Top Chess Blogs....

This site is ranked # 47 in the World's Top 100 Chess Blogs according to blogshares...

Former World Champion, Grandmaster Susan Polgar ranks my site at # 44 in her "Top 50" of the top chess blogs...

:-)

I haven't publish much chess content lately.  Still, I reckon I should continue to keep it more chess-related.

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Thursday, August 02, 2012

Top 50 chess blogs from around the world according to Blogshares

1. Polgar Chess Daily News and Information
2. ChessVibes
3. Boylston Chess Club Weblog
4. Chess and Strategy
5. Problemas de Ajedrez / Chess Problems
6. Confessions of a chess novice
7. Blunder Prone ... the troubled Knight
8. Robert Pearson's Chess Blog
9. Chess
10. Streatham & Brixton Chess Club
11. Castling Queen Side
12. CHESSBLOG
13. Free Online Chess
14. Chess improvement by effort (hatchoe)
15. Rocky Rook
16. Getting to 2000
17. Gambit - Chess - New York Times Blog
18. Lousy@Chess
19. Chris Brooks
20. Diario de un entrenador
21. PROFESIONAL DEL AJEDREZ
22. chessexpress
23. Scacchierando
24. Liquid Egg Product
25. Gila Chess Blog
26. Patzer’s Corner
27. Drunknknite
28. SPRAGGETT ON CHESS
29. Twitter / uniovi
30. Chess Blog For Girls
31. damanegra.com
32. Ajedrez en Cantabria B
33. The Chess House
34. Chess, Goddess and Everything
35. Chess Strategy
36. ENTREVISTA CON CLAUDIA MUÑOZ ROBLES
37. El Escaque del Chapulin
38. かんふぁたぶるブログ
39. Delaware Chess Blog
40. AxA
41. Chess Manitoba
42. IndianChessNews
43. TOBIN ON CHESS formerly "The CENTRAL OREGON CHESS JOURNAL"
44. Warrior Chess
45. Mike Serovey On Chess
46. The Chess House
47. The Chess Circuit
48. Waldodark
49. Chess news, articles, futuristic chess and events
50. Sporting Clube de Santa Maria da Feira

Posted by Polgar Chess at 8/02/2012 11:28:00 AM

...The Obvious

.....isn't really so obvious to some.  :-/

:-)

...yep.

:-)

Good One...

Every now & then a game gets played that is pretty special. Hmm... I rarely play anymore these days (1 or 2 blitz games/month), so any game I get a chance to play is special. lol

Anyway, here's one against a stronger player containing some interesting motifs, sacrifices, exchange-sac's, and all around crazyness. I haven't checked the moves against the computer yet, so I'm not sure how sound it is. However it's interesting enough that I'm putting the entire game on here....

[Event "ICS blitz match"]
[Date "2011.12.09"]
[Round "-"]
[White "BARRY"]
[Black "Jorka"]
[Result "1-0"]
[TimeControl "0+7"]

1. e4 e5 2. d3 Nc6 3. Nf3 h6 4. g3 Qf6 5. Bg2 a6 6. O-O b6 7. h3 Bb7 8. Nh2
O-O-O 9. Be3 Qe6 10. f4 g5 11. f5 Qe7 12. Ng4 f6 13. Nc3 h5 14. Nd5 Qf7 15.
Nf2 Bd6 16. Bxg5 fxg5 17. f6 Nd4 18. c3 Bxd5 19. exd5 Nf5 20. Ne4 Nxg3 21.
Nxg3 h4 22. Ne4 Bc5+ 23. Nxc5 bxc5 24. Qa4 Kb7 25. Qb3+ Ka7 26. c4 Rb8 27.
Qa3 d6 28. b4 Nxf6 29. b5 Rb6 30. bxa6 Rxa6 31. Qc3 Rb8 32. Rf5 Qg7 33. Qd2
Nh7 34. Qf2 g4 35. Rf7 Qg6 36. Rxc7+ Ka8 37. hxg4 Rf8 38. Qe2 Ng5 39. Rc6
Ra7 40. Qxe5 h3 41. Rxd6 h2+ 42. Kh1 Qg8 43. Rd8+ Rxd8 44. d6+ Rb7 45.
Bxb7+ Kxb7 46. Rb1+ Kc6 47. Rb5 Rxd6 48. Qxc5+ Kd7 49. Rb7+ Ke6 50. Qf5#
{Jorka checkmated} 1-0

Winning on Time...

Here's a win on time... Time controls were -0-7. Zero minutes & just seven seconds to move. Very sloppy game & it's obvious I hadn't played in a long while - I went up big early, then started losing. My opponent gave up some initiative & paid for it - allowing my complications and eventually losing on time. I'm down in this final position but it's very volatile & potentially explosive for Black. My opponent sensed the danger and took too long to move.

Still Pondering....

...what the best move is here.



WHITE to move....

Positional Score

I played this game as Black in Battle Creek last week & was asked by my opponent how I thought the computer (Fritz) would evaluate the current position. Black stood better is what I figured. He disagreed and was curious what Fritz would think. So, here it is....























White is numerically ahead in material (31-29), his pieces are active, influential, and well-placed. This image is after Fritz evaluated at a rate of 1.7 million possible resulting positions. After 20 minutes of thinking, Fritz says Black is winning by almost 2 pawns -+ (1.69).

The computer can't tell us why it thinks that way - we're left to guess. We know it considers material, space, forcing continuations, activity, and numerous other factors in its analysis. Obviously, Black isn't better here because of material. lol

Here's why I think the computer evaluates the position favorably for Black: Despite White's material advantage and activity, I figure Black to be standing better because of White's crippled & weak structure and the semi-open files all around White's somewhat-exposed king. There is a ton of tension in the position and Black's pieces aren't so badly placed to justify a plus score for White.

I suspect any master would glance at this position and say it's a technical win for Black. Trade all the pieces off and Black's pawn structure beats White's (Fritz says Black is up -+1.54 with pawns only). Given reason and statistical odds with all things being equal (meaning both sides of equal strength), the best that White could do here is draw ....theoretically. On the other hand, for Black to convert this advantage into a win is easier said than done. The position is very dynamic. Still.... it's like a ground & pound fight. White's outside passer makes it good chances for both sides. I'll set it up for the computer to play this out a hundred times or so & see which side wins. My guess is that Black wins more than White.

It's encouraging to have correctly evaluated the position as better for Black just as the computer did, but it's difficult to explain exactly how the White side could be so active, ahead in material and yet - still losing the game. This goes along with Kasparov's "material, time, quality" theorem and it's just another part of the fascinating beauty and mystique of chess.