Step right up! Welcome to the February 4th, 2011 edition of the chess improvement blog carnival! A couple months ago, Blue Devil Knight suggested a roving carnival post of the best chess blog content on the internet, as determined by the submissions of readers. This is the second show so far. Be sure to check it out on it’s next stop at Blunderprone’s blog, March 4th, 2011, 1 month from today, and be sure to submit your favorite articles here for that event. On with the show!
George Duval presents an awesome game by fellow blogger, and next month’s host, Blunderprone, which helped him win the porstmouth open and gain an enormous pile of rating points. Blunderprone really wipes his opponent off the board here, though I think black could have improved his opening play by not exchanging his d-pawn for white’s c-pawn, and instead ganging up on it as in the Fischer variation with Ba6, and Nc6, Na5. Nonetheless, it’s an impressive victory from a fellow knight! How I won my section at the Porstmouth Open
frank fortune, who won our game submission contest last week and earned a new hardbound copy of Frank Brady’s new biography of Bobby Fischer, “Endgame,” presents the first installment in a series of articles on an interesting line in the Najdorf. It’s an interesting repertoire with key ideas against the ever popular Najdorf Sicilian. The main idea was developed by Nisipeanu, but he offers suggestions of his own to play it with White. The main themes are explained, and it’s definitely worth checking out.
Charlie Vaughan presents an interesting article entitled Do You Have an Opening for Me?, in which he thinks out loud about whether amateurs should study openings, and offers some interesting statistical information about the frequency with which certain openings occur.
Geoff Fergusson, a fellow knight errant, presents a thought provoking article about the 7 circles and the MDLM method involving the classic 1001 tactics collection by fred reinfeld entitled The Reinfeld Experiment.This article presents the preliminary results of an experiment applying the Expanding Repetitions method to Fred Reinfeld’s 1,001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations. The repetition schedule that worked best is the reverse of that used by Michael de la Maza in his 7 Circles programme.
Mark Weeks presents an article from his fantastic blog, Chess for All Ages, on one of the most important theoretical and extremely well known rook and pawn endings books ever written, entitled Levenfish’s Rook Endings. I was happy to see this submission, and Chess for All Ages is consistently one of the most interesting chess blogs on the web, and this post in particular deals with one of my favorite subjects: rook and pawn endings.
The Full English Breakfast is a podcast/blog with witty commentary and coverage of current events and scandals in the chess world. I have to admit that I love this show and wish that they would produce it more often. Episode 6 covers the London Classic as well as some other chess scandals that are whirling around at the moment. I applaud them for being the only journalists that I have seen ask Carlsen directly what exactly is he thinking with his unexpected decision to withdraw from the candidates matches. Highly recommended.
frank fortune presents a tactical buffet for your viewing pleasure here. Three Top Grandmaster positions to solve. Answers are posted in the comments section !”
The blogger formerly known as the Unemployed Fellow wrote this fantastic post recounting a time when he found himself forced to mate with a bishop and knight in a pawnless ending. I was aware of the “W-method” for delivering this mate, and I have also seen the “triangle” method, but I have never been exposed to this “four-square” method, which seems even more straightforward. Hopefully if I’m ever confronted with this ending I will be able to perform as well as he did.
frank fortune presents a tactical smorgasbord of positions arising out of the Sicilian Kan/Taimanov, here “follow the grandmasters with these three attacking tactical positions ! Enjoy. Check comments for questions,hints and answers !”
Dana blogs chess is another high quality blog with frequent posts and great material, and this post demonstrates a win of dana’s at the New Year’s Open using the Bird’s defense to meet the Spanish. My favorite quote from the post: Two moves is the record length of time for an A player to maintain the tension.
lefthandsketch presents The Anatomy of the French Advance, which covers the main conceptual ideas behind that opening for both black and white. I have to admit I am proud of the work I did on this article, though I think I will update it soon to include a critical line for white when faced with 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.a3 c4 7.Nbd2 Na5!, when Sveshnikov recommends 8.Be2, and castling kingside.
Drive home safely! And remember to check out next month’s installment of The Chess Improvement Blog Carnival at Blunderprone’s blog.
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