As we all sit and enjoy the sweet sounds of Feist on World Cafe’s sense of place visit to Toronto (home of the greatest mayor in North America) I was shocked to see not one, but TWO queens on the board in the World Championship game. I got to thinking about these two queens, and remembered some fairly amusing examples… Read more →
Category: Chess
A New Perspective on Zugzwang
So I’m sure many of you are wondering what exactly Zugzwang is. Today I’m going to dispel some mysteries surrounding Zugzwang and I will show you some classic (as well as) new examples that can only be found on this site. These examples have been meticulously chosen by me, and the final Zugzwang position is one that I’m sure has… Read more →
Interview – GM Jesse Kraai
Greetings everyone, this week we have a very special guest: Grandmaster Jesse Kraai author of the new book Lisa (which you should all check out). I wanted to wait until after I had read Lisa before posting this. Unfortunately due to some timing issues I didn’t get a chance to read it all the way through. Not to worry though,… Read more →
2013 World Cup Opening Survey
If you’re looking for a new opening you’ve come to the right place! I warned you all that this was coming, this will be a bit dryer than my usual chess posting. I intend to do some fairly in depth research on the openings that were played during the 2013 World Cup so we amateurs can get an idea as… Read more →
Top 5 Blunders from the 2013 World Cup
Now that we’ve all had some time to reflect and move on with our lives I decided to take a look back at some memorable blunders from the 2013 World Cup in Tromso, Norway. This all got started when I lost a game to an opponent where I was clearly better (+5 for you computers out there) and subsequently completely… Read more →
Recap of the 2013 UMBC Championship
I recently played in the 2013 University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Championship. The tournament was quite nice and there was some very strong players there. It was nice that at UMBC they require players who wish to be on their team to play in the open section. I’m of the opinion that UMBC is one of the few universities… Read more →
Recap of the 135th NYS Championship
I got back from the 135th NY State Championship on Tuesday. I finished with 2.5/6 going +1 =3 -2. Overall I was fairly lucky to escape with only two losses though I had good chances in my games. I didn’t really think I was playing that well, and initially I was soaking up tons of time in the opening which… Read more →
2013 Chess World Cup (Round 5)
As the fourth round wraps up I would like to just take a moment here and say that the second game of the first tiebreaks between Morozevich and Tomashevsky was one of the most exciting and nerve wracking games I have ever seen. The game started off slowly with each side doing the cat and mouse. Finally after a slip… Read more →
2013 Chess World Cup (Round 4)
Greetings everyone, Round 3 has come to a close and we are now in the sweet sixteen. The fourth round should be full of intrigue as we watch the best players in the world duke it out. Worth checking out are the interviews between Nakamura and Kamsky with Polgar. You can sense a certain disdain and a desire to keep… Read more →
2013 Chess World Cup (Round 3)
Round two has completed and the third round is going to commence this weekend. In this fast paced event it’s been tough to keep up with all the action going on. Here are some of the more shocking developments from the second round: Read more →