I've become interested in chess again after finding out there is a small club in the area I moved to.

I went to check out one of my favorite sites from our hero here curtains and now it seems to be on a PPV system at chesvideos.tv

Just to watch his videos from the 21 days this month would be nearly $20.

Yes, but he does free ones, too. Every tenth one or so. The PPV crap is annoying, but he doesn't owe anyone anything.

Yeah I understand he doesn't owe anybody anything. It would be nice to just have an unlimited membership fee option. Even if it was $20-$30.

My 8 year-old niece is interested in chess. I started out giving her queen odds but she hangs all her pieces every other move and whatnot so I decided that endgames were the way to go. Apparently she had never checkmated anyone yet. Our first session I showed her how to checkmate with K+Q v K and then had her do it several times (bring your king in, sweetie!). Her face lit up when she was able to checkmate me!

Then we did K+R+B v K. She got mate in one and was about to blunder horribly so I had her slow down and look at the board for the solution. It took her a minute or so of concentration but she found the mate. We finished up with K+R+N v K and she was really getting the hang of it.

Next time I think we'll try K+R v K, and at some point work on opposition and pawn endings.

I agree with that. I was going through all of his old videos watching them while working out and suddenly they were all PPV. I had considered many times going through and pre-downloading them and never got around to it. Out of luck.

I'm not sure I'd pay for them no matter the cost, but an option would be nice. As it is, no way in hades I'd ever pay for individual videos. I'm honestly surprised anyone does.

Hilarious game vs complete amateur in a bar in NYC. This place is like some sort of gaming bar? with chess boards billiards, scrabble, table tennis etc. However they charge you even to play chess and to make sure you don't play without paying they take the Kings and Knights away. We were playing with quarters and pennies representing knights, causing the bizzare bishop hang.


1. g4 Nc6 2. Bg2 d5 3. d3 e5 4. h3 Nf6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 g5 7. Bg3 Qe7 8. Nc3 d4 9. Ne4 Nxe4 10. Bxe4 Qb4+ 11. Kf1 Qxb2 12. Bxe5 Nxe5 13. Nf3 Nxf3 14. exf3 Be6 15. Kg2 Bxa2 16. Re1 O-O-O 17. Qe2 Bb4 18. Rec1 Rhe8 19. Qd1 f6 20. c3 dxc3 21. Qa4 a6 22. Rxa2 Qxc1 23. Bxb7+ Kxb7 24. Qxa6+ Kb8 25. Qa8#

Chesscube.com has an interesting interface. Youtube it for videos

I just played a position similar to this with 5 seconds plus increments left.



The best I could come up with in that time was keep the king and bishop touching e6 and what could go wrong? Well something did and I lost. But now I've got it:

I think we've already discussed this exact position, without the h-pawn, in this thread! It's wherever we discuss some uscf.com article on "things to know for lazy endgame players" or similar, the one that had about ten mistakes in twenty positions.

Is there a thread w/ ICC screen names? I've been trying to search but can't seem to find one.

i've had that one drilled into my head when a teammate tried to win it in a team match game but failed. Most of us thought it was won at the time lol.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/14...nnames-430977/

It's an old thread, but probably one that would benefit, not suffer, from necro-posting

Hi all;

Since black Friday I have been getting back into chess and have been mostly reading/studying as opposed to playing. (1200ish rating) What ratio of play/study would be good for a newer player?

I have been working on tactics mostly so far.

Thanks for any suggestions. Also, checkmate3636 on chess.com if anyone wants to beat up on a lower rated player Im all for it.

When you are absolutely starting out, do a minimum of say 30 minutes of tactics training daily, and the rest should be play (including going over your own games).

As you start to get better, you start mixing in other kinds of study.

Thanks for the suggestion. Sounds good.

what do you guys do here? whats your plan?

e5 looks tempting off the top of my head, but I guess it doesn't really get you anything.

I guess the key is right now that the d6 pawn is cramping his bishop and you want to keep it that way, so control over d5 is vital. a3 first to keep the knight out of b4, and then Qd3 and Rad1.

Doubt Nb4 is really a threat. Would start with Re1, position looks equalish to me though. Black could/should try to get f5 in at some point (when e5 is not a problem)

Pretty equal position, without many targets.

As white? Re1 is definitely sensible, and I think Qh5 looking to provoke some pawn moves by Black might be reasonable (Qb5 is possible). Maybe Nd5, though (see below!).

As black? Bf6 looks good, and then put the rooks on sensible squares. I'm not in a rush to play e5, or move any pawns for that matter.

The plan depends on how much I'm willing to mix things up by playing randomly here. White can just push some random pawns (on the queenside) and see how Black reacts. If Black is feeling very frisky, then Rad8 with the idea of a quick f5 meeting e5 by d5 might be possible. (But he'll need to think of where his knight is going.)

Neither side really has any weaknesses, so it's a matter of "playing chess" and waiting for your opponent to make a mistake, or react too slowly to a threat. The sort of senseless aggression in the previous paragraph is probably not good, but both positions are robust and can take some abuse without being much worse, I think.

I like 1.Nd5 immediately, to stop 1...Bf6. 1...Ne5? is still not playable (2.Bxe5 dxe5?? 3.Nf6+).

If he ever tries to get the knight out of d5 with ...c6, he will have a weakness on d6. What can black do? Perhaps 1.Nd5 Rfd8 2.Qd2 intending Rad1, Rfe1, etc.

1.Nd5 might be better in causing confusion and if other things are about equal it's the best starting move. I'm pretty sure Rfd8? is the wrong rook and also the a-rook should go to e8 rather than d8; regrouping with Rae8-Bd8 and hopefully f5

So I've actually started posting on my blog again http://melbournegamescoach.blogspot.com/ & have (for the time being at least) decided to go for the ambitious option of trying to upload a video to YouTube every day where I don't have another job (my 'regular' job being casual school teacher, so there are some days where I don't work). The main focus is chess & poker, with some random other games being included from time to time. I'm also attempting to do an 'Amateur chess game review' once per week, so feel free to let me know if you have a game you would like analysed ... as well as any comments you have about the blog & videos.

thanks for the thoughts.

Another position. White to move

thanks for information

Hi

been recently starting to get really into Chess. I suck pretty hard but making progress using the Kings indian attack opening against some friends who have been reguarly beating me up.

I'm looking for advice on what sort of openings for black I should be concentrating on to enable a solid defence?

Please remember I'm an absolute beginner so just looking for some fundamental advice if possible