Introduction:

Hello, everyone, welcome to our first ever newsletter! The newsletter will come out each month, and it will feature lots of new and interesting chess related stuff that will hopefully make you, a better player. Without further ado, lets get started!

Lesson of the week:

Today's lesson of the week will help you improve your openings

This is the ruy lopez, one of the most common types of opening.

This is a variation of the ruy lopez, which is what happens when white tries to get greedy and go for the center pawn.

This is the Ruy Lopez Opening: Marsshall attack. It has up to 18 moves of theory!

Puzzle of the week:

Very interesting puzzle ikr.

Chess game of the week:

That discovered check was pretty nice, if I do say so myself!

Guess the elo:

This was certainly an interesting game, wasn't it...

Anyways, remember to post what rating you think both the players were

Interview:

Let's start with the obvious - your nickname and profile. I guess you really are from Guinea? Can you tell us a little more about that?

little_guinea_pig:

I'm not really from Guinea, I live near San Diego, California. The "Guinea" refers to the animal guinea pig, not the country! (My profile picture is my two guinea pigs) I chose the flag recently because 1. it matches my username and 2. I'm the #1 blitz player in that country now.

kingattacker3:

Ha, very cool. I think you are one of our top players - if most of our members are beginners, you surely are one of our masters! Tell us what brought you over to this club.

little_guinea_pig:

Well, I was digging around on the forums and I saw Viznik advertising the club, I liked his "sales pitch" and decided to check it out. At that point in time, I considered myself more of a beginner than a master, but I thought it would be a good idea at least to see what was going on. When I joined, the club turned out to be very active, very friendly (a lot of my friends were already there), and very helpful for learning. So I stayed, and kept being active in this club, and eventually I was promoted to coordinator, then admin, and then finally super admin.

kingattacker3:

I see. So how long have you been playing chess? Can you tell us a bit about where you are with your chess playing career and what your goal(s) are? Thanks.

little_guinea_pig:

I first learned how to move the pieces when I was around 5 years old, my dad taught me how to play chess (and crushed me every time). I played a bit casually after that, but didn't get "serious" about chess until I created this account back in 2018, at which point I was about 1000 rated. I stayed at that rating for a few months, but then something "clicked" and I jumped to 1600 in a matter of weeks. Unfortunately, after that I had to take a break from chess for 2 years, because I moved from Toronto, Canada to the US and classes and couldn't play often at all. I came back a few months ago and rededicated myself to chess, and since then have gone up to 2000. My goals are to get 2200-2300 by the end of the year (most likely blitz as rapid starts getting infested with cheaters by that point), and to play OTB eventually. (I've never played an "official" chess game, never had the time/motivation to do so, but it sounds like it'd be fun!)

kingattacker3:

Wow, that's really impressive. Anything else you like to share with our other members before I let you go to enjoy rest of your weekend?

little_guinea_pig:

Get a guinea pig! But seriously, my advice for improvement is to analyze your games, and to look at the engine lines to see exactly why they're good. Always ask yourself what is the reason behind a move - a bad plan is better than no plan, even if you lose you can figure out better plans for next time. Remember, practice makes perfect - playing rapid games especially is very useful, at least as long as you're in a good mood for chess. And my final point is mood is extremely important - don't play if you're tired or can't concentrate or anything like that, being able to get focused and alert can allow you to play way above your rating!

Extras:

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Have any ideas for the newsletter? Make sure to message @assassin3752!

Thank you to all those who participated in the newsletter and sent us all the helpful stuff!

See you next week!

Den of Patzers Admin Society

Super Admins

Admins