English Chess Forum

While being able to hold against a machine in an exchange slav or a caro-kann Karpov variation is certainly a skill, I don't think it would help much playing some murky KID/Grunfeld/Tiger's Modern position against a human (or indeed against a machine!). Our hypothetical silicon-enhanced warrior migh...

I don't know if my habits are symptomatic of the presumably declining trend, but I prefer to purchase electronic versions when possible. Living in a small apartment, I don't have space for lots of paper books. They also tend to be a bit more affordable. I do very much like paper books for their aest...

I agree with Martin that it's dangerously possible for preparation to leave you coming into a middlegame "cold". It's a common syndrome to play 20 moves of, for instance, dragon theory and be lost 2 moves later. I don't think preparation is limited to booking up a specific line though, but rather al...

I recall playing a match at a Church in Glasgow in which there was also possibly a Nigerian style wedding. The merry occasion was punctuated by a very enthusiastic drummer, but the chess continued unabated. I presume the situation was different for serious matches but at the club I frequented in Par...

If I'm not mistaken, we have the right to pause the clocks when promoting in order to seek out the desired piece?

I haven't studied chess in a while, but I do think it's probably safe to say that reading won't transfer into over the board results without practice. For example, in order to learn how to mate with bishop and knight, I think there are two distinct steps: 1. Study the theory: passively follow an exa...

The Evans Gambit. You play Black, After 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4 Bxb4 5. c3 [...snip...] You do not move the Bishop but instead play 5...f5! [...snip...] It's an old idea from the Blackburne era which I introduced the RHP players too. Taking the Bishop is very dodgy. Not sure I believe ...

I absolutely agree that there can be beauty in a positional squeeze as well...and despite what you might think I have also won games like that ! In fact the best player to look at from that point of view is Alekhine. He made many briliant sacrifices but his positional crushes were also incredibly i...

He has a chance to win the British Championship and goes in for such a dull line. What has happened to all the exciting, sacrificial games we used to witness in the times of Mestel, Speelman, Nunn etc ? While I absolutely agree and sympathise with Mr. Littlewood's stylistic analysis of a "risk-free...

Well lets get this right, I think it was highly inappropriate for CJ to be wearing a "Stonewall t- shirt why on earth is he making a Advert for this as a president he should have some morals , wasn't it true he has also before put something on the ECF website about him running a marathon for this c...

I'd just like to also express my thanks to CJ for his work and investment in an excellent tournament and I hope that this absurd insult doesn't overshadow that achievement. One can only suppose that objecting to his public support for Stonewall is an embarassing and ironic reminder of their continui...

I think people blunder for many different reasons. I tend to fall victim to Kotov's "dizziness due to success", although my success is often only imagined!

To comment simply on the chess game, the dancing of the queen from f5 to h5 to b5 and finally to b7 to adminster the final blow seems to me quite a beautiful, "geometric" manouevre. It's not often that you see the lady gallivanting and pirouetting to such devastating effect!

I once played chess in a church. This in itself is not particularly remarkable or distracting, but the African style wedding taking place in the adjacent hall added a rather flamboyant and, above all, rythmic ambiance to the afternoon. Thankfully, I had a relatively simple position to play with smoo...

I would reiterate Mr. Moore's suggestion of simply playing. My chess resolution should definitely be to turn up to some tournaments. I suppose "turning up" is a modest aim, but you can't dispute that it's a helpful start!