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When my opponent does the "Fried Liver Attack", I always go for the Traxler Counterattack, drawing the opposing king out into the open. But what should I do when their king moves behind the bishop, to c1? I'm around 600 elo, is there anything more I should know?

Hello everyone! I’m hopeful this wonderful group can help point me in the right direction. I’ve recently returned to playing this fantastic game. I’ve always played on and off, but want to get more consistent. I’ve got a couple daily games going and played a handful of 5 minute games to hopefully shake some rust off. I know to get better, I need to be thoughtful in my progression. I recently picked up a copy of “Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess,” and I’ve enjoyed working in that. I’ve also started watching the Chess Steps series from GothamChess and some videos from KDlearns. I’m also set up on Chessable and plan to work with that app and continue to do the puzzles on here. I don’t have an opening repertoire to speak of but have a general idea of opening concepts, middle control, develop knights and bishops, and king safety. I can get tunnel vision and not see the whole board, so I know that’s an area to work on. Everything I read and watch encourages building an opening repertoire, puzzles and tactics, play and analyze each game. I’m not really sure where to start with that, so any suggestions would be great! Outside of what I mentioned above, what and where should I look? Another post in the group mentioned a tutor, and I think that sounds great. With my current schedule between family, work, and other obligations, I’m not sure I can commit a consistent designated time at the moment, but would explore that in the future. I’m open to any comments or suggestions and I appreciate your time! Thanks in advance!

Greetings Team Tennessee, The 2023-2024 season of the US Team Chess League (USTCL) starts today, and Tennessee will be competing in Division 4 this year. I hope all the old regulars and many of you newcomers will participate this year. Sadly Team Tennessee drew a bye in the first round so our league games will not start until August 14 (against North Dakota). Look for an invitation in your inbox around the first of August (and every month thereafter) to join that match. Before we get started, I ask each of you to take a few minutes to read the USTCL rules. Most of them are fairly standard online chess rules, but there are a few specific to the league that you must know. Read USTCL rules here: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/us-team-chess-league-rules-regulations and here: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2024-division-4-rules-schedule-and-pairings Again, I encourage you to read the complete rules before participating in league play. Now that you have read the complete rules, here is an abridged version with just a few of the basics. Pay particular attention to those sections in bold typeface. Specifically, read the section labeled *Player Eligibility. Rules and Regulations (abridged) Length of Season: 1 year Format: 9-round Round-robin Match Name: USTCL 2024 R#: Team Tennessee vs Team _________ Game Type: Standard Chess Days per Move: 3 days Description: Opening databases without engine evaluation and opening books are permitted in Daily Chess, but the use of engines and tablebases is never permitted. See here for the applicable rules: https://support.chess.com/article/648-what-do-i-need-to-know-about-fair-play-on-chess-com. If you are not clear about the rules - ask. Rating Range: Open Minimum Games: 5 Players per Club: 3 players minimum, no maximum Concurrent Games per Player: 2 Start Date: 14th of the month Start Time: 7 PM PT (9 PM CT, 10 PM ET) Rated: Yes League Standings: Standings will be posted periodically in each thread. Only matches that have been clinched will be shown as a result in the standings. Prizes: Trophies for places 1 thru 3. Trophies will be awarded by January 1st of the following year. * Player Eligibility: A player can only play for one team in this league throughout a season regardless of division. Once they play for a team, they must stay with that team throughout the season. USTCL admins will post notifications of multi-team players in the division thread a few days before the match is due to start. Promotion/Relegation: The top two teams on June 30th will be promoted to Division 3. Unfinished Matches: If a match result has not been determined by the season end date, but it is necessary that the match conclude in order to determine the divisional composition for the following season, then the remaining incomplete games within that match will be decided using chess.com's analysis tool. If a player is leading by a score of 2.0 or more, they will be determined to have won that game. If the difference is less than 2.0, the game will be determined to be a draw. Tiebreakers: The first tiebreaker will be head-to-head results. The second tiebreaker will be the differential between match points won and lost across the entire season. Uncompleted games will not be scored for the purposes of the second tiebreaker. * Removal of Players: Team admins may remove players from their roster who exceed a timeout ratio of 15%, or violate the Player Eligibility rule above. Removed players must be published in the team match thread prior to the start of the match. Example: Player A was removed in accordance with timeout rule: Timeout ratio 55%. Teams may not remove players from their roster or discourage players from joining a match to obtain a more favorable matchup. Score Adjustments: Match scores will be finalized after taking into consideration the account closures of members due to cheating or abuse, and also after applying penalties for multi-team players (see Player Eligibility). This will occur prior to announcing the final standings. End In summary, don't cheat and don't attempt to play for more than one team in the USTCL. Now let's have fun, win our matches, and fight our way back into Division 3... beginning next month.

I would like to start a discussion about the upcoming 2015 Team Tennessee intra-squad tournament. When I first took over as SA of Team Tennessee, I wanted to keep the annual tournament going so I started the 2013 tournament in August of 2013. That was a rookie mistake; that tournament just finished in December of 2014. In fact, the 2014 tournament just finished a few days after the 2013 tournament, so I am interested I getting next year's tournament, 2015, started in time to be able to finish in 2015. So, it looks like we will start the 2015 tournament no later than March and that the format will follow the same as the 2014 tournament. That is: all Team Tennessee members are welcome and invited to play, 48 hours per move, 1 simultaneous game, with 2 players advancing from each group. How does this sound to everyone? And oh yes, I will try and scrounge up some nifty trophies for the three winners. Let me know your thoughts on this and if you like the current format, or would rather play using different criteria. And by the way, if you haven't yet checked out the trophy case of FrankWho, or rdw73, or chessbud, you might want to look at those first place trophies; it might get you excited about next year's tournament. Steve

this game is not great, but it does show why lower ranked players (below 1800) should hold off on the resign button until the outcome is certain. It is not saving my annotation. 4 .. prevent N from coming in 7) prevent pawn double if he takes 10) probably my first mistake, should have played a3 here, which I usually do, but was trying too hard for an early attack 14) I thought I had an attack, and all I did was hang a piece. Trades follow favoring black. 19) trap the pawn so I can attack it and also rook attacks pawn structure. 20) Be3 wins the pawn, eventually. Looking to use these pawns to get my piece back and play to a draw. I take with the rook as it seems easier to fight with the pawns against minor pieces. 24) Rb7 seems like a minor mistake vs Ra8. At some point in here, maybe 25) .. black should have gained luft. Not doing this will turn a hoped-for draw into a win for me. 30) Black wastes time, not sure what my opponent is looking to do, meanwhile I am trying to get into position to make the pawns pay off. Black should be looking for a way to stop the pawns. 33) threaten to win a piece back. My position is now strong, black lost too many moves. 34) the idea of pinning the bishop has been there a while, but now it pays off, allowing my pawns time to move past the bishop controlled square. 36) race to get the other pawn into a supporting position. Black HAS to give his king an escape square, and he has to stop the pawns. But there is no time now. 38) there it is. I win a piece, that is the best black has now. He can try Rxc, my RxB, and I end up with an advanced (but likely doomed) pawn and even material. It might be a win or a draw. I would have to goof to lose it from here. Instead black chose a losing sequence of moves that not only allowed me to queen but cost material -- resign is all that was left to do. Again, not a good game. I made a bad mistake, but the real lesson here is that at this level, opponents can still turn a winner into a loss with even subtle mistakes. All black really did wrong here was around move 30, wasted a few moves and failed to make an escape square.

Welcome to the Chessbowl I for Tennessee Chess Players. Please choose a team. You will then be asked to start a game with the member you are facing (for example, jerrysued VS Opus360) Scoring- Queen=8, Rook=7, Bishop and Knight=6, Pawn=3. In the case of checkmate, checkmater gets the points on a team who lost. For example, ExampleChess=22 pts, ExampleTetris=9 pts, but ExampleTetris has checkmated ExampleChess, ExampleTetris gets 22 pts, while ExampleChess has only 9 and loses the game. Here are the teams. Ravens vs Bengals Browns vs Steelers Bills vs Dolphins Patriots-FakeName6 vs Jets Texans vs Colts Jaguars-jerrysued vs Titans Broncos vs Chiefs Raiders vs Chargers Bears vs Vikings Packers vs Lions Falcons vs Panthers Saints vs Buccaneers Cowboys vs Giants Eagles vs Redskins Cardinals vs 49ers Seahawks vs Rams Please choose one of the teams. You will be notified who you will play against.

Howdy fellow Tennesseans, I just wanted to share something I learned from our current "Border Match" team match (against North Carolina), which I believe could help us as teammates (and hopefully individually as chess players too). As you may know, there were only 10 players from each team represented in this one. So of course, that's 10 for us, Team Tennessee and 10 for North Carolina, our opponents. I think I barely made the cut with a rating that was somewhere in the lower 1600s when the system made the pairings. (Prematch rating:1636) At first, I thought I was pitted against a higher rated opponent, who was rated something like 1890. But, I did not shrink away from the challenge as I had played higher rated opponents many times before. When I play a team match, I try to give it a little "extra" because I know it's not just for me, but for the team. And there is pride representing Team Tennessee. Well, apparently my 1800s rated opponent backed out or had to do something else or got paired against someone else for some reason; - and it looked like I was against someone rated in the upper 1600s which I thought would make it less of a battle (although I do my best to be careful never to take any opponent lightly regardless of their current rating). When the players for both teams were locked, I looked and I was on board 10, the last board. Everyone else on both sides was higher rated. Except my opponent! Somehow my opponent on board 10 was rated in the 1570s. The unusual part is, there seemed to be even more pressure psychologically because I didn't want to let the team down with a loss or draw (because my opponent was a few rating points lower than me I'd be expected to win or I was "supposed to win" -- if that makes sense). Well, I start out as black and decide to play more of a Queen's Pawn Zuckertort style of defense instead of the King's Indian Defense I usually play against 1.d4 He seemed to be playing surprisingly strong for a 1500-1600 rated player. I equalized on move 12. I kept probing for weaknesses in his position but didn't seem to find any. Eventually, we got to a critical position in the game and it looked like I was going to be down a couple of pawns headed into the end game after some exchanges. This wasn't how it was "supposed" to be! I began to get discouraged. What do I do here? You ever felt like that before? (I think we all have at some point.) "But" I thought, "Regardless of what happens, I will just continue to play and make as many good moves as I know how" (and see if I can at least hold a draw with the black pieces). To my total surprise and relief, he didn't play the line I anticipated would have given him the two pawn advantage after all... and he moved out of the way, to avoid the exchanges altogether! I wasn't exactly "out of the woods" though. In fact, I suddenly saw... There was a reason he made a different move. He had a checkmate threat with his queen and knight coordinating against my king on my weak back rank. The only way I was able to defend against the attack was from a distance, with my queen on his 2nd rank, diagonally defending the key "checkmate square." As we neared the end game, I was able to place a ton of pressure on him with a pin of his knight to his rook with my rook and he finally "cracked" allowing me to trade one of my pawns for his knight. Now, as we finally entered the end game, I was the one who was up two pawns. This will take some strategy and planning. After analyzing the position for a few minutes, I create my plan. Strategically, I will sacrifice one of my extra pawns to lure his king away to attack a couple of my wing pawns that I will be able to defend with my bishop at just the right moment when his king gets there to attack it. Because of him going after the wing pawn, I was now able to advance my king and pawn to a winning endgame position of unstoppable pawn promotion and forced his resignation on the 54th move. So instead of losing or barely escaping the tough-fought battle by both sides with a draw... I won! Here is the game in case you'd like to see it: I looked and saw our game was the only one with a result so far. The next game I opened with 1.e4 and noticed he was playing the sicilian against me with 1...c5. I immediately played 2.Nc3 and we entered the closed sicilian. I had planned on playing the grand prix attack with the early f5 pawn push and go for a positional crush with a strong attack against his kingside. I saw he was playing the dragon variation of the Sicilian. In what looked like would be a pretty even contest, I was able to positionally crush him and at the same time find some tactics to win material. In the end, I managed to skewer his severely cramped king to his queen and brought home another full point for the team. 2-0 Here is game 2 for your enjoyment: So all in all, in this team match, I won both games and managed to pick up an extra 17 rating points from the two wins. I feel really good about the results and look forward to more progress. (prematch rating:1636 postmatch rating:1653) The reason I wanted to share this with you guys is because there may be times when you are like me, (or at least like I was during this match) during a game where you just plain feel bad about the position... or you feel as though you are losing or about to be losing and don't know what to do. I just want to encourage you to continue to just make good moves and force your opponent to find the winning moves if they can, because sometimes they won't and what you worried about, doesn't even happen. A good example of this is during that first game, when it looked like we were headed into a surely forcing line that would leave me behind two pawns. But my opponent made a different move! Then I realized, it may have never even occurred to him to exchange and those moves I worried about, and just knew were coming... may not have even been candidate moves for him. So I want to encourage you to just continue to make good moves when it looks bleak and just continue to fight, because when you do, good things find a way to happen. This is primarily dedicated to any Team Tennessee members who may be new or lower rated (and especially for those times when you may feel discouraged or reach a position in your game that you don't feel good about or know what to do), but I do hope all who read it may find something enouraging and motivating too. Best wishes and Let's Go Team Tennessee!

Does anyone happen to know of any physical (not online) stores that sell quality chess sets in the Nashville/middle TN area? Searching online has gotten me no where.

Hear ye, hear ye! Announcing the second annual Team Tennessee intra-state online tournament here on chess.com. The Team Tennessee Rooks 2010 Tournament begins on Sunday, 20 June 2010 and is an invitation only event. Only Team Tennessee group members are invited, but all Team Tennessee group members are invited. This is an online, turn-based group tournament. If you are a member of Team Tennessee here on chess.com, have completed at least one rated game here on chess.com and would like to participate but have not received your invitation, leave your comment to that effect below or contact mongreltiger and watch your inbox here on chess.com. Register here: http://www.chess.com/tournament/team-tennessee-rooks-2010-tournament

Does anybody know a way to stop a yugislav attack ; when you're playing the king's Indian ?

Anyone?

Hello Team Tennessee. First, thank you all for joining. We now have 30 members, and among them chess players from novice all the way up to Master level. Currently we are lucky enough to have at least three members rated above 2000. Our average rating is about 1550. Which reminds me, welcome to FM Todd Andrews (screen name: MusicCityMaster). Todd is a chess instructor with an impressive resume, including Tennessee State Champion titles in 1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, and he manages the Nashville Chess Center. Welcome Todd and thank you for joining the team. Second, thank you to Grey_Game for helping with the Team TN Admin duties. In addition, he has gotten several Vote Chess games going and we have had a lot of fun and success with them. If you have not tried vote chess, do so. It is fun and can be good training too. Thanks again Grey_Game. So Tennessee chess players, what would you all like to do? Is there another team you would like to challenge? Another state team perhaps? Let's decide on a team or two to challenge and get started in some match play. Likewise, I am open to suggestions for Team Tennessee. Let me know what you want and what direction we should take. And finally, be sure to invite your friends and chess opponents to join Team Tennessee. Thanks again. Good luck to you all and good games. GO TEAM TENNESSEE !