xMenace's Blog

• Positional Sacrifices

  According to Wikipedia there are three basic types of sacrifices: Attack on the King, Development, and Strategic/Positional. The Positional Sacrifice is considered teh most difficult of the three: In a general sense, the aim of all true sacrifices... | Read More

  • xMenace
  • | Jan 7, 2009
  • | 361 views
  • | 7 comments

• Perpetuating a Legacy

  Perpetual checks are not easy to come by, especially for noobs. This was one of my earliest upsets, a 1200 drawing a 1700 is an upset. The game was nothing special. It was actually quite sloppy on both parts, a typical low level game. I remember I... | Read More

  • xMenace
  • | Dec 22, 2008
  • | 298 views
  • | 3 comments

• How to Prepare for a Game

  I'm still not playing at my strength. My chess.com rating is still nowhere near where it should be. I'm not upset. I'm learning and having fun. But I see players weaker than me OTB doing much better than me at Chess.com: - A 1627CFC player with a... | Read More

  • xMenace
  • | Nov 26, 2008
  • | 582 views
  • | 1 comment

• Too many games

  How many games at once is too much? There were a few tourneys I wanted to participate in. We all want to do so much and very few have the patience to wait for the right time. I didn't. There were three thematic tourneys I really wanted to play in... | Read More

  • xMenace
  • | Nov 5, 2008
  • | 316 views
  • | 0 comments

• Finishing

  The hardest game to win is a won game. – Emanuel Lasker Have you ever launched a do or die attack only to have it fizzle out? I certainly have. Here's my latest example. At move 17 I saw a win. I really did! But I goofed. The move I didn't see ... | Read More

  • xMenace
  • | Oct 1, 2008
  • | 300 views
  • | 0 comments

• Your Moment of Glory

  I finally lost my first game after going undefeated for 20! Most of my wins were against far inferior opponents, but that was fine for me. Ten years away makes you a bit rusty. In my 21st game some of this lack of good playing habits caught up wit... | Read More

  • xMenace
  • | Sep 3, 2008
  • | 360 views
  • | 6 comments

• Week 2

  I'm still undefeated! This does not in any way indicate that I'm good; rather it says that players  here, at least in the 1400-1600 range, are overrated compared to the OTB world. I realize that these players probably do not have a library of... | Read More

  • xMenace
  • | Aug 23, 2008
  • | 214 views
  • | 0 comments

• Week 1 at Chess.com

  I didn't join chess.com because I had a burning desire to play chess again. I joined because some online fiends from another forum were playing. They aren't even playing here. They joined 88chess.com, a Bulgarian site. I have no issues with Bulgar... | Read More

  • xMenace
  • | Aug 12, 2008
  • | 253 views
  • | 3 comments