davidetal's Blog

 

Ratings and History

Submitted by davidetal on Sun Jun 21, 2009 7:00pm.

The dark science of ratings is beyond my mathematical ken, so why we end up with ratings like 1430 or 1683 or 2700 I have no idea. However, there does seem an excellent correlation between rating and historical strength.  Thus, a player with a... Read more »

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Daily Puzzle suggestion

Submitted by davidetal on Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:33pm.

This position arose in the "Cheers! Vote Chess Cafe" versus "The Learning Group". The solution has one variation from the game, to correct a best-play option I think Black missed (though it only delays the inevitable).   Read more »

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Fun when counter-attack works...

Submitted by davidetal on Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:16pm.

By fighting back in this Blitz game, I managed to turn a loss into a win. Not always polite to post wins but, for me at my level, it was nice counter-attack. The diagram starts around when I get into trouble, my BDG opening having been dealt with ... Read more »

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You can feel it, but can't see it

Submitted by davidetal on Tue Sep 23, 2008 5:51pm.

Sometimes your intuition just yells at you about a situation: there is a combination here, so find it!!! So you turn on the brain and look and look... In this Blitz game -5/5 - I spent 3 minutes looking for the right response to his 8 h3. My intu... Read more »

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Blitz swindle

Submitted by davidetal on Sun Aug 24, 2008 5:01pm.

Swindles - which I understand to mean, extracting a win from a lost position - are fun, if you are the swindler. Though in this case my opponent enjoyed it too - there were several 'lols' in the comment box:) This was a 10m game, played in Livec... Read more »

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A Ruy Lopez trap

Submitted by davidetal on Mon Feb 18, 2008 3:22pm.

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