Slomski's Rapid Chess Training League - Season 1

During the period of September 2015 - January 2016, a new rapid league will be taking place here on Chess.com, designed to give strong players a chance to play against similarly rated competition in rapid time controls. The league is organized and run by NM Matthew Slomski, and currently has about a few dozen members, all rated between 1900-2300. The time control for most games is 20 + 10 (increment), and the games are scheduled on a weekly basis according to the schedules of those playing.

Since one of the most effective ways of chess improvement is to play training games, the league makes a lot of sense for a class player/expert/master who wishes to improve and challenge themselves on a weekly basis. Live (over the board) tournaments are obviously useful in this regard as well, but require entry fees and travel costs, and don't occur frequently enough outside of places like NYC.

The league does not have a set number of weeks or put importance on results, standings, etc. It's simply an organized way to train by playing against players of a decent level, and the rapid time control is good since it's not too fast but also doesn't take up too much time and allows players to think and play some good chess.

With that, here are some interesting games from the first few weeks of play:

Stay tuned as I'll be posting a blog every few weeks with annotated games from the league. If you're interested in joining the league, send a message to Slom, I believe there is still space available .

Until next time!
-Kostya