Best of Chess Blogging Part III: What a Wonderful World

And now, Part III of the Best of Chess Blogging! This incorporates everything that has been submitted that I didn't get into Part I and Part II. If I have missed someone's submission please let me know and I'll get it added.

I suggest for maximum enjoyment you play the song below and open the links in new tabs...it really is a wonderful world, that has such people in't!


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For instance, GM Nigel Davies. Love his books and his blog, The Chess Improver.
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Intermezzo from Hebden Bridge nominated:

Best Blog, Best Moves!
"I simply can't see past Tim Krabbe's amazing "Chess Curiosities". It's the benchmark for any chess blog in my view and his 101 Greatest Chess Moves is still the daddy!"

"From the Hebden Bridge Chess Club site and my own blog I would pick the following:

Most Popular Post
Statistically our best ever post was Lenin vs Hitler: Who Won? This post has spawned a series of spin offs and I was recently amazed to find that the game featured in this post has been put on You Tube badged as the genuine article. The internet is a wonderful place!

Favorite Post
I wish I could always produce posts like this one about visualization Don't Look Now with interesting content gathered from across the internet and served up with my own perspective. Sadly time rarely permits such strenuous efforts!

Best Game
Not many candidates here! I still have a spot for this ancient game. I've certainly not played many better in the intervening years. Bit of a sad indictment really." (make sure and check this game out, it's a blast! RP)
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Fabror the Guru: "I would like to contribute in my humble ways": The Act of Learning


Tommyg's tournament coffee cup


Tommyg of The Prodigal Pawn is an expert musician and teacher, and he got that way the same way one gets better at chess. PRACTICE! So we appreciate his perspective on chess improvement, as in Chess: A Fresh Perspective

He also came through with:
The difference between Practicing Chess Tactics and Practicing the Application of Chess Tactics, some software reviews and the WORST advice I ever received about chess openings!



"And without a doubt one of my favorite games I have ever played": Another ICC Win!! A Lesson Learned from Capablanca!
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NM Dana (Mackenzie) Blogs Chess submitted as his best posts: Jerry Hanken on Reshevsky vs. Fischer, "A little-known piece of chess history from the Fischer-Reshevsky match, which I heard from Jerry Hanken."

Pruess Parties Like It's 1899, "A great game from IM David Pruess, played in true 1800s style."

Maris'd "I get my Life Master certificate, but I find out that it comes with an asterisk."

Who Loves Chess the Most? "Sort of an homage to a very common chess player who has nevertheless done something quite uncommon -- he has quite possibly lost more games than anyone else in the USCF."
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Yes, as a matter of fact I am "obsessed by chess."

SonofPearl suggested as his "better efforts":

A recent book review of Frank Brady's new Bobby Fischer biography.

"Some of my pet niggles came out in 10 Ways You Look Like A Chess Newbie" (A wonderful piece! RP)

"My improvement tips for other lazy players like me," 8 Shortcuts To Chess Improvement 

"Lastly, a lighthearted a not terribly serious quiz," Are You Obsessed By Chess? 

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Broken Pawn, let us note, won the 2011 Chess Journalists Award for "Best Blog." Hank Anzis, Prop., gives us his best:

Give the kid a prize!

The beast in me

A fair Iowa State Fair

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NM James R. West sent in (and he would know!): The best chess move I have ever played!

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Blue Devil Knight - "My three best, in my opinion, are":

The social dimension of chess improvement (a very important point!)

When and how much to analyze

Lessons from blitz (don't skip the interesting comments)

BDK deserves much more, and he provided it by his big post Blog Highlights way back in 2007. You'll note that by that date he had already done a LOT of thinking and writing about chess improvement. Also, he kept alive the Chess Blogging Carnival for 2011.

BDK just before the final round

Thank you, BDK!

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Adventures of Rabin (NM) gave us as his five favorites:

Chess Adventures in Vietnam (published by the USCF)

Chess Struggles in Amish Land (Sturbridge torunament)

Boylston Quads Today

Liberty Bell Open/Back to Brandeis

National Chess Day (Boylston Chess Club Piece)
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Rolling Pawns - "Here is my contribution":

Playing Home Game

Actually, Rolling Pawns has published many, many interesting games on his site and you should look some more of them over.
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James Stripes in an earlier career.



Chess Skills by James Stripes - James writes, "I'm fond of Pillsbury's Mate (a piece of history that Edward Winter found worthy of mention is his notes)."

Chessmaster vs. Fritz: Analysis ("a clear comparison of the analysis features of two popular computer programs").

Chess on the iPad ("my most popular post: over 12,000 page views")

Best of the Best: Chess Informant Reader's Contest ("my list of the ten best games since 1966--submitted in a contest that won me $800 worth of CI disks")
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Five sites well worth your perusal whose authors didn't submit any particular posts (or perhaps never heard of this madness:

Steve Giddins' Chess Blog
 
Katar

From Patzer to Master


The Awsomeness that is Blunderprone! (See his sidebar "popular posts" for a start)

Brooklyn 64
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I originally found Mark Weeks as the chess guy at about.com. He used to do a monthly blog digest there and was kind enough to link this blog several times and that really helped increase readership. In 2008, for whatever reason, Mark and that site parted company and he began blogging at Chess For All Ages. If I may say, about.com blew it! He also does the World Chess Championship Blog and Chess960 (FRC). Mark has spent quite a bit of time archiving his hundreds of articles from About here.

As far as his blogs go, he chose for this collection to gather the three  posts from his three blogs and link them at My Most Popular Posts. You, the reader, can take it from there. Mark Weeks has produced enough quality chess reading to fill several books and I hope you enjoy just browsing around his sites.

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Can Anybody Translate This?

Michael Goeller commented, "Well, since you said you were doing classic chess blogs since the beginning of chess blogging, I thought I'd put some together for you and your readers. This is, unfortunately, nowhere near a complete survey, which would be nice to compile but I do have a job and a family and my own blogging addiction to take care of":

Chess Is Fun by Jon Edwards. "This was the first real chess blog, and a model of usability and helpfulness to readers. My favorite posts are those that provide a brief book review, a well annotated game from the book, and -- just in case that were not enough for you -- a complete collection of games from the book! There are lots of great games on the White side of the Najdorf Sicilian, but I focused on some other stuff that interested me. You and your readers should really explore this site."

(NOTE: The pages below each have TONS of good stuff. I have just given a few highlights.)
April 30, 2004 Double Rook Sacs, Art of Attack in Chess, Super Nez, etc.
March 31, 2004 Instructive Modern Chess Masterpieces, Jon Speelman's Best Games, Bogojno Tournament etc.

The Boylston Chess Club Weblog "This was the first major weblog and it did a lot to promote a chess blogging community. Here are some interesting posts, both modern and classic":

Hnefatafl, an ancient Viking board game, revived

Tilting at Windmills 

A Remarkably Successful Failure 

Measuring the Chess Blogosphere

Knights to some, de la Mazans to others

GM Kevin Spraggett "So good to see a GM chess blogger out there. Besides the lovely ladies, and the jokes, and the attacks on the Canadian Chess Federation, what I appreciate most are the annotated games (current and classic) and the quizzes. The quizzes most of all":

Today's Winning Chess Quiz

Another Chess Quiz (Frank Marshall)

Liz Vicary (Knows ALL!)

Her interviews with the USCL players were interesting and well received:

USCL Commissioner IM Greg Shahade
GM Larry Christiansen

She's a very successful coach: Pictures of her students.

"The Chess Mind One of the first and the best. Unfortunately, Dennis has had to move the blog twice, and one former blog (which had some of his best content) is now completely gone from the web. A terrible loss. His more recent work is solid, but more directed at analyzing the current games than engaging in the sort of things you generally look for in blogs. His analysis of the World Championship games was great":

Topalov Wins Game 1 (World Championship Match vs. Anand 2010)
Game 12 (live coverage)
Game 12 (with notes...)

Karpov vs. Spassky on Television, 1982

Marsh Towers: "His reviews really took off around 2008. However, the quality necessarily dropped a bit, as he often had to review several works in each piece. The past couple years, it has been mostly about music."

Here is a sample of the Marsh Tower book reviews.

"Someone else will have to add The Daily Dirt and The Streatham and Brixton Chess Blog which also deserve attention.

"As for my work, I would add my series on The Panther, which is my all time favorite even if it never got a lot of attention."

It should Michael, it should. Thank you very, very much for all of these great additions!
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One more site I am going to highly recommend again, is Edward Winter's Chess Notes. If you enjoy chess history and accurate information about players, tournaments and games, this is the place to spend some time. I have recently found several gems to blog about, look for that in the near future!

This concludes The Best Of! Chess Blogging series, excepting any errata or submissions that were overlooked (if so, apologies in advance). It has been laborious but lovely. Enjoy, and please comment and link at your site!

Big, BIG Best of Chess Blogging Post Almost Done

Part I on Openings was here. Part II.

Part III will be done in a couple of days. It is large, as befits the final summation of very heights of the mammoth field of chess blogging.

Here's something wonderful to keep you happy until then:

Best of Chess Blogging, Part II!

Well, it took over a month but I believe you'll find it was worth it:

The Best Of! Chess Blogging Part II: From the Valley of Despair to the Mountaintop of Blogging Greatness!

Part I, on Openings was here.

In Part II we let the bloggers choose some of their own best posts, generally. A few of the Giants have not nominated themselves so I might have to go out and track some more items down. But below is enough to keep you reading and contemplating for a good long time.
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Rocky Rook

Rocky is a good man and a smart technical guy--if you play on the Free Internet Chess Server like he and I do you are being gifted with Configuring Babachess to Look Like Fritz and some Babachess backgrounds (very classy). His most viewed post, he says, is a J.K. Rowling quote on failure. In the business, we call that "traffic bait." But he considers his "Legacy contribution to the chess world" to be his Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev (be sure to open the link in this post and see what's in the .pgn file). Finally, just for fun a Lev Aronian lookalike.


Roman-Chess aka Chessblogger--some more interesting tech, Chess database formats - PGN vs. Chessbase. Of great general interest, Roman (who is a 2200-rated master) shares his thoughts on what it takes to reach that level in Becoming a chess master. Inspired by a tournament that went well for him, How to prepare for a Chess Tournament. Finally, what he called "Soviet chess school ideas in the computer era": 10 tips for Analysing your Chess Games.

Temposchlucker (The Great),

a blogger originally of the "Knights de la Maza" School, has been doing this stuff for seven years now, and recommended for our edification What dela Maza forgot to tell us. I would urge you to read this concise post very carefully and think about it.  He says "The reason I like this post is that it is a final conclusion after 7 years of investigation." For a bit more on the background and history of the "Knights (de la Maza) Errant" that have been such a big part of the chess blogging scene he gave us a post of  Don Q that shows with humor where the "Don. Q" part comes in. Don Q. became a middle-school math teacher but I know somewhere in his heart the Quest still calls, if faintly...

Tempo was also kind enough to link this lovely bit of art from our friend Blunderprone, alias George, alias awesome dude:

The Rocky Errant Picture Show.




ChessAdmin of Path to Chess Mastery has only been blogging since July 2011 but already has put up many well-written and thoughtful pieces. When he wrote a post considering his "Best of" he chose for a game his win ("many years ago") from the Denker Tournament of State High School Champions, for his "best," Setting the Scene (a very fine explanation of what he's trying to do with his chess blogging ) and for a "Best EVAH" in the greater chess blogosphere the "largest pseudo-flame war ever on chess improvement blogs": Shy Guest Blogger (from Elizabeth Vicary's blog). Yes, I was THERE for that slugfest and it was fun.

Visit ChessAdmin's site very week, it is always well worth your time.

Ralph of Lost in Chessland submitted his "best game or best move" and there is all kinds of fascinating detail here. For one thing he beats a player rated almost 400 points higher. For another he uses the "Balogh counter-gambit with colors reversed." I don't know if I would try it but isn't the very name awesome? Finally, he wins with a beautiful interference move. See if you can spot the opponent's saving move 24.





Michael Goeller of The Kenilworthian

has produced many, many great posts over the years and he suggested a few for inclusion here: Chess and Evolutionary Theory is an interesting essay exploring the concept--I remember commenting on it at the time. I posted some of his opening essays and compilations in Best of Part I, but he has so much quality blogging that you need to check his work out in detail. See his "Best of..." on the right side bar at The Kenilworthian. For another thoughtful essay, see his Chess and Self-Control.





Signalman pointed us to some great books that are avialable FREE on the web including Chess Fundamentals by Capablanca and Chess History and Reminiscences by H. E. Bird. Among his blog posts he includes are A drawing move? How come I lost? and Do you have an Opening for me? Since we don't seem to have a photo of Signalman we will have to do something different:


Fractal Chess: Next Move, King to Who Knows?




















Liquid Egg Product notes that "Chessloser would be on here if he hadn't taken down his blog." Well, fortune favors the prepared, my friend. Back around New Year's 2009 chessloser (who did not normally use CAPS in his writings) retired/disappeared from the blog scene. I can happily report, however, that he is spotted from time to time on FICS. I did link to a few chessloser gems, all of which are here on the RLP chessloser page. A few things the [G]reat chessloser wrote deserve their very own quote in "Best of," because in many ways he was THE BEST:

The Coruscating Brilliance of Chessloser, Again:

yesterday i became a real chessman. yesterday, the postman delivered the one thing that makes me a bona fide chessplayer. yesterday, i got my chessclock. that’s like a surfer getting his surfboard, or a postal worker getting his high powered rifle with the scope. anyone can play chess, but only those who are commited (or should be, ha ha) have a chess clock. it is black and sleek, hand crafted out of only the finest in cheap plastic, lovingly and carefully assembled by the skilled artisinal hands of cheap chinese labor. that’s right, just like a lambourghini or fine wine, i have an IMPORT. i have an IMPORTED chess clock. how classy is that?

Just a little more for here, but really, REALLY do go and read all the chessloser posts I was fortunate enough to preserve...

i'm just like tal, only i lose:

the only difference, really, between him and me is, he knew what he was doing, he calculated and analized and had a plan, and he won the majority of his games, where as i have the wreckless sacrificing down pat, the bravado, but i don’t back any of it up with sound play or a halfway decent plan, i often fail to see the consequences of my moves, and then i lose miserably. but, every once in a while, i catch someone on a bad day, and it works out for me, like in this game here.

UPDATE 3.7.12: In the comments ChessAdmin points out that chessloser is available via the WayBack Machine. Thank goodness; I went and read some more and the man is/was/hopefully-will-be a genius of a writer. Also, I have discovered this photo, which The Government had tried to suppress for National Security reasons:

L-R: Likesforests (The Endgame Tactician), chessloser, Blunderprone and Ivan W (Getting to 2000) at the World Open, Philadelphia 2008. Wow.

Okay, we're only half way through the material and I think that's dense enough for now. A whole bunch more "Best of!" stuff will be coming soon. For now, Happy Trails.

This girl has the right attitude.

Next Best of Chess Blogging Post Coming Soon...

I am finally getting on the second "Best of!" Carnival post. It should be done this weekend. I have always felt these posts should have lots of cool images and feel "special'" so your patience will be rewarded.

The first in the Best of series, on openings, was here.

I would love to have even more material for these posts so if you haven't linked something yet, please do so in the comments!

If y'all don't come through with some content I'll let this guy know!

The Best Of! Chess Blogging, Part I: Openings

Hello and welcome to the first "Best Of" Chess Blogging post. There was so much material submitted, and so much more that I went out and scooped up, that I thought it would be best to break this into several parts.

A few words of introduction. The Chess Blogging Carnival was was run by Blue Devil Knight for all of 2011, sometimes with guest hosts, and before that, there was Jack Le Moine, who I believe started the thing. Now, I've taken the torch.

A Fortunate Juxtaposition

These "carnivals" were all he rage in the early days of blogging , when "Web 2.0" was still a blurry image on the horizon for most people. One of the best chess bloggers evah, Michael Goeller of The Kenilworthian (new iteration here) wrote about blogging as The New Chess Journalism? back in 2006. It makes for interesting reading 5 and a half years on.

And now, on to The Best Of: Openings! As the first part of the game it might as well be first here.

Most chess teachers tell us that we shouldn't spend much time on openings until we reach Expert/Master/FM/IM/GM (depending on who), but the real realness of reality is that most of us have an interest in getting a good position, or at least avoiding a bad one, right out of the gate. So most chess bloggers have touched on the openings from time to time.

Roman-Chess:  A summary of how I try to work on my openings: 10 steps to a Better Chess Opening Repertoire

The Kenilworthian, metioned above, submitted: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 White Repertoire Webliography
and Smith-Morra Gambit Update. Also his series on The Panther. If you don't know what the Panther is, you're missing out, so hit that link! The only problem with this is that he has done scores of other great openings posts, and deserves his own Best Of Carnival. I will get to that soon, just the three for now.

Signalman had some interesting looks at FICS Team League opening choices in Amateur Openings 1 and Amateur Openings 3.

Dana Mackenzie explains Dana's Opening Philosophy. "In one of my most popular posts of all time, I explain why Opening Theory is a scam."

Unlike most of us, Jim West has actually written opening books. He didn't suggest an openings post, but if you want a stimulating opening to study you can buy his Dynamic Philidor Counter Gambit for only $5.95!

GM Kevin Spraggett has a marvelous blog about all kinds of things and Michael Goeller suggested some posts but nothing in the area of openings; here is something marvelous: Louis Paulsen: the founder of of modern opening theory.

Spraggett also features many pictures of, ermm, ladies on his blog, here is a PG sample...

So if you choose to surf over there, you have been warned. The chess content is marvelous.

Farbror the Guru contributed The Act of Learning [Openings] and provided therein a link to GM Nigel Davies The Chess Improver, When Knowledge Gets in the Way. Farbror also pointed to Greg, who writes about the King's Indian and necessary aggression in Just One Move.

Liquid Egg Product co-blogger The Mascot has also been researching opening lines:

The Path to Chess Mastery, a great new blog that began in 2011, gave us Openings Selection: Initial Considerations. I commented there, and I will reiterate my opinions, openings are not that important for amateurs as far as the result of any single game, but it is important that the player feels comfortable in what he or she is doing. The quicker and easier one gets to a playable middle game, the more energy and enthusiasm one is going to have to try and win it.

Blunderprone has been one of the best and most entertaining chess bloggers for about five years, and he has a whole series of pawn structure studies on his sidebar that you could profitably peruse. Here is the series introduction with historical perspective.

Here's something you may not have heard about--Wikipedia has pretty good articles on all the main openings, and you can reach them through the main Chess Opening page.

I have occasionally heard players say their openings were "In the repair shop," thus, how to repair anything:

Last and least, I have written some posts on the openings that may, hopefully, be not devoid of interest. If playing black you want to be "In Charge" you might try these. Over four years ago I wrote a four-part series on the openings. Now I find myself not agreeing with everything I said then! However, there was a lot to like and there are links to all the parts at Part IV.

This concludes the very first Best Of! Chess Blogging Carnival post. There is a LOT more but you will have to wait for a few days for the next one. Stay tuned...

Submit to the Chess Blogging Carnival: The Best Of!

UPDATE 01.24.12 - Only three more days to submit material for the "Best Of! Carnival! If you've got it, link it.

The Chess Blogging Carnival flame was kept alive by the great Blue Devil Knight of Confessions of a Chess Novice, and now the torch is passed. See here for December's posts.

For the New Regime, we will no longer be using the Carnival blogging software, because between BDK and myself, two titans of tact, intellect and manliness, we couldn't get it to transfer title to me. To quote him, "I think the blog carnival site, and software, are not very well tended."

So here's how it will go down, at least for this month:

1) Find the "best of" ever posts in your blog, other people's blogs or even articles from the big non-blog chess sites (just this once). I'm talking back to the dawn of the Web, or even before (PDFs of Howard Staunton articles anyone?). Are there any great flame wars on the chess BBS boards from 1998? I don't know, but maybe you do. I'd especially like to see good games. If you have a good game that you've never posted, use the excellent Chess Flash (thanks to the excellent Glenn Wilson!) and post it. Or in the gravest extreme, send it to me in .PGN and I'll post. It had better be golden in that case.

2) Since we're not using the Carnvial site, copy and paste a URL in the comments to this post. Note that you don't have to have a Google account, and can comment anonymously on my blog, but I'd appreciate it if you'd leave your name, and if you'd make some comment about why the item is good beyond just dropping the URL. But it's not a requirement.

3) I'll take up to five posts/items from any one blog or website. This is a one-time deal for "The Best Of!" I wouldn't mind getting 100 or more entries, and breaking them up into a series of posts. I envision this as a kind of historical survey, where the chess blogs and other sites have been. Then maybe we can get ideas of how to do more good things in the future.

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to contribute. January 27 is the deadline for submissions, and the first post is scheduled for February 1. Now get those links coming!

Best regards to all,

Robert

January Chess Blogging Carnival - Best of!

Blue Devil Knight is now in the process of passing the torch to me to run the Chess Blogging Carnival. I will soon post the information needed to submit material. The deadline will be January 15th, instead of the 1st.

I plan on something a bit different for this Carnival. I invite everyone to submit what you think are your best posts EVAH, the best posts you've ever seen on other blogs, and especially your best games. So start looking for the "best of."

More to come...

December Chess Blogging Carnival is UP!

Blue Devil Knight has kept this going for some time, and now passes the torch to me...here is his last Carnival.

I don't know how the heck I got four posts in there because I believed I submitted only three. Sorry to be a Space Hog!

I have some ideas for the Carnival and will post about the future soon. I am considering doing a "Greatest Hits" Carnival, for one thing. In the meantime, THANK YOU to BDK of Chess Confessions for his work!

More Chess and Brain Stuff, Plus BLITZ HERESY!

Regular reader(s) will have noticed that I'm interested in relating discoveries about the brain and consciousness to chess. For the latest, see Chess Stories in Our Heads and Brain Folds and Memory.


An excerpt from a book by neuroscientist David Eagleman, Your Brain Knows a Lot More Than You Realize is also relevant to this interest of mine (if you're intrigued, the book is Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain). Eagleman makes an argument  many of us have heard of, but we could use reminding:

The concept of implicit memory has a rich, if little-known, tradition. By the early 1600s, René Descartes had already begun to suspect that although experience with the world is stored in memory, not all memory is accessible. The concept was rekindled in the late 1800s by the psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, who wrote that “most of these experiences remain concealed from consciousness and yet produce an effect which is significant and which authenticates their previous existence.”

As almost everyone concedes, stronger players have more "skill" at chess than others, but they also have a lot more "intuition" (whatever, exactly, that means). They know when a move "looks right" most of the time. They are said to have 10,000 patterns in "memory" but this is the implicit memory referred to above. they can't sit down and tell you exactly what these 10,000 patterns are. I read somewhere that Najdorf, a world-class player, said that most of the moves he actually played were the first ones that his unconscious, his intuition, served up to his consciousness. It's interesting to note that Najdorf was known as a great blitz player and one of the greatest blindfold players of all time.

And now for some mild heresy...I think that blitz chess could be a very efficient way to develop your unconscious chess memory and improve results at all time controls, if done with conscious intent. That is, after each blitz game, take a few minutes to review any blunders (and sometimes, marvel at how nicely you played even though you took only a few seconds to move!). I use the engine that's available on FICS and often I learn something useful by spending about five minutes reviewing a game that took about five minutes to play. Look hard at the position and burn the RIGHT move into your memory and then...forget about it.

The opening moves are another area where blitz can give you a lot of useful experience and a storehouse of unconscious knowledge. I suggest that you stick to your main lines for as long as you know them and then briefly see where the players deviated from the moves in your favorite openings book. Again, just a couple of minutes will suffice to make an impression.

Blue Devil Knight wrote about this in relation to tactics exercises back in 2008:

I'm not convinced simply "memorizing" 1000 positions is all that bad. It all depends on how our brain treats those memories once they are implanted. The brain may (with no conscious effort on our part) integrate these different memories into more general categories, form cross-links among categories, striving to build an ever-more coherent picture of the chess world, even while we sleep our brain probably does this. If this speculation is right, the individual problems are like nodes in our brain that are initially implanted, but connections are formed among these nodes so ultimately it becomes a more general and useful integrated tactical skill set.


I am currently reading Roger Penrose's book The Emporor's New Mind and I expect to relate some insights from this fascinating volume to chess as well. Meanwhile, for my next posts I will do something I've never done before, share a few blitz games where something wild, entertaining and hopefully useful happened. I think my approach to blitz has some merit, and I would like to know what you think.
 
(NOTE: Dec. 1 is the last day to submit to BDK's Chess Carnival. Go here to submit.)

November Chess Carnival is UP

The Prodigal Pawn has it.

A post of mine is not in it because I forgot to submit one until after the deadline...so it goes. There is a bunch of Chess.com stuff, which reminds me I need to figure out what to do about Chess.com. I have such limited time for chess right now, probably nothing. I play a bit on FICS and once in awhile play real live people here in my town. For study, I have maybe 50 books in my collection that I've bought over the years and never spent any time on...I guess I don't really need Chess.com, but there is apparently a good bit of fine content there.

The next, December, Carnival will be hosted by long-time Manager Blue Devil Knight, and you can submit here. After that, he is going to let someone else take over or the Carnival is going to lie fallow. Let him know if you're interested. I'm thinking about it.

October Chess Improvement Blog Carnival is UP!

At Mark Week's excellent Chess for All Ages. Great stuff, and a lot of it. I especially recommend ChessAdmin's Path to Chess Mastery blog, by the way. He has many well-crafted and interesting posts, but only two at a time are on the front page so don't forget to hit the "older posts" button.

Thanks, as always, to Blue Devil Knight who has kept this Carnival going.

September Chess Improvement Blogging Carnival is UP

The September Blogging Carnival is now up at the Hebden Bridge Chess Club site. Great posts including some from Chess.com, which were aggregated by our Carnival man himself, Blue Devil Knight. I think I need to put that site to better use!

Also, the Hebden Bridge Guy writes about his experience at the British Championship, which is chess at a higher level than we usually see in our corner of the chess blogosphere.

Go check it out--nothing new to see here, though I am near to completing another annotated Memorable Game. Coming soon to the Theatre of the Mind...

Back From Vacation, August Chess Blog Carnival

I went on vaction for about 10 days and didn't post a thing...I even missed submitting something for the Summer of Love Chess Carnival, put on by Takchess.

I did have a great time, recharged the batteries and all that, and managed to make some progress in Ray Cheng's excellent Practical Chess Exercises. I'm really enjoying it, and recommend it highly as an airplane, on-the-go book to keep the mind tuned into chess. Beats the hell out of bad bestseller novels, anyway.

I've also finished reading Soltis's Studying Chess Made Easy and will have a review of it posted soon. In order to get you to come back, I won't say anything more here...

4th of July Chess Carnival is UP!

Our Prodigal Pawn, Tommyg, does a great job and delivers on time and on the 4th of July with the latest Chess Improvement Blog Carnival. I liked his addition of "first posts" by some of the pioneers.

Go check it out, I'll be here all week. And don't forget to tip your servers!

Here It Is: Sixth Chess Improvement Blog Carnivàle!

And so dear friends, once more into the breach:

This is a Chess Improvement Blog Carnivàle! (and the accent mark makes all the difference!)

The first five CIBCs are linked in a previous post.

I have taken it upon myself to post everything submitted and add whatever I saw fit. That's what happens when you're large and in charge, baby. So if you find a totally unexpected link, well, that's the way it goes on the WWW!

This month, we have some old friends and some great blogs that were new (to me), so let's get started!

(tanc)happyhippo of http://lousyatchess.blogspot.com/ thoroughly reviews Improve Your Chess Tactics. Buy it, but better, use it.

Rolling Pawns: Do not play f6 (!!!). To be fair, f6 is perfectly good sometimes, but move 3? Hardly ever.

Mark Weeks, the Sage of Chess for All Ages presents BBC: The Master Game 1980. I happen to have the book covering this event. These shows seem to have been the best chess on television presentations ever. Enjoy the video.

The Duchess of Blunderboro, err, rather, Intermezzo at Hebden Bridge Chess Club presents Pick a piece, any piece. Whether it's srtrictly about improvement, or just good clean fun I do not know, but remember:

Our main man on drums, tommyg at The Prodigal Pawn sent Summers here, school is out and I have No AC...it might be time to blog again!, a thought-provoking update on his improvement plan.

George Duval (that is, the Mighty Blunderprone) has given us Part 6 ( Finale): Dr. Emanuel Lasker; Old Lions still have sharp teeth. If you thoughtfully study the four games he presents by one of the all-time greats, you will improve.

And now, back to the Party!

Takchess, our resident Boston Red Sox fan, submitted AAgaard Attacking Manuals Common Theme. Not to give away too much, but he talks about respect for the game, its difficulties and ambiguities. Bravo!

Oh my, I remember when this guy was a rookie...player

Liquid Egg Product. Need I say more? Hitler discovers Magnus Carlsen won’t be in the chess world championships. I think the Egg must of hacked Donnie's account. #hacked! You know there's a lot of that going around. And pranks. As a bonus, here's the Real Donnie throwing the kitchen sink in a tournament game and Winning! There was a lot of Winning! going on a month or two ago also, but that's old. Today's word is #hacked. Or maybe Twitter Malfunction.

Bright Knight is a really cool handle. The cool and Empirical One submitted Learning Chess Tactics. Love the title, that's what it's all about! To learn more about the very Empirical Rabbit see his bio. This is the post if you enjoy maths.

Brooklyn64 asked for a shout-out for the upcoming 4th Annual New York International. Since he's a former host of the CIBC, how could I say nyet? Bonus shot: Here are some great annotated games for your viewing pleasure.

Grandmaster Nigel Davies has a great blog up called The Chess Improver, and Rocky Rook sez It's My Favorite Chess Blog. Among the many fine posts the reader of the CIBC might be interested in: Blunder Removal (yeah, a big one), Let it Rip! ("Questions motivate a person to engage their mind far more fully than solutions, orders and certainties. It’s something that lies at the heart of human nature, we just love a mystery.") and What Don't you Like?


Oh right, we're supposed to be partying...

 Let's see, anything else? Katar has a handy page with tactical problem links.

Wang has the Final Chapter of Be the Next You - So what is it that you're looking for? Also, he wins an Open Sicilian (Yay!) That's just for fun, umkay?

LinuxGuy_on_FICS has Goals, and I would note how lucky you are if you get his very accurate and incisive comments on your blog.

Competitive chess is a real rollercoaster ride

That's all folks!

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Thanks to Founding Father of CIBC Blue Devil Knight for this opportunity! Please let him know via a comment if you'd like to host the Carnivàle, er, now back to Carnival, in July.

For submissions to the July edition got to http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_12074.html

Look, it's Grandmaster Gelfand! Oh, that's HOT!

More Chess Improvement Carnivàle Posts Please!

Hey everybody, I've only gotten a handful of submissions so far for the Chess Improvement Carnivàle so let's pick up the pace, the deadline is June 2 and if I don't have enough high-quality dead-solid-perfect posts I will go to your blog and link without permission. Don't think I won't do it. people.