Online chess community where you can play chess, learn strategies and tactics, read chess news, see book reviews, find rules & tips, get free downloads, and more! http://www.chess.com/ 2007 Chess.com My Chess Goal for 2010 is to play through all of Bobby Fischer's games that I can find. Chessgames.com has 958 of Bobby's games in its database. That works out to be about 3 games per day for the year. I will create a spreadsheet on Google docs to...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/my-chess-goal-for-2010Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:14:39 -0800http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/my-chess-goal-for-2010This game features one of the greatest Chess tacticians of all time, Mikhail Tal. He plays the Rubinstein Variation of the French Defense. Black takes over the initiative right from the start. White pays for his passive and inaccurate play in 18 m...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/annotated-miniature-3-janis-klovans---mikhail-tal-0-1Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:32:18 -0700http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/annotated-miniature-3-janis-klovans---mikhail-tal-0-1I have mentioned the benefits studying Chess miniatures before. This game features the Danish Gambit where White sacrifices several pawns for rapid development, and then tries to sacrifice a piece which Black declines, and at the end, I could not ...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/annotated-miniature-2-bird---laskerWed, 09 Sep 2009 18:18:44 -0700http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/annotated-miniature-2-bird---laskerStudying miniatures has many benefits. First, almost always, the winner wins quickly because the loser did something (really bad) that s/he should not have done in the opening. Second, related to the first reason, one learns what not to do. Third,...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/annotated-miniature-1Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:14:16 -0700http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/annotated-miniature-1After winning 3 games in a row, I knew that maintaining the wins would be very hard as the opponents would get stronger. I also knew it would be fun playing higher rated players. So, the self-talk began. I suspected that the rest of players I woul...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/17th-annual-chicago-open---round-5---fourth-winFri, 30 May 2008 22:05:06 -0700http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/17th-annual-chicago-open---round-5---fourth-winI went into my 4th game wanting to maintain the momentum I had (gained) after winning both my games the day before. I am looking at the scoresheet to see what I remember about this game, and it appears it was a pretty quick game. We had 6 hours to...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/17th-annual-chicago-open---round-4---third-winFri, 30 May 2008 19:15:05 -0700http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/17th-annual-chicago-open---round-4---third-winThe first two games featured "Indian Defenses" and I thought they were King's Indian Defenses. GotGoose correctly pointed out that those were Benoni Defenses. The third game was a Benoni. (Which one? Old? Classical? or...?) I am not ...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/17th-annual-chicago-open---round-3---second-winThu, 29 May 2008 21:21:46 -0700http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/17th-annual-chicago-open---round-3---second-winAfter losing the first game with White, I decided to study/review the King's Indian Defense and use it as Black against 1.d4. In the previous couple of tournaments, I had played the Gruenfeld Defense. Going to this tournament, I had not settle...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/17th-annual-chicago-open---round-2---first-winWed, 28 May 2008 22:45:56 -0700http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/17th-annual-chicago-open---round-2---first-winHere is my first game in the 17th Annual Chicago Open that I played in over the weekend. I was White, and I lost to a King's Indian Defense that I mishandled at various points. At first, I lost a bunch of tempos - (poor/inconsistent decisions)...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/17th-annual-chicago-open---round-1---lossTue, 27 May 2008 22:11:42 -0700http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/17th-annual-chicago-open---round-1---lossOver the Memorial Day weekend, I participated in the 17th Annual Chicago Open, that took place at Westin Hotel (Chicago North Shore), Wheeling, IL. It was amazing seeing all the people that play the game. It was bigger than the previous big tourna...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/17th-annual-chicago-open-my-first-time---u2100Tue, 27 May 2008 16:43:51 -0700http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/17th-annual-chicago-open-my-first-time---u2100Here is my 5th and last game of the 2008 Mid-America Open tournament that was played last weekend. At the time, it appeared I was already assured of being in the top two or three. I needed a draw to be an outright winner. I do not know how to play...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/2008-mid-america-open---game-5Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:41:47 -0800http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/2008-mid-america-open---game-5Here is another Grunfeld Defense which almost went wrong! After winning three games in a row the day before, a friend told me that I was the only one with 3 points after 3 rounds in our section, U2000. It was exciting. Could I make it 4-0? This wa...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/2008-mid-america-open---game-4Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:55:32 -0800http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/2008-mid-america-open---game-4After winning the first two games, I was under some pressure to win the third game so that I could finish my day with 3 wins. I knew it was going be tough as the people I was playing were getting stronger. I told myself to not worry about it, as a...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/2008-mid-america-open---game-3Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:27:52 -0800http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/2008-mid-america-open---game-3Here is my second game of the 2008 Mid-America Open tournament. It was the Slav Defense of QGD. I was happy with how I had relentless pressure against the Black King. I later sacrificed a pawn for a winning attack... I have annotated the game and ...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/2008-mid-america-open---game-2Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:06:35 -0800http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/2008-mid-america-open---game-2Over the weekend, I participated in a tournament in St Louis, MO. It was the  2008 Mid-America Open Tournament. I played quite okay and I won all my five games. Here is the first of those games. I have included my annotations. Your comments, ...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/2008-mid-america-open---game-1Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:47:40 -0800http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/2008-mid-america-open---game-1In this second round game of the 34th Annual Easter Open, I gave up a Bishop for 3 pawns... and then, I think I misplayed the middlegame and ending. Well, how else would I lose?   http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/a-painful-loss---was-the-sacrifice-a-mistakeThu, 27 Dec 2007 21:46:04 -0800http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/a-painful-loss---was-the-sacrifice-a-mistakeThis is one of my favorite games for several reasons: First, I had an objective right from the start - third move - that Black's light-squared Bishop would not get involved in the game and that sort of happened. Second, I created my first Alek...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/my-first-alekhines-gunThu, 27 Dec 2007 14:58:39 -0800http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/my-first-alekhines-gun Sometimes I wonder how much I know about the things I like. One of those things is chess.com - so I decided to look into things like, when it was launched (birthday?!), how about the first article, when was it published? etc. So, I looked in...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/oldest-stuff-at-chesscomWed, 19 Dec 2007 16:20:42 -0800http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/oldest-stuff-at-chesscomI believe that one sure way to attain excellence in any field is to master the fundamentals - the basics. Once you have a strong foundation, you are able to build onto that and before long, what you once thought as lofty ideas and goals, become yo...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/how-to-improve-at-chess-tip-17-know-these-basicsSat, 15 Dec 2007 16:09:10 -0800http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/how-to-improve-at-chess-tip-17-know-these-basicsHere at Chess.com when you are playing "Online Chess" you have the ability to make notes of your thoughts, ideas, calculations, etc. The next time you bring your game up, look to your right, there is a pane where you can chat/message, - ...http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/how-to-improve-at-chess-tip-16-make-notesMon, 10 Dec 2007 18:41:40 -0800http://blog.chess.com/chessiq/how-to-improve-at-chess-tip-16-make-notes