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I was wondering what different languages are spoken here, since this is an international group. I speak Arabic (العربي) and English. So, post your languages!

There has been a change in the way everyone can now view all their current vote chess games. Staff here at chess.com have been working hard on this and after listening to everyones suggestions they have created this page which can be found by placing your cursor over "my home" and selecting "my vote chess". You can also access it by clicking : http://www.chess.com/votechess/myhome.html

Any major league baseball fans out there? I started a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball League. I am seeking more players to round out the last few positions. If you're serious about following it throughout the season, please send me a message here. We are having a live draft, tentatively set for the evening of Thursday, March 25 but if you pre-rank your players you don't even have to be online. (Of course, it's better if you are!) The league is totally social, but we take baseball very serious!

Hello - I joined this site less than 3 weeks ago. I joined this talk site today. This is my first topic. I apologize if you have already discussed this. In my last completed game, my pawn became a queen. I had the game won. I then proceeded to lose my queen AND my rook to a pawn and a king. The game ended in a draw. Admit it, you made some stupid moves. What was your worst?

Again, I apologize if you have already talked about this. I am a DIEHARD fan of the Philadelphia Phillies and Eagles. Which pro sports team are you a fan of?

Currently we have 1 game going and it is set at 1 day per move. http://www.chess.com/votechess/game.html?id=15070 I joined this match and found only 5 members of the team registered. I made a couple of comments and not a single word has been said by ANY of these people. But talk about random voting?? The Games Explorer suggests 7.a4 but I cannot understand why (I am a 1400 player) but here is the scoring so far: Current Votes 7.Nxd5 (33%) 7.Be2 (33%) 7.a4 (33%) 3 votes cast. What are we doing here people?? We need some discussion going on or WE WILL LOSE THIS GAME. 12 hours left to go can we get some people involved please and lets try and win this game??

A player here asked me why I asked them to join our group. I gave the following response: Interesting request....well I started his group over a year ago with the purpose of meeting varied and different folks, players, social savants and really a cross section of this world of people we live in. This site gave me pause of thought and I realised two things after a year of this.....this really is a very diverse world we live in and people aregenerally social while this site give all the right to just play and lurk if they want. Why did I ask you specifically , I can tell you that those I ask usually have an interesting picture up (they have worked on chess.com a bit and i would NOT mind seeing that image each day), there are some points in your account (meaning you have spoken in groups and team games or in forums or any other participating activity on here, and there is a sense of geography either in world or country (commonality). Lastly each person I ask I hope will 1) join, 2) contribute their own brand (image) positively to Social Chess Players International, 3) join in team and vote chess matches building our team with your knowledge and skill (any rating works no limit). Thank you for the ? I invite you to join us. In any case I hope you have a pleasant day, your chess games are all winners and you enjoy your time here always spinfold---------------------------------------------------------------------- Original Message by Nogette on 2/23/2010 @ 4:21pm: Sam, Hello, i was just wondering why you wanted me to join your group. I am currently impartial either, so please try to convince me. Thank you. -Nogette

i had the misfortune of playing this "hank" person in a tournament. a strong player, he won our first game and is certainly winning our second. i understand the philosphy of resigning a game when victory is unlikely, however i will not be bagered to do so. along with the acusations that i'm waiting the game out hoping he'll miss timliness, i've rarely come across such a rude and individual on this site. i'll not be checking to see any responses to this post, so feel free to say whatever you wish. for the most part i had fun in the group, thanks to all the great games against the vast majority of players. i'm sorry that i feel i must resign the group with such a classless person.

Benjamin Franklin: ON THE MORALS OF CHESS The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it, so as to become habits, ready on all occasions. 1. Foresight, which looks a little into futurity, and considers the consequences that may attend an action; for it is continually occuring to the player, 'If I move this piece, what will be the advantages or disadvantages of my new situation? What use can my adversary make of it to annoy me? What other moves can I make to support it, and to defend myself from his attacks? 2. Circumspection, which surveys the whole chessboard, or scene of action; the relations of the several pieces and situations, the dangers they are respectively exposed to, the several possibilities of their aiding each other, the probabilities that the adversary may make this or that move, and attack this or the other piece, and what different means can be used to avoid his stroke, or turn its consequences against him. 3. Caution, not to make our moves too hastily. This habit is best acquired, by observing strictly the laws of the game; such as, If you touch a piece, you must move it somewhere; if you set it down, you must let it stand. And it is therefore best that these rules should be observed, as the game becomes thereby more the image of human life, and particularly of war . . . And lastly, we learn by Chess the habit of not being discouraged by present appearances in the state of our affairs, the habit of hoping for a favourable change, and that of persevering in the search of resources. The game is so full of events, there is such a variety of turns in it, the fortune of it is so subject to sudden vicissitudes, and one so frequently, after long contemplation, discovers the means of extricating one's self from a supposed insurmountable difficulty, that one is encouraged to continue the contest to the last, in hopes of victory from our own skill, or at least of getting a stalemate from the negligence of our adversary . . . If your adversary is long in playing, you ought not to hurry him, or express any uneasiness at his delay. You should not sing, nor whistle, nor look at your watch, not take up a book to read, nor make a tapping with your feet on the floor, or with your fingers on the table, nor do anything that may disturb his attention. For all these things displease; and they do not show your skill in playing, but your craftiness or your rudeness. You ought not to endeavour to amuse and deceive your adversary, by pretending to have made bad moves, and saying that you have now lost the game, in order to make him secure and careless, and inattentive to your schemes: for this is fraud and deceit, not skill in the game. You must not, when you have gained a victory, use any triumphing or insulting expression, nor show too much pleasure; but endeavour to console your adversary, and make him less dissatisfied with himself, by every kind of civil expression that may be used with truth, such as 'you understand the game better than I, but you are a little inattentive;' or, 'you play too fast;' or, 'you had the best of the game, but something happened to divert your thoughts, and that turned it in my favour.' If you are a spectator while others play, observe the most perfect silence. For, if you give advice, you offend both parties, him against whom you give it, because it may cause the loss of his game, him in whose favour you give it, because, though it be good, and he follows it, he loses the pleasure he might have had, if you had permitted him to think until it had occurred to himself. Even after a move or moves, you must not, by replacing the pieces, show how they might have been placed better; for that displeases, and may occasion disputes and doubts about their true situation. All talking to the players lessens or diverts their attention, and is therefore unpleasing. Lastly, if the game is not to be played rigorously, according to the rules above mentioned, then moderate your desire of victory over your adversary, and be pleased with one over yourself. Snatch not eagerly at every advantage offered by his unskilfulness or inattention; but point out to him kindly, that by such a move he places or leaves a piece in danger and unsupported; that by another he will put his king in a perilous situation, etc. By this generous civility (so opposite to the unfairness above forbidden) you may, indeed, happen to lose the game to your opponent; but you will win what is better, his esteem, his respect, and his affection, together with the silent approbation and goodwill of impartial spectators.

The Tao of Chess 200 Principles to Transform Your Game and Your Life by Chess Master Peter Kurzdorfer is an excellent read. Highly recommend it.

A great 2010 for everybody! I joined SCPI a few days ago and hope to play interesting games and have nice conversations here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!! HAVE A GREAT 2010!!! Don't forget that there's a BLUE MOON this New Year's Eve!!!

Hello friends! It is a pleasure to be part of this group. Regarding the invitation to be administrator, I will leave the job to another, I am administrator of another group and adviser to arbitration and that already consumed a lot my time, okay? I wonder if I can post thoughts, poems, phrases, etc ... ok? How about a little Agitated by the group tournaments and internal training? thus, the group trained to make it stronger in scores. Increase the number of members would be good money, right? the larger group is more likely to participate in the league, right? Well, here are some suggestions, ok? Stay with God, success and all the luck in the world for all. Regards,

Anyone interested in mathematics and want math puzzles with chess puzzles. ? Join the group "I want 2 do Maths" . It is really interesting group. We have puzzles daily and will get rank who solved it correctly . We will have many interesting features in the group. Here is the link -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Morning & Have a Nice Day! NEVER GIVE ANYONE THE AUTHORITY TO HURT YOU OR MAKE U SAD........ HAPPINESS IS NOT WHAT YOU DO OR HOW YOU DO IT........ IT'S THE WAY YOU THINK........ SO THINK HAPPY, STAY HAPPY ........Keep smiling........

The Knight's Tour is a mathematical problem involving a knight on a chessboard. The knight is placed on the empty board and, moving according to the rules of chess, must visit each square exactly once. A knight's tour is called a closed tour if the knight ends on a square attacking the square from which it began (so that it may tour the board again immediately with the same path). Otherwise the tour is open. The exact number of open tours is still unknown. Creating a program to solve the knight's tour is a common problem given to computer science students.Variations of the knight's tour problem involve chessboards of different sizes than the usual 8 × 8, as well as irregular (non-rectangular) boards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight%27s_tour

Really, when I plays Chess game my heart always alerts me to do minimise mistakes and therefore my heart beats always increases.

Here is another quick game That I played today.

Reading a book this holydays, The Chess Machine by Robert Lohr. There's another book about this theme, Tom Standage's The Turk. I didn't read this one. Yet. The theme seems very interesting. I'm still reading the first one. It's about a true event. A baron, Wolfgang Von Kempelen, in the XVIII, invented for the Queen of the Austrian impire Marie Therese a chess machine. A machine that thought!!! Of course inside there was a midget, a good player for those times, Tibor, wich Von Kempelen took out of the streets of Venice, Italy. The machine was named The Turk. " Over the course of his career, the Chess Turk played against several famous opponents. In addition to games with Empress Maria Theresia and Benjamin Franklin, the match against Napoleon in 1809 in Vienna was the highlight of his career. Napoleon tried to test the Chess Turk by making illegal moves. The Chess Turk is said to have reacted first by bowing and then by placing the illegally-moved chess figure on the correct spot. After Napoleon made further attempts to deceive the machine, the Chess Turk swept all the pieces off the table, earning the praise of the French emperor." as discribed in the site of the Museumsforum Heinz Nixdorf in Paderborn, Germany. The mechanism inside the machine was only to impress the public. The only mechanism that worked was the one to permit the player inside to see the moves of the adversary and the ones that permited him to make his own moves. The replica of the machine, that survived and exhibited from 1770 till 1838, is actually in the above mentioned Museumsforum Heinz Nixdorf in Paderborn. Inside should be like this. You can notice the player, a chess board and a candle. The candle was necessary because inside was completely dark. The smoke was filtered out by the turbant on the head of the turk. But what about the smell of burnt wax? As the games were disputed at night, nothing more simple than to put a candle near the chess board on the outside!! But as in a trick of cards an element was necessary to distract the public. Von Kempelen had always with him and for everyone to see a little box, wich inside had nothing but air!! Is like the the right hand distracting you from what the left hand is doing. That wasn't of course necessary but added a misterious fact to the whole event. The rest were cables to make the moves and magnets to permit the player inside to see the moves. Cables to shake the head one time for check, two for queen check and three for checkmate. The long pipe was to make a composition and was retired before the game started. But the final trick was a Copperfieldish one. As the games finished Von Kempelen showed the inside "mechanism". The one to show!! He showed one part first with the midget hiding in one compartment. After he showed the other side as the midget moved to another compartment. I wonder if in a game of chess isn't that what we really do.

Master the Hypermodern" tournament series are brought to you, if you want to learn the Hypermodern school. It'll feature 14 openings, with intent for better understanding of positional play, what is Modern chess and to get profound knowledge of hypermodern openings and sub-variants. The first is Catalan Opening. Each opening (tournament) will have 10 games-whole tournament series 140 so that's enogh to grasp what all the fuss is about http://www.chess.com/tournament/master-the-hypermodern--part-i-catalan-opening. I'll keep you update when new tournaments start