Blog still exists

I know there are no new posts, but I would like to inform you all, that my chess blog still exists. There will be some new articles soon. Please be patient.
Last weeks I am very busy. I have a lot of things to do and none of them are related to the chess.

Who am I?

I'm not going to write a long story about myself. I've asked this question, because I want to say something, how am I seen in the internet. Not as a blogger, but as a chess player.

I did write an article about online chess some time ago. I wrote, inter alia, that online chess kills this sport. Some people did not understand me. I meant that the chess as a sport will be changed. The form of chess will be changed.
So far we had an opportunity to discuss with our opponent, to know him, to see him. Now the situation is different. I am not a real player. I am not a human. I am just the rating which has to be beaten. And that is true. We don't need to see our opponent. We don't care how does he look. He is anonymous for us.
I don't like this. And to me the chess over the board will always be more important than online chess. Even if sometimes I'm to lazy too go on the tournament which takes place in the same city where I live.

Does the FIDE organization like you?

Do you think that FIDE organization likes you? Do you think you are important for them? You are absolutly right with some exceptions.

sxc.hu

First of all, not you are important for them, but your money. I think if you are not a top grand master they don't even know about your existence. It is only important that you pay for your cometition in tournaments.
Do you need a title? No problem. FIDE will help you. They created for us for example CM title. In case, FIDE doesn't have enough money, they will probably create another one title CCM (means candidate on candidate master).
Why do you think FIDE decreased the level of Elo rating? Because they like us? No they need money. Our money.
I wonder what else do they propose all chess players to get more money. Any ideas?

I'm a super moderator at chess forum

I'm proud to inform my readers that I have been a new super moderator at http://the-chess-forum.com.

It's young forum leaded by Oliver Stones. He still develops his forum and we all are sure that it will be one of a top forum in the net.
So far there are a lot of topics to discuss. There is also possibility to apply chess game to analyze by installed on this forum the PGN viewer.
Oliver (his nick name is bigoliver) is doing really good job. He is nice and friendly for users so everyone who registers will be well treated.
Please also note there is organized also the contest with prizes for users.

Boring GM's life

If you are going to be a Grand Master in chess, you need to know that your life will be boring and really stressful. Why do I think that?

Let me explain some things first.
No, I am not a GM and I'm not going to be at all.
Based on my experience in tournaments in Spain and Poland I see, that many GMs and IMs play in tournaments for money. They need to play for money, because they do not have any other possibility.
As we all know, if we are going to be GM we need to devote large part of our life (very often including school, job, family). And in many cases it is as I mentioned. I have seen a lot of GMs and IMs from Poland, Eastern Europe, South Europe, Latin America, USA, etc., so I know what I am saying.
Their life is boring, because they go from one tournament to another with expectation to win something. They do not have job (as they didn't care about it in the past). But they need money, so what they can do is only to play chess.
I see they do not have any pleasure with playing chess. They only think about money.
Funny thing is that if there are a few big tournaments (I met such situations several times in Madrid), so for example 5 GMs discuss where to play. And for example two of them play in one tournament, two of them in another, etc., so there is a big chance that all of them will be happy.
I know that many of you will not agree with me. But please understand that I'm not talking about top GMs, but only about ones with ratings 2400-2550. There are a lot of such players in the world.
Why their life is boring? It is boring, because their life is unsure. They do not know if they will be able to survive next months. They need to play, because they need money. They cannot do anything beside playing chess. Usually they cannot any skills needed to perform normal job.
Maybe from other perspective it doesn't look boring (I mean from perspective of weak player), but in real it is not lucky life.
The conclusion is that if you are going to be a Grand Master and you are going to devote everything you need to be a top player. Only such players have a happy life.

Crazy Elo rating

If you don't have Elo rating yet, be carefull who do you play with. If you want to go on the list with reasonable rating it is important to play with opponents with similar rating we feel we should have.

This is funny, but if you play againts opponents with poor ratings you will go on the list, but... with poor ratings. If you play against strong opponents (and you loose most games), your rating will be also poor.
Decreasing the level of Elo rating was a big mistake of FIDE. I know they need money, but for now ratings between 1500-2100 are not showing the real level of player. You will play in the tournament against not relevant players, you rating will be wrong. For example you feel you have skills on 1900 Elo, but due to some poor games you will be listed with 1500 Elo rating.
Increasing 400 points of Elo rating will take you years...
So the conclusion is that you should carefully select tournaments you are going to play in.

Online chess kills this sport

sxc.hu

Are you shocked? I know you are. This opinion is not very popular among chess players. You will ask, how it is possible?

Let me explain you a few things.
First of all, in tournaments play less player. Especially weak player will ask: what to play in expensive tournamet as I don't have chance to win any prize and pay a lot of money for that? I can play with GM, IM or FM players for free via internet. Impossible? No! Please register at any chess website, try to gain reasonable rating and invite strong player for a game. There is no problem to play with them.
The other possibility is to play in online chess tournaments. If there is swiss system (usually it is), you have a big opportunity to play with them in first round.
Another one reason that online chess kills this sport is that there are not so many people who wants to teach kids playing chess. Especially in Poland 10-15 years ago there were a lot of people who could work with young people. Now there are not so many people. I don't mean big clubs, but the smaller ones.
Teachers want money for their work and I fully understand them.
The other thing is that if you play online, you can meet people from around a world. If you play chess in your area, you have still the same opponents and it may be a bit boring.
I'm wondering what do you think about my point of view mentioned above. Do you agree with this opinion?