Online chess community where you can play chess, learn strategies and tactics, read chess news, see book reviews, find rules & tips, get free downloads, and more! http://www.chess.com/ 2007 Chess.com I recently played a Sicilian Defense where white played a line I rarely see. Probably because black gets a lead in development. White's compensation seems to be getting out of the main line and trading queens. But even without the queens on bo...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/sicilian-sidelineThu, 03 Jul 2008 04:49:28 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/sicilian-sidelineFirstly, the title deserves an explanation. I see frequently enough people abbreviating Bishops of opposite colors, BOOC. This post is about the opposite, Bishops Of the Same COlor, BOSCO. Bosco is also George Constanza's favorite chocolate sa...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/george-costanza-endingSun, 29 Jun 2008 21:56:08 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/george-costanza-endingPeople always say that the value of pieces depends on the position on the board. One of the most dramatic ways a piece changes it's value is when a pawn becomes a passed pawn and creeps closer to it's new life as a queen, or short of getti...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/powerful-passed-pawnThu, 26 Jun 2008 06:12:17 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/powerful-passed-pawnMiniatures (games concluding in less than 25 moves) are often the result of one side leaving the king in the center. Sometimes you can delay castling, but if pawns are exchanged in the center you're better off scooting to safety as quickly as ...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/king-in-the-centerSun, 22 Jun 2008 21:43:25 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/king-in-the-centerThis is a game I played a few months ago and I think it stands as an example of how the outcome of an amateur chess game can never be certain.   http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/amateur-see-sawWed, 18 Jun 2008 21:48:59 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/amateur-see-sawA while back I posted on the thematic Greek Gift sacrifice (Bxh7+). In the games I posted black could have drawn with proper defense but failed to find some difficult moves and lost. I have to more examples now. One where the sacrifice was temptin...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/two-more-greek-giftsSun, 15 Jun 2008 21:15:28 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/two-more-greek-giftsI notice that good players often point out that a position will have weak white or black squares. I understand this a little bit, but I still have questions as to how we know there is a weakness and more importantly when and how can this weakness ...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/weak-whiteblack-squaresThu, 12 Jun 2008 05:32:27 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/weak-whiteblack-squaresSometimes during our games we find an awesome tactical blow to win material or checkmate. We confidently play our masterpiece move only to have it refuted by our opponent or later in analysis. I suspect this happens to players at most (if not all)...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/not-all-tactics-are-made-of-goldSun, 08 Jun 2008 21:04:35 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/not-all-tactics-are-made-of-goldI often see the opinion that 1. e4 is for tactical games and 1. d4 is for slower positional games. It may happen this way more often than not, but to think the choice of the first move completely determines the nature of the game is somewhat naive...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/tactical-adventures-with-1d4Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:48:19 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/tactical-adventures-with-1d4A few months ago I had a post where I gave an example of a knight that was better than a bishop in the middle game, in this post I'll give an example of a knight that is better than a bishop in an endgame. I find these interesting since more o...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/better-minorp-piece-in-the-endgameMon, 02 Jun 2008 06:20:01 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/better-minorp-piece-in-the-endgameIn Part I of this topic I wrote about players who decline the Queen's Gambit incorrectly. This time I'll write about accepting the gambit and trying too hard to hang on to the pawn that black believes he's won. This almost surely puts ...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/amateur-adventures-with-1-d4-part-iiWed, 28 May 2008 21:15:11 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/amateur-adventures-with-1-d4-part-iiAfter playing 1. d4 for many many years, I've noticed a few trends in the wrong way to play with the black pieces. I don't advocate studying a bunch of opening lines for people my level and below, but I do think the process of looking at o...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/amateur-adventures-in-the-queens-gambit-iMon, 26 May 2008 06:14:26 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/amateur-adventures-in-the-queens-gambit-iI have for years played the Queen's Gambit. It's not really a gambit in the sense of giving up material for long term positional advantages so I'm not really a gambit player. But when I have the chance to play the Marshall Gambit, I wi...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/the-marshall-gambitThu, 22 May 2008 01:33:50 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/the-marshall-gambitThe game I'm sharing in this post is one I lost a few months ago. I think I should use this game to overcome some of my positional weakness. My plan of expanding and opening lines on the queenside wasn't just unproductive, it created weakn...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/poor-positional-playMon, 19 May 2008 04:09:45 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/poor-positional-playWe all learn fairly quickly that rooks are stronger than bishops and knights. But sometimes in the endgame you can make up for the deficit of the exchange if you have dynamic pawn play. Of course, the objective will be to promote a pawn safely. &n...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/exchange-down-endgamesThu, 15 May 2008 05:46:25 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/exchange-down-endgamesHopefully I don't seem like a broken record regarding king and pawn endings, but all of these examples come from actual games I've played, so it's clear to me that they are frequent and it's important to get them right.   The ...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/king-and-pawn-endings-ivSun, 11 May 2008 21:34:50 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/king-and-pawn-endings-ivI recently posted a couple of my games where I played a rare system for white against the King's Indian defense featuring an early Bg5 with the intent of taking on f6. I have recently decided that I'd like to try something different agains...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/play-the-samisch-for-something-differentThu, 08 May 2008 04:40:48 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/play-the-samisch-for-something-differentMany tactical workbooks and online training sets are full of examples from the games of great masters. But even patzers like me can get into positions where we spot tactical gems. So why not take advantage of these positions to lump ourselves in w...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/more-puzzlersMon, 05 May 2008 05:57:55 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/more-puzzlersAs a 1. d4 player, it's important to have some idea of what's going on in the King's Indian. This means knowing what the pawn structure will look like, where the pieces go, and a general plan for what we're playing for. In the vari...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/counterplay-for-white-in-the-kings-indian-defenseThu, 01 May 2008 06:09:22 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/counterplay-for-white-in-the-kings-indian-defenseI recently completed a wildly tactical game against the French, including a sacrifice of a whole rook to generate an attack on the king. By all rights I could have lost this game on a few different occasions, but it's easy to slip up when your...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/wild-wild-frenchMon, 28 Apr 2008 05:14:59 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/wild-wild-frenchThe previous examples of King and Pawn endings (K&P I, K&P II) have featured fairly straightforward winning positions. In this entry, I'll show some games with a little more subtlety. As a result, there are more mistakes in the game pl...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/king-and-pawn-endings-iiiWed, 23 Apr 2008 21:22:14 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/king-and-pawn-endings-iiiA friend of mine is well known to play the king's gambit and loves open tactical games. I play 1. d4 and do better in a positional game. I typically meet his 1. e4 with the French or Sicilian,  but in this game decided to let him play his...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/kings-gambit-acceptedSun, 20 Apr 2008 21:04:02 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/kings-gambit-acceptedOne of the small pleasures in chess is creating puzzles from our own games. In a way we try to immortalize those moments where our hard work in chess study meets up with the good fortune of fortuitously placed pieces.   Before I get to exampl...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/puzzlersThu, 17 Apr 2008 08:33:18 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/puzzlersIn a previous blog post (K&P Endings I) I looked at trading to a King and Pawn ending where the winning side had an extra pawn and bringing it home to promotion didn't pose a big challenge. Sometimes we can trade pieces into a materially e...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/king-and-pawn-endings-iiMon, 14 Apr 2008 05:18:08 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/king-and-pawn-endings-iiCertain positional features should set off tactical buzzers in your mind. One of these is a king with few or no defensive pieces around him. The king doesn't like to be left alone and can often be dethroned rapidly if none of his friends are h...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/attack-on-the-castled-kingThu, 10 Apr 2008 05:49:32 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/attack-on-the-castled-kingIf you make a mistake in the opening, you have a chance to outplay your opponent in the middle game to make up for it. Mistakes in the middle game can sometimes be overcome in the endgame. But mistakes in the endgame are most often followed by a h...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/king-and-pawn-endingsMon, 07 Apr 2008 06:46:15 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/king-and-pawn-endingsThe Knight's unique movement makes it an ideal piece for double attacks. New players are often introduced to this idea quite rudely when they get their rooks forked with a monarch or perhaps a fork of the king and queen. The simple forks fade ...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/knight-forks-at-the-coffeehouseThu, 03 Apr 2008 05:16:09 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/knight-forks-at-the-coffeehousePretty much all chess players learn early on that rooks are more valuable than minor pieces (knights and bishops). Winning a rook for a minor piece is called winning "the exchange". We learn how to use our knights to fork and we grow to ...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/exchange-sacSun, 30 Mar 2008 14:27:35 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/exchange-sacOne of the thematic sacrifices in chess is called the Greek Gift. This refers to a bishop sacrifice on h7 (or h2 for black) followed by a Ng5+ and bringing the queen to the kingside for a mating attack. Even when the sacrifice is not perfectly sou...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/greek-giftThu, 27 Mar 2008 07:32:34 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/greek-giftI see a lot of forum threads about whether knights or bishops are better. Of course the answer is that it depends on the position. So here I'll share a game where a knight outperforms a bishop by a huge margin.   A couple of positional id...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/the-better-minor-pieceMon, 24 Mar 2008 08:05:17 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/the-better-minor-pieceBy popular demand I am cross posting this from my blog at thebackrank.blogspot.com. Maybe it comes across even better with the nifty replay boards here.     http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/brave-bishopFri, 21 Mar 2008 16:18:18 -0700http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/brave-bishopThis is a game I recently finished here.  Black played a QGA system I'm not familiar with and got a lot of pressure on the d-file. I manage to sneak out of the pressure, but failed to win a piece at the end of the complications. The ensui...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/tactical-meleeTue, 13 Nov 2007 21:49:27 -0800http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/tactical-meleeThis is a game where I played well positionally, failed to find the right way to open the queenside, then missed a tactic from my opponent that ended the game rather quickly. Click the move list to see some short side variations. (I've mixed u...http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/good-position-plus-tactical-oversight--lossThu, 08 Nov 2007 20:34:25 -0800http://blog.chess.com/Loomis/good-position-plus-tactical-oversight--loss