search Tim Krabbe's website for the "unguarded guard" for more examples.

http://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/chess.html
highly recommended, entertaining read.

Nice link!

Don't miss clicking through Moro's game against Shirov at Saratov, both players missed a lot (Morozevich had a more or less forced mate at one point) but it doesn't dissapoint in entertainment value. Meanwhile, after a rest day, Moro just beat Alekseev instead and has, after 7 rounds, as many wins as the rest of the 12-player-field (10 over 2700 ELO) combined. Awesome.

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=51273

Managed to find a way to play chaotic chess even without playing 2.e4! in the opening (yes, i thought I'd try something 'normal' to avoid prep) in my interclub game from today ... always good to know its quality chess when the Fritz evaluation is anywhere from +3 to -3 throughout the game ...

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=51319

Of course I managed to win on time in the final position, though it is far from easy to actually finish off (at least at first glance).

Enjoyed.

Anyone else heard of this Amateur Chess Organization?

http://www.amateurchess.com/about_aco.html

Seems like they are trying to compete with FIDE on the U2400 market.

Don't worry, London Chess Classic has you covered...

(Carlsen, Anand, Aronian, Kramnik, Nakamura, Adams, Short McShane, Howell...so the best in the world, an American, and some English guys.)

And just before London, the Tal Memorial will take place in Moscow (November 16th-25th).

Participants are Anand, Carlsen, Aronian, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Karjakin, Nakamura, Svidler, Gelfand, Nepomniachtchi.

This is going to be a nice chess winter. Lots of strong tournaments to watch. Moscow, London, and in January Wijk aan Zee again. There Anand and Kramnik will miss, but it will be Topalov's comeback after not playing for like a year.

Holy crap, that Tal Memorial lineup is awesome. Cannot wait for that one.

Awesome bridge sweat thread by our fellow players over at POG http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/59...hread-1113519/

I've moved to London and am thinking of playing the supporting tournament, it is quite an inspiring lineup in the top group.

It's on my list of things to do to think about the middlegame positions in the Slav from Black's perspective, specifically about Black playing cxd4 or encouraging White to play c5. If there is an obvious rule of thumb here (e.g., "Black wants White to play c5 as long as he can meet it with b6"), I'm happy to hear it...

...but I was mostly curious whether there was enough interest in this topic to make it worthwhile to start a thread on it, probably in a couple of weeks after I look at a few more examples.

Thanks for posting this.

This is a position from a round 1 game in a tournament I am the arbiter for:

What opening was played to reach that position?

I just read Mikhalchishin's report about the European Club Cup in the German magazine "Schach"; he was the tournament director.

Among other things he bitterly complains - without calling names - about the drinking habits of some Grandmasters; he specifically means chess professionals and not all the amateurs who were playing there too. Istratescu for example apparently was so drunk one day that his opponent refused to play him and offered a draw after move 5 (I figured out his name because of the details given in the article), and he is the coach of the French national team after all.

Also some fun (?) things seem to have happened after the closing ceremony. My translation: "Can you imagine that absolute world class Grandmasters are lying around on hotel floors, are demolishing the furnishings and are missing the airport shuttle? Can you imagine that three world class players (among them a woman) are ordering a bottle of champagne (for three persons!) at 8 am for breakfast? Luckily, the guy who placed the order did not dance naked on the table this time as he usually does when he is drunk...".

So, RoundTower, have you been part of the fun? I mean, with you being Irish and all... Can you give us names?

Why fight it?

Nakamura working with Kasparov...very interesting. I've heard him mention/complain in years past trouble with finding trainers, but it doesn't get much better than that.