Somewhere I heard that youngsters being trained in the art of go are required to learn a number of instructive master games by heart. Perhaps there is a reason for this; knowing some master games by heart might be useful for improving ones go or chess, or it might not. Also one might think that every chess player ought to know something about the history of the game. Which games do you think...

A major update of my chess records page. See http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess/chess.html

Today is my birthday and in the mail I received a copy of "Fischer, Kasparov and Others, The best of CHESSDON and much more", with a signed note inside from Don himself addressed to chess journalists and also another note with terse instructions from my publisher to "savage it as only you can." Of course, I immediately looked in the index and there is an index! This was a better start than the...

My guess is that it's a novelty gone wrong, but it makes for an exciting match!

I've accumulated way too many books and need to get rid of them. I hope to sell them rather than give or throw them away. I have some of the classic Batsford opening books in very nice condition (Dragon, Sozin, Richter-Rauser, Pirc, etc.) as well as dozens of books (mostly from the 90's and 00's in such openings as the French (13 books) Queen's Gambit (19 books: accepted, declined, variants like...

I was looking over some of Botvinnik's games last night and it occurred to me that many of his best games were played during operation Barbarosa when Russia was hanging on by the skin of it's proverbial teeth. How did it happen that during 1940 to 1942,when Russia was under a vicious attack by the Germans, Botvinnik and the boys were playinng some of the masterpiecs of chess? Was there an elite...

Hi, Today I can't login on FICS. I'm wondering if something's wrong with my software or that the server is down. Maybe someone can tell me if he/she can login. Thanks in advance, John.

Now that Topalov is out there is surely a real possibility that Adams will win the final. Do any of you freaks have any opinion on this?? -- Work like the ponies in coalmines. Dance like the teardrop explodes. Love like you're Frank in Blue Velvet. Sing as though your little throat would burst.

Aryeh Davidoff: Lev Khariton is second to none in castigating Ilyumzhinov, Kasparov&Co. Kirsan the Eternal by Lev Khariton Strange things are happening nowadays! Gata Kamsky, the ex-challenger for the World Title made a sudden comeback to chess appearing at the Marshall Chess Club in Manhattan to play in the New York

hi all, in an international chess event, r the players given extra chess board(along with the main board) to plan their moves ? --abs

Two forms of time addback are common in today's tournaments throughout the world. One is non-cumulative addback, also known as "delay", "Adagio", or "Bronstein". The other is cumulative addback, also known as "increment", "Fischer", or "FIDE". Delay is far more common in the USA, while increment is taking hold elsewhere in the world. The standard abbreviations in the TLA section of Chess...

Kasimdzhanov now leads 1.5 - 0.5, but more significantly, he won in a slow grind against Adams who is said to be invincible in this regard! This must have been a terrible psychological blow to Adams! The tournament performance rating of Kasimdzhanov is now slightly higher than Adams', 2758 vs 2740. But there are 4 more regular games to play!

A Yahoo group has been set up to examine the Schliemann Defence to the Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5). Frank Marshall made spectacular use of this line. There are also important games in which the defence was played by Rudolf Spielmann and David Bronstein. The group address is: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/RuyLopezSchliemannDefence/

More than a dozen Russian GMs started (15? 16?) and they've all been knocked out before the semi-finals.

I am worried about FICS. Is it OK or are there troubles afoot? We chess player would sorely miss it but it is a completely volunteer service . Anybody have any news ?

there has been much debate as to who is the best chess player of all time and it seems it almost always comes down to 2: bobby fischer and gary kasparov. setting aside that debate for the moment (just assuming that they are 1 and 2, you pick the order) who would you consider next in line?

Hi, Next week I will be visiting New York for a few days. I heard there are some shops which are specialized in chessbooks. Does anyone know where I can find them? Thanks Wim

(Parrthenon) wrote: Morten Sand was considered one of the REFORMERS in FIDE, an improvement on the likes of a Makropoulos or a Ghobash. Maybe he is. But he is still a snake. How exquisitely low. Larry Parr's personal name-calling against Morten Sand is irrelevant to the facts of the dispute between GM Vadim Milov and FIDE. One notes that he does not dispute FIDE...

Is Nigel Short still the highest rated player in Britain?

A common misconception weak players have is that they are weak and the strong players are strong only because the strong players have memorized more opening book lines. In the game of Scrabble, it is common for strong players to offer weak players "Dictionary Odds". Players who are not good at scrabble are allowed to look up words in the dictionary, which the strong player cannot do. It turns...