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Here's what was New at Chessville between
1 January 2008 and 31 March 2008
(3/30) Chess
Psychology - Confronting Change (Part 1):
Psychologist, Master Chess Player and author Amatzia Avni
returns to Chessville's pages, granting yet another look
Inside Avni's Mind. Today Avni
looks at coping with unexpected change during your games.
"Sticking to our normal routine, we
are usually capable of performing on a high level. But when
circumstances change and previous behavior is no longer
appropriate, only a few of us manage to adapt swiftly and
effectively, retaining the same level. In chess, as in other
pursuits, coping with change is crucial to success. I was
reminded of this fact..."
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"As
the title implies, this book contains practical information, stuff you
can put to use immediately in your games. Tips you can read today and
use tomorrow to win more games, improve your rating, and most importantly,
to understand and enjoy your chess even more."
--
from
Chessville's review |
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Amatzia
Avni is an Israeli psychologist. He is a
FIDE
Master in both
game and composition, a former editor of the Israeli magazine
Schahmat and a regular contributor to Chess Monthly.
His recent book "Devious Chess"
was released by Batsford
in 2006. Read
Chessville reviews of two of his earlier works also:
Practical Chess
Psychology: Understanding the Human Factor (2001);
and The
Grandmaster's Mind (2004). |
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 (3/30)
The Whites of Their Eyes:
A fresh perspective on mastering tactics, by Andy Hortillosa.
Chessville is proud to welcome Andres Hortillosa to our community.
Andy is currently the Webmaster and Senior Writer of the
US Military
Chess website. Andy made the All-Army Chess Team ten times,
representing the US as a member of the Armed Forces Chess Team five times at
the NATO Chess Championships. Andy's debut column,
On Mastering Tactics,
offers the philosophy that Andy will use in laying out the essentials of
learning - and mastering - tactics in the coming series of articles that
Andy will be writing. "Only a handful of chess authors truly
understand the best method of mastering tactics. Most authors believe,
as evidenced by the books and software available in the market, that puzzle
exercises and solving them are the best approach to learning tactics.
They could never be so wrong..." |
(3/29)
Reviews - Showdown:
The Complete
Chess Workout - Train Your Brain with 1200 Puzzles! by Richard Palliser
(Everyman, 2007) versus
Chess Gems - 1000
Combinations You Should Know by Igor Sukhin (Mongoose Press, 2007),
both reviewed by Michael Jeffreys.
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"The end of 2007 saw the debut of two
big combination books: The Complete Chess Workout by Richard
Palliser and Chess Gems by Igor Sukhin. While the
British IM Palliser is fairly well known due to having authored several
other chess books such as Starting out: Sicilian Najdorf and
Starting out: The Colle, I had never heard of Igor Sukhin.
However, a quick search of the ChessBase website unearthed some info on the
Russian..." |
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"This is a tough pick. Both books
bring a lot to the table. Basically it comes down to which you prefer,
modern puzzles or “the classics.” Knowing the classics is an important
part of knowing your chess history; I mean, can you really trust a chess
player who has never seen the ending to the Morphy-Duke of Brunswick game!?
That said there is something, as I mentioned above, very cool about playing
through ultra-recent games..." |
(3/29)
Nuestro Círculo #295:
29 de marzo de 2008, dedicado al Maestro húngaro Jozsef Szen que vivió entre
los años 1805 y 1857. Publicamos, además de su biografía, El
aguafiestas 230 y partidas del Torneo Amber, Niza 2008 cuyo virtual ganador
es el maestro Levon Aronian.
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez editado en Argentina en lenguaje
español.
(3/29)
Piece Letter
Identifiers: we've added Arabic, Croatian and Serbian to our
list of alpha-characters used to identify the pieces in algebraic chess
notation, which now includes twenty (20) languages: Arabic, Croatian,
Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian,
Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian,
Spanish and Swedish. Many thanks to
ELMO for sending the Arabic identifiers, and to
Vladan Vidaković for the Serbian & Croation
identifiers. The Piece Letter
Identifiers page is part of the
Chessville Reference Center, which we've also recently revised.
The Chessville Reference Center contains resources for understanding the
chess world.
 (3/26)
Chess Art:
From the gallery of Roger J. Morin we bring you new images of his
work. Visit early and often, as we will be adding new images
periodically. There's also a link to the artist's cyber-gallery,
where you can check out other (non-chess themed) works, most of which
are oil paintings, and many of which are for sale. |
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(3/26)
Instruction & Study Materials:
Another portal page linking together a wide variety of chess instruction and
study materials that you can find here at Chessville to help improve your
game, everything from annotated games to study & playing advice, plus
everything else in-between. Check it out today, and start improving
your chess skills!
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(3/23)
The Chess Reports: Bob Long's
latest creation, brought to you in PDF format each week,
contains a wealth of chess instruction, with a wide variety of subject
matter: "Topics of Coverage: Endgame; Odds and Ends; Openings; Planning;
Psychology; Strategy; Tactics; Traps." Check it out for yourself -
Issue #9 is available for you to download free! |
(3/23)
Kelly's Quotes - Chess Books:
Another fresh batch of quotes about the Royal Game by Kelly Atkins (Kelly's
Quotes.) Here are a couple examples - just to whet your appetite:
"A classic is a book, which people praise and don't read. – Mark Twain"; or
how about: "Whenever my wife complains about my chess book addiction, I
threaten to take up golf! – J. D. Marino"
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(3/23) Review:
How to Play
Chess Like an Animal by NM Brian Wall,
reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "I can understand grown-ups
being excited about the benefits of children learning and playing
chess, but if we’re not careful we’re liable to turn the Royal Game
into a vegetable – “Push your pawns, Abby: chess helps build
strong brains eight ways!” Yuk.
Fortunately, Anthea Carson and Brian Wall [Editor: insert
gratuitous link to Wall's column Going to
the Wall, right here at Chessville!] have made sure to put a
lot of Fun into their How
to Play Chess Like an Animal. That makes a whole lot of
sense, especially from a young kid’s point of view..." |
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(3/23) Photo Report - GM
Duncan Suttles Book Launch: "On March 15, 2007, a book launch
event was held in the Vancouver Bridge Centre, in Vancouver Canada.
Among other events there were a set of tandem (alternating move)
simultaneous displays by Grandmasters Duncan Suttles and Yasser Seirawan.
One such simul pitted the dynamic duo against juniors rated under-1800 (a
hot dog and pop/juice lunch was provided) and later against adults, selected
juniors and juniors who won or drew in the first simultaneous. Later
still a social gathering (business attire) was held, for both chess players
and non-chess players, complete with food..."
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(3/22)
Nuestro Círculo #294:
22 de marzo de 2008, al Maestro inglés Harry Golombek que vivió entre los
años 1911 y 1995. Publicamos, además de su biografía, la segunda parte de
una nota sobre Bobby Fischer, otra titulada "Deleites del Ajedrez" y "Partidas
del torneo Amber - Niza 2008".
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez editado en Argentina en lenguaje
español.
(3/22) New Portal Pages:
You might not have noticed yet, but we're trying to get better organized,
and trying to make it easier to find what you need, while reducing some of
the clutter. Soon we'll have an entirely new look on our home page,
but first we have a series of new pages that draw together links to much of
the material we have here at Chessville. While we still have a couple
of pages to go, we wanted to share the following pages with you:
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Opening Resources:
We have gathered together links to the various opening resources here at
Chessville, and placed them all on this one page. From here you can
branch off into basic opening theory, visit with IM Andrew Martin, or visit
the wild & wonderful world of Unorthodox Chess Openings. There are
lots of other pages here to visit too, so check it out - and enjoy!
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UCO
Opening Resources: UCO stands for Unorthodox Chess Openings;
here at Chessville it stands for fun! As with our
Opening Resources
page we've gathered together links to the various UCO opening resources here
at Chessville, and placed them all on this one page. Check out Clyde
Nakamura's Search for Dragons and Mythical Chess Openings,
or travel with IM-CC Keith Hayward down The Road Not Taken.
There is something interesting behind every click!
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Chess in Art,
Fiction & History:
Another new neighborhood-page here at Chessville, this one combining links
to all of our chess art, chess-themed fiction, and especially our collection
of chess history, including Robert Tuohey's highly respected Past Pawns
column.
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Downloads, Links & Reference:
This time we've gathered links to our various pages
containing free downloads, links to other great chess sites, and a
collection of reference materials, which includes ECO codes,
Alternative Piece Letter Identifiers, Annotation Symbols, and much more.
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Chess Book &Product Reviews:
Links to our review index, recent reviews, introduction to our review
philosophy, and reviews of chess products and web sites, all on one
convenient page.
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News, Editorials
& Interviews: Just as
it sounds - from here you can find all of our pages devoted to news past &
present, interviews including our famous 20-Questions series, and a wide
variety of editorials, including another Chessville favorite - Alekhine's
Parrot.
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(3/16)
An Appreciation of Bobby Fischer:
GM Raymond Keene (Keene On Chess) looks at several of his favorite
Fischer games, including the so-called Game-of-the-Century against
Donald Byrne when Bobby was just 13 years old. Also included:
Lombardy-Fischer, Monte Carlo 1967; Fischer-Unzicker,
Siegen Olympiad 1970; Gligoric-Fischer, Siegen
Olympiad 1970; and Fischer-Najdorf, Siegen Olympiad 1970. |
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(3/16) Review: Chess Rumble by
G. Neri, art by Jesse Joshua Watson,
reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "Eleven year old Marcus is not mad all the time.
It’s not because his Daddy left, or because his younger brothers have
dedicated their lives to driving him crazy.
It’s not because of that fool Latrell hassling him at school.
And it’s certainly not because his sister died a year ago.
If that clueless Ms. Tate, the principal, would only stay out of his way and
let him deal with things. But no, now she’s got him going to the
library to meet with some big guy called CM. Marcus can sure
beat him, too..." |
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(3/16) Going to the Wall:
Chessville is extremely proud to debut a brand new columnist - NM
Brian Wall. In his initial
offering here at Chessville, Brian looks at the recently concluded
match between GM Roman Dzindzichashvili and the strongest chess engine
in the world, Rybka. |
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Brian is also the author of How to Play Chess Like an
Animal, "a magical introduction to Chess with 30 Chess openings
named after animals..." |
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Life Master Brian Douglas Wall was born March 26,
1955, and learned to play chess from his father when he was six years
old. At age 17 he won the Colorado Junior Championship, becoming
a master at age 23. As an adult he scored at least as many
points as the winner in five Colorado State Championships, as well as
six Denver Opens. In 2002 he tied with four GMs for 2ndf place
in the Governor's Cup (South Dakota). |
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 (3/16)
Chess Training: A new "Recon64" Move Prediction Exercise from Jim Mitch
(aka
Professor Chester Nuhmentz.)
This month the exercise is based on
Byrne-Fischer, New York, 1963 -- you may
think there's an error in the exercise or
that White somehow lost on time when you
reach the point where the game suddenly ends
with Black as the declared winner. The
un-played continuation that Bobby Fischer
had calculated began with...
UPDATE: Jim has reworked the
Recon64 exercise and added several new
features: Some of the new features
include having users choose whether they
want to study the moves of White, Black, or
both; a choice of a risk/benefit setting for
the game that affects the number of guesses
per turn and amounts than can be won or lost
per turn; and a re-working of how the page
is formatted and behaves to allow for easier
entry of
 predictions
& investments. Be sure to check it out
today!
Similar to Predict-A-Move and Solitaire-type
chess exercises, Recon64 challenges players to
find candidate moves from games played by
masters. Players are encouraged to search
for several strong candidate moves in each position, and are rewarded as
long as their list of moves includes the move selected by the master during
the game. As an extra twist, players
invest Recon64 dollars on candidate moves based
on how likely they think each move was used in
the original game... |
(3/15)
Nuestro Círculo:
Courtesy of Roberto Pagura, we bring you the entire collection of the first
290 issues of
Nuestro Círculo, including bonus files.
This is a HUGE downloadable zipped file, nearly 22.2 MBs in size.
Inside you'll find a total of 301 files in Word format (.doc).
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(3/15)
Alekhine's Parrot:
Welcome to the
weekly leader of chess events around the world. This
week: |
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Dear Reader, who are you?
Recent analysis of our readership is very interesting.
There is a strong following of Chessville in the USA, and in
Canada, but also throughout...
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Keres & Botvinnik Revisited...
Contemporary importance of chess history.
A public conversation with ex-Chess Life editor Larry Parr and The
Parrot |
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What to Play?
More eye-watering moves from English Players
in the English Defence. Featured Game is Garces-Keene, Lausanne 1977
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(3/15)
Nuestro Círculo #293:
15 de marzo de 2008, dedicado a la ex Campeona Mundial de nacionalidad rusa,
Elisaveta Bykova (1913-1989). Publicamos, además, notas sobre el Torneo
Linares - Morelia 2008 y el Iberoamericano 2008, el Aguafiestas 229 y la
primera parte de una nota sobre Bobby Fischer.
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez editado en Argentina en lenguaje
español.
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(3/14) Chess Art:
From the gallery of Roger J. Morin we bring you images of his
work. Visit early and often, as we will be adding new images
periodically. There's also a link to the artist's cyber-gallery,
where you can check out other (non-chess themed) works, most of which
are oil paintings, and many of which are for sale. |
 |
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(3/9)
Chess Training:
A Sacrificial Lamb - the March Chess Lesson of the Month from
IM Igor Khmelnitsky. "Chess books and software tools
dedicated to the subject of Tactics always have a section devoted to the
advanced passed pawn. In my
Chess Exam Tactics, one of the six Motives I am rating the readers
on is the “Advanced Pass Pawn”.
However, the majority of the examples are usually on the themes (or methods)
that are aimed at getting the passed pawn through.
Eliminating and
deflecting the defender(s) are the most popular ideas.
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For
example, in the diagram on the right: 1.Rxb6 (defense elimination) and
1.Rxd5 (deflection of the defender). Rarely, you will see
examples where the coveted passed pawn is actually given up for some
material or even positional gains: 1.Pc8Q Nxc8 2.Rxd5.
A recent
encounter at the very top level triggered my decision to discuss the
situation where the "golden pawn or pawns" that reached the 7th (2nd)
rank are sacrificed. The examples you will see in this article
are from my lessons. First, let’s take a look at the game that
prompted this article..." |
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 (3/9)
Review: Zugzwang by Ronan
Bennett (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007) reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "Dr. Otto Spethmann, psychoanalyst, has a small practice in St. Petersburg.
On behalf of his patients, he searches for reason amongst their unreason.
Mourning his late wife, Elena, indulging his daughter Catherine, and chiding
his talented, rascally friend Kopelzon, Spethmann would seem to have enough
work as it is, without getting caught up in the dogged Inspector
Lychev’s investigation of two murders, avoiding the ever-present eyes and
ears that report to the secret police’s Colonel Gan, and invoking the
machinations of the rich and powerful man known as “The Mountain.” For
love the good doctor will cross personal and professional boundaries
and find himself in the arms of his intriguing, and married, patient, Anna
Ziatdinov..." |
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(3/9)
Interview:
Chessville plays
20 Questions with
GM Michael Adams. Chessville interviews the famous
English GM,
including some surprise contributions from three Grandmasters, The
English Chess Federation, Chessville's own Forum Members, and a
Cornish Grandmother! See what 'Mickey' has to say about the
value of "wacko" openings, FIDE's handling of the World Championship
cycle, how he spends his preparation time, whom he'd most like to play
chess with from Caisa's storied past, and his advice for aspiring
junior players. All this and much more, as we play 20 Questions
with Michael Adams. |
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