Lately I've just been blogging when I analyze one of my own games with interesting results, so posts are fairly sporadic.
As a class player, the master title has always seemed like a distant level of chess ability. I have had a few decent games against masters in my life, but of course I've lost nearly all my games to them. I do have a few draws and the game I'll sho... Read more »
In a recent game I played an opponent well known for his intense opening study. We had played a semi-slav about a month prior and I felt I shouldn't repeat that line having put no effort into learning about the opening we played. So I chose to avo... Read more »
Today I want to share a position where you are challenged to find the winning move. This is from a casual (I take these very seriously!) game I played recently and my failure in this position highlights two of my weaknesses. Also, I later went on ... Read more »
There are lots of familiar and easily assessable positional features -- bad pawns (isolated, doubled, backward), the bishop pair, central occupation, knight outposts, rooks on open files and the 7th rank, king safety -- and there are some that are... Read more »
It's been famously said that chess is 99% tactics. It's also been said that tactics flow naturally from superior positions. In my experience in play below the expert level, quite often a superior position crumbles due to an overlooked tactical blo... Read more »
In a couple of games recently I've had positions that by any positional measure had to be winning for me. Here are two positions where material is even, but everything else seems to be in my favor. White's advantages include a protecte... Read more »
Often when an attack is being mounted there is a tendency to look for decisive moves. And for good reason, forcing moves -- checks, captures, threats of checkmate -- are often the most effective. But sometimes there is no overpowering blow and the... Read more »
One of the fundamental reasons a successful mating attack occurs is that the defense does not have adequate pieces near the king. One of the chess teachers near where I live told me he first noticed in his students games that mating attacks occur ... Read more »
It happens to everybody. You have played a brilliant game and you throw away hours of hard work on one monumentally stupid move. It even famously happened to World Champion Vladimir Kramnik when he allowed a mate in 1 in his match against the comp... Read more »
Every so often we'll see a forum topic here at chess.com along the lines of "hey, my opponent won't stop checking me so that I can finish beating him." The poster seems to think this is unfair, that he's being denied his right to win by a player w... Read more »
Welcome to my blog! In the USCF I am rated 1875.
The content posted here is from my real chess experience, either games I've played or observed. I'll try to put an instructive twist on it. So if you're looking for a glimpse into how a B player thinks about the game, check in and see what I've got. Well, recently my rating has gone over 1800, so perhaps I should list myself as class A instead of class B, but it's not a huge difference.
LoomisUnited States
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