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Greetings! I wanted to start this months article off by telling everyone about an exciting new opportunity for anyone even remotely interested in correspondence chess!

As many of you know or at least suspect, participation in correspondence chess has been shrinking for several years. Thats one of the things the Correspondence Chess Working Group (CCWG) has recently strived to address. One initiative this led to is the creation of a first-of-its-kind US Chess rated correspondence pyramid tournament on Chess.com. It starts on June 1st, 2021 and is open to players of all ages and skill levels. California chess coach and correspondence chess master Chris Torres will be running this tournament.

This event is a pilot program that will be used to gauge the viability and interest in having US Chess rated correspondence tournaments run by US Chess affiliates instead of solely through the US Chess Correspondence Chess Director. The hope of course is that events like this will draw increased participants into US Chess rated correspondence chess (also called Daily Chess on some websites) and US Chess as a whole. Increased participants in correspondence chess would hopefully spur more participants in Golden Knights (and other events) and enable us all to see a wider variety of opponents and not be subjected to that feeling of Aw man, Ive got to play Michael Buss again?! quite so often. [I know many of you know what Im talking about]

For those who might be unfamiliar, the pyramid tournament Chris will be running is an ongoing event similar to a ladder event that many folks will recognize from chess clubs, band experience, etc. The key difference between a pyramid tournament and a ladder event is that in the pyramid tourney the standings are grouped into tiers. For example, maybe tier/level 11 would be the players in places 56-66 in the rankings. Instead of just being able to challenge the person directly ahead of them in the rankings, a person might be able to challenge anyone above them in their tier and maybe a certain X number of tiers above them. That way a person doesnt have to get stuck playing the same person over and over necessarily to advance.

Chris is running this new tournament through his affiliate, Daily Chess Musings, on the Chess.com website. As alluded to earlier, this is the first affiliate-organized US Chess rated correspondence chess tournament.

For more details please check out the following links for the press release (https://dailychessmusings.com/2021/04/23/harnessing-the-power-of-the-pyramid-in-chess/) and the main tournament page (https://dailychessmusings.com/daily-chess-musings-rated-correspondence-pyramid/).

A few final notes. Participants will have to remain members of US Chess and create a Chess.com account. There is a small one-time entry fee to participate with a very small $5 annual renewal fee for every additional year one wants to participate. Please take a moment to check out the site and consider participating!

And now, on to the games!

In our first game, a battle between correspondence chess newcomers, Joydeep Bhattacharyya takes out Gerald MacDonald from the white side of Closed Sicilian. Out of a sideline of this opening, a slugfest begins to develop as Joydeep starts a kingside pawn that, after the pseudo-sacrifice of a pawn at move 23, culminates in a fine and instructive mating attack.

Note - this is also a game from our new/ICCF version of the Victor Palciauskas events, a worthwhile example of the exciting play that can be found there to those willing to throw their hat in the ring.

Young plays well to eliminate his isolated d-pawn, leaving Ellis with an isolated, but passed, d-pawn of his own. After White loses a pawn at move 25, he battles to hold the position despite the ongoing liquidation of forces. Young regains the pawn roughly 20 moves later and, in a complicated queen and minor pieces endgame with apparent chances for both sides, the combatants agree to peacefully coexist.

Thirty-Month Limit and Adjudications

All sections that started prior to July 1, 2018 have been closed out and any games still open in those sections declared drawn per our thirty-month rule. At the end of this month (May), all sections that started prior to August 1, 2018 will be closed out. If you still have an active game going in such an event, you have until the end of the month to request a claim of a win or draw by following the adjudication instructions in the rules. If neither player submits a claim, the games will be declared drawn.

Recent Event Winners

18C07 Scott Sensiba, 5-119C11, Cory Bloch, 5.5-0.5

20W12 Douglas Stewart, 4-221W20 Gregory Hall, 4.5-1.5

19V01 John Walton, 5-1

Oh, last but certainly not least, last month I mentioned Tim Corkum winning the 2018 Electronic Knights championship. I have the results from the Finals section and plan to include those in next months article.

See you then!

Larry

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Check Is In The Mail: May 2021 | US Chess.org - uschess.org

Disclaimer: This post is written by a chess coach and streamer who has not improved at chess in a long time. What does he know?!

Chess is a game of pattern recognition! The more patterns you see, the faster you improve. An exclusive diet of one-minuteor better yet, 30 or 15 secondgames allows you to maximize the patterns you see every day; just punch that seek button and let the power of osmosis drive your chess learning!

You KNOW why you lost that game, why would you need some stupid computer or long-since-past-his-prime chess expert rubbing your face in it. Sure, you were in huge trouble on the board and the clock, but really this game was lost due to a simple one-move blunder. No need to waste time thinking about it. Heck, you've already forgotten the game ever happened.

The surest sign of improvement is winning, and you ALWAYS win against your friends and your co-workers. Like the great Paul Morphy, you are just honing your smashing attacks for the day that you make a world tour and destroy everyone with your patented 1.h4 and 2.Rh3 attacks.

You're paying this guy $50 an hour, and he wants YOU to do all the work?! Endgames, openings, middlegames, master games, manage your clock, etc. etc. etc. Exhausting! What kind of a scam is this!

Really, you just need him to show you a few opening traps and tell you that you are clearly a good player and the wins will come soon enough. Anyway, you don't think you'll be taking too many more lessons; you've done three of these sessions, and your rating is going DOWN!

That king and pawn endgame looked awfully familiar... Didn't you lose exactly like that last month? Must be a coincidence

1.d4, 2.Nf3, 3.e3, 4.Bd3, 5.c3, 6.0-0 for the win! At some point, you'll just sac on h7 or h6, and it'll either work or it won't. Same old, same old

Study some 100-year-old games from Capablanca? What a waste of time! Besides the computer just pokes holes in all those old games anyway. Play, play, play - that's where it's at! Just check out these ideas you are playing for the very first time! ...Rxc3 sacing the exchange in the Sicilian?! What an idea! Nd2-f1-g3-f5 in the Ruy Lopez? Whodathunkit?! Best reinvented wheel ever.

Two hours per game?! Boooooooooooooring! You tried a chess tournament once, and you are damn sure never doing that again! All those old players never would have beat you if you hadn't been falling asleep at the board waiting for them to make a gosh-darned move. Geeez!

You did like that one time Chess.com/analysis said you were "brilliant," but that "blunder" annotation... what a buzzkill. And who is this "Stockfish" saying "missed win"? You won, didn't you?! You didn't miss a darn thing.

Why are all these ignorant chess "masters" even bothering to think for themself anymore?!?! If there's one thing you hate, it's some grandmaster commenting on a chess tournament without a chess engine. Could they BE anymore wrong?! You certainly would never turn off the engine and think for yourself. Heck, you've already been banned from every major chess site for doing just that.

Second Disclaimer: You don't NEED to improve at chess. You can have fun and enjoy the game in any way you like! If you are focused on improvement, maybe be wary of some of these traps.

Liked the post? Subscribe and follow on YouTube and Twitch! Mine is the ONLY stream that will ACTUALLY help you improve #imatotalhypocrite

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How NOT To Improve At Chess - Chess.com

With just a handful of games remaining in the 2021 regular season, the MassMutual East Division is still very much up for grabs, with four teams separated by five points (a number that drops to two points if everyone wins their games in hand on first-place Pittsburgh).

The Division boasts four of the Leagues top eleven teams in terms of points percentage, and its unlikely that anyone has a clear edge in the upcoming two-round divisional playoff. The Capitals, for example, went 6-2-0 on the season against the Islanders, who have gone 5-2-0 against the Bruins, who posted a 5-3-0 record against the Penguins... who were 6-2-0 against the Caps.

By head-to-head results from the regular season, insofar as that matters, each team has one or more concerning match-up and at least one in which theyve fared well.

Of course, come playoff time every match-up is concerning, and those regular season wins along with four dollars will get you a latte at Starbucks. Weve talked a lot in the past about how the playoffs are a different animal, not because the competition is better (though it is) or because the players elevate their game (though they might), but because the amount of time coaching staffs can spend focused on their opponent is so drastically different (especially this year, given the condensed regular-season schedule).

And if youre a fan of the game-within-the-game that takes place between two head coaches, this years playoffs in the East should be a doozy. Lets take a look at the four bench bosses:

Those are some seriously impressive resume. Together, these gentlemen represent one-third of the Jack Adams trophies that have been awarded to active coaches, one-third of the Cup wins, and four of the 11 Presidents Trophies, and theyre not exactly resting on their laurels - heres a look at up-to-the-minute Elo ratings for NHL coaches (explainer here):

And in two weeks, the chess matches will begin. Adjustments and counter-adjustments will be made. Difficult roster decisions will be pored over. Referees will be worked, players will be motivated, media will be placated (or not), and so on. These are four of the best coaches in the business, and theyre about to prove it.

Read the original here:
The Chess Match Ahead in the East - Japers' Rink

The pandemic has been the subject of many articles lately, some of my own included. While I have mostly presented the hardships that came along with it, there have been some positive moments as well. One of these aspects is the one which inspired me to write this article!

I have been playing for many years in the German Bundesliga, since 2009 to be more precise. After having been in Germany so many times, I do understand some of the language and I can even say some basic things. However, I have never seriously studied German and if I listened to German speakers at a dinner party, I could probably catch the subject of the conversation, but not more. However, the pandemic has offered me the chance to do some of the things I have always wanted to, but for which I have never been able to find time. One of those things was studying German, so, some months ago, I joined an online course and since then, three days a week, my mornings start with Deutsch lernen. While typing, I couldnt help thinking "How do I say with in German? Aha - mit - mit always needs to be used with the Dative case"

To be honest, this language fascinates me there are so many things one should consider before saying anything! I remember when I was studying English, I found it difficult to take care of the word order in a sentence, but well, in German it is a whole new level! Articles, prepositions, cases: the word order changes more often than my predilection for one type of shoes or another! It feels like my brain has to run on a few additional CPUs when I speak it, but when I say something right it is such a pleasure!

If you start to wonder how this article relates to chess Im getting to it! Well, it took me a month or so to get used to putting the verb always at the second position in a sentence, even when the sentence did not start with the subject, only to later experience the pleasures of conjunctive sentences, where everything changes drastically! Compared to Romanian or Russian, where one can build a sentence whichever way one pleases, or even to English, where there are some rules, which, however, can be broken occasionally, there is no room for improvising when building a sentence in German everything has to follow a certain order.

This made me think if one is used from an early age to operate on this rigorous order does that somehow transpose to chess? Is a chess player whose first language is German fated to build his or her playing style guided by this order? Lets take a look!

The first player who comes to mind when saying rigorous German style is GM Georg Meier.

Georg Meier | Photo: Grenkechess

He is currently number five in Germany and has been among the top players of the country for many years.

Going through the games of Meier and I think the one which weve just seen is quite typical one might think that there might be something to my assumption regarding the German order. However, lets not rush to conclusions, but rather dig deeper into the matter.

It only feels fair to look at the games of Germanys number one female player (since what seems to me forever): IM Elisabeth Paehtz.

Elisabeth Paehtz | Photo: Pascal Simon

I have played and prepared against Elizabeth many times and the difference between the games of Georg Meier and Elisabeth Paehtz is obvious. I once played against GM Meier and it was more or less clear to me what opening would appear on the board, but when preparing for games against Elizabeth, it often might be more effective to just say a prayer and go to sleep. Jokes aside, when playing against Meier, who usually sticks to his repertoire, the biggest challenge seemed to be to study a line deep enough, whereas things are often highly unpredictable when playing against Elisabeth. I will not argue that one approach is better than the other they are simply entirely different but the first approach relies on building up the game around ones strengths, whereas the second approach tries to find and to exploit the weaknesses of your opponent.

Lets have a look at a typical game to understand Elizabeths style better.

I think that this game characterizes IM Paehtzs playing style very well clever preparation and a very flexible repertoire, a good feeling for dynamics and a good technique. She often changes her approach and improvises

So, I would say this means her style doesnt really go along with my German order theory.

But it still has been very interesting for me to dig into this theory of mine and study games of these two players. Of course, one cant generalize a whole nations chess style based on the rules of their language, but my feeling is that there could be a connection maybe the language you grow up in is not a 100% factor which defines ones style of play, but it might be a factor which influences it to some degree, though there are of course other factors that shape the way you play chess What do you think?

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Mother tongue and chess is there a connection? - Chessbase News

On Wednesday, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi was officially crowned as the winner of the 2020-2021 FIDE Candidates Tournament. Before the ceremony, he answered questions from the media.

The final press conference.

Nepomniachtchi started by thanking his team and said that they deserve perhaps even more congratulations than himself: "They are the part of the iceberg that stays under the water. I am just moving the pieces!"

Earlier, the Russian grandmaster had revealed his team members: the general coach of the Russian Chess Federation GM Vladimir Potkin alongside GM Ildar Khairullin, GM Nikita Vitiugov, and GM Peter Leko.

Nepomniachtchi and Potkin have known each other for 20 years and started working together closely in November 2007. Within a few years, this teamwork started to bear fruit.

"This cooperation improved not only my game but I guess Vlad's game as well because first, it was me who won the European Championship and then him," said Nepomniachtchi, who won that event in 2010 while Potkin took the title in 2011.

Asked whether he would be interested in adding GM Daniil Dubov to his team, he said: "He's a great chess player and a great analyst, but he also worked with Magnus and I wouldn't like to put him into a position to have to make a choice between me and Magnus."

Nepomniachtchi acknowledged that he might have had a bit of home advantage, playing the event in Yekaterinburg: "When I found out that the tournament was going to take place in Yekaterinburg, I felt rather happy. In 2013 I won the Higher League here. Memories of a city are connected to a result you achieved.

"Apart from that, I like the city, I like the Ural, although I live myself in the western part of the country. Of course, this feeling of belonging helps. There's a saying in Russian: 'When you are at home, even the walls around help you,' and I guess this is true."

Asked whether he feels the pressure of bringing back the title to Russia, he replied: "I wouldn't say it's pressure. It's a great responsibility and a great challenge."

Some of Nepomniachtchi's colleagues have already commented on Nepomniachtchi's chances.

Grischuk: "They exist. For most players, they are a bit illusory but for him, they definitely exist. Less than 50 percent but much more than zero."

Caruana: "I think it's gonna be very close because he looks really strong now. Not just in this tournament. Over the past year, he has looked incredibly strong, so I think he's gonna be a very dangerous opponent for Magnus."

Carlsen: "It's very interesting. He's a very, very strong opponent. Somebody who also plays very aggressively and usually gives his opponents chances as well. In that sense, there is every chance there's going to be an exciting match."

Nepomniachtchi now commented himself about his chances: "There is this saying: 'Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.' By all means, it will be a tough match and I'm glad that my chances are assessed as high but I am a realist. I look at it in a realistic way, and I also do not have the tendency to downgrade myself."

Asked what is Carlsen's biggest weakness, he said: "In any case, I won't say. So let's say he doesn't have one!"

The closing ceremony.

Interestingly, FIDE's Managing Director Dana Reizniece-Ozola announced at the press conference that there will be another Candidates Tournament next year. This news was later tweeted by FIDE's Director General Emil Sutovsky as well and it looks like the much-debated tiebreak rules could be changed:

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Nepomniachtchi: 'I Don't Have The Tendency To Downgrade Myself' - Chess.com