Obvious

I don't manage to keep in touch with all blogs that I follow as often as I'd like, but equally, with a blog as thought-provoking as Temposchlucker's, sometimes I am glad that he doesn't post every day : it would be just too much to cope with !

Catching up yesterday, I saw his post from a few weeks ago entitled "Precision" with an example of a problem from Chess Tactics of a 'crushing attack by White'.  ( see also the examples in the comments to his post).

I can't disagree with him, it was an example of a crushing attack and I did see it eventually, and didn't see it quickly for exactly the reasons he gives !

Coincidently, something similar, but much simpler, happened in a blitz game yesterday afternoon...

In the diagram below, White has just played Rf3 disconnecting his back-rank rooks. I felt I had the had the advantage, but it still took me too much time to see the move.

Black to play : a crushing attack

Sometimes, we try to look for the complex, when the simple and obvious is what we need.

Guardian Chess Column

I mentioned here that the Guardian's chess column had gone.

Well, its both true and false !

The Bennett/King column has ended, but the Guardian does have regular chess coverage here.

Apart from the occasional ( and usual ) reports on events such as Wijk-aan-zee from a stalwart of English chess. Leonard Barden ( he and Harry Golombek probably wrote most of the early chess books I borrowed from the library !) , they also have reportage on chess topics.

The latest  is a mention of how chess in schools has been launched in countries like Armenia, India and Norway, and the efforts by people such as Malcom Pein ( London Chess Classic organiser ) to encourage this in English schools. The comments on the article are varied and interesting.

I have to say that I played in my own school chess club, although I don't recall anything other than internal competitions ( for the "House Cup"  as Harry Potter would say ), and I carried on at my Sixth Form college ( pre-university ) when I was tutored by the County Champion.

Mind you the group there was so small, that we did lots of fun chess, especially Kriegspiel ( well spotted..a lot of the time there were only 3 of us ! ).  It was very enjoyable.

I have none of the games from that time, but I do have a few from when I took it up again as an adult, and played for the local town club, even competing in the County league !

Amusing to look through now, as I evidently didn't put much into ' study'. Club nights were held in a pub, so the social part was as important as the chess !

I should really look through them again and publish my youthful efforts !

Chess Carnival 2012

Get yourselves over to Robert Pearson's blog, where a new phase of the year-old Chess Carnival has emerged.

This is the first of a number of posts , featuring the " Best of" chess blogging.

First one is about openings.

I'm working my way through them now...

Enjoy.

Another Chess Column gone...

Sad to start 2012 with the news that a chess column has gone, but today was the last post for the Guardian's column edited by Daniel King and Ronan Bennett.

The combination of professional and amateur chess player, plus two good writers ( Bennett is the author of Zugzwang, an interesting novel set during the 1914 St Petersburg tournament,   King is the author of many chess products !  ) produced some interesting columns.

I will miss it for certain, but at least all the back issues are available, and maybe there will be an even more interesting column around the corner !

T44 Round 4 : A drawing move, a learning point

An old game, my first Team 4545 League match from February, 2010.

I remember it as an enjoyable game, but more so as one typical of an amateur player, for example:

    1) A belief that knowing a few moves in the Sicilian gives an understanding of how to play it
    2) Not recognising a non-book move, and more, what to do after seeing it
    3) Understanding that a draw is an acceptable result, and can be useful sometimes
    4) Recognising that anyone can find one good move if they think hard and clearly enough.

But my biggest memory and my learning point in it was finding the drawing move....

...Continue reading...

Playing against the Caro-Kann with Qf3

Its always good to play against someone who "sticks to their guns", consistently playing ( and believing ? ) in the same openings : you can look forward to a testing game.

In GM terms, a clear example must be Sveshnikov with his c3 against the Sicilian, and the same man with the Sicilian "Sveshnikov Variation" against 1.e4 !

I have no idea if my opponent is quite so principled as Sveshnikov in his chess beliefs, but he does seem to stay with the Caro-Kann against 1.e4, so when facing him. it gives me a choice of sticking to main lines ( and probably his better preparation ) or going with something different.

In this game, I chose something different ( after reading about it on the brooklyn64 site ), and played 2.Nc3 and 3.Qf3 against his expected 1...c6 and d5 and ended up here a few moves later...

11. 0-0-0

What appealed to me about the variation in question, was that it didn't seem like the normal Caro-Kann style, plus it has a long-castled king, something I am used to in other openings that I play.

I had in mind a king-side pawn attack, with the likelihood that Black would attack on the queen-side. Who would be quickest and most effective, is the question usually posed in such situations ?

...Continue reading...