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: Final Round at Linares- (Found July 2, 2008 ) Kasparov again developed significant winning chances, this time with Black against Vallejo Pons, but again he could not convert to a win to tie Kramnik at the top.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog03062004 Chess Blog: Olympiad XIII- (Found July 2, 2008 ) The United States is finishing up its schedule in the preliminary round of the Coorespondence CHess Olympiad XIII and, I'm happy to say, we have a chance to qualify for the final. The following game was the fourth to the last to finish. Needless to say, we needed a win here to have a chance to go on. The game is quite instructive. Check out Black's Bc8. Structurally bad in the line of the French Defense, the bishop never moves.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog03072004 Chess Blog: The 21st Reykjavic Open- (Found July 2, 2008 ) The chess game of the day comes from Reykjavik... a hard fought game in which GM Epishin uses my favorite defense, the Hedgehog, to triumph. There's much to learn here, from the opening with an interesting Bc5-e7 manoeuver that wins an tempo to a nice middlegame counter-attack that nets black significant winning chances in an interesting endgame. Here's the game:http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog03082004 Chess Blog: Dreev with two quick wins- (Found July 2, 2008 ) The highest ranked chess player at Reykjavik, Alexey Dreev, was a student of Dvoretsky's. He obtained the GM title in 1990 and now sports a near 2700 rating. He's clearly in good form as the game of the day clearly shows. We may be in for some wonderful chess in this event if the first two rounds are any indication. Here's the game. Unlike many, you will be able to enjoy this game even if you you zip through it. Focus please on Dreev's thematic use of the d5-square. His technique is very...http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog03092004 Chess Blog: The Latvian Gambit at the club- (Found July 2, 2008 ) Perhaps the most interesting (and certainly the longest) post on the new Chess is Fun Message Board isfrom Joseph Mineola on the Latvian Gambit. Here's one of the games included in the post with the author's annotations in parenthesis and mine as well. It's a good advertisement of competitive, local chess. The result is a perpetual check despite a win on the board... but ticking clocks and hanging flags have a way of doing that.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog03102004 Chess Blog: The Modern Chess Sacrifice- (Found July 2, 2008 ) Published in 1978, Leonid Shamkovich's The Modern Chess Sacrifice was one of the first books to classify sacrifices and combinations. Whether you own the book or not, I recommend that you enjoy this collection of the games used in the book.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog03112004 Chess Blog: Timman tied for first at Reykjavik- (Found July 2, 2008 ) Jan Timman is likely to be remembered as one of the strongest players, with Keres, Bronstein, and Kortchnoi, never to become World Chess Champion. His fighting style has yielded victories at many top tournaments in the 1970-s and 1980s. His selected games includes 80 of his best games since 1983, including fine wins at Linares, Wijk aan Zee, and Tilburg. Here are all 80 of the games in the book.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog03122004 Chess Blog: Lessons from a Morphy win- (Found July 2, 2008 ) On our Message Board, One of our newbies offered their first win, a nice five move checkmate made easy by an opponent who insisted only in moving pawns at the start of the game. I offered some annotations there, and it was clear that, even in a short game well outside the scope of chess opening theory, there are some useful lessons. Capture the center. Develop your pieces. And, also, don't castle into an attack.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog03132004 Chess Blog: Tony Miles, England's first chess grandmaster- (Found July 2, 2008 ) England's first grandmaster, Tony Miles (1955-2001), was also one of England's most charismatic players. He died all too young, but thanks in part to a book, "It's Only Me," compiled by Geoff Lawton, he will be long remembered.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog03142004 Chess Blog: The Vienna Game- (Found July 2, 2008 ) Gary Lane's book on the Vienna Game is an excellent example of the new genre. More than 70 games illustrate the opening's main principles and demonstrate what to do once you're doing well. And what a comfort to see that the line has been played by leading stars like Nigel Short, Michael Adams, and Boris Spassky.http://www.queensac.com/chessblog.html#chessblog03152004 |