This game features one of the greatest Chess tacticians of all time, Mikhail Tal. He plays the Rubinstein Variation of the French Defense. Black takes over the initiative right from the start. White pays for his passive and inaccurate play in 18 m... Read more »
I have mentioned the benefits studying Chess miniatures before. This game features the Danish Gambit where White sacrifices several pawns for rapid development, and then tries to sacrifice a piece which Black declines, and at the end, I could not ... Read more »
Studying miniatures has many benefits. First, almost always, the winner wins quickly because the loser did something (really bad) that s/he should not have done in the opening. Second, related to the first reason, one learns what not to do. Third,... Read more »
After winning 3 games in a row, I knew that maintaining the wins would be very hard as the opponents would get stronger. I also knew it would be fun playing higher rated players. So, the self-talk began. I suspected that the rest of players I woul... Read more »
I went into my 4th game wanting to maintain the momentum I had (gained) after winning both my games the day before. I am looking at the scoresheet to see what I remember about this game, and it appears it was a pretty quick game. We had 6 hours to... Read more »
The first two games featured "Indian Defenses" and I thought they were King's Indian Defenses. GotGoose correctly pointed out that those were Benoni Defenses. The third game was a Benoni. (Which one? Old? Classical? or...?) I am not ... Read more »
After losing the first game with White, I decided to study/review the King's Indian Defense and use it as Black against 1.d4. In the previous couple of tournaments, I had played the Gruenfeld Defense. Going to this tournament, I had not settle... Read more »
Here is my first game in the 17th Annual Chicago Open that I played in over the weekend. I was White, and I lost to a King's Indian Defense that I mishandled at various points. At first, I lost a bunch of tempos - (poor/inconsistent decisions)... Read more »
Over the Memorial Day weekend, I participated in the 17th Annual Chicago Open, that took place at Westin Hotel (Chicago North Shore), Wheeling, IL. It was amazing seeing all the people that play the game. It was bigger than the previous big tourna... Read more »
Here is my 5th and last game of the 2008 Mid-America Open tournament that was played last weekend. At the time, it appeared I was already assured of being in the top two or three. I needed a draw to be an outright winner. I do not know how to play... Read more »
chessiqSteve SMO, United States
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