement, because, um, it's not like it <could> get much worse? ;s

Feb-01-12		OhioChessFan: 56% win rate: Opening Explorer

Feb-02-12		Thanh Phan: Our idea of food as shelf-life instead of food as edible gives our brainy cohabitants the advantage, I think With all the Additives, Preservatives and artificial coloring and flavor, they might have forgotten to add the food. lol

Feb-02-12		Domdaniel: Edible food? What will they think of next? ;)

Feb-02-12		Domdaniel: <Annie> Apropos recent results, I should point out some mitigating factors, eg: my three black wins were against lower-rated opponents, and my two white losses against higher-rated ones, with a gap of over 200 ELO points in all but one case (the last round, where my opponent was only 120 points higher ... he's beaten me twice in last-round games, I've beaten him twice in other situations). The draw was against a lower-rated player, but the position was equal and complex, with both of us in time trouble. As two of my opponents opened with 1.c4, five of my six games had broadly similar openings ... English, Catalan, Gruenfeld, KID. I happened to win with black, as did two of my opponents. Black has been doing rather well at many levels recently. The only exception here was a 1st-round French against a much lower-rated opponent. In rounds 1 and 3 I won without exerting myself, and would have done so regardless of colour. In between, I played the top seed and eventual winner (with whom my previous score was two draws). Maybe I'd have done better with Black rather than playing the White side of a Panno King's Indian, which I actually know fairly well. I have no complaints with my post-opening or middlegame position in any game. When I made a mistake, it was later in the game. I also tended to be 20+ minutes ahead on the clock at this stage, regardless of colour ... and gave the time back in the late middlegame or ending, unless I won first. One resolution, though: I'm not playing in any more weekend swiss tournaments without increments. Those blitz finishes are a killer. I'll also modify my openings ... to something else in the Reti/English/QP constellation. Like I keep saying, e4 is too good a move to waste on one's first turn... ;)

Feb-02-12		Annie K.: <Thanh> thanks. :) That Google Classic Wallpaper is great! <Dom> ok, ok... :p (I've had games in which I played e4 twice - it's a good move indeed...) ;D

Feb-02-12		Annie K.: Moar <Blitz Iz Fun>... :D The following two games are against the same (FICS Blitz 1700+) opponent - and he's not a noob wot got lucky in his first few games, to get this rating, either. [Event "FICS rated blitz game"] [Date "2012.02.02"] [White "AnnieK"] [Black "NN"] [WhiteElo "1440"] [BlackElo "1710"] [TimeControl "600+0"] [Mode "ICS"] [Result "1-0"] 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 c6 4. f4 Bg4 5. Nf3 e6 6. Bd3 Be7 7. O-O O-O 8. Ne2 d5 9. e5 Ne4 10. Bxe4 dxe4 11. Nd2 f5 12. exf6 Bxf6 13. Nxe4 Na6 14. Nxf6+ Qxf6 15. c3 Nc7 16. Qd3 Nd5 17. Ng3 Rae8 18. Ne4 Qg6 19. Nc5 Bf5 20. Qg3 Qf7 21. Bd2 Nf6 22. h3 b6 23. Nd3 Ne4 24. Qe3 c5 25. Ne5 Qb7 26. dxc5 Nxc5 27. Rad1 Bc2 28. Rde1 Rd8 29. Bc1 Bb1 30. b4 Ne4 31. b5 Qd5 32. Ba3 Rfe8 33. Rxb1 Nd2 34. Rfd1 Qxa2 35. Rb2 Qxa3 36. Rbxd2 Rc8 37. Nc6 a5 38. Qxb6 Qxc3 39. Ne5 a4 40. Qa7 Qe3+ 41. Qxe3 (Black resigns) 1-0 [Event "FICS rated blitz game"] [Date "2012.02.03"] [White "NN"] [Black "AnnieK"] [WhiteElo "1725"] [BlackElo "1474"] [TimeControl "600+0"] [Mode "ICS"] [Result "0-1"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Bc5 4. O-O d6 5. h3 a6 6. Ba4 Bd7 7. c3 Nge7 8. d3 h6 9. Nbd2 O-O 10. Bb3 Kh7 11. Re1 f5 12. Bc2 Ng6 13. Nb3 Ba7 14. d4 f4 15. Qd3 Nh4 16. Bd2 Nxf3+ 17. Qxf3 Qg5 18. Rad1 Rad8 19. Bc1 Kg8 20. Rd3 Ne7 21. Red1 exd4 22. Nxd4 Be8 23. Ne6 Qh4 24. Nxd8 Bh5 25. Bb3+ Kh7 26. g4 fxg3 27. Qxf8 Bxf2+ 28. Kg2 Bxd1 29. Bxd1 Qxe4+ 30. Qf3 Qe1 31. Qe2 Qg1+ 32. Kf3 Qh1+ 33. Kg4 Ng6 34. Nf7 g2 35. Bf4 g1=Q+ 36. Rg3 Bxg3 37. Bxg3 Qxd1 (White resigns) 0-1 The third is a French... ;) [Event "FICS rated blitz game"] [Date "2012.02.03"] [White "AnnieK"] [Black "NN"] [WhiteElo "1487"] [BlackElo "1412"] [TimeControl "600+0"] [Mode "ICS"] [Result "1-0"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Nge7 6. a3 Ng6 7. Bd3 Qb6 8. b4 cxd4 9. cxd4 Bd7 10. Bxg6 hxg6 11. Nc3 O-O-O 12. Na4 Qa6 13. Bg5 Ne7 14. Nc5 Qb5 15. Rc1 b6 16. Nxe6+ (Black resigns) 1-0

Feb-03-12		Domdaniel: <The third is a French... ;) > Hmm. I'm pretty sure that Black is supposed to last for more than 16 moves in the French. Why, I sometimes make it to move 20.

Feb-03-12		SwitchingQuylthulg: <Blitz Iz Fun> <Real> blitz would be even more fun - 3 0, or at least 5 0 :s

Feb-03-12		Annie K.: <Dom> heh. :) Yes, I suppose it would help if my opponents had any idea what to do in the French past move 8-10 or so. ;)

Feb-03-12		Domdaniel: Blitz is not 'fun', young man. Blitz is an abomination, whether in RL/ OTB/ clock abuse form, or using a 'mouse' on the nutterweb. Even the revelation that Botvinnik played blitz in secret will not shake my loathing of the format. So you got fast reflexes. Try boxing. [ 'young man' in the sense that anyone who actually enjoys such things is probably a juvenile male, though they may not be aware of it. But if you observe yourself roaming in packs, looking for opportunities to do violent things very fast, you probably qualify ... ]

Feb-03-12		Domdaniel: <Thanh Phan> - <Oh my God please do not eat this > Heh. "Civilization is the distance placed between a species and its excreta." - Brian Aldiss

Feb-03-12		Annie K.: <Switch> huh, when did you post that? I dint notice. :) Heh - I think we've gone over this before? Any time control that contributes to my <blitz> rating is <real> blitz. ;) I'm not in a hurry, the leisurely pace of 10 0 games is fine with me... :p <Dom> You're going through one of your contrary phases again, arntcha, dear? ;)

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