Drama

NY Times: In a Bitter Lawsuit, Chess Combatants Agree to a Draw: An American grandmaster sued Magnus Carlsen, the world’s top player, and two other parties after Carlsen accused him of cheating. A settlement has been announced.


Queer chess night is popular in Manhattan. (Guardian)


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Premature queen development

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My best friend and I played 5 minute speed chess for hours and hours. I love playing chess.  My father taught me. I remember copying his every move, and then when he took my queen he said, "stupid." That stung, but it was stupid, I'm less afraid of that word now at my age. I'm going to be 56 soon, and I've enjoyed chess my whole life.  Played chess when I did a year abroad at a university chess club, and got excited when I won a game. I had some glorious comeback wins, down two pieces to come back and win. I like my fight.  Got my friend a book that explained why premature queen development wasn't good. I was looking for it on my bookshelf, he gave it back to me when he konmaried his books. I can't find it at the moment, maybe I konmaried it or gave it to my son. I have 3 children and only one likes to play chess.  As a chess tutored, I just play and think aloud with kids. I taught chess at a Yeshiva after school program to kids. Forgot about that, that w
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Principles

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There's that pause when my opponent realizes I took their queen. It really is a good strategy not to get the queen out early, least of all that if you make a mistake the, the cost is less. You put the least valuable players out first. You put pawns to try and get bishops and knights. Development is an important idea, getting locked in is really dangerous. I've had a lot of good checkmates, against me, where I was bottled in out of defensiveness.  There's also balance between being defensive and offensive. I've had some spectacular fun wins being really aggressive. That's a fun game, but a good player can defend themselves well enough to take advantage of aggressive play. Same with defense. Just clearing the back line so you can castle isn't a bad goal, but there's a hierarchy of goals. Sometimes there is no good move, so you make the least bad one. Notice when you're in a loop. You have to value every move, the more efficient player usually wins.   If yo
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