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In the mid 70's, Curt Brasket mowed down all of his competition in Minnesota events, watching his rating all the while, to be sure he could qualify for Lone Pine. At the time this game was played, the Saemisch Variation of the King's Indian was a ... | Read More
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On Board 2, I once again find myself playing way up. A lot of teams used the strategy of loading up on Boards 1 and 2. Looks like we found two of them.
In this game, I found myself facing the Gruenfeld line in the English. I thought I handled... | Read More
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This year, I was board two on a team with an average rating of 1800. We got paired up in the first round, and my opponent was FM Rodion Rubenchik. I was a little overmatched, but still, I shouldn't have gone down this quickly.
The opening trans... | Read More
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Chess does attract a puerile element, and the principals come in all age groups. Mostly their behaviors include trash talking in the chat box, sore losing behavior such as letting the clock run down or just disconnecting. Face it. If you play ... | Read More
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This game is a great example of a common line in the Cambridge Springs Defense where White opts to exchange on d5. Some writers have suggested that this is White's best try for an edge.
As this game demonstrates, Black gets a playable game wi... | Read More
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Know this. The Alapin Sicilian is a very dangerous system in the Sicilian with a lot of unexplored territory. Sometimes, it seems that there are tactical bombs at every turn. This game occurred in Czechoslovokia, 1990, and Black crushed his mu... | Read More
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Played in the Westfield Quads on June 12, this game intrigued me because White played a sideline that Ken Smith tried to popularize in the 70's. I'd always thought that recapturing with 5.Qxd4 was a little dubious, and this game does little to mak... | Read More
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This game occurred at the Interzonal tournament in Sweden, 1952. The middle game is of interest to me because it features a Maroczy Bind Pawn structure where White has fianchettoed his light squared Bishop. We could easily reach the position on ... | Read More
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In this game, we have an opening that is usually classified as a Caro-Kann, though the position can arise from several opening move orders. The Ecuadorian Grandmaster got a nice edge, and by move 15, it was clear that Holt would be facing difficul... | Read More
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It was a pleasant surprise to see a Benko Gambit in this round. That's a signal that Black's playing the round for a win.
On move 18, Holt decided to ditch his Queenside Pawns and play for the initiative. With the help of hindsight, it's clear th... | Read More