K v. K endgame
Crowing over a Queen sac
I can't help crowing over my checkmating Black on c7 with a Queen sacrifice and a skewer.
Not so lucky
Computer analysis shows that both players missed a tactic for Black which would have won me a game against Lucky52, graded 200 points above me.
Positional evaluation
Another list of concepts in positional chess - Mobility, Flexibility, Vulnerability, Center Control, Piece Coordination, Time, Speed, Material, Space, King Safety and Development. There seems some repetition in this. For example, what's the diff...
yet more about evaluating a position
Silman's list of imbalances: Superior minor piece, Pawn structure, Space, Material, Control of a key file, Control of a hole/weak square, Lead in development, Initiative, King safety, and Statics vs. Dynamics.
Rook sacrifice forcing a win
Obviously
play the most aggressive move you can
Tactics Trainer
My scheme for Tactics Trainer is as follows: to take as much time as necessary to solve the problem even if that means getting the minimum score of 20% and a reduction in my grading; to play each problem through twice, so I can absorb its lesson. ...
Tactical indicators
Look for weaknesses and tactical indicators such as weak, undefended or hanging pieces; checks; the strengths of competing pieces such as squares commanded; forks and pins; batteries;passed pawns, unsafe king, weak squares, files and diagonals; pi...
Forcing moves
There's a good article elsewhere on chess.com about the importance of efficient, forcing moves: checks, captures (which can gain tempi) and threats. The author illustrates his point from a famous win by Morphy. However, my forcing moves are only ...
Cheating
There's been an exchange of notes on the Team England site about cheating and how highly graded players get detected and their accounts closed. Perhaps there is a need for lateral thinking about the question of cheating. There could be events f...
Chess 960
I enjoy 960 but it's not really a variant of standard chess, only a way of deterring over-reliance on book knowledge of openings. Capablanca thought chess was played out but it's still going strong. It may be that standard chess is in principle ...
Withdrawn from tournaments
I was in a mess from unthinkingly getting involved in three thematic tournaments so that I had an unmanageable 30 games on the go. So I've withdrawn from the tournaments to concentrate on Team England, at a cost of 150 grading points. This is no...
Aesthetics of a chess set
I'm avoiding too much chess on the internet. It's good training and fun to set up a position on a good quality wooden set and study it for the recommended 20 minutes without moving the pieces. A good wooden set is a physical pleasure and a beau...
When you see a good move...
When you see a good move, look for another one and see if you can get it to work with the first one. In unity is strength.
The Golden Age of Chess
When was the golden age of chess? Unquestionably now. When I started playing chess in my first year at secondary school, 1962-3, Botvinnik was World Champion and though he was an electronics engineer by training and was working on chess computer...
Thrashed in the Scotch Game
A game in which I neglect basic opening principles. The moves after I've inserted the comment '1-0' are not worth bothering with but I couldn't find a way of deleting them by editing. I am quite lost from that point onwards though White was a b...
more about assessing a position
The mnemonic is K-Map. Look at king safety, material differences, the activity of the pieces and pawn structure to discover your opponent's and your own strengths and weaknesses. I'm poor at assessing the activity of pieces and tend to overlook ...
Assessing a position
I'm lazy about assessing and evaluating a position. Matthew Sadler has the following on training for relationships in a chess position in his Tips for Young Players, useful advice even for the not-so-young. Set yourself three tasks: show which o...
