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The next round is starting, and we've been hurting lately for participation. Who is interested in joining the games for the next round? If we don't get people signing up, we may have to bow out of the tournament. I have only seen 1 or 2 people active lately, which is just not enough. We are playing the Sicilian Grand Prix Attack. Their challenge is the GPA, ours will be either the Semi Slav Defense: Accepted D44 or the Russian Game: Cochrane Gambit C42.

I haven't played live chess much over the last 3 months, and finally I decided to play a couple of games ... well afterwards I am completely exhausted and my rating has dropped to about 1200 for the first time since the months when I first joined the site 2 years ago ... Did I bump into cheaters? I'll see what the admin thinks.

Rigamagician asks: "Would GAMBIT EARS be interested in participating in a tournament competing against other openings-based groups?" Please leave your feedback on if we wish to enter as a group. Thanks! cup of cow

I think that this puzzle will be appreciated the most in this group where sharp stuff are embraced White to move (mate in 3)

I played this game earlier but it did not end as expected, it looked like my opponent just allowed everything to hang ... http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=47708495 I actually posted this line to him when he played 36. Kd2 because I knew I had won the game already.

The Alapin Gambit in the Ruy Lopez exchange (C69: Ruy Lopez: Exchange Variation, Alapin Gambit) is characterized by the following moves and position: White however does not take the gambit due to Qh4 intending mate and instead moves 7.d3. In order to lure white to take the gambit, a trap move 7...f6 is played which essentially blocks the queen's path to h4. Since the move Qh4 is now blocked, white takes the gambit, the bishop on g4. Black recaptures with the h-pawn, hxg4, opening the h-file, bringing instantly the rook in the attack. Black capitalizes on the position of white's king, the rook in the open h-file, and a Bc5+, with almost similar set up as the Greco mate. Here's our TVC game with this 7...f6 trap, which we named the Killer Trap.

Is the Queens really boring, tiresome and positional? http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=47857975 I played this game recently and found how to convert a material and positional advantage ... the two Rooks turning out to be a clear advantage here.

Does anyone have an understanding of the concept of defense through activity and potential activity? A lot of master annotated videos actually describe "poor" defense and "strong" defense however they also act suprised when Houdini or some other engine will find that the "poor" defense is actually safe :/ As seen in the recent Womens World Chess Championship, the win in game 3 shows black using a "bad" defensive stucture with pawns on h6 and g5 and no defensive light-square bishop. This is video annotated by ChessNetwork here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYro4bIKmVg and the annotation is actually very clear and explanitory, with strong description of tacticical opportunities. I noticed in the game that Hou was able to defend by creating counter attacking threats, transforming the attack on h6 into an exchange for the a2 pawn and also defending the important d4 square with the threat of checkmate. This is perhaps a defense from piece activity and potential, not simply a strong pawn structure and strong coverage of key squares. Another recent video was made by Kingscrusher for the Carlsen vs Gelfland game in the Tal Memorial 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eakr6NAAJQo I have subscribed to both of these channels since they are really both excellent. In this game notice that Carlsen's defense is also very computer-like - Carlsen's king is forced to go for a walk into the center, which conveniently happens during the transition to endgame, thanks to Carlsens move Qb5. The defense used is not a piece activity defense at every move, however some of the later moves are attacking moves that force Gelfland to find a defense. So perhaps the story about not moving pawns in front of the king and keeping the knight available and the opponents files closed is for beginners, and the real good defensive setups are purely situational and arise from variational rather than positional analysis.

http://www.chess.com/tactics/server.html?id=128231 I will post some more here later ... please try to solve the problem before reading the comments.

Here is a useful resource ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chess_gambits if you like or have read about any of these gambits please request a vote game :)