brag: first ever chess win
beat: 1-11 on yahoo chess

1. e2-e4 e7-e5
2. b1-c3 d7-d6
3. g1-f3 c7-c6
4. d2-d4 b8-d7
5. h2-h4 f8-e7
6. g2-g3 h7-h6
7. f1-c4 a7-a6
8. a2-a4 d7-b6
9. b2-b3 b6xc4
10. b3xc4 c8-g4
11. d4xe5 g4xf3
12. d1xf3 d6xe5
13. a1-b1 a8-b8
14. c1-e3 a6-a5
15. e3-a7 b8-a8
16. b1xb7 e7-b4
17. f3xf7++

Congrats man, first win is awesome.

Very cool! Here's to many, many more.

Brag: After 17,809 attempts on chess.emrald.net, I finally reached 1550, which was the only goal for 2011 that I didn't reach.

Puts me at 773 out of 11,584 in the U.S.

Congrats, Im going to take a shot at 1600 but first Im going through some tactics books.

0-2 in league games. I've got FPS so bad.

I want to blame the fact that I've had to play the black side of 1. d4 twice, but I've got out of the opening just fine each time.

Today it was the endgame. I had bishop and two extra pawns vs. rook, and I knew in theory I should be winning, but in practice that was just brutal to execute.

I need a cure for FPS, pls.

Black to move after 19. d5, T4545 league game today.



Blah blah blah stupid QGD and I've equalized. 19. ... exd4 20. Nxd4 and we can all dance around while white does a minimal amount of work to earn the draw against black's microscopic advantage.

That's how a normal chess player sees it. But for those of us suffering from Fancy Play Syndrome, it's not so easy.

"Well, I could do that. But what about Rd6? After dxe6 fxe6, I've got a pretty ugly weakness on e6 that his queen is already attacking, in fact it weakens that whole diagonal. That's kind of bad. But I've got a nice rook and queen battery pointing at his back rank weakness, I've got the f-file to work with, activating my f8 rook without even having to move it! Look at all that piece activity! That's worth one little weakness."

Later that weakness lets him trade into a rook for bishop+2p endgame that was theoretically fine for me but in practical terms going to be lost every time.

Even your names for the squares are fancy!

20. dxe6 fxe6 21. Ne4 just looks bad for Black (even if it actually isn't). And unfancy.

I think I fixed the coordinate problems. Maybe. I never get those right. The fact that I'm working through a book with old-style notation isn't helping.

I keep reading about players at my level trying to get better, and they all seem to be moaning about calculation errors.

My calculation is spot-on most of the time. It's my evaluation that is frequently horrific.

Beat: I butchered the opening of this game
Brag: I defended pretty well afterwards
Beat: Wound up losing the exchange anyway, but had some counterplay with 2 central passed pawns
Brag: Said FU central passed pawns, my first forced smother sounds much cooler

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game.html?id=255345708

Reached 1500 on fics blitz . I dont know how good that is but it cost me a lot to reach it!

Back to basics and K.I.S.S.

Keep it Simple Sir

Pick up GM Michael Stean's excellent book Simple Chess and read/work through it a few times.

Resist all urges to play fancily out of boredom or to avoid "equal" positions.

/Class dismissed

ozyandmillie.org/2007/06/04/ozy-and-millie-1885/

I'm just going to consider 1. e4 e6 2. d4 to be a gambit from now on. I don't like having to torture my position just to hold the d-pawn, and the compensation is usually nice.

Interesting list of California Celebrities who play Chess:

http://www.chessdryad.com/articles/wall/art_05.htm

Speaking of celebrities.. Wilt Chamberlain was def. a fan of chess.

Then why is there no black king on the board?

Cats must have moved it. Not to mention the black bishop on g8 with black pawns on h7 and f7. Could be Chess960.

How about a Chess board between toilets?

Black not only moves second but also has to play with his left hand

The board needs to be turned 90 degrees.

Then all the pieces would fall off!

First time I've ever suspected cheating online. Lost to someone 400 points below me who played Stockfish's best move 17 out of 18 moves, including the final 11 in what I thought was at least a moderately complicated position. He did the exact same thing in his previous game.

Maybe just a good day and I'm annoyed for losing.

u could post the games to see opinions....