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 The 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-update20Tonight I finished working through the Bishops vs Knights section of Silman's The Amateur's Mind, and started into the section on space and the center. I also did my daily dose of tactics problems, and decided that I will work through Reti's Mast...http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update19Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:21:52 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update19Did a little bit of tactics trainer work this weekend, and moved a few of my correspondence games along. Most of my training time this weekend was spent on finishing to work through Valeri Beim's Paul Morphy: A Modern Perspective. Definitely a goo...http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update18Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:23:50 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update18Here is a nice Morphy game I played through tonight while working on Valeri Beim's Paul Morphy: A Modern Perspective.     The sequence starting with 31.Rxh7! is really nice.http://blog.chess.com/snits/morphy---harrwitz-paris-1858Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:55:44 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/morphy---harrwitz-paris-1858More time spent in the tactics trainer the past few days. I'm still managing to keep my rating in the 2000-2150 range and upped my success % as well. I finished a couple more games in my thematic tournaments. In a couple some players made some blu...http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update17Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:01:24 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update17Another game I played through tonight. I think I might have to buy Tony Mile's game collection Tony Miles: It's Only Me.   http://blog.chess.com/snits/miles---andersson-los-palmas-1980Sat, 28 Mar 2009 01:07:57 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/miles---andersson-los-palmas-1980A nice game I played through tonight as I finished working through Neil McDonald's Chess: the art of logical thinking. Tal offers the sacrifice of a bishop and sacrifices a rook to rip open the position around Van der Wiel's King and then closes ...http://blog.chess.com/snits/tal---van-der-wiel--moscow-1982Sat, 28 Mar 2009 01:01:37 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/tal---van-der-wiel--moscow-1982 Did a lot more work in the tactics trainer the last couple of days. Continued to do it when I should have gone to bed which caused some wild swings in the tactics trainer rating, but I managed to get back into the 2000-2100 range (new high of 21...http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update16Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:32:33 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update16  Started reading Silman's Amateur's Mind again from the beginning since it had been a couple months since I was working through it. Made it through about 30 pages on Saturday. I did my daily doses of tactics problems in the tactics trainer, h...http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update15Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:17:18 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update15I did more work in the tactics trainer today and hit a new high of 2093. I also spent some time working on my various Ruy Lopez thematic games as I am involved in 3 different thematic tournaments. I finished the evening by playing through a nice w...http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update14Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:34:52 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update14I have been doing my daily dose of tactics problems on the trainer and have been hovering in the 1950-2050 range. Tonight I continued to work through more annotated master games in Neil McDonald's Chess: the art of logical thinking.  In this fi...http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update13Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:44:09 -0700http://blog.chess.com/snits/training-update13