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I drew the black pieces and ended playing against a colle. I find colle, london, etc to be pretty annoying to play against. But I have pretty standard set up I use against those systems and it seems to work out okay.

So, I have been reading around about what to study is which order is best and random stuff like that. And I decided to honestly rate myself in different skill sets, and I really dont think I'm higher than mediocre at best! I've only done small amounts of tactics trainer, I know about opposition but give me two bishops and a king vs king endgame and it might take a year for me to reach a checkmate! What I'm trying to ask is what is the best way to actually hardcore study tactics or other aireas (and in what order) to improve my game?

So, if anyone here watches anime. You may have seen this. If not Code geass is a fantastic one. But in the show a chess strategist gets a power that lets him start a revolution. And the show has some chess references and scenes. In the show he is playing a game against his genius brother playing as black and near the beginning of the game he advances his king and when questioned about it he says "If the king does not lead, how can he expect his subordinates to follow," . I was thinking about making a non serious opening that aggressively uses the king in this style like he does. Now there would be a possibility that this could be good especially if you could rush into an endgame. locking the center would be good also. I don't have that good of a grasp on a lot of the defenses out there. Are there any defenses that are focused on locking the center and possibly rushing for an endgame advantage?

Hey, I thought I would post my homework for you all to take a look at it. I think I've sloved for sure three of the positions and am still mulling around the 4th. 1.) How should black play? Give the winning line if you can. 2. How should black proceed? Can he hope to win this this endgame? 3.) How do you evaluate thsi postion (who do you feel is better and why?)? In the game, White played Nd5. How will game continue after this, and do you make any modifications to your initial assessment. (this is the problem I am still mulling over)

I had given my word to help direct a tournament in Memphis on 1/19/2014. I got there and it turned out that there were an odd number of players so I was asked to play. There were only 2 games happening that day so I only have 2 to share. The first one was against Saumil Bansal, a young upcoming kid that plays a very strong game. In our game I was completely outplayed and should have lost, if it were not due to a late blunder on his part he would have won with no issues. The second game was against Alain Cierna Rodriguez, a very strong player that is new to the USCF. He is rated 2142 FIDE and came here from Cuba. I have played him twice before as black and lost both times, needless to say it is an honor to play someone of his strength. Hope you enjoy the games

I recently played in two Simults against Roman Dzindzichashvili and I thought I would share the games with you all:

Steve and I played the Ruy Lopez exchange variation. I have posted the game here. Steve and I would be interested in comments.

I came across a book of games from my first major tournament. I though I'd put a couple of them on here so we could laugh together.

I found myself in a pretty tight spot but managed to build a fortress. My opponent didn't manage to crack it and fritz couldn't either... but fritz is notoriously bad at end games.

What do you think of this game?

As discussed in the notes, please provide your endgames, questions, puzzles, examples etc about them here. Or if you feel that a specific endgame deserves a new topic, just open one :)

Myk and I played a game over the past month where we recorded our thoughts on each move. We are hoping to find flaws in our own thinking process or ways to improve through this. Also, I think it will help each other to see what the opponent's are considering, especially in games like this one, where it was completely theoretical through move 20+. Here it is with my half of the notes. Apologies for copy/pasting some of the notes onto the wrong moves. I think it is mostly clear where they belong.

Guys, please comment

On December 14th I took my stepsons to a tournament in Memphis held by Mrs. Arlene Kleiman. I was expecting to help direct the tournament as she had asked me to do, but when I got there she informed me that they had enough help and told me to play in the open section. I played 3 out of the 4 games held there, I didn’t play the last one in order to watch my kids get there awards for playing in there section. Out of the 3 games I got one win, one draw, and one loss. Not the best performance but good study material for us. I have sense then gone over these games several times with my club members, but no computer assistance yet. I am posting these games without any of my analysis so that you can critique me without bias. These games were all g-30, so the quality is not that great but just as enjoyable. The first game was against Saumil Bansal, a kid that I had played before but I don’t know him that well. this draw hurt me a little bit because I felt like I had more there, but he played well and we got into an opp. colored bishop game – draws happen. this game went on some more, but due to time trouble I did not record it. the large pieces got traded off by force. The second game was against another young man, Max Friedman who has been playing around here for a very long time. He is experienced and has a very strong emotional attachment to the game, that can be a great thing or a curse as in this game he fell into an opening trap, getting upset about the game he made some emotional choices after but then played very well for one last trick. The last game was against an expert that moved here from Cuba, Alain Cierna, a very strong player that has played FIDE before USCF. This game was probably my favorite game and I have looked at it several times. It looked as if he effortlessly stomped me, his moves all had a purpose and once the pressure was on he didn’t let up.

Okay, this is a game I played yesterday during the Tafca tournament here where I live (somewhere in Scotland). Comments are welcome!I have the White pieces.....

Today I played this game with a friend of mine. I was very satifisfied about this game untill I got it analyzed. In one turn I made a huge blunder. Who can find it?

Hi all, The current vote-game can be found here: http://www.chess.com/votechess/game?id=53258We have 3 days per move. I would like you all to consider first discussing your favorite move(s) here, before actually making the vote. I say this because I strongly feel better communication would have led to a better game in our first vote challenge. Anyway, good luck all and may the best moves be found

Hi groupmembers, There is good and bad news. The good news is, we concluded our first vote game. The bad news is... we were pretty bad and gave away our queen with absolutely nothing in return for it. I have to say that I am a bit dissapointed that 9 teammembers could raise enough votes to blunder a Queen. We have a lot of work to do, to raise the level of the groupmembers such that we at the very least see when we are about to blunder the Queen. Having said that, this group exists for just that reason. To learn from mistakes and become better players. So, how do you all think about this? (edit, sorry for the puzzle mode, I have no idea why that happened but can't change it. Quickest way to see the game is to press the questionmark under the game.)

As discussed in the notes, please post your openings, information, discussion about them here. Or if you want to create a topic for a specific one, please do so.