Trying to win on time?

In this 15 minute game on FICS (no increment) I moved into what I believe to be a drawish bishop endgame. I had under 2 minutes on my clock, opposed to my opponent's 7. I had the bad bishop and less active king, but was up 1 pawn and had everything defended. I offered my opponent numerous draws, but they declined. They either thought they could win the position, or win on time. I got the feeling they were trying to win on time because they began moving extremely quickly. It's worth pointing out that 54.Bb6 is a blunder which my opponent didn't capitalise on, perhaps they were too busy looking at my remaining time?

I think this game demonstrates an important lesson, regardless of whether or not my opponent was actually trying to win on time. Trying to beat your opponent on time is pretty low, and if you push too much it can blow up in your face. I've seen a lot of players refuse draws in equal positions and try to beat their opponents on the clock, and consider it to be poor sportsmanship.

Nick "Waitzkin" Beare Vs William "Kasparov" Booth

A battle between friends that included a lot of chess psychology. White played in true Waitzkin style with 1.e4, an opening that perhaps Black did not expect. Black gave white an early advantage after 6.Nxe4 resulted in his king being displaced. White did well to "maintain the tension" in the style of Josh Waitzkin, with moves like 14.Qg3 to build an impressive attack. Black played well with his back against the wall and found all the right defensive moves, most notably 15.h5! White miscalculated on 17.Bxc6 and should have played the much more powerful 17.Qe3, threatening to play Ng4 next move and eventually win material. After conceding his advantage White eventually offered a draw. With both players relatively low on time, equal on the board and the clock, but with Black's position still slightly awkward, Black didn't want to risk a loss and accepted.

Tough battle against a 2000 (FICS) player

William "Waitzkin" Booth in action

W.Booth 1917 vs Matijako 1900 (5min 0sec)

A sharp line in the Four Knights Glek System

Beaten on my birthday

Thought I was heading for a nice victory against a slightly higher rated player, but it was not to be:( (I blundered on move 22 under time pressure, took me ages to figure out how to save my rook and knight after taking on h2)

William Booth - maintaining the tension

"A key moment is when I exchanged queens. I avoid a lot of the tricky lines Black has and I give myself a clear plan". - GM Booth

FICS - ChessingYogi (1786) vs. lignin (1829) - 15min

A good win against a higher rated opponent. They seemed to equalise pretty easily from the opening, but I had good pressure on the C file. 27.Nxe5 looks pretty sweet. The end game certainly looked better for me, just had to watch the 'a' and 'b' pawns.

Facing your own opening

A tough battle against an opening I have recently started playing, 1.g3. I would have crashed and burned if there wasn't a 4 second increment.

How NOT to play against Benko's Opening (1.g3)

Playing b6 so early against 1.g3 has to be dangerous...

Annoying player

I was playing this opponent on FICS and then all of a sudden (straight after sacrificing a piece which didn't seem to work) he/she disconnected and the game became adjourned with no result declared. I feel robbed of victory because I don't think the attack works and I am up a bishop in material. I also have a stranglehold on some key light squares and shouldn't have too much trouble developing. My king looks vulnerable, but it should be safe. When will I get my 1 point? What's with adjourining games on FICS?

Lunchtime FICS battle

Pretty crazy 15 minute game in which I was heavily down on time around move 25 (must learn to move faster!). Managed to play quickly enough to swindle a win in the end, but it should have been a draw after I dropped my H pawn. Below is a pic of the nice 3D interface I use on my iPad. If anyone out there is on FICS (Free Internet Chess Server) and wants a game my tag is ChessingYogi so please feel free to add me as a friend (+notify).

dreamhost promo

How to remove UAC for a specific program in Windows 7

I looked around on the net and couldn't find any easy way to do this. It seems as though in Windows 7 you can only turn it on OR off for ALL programs, not individual ones (Control Panel -> System and Security -> Change User Account Control Settings). However, I did find a way to remove UAC for an individual program by tricking it using Task Scheduler!


Open Task Scheduler - Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Task Scheduler.

Click "Create Task".

Enter a "Name" for the task (whatever you like) and click "Run with highest privileges". From the drop down menu "Configure for:" select "Windows 7 etc". If the task is for another user change the "Change User or Group..." to their username, if it's for you just leave it as you own.


Under the "Actions" tab click the "New" button. Select "Start a program" from the "Action" dropdown bar. Browse to the program you would like to open without the UAC prompt.


Under the "Settings" tab ensure that "Allow task to be run on demand" and "If the running task does not end when requested force it to stop" are ticked. Change the dropdown menu to "Stop the existing instance". Click "Ok" and exit Task Scheduler.


Create a bat file (open notepad > file > save as = example.bat). In notepad type C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.exe /run /tn "taskname"

"Taskname" refers to the name you gave to the task you created in Task Scheduler.

When you run the .bat file you will now be able to open the program you wanted to run WITHOUT the UAC prompt. Magic!

FICS game

The above is myself beating a random guy on FICS with the white pieces. There is nothing particularly interesting about the game, but it has kinda motivated me to blog some online games because it's very easy to post them. I will analyse some of the interesting ones later in the hope that someone other than me reads them. Who knows!


I've been using the iChessPack app on my Ipad to play on FICS. It's a really good way to play online chess! The 3D board is very realistic, just like OTB. Click here to access the official website