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You can be active in this group by adding something to for example the TPOEA-program, or by joining the 4th tournament! But with 5 pages, it is getting a bit of a mess, and perhaps this will help you to find what you want. I´ll try to update this regularly! Tournament info Old tourneys- http://www.chess.com/groups/forumview/new-tournaments5- http://www.chess.com/groups/forumview/tournament75- The Eliminator Tactical tournaments- 1st TT- 2nd TT- 3rd TT- 4th TT *new* You can still join this tournament! Puzzles Weekly puzzles- Puzzle 1 - Puzzle 11 - Puzzle 21- Puzzle 2 - Puzzle 12 - Puzzle 22- Puzzle 3 - Puzzle 13 - Puzzle 23- Puzzle 4 - Puzzle 14 - Puzzle 24- Puzzle 5 - Puzzle 15 - Puzzle 25- Puzzle 6 - Puzzle 16 - Puzzle 26- Puzzle 7 - Puzzle 17 - Puzzle 27- Puzzle 8 - Puzzle 18 - Puzzle 28- Puzzle 9 - Puzzle 19 - Puzzle 29 Post Fri 25th June- Puzzle 10 - Puzzle 20 - Puzzle 30 Other puzzles- Mate in 4- Mate in 2 (5x)- Tactical puzzle- Tactical puzzle- Tactical puzzle- Mate in 8- Mate in 10- Tactical puzzle- Mate in 21- Mate in 4?!Feel free to post a puzzle! TPOEA program Program- Idea behind the program- Origin of chess Tactical- Fischer game- Fischer game (2x)- Puzzle- Puzzle incl. checkmate (6x) Positional- Positions after Falkbeer Countergambit Opening- Traps with 1.e4- B00 Fried Fox Defense- C02 French defense - advanced variation Post Mon 28th June- C21 Danish Gambit - D08 Albin CountergambitYou are invited to write articles about (variations of) the Sicilian Defense, starting 1.e4 c5! I don´t know a lot about it, but perhaps you do. Post when you want, thanks in advance. You can always message me for more information. Endgame- Bishop and Knight - Mate in 28- Rook vs Rook (+pawn) Game Analysis- 1732 vs 1607- 1419 vs 1482 OTB- GM game: 2801 vs 2686 OTBWant a game analyses by other team members? Or do you have a very interesting master game you want to show? This is the right group! Post your game in the forum! Any other posts not meant before: Search in our forum archive

A new tournament has been created for the members of this group. You may join by going here: http://www.chess.com/tournament/tactical-tournament-4 Join and show us what is in your tactical tool box! Zucan

Hello everyone,Recently I read Winter's books and Euwe&Prins book about Capablanca. How great was Capablanca in your opinion? Winter's Book about Capablanca Euwe & Prins book about Capablanca

Leonid Kubbel was good in tactical studies. I like his studies. Maybe someone will find this book interesting. I will leave the link here: Kubbel's Studies

Will this group ever regain activity?

Come test your skills in a tournament with a maximum of 100 people! Posted by magazek on 10/28/13 at 11:40 AM Welcome, completing 100 people, will start the tournament, registrations are still open, no mattertheir nationality, or their level, will be part of thisunion! And test your skills and talents! Good luck! Archive | Delete TD: magazek Starts ASAP Registered: 16 of 100 Time Control: 3 days/move Max Group Size: 5 Rating Range: Open # Advance: 2 Tie Breaks: Yes Points Available: 581 Games Rated: Yes You will play ~4 simultaneous games(one game per opponent starts immediately)

Whats the best opening for most people e4?

This is a study plan I am planning on doing and wanted to know if it's solid. 8 puzzles from chessproblem.com 5 puzzles each from 303 tricky chess series (books) 6 puzzles from the chess tactics workbook (book) 3 puzzles from chess.com's tactics trainer 10 endgame puzzles with 2 being composed 3-4 puzzls from how to beat your dad at chess (book) 4 puzzles on chessemrald (website) 8 puzzles from chesstempo (website) 7 puzzles from ideachess (website) 5-6 puzzles from 1001brilliant checkmate's (book) 20 puzzles from my own games (won,draw or loss) 1 puzzle from chessgames.com (puzzle of the day) 1 puzzle from chess.com (daily puzzle) 11 puzzles from 600 practical chess exercises (book) = 96 total puzzles + 4 puzzles from other peoples games who are in my same rating class All this will be done in 2-3hrs coming back to one's I missed.

Here´s one of the oldest games from my database: played by Napoleon I at St Helena. He certainly was a great player, not only because of this puzzle below. We´re only 13 moves playing, but black played a really passive 13...a5. White has now got a Mate in 5. Could you do that as well?(As always, the whole game could be watched by clicking Solution and then Move List, but try it yourself first!)

Today we will view a winning puzzle from 1902. It´s white to move and mate in 2. You can move to all variants of black, but the first move of white is always the same. The puzzles will tell you. Good luck, I think it´s brilliant!

C21: Danish gambit The Danish gambit is in the Netherlands actually called the “Norwegian gambit”. It is quite a risky opening, because in the accepted line black is immediately two pawns ahead. Could white take this risk? The starting position is reached after making the following moves:1. e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 bxc3 4.Bc4 (when accepting: 4…cxb2 5.Bxb2) Plus / Minus: + White has immediately got two pieces developed, black instead hasn’t got any. + White has got a strong bishop pair, attacking the unprotected black king. + White can castle quite quickly, without having any trouble (e.g. being attacked by black). Thereby it is quite a safe opening. + White has got a trap to checkmate black very quickly. But you should always keep this in mind: - As said before, black is after five moves immediately two pawns ahead, If he/she keeps that advantage, winning will be a lot easier. - Black could quietly develop all his pieces, and still attack white’s kingside, who will have to move 0-0 at some stage… - White has got a lot of influence at the center, but black has almost got as much influence, while being 2 pawns ahead! - Black doesn’t need to follow the trap-variation (this will be explained later). After the main line, positions are pretty much equal. Hm, so, after 4-4, will you play it or not? Let’s have a view at some interesting games, which started with the Danish gambit. Resulting games The Fritz 12 database, with more than 1.55 million games, gives me only 75 games for the Danish gambit. White won in 49% of the games, after two pawn sacrifices!. 8% of the games was drawn, and the other 43% resulted in a win for black. Although it is quite a safe opening for white, people get scared. However, we have got a surprise for black! Trap variation For the ultimate trap, you could view the annotated game, started after accepted the pawn offered: You’ll probably say: after 0-0 white has got a mate, but what if he doesn’t? Well, that has been proved in 1863 by Linden and Maczuski. At a tourney in Paris, black went for 10…Qg5. This is how the game went after that move: Main variation Luckily black doesn’t need to lose. The main line is very different. You should remember black hasn’t developed anything, and it will take a lot of time to do that. He should do this with tempo, and his/her position will be better after sacrifing the d-pawn. For advanced players: black even sacrifices the queen! Below you can see the rather interesting result, with winning chances for both players: Other variations? Well, black can also play d6, but this is a lot more dangerous. There is an article written about the Danish gambit, with at the end the variation with 5…d6. Also, for very stragetical players, you might think of 5…Qe7?! After the quite forced opening, black has a little advantage, the game would be something like this: Questions may be asked, I like to answer them! Good luck with exploring the gambit, Bert Dekker News about the opening:*If you want to explore some more games, there are at the moment two thematic tournament with ECO C21: NamePlayersTime ControlFormatRating Range% Done Click at the names to go to them, then click right @ games! Good luck!! Danish Gambit Accecpted Tournament 100 3 days 5(1)->2 Open 94% Danish Gambit Accepted 4 3 days 4(1)->1 Open 50% * There had been written quite a good article about the Danish gambit, exploring the chances for white. Follow http://blog.chess.com/flying2828/the-danish-gambit for more information.

D08: Albin Countergambit This time I'd like to show an interesting gambit played by black, after white offers him/her to take a pawn as well: the Albin Countergambit is a variety in QGD (Queens Gambit Declined) and goes like this:1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5! The reason why I show this, is because there are some interesting lines you can play. Plus / Minus + Black has actually got a quite easily trap here, which can give a great positional advantage at least. + Black controls immediately the center by two pawns. + White has to do another pawn move before he can develop his f1-bishop, black can develop all pieces straight away to their natural fields. + It is a gambit. Most gambits are good, because otherwise you just throw away a pawn... Hm, perhaps the last reason got you thinking, should I reall play this? Well, it isn't all positive: - You've got to develop all your pieces quite quickly, and try to attack white his kingside as soon as possible, otherwise you ARE just a pawn behind... - After the accepted variation, black must fight for the center. - After 2...e5, black still hasn't developed anything. - The database (and a lot of GMs) gives black not a lot of hope with this opening. Resulting games As said before, my (Fritz12) database isn't very positive. It found 512 games, and white won in 47%, a quarter of the games drawed, and only in the other 28% there was a 0-1 at the end of the game. The question mark doesn't bring a lot of hope either. Lasker trap But luckily there is something players will always fall for: a trap. It was "created" by Emmanuel Lasker. Below you can see the Lasker trap! Main variation But if white chooses not to play 4.e3?, the main variation doesn't look very promising for black: Morozevich-variant Luckily, GM Alexander Morozevich got a interesting novelty, which gives black his chances back: The 5...Nge7 is indeed a very good line, and Morozevich got so much success with it, that he even was able to defeat Veselin Topalov in 2005!(Source: Game 3 from: http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/games/java/summer05/albin-nge7.htm ) Albin Countergambit - declined As always, a gambit can be declined, if you want to. Positions are even after: To play or not to play? After those lines, which are played most, you may conclude that the Albin Countergambit is quite playable for black, as long as he plays like Morozevich! Because most people won't fall for the Lasker trap anymore... News about this opening *If you are interested in getting into the Lasker trap, this blog might be suitable: http://blog.chess.com/tyzebug/lasker-trap* Atm there isn't a thematic tournament at chess.com Final update I hope you learned something from it, Bert Dekker

B00: Fried Fox Defense I´m starting to like this © TPOEA program, but you may join with writing articles, asking question, posting games and creating puzzles! Today in the Tactical Positional Opening Endgame Analyses program I´d like you to pay attention to a vert weird opening: the Fried Fox defense. It goes like this way:1. e4 f6 2.d4 Kf7?! It must be a tactical opening, because there is nothing positional nor stragetic to do with it. Plus / Minus: + Black can soon connect his rooks, what was the original target of f6 + Black can always do a artificial castle, with Rhe8 and Kg8 + However white has got the center, it isn´t threatening a lot. Black can now in peace develop his pieces, although he has to play moves like Nge7... + f6 is supporting the strong e5-square, and therefore supporting part of the center. You would almost play this opening yourself! But also bear these things in your head when playing 2...Kf7: - In normal chess (perhaps in Chess960 1...f6 and 2...Kf7 may be good moves =P) the natural weak squares are f2 for white and f7 for black, because they are only supported by the king. By placing the king right at this place, you create difficulties for yourself, because you immediately have to answer a move like 3.Bc4+ - White has far more room to develop his pieces and still keep the initiative. - With f6, you immediately take away the natural square for the knight. - The kingside of black is after ...0-0 most of the time attacked by bishop, queen, knight and sometimes the rook joins the fight as well. Luckily black has got a solid kingside with R-f8, K-g8 and the pawns f7, g7 and h7 are a wall to break for the white pieces. Well, not anymore. This might be a big weakness, because at short stage black hasn´t got huge compensation for the wasted move. Resulting games A opening database gives me exactly 4 mastergames, in which this opening occured. The games (out of a DB with 1.6m games) date all from this century. Detail: games were played by almost all Dutch chess players(!) Twice white won, there was one draw, and more interesting: black has won once! This seems to be very suprising, so let´s have a look at the game: (I´ve let the first 13 moves - the opening - been analysing by Fritz 12 (20sec), while I´ve been wandering through the rest of the game.) As you can see here, black was starting up slow, but eventually could keep up with white and the person with rating 2100+ won. I mentioned earlier there was also a draw made by black. This was a draw after a positional mistake from white, who had a pawn more. Here is the un-annotated version of it: To play or not to play?Always the most important question to ask yourself: is it suitable for me, or not? My advice would be: try first other openings and wait with this one until you are a CM or higher! I hope you enjoyed it,Bert Dekker News about the opening* There is made a thematic tourney about the Fried Fox: http://www.chess.com/tournament/fried-fox-defense You can always try, because it is an unrated tournament! Analysis can always be better. More to say? Post below in the topic! *Final Update

As said before, today I want to show you an endgame study. It is made by the Dutch chess player Arthur Wijnans, who after World War II never could play chess again. This is a puzzle which has won the shared 2nd price in the international end game tourney from 1938:

We should do more with this TPOEA, don´t you think? I´d say first things first: get copyright! But the thing I´d like to discuss with you: what do you think of the Falkbeer countergambit? It´s quite tactical, but however I like the idea it´s hard for me to win...

Hi, today I´ll post a game from 1942 of the Corus Chess (then called Hoogovenstoernooi) from the Netherlands. I post the whole game, let´s look if you can see the end of the game. Think like Euwe! At Thursday I´ll post a quite difficult end game study. Puzzle went wrong, black was moving, it´s edited now...

Yes they´re back. A beginner´s puzzle to start with. Why? Because this happened in one of my official games (for OTB-rating). Could you see how I won?

Let's see if we can't bring some tactical puzzles back. This one should be about medium level. Good luck!