Christmas Time

Leave a Comment / Christmas, Holiday, Tournament /
It is December and Christmas is quickly approaching. I am really looking forward to this Christmas and spending my first Christmas with my wife and also with my family and friends. I have a few chess related things on my Christmas list including Fritz and a few books to add to the bookshelf and review for you!

But before Christmas I am playing in my first tournament for quite some time. I am playing in a local teams tournament so it will be interesting to see how I go after taking such a long break from tournament chess. I think I am playing board one for my team (Although I currently do not have an ACF rating) which may mean I could come up against some strong opponents. After the tournament I am heading straight to a camping holiday with my family for some relaxation, maybe even a few games of chess with my dad. So stay posted for the games from the tournament! I hope you are begining to enjoy the Christmas season.

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Chess variations – Chess960

Leave a Comment / Alice, Chess960, Transfer /
I have always loved different variations of chess. Through school I played hours of Transfer chess.
At my local club I won the Alice tournament which is a variation of chess where you play with two boards. One starts with pieces and one doesn’t. When you move a piece it transfers to the other board on the same coordinate. This makes it tricky to checkmate as you must move pieces from the board without the king to the board with the king to get checkmate. I found that there were many traps though so you had to be really careful in the opening.

Currently I am really enjoying Chess960. It is a simple variation but allows for some very fun games.
Chess960 was created by Bobby Fisher. The game was created by Fisher so that games would be decided more on talent and less on opening theory and memorisation. I have been playing a few blitz games on chesscube as they allow you to play the variation Chess960. So far I have been quite successful, scoring a few wins with my best win against a 2000 rated player.

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London Chess Classic

Leave a Comment / David Howell, London Chess Classic, Magnus Carlsen, Ruy Lopez /
The London Chess Classic has begun. It is a great line up with the 4 top rated players present. Should be a swell tournament. It is a very similar tournament to the Tal Memorial with 5 of the players being involved in both tournaments. One difference with this tournament is that there are only 9 players not 10 allowing each player to have one day free to provide commentary on their opponents matches (I like this idea!). Round 1 has been and gone with draws for everyone except Carlsen verse Howell where Carlsen won with a great game leaving him the leader after the first round.

 

 


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Blitz Game

Leave a Comment / Blitz, Fork, Queens Gambit - Semi Slav /
In this game I overlooked a few moves by my opponent that weakened my position but managed to find a strong attack to finish the game. The opening is a variation of the Queens Gambit – Semi Slav.

 

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