Today I had a class with my chess teacher and he reccomended me an opening repertoire that is going to lead to open positions and that doesnt require too much learning.

With white I have to do e4, he recomends the italian game ( he is going to teach me both the classical italian game and the accelerated version)and exchange variations for both the french and the caro-kahn to avoid closed games. He says the ruy lopez can get too positional and not what I need right now.
Against the sicilian I will do the alapin because otherwise Im going to have to spend way too much time studying openings for white against the sicilian.

With black against e4 Im going to play e5, the berlin defence against the ruy lopez ( he says its better because he says its not too positional plus its a defence that was very popular in the early 20th century and those are the first games I will study).
Against 3.Bc4 I will do the two knights because he says its easier to teach than 3...Bc5 plus by playing the two knights I can transpose if my oponents decides to go for a gambit.
Against 1.d4 Im going to play d5, he says 1... Nf6 is intresting but learning to play the orthodox defence is going to leave me better suited to play against 1.c4 and 1.Nf3 because its easier to trasnpot those openings to a position where I know what Im doing.


Intresting class, the last time I played 1.e5 was 9 years ago so its going to be weird.

I don't think there's anything wrong with this repertoire but it sounds to me suspiciously like he teaches all his students this same repertoire and makes it sound like it is tailored to you.

who is the teacher?

Im the only student he has around my level .All the other players are around expert level.
He is the coach of my faculty team and he is a Fide Master. My faculty is the best law school program in Chile so they manage to recruit good chess players regularly, however last year they recruited nobody so my coach decided to coach me instead because Im in second year.

My bilbiography is
- My Great Predecessors part 1 and only part 1.
- Masters of the Chessboard by Reti.
- Some spanish tactics book with lots of problems.

He will pass me copies of the books some day this week.

Hernán Dominguez.

For the fun of it I pit my houdini engine on my laptop against shredder on my iphone. I tried to even the odds by playing the first 3 moves for houdini (f3, c3 and Kf2). There was a point at maybe move 70 where houdini was +20 and Shredder didn't think I played a good move and asked if I would like to take back. I didn't know computers try to bluff their opponents :P

[Event "lol1.f3"]
[Site ""]
[Date "2012.05.30"]
[Round "?"]
[White "i7, quadcore, Houdini 1.5"]
[Black "iphone4, Shredder"]
[Result "1-0"]
[PlyCount "145"]
[TimeControl ""]

1. f3 e5 2. c3 Nc6 3. Kf2 d5 4. d4 Nf6 5. g3
Bd6 6. Na3 O-O 7. Nb5 Be7 8. dxe5 Bc5+ 9. Nd4 Nxe5 10. a4 Be7 11. Bh3 Bxh3 12.
Nxh3 Qd7 13. Kg2 c5 14. Nc2 Rfe8 15. Re1 Bd8 16. Nf2 Rc8 17. Nd3 Nc4 18. b3 Na5
19. b4 Nb3 20. Nxc5 Nxc5 21. bxc5 Rxc5 22. Qd3 Ba5 23. Bd2 Rec8 24. Ra3 Qc7 25.
Rb1 b6 26. Nd4 Rc4 27. Bg5 Qe5 28. Nf5 Bxc3 29. Bxf6 Qxf6 30. Ne3 R4c5 31. Nxd5
Qd6 32. Rxc3 Rxc3 33. Qe4 R3c7 34. Nxc7 Qxc7 35. Rd1 g6 36. Rd5 Rd8 37. Re5 Kg7
38. Qe3 Rd7 39. g4 Qd6 40. a5 Rc7 41. a6 h6 42. h4 f6 43. Re6 Qc5 44. Qf4 Rf7
45. Qe4 Rc7 46. Re8 Rd7 47. h5 gxh5 48. Rh8 Kxh8 49. Qe8+ Kh7 50. Qxd7+ Kg6 51.
Qxa7 hxg4 52. Qa8 gxf3+ 53. Qxf3 Qe7 54. Qg4+ Kf7 55. Qc4+ Kg7 56. Kf2 h5 57.
Qc6 Kg6 58. Qxb6 Qe4 59. Qe3 Qa8 60. a7 h4 61. Kf1 Kh7 62. Qd4 Qh1+ 63. Kf2
Qh2+ 64. Ke3 Qg1+ 65. Ke4 Qb1+ 66. Kd5 Qb7+ 67. Ke6 Qa6+ 68. Ke7 Qa3+ 69. Kf7
Qa2+ 70. Kxf6 Qa6+ 71. Ke5 Qa5+ 72. Ke4 Qa2 73. Kf4 1-0

This time I made houdini play "The CRAB!"

[Event "crabaments"]
[Site ""]
[Date "2012.05.30"]
[Round "?"]
[White "i7 quadcore, Houdini 1.5"]
[Black "iphone4, Shredder"]
[Result "1-0"]
[PlyCount "89"]
[TimeControl "300"]

1. h4 e5 2. a4 Nf6 3. Nh3 d5 4. Na3 Nc6 5. e3
Bf5 6. Be2 d4 7. d3 Bb4+ 8. Bd2 dxe3 9. fxe3 Nd5 10. Bf3 Nxe3 11. Bxc6+ bxc6
12. Qf3 Bxa3 13. Bxe3 Bxb2 14. Qxf5 Bxa1 15. O-O Qd7 16. Qxd7+ Kxd7 17. Rxa1 f6
18. Nf2 Rhb8 19. d4 Re8 20. Nd3 exd4 21. Bxd4 Re2 22. c3 a5 23. Kh2 Rb8 24. h5
Ke7 25. Kh3 Rd2 26. Re1+ Kf8 27. Nc5 Re8 28. Rb1 Ree2 29. Rb7 Rxg2 30. Rxc7
Rh2+ 31. Kg3 Kg8 32. Ne6 Rhg2+ 33. Kf3 Ra2 34. Bc5 Rac2 35. c4 g5 36. Rg7+ Kh8
37. Rf7 g4+ 38. Ke4 h6 39. Kf5 Rb2 40. Kg6 Rb8 41. Be7 Rg8+ 42. Kxh6 Rb8 43.
Bxf6+ Kg8 44. Rg7+ Kh8 45. Rg6# 1-0

Here is my round 3 pivotal game in my OTB tournament over the weekend. We were both 2-0 and the winner would have the fast track to prize money. I am black.

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=65739

Standard Najdorf. On move 9, I considered 9....d5 because usually once black gets d5 in, it's game over for white. Qc7 instead just keeps the queens on the board, because I wasn't looking to get into a queen-less middle game.

I was really puzzled by his 13. Rac1 move. I understand that it puts his rook on the same file as my queen, but that file is not threatened to be opened anytime soon. Better there would have probably been 13. Rfd1.

My first big blunder of the game was 14....Nc5. It's an advanced post, but it doesn't really help me there. And I'm kind of shocked I played it instead of 14...Nb6. I actually had tried the Nbd7-b6-c4 idea earlier in the day to block white's light-squared bishop in order to advance my pawn to d5. Plus, if I was looking to push that d-pawn, b6 makes a whole lot more sense.

After 18. Rfd1, Fritz 13 says I am (black) +3.00. Here is where I miss the win. I debated playing 18...Na4, attacking the b-pawn and opening the c-file on his undefended c-pawn. I thought 19. Rb1 Qxc2 20. Rdc1 trapped my queen -.-. Missing, of course, that I had c1 guarded by my bishop.

I'm told 20...a5 is a blunder that makes the game equal. I don't see it though. At this moment, I can't push d5 and I'm beating myself up over that and I'm actually tempted to offer a draw before playing a5. I played a5 obviously intending for a break with an eventual b4 and exploding on the queenside. Can anyone tell me why 20...a5 is such a bad move?

It's around move 20 that I start feeling fatigued. This was my 3rd "long" match of the day and it was getting close to 3 hours into this game. I have no idea why I didn't play b4 sooner. Thoughts on the game?

Our beloved FIDE President Kirsan has reached new heights in his and our struggle to promote the development of the game of chess internationally.

We still all fondly remember his successful visit to Libya where he greatly impressed the most revered Leader of the Revolution, our Brother Leader Gaddafi.

Seeing how his visit gave hope and joy to the Libyan people in such hard times, and hoping to spread this hope and joy, Kirsan recently travelled to Damascus, Syria. In close cooperation with the Great President Assad, in their common love for the Syrian people, he signed an agreement between FIDE and Syria that will help the game of chess in Syria to thrive and prosper.

All hail to our wise President Kirsan!



For all those who can't believe it either, here is the link to the official news: Link

I'm all for chess in Syria thriving and prospering.

Kids could be doing worse things than playing chess

I'm in the military, and I'm about to deploy to "an undisclosed location in southwest Asia" for quite a long time. I've been improving at chess lately by playing a lot on chess.com, where my rating has steadily improved from 800something to 1200something on there (top 50%, lol @ me). Unfortunately, I probably won't have much internet access downrange. But I will have my laptop (and my iPod with the Shredder app), and probably a ton of time to kill. So do you fine folks have any recommendations for how to use engines and books (specifically e-books) and stuff to get better? I never mess with engines usually, and don't even have an engine installed on my laptop.

So which one should I get, or does it matter? And once I get it, what should I do with it? Just play it at a fairly high difficulty (relative to my level) and get trounced 80% of the time by a machine that I know isn't playing anywhere near its peak capacity? Because I know that's how you get better, but it doesn't seem as fun as beating the other dorks at my level on chess.com. Or should I use it to try to analyze games from a database, or play out endgame positions, or what?

Any advice you guys might have would be much appreciated.

CT-ART might be a good investment

Nifty position from a 15-minute ICC game tonight:



Hint:


Brag about the game itself:

Very nice game btw. I particularly liked how long he played it out. Hilarious.

Any suggestions for learning the Benoni? A couple of people have suggested it to me now as a solution to my never-ending finding a d4 defense I'm comfortable with. I'm not giving up on the Slav by any means, but I'm willing to give this a shot.

Kinda wrong opening if you think that chess is only played on the kingside

That is a true fact. But nobody else seems to believe me so I end up having to play on the wrong side anyway.

Probably my favorite chess quote ever is applicable here. Ain't this the truth?

"Modern Chess is too much concerned with things like pawn structure. Forget it, checkmate ends the game" -Nigel Short

Oh, I play that. Can't remember how I learned it, though. Well, I mean, besides doing what I always do for openings -- check them out through chessgames.com, play through some older games to see how it developed, then some newer games to see the current theory, play it in blitz and then look up where I went wrong. And going to chesspub.com: http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb...rd=nimzobenoni

I do have some advice, though. A good number of players around what I think your rating is will not play d4-d5, so you'll need to know what to do when they just leave their d-pawn there or if they play dxc5 (to get the pawn back, I don't know if ...Na6 or ...Qa5+ or something else is best).

When you do get the standard Benoni positions, there are some general things you should know:
-Your position will look ugly, but that doesn't mean you're losing.

-Pawn breaks you want will generally be ...f5 and ...b5. To prepare for ...b5, you will sometimes play ...a6 first, but that will usually be met by a4. I've seen a number of things from there. Sometimes, you play ...b5 anyway. Sometimes, you do it after white plays a4-a5 even though he's take the b-pawn e.p. Some have played ...b6 first so that a4-a5 can be met by ...b6-b5 without e.p. capture. Also, ...Nb8-a6-c7 can help prepare for ...b5. There are also lines where you play ...b5 when the pawn will be captured because it can give you white's e4-pawn. I believe the Modern Main Line (I've seen it called MML somewhere) involves black sacrificing the b-pawn to get a pawn-down ending that is supposedly drawn, but I have no idea why anyone would want to get that from the Benoni.

-Watch out for white playing e2-e4-e5 and rolling over your position. I'd also try not to lose the d6-pawn, and sometimes if you play ...Nb8-d7, you might forget that your queen on d8 is no longer defending the pawn and it can drop off.

Some may discourage you from playing the Benoni, calling it unsound. I have no problem playing it anyway. I've played it twice in correspondence-style games online, both times against higher rated players, winning once (as mentioned here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=131 ) and drawing once: http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=66892

new chess tournament bringing back the adjournment. Will be interesting to see. I can see a few immediate resignations when they get back from the adjournment.

http://www.chess.com/news/acp-golden...ournament-2326

BTW, if you care to get obscure there is:

1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nf6!?

I decided to investigate the line a bit on my own as something mostly for fun but also as an occasional idea other than than playing my standard slav. The line is a whole lot better than it's rep would lead you to believe (which is probably one of its major strengths). Its poor database performance is largely a result of the fact that generally bad players play it. If you filter your database to games only between closely matched opponents or for black elo > 2400 or whatever you get an entirley different picture.

I've had great results with it. They key response in my opinion is: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nf6 3. cxd5 Nxd5 4. Nf3!! with the main variation running something like: 4. Nf3 Bf5 5. Qb3 e6!

Capturing on b7 is incredibly dangerous for white. Eg - 6. Qxb7 Nd7 7. Nc3? Rb8 and black already has at least a forced perpetual he can cash in.

So 5. Qb3 e6! 6. Nbd2! Nb6 7. e4 Bg6 8. Bb5+ N8d7 9. a4 a5 10. O-O Bb4

And you're getting a slav-like position where black is fine and has clear counterplay.

The non-Nf3 lines are much more fun. 1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nf6 3. cxd5 Nxd5 4. e4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5! 6. d5?! (6. Nf3! exd4 7. Qxd4 Qxd4 8. Nxd4 c6 leading to a += ending is probably white's best option) c6 7. Nf3 Bb4 8. Bg5 O-O leading to an interesting middle game where black has the two bishops.

There's a million other side variations with a lot of transpositional possibilities particularly when white tries to avoid anything he doesn't know so it can be a little complex, but I've had great results with it and it's really fun throwing out a move everybody knows is just 'terrible' when the truth is white has no clear path to a major edge. It's also nice when white kneejerk tries to refute it since it tends to lead rapid victories.. for black. Finally it's also nice since as a slav player you'll already be reasonably familiar with the sort of common ideas and structures in the key lines.

Anyhow, this post is already getting too long. Look at the main lines and give it a go in some blitz - I think you'll be surprised.