By Coachess
I’m currently playing in the Spring 2019 Tuesday Night Marathon at the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco. We looked at my games from rounds 1 and 2 in previous posts. In this post, we’re going to focus on my game from round 3. I was white against FM Josiah Stearman (currently rated 2387).
Josiah is a strong young master who has won the Tuesday Night Marathon before on multiple occasions, so I was prepared for a tough struggle.
Continue reading “Spring 2019 Tuesday Night Marathon Round 3”
Arthur Conan Doyle
“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
The following sharp position arose in the game Alexei Fedorov vs. Alireza Firouzja, from the 2018 Chess Olympiad.
At first, it seems that white’s knight on g3 is ripe for the taking, and that black has a crushing attack on the g file. As one looks at the position more and more, however, the picture becomes increasingly less rosy for black.
Continue reading “The Process of Elimination”
Never Play f3
GM Ben Finegold
The King’s Indian can be a tough opening for white to meet. Black seeks dynamic counterplay, often with white’s king in the crosshairs. Many of white’s most ambitious tries involve considerable risk of a disaster on the kingside.
The Samisch variation is an interesting attempt to frustrate black’s designs and take the game down a different path. It is characterized by the move 5. f3:
In this Opening Overview, we’re going to take a look at some of the most common ways play can develop from here.
Continue reading “Opening Overview: King’s Indian Samisch”
In my own games, I enjoy experimenting with openings I haven’t tried in the past. Doing so exposes me to new types of positions, and forces me to broaden my arsenal of strategic ideas. It also has the side benefits of making me more difficult to prepare for, and, last but not least, of being fun!
Preparing new openings can be a little disorienting at first. The variations can seem mysterious and difficult to remember if one lacks a solid grasp of what both players are after. To combat this, it can be helpful to start with a quick conceptual overview of the opening with the goal of understanding basic ideas without delving too deeply into detailed analysis.
I recently found myself preparing for a player who meets 1. d4 with the Slav. I wanted to try out the Krause Attack, which is an interesting and ambitious response, but I had never played either side of this line. The Krause Attack is defined by the moves
In this article, I’ll try to give a high-level overview of the Krause Attack. Hopefully you can take it for a spin in your own games!
Continue reading “Opening Overview: Slav Defense Krause Attack”