English Chess Forum

The main idea is to set up a fortress with the king on a8. In these circumstances, with White having the 'wrong' bishop, Black can be a whole piece down and still draw. Engines are not the best when it comes to defence by fortress. I can see I asked the wrong question! I'll try again: By what preci...

I don't think engines are quite strong enough to 'solve' this ending. I believe Speelman's original conclusion to be essentially true: that Bxh2 was a bad move, but not losing. The mistakes came later. However, only White had winning chances, so why take the risk in the first place? How does Black ...

Has this ending been solved? I don't have Speelman's original analysis. A draw is claimed on my (very old) version of MegaBase after 37...a6 but in the line given after 38 b6 Kc6;39 Bf8 Stockfish 14 gives White winning after 46 Bb2 and not 46 e4?= as given by 'Chessbase' (whoever he or she is). Of c...

4 seems fine to me, in fact, but you do then have to let people freely draft in replacements when they need them! With 4NCL scoring even one default renders a 4 board match pretty pointless. As I said above, we only had 4 players who had played at least 4 games. Unless I have missed something, we w...

My personal opinion (not discussed with my captain) is that the 4NCL online competition should not be taken so seriously. Because of these rules our opponents were denied a game. Should they be revisited for season 4? Is there any compelling reason not to run the leagues as a Swiss? If that was the...

Streatham Default in Division 2 Two of our four players did not have the right technology to play under Zoom. As one of the two remaining, I had an important social alternative that I would have given up in a competitive match, but not for this one. With one player left we decided not to contest the...

Some of the GMs have been playing for Wood Green for many years and could be considered as much 'genuine' members of a club as anyone else. I am less convinced by those who are brought (or should that be bought?) in to play just one game. There was a time when Wood Green only played a few GMs - in t...

As others have said, a sad loss. To fill in part of the time line as best I can, I shared a house in Kenton, North London, with Dave, Steve Berry, and Paul Lamford for a couple of years before 1981. We all played for Hendon in the London League, which at the time had quite a strong team. Since none ...

I think it was made clear that the LL would not be rated. Credit to John Sargent for the work involved. One of the pleasant things I discovered when I started playing 'serious' (County, 4NCL, LL, 45+15 or 60+15) online chess was that the games could be just as competitive if they were not rated as i...

Taken from the ECF website: "Over-the-board Finals The ECF hopes to hold over the board finals for Open, Women’s, Seniors’ and Juniors’ Standardplay Championships in early October...Players who qualify for the online finals will be invited to take part in the OTB finals as well, once we are in a pos...

This may have been asked before, but this is a long thread. According to chess.com, "the rate of false positives detected by our algorithm is intentional." Does anyone know what this rate is, and what we think this rate should be? "In response to valid appeals, we overturn approximately 0.03% of clo...

Not in this tournament, but for some people who might be asked in other tournaments in the New Year to set up a second camera facing at the players back (or wide angle, or whatever they ask for?!) - Are there any tips on budget options, and is it difficult setting a second camera up? This dilemma c...

4. Why have they got a low rating? If they have been deliberately throwing games or allowing someone else to use their account then this is against the rules - so they should be banned I'm sure this topic has been covered before, but the problem with ratings on Lichess for classical chess is that m...

The League of Mayhem - mainly for Essex and London clubs - has entered its second season after a successful first season. Games are played on Thursdays. Fortunately, in my opinion of course, it uses the Lichess platform.

https://www.leagueofmayhem2020.com/

“I consider it the author’s duty to examine and explain typical middlegame and endgame positions in as much (if not more) detail than the opening stage …This is difficult, because it can involve teaching chess generally rather than a particular opening.” (Jonathan Rowson, ‘Understanding the Grunfeld...