Tuesday, May 10, 2005
The Games We Play II
Progress in play
I took a little hiatus and got down to serious game-playing. Again (see my earlier post).
Following the advice of an old colleague I started to use the Dutch Wall Defense (Opening/ECO code A80-A99) and a wonderful strategy with black - the Queen's Gambit Declined, Ragozin/Westphalia Variation (D38: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 Bb4 5.Bg5 dxc4).
I've now given up on the Scandinavian Defense (B01) and all the Indian variations (E10-E99) where the pieces seem to be "all over the board" (excuse my pun) but the Catalan (E00-E09) which shares a few qualities with the QGD Ragozin has started to become a favorite, more or less forced upon me by aggressive opponents that I've played against online.
Global Chess Challenge in Minneapolis
The GCC is supposed to take place on May 18-22. It seems like the hotels are overcrowded already. 1.400 people have already signed up! Maybe because of the sweet little sum of $500.000 in prize money. Among the contestants are contemporary stars like: Alexander Beliavsky, Joel Benjamin, Pentala Harikrishna, Gata Kamsky and Hikaru Nakamura...
Great chess resources can be found here:
Chess Archeology (with old PGN recordings of classic games and openings)
Chess Base (online Chess bulletin with emphasis on tactics)
Chess Corner (with a few hints and lessons for beginners)
Chessgames (a wonderful selection of recorded old games and listings by player)
For Swedes:
Swedish Chess site I
Swedish Chess site II
Swedish Chess site III
I took a little hiatus and got down to serious game-playing. Again (see my earlier post).
Following the advice of an old colleague I started to use the Dutch Wall Defense (Opening/ECO code A80-A99) and a wonderful strategy with black - the Queen's Gambit Declined, Ragozin/Westphalia Variation (D38: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 Bb4 5.Bg5 dxc4).
I've now given up on the Scandinavian Defense (B01) and all the Indian variations (E10-E99) where the pieces seem to be "all over the board" (excuse my pun) but the Catalan (E00-E09) which shares a few qualities with the QGD Ragozin has started to become a favorite, more or less forced upon me by aggressive opponents that I've played against online.
Global Chess Challenge in Minneapolis
The GCC is supposed to take place on May 18-22. It seems like the hotels are overcrowded already. 1.400 people have already signed up! Maybe because of the sweet little sum of $500.000 in prize money. Among the contestants are contemporary stars like: Alexander Beliavsky, Joel Benjamin, Pentala Harikrishna, Gata Kamsky and Hikaru Nakamura...
Great chess resources can be found here:
Chess Archeology (with old PGN recordings of classic games and openings)
Chess Base (online Chess bulletin with emphasis on tactics)
Chess Corner (with a few hints and lessons for beginners)
Chessgames (a wonderful selection of recorded old games and listings by player)
For Swedes:
Swedish Chess site I
Swedish Chess site II
Swedish Chess site III
