Tag Archives: chess tournaments
Each year a new chess champion is crowned at the US Open, and 2013 will be no different. In the 113th edition of the US Open chess tournament, the matches will be held in Madison, Wisconsin, where chess has been growing in popularity and standing amongst the locals. One player in particular has drawn immense […]
During the last few weeks we have been learning basic tactics. In this post I’m going to change the pace a bit and write a few words on topics that I believe are overlooked in competitive activities. Besides chess I have several other hobbies. Many of these are hobbies that I have dedicated myself to […]
As has been previously mentioned, most tournaments pair you with players of similar ratings. But what exactly IS a rating? What does it mean? How is it tabulated? Can YOU become a Grandmaster? A rating is a 3-4 digit number associated with a player to showcase their playing strength. The higher the number, the better […]
One of the best ways to improve your chess game is by playing at tournaments. It’s also fun and exciting (and from time to time profitable as well)! There are many kinds of chess tournaments one can enter depending on the age and rating (we’ll talk about ratings in a blog in the near future), […]
“The pin” is one of the most powerful tactics you can have in your arsenal of attacks. No, I’m not talking about putting anyone’s shoulders on the ground and there are no 3-counts. Think of chess more as a war game than anything else… and “the pin” is when you’re attacking so heavily that […]
So you’ve played an awesome game and now it’s down to a King and Pawn(s) VS King (and Pawn(s)) endgame! Who will win? How can you figure out the win without making the moves? The answer to both questions is one word: COUNT! When you get down to just pawns, a lot of the time […]
I was originally going to write this article telling you that when you play chess with someone, you should behave as if you were playing chess with yourself. Then I realized this might not work out so well, because when we play chess with ourselves (where we’re playing both sides of the board), we sometimes […]
Now that you know notation, we can start looking at some positions and games and analyzing, etc. In other words, now you can really start to learn to become a better chess player by reading books and blogs and solving puzzles, etc. Let’s look at a few simple checkmates that are standard 1st time player […]
If you’ve ever seen people playing chess in a park somewhere (even if it’s just in a movie like “Searching for Bobby Fisher”… which I might do a movie review of for a blog one day), you’ll notice they are often moving quickly and hitting clocks. When a player is brand new to chess, one […]
If you’ve read my previous post, then you know that studying tactics is one of the most important things you can do to improve your game. In this series, I’m going to go deeper, define, and give examples of some basic tactics. Before we get into the fun stuff, let me first give some required […]
