Phobetor's Blog
Welcome to my blog! This blog mostly contains the more interesting games I played, either over the board in competitions or tournaments, or online on sites like the Internet Chess Club. Usually the game comes with a story about why the game was interesting or what we can learn from that game, and I always add annotations and analysis to the games.
Although I try to check my annotations and analysis of the games with an engine, sometimes an error slips in, so if you think I made a mistake or you don't understand something, just say it! Just reply to the blog post in question, and I'll usually answer the question the same day or within a few days. And of course other feedback is welcome as well!
I also have a series called "Magnificent Puzzles" where I post beautiful chess compositions. These are usually "miniatures" (compositions with only few pieces on the board) with unexpected beautiful solutions. These can be as old as from 1920, and stalemates and underpromotions are not uncommon in these puzzles.
I hope you'll enjoy reading the blog posts, since, well, that's why I write them :)
Submitted by
on Mon Oct 26, 2009 12:52pm.
This is already the 10th blog post in the "Winning with the Berlin Wall" series! I hope I have been able to convince at least some people to change their opinion about this opening. The opening has a bit of a bad name because of its "drawishness" ... Read more »
Submitted by
on Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:39am.
A bit more than a year ago I posted this blog post about a game I played against an IM and won in 17 moves. Today I won another quick game against the same IM, and this time it only took 16 moves to win! However, I should mention that my score aga... Read more »
Submitted by
on Thu Oct 1, 2009 2:09pm.
Below is just a fun game I played today. Besides the annotations to the moves, there's not much else to say about the game other than that it was a tactical mess...
Again, I didn't double-check all my annotations with an engine, so engines may no... Read more »
Submitted by
on Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:01am.
The English opening (1. c4) has always annoyed me as black. Sometimes it leads to 1. d4 positions through transposition, sometimes it can even lead to a Maroczy Bind kind of position, and sometimes it leads to totally original positions not found ... Read more »
Submitted by
on Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:05pm.
This is just a short post on a funny game I played online today. We reached an endgame with Q+R+B each, but with opposite bishops. And what do you do in positions with heavy pieces and opposite-coloured bishops? Yes, you should attack! Make use of... Read more »
Submitted by
on Fri Sep 18, 2009 2:29pm.
For a long time I was a very materialistic player. In the early stages of my "chess career" nearly all of my games were won by the player who won the most material. But also later on, I always preferred a bunch of material over some vague position... Read more »
Submitted by
on Sun Aug 2, 2009 8:36am.
It's been a while since my last blog post. The biggest reason is that I haven't played much chess lately, so there wasn't much to 'blog' about. But not too long ago I played in my first real tournament in months, and although my overall result was... Read more »
Submitted by
on Mon May 11, 2009 6:15am.
Below is the fifth game in the Beating the Najdorf series, and this time I beat a Grandmaster! Again, I used the 6. Bg5 variation, and we followed a long theoretical variation where black sacrifices the queen for three minor pieces. At first, I go... Read more »
Submitted by
on Fri May 8, 2009 9:36am.
After watching a very interesting DVD from Alexei Shirov on the Grunfeld I decided to pick up the Grunfeld again. His clear explanations about his games, but also about the way the opening is supposed to be played (with very dynamic chess, often n... Read more »
Submitted by
on Tue May 5, 2009 11:05am.
It's been a while since my previous blog post, mainly because my enthusiasm for chess dropped to a minimum in the last few weeks, but here's the 9th post in the Berlin Wall series! Again, it's about a game I played online, but this time the title ... Read more »