Update: July 14, 2009. Sorry my games are going kind of slow right now, I'm playing over 100+ games right now, but I make all my moves within the time limits. I will not be joining any new games, matches, or tourneys until my games in progress is down to 50, so that I can improve my average move time.

General:

My favorite response to 1.e4 is the French, 1...e6. I spend a lot of time studying books on the French as well as GM games of both black and white where 1...e6 is played. I'm familiar with most positions that can arise out of 1...e6, so if you play 1.e4, you better watch out and know your French!

I also occasionally play the Ruy Lopez. Currently I am not working on the Sicilian, thus am not likely to play 1...c5, and as such it is not likely I will play 1.e4 very often to avoid this hole in my repertoire while I continue to focus on the French.

To 1.d4, I almost always play 1...Nf6.

In response to flank openings by white, I won't say what I may play as black, you'll just have to try your luck!

More to come later.

My Playing Style:

In general, my technique in a particular game depends greatly on the (perceived) strength of my opponent and any past experience with him/her.

With equal or stronger opponents, *in general* I am much more likely to stay in book moves as long as possible unless it is an opening and position I am very familiar with and feel comfortable expediently exploiting an opponent's mistake in the position. With stronger opponents I am also more likely to refer to GM games, especially with unfamiliar positions, particularly if playing positionally; for tactical maneuvres I rarely refer to GM games during a game as this is not usually easy to determine, particularly if there are no annotations.

With less-strong (I hate to say "weaker") opponents my technique may change quickly in the first few moves, depending on the opponent's style, in order to exploit mistakes. I am much more likely to employ tactics early in the game with weaker opponents, especially since this is not usually possible with stronger opponents, so this allows me to have a little extra fun and "get it out of my system". Accordingly, I am more likely to play less accurately and spend less time looking for the best candidate move with weaker opponents if I know I can (although I won't purposely make an inferior move just for the sake of playing an inferior move), unless of course the position may lend itself to early checkmate in which case I play as accurately as possibly. Also, if the position with a weaker opponent is not conducive to a mate in the middlegame, I am more likely to aggressively accelerate to the endgame in order to test and hone my endgame skills. The most exceptions to all this is if I am trying to help someone improve play I will strive to play as accurately as possible even against a weaker opponent in order to help a fellow chess player learn. This in turn helps me to learn and solidify what I have already learned.

More to come.

My Chess Library:

The Complete Book of Chess Strategy: Grandmaster Techniques from A to Z, Silman (1998, Siles Press)

How to Reassess Your Chess: The Complete Chess Mastery Course, Expanded 3rd Edition, Silman (1993, Siles Press)

The Tao of Chess, Kurzdorfer

Complete Defense to Queen Pawn Openings, Schiller

Winning Endgame Strategy, Beliavsky and Mikhalchishin

Winning Quickly With Black, Neishtadt

The Classical French, Gufeld and Stetsko

The Marshall Attack, Lalic

Taming the Sicilian, Davies

Beating the Anti-Siclians, Gallagher

The Ultimate Closed Siclian, Lane

Easy Guide to the Ruy Lopez, Emms

303 Tricky Chess Tactics, Wilson and Albertson

Award-Winning Chess Problems, Hochberg

Modern Postal Masterpieces, Dunne

still inputting...bear with me

that70sjosh