English Chess Forum

But the Rating and Grading Systems have different objectives. Grading is to give an accurate statement about a player's performance over a year. Rating is to give an idea of current playing strength. I have sometimes flippantly characterised Grading as perfectly accurate and perfectly useless. Rati...

Geoff Chandler wrote:The Alekhine? Better watch out. If one of the top lads plays 1...Nf6
in answer to 1.e4 and wins it will get !!! and re-named after him.

You missed this one then: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1485919

I was wondering what people find the most annoying thing(s) when they are playing a competetive match. Whether it's an individual club match, or a team event. I think this thread is missing a point IMHO fundamental to chess as an amateur sport. In my experience, there are very few reusable skill th...

Mick Norris wrote:Excellent result

You can play through the game here:
http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/chessnews/e ... op-12-2011

or here: http://pb.casaschi.net/iGm4fT

Is there something that annoys you as much as this? Yes, people making list of things that annoy them and pointing the finger to complain. Funny thing is, if I look at my opponents complaining about "distractions" during the game, it happens much more often to the people losing games than to the pe...

AustinElliott wrote:

LozCooper wrote:I'm sure [Gelfand] would be happy if he could have the white side of game 5 prior to Bf5-g4.

So... we should be looking out for a Queen's Gambit, then??!

I think Gelfand will surprise everyone with 1. e4

LozCooper wrote:Round 1 Game 4 tomorrow:

Gelfand (2) v Mamedjarov (1)
Topolov (1) v Kamsky (2)
Grischuk (1.5) v Aronian (1.5)
Kramnik (1.5) v Radjabov (1.5)

Interesting that both players ahead in their match are rated lower than their opponent, hence the prediction of Grishuk and Radjabov winning tomorrow

My old PC has finally given up the ghost and so I have the dreaded task of sorting some vital software for the replacement. First objective is an uncomplicated pgn reader - ideally with an analysis engine attached and hopefully as a free download. My old pgn reader was ideal, if a bit buggy, and ca...

As a keen student of IT, there is no pdf document that cannot be unprotected and distributed illegally. However this doesn't mean that there is no merit in the idea, and that it can't be profitable. It does not necessarily have to be PDF either. You might want to look at what Europe Echecs has on t...

The Spanish one appears to be Jaque and the French one Europe Eches, and the German one Schach. If you consider also non-English magazines, you might want to add to the list the Italian Torre e Cavallo . Like very few other chess magazines, Torre e Cavallo is sold on (selected) newsagents; you can ...

Which is worse - resigning with rather less than good grace, or not resigning at all? Well, there are rules and there's etiquette/politeness. If you can't stand your opponent not resigning in a lost position, you should ask for the rules to be changed. That player does not do anything irregular. I ...

My opponent as White forgot an (obvious) intermediate pawn check on move 11 and got in deep trouble. I liked leaving both Rooks for his Queen to take. 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Bd3 c5 6. c3 Nc6 7. Ne2 cxd4 8. cxd4 f6 9. Nf4 Nxd4 10. Qh5 Ke7 11. Ng6 hxg6 12. Qxh8 Nxe5 13. Bb1 Qc7 14....

That accounts for half of the story, if there's no money for a Kasparov-Shirov match, then you might not organize one. But this does not justify organizing another match Kasparov-Kramnik and accepting it as world championship match. Why not? That's surely got to be better than the champion's not pl...

Well that wasn't cool by any means but it wasn't the result of a deliberate plot was it? I thought it was just down to the fact that nobody would stump up any cash for a Kasparov- Shirov match. That accounts for half of the story, if there's no money for a Kasparov-Shirov match, then you might not ...

What's the legal position here though? Had I resigned, albeit by accident, or had I made the equivalent of an illegal move and was I, technically speaking at least, entitled to restart the clocks and carry on. From the FIDE Handbook , article 5.1b: The game is won by the player whose opponent decla...