Mark Weeks has finished his fifth and final article comparing and contrasting online play sites: http://chess.about.com/library/weekly/aa04a24.htm I found his assessment fairly balanced, although the services were often judged on the basis of the java clients - eg FICS was judged overly harshly on the basis of JavaBoard, whereas if Weeks had downloaded and tried a graphical interface perhaps he...

Can Shirov finally score a full point from Kasparov today.A pawn up at this point.Is it going to be enough to score the full point?Rooting for you Shirov.

I am curious if any one knows why the move sequence 1.e4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Qf3 is called the Goldman (Spielmann) variation of the Caro-Kann? I cannot find any references to Spielmann (or Goldman, for that matter) having ever played it. The earliest game I have is Smyslov-Flohr, 1950.

Does anyone have any suggestions for books with as many of the following features as possible? 1. Aimed at kids or beginners - every or almost every move annotated 2. Kingside attack, short games 3. Starts with 1. e4 e5 (like 90% of scholastic games)

See, here I was sailing away on the Spanish main when this John Mcnab fellow comes up to me & sez Capt. Micky - "I honourably request the relievement of your command". Sez I to him, over my dead body squire, devil take the hindemost & your wife is sharkfood too, whereapon upstart John attempted a blow upon my person. Luckily one of my loyal Pole\Russki\Latvian men deflected the blow & the...

Dear Group, In my continuing effort to improve my chess game, I've started to look at several chess books. Sometimes I get an answer right away. Other times it takes me a second look. Other times I just don't get it. I don't want to dismiss a problem that I don't get out of hand. There has to be some way of getting at least a little bit back by looking at the solution. Or may be even looking...

Dear Group, I have a chess clock that has a wooden case. It isn't one that can easily be taken apart. Where do I go to repair it? Tushar Mithaiwala

GM Seirawan To Visit WorldChessNetwork.com SCOTTSDALE, AZ -- February 24, 2004 -- Four time U.S. Champion and International Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan will visit WorldChessNetwork.com (WCN) this Saturday, February 28 & Sunday, February 29 from 1:00 - 3:00 Eastern to perform a Lecture, play members of the audience, and answer questions regarding his prestigious chess career. Seirawan, 43,...

You think the organizers of this tournament was happy with this result? This wasn't just a draw. It was an obnoxious draw. EZoto

I hope this doesn't sound too gauche, but what was wrong with Tal's hand? I notice that the deformed hand rarely shows up in photographs - was Tal shy about it? Alan

Dan deserves a journalists award for some of the clearest instructional writing on chess that appears on any website or in any book. It's always beautifully presented, logical, full of depth but perfectly understandable. His clarity should be a lesson to all writers on chess. If you haven't read his recent column it's a www.chesscafe.com. And no I don't have stock in the Dan Heisman company...

I have made a proposal that the USCF rate the Olympiads. One purpose of this is to bring very active top level players into the USCF rating system and to encourage them to come here to compete. My question is how much time and effort would be required to do this. Assuming that 120 men's teams of 4 contest the Olympiad and each team plays 14 rounds, that means that there will be 3360 men's games...

Does anyone know if Chronos chess clocks have modes for say 5 minute with 2 seconds added for each move? I've been trying to read/find some literature and cannot tell for sure. TIA -- Bobby C. Proper reply address is without the text -REMOVE-

http://www.chesscafe.com/heisman/heisman.htm One of the best and most helpful articles on openings I've ever seen. Well done!

would like to find someone or person male or female to play chess with me by email. I`m a beginner and need practice etc. can anyone out there help me? email me at thank you

(My apologies if this is old news) It has been announced that Victor Korchnoy will participate in this year's Québec Open, to be held in Montréal July 17-25. There will be a "Meet the GMs" evening and Korchnoy will play a 25 board simul. This event usually attracts over 300 players and is held in one of the most beautiful cities in N. America. It is held during, and sponsored by, the world...

I think Repa is a loudmouth idiot who thinks he is better than anyone else! Screw him...he is the kinda guy that plays internet chess using a cpu to make his moves!!

As some of you will agree ( I am not sure if anybody can disagree) that the a given chess position looks entirely different from the 2 different sides of the board. I find this to be really fascinating, which gives rise to lots of questions. This has been discussed before in this forum, in case of openings, where it was generally agreed that a White player studies the opening he wants to play...

Lev Khariton's statement: "the difference between Kasparov and Fischer is that Bobby does not put himself on top of all those who had contributed to the progress of the game before him." To this John Macnab very reasonably reponds: "This is silly. No one could consider Fischer's status in 1964 to be anything like Kasparov's in 2004."

I have enjoyed reading and writing here for several years. Many of the "characters" have added some fun and interest to my chess. I particularly have enjoyed thoughtful posters with a sense of humour, whether I agree with them or not. This week, however, "Michael Adams" has chosen to express his frustration with me by writing a "joke" involving threatened rape and murder of my wife and...