Forum

This is the forum for the game of Guess the City. There will only be U.S. cities since this is Team United States Chess. Two guesses for each new letter given. For example, J_ _. One member can make two guesses. If nobody guesses the right word, Jo_ will be posted. Then the same member can make two more guesses. Don't worry about small towns and cities. They won't be on here. Also, if the city is a little hard, then I will give the specific area like "The Midwest." Also, there will be different things like I may give the first letter but not the amount of letters, and I will give a detail. When I give the directions for the different thing, it may be one guess per day or something different. If you get 5 cities right, you will get a trophy. Thanks for playing Also, when somebody gets the right answer, I will anounce their name with the city and state so we all can learn a little geography The first one will be C_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ However, make sure you are guessing for the right letter because this first one has already been solved. Make sure to go to the last post. Also for example, if the city was Los Angeles, it would be combined as one word if it is posted with blanks. you can guess it with two words but I will combine it for the post so it doesn't give it away. Here is a table for the correct answers so far in order. Also, it may include the current one to guess on (sometimes it is not updated). So check the comments anyway. Last updated August, 29, 2013 1 Charleston, West Virginia andrewtb (1) 2 Beaumont, Texas Kphlash (1) 3 Santa Maria, California andrewtb (2) 4 Medford, Oregon AlaskanVixen (1) 5 Duluth, Minnesota Cefalu (1) 6 Ashland, Wisconsin Cefalu (2) 7 Gillette, Wyoming Nymm (1) 8 Clovis, New Mexico othaniel (1) 9 Seattle, Washington quietvolcano (1) 10 Spokane, Washington Matthew_Alexander (2) This was worth two points 11 Atlanta, Georgia Matthew_Alexander (3) 12 Helena, Montana Matthew_Alexander (4) 13 Grand Rapids, Michigan Thatguy69138(1) 14 Chicago, Illinois quietvolcano (2) 15 Starts with a B

A new Vote Chess game is about to start. Please join: http://www.chess.com/votechess/game?id=74682

Please join this match, or it wont even be close :) http://www.chess.com/groups/team_match?id=454244

If you haven't joined this match please do, we are kind of outnumbered. http://www.chess.com/groups/team_match?id=449994

Hello, we need a few more players, for our team match vs. Bulgaria. http://www.chess.com/groups/team_match?id=447436

Sorry I have been inactive, school caught up to me, so just posting a quick topic about time.you should always focus on taking time on your move instead of moving on pure instinct, one of my habbits in chess is to switch to auto pilot in extremely sharp situations, it tends to work for me most of the time, rarely it wont work and even rare still will I loose because of it. here is an example of where I should have stopped my hand before clicking. Now I will give you a shot at finding what I couldn't in game, but found the next day without a board durring AP physics had I spent a mere 5 seconds on that move I would have found The win, instead I decide to do the opposite and just move way to quickly.

Preparation is a very important theme, it involves ensuring your pieces can preform offensive and defensive tasks, and so your attacks are unstoppable here is an example of an attack that wasn't prepared. [Event "Let's Play!"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2013.12.26"] [White "jetfighter13"] [Black "-waller-"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "1412"] [BlackElo "2059"] [TimeControl "1 in 3 days"] [Termination "-waller- won by resignation"] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Nd5 (and here Black has allowed White to have a really nice knight on d5 as per most Sveshnikov lines) Be7 10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.c3 (allowing the Knight on a3 to come into the action when needed) Bg5 12.Bd3 O-O 13.h4 (starting an attack, notice that it hasn't been prepared, and that if it if more pieces wern't added, than it will be weak) Bh6 14.g4 Bf4 15.g5 (a good move, locking the Bishop out of the Action, and prepareing some deadly tactics) Be6( Black attempts to remove some defenders) 16.Qh5 g6 (creating a weakness that is exploitable) 17.Qh6 Bxd5 18.exd5 Nb8 19.h5????? (notice that this hangs the Queen, Ke2 was required, and I had planned it. but unfortunately I forgot my plan.) 0-1 sorry for no visual, My computer is acting up and I can't use it. sorry.

Today wer are going to explore the piece that most people feel is the hardest to grasp, or the hardest to follow, but the most beautiful when used correctly, and a piece that my friends always trade a Bishop for against me. thats right, we will examine my favorite piece the knight. to start we all know it moves in an L shape in such a way that a N on g1 can travel to f3 via teleportation (thats why you can play 1 Nf3) or as some people say hop over other pieces. It is also part of a puzzle where the goal is to use a knight to hit every square on a chess board exactly once, the knights tour. now lets look at some of the properties of the knight. So your opponeont has played the Dragon Sicillian and you mannaged to strip away the f pawn, resulting in the below possition, knowing how a knight moves deliver the winning combination As we all know that is a classic pattern and should be easy to spot. However that is not all a knight is good for, many people realize that on the c7 square it can deliver a crushing fork. So how do we get the knight into such great positions? There is an old addage that goes, a knight on the rim is dim. For the most part this is true. I will let Kasparov demonstrate how a Centralized knight is able to hummilliate an opponent. Notice how Kasparov not only defeated Karpov, but the d3 Octopus knight as it has been called killed Karpov and Karpov was unable to deal with it. now for my best use of a knight Notice how the knights dominated when they were in the center, and had effective squares to go to. This is not always the case, as sometimes there will be nothing happening in the center or a knight in the center is extremely vulnerable, but when supported a knight in the center can be the crux of an attack, or if neccessary, a defense.

That is what I call it anyway, what is it really? Its the plot, where you start with the exposition(setting/starting point)to rising action-climax("good" v.s. "bad" in final conflict)-falling action-resolution (the end) .Now this drives me nuts! You see this everywhere in movies,which are the most obvious, main character is set-main character starts winning conflict-main character starts losing conflict-main character wins in the end.This isn't just movies, they are in books, and tv shows! So I have two questions,1)Is our imagination not as unlimited as we think and this is the only way to carry a story out? or 2)Is there a way to create a story without these strict concepts? Try to give some thought into this and be reasonable and give me your ideas as this as frustrated me for years! This is what I mean 3)CLIMAX 2)RISING ACTION 4)FALLING ACTION 1)EXPOSITION_________________________5)RESOLUTION Good luck!

E4 or D4? Which one is better in your opinion? You don't have to use any of them to comment. You just have to have an opinion. That's how easy it is! Feel free to insert diagrams and argue your opinion. Have fun!

What is your favorite thing about it? Comment! Mine is freedom of speech! What about yours? -Kingdom_Hearts

[COMMENT DELETED]

What is your favorite opening? Feel free to discuss with other people about openings.

I was watching this game in a 15 10 tournament and both black and white missed many oppertunities. It was hillarious and yet fustrating to watch this. The blunder on moves 14, 31, 32, 41-42, 48 are the most noticable, but there are still unintelligent moves concerning white losing pawns. So sit back and watch the game with comments guiding you through the blunders noted above (the most noticable ones). Warning: Watching this game may cause loss of chess skill and tactical abilities. :)

Hello again. Today we look at development, something I touched upon in my first attempt, I decided that it needs more depth and to begin with what happens when you have it and your opponent doesn't of course that was the Opera Game constructed by America's Own Paul Morphy. but notice how he developed each piece including both rooks and used every piece to deliver mate. That is why Morphy was head and shoulders above everyone else at the time. here is an example from my games as to the importance of not only development, but of optimal development.

Hello all, I am going to do a series because I want to, and also I have nothing better to do. so I will post these up on various topics, and will have puzzles and examples from my games (some of these I will be on the recieving end) and lastly if you want to send your games in why not. The first topic is develop your pieces to their optimal squares, and if possible (excluding certain theoretical lines) try not to touch them again until every piece is at least developed, including the queen in some cases, and you are comfortable with you're king's safety. also there are some general rules, for example, Knights before Bishops, Knights on the rim are dim, and don't bring the queen out too early. You want your rooks connected if possible and beneficial. so here is one example of a good opening set up Now of course this is going to be nearly impossible to achieve in practical way because your opponent will want to prevent that. so you might have to do somthing to build up your center in a different way. for example here is one center that is fairly well know, it comes from the Evan's Gambit Of course that is merely one opening but notice how white rapidly built his center, and developed, or opened lines to develop with. when you are playing focus on those principles and you should do fine. of course there are traps, but simple tactical knowledge should prevent falling into those. now lets talk examples here is a game I played recently where I was playing as black

Blunders are a key part of the game, because without them we wouldn't have the fun of blaming things like the weather, time trouble, your opponent kicking you under the table, your cat deciding that he is going to nueter you in retribution... Ok maybe thats not the real reason, but they do serve a purpose, to teach us a lesson. so without further ado let us look at the first blunders did I have a playable position, sure, could I have done better, Of course I could have, but this just goes to show that even in games with decent time controls (this game was 15|10) you can still forget about the bishop on f3 being able to hit h5 Yes I forgot that the bishop could go to that square. learn to double check yourself and you should be fine, now see if you can spot the winning move in the next position that I had been preparing knowingly but didn't play (you will laugh at the reason i didn't play it when you solve it) The reason I didn't play this simple move, I forgot my queen was also hitting c5, so i assumed that I would loose the extra Bishop that I had. here is the rest of the game So remember before you move, always make sure to look at the board and check for blunders

This is the forum for riddle responses. The first one with the right answer gets a trophy.

The Following is my best game, and one I will thoroughly enjoy, I think The time spent studying tactics and playing game after game proved worthwhile and last but not least it was artfull So with the oppening finished and both our pawnstorms underway we enter the middle game where there should be hack and slash tactics. after the first phase of the middle game, white has just fallen to pieces, and Black has all the chances. Black now has an opprotunity to finish off White. and now how would black finish off white (there is one capture that could be made with either piece, so I just chose one)