And Then There Was Chess...

THIS WEBLOG HAS MOVED...

2007-01-12T09:34:00.000+01:00

and though i will let it remain, it will be no longer in use. I am now residing at WordPress. Please update your sidebars and or feedreaders for future reference, because i am currently on hiatus.

I've had it with this crap!

2006-12-17T09:03:00.000+01:00

I don't get it... I really don't have a clue what the f.ck causes the images i upload to keep on disappearing. I've put in quite a bit of work on the previous post in memory of Bronstein, creating diagrams and sh.t and they're all gone. I've been browsing through blogger's support pages (more then once) trying to find an answer, but i did not get any wiser. Only more frustrated. So frustrated i've decided to set up shop over at WordPress instead. Anyone who was interested in keeping up with my chess life should update my link on their sidebar with the following link: The Chess Of Edwin ‘dutchdefence’ Meyer. And for anyone who is interested in keeping up with my chess life, you should add it. Otherwise it is adios amigos, goodbye, au revoir, bonjour or whatever. It was fun while it lasted, but i've had it with this crap!

P.S. It will probably take some time for me to set up shop (and get accustomed to) over at WordPress, so bare with me.

This blog will be accesible at all times.

Update; If i'm correct, i've got the RSS feed set up (this is also in reply to Phorku's comment). I believe this is the feed for my entries. But you should check out the bottom of my new blog because you also got a feed for comments. I'm not really sure what's what yet. Try it out and let me know if it works.

In memory of David Ionovich Bronstein

2006-12-16T08:15:00.001+01:00

i bring to you the commented game i promised. The game to go along with this post. And what better way is there to remember him by, then to go over one of his beautifull games. A game that took place at the Amsterdam (the city i was born and raised) Interzonal in 1964 (i wasn't born yet then). In this game, Bronstein plays with the Black pieces against an Argentinian master by the name of Alberto Foguelman (this should be particularly interesting to those who play the QGA as Black).

[Event "Interzonal, Amsterdam 1964"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "A Foguelman"]
[Black "Bronstein David"]
[ECO "D25"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4

{Bronstein plays a Queen's Gambit Accepted which at the time was not a particularly popular opening. But Bronstein was never a slave to fashion and played exactly what he wanted to and he had many original ideas.} 3. Nf3 {One of the main lines.} Nf6 {Sensible move. Prevents White from playing his pawn up to e4 and claim the center.} 4. e3

{Attacking the pawn on c4 (see variation for what happens when Black tries to hold on to the pawn by playing b5).} Bg4

{An old favourite of Alekhine. It should be noted that this move comes with a slight drawback, namely the weakening of the b7 pawn.} [Black tries to hold on to the c4 pawn; 4... b5 5. a4 c6 6. axb5 cxb5 7. b3 cxb3 8. Bxb5+] 5. Bxc4 e6 6. Qb3 {A slightly controversial move, but if there's any move that will take advantage of Black's opening play, Qb3 will be it. Because the White Queen attacks b7. But it's here that Black gets to put his opening idea into
practice. And that is the sacrifice of the b-pawn to get active play.} 6... Bxf3 {Black seeks to ruin White's Kingside} 7. gxf3 c5

{Undermining White's center. And having come this far, White must certainly take on b7 as White's center is about to disintegrate, unless White takes the pawn on b7.} 8. Qxb7 Nbd7 {Now it's time that White starts asking himself questions, like what is going on in this position. There's no obvious move as such, but he certainly should start asking himself what alternative do i have, and what are Black's threats in this position. And Foguelman probably determined that Black threatens to take on d4, thereby reducing White's pawn structure to ruble. But he doesn't quite appreciate that Black has serious attacking chances on the Kingside in this position. And Foguelman continued with} 9. dxc5 {Andrew Martin think's 9. Rg1 would be more apropriate, because the text move only speeds up Black's development.} 9... Bxc5 10. f4 O-O 11. O-O {Andrew Martin thinks this is too risky and prefers 11.Nc3 as a waiting event, or perhaps to play Queen to g2 (probably the best move of all). And with the Queen closeby to the Kingside, white can consider castling. Even perhaps consider playing Rg1. But if you play that move, ofcourse you then gonna have to worry about where to put your King. But to castle in this position seems incredibly risky because of Black's next excellent reply. Which White probably completely missed.} 11... Nd5

{Cutting the Queen off from the defense of her King. At first sight, it doesn't look as if that move is actually completely playable, because what is to stop White from actually taking the Knight (see variation for what happens then).} 12. Rd1 [White takes the Knight; 12. Bxd5 Rb8 13. Qa6 (13. Qc6 Rb6 14. Qa4 exd5) 13... exd5} 12... Rb8 13. Qc6 Qh4

{A very powerfull move according to A. Martin, sacrificing the Knight on d7 and a move which A. Martin think's Foguelman completely underestimated. He simply didn't appreciate a few moves ago, that his Queen was needed for the defense of his King.} 14. Nc3 {Desperately trying to get his pieces out (see variation for what happens when Queen takes Knight).} [Queen takes Knight; 14. Qxd7 Qg4+] 14... Rb6 15. Qxd7 Nxf4

{A brilliant but also very logical move by Bronstein. Because with all the White pieces concentrated on the queenside it is actually very important for Black to start action on the kingside while the white king is actually undefended.} 16. Ne2 {White seeks to defend his King but it's much too late for that now (see variation for what happens if White takes the Knight on f4 or plays his Bishop to f1).} [White takes Knight; 16. exf4 Qxf2+ 17. Kh1 Qf3#] [White plays Bishop to f1; 16. Bf1 Qg4+ 17. Kh1 Qf3+ 18. Kg1 e5 19. Ne2 Nxe2+ 20. Bxe2 Rg6+ 21. Kf1 Qh1#] 16... Nh3+ 17. Kg2 Nxf2 18. Rd4 {If Black takes the Rook then pawn takes, Queen takes and perhaps White is holding on. But Bronstein carried on with the attack.} Ng4 19. Rf4 Qxh2+ 20. Kf1 Bxe3 21. Bd5 {Utterly desperate move.} Bxf4

{And White resigned.} *

Now, i really wanted to post this on the day of Bronstein's passing but alas, it didn't work out that way. I did order four of Bronstein's books after i took notice of his death, and got them delivered shortly after. For some reason i just couldn't hold off purchasing them any longer. I got Bronstein On the King's Indian (which i really like to recommend if you're into the KID), Modern Chess Self-Tutor (which seemed to be a very hot purchase shortly after Bronstein died), Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953 (needs no introduction) and finally, Bronstein's Sorcerer's Apprentice. And i'm very happy to have them.

If you're having trouble following the game as i posted it, you can also go over it through your browser here. Hope you enjoy the post. Took me quite a bit of time to get it up. Hope the images will hold...

Test

2006-12-13T07:33:00.000+01:00

When i upload a picture/image, the HTML code for the picture/image looks like this (i left out the opening/closing tags or else i could not show the code),

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-lTbgbDnpJA/RX-fFqCReMI/AAAAAAAAADU/WUdliX2CclY/s1600-h/Smiling+Cat"display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-lTbgbDnpJA/RX-fFqCReMI/AAAAAAAAADU/WUdliX2CclY/s400/Smiling+Cat.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5007896230191265986"

To me it looks weird with all the A's, but i belong to the Dummies club when it comes to HTML. Does this look familiar to anyone when uploading a picture/image?

I am asking this because i have problems with disappearing pictures/images (as you might have read before). Changing templates didn't solve the problem either. I wonder how long this image will last...

Rybka parameters (need a little help here)

2006-12-12T02:41:00.000+01:00

I just started using the Rybka 2.2 32-bit UCI engine through ChessBase 9 and i was wondering about it's parameters. Should i change anything? Or should i just leave the parameters alone? I am wondering about it's ELO rating in particular, because when you look at the default parameters, it is set at 1200. Does that mean it also analyses as a 1200? The Rybka website's instalation instruction doesn't mention anything about it's parameters :-(

Anybody?

Anybody else experiencing problems?

2006-12-11T21:11:00.000+01:00

Is it just me, or are other Blogger users also experiencing problems with uploaded images? Except for the uploaded 'mate in one' wallpapers, none of the images i upload seem to last very long, and all that appears is an empty square with this little red cross in it.

I've made up my mind

2006-12-10T09:08:00.001+01:00

about what to play versus two black openings that annoy me the most when playing 1.e4. Namely the Caro-Kann and the French (who doesn't it annoy?). It has taken me quite some valuable time (which i could've spend a whole lot better) to figure out what i wanted to play, and i'm glad that i have. Because now, i can finally get on with my life ;-)
I will no longer make up my mind and switch back and forth between openings as i have done many times before. This time, i am going to STICK with the choices i made.

What did i play against these annoying openings in the past? Well, versus the Caro-Kann i have played the Classical Variation, the Advance Variation, the Exchange Variation and the Panov-Botvinnik Attack. Of which the latter appealed to me most. And versus the French i have played the Exchange Variation, the Advance Variation and the Winawer Variation. Again, the latter appealed to me most. But only because of a certain game. I even employed the King's Indian Attack versus both openings at some point, and addopted it against everything else Black would throw at me and which i did not like to meet. Like the Pirc, the Robatsch and even the Sicilian. To keep thing's simple, you know? As in play one system against all. But the resulting play just could not appeal to me. No matter how often i played it. I do keep it in mind as a back up though...

Anyway, so what am i playing now? Atleast versus the two openings in question. Well, versus the Caro-Kann, i've decided to play (and stick with) a so-called anti Caro-Kann. Anti Caro-Kann!?

Now why didn't i think of that sooner?

So much for a creative mind :-(

Versus the French, i've decided to play it (and stick with) the Tiviakov way. As in the Tarrasch Variation. Ofcourse the Tarrasch can be played a number of ways, but i really like how Tiviakov plays it. He is in fact one of he leading experts as White against the French. You really should check out some of his games.
Anyway, the Tarrasch has actually been recommended to me before, but i guess i was checking out the wrong lines, because it didn't appeal to me. Untill i checked out Tiviakov's way :-)

I've allready played a couple of games using my new chosen systems, and the play finally had an appealing effect to me. More then that even. Check out me versus the Caro, and me versus the French. Don't mind too many of the details as both games were played under blitz conditions.

There's a lesson in all of this

2006-11-30T08:28:00.000+01:00

I think (refering to Kramnik overlooking a mate in one). And the lesson is that you shouldn't rely too much on your patern recognition skillz, because apparently patern recognition skillz is what caused Kramnik to overlook the mate in one. If we have to believe chess player, trainer, editor of the Russian chess magazine "64" Alexander Roshal that is... But who am i to argue with an expert?

Alexander told us that the mating pattern that occurred during the game, with the white queen protected by a knight on f8, is extremely rare in chess. It is not one of the patterns that chess grandmasters automatically have in their repertoire. This was confirmed by a GM commentator in Bonn, who after Kramnik's move did not notice that it was a blunder and started discussing White's options – but not the mate in one. Alexander Roshal assured us that, had the white knight somehow moved to g5 or f6, Kramnik would have seen the mate in micro-seconds. The square h7 would have had a big red light blinking on it, Roshal said, because this kind of mate (or mating threat) occurs quite often in chess, and the mating pattern would be firmly anchored in his mind. With the knight in an unusual position the square remained dark and Kramnik simply did not see the danger. (excerpt taken from this article)

Kramnik's 'mate in one' wallpapers

2006-11-30T08:15:00.000+01:00

Kramnik's allready world famous 'mate in one' wallpapers, desktops, backgrounds or whatever the hell you want to call them, come and get 'em while they're hot ;-)

Here (click on image and save it to your desktop),

and here (same action as above).
They're quite nice if i do say so myself :-)

P.S. If the images are no longer displayed, you can try and obtain them here.

So what do you do to protect your blog?

2006-11-13T06:57:00.000+01:00

After some surfing on the web for more on this blog hijacking trend (because it doesn't end with just the two blogs i mentioned, it really is a trend), i came to find out that you shouldn't expect much help from Blogger's support service (if there even is such a service) in any such case. I guess that means we'll just gonna have to try to keep from being hijacked. I am thinking of periodically backing up my templates (with change). And in case of a hijacking, i can just create a new account and replace the new templates with the backed up ones. Ok, so i'll lose my pagerank. But is that really such a big deal? I also came across this password generating website. Which offers ultra high security passwords :-)
How about using that for a chance of passwords every couple of days or so? Do you think this password generating site is any good?

Oh, and on the subject of chess, i will be posting that Queens Gambit Accepted game from the previous post with commentary anytime soon. I know i said i couldn't in the first place, but i think i'm able to manage after all.

Untill next post!

Basics of Winning Chess - Middlegame Tips 3. Ask yourself questions - The way to choose a move

2006-11-12T08:57:00.000+01:00

It has been quite some time since i watched my last video segment of International Master Andrew Martin's "Basics of Winning Chess" DVD,

but i finally got around to it again.

This time, Andrew Martin deals with the subject of how to choose a move. He starts out by refering back to an earlier advice he handed out, about improving the position of your worst placed piece in case you really (with the emphasis on "really") don't know what to do. I can tell you from personal experience that it is very good advice. Improving the position of my worst placed piece in situations where i really did not know what to do, has taken me out of a number of jams.

But let's get back to the subject Andrew Martin is dealing with in this segment.
How do you choose a move? What sort of thing's should you be thinking about?
Andrew Martin starts of by bringing to your attention a book

(Andrew Martin does not mention the title but my best guess says it's this one)

by C.J.S. Purdy (by which he was impressed himself after having read it) where he recommended asking yourself questions during a game in order to try and organize your thinking (probably old news, but still...). And by doing so, to eventually come around to choosing the right move in any given position. Briefly stated, his series of questions went as follows:

The first question you should ask yourself is a very simple one; Is there an obvious move?
That basicly means that if there is a forced move, just play it. Don't think too long, if it's absolutley forced you just simply gotta play that move and get on with the game. If there's no forced move you gotta ask yourself; What are the candidate moves in this position? What are the alternatives?

At that stage you gotta ask yourself; What are the enemy threats?
Then you gotta try and determine if there's no obvious threat, who has the advantage in the position? How great the advantage is, and where the advantage lies.
The main factors to consider when you try and decide who has the advantage according to Purdy are as follows:

The first thing ofcourse, is material balance. Is one side or the other pieces or pawns up?
Secondly, King safety. The guy with the safer king usually has the advantage due to this factor.
Then we're looking at pawn structure. Who has the better pawn structure? Andrew Martin adds in (dismay?) that a lot of players simply ignore their pawns, who don't worry about isolated pawns, doubled pawns, backward pawns as if it does not seem to matter to them. Assuring you that in a game against a good player, it really does matter.
Finally you should be looking at the relative activity of pieces. Usually the guy with the more active pieces again has the better position.

Andrew Martin points out being fascinated by having read another book by grandmaster Dorfman? Called "The Method in Chess". In which he sets out a similar system. But which was in fact a complete replica of Purdy's ideas, which were devised over 50 years beforehand. Go figure.

Andrew Martin then adds his own two cents by supposing that the final thing you should look for in a position is combination. Do you have a sound or correct combination?
To cut a long story short, Purdy's thought was that by asking yourself these questions, eventually you would arrive at the right move (duh!).

Now, most of the video segment's are accompanied by a examplary game, and so is this one :-)
It's a game between a guy called Foguelman

(supposedly an Argentinian Master, no disrespect intended ofcourse) and the legendary David Bronstein.

The game was played in the Amsterdam Interzonal, 1946. The reason for the choice of game, is that Andrew Martin feels that if Foguelman would have known about Purdy's system, and he asked himself the right questions at the right time in this game, he wouldn't have been facing such a severe defeat.
Anyway, in the game, Foguelman has White and Bronstein has Black (duh!). The opening played, is a "Queen's Gambit Accepted" (this one's for you Blue Devil). Which at the time wasn't very popular according to Andrew Martin, explaining that Bronstein was never a slave to fashion (don't you just hate being one?) and played exactly what he wanted to (he literally played every opening you can think of) and had many original ideas. Adding that there's nothing wrong with the "Queen's Gambit Accepted" as it is nowadays popular in the hands of, for instance, Kasparov or Kramnik (yeah i know, Kasparov is not an active player anymore, but i'm just reciting Andrew Martin's word's) so that says a great deal about the ultimate soundness of this opening. But let's not get into an opening discussion and go over the game instead, and try to put into place the subject discussed.

P.S. The game comes with quite a bit of explanation, making it difficult to post it any other way then just refering to it, which might seem a bit dry. I would if i could. You would have to purchase the DVD if you're interested in the details of the game. Personally, i would say it (the entire DVD) is well worth the money ;-)

Untill next post!

Another hi-jacking

2006-11-10T12:01:00.000+01:00

This time it's Knight Errant Mate in Three who's been jacked.

Viewing the whole board (a recollection)

2006-11-10T06:26:00.000+01:00

Remember when i posted sometime back about viewing the whole board (see here) (and here)? If not, just think of it as another nice little puzzle to solve. I allready gave you the theme. It is up to you to find the answer. Black to move. Mate in 4.

Highlight between brackets to see solution (hat tip Mark's "Chess Training" for providing this nifty solution to include solutions without actually showing them ;-)
[1...h2+ 2.Kxh2 Rb8 3.a6 Rh8+ 4.Kg1 Rh1#]

I'm sorry Quando

2006-11-09T09:13:00.000+01:00

I'm sorry Quando, but i'm gonna have to let you go and take you of my sidebar. For a long time i've been hoping you'ld get thing's straightened out, but the hi-jacking situation of your weblog has stayed the same eversince. It was cool to have you around, and i hope you're on the right track when it comes to improving your game. If you ever get another blog, let me know. I'll make sure to have you on my sidebar in no time. Take care!

My hero speaks. Sadly enough, a bit disheartening. Because deep down inside, i know that he's right.

2006-11-05T05:05:00.000+01:00

What you are about to read is an excerpt taken from a radio interview with Bobby Fischer on a private talk radio station in Iceland. The original recording of the interview, in which Fischer discusses other things as well, can be heard here (as long as it's available).

In chess so much depends on opening theory, so the champions before the last century did not know as much as I do and other players do about opening theory. So if you just brought them back from the dead they wouldn’t do well. They’d get bad openings. You cannot compare the playing strength, you can only talk about natural ability. Memorisation is enormously powerful. Some kid of fourteen today, or even younger, could get an opening advantage against Capablanca, and especially against the players of the previous century, like Morphy and Steinitz. Maybe they would still be able to outplay the young kid of today. Or maybe not, because nowadays when you get the opening advantage not only do you get the opening advantage, you know how to play, they have so many examples of what to do from this position. It is really deadly, and that is why I don’t like chess any more."

Morphy and Capablanca had enormous talent, Steinitz was very great too. Alekhine was great, but I am not a big fan of his. Maybe it’s just my taste. I’ve studied his games a lot, but I much prefer Capablanca and Morphy. Alekhine had a rather heavy style, Capablanca was much more brilliant and talented, he had a real light touch. Everyone I’ve spoken to who saw Capablanca play still speak of him with awe. If you showed him any position he would instantly tell you the right move. When I used to go to the Manhattan Chess Club back in the fifties, I met a lot of old-timers there who knew Capablanca, because he used to come around to the Manhattan club in the forties – before he died in the early forties. They spoke about Capablanca with awe. I have never seen people speak about any chess player like that, before or since.

Capablanca really was fantastic. But even he had his weaknesses, especially when you play over his games with his notes he would make idiotic statements like “I played the rest of the game perfectly.” But then you play through the moves and it is not true at all. But the thing that was great about Capablanca was that he really spoke his mind, he said what he believed was true, he said what he felt. He wanted to change the rules [of chess] already, back in the twenties, because he said chess was getting played out. He was right. Now chess is completely dead. It is all just memorisation and prearrangement. It’s a terrible game now. Very uncreative. ~ Bobby Fischer

HAT TIP

2006-10-22T11:45:00.001+02:00

For those of you who are concerned about the loss of quality chess blogs i've got a hat tip for you; doggers●schaak. For my english speaking/reading visitors i would like to refer to it as doggers●chess. A personal favourite of mine. It even made it's appearance on the ChessBase website which published an interview with grandmaster John Nunn conducted by the weblog's author Peter Doggers.
Here is what the ChessBase website has to say about it;

Peter Doggers chess blog was launched in February this year. After just seven months it now has around five hundred unique visitors each day. The site offers a wide range of subjects: news, stories, analysis and even articles with streaming video. The highlight so far was the Olympiad 2006 coverage. The author has a rating of 2232. He achieved an IM norm in Amsterdam, 2004, beating then almost GM Daniël Stellwagen in an attractive last round game. The journalist/editor writes his blog in Dutch, and is not planning an English version soon. "But who knows," he says.

Not that I need a ChessBase article to point out the weblog's quality (i was a fan long before that), but i just thought i'd mention it.

Anyway, the ChessBase coverage is somewhat outdated, because not long after the article appeared, the author decided to start publishing in english as well. So, to my english speaking/reading visitors; If you're looking to fill the void others left behind, i can highly recommend doggers●schaak.

Untill next post!

There's a first time for everything

2006-09-27T08:30:00.000+02:00

You probably all know the saying "There's a first time for everything" (yes, another post that doesn't have anything to do with chess improvement). Well today, (or maybe it was yesterday) i showed up on the ChessBookie game leaderboard for the first time :-)

Here's the proof

For those of you who do not know what the game is about, view this earlier post. All current bets are on Kramnik-Topalov World Championship Match. So far i have made 8 bets (5 of them are still running) and got it right 3 times. The winning bets were on who would draw first blood, who would be the round 1 winner, and who would be winning after 4 games. Respective winner in descending order; Kramnik, Kramnik, Kramnik :-) (i'm with Kramnik all the way)

Anyway, my stay on the leaderboard will probably be a short one as i have made some risky recent bets on the match with a lot of chessbucks on the line. I've betted that the round 4 first move would be a 1.e4 by Topalov, i've betted on the round 4 game length (i've predicted 30-39), and i've betted on the round 4 winner (guess who i've betted on).

!

2006-09-15T07:38:00.000+02:00

I've recently switched to Blogger beta and it was brought to my attention that the URL to my RSS-feed might have changed. So if any of my faithfull readers isn't receiving my feed anymore, you might want to change the URL to one of the following;
http://beta.blogger.com/feeds/15994818/posts/full (Atom)
http://beta.blogger.com/feeds/15994818/posts/full?alt=rss (RSS)
http://beta.blogger.com/rsd.g?blogID=15994818 (RSD)

Finished tactics unit 7-11 (module 2)

2006-09-12T21:13:00.000+02:00

Yes. I have been working on PCT. And no. Not as much as i wanted to. But i think i can get back to work on it more actively again. I just finished unit 11 and am a couple of problems into unit 12. The amount of problems presented in each unit, continues to grow as you can see in the image. I started out doing 90 problems per unit, which increased to 135 at unit 8. And now at unit 12, the amount grew to 150. While it may not seem like all that much, lack of activity can make finishing a unit a daunting task. Interesting side note, International Master Attila Turzo also likes using the Personal Chess Trainer software.

Bent Larsen selling 1927 portrait of Capablanca???

2006-09-12T16:12:00.000+02:00

Apparently, legendary GM Bent Larsen is selling an original signed photograph portrait of world champion José Raúl Capablanca on eBay.

The picture is claimed to be the only existing portrait of the world champion from the period when he was challenged by Alexander Alekhine. In fact it was taken on the day before the start of the match. It goes without saying we are talking about a very unique item. An item I personally would like to hold on to. So what's up with that? Is the man in need of money? The starting bid stands at US $22,000 plus $50 shipping costs. At the time of the article which brought the selling to my attention, at ChessBase, you had only five days left to place your bids. Which makes it about three now. Too bad i don't have US $22,000 to spend.

Blogger beta

2006-09-10T11:20:00.000+02:00

I've switched to Blogger beta. It promises all kinds of new stuff. Like customizing the design of your blog.

If only they were able to complete my request.

It goes without saying i've tried more then once. But from the looks of thing's, it seems i'm not going to be pimping my blog today. Anybody else made the switch?

So i got this email...

2006-09-10T06:11:00.000+02:00

from DGT Projects (equipment provider to Vladimir Kramnik), asking me for a link and/or review of their ChessTheatre PGN Viewer & Publisher
. So here you have it. The PGN viewer & publisher requires that you have your own little webspace to upload it to. Webspace should be provided with your Internet connection. My best guess is that uploading it to some free web host will not work, because you need an ftp adress etc. etc. Then again, i'm not that much of a whiz kid when it comes to the Internet, so i can't say for sure if it's really out of the question. If you are more of a whiz kid then i am with time to spare, be my guest and see if you can get it to work on a free webhost. Anyway, it really is a great viewer/publisher for your games. Click the link and see/try it out for yourself.

Now what do i get in return for taking time out and advertise for free?

Question

2006-09-04T11:28:00.000+02:00

Anyone of my readers familiar with this software?

Six World Champions
I have come across it (surfing the web) on a number of occasions and i would like to know your opinion about it. Especially when you have real experience with it. At first glance it looks interesting enough to make me want to purchase it.

ChessVille Free Playing Zone (and an update on what's happening)

2006-08-30T10:36:00.000+02:00

While visiting ChessVille a couple of days ago, it came to my attention that the site offers it's own place to play (live) chess. It seems they had it up in the past and closed it down for whatever reason (atleast that is what i understand from what i've read). And now they've brought it back (i don't know the exact date when, but it was news to me)! The server makes use of Flash, so there are no downloads required. Here's a screenshot.

You're free to try as a guest. And in my opinion, it's a much better place to play then Yahoo! Chess (i still don't understand why it's so popular) who offers a similar kind of playing experience (as in "Flash"). Ofcourse, Yahoo! offers great services. But chess is just not one of them. Anyway, if you want to try it out, click on the link.

Chessville Free Playing Zone
As for me, i am having a difficult time finding time to sit down in front of the computer and continue working on PCT. If i do find the time, i find myself being either too tired (to the point where all i want to do is just lie down and fall asleep), having a serious headache, or trying to manage all of the turn-based correspondence type games i've got going across the web (let's hope practice compensates somewhat for not actually studying). But i hope i soon get the chance to get back to active studuty :-)

So don't take me of your sidebars just yet ;-) Start worrying when i still haven't posted after half a year or so.

Some books i am thinking about purchasing

2006-08-03T07:10:00.000+02:00

- Chess Exam And Training Guide, Igor Khmelnitsky
- Chess for Fun and Chess for Blood, Edward Lasker
- Creative Chess Strategy, Alfonso Romero
- Chess Mazes, Bruce Albertson
- Chess for Zebras, Jonathan Rowson
- Chess Self-improvement, Zenon Franco
- Chess Praxis, A. Nimzowitsch
- My System 21st Century Edition, A. Nimzowitsch
- Judgment and Planning in Chess, Max Euwe
- The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Bronstein & Furstenberg
- The art of planning, Neil McDonald
- How to Reassess Your Chess: The Complete Chess Mastery Course (Exp. 3rd Edition), Jeremy Silman
- The Reassess Your Chess Workbook, Jeremy Silman
- The Art of Logical Thinking, Neil McDonald
- Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953, David Bronstein
- Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played, Irving Chernev
- Understanding Chess Move by Move, John Nunn
- 50 Essential Chess Lessons, Steve Giddins
- Instructive Modern Chess Masterpieces, Igor Stohl
- Alexander Alekhine's Best Games: Algebraic Edition, A. Alekhine
- Pal Benko: My Life, Games and Compositions, Pal Benko, Jeremy Silman
- Super Nezh, Rashid Nezhmetdinov, Alex Pishkin
- The Middlegame - Book One: Static Features, Max Euwe, H. Kramer, Lou Hays
- The Middlegame - Book Two: Dynamic & Subjective Features, Max Euwe, H. Kramer, Lou Hays
- Art of Attack in Chess, Vladimir Vukovic
- Pawn Structure Chess, Andrew Soltis
- Simple Chess, Michael Stean
- The Amateur's Mind, Jeremy Silman
- Winning Chess Brilliancies, Yasser Seirawan
- Winning Chess Endings, Yasser Seirawan

These are some books that i am thinking about purchasing. Are any of my readers familiar with any of these books? Are they good? Are they bad? Are they the "must have" one's? Or if you have any other suggestions (i am allready familiar with the basics), do not hesitate to let me know, because i want to start a small (personal) chess book library. And hopefully even read them someday ;-)

P.S. I am also very interested in books that can be read without a board.

(Note! This post is subject to editing)