I made the computer play against each other in that position and it ended up in a draw. Black worse case scenario is having to eventually sacrifice the exchange. I dont think Black is lost down the exchange but with a pawn compensation.

ah yes I didn't see that long-term idea

Also, black can defend with Rook on b8, Queen on d8 and Knight on f8 which I didn't see

Chess Draft

Are there any replayers online that allow one to include annotations, either as text or as variations? Would make it easier to share games with comments or analysis...

Does anybody have an idea why I might only be getting paired against weaker players on playchess? I'm around 2200 blitz there. High enough to put me in the upper group but there are still plenty of players above me. But when I seek I almost always end up getting paired with players from 1750-2000 with the seek settings set to 'about the same [rating]'. I tried setting a formula (2150+) but after waiting about 30 minutes I gave up.

I do notice most of the other players around my rating and higher have black symbols, whereas mine is white. I'm not sure what that means.

White to play

Kyle, please tell me you were on the giving end of that tactic.

I was on the missing entirely end of that tactic, but I was white. The game ended in a draw due to BOC. (I missed an even crushier tactic earlier in the game. My tactical eye is in the absolute tank right now).

It should be pretty obvious what opening that setup came out of. In one of his annotations in M60MG, Fischer points out 12. g3 as the reason he's not scared of the Marshall Counterattack. I've tried it quite a few times now, and I have to say it really does take the sting out of the Marshall.

Black still gets a furious looking attack, but white has sufficient resources to hold it together. It's been some nice practice trying to defend against those attacks, but so far I've managed to hold it every time, even against some very strong players. The position eventually simplifies into either a white win or a draw.

I thought about 12.g3 back when I used to play the Ruy, but there is a move order trick that led me to switch to 12.Re1. I forget what Black can do instead of 12...Bd6 against 12.g3.

The line I liked was 12. Re1 Bd6 13. g3 Qd7 14. d3 Qh3 15. Re4 etc.

Easier once the tactics light is blinking, but over-the-board, I didn't see it (and neither did my opponent--last move was ...Bf5).

oh, i was looking at Qh5 Bh7, then e6

If I have a rook and a pawn and the other guy has a bishop and i run out of time do i lose because its possible for him 2 mate me?

Under FIDE rules, the answer is yes, for basically the reason that you gave. (I think some places online use different rules where that might not be the case though.)

think it depends where the pawn is, there are lots of positions where the side with the bishop could never mate after any sequence of legal moves.

Only if the side with the bishop is forced to capture the pawn. Otherwise it promotes to a knight: ka1, nb1, Kb3, Bb2 mate.

oh i was thinking only of promoting to an opposite colour bishop.

as you say there is still the possibility that White's flag falls when his only legal move is to capture the bishop (e.g. Ka1, Rb1, Pb2 against Kb3, Bc1 as well as some situations where the king is in check).

So inspired by the chess draft I'm in "let's try to get non-horrible at chess again" mode. I do that about every 2-3 years and give up eventually because of my ADS.

From last time I remember that a good route of studying was doing a bunch of endgame stuff and solving tons of tactical problems. I have since read a lot of material on learning (how to learn etc.) and want to take a slightly different approach. Basically I want to play more games but I'm entirely lost when it comes to openings. I understand some rough heuristics and what you want to do but learning lines etc. is not much fun for me.

I've googled around a bit and have found that there is for lack of better words "systems" where basically you have a variation of some moves that can be played against most responses and a certain gameplan. I think that's good enough for me, started playing some games with white vs the computer (settled on Colle-Zukertort and I think I'm starting to grasp the strategic consequences) but for black it gets a little more complicated.

Basically I think I'll need something against 1.e4 (other than resign) and 1.d4. I think I'm not even going to worry about other opening moves and just wing it against those. Ideally I'd want something that results in similar midgames/midgame themes as my own white opening. If there's something that can be played/morphed into against both e4 and d4 and one of them is not all that good I'd be more than happy with that as well.

I'd prefer nitty/conservative stuff and generally more strategic then tactical...kind of hard for me to figure out what I should look into. I did some googling with the little knowledge I have and Pirc, Caro-Kann, Queens Gambit Declined and Slavic stuff seem to be what I should look into.

I'm not looking at maxEV stuff, I'm more than willing to play stuff that is not optimal against good players etc as long as the study time is reasonable and I can focus more on tactics and endgame (but I do feel more comfortable with a rough gameplan).

Pretty sure this gets asked all the time but quick forum search just brought up some discussion that was too complicated for me to follow :P

Latest game on Chess with Friends, villian vs. me.

1. e4 c6 2. Qg4 d5 3. e5 Bxg4 4. Resigns, 0-1

This is one of my favorite games I've played in a long time. I've been trying to incorporate some new ideas into my chess games, and in this game I upgraded that process from "abysmal failure" to "mixed results," which is nice.

Then I botched it. Then he made a mistake that I saw coming that let me get into an interestingly imbalanced endgame, which I think I played really well and won. I was 1-6 against this guy at one point, but have now won my last two.

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=61572

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6
6. Bc4 e6




7. O-O b5 8. Bd3 Be7



9. Bg5 O-O



10. Qe2 Bb7



11. h3 Nbd7



12. b4 Rc8



13. Nd1 Nb6



14. Nb2 d5 15. e5 Ne4



16. Bxe7 Qxe7 17. a3 Qh4 18. a4 Nc3



19. Qe3 Nbxa4 20. Nxa4 Nxa4
21. Nf3 Qxb4



22. Rfb1 Qe7 23. Qf4 f5



24. exf6 Qxf6 25. Qxf6 gxf6
26. Rxa4 bxa4 27. Rxb7 Rf7



28. Rb4 a5 29. Rxa4 e5



30. Bf5 Rc6
31. Rxa5 Rd6 32. Nh2 Rb7 33. Ng4 Kg7 34. Ne3 d4 35. Nc4 Rc6
36. Nd2 Re7 37. Bd3 Rb6 38. g4 h5 39. Kg2 hxg4 40. hxg4 Kh6
41. Kg3 Rc6 42. Ra1 Rc3 43. Rh1+ Kg7



44. Ne4 Ra3 45. f3 Kf7



46. Rh7+ Kf8 47. Nxf6 e4 48. fxe4 Re6 49. g5 Ra5 1-0

Good work man. Beating someone that always gets you is such a good feeling. Very interesting game by the way. I thoroughly enjoyed your light square bind in the endgame.

That bind was really something. I wish I could say I planned it that way going into the endgame. His three-pawn chain was completely frozen in the middle of the board and created a nifty little wall that completely neutralized his own rooks.

Random cool tidbit: This weekend at the DCC tournament, I watched 11 year old Jeffery Xiong beat GM Alejandro Ramirez (USCF 2672) in a G90+30sec inc game. Jeffery sac'd the exchange for an attack and Ramirez tried to give back material to blunt it, but to no avail. Jeffery's post-tournament rating is up to a new high of USCF 2384. If Jeffery sticks with it, he'll be a superstar one day.

Clown how strong are you? To be an intermediate player you basically need to be able to see forks and pins and stuff like that, dont worry too much about opening.