Cultivating a Positive Attitude
2000 – 1900, Kolty Merope 2011 [A00a] 1.d4 d5 2.e4 e6 1900 said: “Instead of playing into a Blackmar-Diemer Gambit, I chose to transform the structure into a French Defense, with which I have more experience.” ...
Return of the Blunder Gland, Part Two
checkmateibeatu (1200) vs. jetfighter13 (1130), friendly game, chess.com 2011 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f4 jetfighter13 said – “White has an impressive center built up, my goal is the same a...
Countdown to Mate
MB said: “I have a game for your consideration. Lately I have been “playing up” in chess tournaments, trying to raise my own rating or at least learn from the better competition. I often find myself with a small advantage, but one that I’ve paid f...
Son of Nimzovich
xombie said, “I aim for a restraint formation to prevent black’s development and park on the light squares, following which some tactics emerge in the form of a pawn break and a knight sacrifice. Black’s pieces are too slow to pr...
Highway to Chess Hell
CP said: “This game was played a few weeks ago, at a strong tournament in which I played up into the Open section. I was playing with the black pieces and lost the game after a five-hour struggle that went past 1 AM – to date the longe...
Threats, Real & Imagined
Mr. O’Dowd said: “I’m struggling to get to my best form at the moment, and this game may encapsulate some of my worse thinking – it certainly shows some of my lower areas of positional understanding (I wouldn’t send you anything I played as Black ...
The Tale of a Technical Wizard
Mr. BallsofSteeel brings us yet another movie-based name (for some reason, with a 3rd "e"), this time from Christopher Walken’s ping-pong film, BALLS OF STEEL. BallsofSteeel (1512) vs. The Butcher’s Daughter (1879), Tournoi De Culo 2...
Know Your Position's Agenda
The guy playing White has a wonderfully colorful name. For those not in the know about what "boomstick" alludes to, it was used in the movie ARMY OF DARKNESS in which Ash (played by the legendary Bruce Campbell), after being accidentally transport...
Cruise Control
rvkoivu said: “I have one interesting game to offer. It was a 15 10 game played at Chess.com against an opponent rated 2152. I was rated 1521 at that moment, currently 1596 (1930 in CC). I have played chess for three years, and I tend t...
Return of the Blunder Gland, Part One
Quite a while ago I was asked to teach a Southern California chess camp filled with very young children. On the first day, I lectured about some really basic things, only to discover that virtually all the kids would hang everything as quickly as ...
Knowing When to Pull the Trigger
David Wagle writes- “This year I returned to the game (after a 10 year hiatus) and competition I love, with the hope of at least not embarrassing myself. And while I’ve played a few games where I did just that, this isn&rsquo...
Apocalypse In the Caro-Kann
Baumgartner – “As a little background, this was the highest-rated opponent I had played OTB to this point. I had been rated 1400 just a few months ago, but recently had been going to many tournaments and beating quite a ...
The Man Who Wouldn't Castle
knightmagic (1641) - bencikm (1725), ChessCube Game 2011 (1 hour each for whole game) 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f3 White is intending to make use of the very sharp English Attack, which usually starts with 6.Be3. However...
Emotions vs. Cold Reason
Tin Phan (1635) – Tae Kim (1860), National High School Championship 2011 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 d6 6.f3 Nbd7 &nb...
Mastering Your Opening's Pawn Structures
Vaclav Pekar wrote: “I would like to ask you about my game with GM Voloshin. I played it in the Trade Fair Chess Festival in Brno (Czech Republic). I was doing really well in this tournament until this game. Except for the first round (which...
I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud
The_Rooky (1657) – Salander (1604), Chess.com, Aug. 2011 All notes in quotes with the initials TMS (The Mighty Salander) are, obviously, Salander’s. 1.e4 e5 2.a3 This looks like the move of an imbecile, but there’s actually some sense to it. Ta...
Recognizing The Big Moment In A Game
drakkar-noir (1786) - E. Karadayi (1808), ECO B15, 2011 1.e4 d5 A Center Counter, which has had a revival in recent years. 2.d4 White usually chops on d5 (2.exd5) when 2…Qxd5 3.Nc3 is met by both 3…Qa5 and also 3&hellip...
Farewell, and A Final Group of Questions
A zillion people screamed: Don’t leave and let the trolls win!” Dear zillion, My view of the troll attacks never had anything to do with winning or losing. In fact, I’m very familiar with trolls. Allow me to share a bit of (true) background. Wa...
Fischer - Spassky 1992
member BCG1 asked: In Andrew Soltis’ book BOBBY FISCHER REDISCOVERED, page 278, he states (regarding the rematch in 1992 with Spassky), “In fact the match games were of a fairly high quality particularly when compared with Kasparov’s championship...
Mega-Theory
member Matt Chapman asked: I’m looking not so much for an answer to this question (unless you happen to have the knowledge, which would be fantastic) but a reference to someone who might know (and indeed, how to contact them). You see, I’m having...
More Bits & Pieces
member Yigor asked: Please tell me what you think about 1.d4 Nc6 2.d5 Ne5 3.Nc3? Dear Yigor: A logical question. I probably should have given it a quick nod in my article. However, my article on this line wasn’t meant to be thorough (that would...
1.d4 Nc6 and the Philosophy of "Odd" Openings
member UNiMEDia asked: I’m writing about 1.d4 Nc6. I work with a man who is presently obsessed – and I do mean obsessed, in that I have to listen to him rant and rave about the plusses of this opening every time I see him. We are of more or less ...
Seeking Chess Fame
Many players aggressively asked (in effect): Can a non-titled, low rated player who desperately wants attention from players in his own category also become well known in elite chess circles? Dear “I want to be a chess star” hopefuls [This sound...
Are Tactics The Same As Combinations?
member polydiatonic asked: I’ve been reading a book by GM Soltis called: WHY LASKER MATTERS. In it, Soltis makes the following interesting point: “What is truly typical of Lasker is that he relied on tactics, not combinations. Ther...