I completely agree with DIR about that opening. I've faced it several times as white in blitz and it's annoying to play against. Reason is it seems like white should be able to punish black but there isn't a clear-cut refutation. I win the majority of games against it, but that's because most black players don't realize the problems with it. In capable hands it's a good surprise weapon. I often find the games become similar to a Grunfeld exchange because black often fiancettos on the kingside.

I think the main reason it isn't played at higher levels is it isn't as challenging to white as more main line Slav and Semi-Slav stuff, but sub 2400 it's still very effective. I've banged my head against a wall playing it too many times

One key thing to watch out for as black is the e5 push. If white doesn't play an early Nf3, push e5 and black is virtually automatically equal. That's a common motif in several d4 d5 openings.

hey, people, does anyone play crazyhouse online anymore? if so, where?

FICS and ICC like it's always been? Did you play somewhere else before or is one of those inactive now re: zh

i have a hard time finding a game on FICS, is there enough zh played on ICC to make it worth signing up?

Don't really know, there seems to be some tournaments running. Sign up for a free trial and see for yourself maybe

i should really stop resigning chess.com games early against strong players who seemingly make no mistakes. They usually get banned 3 days after my resignation.

I never thought that the difference between playing against a honest 2400 and a 2400 computer cheater would be so obvious but it is. Against the latter often you think "wow well i get chances here" and 5 moves later it turns out that he has everything under control in a fancy way.

Did the latest update on chess.com change something about their lag system? I'm already a very slow player but now I'm getting absolutely killed by the clock. It seems like the fastest I can move is ~500ms even on a complete premove.

Hmm dropped about 100 points on chess.com getting flagged repeatedly. I either work up ******ed or something changed on their net code.

Confirmed just woke up ******ed. It's crazy how subtle mental changes can be. I felt perfectly normal but apparently was way off my game. It really makes you think about downswings in poker where it's so easy to blame variance on bad luck.

If you have an ICC account and aren't in the habit of watching the videos, you may have missed the ongoing series Art of Defense with GM Boris Alterman. These are absolutely amazing.

Probably not worth an own thread, but in case anyone is interested:

The Dortmund tournament has started yesterday with a mixture of world class and top German GMs. 10 time Dortmund winner Kramnik is the favourite, the other players are Leko, Ponomariov, Karjakin, Caruana and Aeroflot winner Bartel, as well as the Germans Naiditsch, Meier, Gustafsson and Fridman.

Games start 3pm CEDT. Round 2 is underway. Live transmission on the usual sites or on the official site here: http://www.sparkassen-chess-meeting.de/2012/

Kramnik's win over Gustafsson is just amazing. A 2600+ GM just gets wiped off the board with material sacs and raw aggression.

The a-pawn marching and the Rxe3/Nb4 combination were just pure baller.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1671758

I haven't seen the game yet, but the difference between 2600 and 2800 always amazes me. Those rating points really do mean something, even when you're very very good.

Kramnik won again today. I am always impressed how he plays these += Catalan-type positions against strong opponents. It seems so effortlessly how he converts them to a point. He must have won at the very least a dozen of similar games against 2600+ GMs.

+++

It has to be an unusual feeling to be so much better than 99.999% of players yet still such a huge dog to those .0001%. I also think it speaks very highly of those 0.0001% since getting to where they are involves pushing themselves incredibly hard when they're already so far up. It's so easy to lose motivation when you become 'okayish' - it's amazing and inspiring that they keep themselves pushing forward when they're already incredibly strong.

I think this is an important insight. It's hard to say for certain that it affects "okayish" 2600+ GMs, who without exception got there through being both competitive and dedicated, but it definitely affects "okayish" 10-year old 900s. If the best kid in the class is 1300, it's OK to aim for 1100 and think you are doing well when you get there. If the best is 1800, so you need to be 15-1600ish to be OK, it turns out you can get to 1500-1600 pretty easily after all.

It's common sense that raising the standard of the top of the class improves the standard the next top guy is likely to be. But I think it's not that well understood how much it can raise the standards of the middle-rankers, the guys who never expect to be challenging to be the best.

(yeah lol at calling 2600s OKish)

I think you misread my statement.

Much weaker but above 'average' players (it's all relative) - Okayish
2600 - Incredibly Strong
2800 - Amazing and inspiring

It's so easy to lose motivation when you become 'okayish' - it's amazing and inspiring that [2800s] keep themselves pushing forward when they're already [2600s].

I'm going to try to put together an ICC Team 45 45 league team with 2+2ers this season.

So far I have me (1600 league rating) and TexAg06 (should be provisionally rated about 1700 based on his ICC standard). Need 2-3 more. Who's interested? Wouldn't mind two stronger players to put together a reasonably competitive U1800 team, but really I'm not too strict on the section.

Hey guys, am looking to find some people to play correspondence chess on chess.com. I am very much a chess novice, but looking to learn and discuss moves post game.

If you are interested, this is my chess.com profile http://www.chess.com/echess/profile/guyht

http://www.chess.com/news/paypal-co-...challenge-5476

interesting. Thiel seems to have given up at a much earlier age and had a lower ELO so it's far from certain he will accept..

Hmm, thought I'd get at least a little interest. Last call for T4545?

You need to have n (12? 20?) standard games played to join a team right? That's a problem for many

That is true. I think it's 20 or 25.

2.5/4 at an OTB rapid tourney tonight in Tulsa. Got a draw against the 10th highest rated player in Oklahoma (only 2019, but it's my best OTB result, so I'm happy).

G15s so I don't have a record of any of the games. I lost ti a like 9 year old who's rating was 1251, but he was like 800 a few months ago and just won some sort of national championship apparently. So hooray for rating lag.