Summer Time

Here it is Summer, fewer people at work, edging into komkommertijd.

Not much chess going on for me personally, but quite a few events.

I was particularly taken with the British Championship.

This time around is the first time Michael Adams and Nigel Short have been in it at the same time, and it looks like they will face each other fairly soon as they are currently second and third after David Howell.

Apart from the usual live games, and pgn results, there is also the excellent daily video of game of the day, commented by IM  and renowned trainer, Andrew Martin : well worth a look

An endgame lessson ( from another blog ! )

An interesting post with a good endgame position to work out, as well as a fine learning point. The comments contain a good view on a solving thought process as well.



As the answer is also on the post, I reproduce it here, so you can have a think before dropping into the excellent  Gregg's chess progress.

White to move [6k1/8/4K1p1/5p1p/5P1P/3R2P1/1b6/8 w - -]

Winning against the Caro-Kann

I played the first match of my new T9030 tournament and after a long and tough game, I came away with the win !

Although slightly lower-rated than me, I certainly gave him all due respect as not only does he know his opening ( he seems to play the Caro-Kann exclusively as Black ) but I also saw some of an earlier game with him against fellow blogger Scotch Yeti, and was impressed by the way he fought back, and then held on for a draw.

More details on the game later, but it can be summed up as White missing an early tactic to go up a pawn, then undergoing a long period of pressure as Black attacks the opposite-castled white king.

Finally, Black perhaps presses just too hard, mis-calculates and loses the exchange.

This gives white far more space and activity, and leaves Black with practically no counter-play.

A further mistake cost him his Rook and the game.

Here is the critical position, where I correctly calculated the exchanges and gained the pawn..

White to Move after 25...Rb6

A satisfying game, that I will enjoy analysing and will post later.

A nice combination

I go through blitz phases, and at the moment I'm playing fewer games....

Here's a position from a very recent game. Arising from some variation of a Modern Defence, the game has been more-or-less level so far.

Black has just played Nb4, leaving White with a nice combination, which I actually saw and played !

White to play

What's the move ?

Chessvibes Training : Sample PDFs

Chessvibes have been publishing their training magazine for about 2 months now and at least one blogger expressed an interest in it

I am also tempted, but there is already so much chess information available through the internet ( numerous blogs, as well as semi-commercial sites and videos ) and I haven't seen any reviews from the blogosphere about it.

However, this week Chessvibes have made available some sample pages from a couple of published issues and at first glance they appear to be useful enough with diagrams and plenty of written explanation and not just reams of variations : great for us amateurs.

Definitely worth taking a closer look.

UPDATE: Dennis Monokroussos reviews the original and now latest training pages with a recommendation !