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Would anybody like to get involved in a 'live chess' ladder tournament. The purpose of the tournament would be to help improve our 'live chess' skills in a relaxed and fun ongoing tournament. I suggest games are unrated, 15/10. The format: Any player may challenge any other player in the ladder as long as both players are not already in a challenge as you can only be involved in one challenge at a time. You must accept a challenge if you are free. You have a week to play your games when the challenge is issued. You play 2 games, preferably together, one as white and one as black. If the lower player wins then the players swap places, if the higher player wins or it's a draw, there is no change in positions. You cannot challenge the same player twice until you have played someone else. You cannnot challenge anyone for 24 hours after a completed match. At the end of each month the player at the top of the ladder receives a trophy. That's it really, if you want to join please post below. You can join and leave the ladder at any time. Respect your fellow players. If you arrange a time try to make it but if you can't that's ok, just post your challenger a note. Try not to 'no show'. Be nice and friendly, win and lose graciously. Friend others in the ladder to make it easier to meet up. Cheers DJ . . How to meet up and play 'live chess': 1. Make sure you are friends, it's easier to find each other. 2. You must be in 'live chess' at the same time, taking timezone differences into account if necessary. 3. If you are the challenger (avoids confusion to who is to do this bit) click the 'friends' tab in the bottom right box and you should see your opponent there. 4. Select them and choose 'challenge to a game' you will then have some game options. Make sure you select unrated, 15/10 and random colour for the first game, then click 'create game'. 5. If you want to play the next game straight away then just select 'rematch' at the end to play the 2nd game and it will automatically swap colours. If you want to play the 2nd game another time, you can choose which colour the challenger should be in the game options when you meet up and set the game up. . . Yellow means 'waiting for/free to challenge' colour means 'players under challenge' . DEVILS REJECTS LADDER DJAbacus Wizard_Esk Residentnod tloan davel64 gilbertgarza

While analysing one of my losses against a higher rated player a while back, I had the engine suggest a strange move. The game below is probably not the same game but quite similar. Here the engine suggests Nxe4, which obviously looks surprising since it would lose the queen. The reason this move works is evident in the variation that folllows. Its a clever trap, and even if the opponent sees it , it is still a sound move. Soon after a bit of googling I found that this is pretty similar to the "Legal's Mate". I soon began studying (not sure I can call it that yet) more opening traps and mates which has aroused an interest intactics in general, something I used to find boring before. Some links for those who'd like to peek down that road: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1001235 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkmates_in_the_opening These are the top search results though so I guess that was useless. Anyways, I've been amazed at how often people fall for this, especially higher rated players. What follows is not showing off but an attempt to illustrate how useful I've found it in real games since then. So this was my first useful forum post. (I hope it was) If you have anything similar to share, then post it here. EDIT: As you may have noticed, in some cases, it is a bad move if the opponent does not fall for the trap. This will most definitely not work online chess, and even in live chess, if you take too much time, it will raise suspicion. But do it quick and the opponent will, most of the time, see it as a blunder. How the fuck do I stop this text from center indenting?

Watching the documentary on Bobby Fisher it seems that each match in World Finals in those days was 5 hours and I thought it might be nice to give it a go. I'm talking live chess, 150 minutes (or any other decent amount...hell how about 300 minutes) per player, unrated if we want. Plenty of time to think about each move, go about your day if necessary (have to maintain a live connection somewhere but internet blips are not an issue), but with no external assistance. I guess we would both have to be around at home for the game. I haven't finished yet....24 games? well maybe not, but I'm thinking at least best of 5...playing approximately 1 game a month. I'm thinking one of the ladder players, tloan, dave, residentnod, Wiz might be up for it but anyone can take up the challenge rated 1000-1200 live standard. You just have to be well up for it!!! Cheers DJ

I am really disappointed with my live chess rating (playing 30/0 or 15/10). All my own doing, rushing and making blunders, having that one beer too many before I play, just playing poor chess. I feel I should be around 1150, not 1032 so have decided to set a proper challenge for myself. I will be at 1100 by the 1st May this year. To reach this first goal I will start with getting back to 1050 by 1st April. Anyone fancy joing me if setting a target and trying to meet it??

After playing my favourire d4 in a recent turn based game my opponent responded with f5...the Dutch defence apparently...so off to youtube to see what good vids I could find.

right now we are currently in 4 team matches and 3 vote chess games. since these are winding down we will be accepting more challanges. I will let ya'll know when they are accepted so all can join. and i will be doing our first team tournament let me know who is intersted in the tournament so i can get a rough estiment on how many players i should make it for.

I had an odd thing happen to me today, so I thought it would be good to share with ya'll. I was watching intermediate checkmates and intermediate checkmates 2 by FM Ingvar Johannesson he went on to say somthing along the lines of GMs needing to memorize a lot of attacks and mates the anastasia's mate being one of them. I thought to myself that this was an awesome way to mate someone, but by time I was going to need it, I would not remember how to do it. Then, later this afternoon, a few moves after trading our queens, I saw the anastasia's mate seemed possible, so here is the game from this afternoon...enjoy also if you would like to give me some pointers and or tips for future games they are all welcome and here are the links to the videos from this morning.... http://www.chess.com/video/player/sample http://www.chess.com/video/player/intermediate-checkmates-2

we are going to unleash the four horseman and break the seven seals.

I WAS ASKED TO JOIN AFTER I HAD A GOOD MATCH WITH ANOTHER MEMBER I ACCEPTED AND NOW IM LOST TO AS EXACTLEY WHAT THE PURPOSE IS AND WHAT WE DO AS A GROUP. THANKS!

Just wanted to pass the word that i am open to all challangers. I am ranked at 1267 right now, but i would like a varitiy of challengers from our top players to our lowest players. I look forward to seeing your name in my inbox.

When? How soon is too soon? Is it rude? What is the proper etiquette? A few times I have gotten mad over the terrible moves I have made and just quit, not thinking about how I could just turn the game around and there were times that I was just so sure I threw in the towel too early. Other times I am out pieced and know I will lose, but I make them chase me anyway. I just want to know how do otheres veiw these actions of mine and if there is a proper way to use the resign button. Thanks for your comments.

we can all chat and decide what is our best move before we vote on the games we are playing . This will give us a better chance to make the right move. If our votes are split then the majority vote will win.