Chess Exam and Training Guide by Igor Khmelnitsky

 
I’ve been meaning to write this review for awhile now so here it goes.
The one thing that all adult chess players want to know is how to improve. This is difficult because there are so many aspects of the game to work on. Do you focus on tactics ?(never a bad idea), learn endings? middlegame [...]

The Doctor is in…

I finally finished analyzing my games from the tourney on 6/4.  I had about 16 standard time control ICC games to go over as well.  For some reason I let myself get really far behind in analyzing my own games.  I have no real reason for it.  I even had to analyze my last game [...]

Opportunity number 3

Ok, so technically this isn’t an opportunity because I drew the game.
My last opponent was rated 1262, so he’s another patzer like me, except I’m old enough to be his father, so he’s actually way ahead of me.  I get to play white again YAY!
1) e4, c5  2) Nf3, Nf6 3) Bb5, d6 4) d4, a6 [...]

Game…I mean Opportunity number two from this weekend

Ok so I lose my first game, I’m feeling bummed, my next opponent is rated 1279, so I shouldn’t be outmuscled by any means.  I’ve got white so here we go.
1) e4, c5  2) Nf3, Nc6  3) Bb5, g6  4) 0-0, Bg7

Now I know that castling this early probably isn’t necessary, but I’ve learned from [...]

They say every loss is an opportunity to learn something…

and boy were the opportunities flying around yesterday!  I played pretty terrible chess.   This is very depressing because I had been playing very well with a performance rating of 1600+ over my last two tournaments.  So I went into this weekend tournament feeling pretty good.
Well first off I get lost going to the tournament.  There [...]

So much to say, not nearly enough time to say it…

Ok, I have a lot of stuff to talk about but not too much time.  I want to get three book reviews done, and I have a post about the endgame that is burning in my skull.  Thing is I have a local tournament this weekend.  It’s a sectional, 4 round swiss G60 tourney.   For [...]

Try this one out

I have been using John Emms, Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book to get ready for a big tournament in Tucson.  It is an excellent book, but I found an alternative continuation to this puzzle.
The solution is  1)… Bxe4  2) fxe4, Rxg3  3) hxg3, Qxg3 with mate to follow on f2.
What I saw was 2) Rxe3, Qxe3  2) Kg2!  [...]

Shake hands and start your clocks…

I have been playing chess for my entire life, but I began playing seriously back in 1998 when I lived in Hawaii.  I played in a few tournaments, with pretty pathetic results.  Although I wanted to get better and avenge my honor (I managed to play some pretty bad chess…)  I had to give it [...]