Forum

Join us in our match vs. the almost impossible team to beat, Team Russia @ Russia vs Team 54, Sicilian Grand Prix What do you know about the Sicilian Grand Prix? "What is White supposed to play after 1.e4 c5 2.f4 g6 (or 2.Nc3 Nc6) 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.Nc3 Nc6 (only now when the White Knight is on c3)? Plasskett does a convincing job of showing that the old main line with 5.Bc4 e6 6.f5 Nge7 is just good for Black. This means White must try 5.Bb5 Nd4 6.O-O, a favorite of one of the great Grand Prix experts, Mark Hebden. Sicilian Grand Prix Attack looks at 6...Nxb5 7.Nxb5 d5 and concludes that 8.e5 and 8.exd5. This is correct, and it would be a bit odd if the Grand Prix gave White a slight edge against the Sicilian by force. ~ John Donaldson's Review of the book Sicilian Grand Prix Attack by James Plaskett"

Any other Team 54 members competing in the U.S. Class Championships this weekend in Houston? I'll be there, one level up, fighting in the Class D section. Wish me luck!If you're there and you see me (picture on profile), say hi. :: David

hi folks sorry about the delay in my match with Latinoheat - I think I have a won game- our only win! but there is the 2nd game to play - can I just offer a draw - or at worst resign? cheers Terry

What day do you think we will hit 54,000 points? I'm going on record right now to predict that Team 54 will hit 54,000 points some time early this Spring (to be exact 4/28/11) and the Match Leaderboard will look like this: 80,000 THE POWER OF CHESS74,000 Team Romania64,000 TURK CHESS PLAYERS54,000 Team 5450,000 Team Russia48,000 We Chat Global46,000 Team Philippines43,000 CHESS SOCIETY39,000 Chess Association37,000 Fast Players Group36,000 * The Dream Team * 35,000 D` CHESSBOMB 34,000 Chess960 Players Group 33,000 Chess Unlimited 32,000 Team Europe 4 Teams will have the same rank, 4 Teams will increase their rank, and 7 teams will loss rank. What do you think? Can you predict the day? Make your prediction and let's see who comes the closest.

Tolush writes: Muhammad Ali was a good fighter,but he did really bad behavior to his helpers.God punish him in his faith change to muslism.Also his matches against Joe Frazier reveals that. Ali should have lost all matches, because he won foreman later.Foreman won Frazier.(Frazier helped Ali, when they were first friends. He gave money.Never told,did he pay back.Mental wargame got the most dirtiest features, when Ali, black man told lies and bad speeches about other black people.Ali did many things wrong way. Maybe the Parkinson dicease came as a result after all that. Frazier came from poorest area of black America.Cotton fields...South-Carolina, Beaufort.Difficult life and then he is still bitter to Ali.Fourty years later he saw his game against Ali on TV first time and he told, that he was happy, when he saw Ali suffering his liver punches,spline cutting hooks and uppercuts.Jealous and bitterness are worst things for people.There is seed, which grows to bad scale,if it is not some how dealed in healthy mind or prohibited by outer governing. Janne Raak And this was my response: Ali like all of us was not perfect. However, look at Frazier now, he says he's happy to see Ali suffering from Parkison and braggs about how he caused it. I understand the frastrating Ali cause him, but that's not right. I like and respect both fighters. One of our team members placed Ali's picture there. And you are also welcome to post a picture of Frazier, if you would like. Hey! These guys are fighters that participated in a sport where they punch each other in an enclosed area so what do you expect to see from these guys. Most are brute warriors, that knows nother but how to fight. But Ali was held to a higher standard because he drew a huge crowd. He was a self promoter and we know how promoters are, systers at best. But in the end, Ali still stood taller than the rest, especially when he lit the Olympic Tourch while struggling with his Parkison desease. Yes he was once a proud young man but Parkison humbled him and made him a better person. Let's not focus on the bad that people have done but let's look at the person for whom they have become. What do you say about this?

Nick Diaz never gives up! Check out this fight from Showtime: BK

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game.html?id=81430619 Can you understand the draw reason!

Soulpower74 favorite is George Foreman vs. Ron Lyle. The forth round is crazy! But the fifth is even better. So whats your favorite?

I just read the Team 54 name explanation. I thought it was a play on the classic TV show of the early 60s... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAPtM6Q_mwA There's a passed pawn on the rook fileThere's a Knight stuck on g2My King is in a corner And his Queen is breaking throughMy Bishop has no skewerand my game is in the sewer... Team 54 where are you?

Hello All, I was going over some games that I played against a grandmaster Rogelio Antonio (GM Joey on chess.com) with a friend and I thought I would share them with team 54. These are a couple of bullet games and I figured some people may have wanted to see them. We played 15 games and I only won three. He is a remarkable player. The last game has a somewhat strange opening, but I was running out of ideas. Let me know what you think.

Hello all, I am not one who studies opening as much as I should. I almost never play any kind of Sicilian Defense. However, I used it against Chronoknight (National Master) in a bullet game and was pleased with the result. There may be something to this dragon after all. Here is the link if you want to see what the computer analysis thought. Check it out and let me know what you think. http://www.chess.com/home/computer_analysis.html?id=79088873&game_type=2 Thanks, Malachi76

Chess.com has warned me to stop spamming teams with challenges but they refuse to inform on the teams are complaining. So now this gets real tricky seeing that we deal with over 100 teams. I bet it's only a small percentage of teams that are complaining, those that want to see us fail. They complain to chess.com without asking us to stop. These are teams that we have played many times in the past because these are the teams I challenge. This is the message I recieved: To SA and Admin of Team 54 I have already asked Black_Knight that this group stop spamming with team match requests. I am getting alot of complaints that this team is spamming other groups with team match requests. One team match request should be enough, if its not accepted, don't send that group anymore. There is no need to continually send the same group match requests over and over again. It is annoying alot of other groups and there isn't any need for it. If they decline the match its because they don't want to play .. accept that :) The match spamming has to stop. If the challenges are so annoying then why don't they ask up to stop. They don't because they know I will; instead, they hide behind a vail and complain to chess.com hoping to bring us down. This was my response: Thanks for the warning. However, I think a team should have to notify me that they do not want any more challenges because most teams accept, decline and cancel base on their appitite for matches, the size of the match, whether it's open or at a specific rating, how days per move, etc. For example, I noticed THE POWER OF CHESS stop accepting our 5 on 5 matches but will accept 10+ matches. Team Romania accepts many of our challenges but sometimes they don't or they just hold on to the challenge until they are ready to play. If a team notifies me to stop sending challenges, I stop immediately. I think the teams that are complaining are teams we played many times in the past but for whatever reason they stopped without saying anything to me. Plus there are chess.com members that want to see my team fail, such as CaptainJimTKirk whom created a team "Stop 54" or something like that and I found out because he sent my team admins messages to sabotage my team. I've set up over 5000 matches within a year because I seek out teams that want to play and try to avoid those that don't. For these reason's I think it's only fair to have these team's notify me to stop, especailly teams that we have played many times in the past. We're in the spotlight now and the heat is on. I'll just have to be a little more creative. So what do you guys think? BK

I know I promised year-end promotions but after compiling almost 2500 matches to compute the 2010 stats, I'm all wiped out. As a matter of fact, I'm thinking about replacing our promotional system with maintianing the team stats. What do you guys think?

London Chess Classic 2010 - Vishy Anand vs Magnus Carlsen courtesy of the ChessNetwork:

Kasparovs wrong move From: tipse17 garry kasparov makes a wrong move in a match against anand and is really upset

Hello everyone, I wanted to share this game with everyone for two reasons. First it went along with this weeks puzzles on discovery. Make sure you pay attention to moves 19, 20, and 21. I figured it would be a nice thing to share before we continue onto the next set of puzzles. The second and more more important reason for me is that... I hate playing against the English opening as black!! I usually have a hard time against it as Black_knight could tell you. He has beaten me with it a few times. Anyway, I have been playing this opening where I move my pawns to d5 and e6 like the french, but then I bring my Bishop to e7 and immediately go h5. I just wanted to know if this was a sound opening against the English? The point is to open up the h-file and immediately double up the rooks. Anyway, look at the game and let me know if this opening has a name, and even if it doesn't does it look like a useful tool against white? Please, Please talk to me about this one. I need a solid defense against the English and this is the best that I can come up with. It has worked several times.

Catalan #1, courtesy of david99lee Catalan Opening - ECO E04 - Game is from Swiss Team Ch. 1991 Themes: Creating a weakness and taking advantage of it. Pattern recognition. Look for moves that have threats.

Chessworld.net Instructive Game: Not noticing a critical position from the vibes!From: kingscrusher | December 16, 2010 Collin Costello vs Tryfon GavrielRound 7, London Classic 2010