Search "user:themiddleway"

Just switch to 960. You can play an unbalanced defence without risking a defeat in the opening through prep.

I have had some difficulties with black in 960 today. Some of the more difficult to defend starting positions I think. What I want to raise, however, is that my opponents seem to abandon the game when…

With "number 1" needing a giant carrot to play OTB classical standard, I cannot justify recommending it to anyone as a way to spend an evening. Awareness of FIDE OTB classical standard ratings is a su…

Candidates tournament needs to go back to elimination matches instead of round robin, which creates an opportunity for groups of players to collude.

Like everyone else, these players compete because of the incentives. The top incentive is to be World Champion, the next one is to be the title challenger.

The other example mentioned as "not clear why it is a blunder", that's the point, for you to study and understand. In this case the c6 pawn is doomed anyway and all the tension is released.

I like the example shown, as it shows that a blunder could be missing a win (allowing the opponent a draw), or missing a draw (allowing the opponent to win), and since the user doesn't know which one …

@mkubecek said [^] > I don't know... the version on the left I wouldn't really associate with resignation, and once I saw certain rude gesture in the version on the right, I can't unsee it. :-) I like…

Valid, but omits that players staying on the same rating (rating overall is damaging chess) year after year are actually improving - just not faster than peer playing pool.

I have thought about this many times through the years, a flag is not the most unambiguous symbol for resigning (impressed with the chess sets so sure the team can think of something...maybe a toppled…