Yesterday I played only one game and tested the h4 variation in the Scotch Opening. My opponent suprised me with the early g6 move to prepare Bg7 to attack quickly my e5 pawn. I panicked and played the passive Nd2-f3 manover to give him time to ...
Australia's Open and Women's teams concluded their Open and Women's campaigns on Sunday after 11 grueling rounds and I'd like to take this opportunity to showcase some of the key takeaways from the event... starting with an extraordinary individua...
#unplugged #jazz #scandinavian #smithmorra #scotch Sometimes, I just like unwind by not thinking too hard, play a couple of quick casual unrated games, while listen to some slow jazz! 😌♟️🎵 I normally have Tuesdays off and this morning...
#smith-morra #sicilian #brilliant #chessromance A question that I’ve been asked frequently by beginner players is, “what opening should I learn to play?”, often in the context that they want to branch out from playi...
Yesterday was the first day after the Olympiad Expo Classic tourney in which I participated in the last 10 days and got 4th place. I was teaching 5 hours and had only time for 1 game on my road to 2500. I fianchettoed my bishop against t...
Welcome, everyone to a special Olympiad edition of the Osaka Papers. The 45th Chess Olympiad held in Budapest, Hungary has come to an extraordinary conclusion. For team India it was a historic event, the top ranked women's team, and the highly t...
Generally, chess tournaments in Singapore are held over the weekends so that the main group of competitors - students and youngsters can unwind over the weekend after tough schooling weekdays. There are exceptions of course, like Bishan Chess Club...
Afternoon everyone. I am off on holiday in a couple of days so back more quickly than intended with this part of the series. Before I begin, let's throw in a wonderful picture I have just come across researching this - I guess it is from the Not...
Yesterday I played the 9th, the final game of the tourney against the Hungarian talent Kristof Horvath. He is from Miskolc, he city where I lived 5 years and we won the Hungarian team championship 4 times. I played the Catalan opening and got...
#unplugged #jazz #scandinavian #jaenischgambit Sometimes, I just like unwind by not thinking too hard, play a couple of quick casual unrated games, while listen to some slow jazz! 😌♟️🎶 My regular videos usually focus on post-game ...
Today I played with Victor Hugo Collado, a young player originally from Peru, currently living in France and working as an elementry teacher. He started with 1.b3 the Larsen opening, but soon, he played Nf3, g3, Bg2 to go to the Reti op...
Afternoon everyone, and welcome along to some chess joy! Last time round I mentioned that one of many projects which I have never gotten round to doing is to write about my favourite annotators. So let's do a series! You get one game in each. ...
[Blog History] Chess players, no matter if they're beginners, amateurs, or even Masters, are supposed to learn from their mistakes right? Figure out where you goofed, either through a post-mortem or through engine analysis, dependin...
Can You Play For Fun, If You're Playing to Win? You may have already seen several blogs about the book that is sweeping across the chess world, May the Best Player Win by Kyla Zhao. Rather than repeating the praise it's been receiving, I want to...
Today I played with the Hungarian International Master Andras Meszaros. He was the junior coach of Judit and Sofia Polgar and the young Hungarian Grandmaster Benjamin Gledura. He is a very good tactical player, as you will see also in our gam...
It's been a few days since my last Olympiad blog and there are several for that, namely: 1. The rising flood levels in Budapest threaten to submerge the unfortunately situated island our hotel is on. 2. The infamous Bermuda party. 3. Poor he...
Today I played with Sandor Sztojka from Ukraine. He played the Smith-Morra gambit which I declined and moved to the Alapin Sicilian. He played a bad move Nc3 where I made a mistake. If I would exchange queens and develop quickly then I would had t...
Yesterday We had a rest day in the Olympiad Expo Classic Tournament and I decided to play in the Titled Tuesday Tourney. In the first round I played with Gothamchess, Levy Rozman the biggest chess youtuber. Ha suprised me with the Scandinavia...
In the world of competitive chess, gender disparity has been a long-standing issue. While there are many female chess icons like GM Judit Polgár, girls in chess still face unique challenges in male-dominated environments. Kyla Zhao’s ...
It was an ordinarily hyperactive babysitting afternoon. My little nephew spotted the most fragile thing in the room—a glass chessboard asking for attention, and before I could put it away, there was a clink! The King! In pieces! As I star...
In the following two games we will see a similar theme...sacrificing the Queen for an attack from the Black side of the Ruy. Both these games are featured in the book by Pablo Iglesias: Game 1- Ljubojevic-Planinc Game 2...
Yesterday I played with the 14 years old hungarian talent Bence Baki. I played the Bf4 line against the queen's gambit declined. I played c4-c5 to gain space. He exchanged the a- and b-pawns and minor pieces on the queenside. I got space advantage...
Hey thereeeeeee! In recent days, I've been watching the Olympiad games with some friends, and a few days ago, I published a blog post about round 1 of the women's teams. However, today I thought of bringing you 4 games that caught the atte...
[Blog History] *blowing dust off of the furniture and breaking down the cobwebs, coughing in the process* There, that's better. *Ahem* Greetings everyone! It's been more than four years since my last blog post, and in...
#chesschats #bookreview #fiction TL;DR:This lovely short novel is easy to enjoy and easy to read for chess players young and old. Chess ideas and descriptions are sprinkled like delightful crumbs in the narrative (“I recognised th...
