Chess is Fun Chess BLOGA daily chess blog featuring chess lessons, chess instruction, instructive games, great players, lessons on openings, middlegame strategy, endgames, and great games.Chess Blog: Decisive Games- July 2, 2008 I present today all of the games in Pachman's Decisive Games, a collection of more than 100 encounters between 1870 and 1970 that decided major championships and tournaments. Some are brilliancies, some have blunders, but all were dramatic and entertaining.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog04072004 Chess Blog: Profile of a Prodigy- July 2, 2008 a true classic about Bobby Fischer, the 1965 account by Frank Brady: Profile of a Prodigy: The Life and Games of Bobby Fischer. Brady's book predated Fischer's classic My 60 Memorable Games by four years. The first 100 pages are an excellent, highly readable narrative about Fischer's life and accomplishments. The second half focuses briefly on 75 Fischer games, including many that subsequently appeared with more extensive notes in Fischer's book.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog04082004 Chess Blog: Draw!- July 2, 2008 Chess draws have the reputation for being dull and boring, the end-product of over-preparation or simply agreements between GMs in order to get early to the tennis court. Wolfgang Heidenfeld knew better. He had just completed a manuscript featuring the most exciting draws ever played when he died in 1981. We are fortunate that the manuscript was published the next year.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog04092004 Chess Blog: Dynamic Chess Strategy- (Found July 2, 2008 ) In 1991, Mihai Suba authored Dynamic Chess Strategy, an exciting collection of 36 of his games. Notable is his willingness to break free of conventional chess wisdom and seek new, flexible structures. I first took note of the book because Suba had embraced the Hedgehog and had even used it to achieve his GM title.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog04102004 Chess Blog: Startling Correspondence Chess Miniatures- (Found July 2, 2008 ) Tim Harding, the editor of Chess Mail, the wonderful publication and web site, took on this task with Startling Correspondence Chess Miniatures. Here is a collection of 100 entertaining, often theoretically important short games all played via e-mail or through the post. The games are enjoyable and also contain traps into which your next opponents just might fall.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog04122004 Chess Blog: New for this year- (Found July 2, 2008 ) Some thoughts about new directions for the web site. Please feel free to comment on these possibilities and to offer your own suggestions on the Message Board here. During the coming year, I'm going to try to add a tactics page that will randomly offer a different position every time you load it... It will take some time to load in 3000-4000 positions, so I ask for some patience!http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog04132004 Chess Blog: The Sicilian Labyrinth- (Found July 2, 2008 ) In 1991, Lev Polugaevsky introduced a wonderful two volume set, The Sicilian Labyrinth, that draws upon his many years of experience and insight. Volume 1 focuses upon avoiding opening disasters, preparing theoretical surprises for your opponents, and a variety of counter-attacking measures for black.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog04142004 Chess Blog: The Sicilian Labyrinth vol 2- (Found July 2, 2008 ) Volume two of Polugaevsky's Sicilian Labyrinth looks at pawn structures, key central squares, open files, piece placement, and strategic sacrifices. He also covers typical endgame features in the Sicilian, notable the importance of the open c-file for black and using the two bishops when you are fortunate enough to have them.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog04152004 Chess Blog: The most important discovery of the 1490s- (Found July 2, 2008 ) What's the most important discovery of the 1490s Columbus's discovery of American in 1492 Nah! It was Lucena's discovery of how to win Rook and pawn endgames! After all, the Vikings had already discovered the Americas, and without Lucena, there'd have been no hope for chess.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog04162004 Chess Blog: 15 games and their stories- (Found July 2, 2008 ) When Mikhail Botvinnik defeated Capablanca in a 1925 simultaneous match, the Cuban world champion predicted great things for the young 14-year-old. And so it was to be for the great Botvinnik, a cool pragmatist who precisely dismanted the competition for four decades.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog04172004 |