English Chess Forum

Any endgame gurus care to offer a view on Van Wely vs Carlsen (move 35?). The traditional patzer view of opposite coloured Bs would say a draw, despite Carlsen's two extra (doubled a-) pawns.. but interested to hear what the cognoscenti think. Not much of an endgame guru here, but I'd bet on a blac...

A few 'grandmaster draws' appearing in the top section, inc a predictable one to secure 1st place for Aronian. Am I right that if Carlsen beats Van Wely then he would get 2nd on his own? Here's hoping that will mean that game is actually 'live' right to the end. Yeah, a win would put Carlsen 2nd on...

The problem as I see it is this. My performance last year was inconsistent, I did well in my club and badly outside. Using the current dating system my club games have been virtually ignored. So this means that despite me performing at an average of 147 through 30 games I have had 15 games at an ave...

I have not lost playing for Sidmouth since May 2009, a streak that includes 8 whole games. I haven't lost a graded game at Sidmouth since November 2010, I'm not sure how many games this involves, but it's not many. Added to this I have not lost a game as black outside of a congress since May 2010, f...

Interestingly, its counting club games which take place over the whole season as taking place on the first of October. This means that if you don't play enough games in a season you may have results from a congress played in November of last season counted rather than a club game played in May. I m...

Wow, it certainly has improved massively. :P Interestingly, its counting club games which take place over the whole season as taking place on the first of October. This means that if you don't play enough games in a season you may have results from a congress played in November of last season counte...

Round 8 - the highest board for an English GM is 5 and it is Flear. GMs D. Howell and K. Arkell are languishing on boards 16 & 17. http://www.hastingschess.com/2012/SMWSite/rnd07/ranking.html That was a shock when I looked at the results. Any English (or UK) success stories? With his win today a ce...

Good to see Nigel get some pts, also McShane doing awesomely.

I'm not anti draw, but I imagine the low number of draws will be pleasing to people who care about such things.

This season, only 1 of my games has been deemed worthy(!) of publication (Fortunately a victory, the first time I've had a victory published). I am pleased to report they (chessdevon) seem to have reproduced the game accurately, however my name has been somewhat misspelt. Maybe if I keep quiet, I wo...

John Upham wrote: The home player was going to be playing on board six but the home club took the chance to strengthen their team by shuffing their boards downwards!

Adding insult to injury.

I suspect that only 4 of the 15(or 16) games I have played between sep and dec will be counted as most of the games I play are in an all plays all season long tournament (unless the grader for my club is sending the results in halfway through the season, which I doubt, tho I will be asking him, of c...

Is it just me or has this forum lost it's sanity of late?

10/20, I can still play chess.

I got one question wrong because I couldn't tell the difference between rank and file.

On the subject of tactics I would recommend www.chesstempo.com

Ouch, Nicky! :) If it is any comfort, pretty much everybody here has similarly horrible games lurking in their scorebooks from their earliest days :wink: earliest days, later days and nowadays. :oops: My advise would be to pick a system as white rather than try and compete with players in their fav...