Grab for the Title

It's been more than two years since I last posted in my blog here. A number of things have changed in my life - I'm happy to say most of them in a pleasant way. Now things are still turbulent, but I seem to be able to spare a little time for chess again.

That said, my otb team is making a bid for winning our league this season. After six of nine rounds we are top of the table with a comfortable 3-point lead, not least because a 5-3 win yesterday against our hardest competitors. I was able to provide a full point in a nice classical style miniature, which I can't help showing off here:

As there's always this discussion about playing mainlines vs. sidelines, and connected to that, whether one should play classical chess e.g. answer 1.e4 with 1...e5 and 1.d4 with 1...d5, I'll give my two cents about it: Usually mainlines are mainlines for a reason, and that's not only fashion. Often they lead to richer play and we can learn a lot of things by playing them, which I should have done some 20 years ago. I have never been outprepared so far despite not knowing all my theory down to the last bit, and I feel I have learnt a lot since I took up 1...e5 some four years ago, not to mention a fantastic score against equal or stronger opposition. So my recommendation is: By all means try some classical chess if you have some capacities for studying left - it's likely to pay off quite rewardingly.

For your entertainment here are the classical examples mentioned in my comments:

So long, cheers and thx for reading!