There was such a tournament over here in the Netherlands, a couple of years ago. Each participant played in at least 3 of chess, draughts, bridge and go. They did a 'subtournament' in each discipline and merged the results afterwards.

The winner was an IM in chess and 4th or 5th dan in go, probably decent in the other games as well (but I don't remember).

There's also the Pentamind and Decamentathlon events at the Mind Sports Olympiad in England, which appear at a glance to be along the lines of what you're talking about.

I guess I will not bother with spoiler tags since no one responded to the post.

Most people will see Bh7 and Qh5 and declare it over. Closer inspection will find Black's attempt to run with Re8. This does not save black, but now we have to find some moves. There is more than one way to win. I became enamored of the following variation which is check on each of the next 13 moves.

1. Bh7 Kh8 2.Qh5 Re8 3.Bg6 Kg8 4.Bf7 Bf7 5.Qf7 Kh8 6.Qh5 Kg8 7.Qh7 Kf8 8.Ne6 Kf7 9.Qg7 Ke6 10.Re1 Ne5 (Kd7 loses to Qg4!! exclams not so much for the move, as the mating construction) 11.Qe5 Kf7 12.Qe6 Kg7 13.Be5 Kh7 14.Qf7 Kh6 15.Bf4

As promised another win starts with 3.Ne6, but I will leave that analysis for the reader to find.

Thoughts on my learning plans? I'm pretty new and have known how to move the pieces for a while but have very little strategy/understanding.

1) Go through entire ChessMaster Academy
2) Do at least 20 ChessTempo puzzles per week
3) Play (and review) or study (someone else's game) at least 6 games per week

Is it best to play these games against a computer or human? Is it worth it to pay for ICC?

I read your OP and did that indeed, maybe wasn't that wrong either Anyway that is a good example of a good ole king hunt

Humans. It's definitely better to pay humans. I like ICC, but whether it's "worth it" or not is kind of subjective. You may find that a free server does everything you want.

If you are not too badly financially challenged it's worth it

I'm bored with the fact that 45 sec vs 1 1/2 min is an automatic loss in any trivially drawn endgame.

Imagine you are entering the last round of a tournament, you need a win as white against a player you know to be of very similar skill level to you.

What black defense would you like to play against among the common, solidly playable ones?

Dragon

Does not fit the criteria!

Joking aside, probably Dragon if e4 and Benoni if d4.

That's funny, because the question came up because I swear I score at least 80% and maybe better as white against the Sicilian against players within 100 points of my own rating, and probably 90% against the dragon.

Over-the-board "inspiration":

So 1...Ngf6 is book here (I'm pretty sure...), but I happened upon the idea of 1...Bd6 with the idea of 2.Ne4 Ndf6 (with Ne7 to follow).

My opponent quickly went astray...but I'm sort of curious how bad that is for Black.

having white i don't really care what he plays, there always will be ways to imbalance play without having to make huge concessions.

Easily the Scandinavian. I'm never upset to see that when I play white.

So I'm white, I need to win, and the question is what defense do I hope my opponent will use against my inevitable 1. e4?

I'm definitely hoping for 1. ... e5. And then I'm hoping for 3. ... Bc5 in response to my Italian Game, because I think my odds of beating an opponent of the same skill level as me are almost certainly highest in an Evan's Gambit.

Not that I mind facing a Sicilian, or anything else, but if I desperately need that full point the Evan's is definitely my first choice. Largely because it's so sharp that it almost always leads to a win for someone, and I am FAR better booked up on it than most players at my level which helps a lot in an opening that gives so many chances for both players to slip.

great game going on in the British Championships at the moment, Gawain Jones needs a win to catch Adams and Short in first place. It's over 100 moves in.

http://www.britishchess2011.com/live_games.htm

Before people hate me, I wanted to post this in the thread where the poster was looking for a coach and I took a jab at Allen C. My phone didn't indicate that it was locked until I hit 'submit reply' so I hope it's not too against the rules to put it here?

"It should be noted that my above post should have ended with a smiley face. I just hate doing that because it completely kills the sarcastic tone that's supposed to be read in that post."

144 move game at the top of the leader board, that's what I am talking about!

Dutch. Used to be the King's Indian, but I don't have as good a handle on the c6 lines against stronger opposition.

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=48369

Me vs. 1867 in unrated local tournament, Game/45 with 5 second increment.

I thought I played well enough, especially considering that d4 and c4 games are my worst area. But there are plenty of areas where I could have improved significantly.

I'm pretty sure I got through the opening playing pretty standard stuff, although I don't know the book for this off-hand. I assume Nf3 and then c4 still counts as an English, but I dunno.

Obviously 10. Nh4 was a wasted move for him. I really thought after 12. ... d5 I had a strong position. His queenside push was just premature when I was so solid in the middle.

Afterward, I felt like 16. Nb6 was a turning point. I thought it might close off the file and leave the knight with options to jump toward the middle later whenever good support points opened up. But from that move on, I was spending a lot of time worrying about all the weak dark squares in my position and he was spending a lot of time threatening to do bad things on those squares.

21. ... Rb8 is also a move I thought could have been improved on. I looked hard at Rc2 but it felt too aggressive at the time. I had to have had other options, though.

He really let me back in the game with 27. Qa7, and then I think 32. e4 was the worst move of the game. My central pawns are one of my best advantages, and I just liquidated them for no reason.

We played a bunch of moves with less than 5 minutes less after 37. Nf4, but it we couldn't find anything better than to trade off knights and ended up in Rook+2p each that was super drawish and agreed to a draw.

Can someone recommend the best book for a beginner who has only played about 20 games so far. With online poker no longer avail this is becoming my new hobby and appreciate a good book to start my learning.

Time for the classic winning attempt thru use of draw offers. Basically vs aggro players, if I had a worse position for a long time and then have equalized but need the opponent to start overpressing in order to get more than a draw, then I always offer a draw.

Brag: Aced the exam for the Class C section in Silman's endgame book, skipping straight to Class B.

Beat: I just bought a book I don't need half of.

NDFan, welcome to the chess forum. There's a thread near the top called Chess Book Recommendations that would prove really useful for you. Lots of good material there. Also, I'd recommend checking out www.chess.com, they have a lot of good instruction there. Acess to all of their features is pretty cheap too, something like $8/month, although I can't remember exactly.

By the way, what is the name of the kid in your avatar? I remember watching him thinking he was the biggest douche of all time but can't remember his name. Didn't he finish 50th or so in the main event that year?