Posts

Game Analysis by WGM Natalia_Pogonina

Analyzing your games is one of the main ways of improving in chess. During this procedure you will be able to pinpoint your typical mistakes, as well as weaknesses & strengths. Your games are your business card in the world of chess. Each person has their own approach to game analysis. Nevertheless, there are some common traits. When communicating with other chess players, I often learn new interesting ideas. The article offers some of the methods for you to consider. There are two types of analysis – preliminary and deep. The first type is performed right after the game has been played, before the next round. The second one takes place after the end of the tournament. Preliminary analysis After the game has been played, it is useful to discuss it with the opponent. Nowadays this tradition is becoming less popular for a number of reasons. One of the common arguments is “why should I care what the patzer thinks, if I can go home and have the engine

Intermediate Tactics

Image
We will start with a simple looking but intermediate position...Have a look at the position White to play              So my question is  Is Re8 + winning for white ? If not what is the correct way to play ?

Chess & Tactics: Black wins - Middle Level

Image
Look at the part between the Lithuanian and Povilas Lasinskas Yugoslav Jovica Radovanovic played during the traditional Hastings tournament in England. Blacks have posted their pieces towards the enemy king. The Lady and the White Tower are strawberry. Do you see how the dark side win victory? Tip of the day: Solve tactical exercises of the excellent book  The tactical look  : The drive to the combination of Emmanuel Neiman. Povilas Lasinskas 0-1 Jovica Radovanovic, Hastings 2011  Blacks play and win in 3 moves 

How to prepare for a Chess Tournament

If you are a professional tournament player, or very active in chess competitions, you are probably jumping from tournament to tournament so frequently that preparing for a given event involves making sure that you register and show up for it in timely fashion, and then just prepare for each game (pure guessing on my part, I actually don’t know for a fact what the pros do). But if you are like me and only play in 2-3 tournaments a year, being rusty and not adjusted to the tournament setting can seriously affect your play. Here are some suggestions for how average adult players (1500-2400 ELO) can get better prepared for those rare but important chess tournaments: Play some  practice games  online, with slower time controls. With patience, one can nearly always find an opponent for a 15 minute game on ICC. Even better – a couple of training games in an environment similar to the tournament setting (I would guess though that if you don’t play much in tournaments, training games over

Checklist for Maintaining Opening Repertoire in Digital Form

Image
       To improve your chess preparation, you want to keep track of your openings in a digital opening repertoire. I already blogged with an example for creating an opening repertoire in my post titled " Opening Preparation - How to make a Tree ". It can be maintained in various database   packages, with the output being stored as a single game, looking like this (example from SCID): Now I am reviewing my opening preparation and I came up with a checklist for maintaining such a tree: Add diagrams to have at least one diagram per game Cut down lines that I will never play myself Add verbal evaluations and explanations of plans wherever possible Add symbol evaluations wherever possible Add my slow and rapid games for completeness Re-evaluate sharp lines with computer and give them a more definite evaluation Remove lines from the repertoire that I completely stopped playing and will never       play again Keep repertoire games sorted by ECO Search and highligh

Chess Combinations – Watching out for Opponent’s Ideas

Image
An unexamined life is not worth living.                                                                 Yagupov – Radulovic, 2014 White to move. Does White win with Rxg7? Hint: Black may have a defensive counter sacrifice.  Credits -  http:// roman-chess.blogspot.in/ 2014/01/ chess-combinations-watching -out-for.html