New idea...

I'm gonna try to post a collection of games which use the 2... e6 in the Sicilian. Gonna try this for a bit, see if my heart is truly into it. Reader be warned. :)

Still here...

I've hit another writers block, sorry.

Possibly the worse chess book written?

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, I read somewhere that this is the worse chess book published. 462 pages it is. I should hunt down some more information about the book, as well as read it one of these days.

Yikes!!! Been too long...

Sorry, I totally lost interest in the bl0g it seems. Hopefully I'll sit down and figure out what to do with the blog, perhaps I'll convert some more chess columns or something... :)

Grand Pacific Open is taking place April 22-25

Here is a link for the website to the Grand Pacific Open. This tournament takes place next Friday and lasts until Sunday. The Grand Pacific Open is BC's largest chess event and this will be the 5th annual tournament! The main event is a 6 round FIDE and CFC rated Swiss with $4250 in prizes. There are also a number of side events which are free if you play in the main event and include a Scholastic tournament, an active tournament, Midnight Blitz with $100 in prizes, and a Bughouse tournament to finish off the weekend. Check it out... I just hope I can get games from the tournament, really.

Something very cool I found last year...

When I was at Ron's Books one day last year (I always go there looking for OOP chess books) I came across the book displayed above. I always enjoy collecting rare books, but what sold me was what was on the pages...



Now I wondered, perhaps this is a rare Bobby Fischer book, as the handwritten notes look similar to his notes (I've seen examples from the Fischer auction, wish I had a lot of cash to buy those books), thing is Fischer wrote in pencil, whereas these notes were written in pen. In any case, it's a killer book, and a shame it's in descriptive notation. One day I should decipher the notes, there really hard to read. Anyhow, I always wanted to post this...

Playing with converting a book from descriptive to algebraic, wanted to see how it looked...

Taken from "The Art of Attack in Chess", pg. 48, written by V. Vukovic, conversion of descriptive to algebraic notation by _Griphin_. The version I own is the Pergammon International Library edition, translated by A.F. Bottrall, the English Translation was edited by P.H. Clarke. I highly recommend getting this book. Maybe one day I'll convert the entire book to algebraic notation from descriptive.

Artificial CastlingChess also contains the term 'artificial castling,' which means that a player creates a position the same as or similar to that reached after genuine castling. It is attained not by a single castling move but a series of moves by the King and the Rook. In the continuation from the following diagram we shall encounter the simplest example of 'artificial castling.'

Black to move, played:
1... Nxe4
White's best would now be 2. Nxe4 d5 3. Bd3 dxe4 4. Bxe4, in which case the prospects would remain even. But before taking the Knight on e4, he decides to use his Bishop to prevent his opponent from castling - a calculation which, in this position, is faulty.

2. Bxf7+ Kxf7 3. Nxe4
At first sight White's plan appears to have succeeded, since, as well as maintaining the material balance, he has prevented Black from castling. But the further play shows that Black can carry out an 'artificial castling' without difficulty and has made a clear gain in that he is left with strong pawns in the centre.

3... d5 4. Ng3 Rf8 5. d3 Kg8
Now the superiority of Black's position is quite obvious, and one can easily appreciate the part played by the 'artifical castling'; Black has admittedly expended three moves on it, but White has derived no advantage from this fact, since he has made three moves of even less value, i.e. Bf7+, Nxe4, and Ng3. In a sense, Black was castling while White was transferring his Knight from c3 to g3.

Still here...

I just got my new computer, so I haven't been posting as much. Now I'm running Windows 7, and I see there's a new chess game that comes with Windows 7, Chess Titans. Here's the Wikipedia writeup about the game. I should start posting in the future.

Now using Labels (Columns)...

Well I just went though all the posts I did to this bl0g, and added labels, which you can view to the left of the bl0g. It makes sense, as it's easier to know what has been posted. Have a good Friday.

Chess Publisher Down, we're now using ChessFlash...

Beats me what happened, so I've switched over to ChessFlash. I actually like the way it looks, but there are a ton of options in the editor that I should look into (I just wish you could change the way the chessboard looks), in any case I'll convert all the games to the new format in the next few days.

I'm still here....

I didn't find much interesting, that's all. Biab.

I missed the Nakamura simul...

Apparently GM Hikaru Nakamura played a simul today in Victoria, BC and I didn't even realize it was on. I wonder how easy it will be to get the games?!?

Trying to post something a day...

As usual, I try to post something of interest to any readers of this bl0g (if anyone actually reads this bl0g), eventually I wanna post more games that I feel will help any viewers of this blog. At the moment, I'm trying to scan in all of The New Chess Player books. Chess Player/New Chess Player will published similar to how the informant books get published. If anything, it's good to have some chess history. In any case, enjoy the bl0g!!!
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/phil

Posting old chess columns from the newspaper, opinions?!?

I was curious if anyone is following the articles I'm posting from the local newspaper (Times-Colonist), I don't think I have to worry about copyright, when I originally E-Mailed the Times Colonist about what I was doing, they never replied so I guess they have no interest. If anyone knows if Ray Kerr is still alive (the person that did the one chess column I know of) and knows how to contact him, please let me know. Also can anyone help me out with dates (when did the chess columns appear?) I know the column was run in 1979/1980, but I don't have exact dates. Oh, I'm also transcribing the games from New Chess Player Issue #1, so be looking for that on the PGN page. Comments?!?
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/phil

Anand vs. Leko, both games drawn today, Anand still leads 2.5-1.5

(Game report courtesy Chessbase.com) Game three, in which Viswanathan Anand has the white pieces, was a somewhat timid draw in 28 moves. In game four he was under pressure from Peter Leko, and was forced to hoover the board of pawns, ending up with a bishop against two bishops. But Anand put his king into a corner square where he could draw with an unusual fortress.

Game report: http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5487

Posting games here...

I was thinking, rather then posting games with random openings, I'll post games which use a certain opening every week. So one week would have games which use the Ruy Lopez, and the next week there would be games which use the French opening. Just a thought.

Mi Test P0st

Testing to see how this bl0g works. I really like it!!!