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Don't forget Rasberry chess is on youtube as well! If you'ed rather watch this game than read about it, check out my new video here! ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VNLjT-UW-0) So, who won the Sinequfield Cup 2016? So, I'll give you a second to think about it...So, if you havent figured it out I'll tell you. So, basically, this guy named So won the event (Pun intended). It is one of So's biggest tournament wins of all time and I give him my congradulatory single clap for winning the event. However, for today's game So will not be featured as another game caught my attention first. That game would be the clash in round 2 between Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri. What struck me as odd about this game was the fact Giri decided to play a sacrifical attack, and Hikaru decided to defend. Normally, when you think of these two, you think Hikaru will attack Giri, Giri will defend, and (because Giri is one of the two players) the game will end in a draw. However, this was far from the case! An exciting and unusual game! The thing that struck me as most compelling is how a simple piece misplacement can cause you a lot of greif. If you didn't catch it, one of Hikaru's strongest ideas was only realizable because the bishop on e6 was so badly misplaced. Let me know in the comments below what you think! As always, thanks for reading! -Jonathan Rasberry

Hello All! If you want to learn more about this game, click below for just this game on video!! I have many other great games there to see, so make sure to check out my channel and subscribe! Rasberry Chess Youtube - Great Games: Gulko v. Ponomariov Stop me if you have heard this one before: NEVER TRADE PIECES OFF WHEN ATTACKING!! Really?? This is one of the subjects I want to look at today! The game that I want to use today is from Pamplone 1996 between Boris Gulko and Ruslan Ponomariov. Ponomariov was definitely a fantastic chess player, but the guy I want to focus on is Boris Gulko. Gulko was one of the more talented players in chess’s history. In fact, he was the only person ever to win both the Russian and US Championships, arguably the hardest two championships to win. Now his rating was not all that impressive at its peak, 2644, but during his career, he beat Kasparov, Karpov, Taimanov, and the six time U.S. champion Walter Browne just to name a few top wins. Today, we will see a game through Boris’s eyes as some of my notes come from his excellent book, “Lessons with a Grandmaster.” The following game has three phases that Boris keeps separate excellently. The reason why I say this is the fact Boris does not start an attack before he has finished FULLY developing his pieces, and he does not end his attack, until his opponent excepts a worse endgame, at which stage he switches into full board operations again, and gets a clean win. People often like to start attacking before they fully develop their attack, and when this happens, you get attacks that wear out too easily or just plain fail. Some people keep trying to attack as they get into an endgame, not realizing that their attack has finished and that it will not work anymore; their advantage has shifted elsewhere. Many timid people just try to bring on the endgame way to fast, and thus they lose any advantage they had and poof, they are worse or drawn. Now you may argue with me saying you should not trade pieces when you are attacking because you don’t want to be that wimp that gives up too soon. However, there is a difference between giving up any attack you had because you want to trade, and trading with the full intention of getting a winning endgame. This game is an excellent example of this. In the middle of the attack, Boris offers a queen trade, and his opponent declined!! Why is this? You have to study the following to find out! This was a very instructive game and I hope you learned something from it. Only trying to find the moves one by one for yourself will make you a stronger player. Just looking through the game is useless, studying the game is what it is all about: growth comes at the point of resistance. I learned a couple of things. 1. I learned about the importance of deep calculation. – Never just assume a move is good or bad without calculation. If you do so you will miss out on so many great opportunities, or miss a crucial move from your opponent, killing your advantage or your game. \ 2. I learned it is OK to trade pieces while attacking. – Generally, especially in this type of open game when pawns are all over the place (see position at move 23) weaknesses are all over the board. Sometimes it is best to give up on attacking ideas (at move 23) trying something like Re1, or earlier with Nh4 and Qg4, and instead go for trading your opponent’s best defensive pieces to give you better attacking chances in other areas of the board. 3. Stay sharp on tactics. Moves like 15…Nd4 and Qxg7 all require the backing of tactics. Only sharp tactitionists will find those moves often enough to give oneself a good tournament result. Let me know what you guys learned, if I missed anything, or if you disagree with me anywhere in the comments down below!! Till next time! J. Rasberry

Hello Members! Sometimes studying chess can be boring and slow. However, from time to time it is a good idea to have some fun with it. :) That is why I am launching a 10 week puzzle solving challenge! Puzzles and tactics are an integral part of chess. Pattern recognition, calculation speed, and learning to calculate precisely are all learned with these. Each week I will be posting a new puzzle that you will attempt to solve. The winner, as described in the Rules, Scoring, and Regulation” section, will have his or her name inscribed on our first group tournament, and of course will receive group recognition as a fearsome tactics genius. I cannot stop you from using a computer and cheating, however, doing so is completely useless and is degrading to oneself. You are receiving a small bit of glory that will fade into history quickly, and you will not receive any lasting help from this. The reason why I am doing this is to help you become a better chess player through stretching your mind; growth comes at the point of resistance. I hope that you will take these tough nuts seriously and try to learn all you can about each tactic that you can!! - Rules, Scoring, and Regulations - The goal of our game is to gain as many points by the end of the 10 week period as possible; the winner is the one who finishes with the most points. Points can be earned in a number of different ways and many points can be racked up with the right entry. To be eligible you must send your answer to me in a private message. I’d suggest finding your answer, then clicking the contact admin button (for convenience) and submitting your answers there. DO NOT POST ANSWERS ON THIS FORUM UNTIL I POST THE ANSWER, YOU WILL BE EJECTED FROM THE COMPETITION IF YOU DO AND POSSIBLY THE GROUP. However you are welcome and encouraged to discuss the problem with your cohorts after the week is up. One point is awarded if your entry is the first I received. Two points are received if all you did was send in an answer, three points are given if you give me alternate lines, and four points are awarded if you not only give alternate lines but annotate your findings and discuss the ends and outs of the position as if you were teaching me the tactic. One point is deducted if your answers comes after the hint has been given (i.e. 3 points are awarded instead of 4 if you give me a well annotated answer after the hint). The hint will be given on Thursday or Friday. If I receive well annotated answers, the person whose annotations are the best among all annotations, according to me, will receive an additional 2 points and I will use that person’s answer as the solution. post at the end of the week. Answers will be posted Sunday or Monday. Zero points are awarded after the solution has been posted no matter what. Even if you were gone all week, than you will not be eligible for any points. You can join at any time and do not have to send in an answer each puzzle. Prizes are awarded as follows: 1st place earns his or her name on a group tournament and can name it what he or she prefers. Also, this person will receive accolades from the group about his or her accomplishments. 2nd place earns his or her name on a group vote chess game. 3rd place gets his or her name on the next group team match. Honorable mentions will be awarded at my discretion. Good luck to you all: MAY THE BEST PLAYER WIN!!

I have created a video that goes along with this topic, make sure to check it out for a much more in depth look at our topic today! youtube.com/watch?v=zjSjFQWpYX8 King and pawn endgames notoriously straight forward. Almost always, one side can win by force or the sides will draw…no fighting for an advantage. Basically, the point that I am trying to make is that you should never go into a king and pawn endgame unless you know you are wining or drawn (and you want a draw) or you are much worse in the endgame and trading to a K&P (king and pawn) endgame messes things up more and might give you some chances to not lose. To be successful in these types of endgames, you must be able to evaluate them very well and a lot of these endgames are winning, drawn or losing, because of triangulation and zugzwang. That is right, all of it comes down to your ability, or your opponent’s ability to lose a move. This is, of course, only speaking of the endgames that are seemingly close to drawn, some endgames are just plain pawn races while others are just winning by many moves. The close, or hard to evaluate, ones often come down to triangulation or zugzwang. This means you must be able to spot these really hard waiting moves to accurately evaluate the position. You may think you are winning because at the critical moment he has to step back, but in reality, he could use triangulation at an earlier moment on you, and you are the one who ends up having to back up and you end up losing. It is very important that you know what these are, how to find them, and how to use them. Definitions: Triangulation is where you attempt to lose a move. You “dance around the square you started at twice when your opponent can only reach one square from his goal square, and so you move away, he moves away, you move to the side, he moves back, and you move back, now it is his move in the original position and you have accomplished almost always, giving him a zugzwang position. Zugzwang is where the side that is in zugzwang has no good moves to make and because he has to move, he ends up losing ground and often the game. How to Find and How to Use Triangulation and Zugzwang: This is not easy, it takes lots of practice and hard work. I know that is not what you want to hear, but to be honest, triangulation and zugzwang can come about in so many different ways, that to say, look for the kings and pawns to be in this position, then be wary for a triangulation, is useless. However, there are some pointers to be on the lookout for. First, watch out for pawns on the same row three files apart, especially when that is the case for both sides. This means there is one hole that one side gets, and when they get there, they win (see example below). Very often both sides have very nasty tricks up there sleeve to use to trick you into giving them that square. As you can see, both sides had good chances to make headway and to win, however, both sides had to be at their best to not fall into destruction. Check out my YouTube video at the top of the page if you have not yet to see three more examples of triangulation and zugzwang that will cement these two critical endgame themes into your brains! Thanks for your time and comments! All the best! J. Rasberry

Click here to read part 1 first! Today we are going to be taking a look at the most quiet continuation black normally plays against the 5. Bg5 semi-slav (1. d4 d5, 2. C4 c6, 3. Nf3 Nf6, 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 or in any other order). The move we will analyze today, looking at it from both sides, is 5…Nbd7. This line can lead to the more popular and active Cambridge springs with 6…Qa5, or simple solidity with 6…Be7. For the ideas of this line check out part 1, the link is above! 5…Nbd7 6.cxd5 We will not really delve into this line any but just to say I think white gets a good version of the QGD with his bishop outside the pawn chain. To really get a better understanding of the opening we will need to go into QGD more so than this series can allow, so for now I will just be looking at 6.e3 which is the most popular continuation and maybe slightly more combative. Maybe sometime in the future if I get enough demand, we might could jump into the thick waters of the queen’s gambit declined proper. 5…Nbd7 6.e3 Be7 Ok so at the end there the idea was white got a space advantage in the center thanks to that quote bad doubled pawn on e5, and has a great steed on e4. Black will be able to play c5 (finally!) and should be equal. I like white however though because of the nice knight. Of course black has the two bishops which might help in an endgame. 5…Nbd7 6.e3 Qa5 7. cxd5 (Cambridge Springs Variation) With Qa5, black basically decides he wants activity and pressure with his solid position. It’d be nice, but white has the resources to fend off the pressure and get a nice game. However it has been played many times and if black knows what he is doing and white doesn’t, white could easily get a winning position. However, I can say I have been on the black side of the Cambridge springs, and have found it mostly unpleasant. However I was not well prepared so that may explain my not so great positions I got. So I’d suggest if you want to play this from black’s side, READ UP! You don’t want to get into these position without a compass and map. I think in summation black can get some good positions, but he needs to be careful. On the other hand white gets good positions and as we saw in one line, he can get an attack if willing to sacrifice a pawn. Again, however, if black knows what he is doing, I think he will be doing fine. 5…Nbd7 6.e3 Qa5 7. Nd2 (Mainline Cambridge Springs) Clearly cxd5 for white has its potential ups and downs, and I like the lines a bit for white, but 7.Nd2 is the more chosen line. I am not sure why exactly, but my guess is, black needs to be a bit more accurate to equalize than after cxd5. Let’s take a look at it. This is a classic position of isolated pawn, white has the space edge and piece developmental edge, but d4 is in need of defense. Black will attack it and try to use the flanks of the board to attack the center and the kingside. I prefer white here, but that is because of a temporary advantage in development and I like playing more active positions. If you like more solid positions, which is probably why you played Nbd7 in the first place :0, you might enjoy this position as black.:) Next week we will begin taking a look at the more active positions black can try for with h6. And then a week later, dxc4. Again, this line with 6…Nbd7 was for those of you like solidity. However, for the most part this opening is craziness and fun, so till next week! Thanks for reading and commenting! J. Rasberry

It is always good to have a bit of fun in chess, so this is the goal with my new forum string, Tactics 1. Here I will be weekly posting tactics for you to solve.(YES, I realize I spelled Forum wrongly in the title, I wish I could change it!) [If the answer does not immediatly come to you, consider spending some quality time solving these puzzles, they will stretch your brain and make you a better chess player!] Feel free to post the answer below the puzzle or questions you have about mine or other's solutions. I will post the answer and/or confirm your solutions one week after I post the puzzles. ENJOY! Puzzle #1 - White to move You may quickly notice stopping the pawn from queening looks impossible, if your oppoonent (black) is going to queen, is there any saving grace for you from the rook or pawn? Puzzle one is a dandy, good luck!

Today I am posting my first game to Rasberry Chess. I hope to make a habit of this because I learn so much by doing so. However, forums like this one take a couple of hours and I don’t have that much time lying around every day, so these will come out sparsely. Here is a great method to get the most of my and other’s games presented here on chess.com: 1. Play through the game once quickly – don’t stop to look at variations. 2. Decide if the game is worth your time. - Maybe you are just so good, that a game that would be educational to a 1400 would be of no use to you. 3. If it is worth your time, SET TIME APART to look at the game – Learning from these forums will take time, but this is how you will improve! If you don’t have 15-30 mins, then all you will be doing is looking at the game for visual pleasure and not be learning anything. 4. If you have the time, then start by going through just the main line getting a feeling for what moves you like and didn’t like – don’t go through the annotations or variation. 5. Next Play through each variation as you come to it, reading the analysis as provided - Do this slowly and try to guess my move, my opponent’s move, or the computer’s move. 6. Finally, go back through the game just as you did in step four –Compare your feelings to the computer analysis and my annotations! This first game is very rich, surprisingly rich! Take note of the pawn structure decisions I make and learn from my mistakes. Also, study all the possible attacks I had, the crazy piece sacrifices and, of course, the queen sac! Enjoy! What did I learn from that game and what can you? 1. Understand that every move has advantages and drawbacks and I need to evaluate the moves better. a4 had a drawback of weakening the b4 square, but that was a non-useful square for black; I could afford to give up that square to gain space and cramp up black’s activity. 2. Learn about the pawn structure I presented. The a3-b4 pawns against the a6-b5 pawns were instructive. That pawn structure requires attention! 3. Add the queen sac and the other piece sacs to my and your repertoires. Those attacks are crazy, but they come about every so often. 4. Never give in. Just a couple of tournaments ago, I basically resigned in a drawn position, I just gave up looking for a simple solution like Chris did here in the game. His time was low, but he had enough time to realize his king was not in that much danger, enough danger to play Qa7 to defend that way at least! My favorite thing on chess.com is the comment section! I just love it. Use it, if you do I know my I am spending my time well. If you don’t, I have to guess my time is going to waste. SO, let me know what you think! Chessicaly, Jonathan Rasberry

When the time comes to end the game, are you willing and able to deliver the mate? Here are three different types of mating patterns key to winning many chess games. King & Pawn vs. King This one pops up all the time and you need to know how to win it. There are two important aspects of this endgame CRITICAL to know! They are opposition and critical squares. Once you understand these two concepts, making a queen is a piece of cake. Here we go: Opposition: Opposition in chess, is when both kings are lined up one square apart as in the figure above, and it is the opponent’s move. So if you are white above, and it is your move, then you are said not to have to opposition. If you are white and black is to move, you have the opposition. Basically, why opposition is so powerful is because if you have it, than you can force your way forward. In the position above white to move, if black desires, white will never get to the next rank up, all black will do is shoulder away the king by following white in whatever direction he went. If we go left, he will move left as well. If we go southwest, back to d2, than he goes southwest to d4. We cannot force black out of the way and advance our king unless we have another move somewhere else on the board to make. Opposition is a critical aspect to chess, not just to this endgame so learn it well! Opposition also exists when there are three squares in between the kings. Basically if white were to move up and left, than black would move down and left and then you would be in opposition. This is called distant opposition. Opposition comes in many different and hidden forms, so be well prepared in it, and you will reap rewards! So why is opposition critical here? Firstly, if white does not have the opposition with the king in front of the pawn (more on that later…), than we can never bring our king forward in front of the pawn and reach the critical squrares, and we have to push our pawn to lose a tempo. Sadly, if black knows what he is doing, once the pawn and king arrive on the sixth rank, there is a drawing tactic with stalemate. Thus for now, just know, having the opposition with the winning or drawing side is key, so make sure you learn opposition well! Critical Squares: The “critical squares” are the three squares two rows in front of the pawns. In the picture above, the black pawns represent white’s three critical squares. If the white king can get to one of these squares, he can win. If he cannot (I.E. if the king has opposition :) than the game is drawn, based on the drawing tactic afore mentioned. So, if the pawn is on e2 as it is now, d4, e4, and f4 are the critical squares for the king to reach. The point is with that, is if the king gets to e4, and black has the opposition, than white can wait by bringing the pawn up to e3 and regaining the all important opposition. If the pawn were on c4, the critical squares would be b6, c6, and d6. How to Win: Now that you know about opposition and critical squares, time to put it together. As mentioned in the last paragraph, use the king to get to the critical squares, gain opposition if you don’t already have it, then bring the king up and up to the next two levels of critical squares as if your pawn were on the fourth rank. Once you do that, bring your pawn up to the fifth rank. If you then have the opposition, bring your king to the open seventh rank square, and your pawn queens. If you don’t, move your king over to either side, he moves to block your king, push to the sixth, then up to the seventh, and because his king is back on the queening file, he has to move out of the way and you get to the seventh. The drawing resource that was mentioned can be forced so that when you are forced to push your pawn to the sixth, then the king can go strait back, then the king comes up black opposes the king, you push the pawn again with check, he moves in front, and the only way to hold the pawn is with stalemate, and the game is drawn. Below is the winning example, and below that, the drawing ones. I have made annotations to go with some of the moves, so that you understand the concept the best! King and Rook vs. King Ok, yes I know almost all of you know how to do this one, but if you don’t, here is a refresher! The basic idea (same with a queen, if you can’t mate with a queen, use this rook method!), is to lose (the opposite as in the king and pawn endgame) the opposition, force the king to the side and then to gain direct opposition, and then when that happens, bring your rook down and check the king, the king has no forward squares to go to, and the king backs up. You do this until you get to the back rank, using the rook moving from side to side to loose tempos when you can not get the opposition, and then check him and he cannot go forward, sideways, or back and you win. Here is how below: King and Two Bishops vs. King This one does not happen as often, but for anyone over 1500, you should have this learned and if you are below 1500, now is a good time to learn! The patterns here are easy, but you need to remember a couple of things, so to do that, you should go over this lesson a couple of times to cement this in your head. First put your two bishops beside each other as shown in the example below as step one. Step two, bring your king up to the bishops, and, if necessary, triangulate (explained below!) to get your king one row in front of the bishops next two one of them. Then your opponent’s king will be driven backwards. Next step is taking the correct bishop and bringing it one square forward so that it takes away the square from which the king just came. Step four is getting back the step two’s position, only one rank farther up! Do this again and again if necessary until your opponent’s king gets to the last rank. Once that happens, choose which side you plan to mate him on, and bring your king over right beside the bishop on the third rank or file. Step six is bringing the king to the corner. In a technique shown below, you can easily do that. You do this all the way until the king is cornered, and you deliver mate! Pay attention to what the annotations say, practice a few times, and you will memorize this in no time! The End?! Seems like I have been gradually building up to the bishop and knight vs. King position, but for now, we will leave that one be, it will be a lesson all to itself when we get into more advanced stuff. It happens so rarely, that you don’t need to learn it today. If you do wish to, then go search it on youtube, and you will find plenty of vids there on how to do it! So, as for now, we are done, let me know what you think by leaving your comments below! Thanks -Jonathan Rasberry

The oldest question in the books is how to start a chess game. I mean, if you dont’t know how to start it, then how are you going to win it? It is not as simple as that, but with a weak understanding of the opening, your game will suffer. Now of course strict memorization won’t make you play the middle game any better, but if you do memorize some lines AND study the ideas behind where the pieces are developed and where on the board you should try to play, then your chess will become better. Ideas from one opening might pop into your mind as you are playing a totally different position just because the structure is similar or your opponent is developing his pieces in the same way as in a line you learned. Even that game will benefit from your opening analysis and you will be a better player. Do not get me wrong, my passion is with the endgame, and I value middle game study of tactics and strategy a bit above openings, but I can tell you as a weak opening player myself, ignoring the opening all together or just studying it briefly will cost you in the long run. My goal with this forum string is to teach you and I the ideas and lines of many different openings and to showcase games from the studied lines to enhance our understanding of the position. I will roughly spend one month on each opening line hoping to produce a topic weekly if my schedule allows. I hope to spend time learning opening lines in the first three or four weeks, while spending the last week covering a couple of GM games with these openings. I don’t have a specific order in which I will be tacking the world of openings, my bad, galaxy of openings, but I hope to give you all a good sample of what is out there for all players of all different styles to learn from! Our first opening we will be studying will be on the Queen’s Gambit Declined Semi-Slav Variation. This month we will focus on 5. Bg5 and lines coming from it(in any order - 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 c6 5.Bg5). I have played this position as black a number of times as black (never white though), and can tell you Bg5 is played often. This opening analysis is non-partisan, meaning that I will take this position on from both sides, helping you learn how to play this position from both sides giving you many different lines to look at. Ok, to begin with, this week we will be learning about the ideas behind this move, and plans that both sides will be trying to enact. Ok, firstly, playing Bg5 often leads to crazy lines!! If you are afraid of crazy lines, don’t go for it. :) If you are playing this as black, I will show you a couple of tamer lines if you wish to go down them and, of course, the crazy lines if you intend to challenge white. However, for the most part, when white plays Bg5, he intends to either get a very small positional advantage (the bishop is outside of the pawn chain), or give up a pawn for a probable attack. So as black, you have your choice here, you are the one choosing how the game will proceed to a large extent. Ok, so there are a few lines that black could play: Nbd7, h6, dxc4 (other lines have been played, but these are the most played and probably best), and I will quickly cover what each will be about. 5…Nbd7 This is known as the Cambridge springs line, and this is the line for those of you who do not like less crazy lines. Though debatable, black basically accepts a slightly more passive position in favor of solidity. The move lacks dynamics, and for the most part is just saying that “try beating me, I have no weaknesses!” If you plan to play this line as black you need to know how to play cramped, slightly uncomfortable positions because that is exactly what you have. I have heard many think white is better after 5…Nbd7 because both his bishops are better than their counterparts on the black side, white has more space with good chances to open the center, and, mainly due to the last point, has an easier time with development. The reason why they say it is not overwhelmingly better for white is because black is very solid, and with a few well prepared moves, he can begin to negate some of white’s advantages. Personally, I have played this line a few times, in fact almost all the times my opponent played Bg5 up till recently, and never really got pleasurable positions. However, other lines require a bit more memorization and a bit more nerve to go into, so if you are not well prepared, Nbd7 might be a good line to try. For those of you who play Bg5 as white, know that you are in for more of a positional game, but you have an advantage; you may not have gotten an attacking position, but you can be happy with the position you have because it is a nice one to play! 5…h6 With this line, play can go either way, anywhere from crazy sacrificing chess to dead positional maneuvering. However, to get positional maneuvering, white and black have to play into it. For instance black can just play Bxf6 and start opening lines AFTER both sides have castled, or if he plays Bh4, the pin on the knight can create some interesting lines with e2-e4-e5 coming unless black plays g5 which just positionally lends itself to chaos! For black, if white chooses 6.Bh4, he can try winning the c4 pawn (many times he wins it very soundly and is just up material), but with that, white gets a dangerous initiative. If he doesn’t, he still gets attacked, but he a bit more solid, a bit better developed, but not up material (lines are very similar to 5…Nbd7). Probably the reason why h6 is the main move here is because most people (playing the black side), get to determine the style of play in the game. He can straight go for material and get horribly attacked, he can choose to play more of those Nbd7 lines or if white goes Bxf6 then he get a positional game, and he can even take the pawn, planning to give it back so that white gets a smaller attack, gets the pawn back, but may in the long run be a bit positionally weaker. Bg5 players, if black plays h6, you have to choose between Bf6 playing the tamer, but more solid line, or have to play Bh5, known as the Moscow gambit because you have to gambit a pawn, and let black determine just how severely you can attack him. Tradeoffs, an exciting line, but often theoretical. 5...dxc4 The crazy line! Ok, not sacrificing and all out attacking is going on, though that can happen in some lines, but I am more referring to the fact that if either side doesn’t know what they are doing, things can go horribly wrong. If black messes up, then he will, against good play, just get destroyed; and for white, while he has a bit more room for error, if he errs too much, the fact that he is down a pawn will just prove too much for him. This line is very important to learn the theory from either side because so often the moves are counter intuitive such as b5 and g5 which gets played often by black. The computer likes dxc4 the best, so there is merit to learning this line. However, from a human standpoint, giving up king safety (the main line goes 6.e4 b5! 7.e5 h6 8.Bh5 g5!) and allowing yourself to get attacked, may not be worth it to you. My time has run out for this lesson today, so we will look at Nbd7 and possibly more next week. Until then, if you play this as black, I’d suggest you play some games with Nbd7 and some games with h6 and determine which line you like better. Of course from a white or black standpoint, the best way for you to get better is to do your homework ahead of time and begin learning variations now on your own. Exercises like looking at a bunch of GM games and playing out the lines in practice is good hard work that will produce results. If you have any particular lines you want me to look at, just let me know, and if I have time, I will try to include them in my future lessons. Also, of course, let me know what your own opinions are about these openings, I don’t get that many human opinions, so your experience and opinions are appreciated. As for me, I take data from databases on the most popular lines, look up some chess.com and Youtube.com videos to learn the lines that the GM’s suggest, and I also take data from my games to give you my own opinions if I have played or play the lines given. Until next week! Best regards, Jonathan Rasberry

By request of a memeber in our group, I will be posting all my video's from youtube here trying to keep this updated fairly often. I will post any video that I have created recently below, and then below that, just my playlists if you are interested in a certain series I have created. First, however, just a link to my YouTube home page. (*) This symbol means there is a fourm that you can find here on the same topic. Current # of Videos is at 7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rasberry Chess Youtube Homepage: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdiRO0CheIZfgyUPA0__sjA ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Recent Videos: Lucena and Philidor Positions - Endgame Lab Video 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJb075xylhM Practical Endgame Advice for Club Players - Our Games Video 4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHmJzspq7rc ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Current Playlists: Endgame Lab: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyj6BKi9qeE8O2JxvTulFkeYI13sBnbwb Our Games: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyj6BKi9qeE_Ujm_prYcGQeha6fOXJYLY ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thanks and enjoy! Jonathan Rasberry

Engames, in my opinion, are the most important part to a chess game. The complexities that arise are astonishing given the seeming simplicity of the position. If you do not know what you are doing, then it is very easy to loose a drawn, sometimes even winning endgame. In one of my recent games, a Rook and pawn endgame arose. I was down a pawn and down on time. I don't exactly remember the postion becasue I did not notate it due to the lack of time on my clock. I knew activity was the most important part of the endgame, went for active moves instead of checks, and ended up putting him into an extremely passive position. Soon, not only was he passive, but he was loosing a pawn. The second was soon to follow, and before you knew it, I was in the famous Lucena winning postion, which I handly won. Don't think I am some endgame guru, for I have as well lost or should have lost endgames were at some point I was technically winning. Becasue endgames are so important, it makes sense to start with them. I am going to start simple, followed by working my way up to tougher positions such as the lucena winning position which I afore mentioned, and beyond. In this group, I will expect that you know how to mate with a queen and with a lone rook. Today I am going to begin with queen vs. pawn on the 7th rank. Our next lesson will be on how to win a king and pawn vs. King position which might be technically more simple, but I wanted to start this group off with something at least superficially more difficult for the better players! This is taken from the Student and His Game, my old group. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out my Youtube Video on this topic for more learning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XxdVfrgyY4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As so often happens, you get into a pawn race to deside the game. Unfortunentally, after you queen, his pawn moves to the seventh rank and threatens to promote! What's to stop him? The only way to win in this situation is to bring your king over to his pawn and take his pawn with your queen. To do this you must imobalize his pawn. If you can get your queen to the queening square than you win. You block the pawn, and your king comes and shews off the opposing king and you win the pawn and the endgame. If your queen cant get to the queening square safely, than you must put the only other peice that is close enough infront of that pawn. You use your queen in successive checks to force the king infront of the pawn. Once that happens you start the king's journey toward the pawn. When the king moves again he's threatining the same thing, thus you start the checks over. When his king moves infront of the pawn you move your king again. Note the following example on how the king gets to the pawn and wins. That was a d-pawn, which means it's winning. the same type idea is consistent with b, d, e, and g pawns. But what about rook pawns and bishop pawns (a, c, f, and h pawns)? Rook pawns are drawn if the opposing king is close enough. At the crutial moment when you just forced him infront of his pawn, you must reatreat. Note the next diagram. If the king had been close enough, like in any of the situations for any pawn the game is winning. When the opponent queens you can checkmate you can checkmate by putting your queen diagonally right next to the King. Again this is only if you are close enough with your king. In the bishop's pawn's case (c and f pawns) the king has a lucky escape route to save the game. When you do the same prosess as before, you will find the opponent move his king to the corner. You then are either forced to stop the queening by moving behind or to the side of the pawn, in which case the king moves back and pretects the pawn, or you take the pawn and you stalemate the king In recap, check your way to the pawn, make him move infront of the pawn, move your king closer, check the free roaming king again till you force him infront, move your king, and reapeat the process agian. Rook and bishop pawns are drawn becasue at the crutial moment, the king will be stalemated by the queen and the pawn alone. I will now break off into two categorys of topic, one will be this, the basic endgame principles, the other, will be intermediate endgame study. This will help stronger players and weaker players learn how to take advantage of your advantage. Good luck with your games, and thanks for your time! Jonathan Rasberry - Rasberry Chess