The Chess Thread!

[trying-to-speedcube...]

Italian opening FTW. Oh, and I hate Sicillian. So whenever someone plays it against me, I just make it closed Sicillian with c4. It's actually really good. lol

Then at least play 2. Nc3. 2. c4 doesn't do anything to develop your pieces, and it locks up your c-bishop.

 

[denhil]

I can play chess. But i am not patient at all!!

 

[Death_Note]

Rossolimo (sicillian) > Ruy López > Everything

 

[Stini]

Italian opening FTW. Oh, and I hate Sicillian. So whenever someone plays it against me, I just make it closed Sicillian with c4. It's actually really good. lol

Then at least play 2. Nc3. 2. c4 doesn't do anything to develop your pieces, and it locks up your c-bishop.

2.c4 is completely playable (controls the centre, bishop will be developed to g2 and the closed nature of the position allows a slower way to develop pieces), it transposes to the English Opening 1.c4 c5 2.e4. Sure that is not the main line, but move order doesn't matter that much in the English and white probably goes for the Botvinnik setup (c4, d3, e4, g3, Bg2, Nc3, Nge2, 0-0), which is really common way to develop for both colors in the English.

Personally I also prefer 2.Nc3 against the Sicilian and I usually play the Closed variation with 6.Be3 (1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.d3 d6 6.Be3), which often leads to nice attacks on the king side. Many of my games have followed like 6...e6 7.Qd2 Nge7 8.Bh6 0-0 9.h4 and if black plays carelessly, the threat of h5 followed by hxg6 and exchange of the bishops opens the h-file and queen goes to h6 supported by the rook.

I have played chess for over 10 years more or less actively. I have won Finnish Championship twice at the junior level and my ratings hovers around 2000. I was actually introduced to cubing by chess players.

My advice to beginners is to ignore opening theory, unless you really enjoy studying it.

 

[Rinfiyks]

My favourite opening variation is this:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 a6
4. Bxc6 dxc6
5. O-O Bg4
6. h3 h5
If white takes the bishop, he must weaken his kingside to avoid any lethal rook+queen mates down the H file.

 

[Mr Cubism]

I have studied the opening moves in "The Queen´s Gambit" a little.

First one is a trap:

The second too (but I made a misstake with the gif; the black Queen cloned itselfs )

The rests are Queen´s Gambit openings between to chess computers, hard level:

I hope gif animations work.....

 

[JTW2007]

I just make it closed Sicillian with c4. It's actually really good. lol

That doesn't necessarily have to go into the main closed Sicilian line. It's possible for it to end up in a Maróczy bind from the Sicilian Dragon.

 

[ariasamie]

Hi all
I'm almost a beginner, but I have just decided to start chess professionally.
Where can I learn chess from medium to advanced without going to chess clubs?
Is it good to learn all of it only on the internet?
what website or youtube channel do you suggest to me?
thank you.

 

[Feryll]

My favourite opening variation is this:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 a6
4. Bxc6 dxc6
5. O-O Bg4
6. h3 h5
If white takes the bishop, he must weaken his kingside to avoid any lethal rook+queen mates down the H file.

Is it really worth black ending up losing 2 points in material to weaken white's castle? It seems like it could provide great pressure if you actually get some pieces near there, but after the whole exchange you might lose some right to control the center, but then again your queen and black bishop are much more playable than the opponents'.

 

[Stini]

My favourite opening variation is this:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 a6
4. Bxc6 dxc6
5. O-O Bg4
6. h3 h5
If white takes the bishop, he must weaken his kingside to avoid any lethal rook+queen mates down the H file.

Is it really worth black ending up losing 2 points in material to weaken white's castle? It seems like it could provide great pressure if you actually get some pieces near there, but after the whole exchange you might lose some right to control the center, but then again your queen and black bishop are much more playable than the opponents'.

I have played this line several times and white loses if he tries to win material, for example: 7.hxg4 hxg4 8.Nh2 Qh4 and white can't move the knight so Black wins the piece back and still has a great attack. White can only take the bishop if he can protect the h2-knight with another knight on f1, hence White often plays Re1 and Nbd2, threatening to take the bishop (although it's still tricky if black sacrifices an exchange with Rxh2).

 

[Stini]

Hi all
I'm almost a beginner, but I have just decided to start chess professionally.
Where can I learn chess from medium to advanced without going to chess clubs?
Is it good to learn all of it only on the internet?
what website or youtube channel do you suggest to me?
thank you.

My experience is that there is hardly any useful free sites online, maybe http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/ is one of the most useful ones, but it still isn't comparable to actual chess books. So read books instead. There are some nice sites like http://chesstempo.com to practice tactics though and you can improve really fast by only practicing tactics, but if you are an ambitious player, you still need knowledge of other aspects of chess as well.

Btw becoming a professional chess player is extremely difficult, so don't get your hopes too high.

 

[guinepigs rock]

I play chess with my cousin

 

[Mr Cubism]

I played against the computer today and I got very surprised when suddenly the black (computer) did c4xb3 with his pawn and took one of mine. I had no idea that this move is legal...I understand nothing....:confused:

anybody knows about this "case"..?

 

[Stini]

Mr Cubism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_passant

You might also want to check to rules about castling, there are some special cases when it's not allowed such as jumping over a square where the king would be in check. This is probably the most common rule that casual players aren't aware of besides en passant.

 

[whauk]

i play chess on facebook since i saw this thread some days ago...
apparently i am not that bad. i already have 18xx as my rating
and until now i lost no game^^ but i am just about lose like 2 of the running games. well chess is actually really fun for me again.
theres actually a new feature where you can play live versus other players. but i really suck in those fast games and always lose on time.

feel free to challenge me. (moritz karl)

 

[Carrot]

Danish Gambit ftw.. =D I think my score as white with this is 20-1 or something xD

 

[Stini]

I had a great tournament last weekend: http://www.kolumbus.fi/shakkiliitto/tul2010/hsl07t.htm

This was the first time I won the A-group in a weekend tournament. I also beat the highest rated opponent with black pieces: http://athos.mine.nu/game/base19.htm
This is also my best win so far in a long game, I have sure beaten higher rated opponents in faster games.

Also a nice win with my specialty 1.Nc3: http://athos.mine.nu/game/base21.htm

 

[trying-to-speedcube...]

Wow! The e- and f-pawns were just unstoppable! Nice going And that against someone rated so much higher... o_O

 

[Stini]

Wow! The e- and f-pawns were just unstoppable! Nice going And that against someone rated so much higher... o_O

He actually even offered draw on move 28, but I thought my position was better (according to my computer it's equal though ). And I really wanted to see how the ending would turn out, even if I lost, rather than asking myself "what if" later on...

Btw that ending is surprisingly tricky, for example 34...Kg5, 36...c3, 37...c2, 38...e3 and 39...f3 are the only moves for black to win. Any other move on 38th or 39th move would actually lose!

 

[HASH-CUBE]

I also love chess, but still I lose easily, I practice it to try to improve.
I also play with my brother sometimes.

@Mr Cubism: what's this game program called?