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 I am working through Kotov's article on various pawn positions in the center and in the section on open centers he used the following game between Alekhine and Lasker at Zurich 1934 as an example of an attack being successfully carried out. Enjoy....http://blog.chess.com/snits/beautiful-example-of-attack-being-carried-out-against-an-open-centerSat, 07 May 2011 23:53:51 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/beautiful-example-of-attack-being-carried-out-against-an-open-centerThe following is from Vladimir Zak's book Improve Your Chess Results. Zak was a famous trainer in Leningrad, who counted Spassky and Korchnoi among his pupils. "Annotating a game takes 12-16 hours on average. For convenience, the whole task may b...http://blog.chess.com/snits/vladimir-zak-on-annotating-gamesWed, 24 Nov 2010 18:43:43 -0800http://blog.chess.com/snits/vladimir-zak-on-annotating-gamesSo how do other people use the tactics trainer for improvement? Obviously it helps with pattern recognition. On chess.com I do the timed problems, so it is mainly exercising chess intuition. On chesstempo.com I do the non-timed where I am focused ...http://blog.chess.com/snits/tactics-trainer-as-a-tool-for-improvementWed, 28 Apr 2010 11:40:05 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/tactics-trainer-as-a-tool-for-improvementIn the book Developing Chess Talent there is an interview with David Bronstein where he states many interesting things, one of which is "The secret of the Russian Chess School is that we studied a position until it's very end". Other quotes and ...http://blog.chess.com/snits/secret-of-the-russian-chess-schoolSat, 10 Apr 2010 14:18:00 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/secret-of-the-russian-chess-schoolThis method is suggested in the book Developing Chess Talent. The website for the book is http://www.chesstalent.com/.  1. Play through the game and try to understand the comments. Write down moves and comments that you don't understand and pre...http://blog.chess.com/snits/yet-another-suggested-method-for-studying-annotated-gamesThu, 08 Apr 2010 00:44:26 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/yet-another-suggested-method-for-studying-annotated-gamesI have been working through this chapter of the Keres & Kotov book The Art of the Middle Game. Having just started the section on mobile centers, we are greeted with a position from the game Konstantinopolsky - Kotov.            ...http://blog.chess.com/snits/various-pawn-positions-in-the-centerMon, 05 Apr 2010 00:37:51 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/various-pawn-positions-in-the-centerI got to play through a fragment of this game today as I continue to work my way through Chess Strategy for Club Players. This game is an example given in the chapter on weakened king positions. Kasparov was 14 when he played this game. Enjoy!  ...http://blog.chess.com/snits/magerramov---kasparov-baku-1977Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:45:47 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/magerramov---kasparov-baku-1977I played through the last of the games from St. Petersburg 1909 today. This game from round 18 was a nice one.   Chessbase put out a CD some years ago that contained what they considered the 50 best tournaments of all time. So to continue th...http://blog.chess.com/snits/forgacs---tartakower-st-petersburg-1909Fri, 26 Mar 2010 14:21:23 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/forgacs---tartakower-st-petersburg-1909I was looking through the 1st round games of St. Petersburg 1909, going through them quickly as Jeremy Silman recently suggested studying master games for pattern recognition in an article on here. Akiva Rubinstein's game though made me stop and g...http://blog.chess.com/snits/rubenstein---znosko-borovsky-rd-1-st-petersburg-1909Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:02:12 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/rubenstein---znosko-borovsky-rd-1-st-petersburg-1909It has been a hectic few months with my newborn daughter, but she is doing well and is ahead of where they expect her to be since she was 8 weeks premature. I have started to get back into chess study this past week. I gave up in disgust right af...http://blog.chess.com/snits/getting-back-into-the-swing-of-thingsThu, 18 Mar 2010 19:44:50 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/getting-back-into-the-swing-of-thingsThe past month has been a hectic one. My daughter arrived 8 weeks early, on October 8th, and came home from the hospital on the 26th. She cute as can be, and constantly has me running to see what is the cause of the latest noise to emanate from he...http://blog.chess.com/snits/future-chess-player-arrives-earlySun, 01 Nov 2009 00:40:48 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/future-chess-player-arrives-early   This past week my brain seemed to stop working when it came to solving tactical problems in the trainer. I am guessing it was just exhaustion due to lack of sleep from staying up to follow the games in Nanjing, but it was a bit disconcerting...http://blog.chess.com/snits/brain-not-workingMon, 05 Oct 2009 00:19:35 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/brain-not-workingA nice King Hunt from another game of mine in the Ruy Lopez Thematic. Still a couple moves to go, but it is forced mate now.   http://blog.chess.com/snits/king-huntSun, 13 Sep 2009 21:07:14 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/king-huntHere is a game that finished today from the latest round of the Ruy Lopez thematic. Until 25..Rf7 the pucker factor was pretty high. While I had an advantage and the initiative if I misstepped Black had mating threats waiting. The note to 22..f5 ...http://blog.chess.com/snits/nice-game-from-ruy-lopez-thematicSat, 12 Sep 2009 03:17:15 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/nice-game-from-ruy-lopez-thematicHere are 2 Lasker games I have played through the last couple days as I continue to work through Reti's Masters of the Chess Board.     This first game seems to be stored with different move orders depending on where you find it. I have upl...http://blog.chess.com/snits/a-couple-lasker-gamesSat, 02 May 2009 01:21:00 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/a-couple-lasker-gamesI just played through this nice game by Tregubov. http://blog.chess.com/snits/tregubov---belov-st-petersburg-2002Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:05:08 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/tregubov---belov-st-petersburg-2002Still doing my daily routine of tactics problems on the trainer. I spent some time this past week looking at building a repertoire, and spent some time on a couple of lines in the French and the Caro-Kann since I play 1.e4 . Looking at the Caro-Ka...http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update22Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:27:29 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update22Spent 4 days in LA for the Easter/Passover holiday at my wife's uncles place. Didn't get any tactics training in, but I did spend some time reading Andy Soltis' How to Choose a Chess Move. Not sure why I jumped into that while I have other books ...http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update21Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:17:15 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update21I played over the board for the 1st time in about 8 months today and it really showed. Though I played and lost twice to a 1900 player, which in itself isn't really a bad thing, the way I lost was pretty bad. Both cases involved not looking at wha...http://blog.chess.com/snits/poor-thought-processSun, 05 Apr 2009 17:55:08 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/poor-thought-processContinued to work my daily tactics problems. Still in the 2000-2200 range rating wise. I increased my success % by a couple tenths of a percent.  I have started to work through Reti's Masters of the Chess Board. I have finished the sections on A...http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update20Sun, 05 Apr 2009 01:48:31 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update20