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Recent articles:
Saturday, September 30. 2006
Author: Servant
I have for eight years been collecting and cataloging chess problems and studies that have been published in newspapers, magazines and there have been such positions in my own games. As you can imagine the collection is quite large and i need a new folder to add to this and to keep everything in. I also have a few chess books which are helpful, though even without them i can still play well. In Australia we have three main papers that have a chess column once a week. These include the Sun-Herald on Sundays, the SMH on Mondays and the Weekend Australian on Saturdays and are less than $2 each. I usually get all three of these papers and they rightly tend to be on page number 64. What i especially like are endgame compositions. These positions are easy to setup and study as well as being instructive and entertaining. They are always tactical and one piece out of place is usually a recipe for losing. Usually i find that alot of the time the rooks take part in these endings. They usually have the final say, as they want to because they spend alot of time in the corners, drinking latte's. But them latte's fire them up and then they are alert and ready for anything. As i recommend free speech i will let these rooks speak for themselves! These endings have been hand picked out of the many ones i have stored away and you probably haven't seen them before, though you may have well seasoned pattern recognition skills if you class yourself as an expert. I have included the answers but i know there are people who can solve all six without them, though it is testing as you will have to think deeply in all of these endgames. White to move in all of them.
Continue reading "Spectacular Endgames (Rooks)"
Friday, September 29. 2006
Author: King Reza
Loop Chess games can become really hard to play, or absolutely easy to play. Look at the following example:
I’m playing as White! As you can easily see almost the whole board is white and I have an army of waiting-to-be-dropped-onto-the-board pieces. It shouldn’t surprise you that Black resigned the game at this point.
As you see the board is quite simple to understand. But there are positions that players may get ‘scared’ looking at:
Continue reading "How to play Loop Chess (part 3)"
Thursday, September 28. 2006
Author: !Undertaker!
History:
Reversi is an ancient game whose origin is uncertain. The oldest references about similar games go back to late in the 19th century. In 1870 appeared a similar game using a cross shape board. Subsequently appeared another game played on an 8x8 square shape board.
Description:
Two players take part in this game. They need a board with 64 squares distributed in 8 rows and 8 columns, and 64 similar pieces of two colours: the obverse in one colour and the reversi in the other colour.
Objective:
The objective for each of the players is to finish the game with more pieces on the board in his own colour than the opponent.
Continue reading "Reversi"
Wednesday, September 27. 2006
Author: !Undertaker!
History:
This game is considered the more ancient variant of the game still played. It is practised in the Iberian Peninsula, North of Africa and many countries of South and Central America. Actually, it’s the second checkers variant more played in every world and the more practised checkers game in Latin countries and Maghreb.
Board and pieces:
8x8 draughtboard with lower right black corner. Each player starts with 12 men (white and black) placed on the first 3 rows.
Objective:
The aim is capturing or blocking all the opponent pieces, so that the player who cannot move when turn arrives is the loser of the game.
The game becomes in a draw when the number of remaining pieces or their position on the board does not make possible the victory for any of both sides, or both players agree.
Continue reading "A new checkers variant for BrainKing: Classic (or Portuguese) Checkers"
Tuesday, September 26. 2006
Author: King Reza
Black has some options:
- Moving the Queen to either e7 or c8 and putting her out of a possible pin.
- Moving the Rook. This is totally out of the question because the only square black can move the Rook to, is g8. After he does that, I’ll simply take the Pawn on f7 with my Bishop and fork the King and the Rook together and win a Rook.
- Blocking my Knight or Bishop from having access to f7. As you all know, Knights cannot be blocked since they can jump. So Black should really try blocking my Bishop by moving the Pawn on d6 to d5.
I think the last option is the best one. After moving the Pawn to d5, I’ll capture it with my Pawn on e4. Black cannot take my Pawn immediately by the Knight on f6 because I’ll take that too with my Bishop on c4. Instead, he can move his Bishop to g4 and threaten my Queen. This opens the way for the Black Queen to have access to square d5 too. Now, Black can take my Pawn on d5 and then my Bishop if I take the Knight as well.
Continue reading "How to play Loop Chess (part 2)"
Monday, September 25. 2006
Author: Servant
I've been playing chess for more than 10 years. This is my main opening in chess with the White pieces and it usually comes as quite a suprise to my opponents who don't know it very well. Though I haven't tested it at BrainKing.com yet because I'm too busy playing the chess variants which I have discovered. Many people I know in Australia don't understand Extinction chess, Ambiguous chess and Cylinder chess, many are happy to just to play the standard chess. This has led me to play more regular chess recently and so I have studied a few openings and come up with some great starting moves that have toppled even strong players. The following game is an example of a great win against an expert player.
Continue reading "My Chess Opening - the e4 English"
Sunday, September 24. 2006
Author: King Reza
Loop Chess is a very challenging variation of Chess in which captured pieces can be returned to the Board and used as the player’s own piece. This brings to the game excellent and artistic strategies. The ability to put back the pieces onto the board makes the games always exciting and ‘uncertain.’ A lost game in Regular Chess can sometimes be turned into a win for the losing side in Loop Chess. Players can never be sure what happens next. There are many possibilities to consider and both players must always keep their eyes and full attention to the board. If you know how to play, it’s quite easy to win. But if you don’t, well you’ll have to learn!
In Loop Chess, unlike Regular Chess, material advantage is not very important. You can even forget about a lost Queen and continue playing in hopes of a mistake in time from your opponent’s side so that you can take your Queen back by putting a pawn onto the board on the right place. Of course it doesn’t mean you can give up half your pieces and have hope for winning, but even in a very bad situation, you might still get lucky and even win.
There are two types of playing Loop Chess:
- Playing the game aggressively, capturing what you can and then putting them back onto the board the next move and changing the position to your favor fast.
- Playing defensively, first making sure your own King is safe from possible attacks and then slowly trying to improve your attack position.
I personally prefer the first tactic. I usually play aggressively trying to shock my opponent with all the extra pieces that are dropped to the board.
Continue reading "How to play Loop Chess (part 1)"
Saturday, September 23. 2006
Author: Servant
I haven't played regular chess on BrainKing yet, though i might get around to it one day. Please don't underestimate Australian chess players. We are an unusually tough bunch and will play well until the last move. Just look at our fauna, the koala, wombat and kangaroo, they have survived in our extreme weather, including cyclones, drought and bushfires. Australia is classed as a continent and we have 20 million+ people living here. Australia is a peaceful land where we get along together and say to our friends "mate" though we didn't get that word from playing chess, its still our own word. As Aussie's we can remember certain games where we have taken on high ranked opponents and won, i'm talking literally GM's, IM's and FM's. In fact we have 2 GM's, 10 IM's and 10 FM's and we are adding to this list! We do have some talented chess players and they are particulary young these days too.
Continue reading "A simul game in the outback land"
Friday, September 22. 2006
Author: King Reza
OK. As you see I am in check. Generally, there are a few ways to cancel a check:
- You can move your King to a safe square if any exists.
- You can capture the checking piece if possible.
- You can move a piece of yours in between your King and the checking piece so that it ‘blocks’ the check.
According to the position of the board, your choices may vary. It’s always a good idea to pay attention to the side effects of a move you’re making to cancel a check. Sometimes, choosing the wrong method of canceling a check leads you to worse problems. So choose carefully what you want to do. Here I chose to move my King to a safe square:
As you can see, right now I have a good material advantage and my position is very strong too. I have two Pawns that can easily move with the help of my three Knights and promote to precious Queens. So as you see, it was a very good idea promoting that Pawn to a Knight. The more Knights you have, the faster your pieces can move and the more possibilities of movement they have and thus the harder the game for your opponent to manage!
Continue reading "How to play Knight Relay Chess (part 4)"
Thursday, September 21. 2006
Author: nabla
Ambiguous Chess is a chess variant that I invented in January 2005, and which has been introduced on BrainKing in June 2006. It is nothing more than a very simple idea that anybody could have thought of, but the game seems to work very well, and unlike many inventions in the field, I have a good hope that it will last. For the moment, I enjoyed seeing it become one of the most popular chess variants on BrainKing : there are actually more than 400 games running, and 80 players are taking part to this prize tournament.
Rules of Ambiguous Chess
- Instead of playing a move on the board, the player points at the square he intends to move to. The opponent then chooses which one of the possible men will indeed move to the square.
- Winning is by capturing the opponent's king. It remains possible to announce checks and checkmates, but the rules do not take them into account. That means that you have the right to choose for your opponent a move that allows you to capture his king, and that a stalemate position wins for the stalemating player.
- When a pawn is promoted, the promotion piece is chosen by the opponent of the pawn's owner.
- Castling is forbidden.
For instance, if at move one White points to the e4 square, Black has no choice but to accept the move 1.e2-e4. But if White had pointed at the f3 square, Black could have chosen between 1.Ng1-f3 and 1.f2-f3.
Simple ideas don't necessarily arise in a simple way. Ambiguous Chess derives from a variant I invented as Unambiguous Chess, a notation-independent form of the existing but very confidential game of "Unambiguous Three-symbol Chess". In the latter game, the only possible moves are those which can be written using only three symbols in the English notation. In my Unambiguous Chess, the move must be deducible from the arrival square only : it is allowed to play a man to a square only when no other of the player's men can reach this square.
Continue reading "Just one more chess variant?"
Wednesday, September 20. 2006
Author: Problemist
One of the variants that attracted me to BrainKing was Horde chess. There has always been something about pawns and their movements that attracted me, particularly pawn chains and big groupings of pawns. In “regular” chess, one of my favorite sacrifices for potential advantage was the sacrifice of a piece for a pawn chain. Grandmaster Gligoric wrote some articles about this in the 1970s, and one of the most famous games with a very spectacular – and speculative! – sacrifice of this sort was made by the chess artist and “World co-champion” GM Bronstein:
Bronstein,D - Rojahn,E
Moscow Olympiad 1956
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.d3 h6 7.Nf3 e4 8.dxe4 Nxc4 9.Qd4 Nb6 10.c4 c5 11.Qd3 Bg4 12.Nbd2 Be7 13.0–0 0–0 14.Ne5 Bh5 15.b3 Nbd7 16.Bb2 Nxe5 17.Bxe5 Nd7 18.Bc3 Bf6 19.Rae1 Bxc3 20.Qxc3 Qf6 21.e5 Qf5 22.f4 Bg6 23.Ne4 Rab8 24.Qf3 Bh7 25.g4 Qg6 26.f5 Qb6 27.Qg3 f6 28.e6 Ne5 29.h4 Kh8 30.g5 Rbc8 31.Kh1 Qd8 32.g6 Bxg6 33.fxg6 b5 34.d6 Qb6 35.d7 Nxd7 36.exd7 Rcd8 37.Nxf6 Qc6+ 38.Qg2 1–0
If that game doesn’t impress the power of the pawns, I don’t know what will!
Continue reading "Beginnings in Horde Chess"
Tuesday, September 19. 2006
Author: King Reza
The board a couple of moves later:
It’s the 12th move and it’s my turn. It doesn’t seem so, but my Queen is under attack by the White Bishop on d3. I moved it to a5. D6 could have been an option, but White could respond by moving his Bishop on d3 to c5 threatening my Queen again.
It’s a basic rule. Don’t waste your moves. If I had made Qd6, then White would start advancing his position and what I could do was just flee.
Continue reading "How to play Knight Relay Chess (part 3)"
Monday, September 18. 2006
Author: !Undertaker!
BrainKing.com is a success with a brilliant organization. Site has tournaments, ratings, forums, statistics and specially many and many games. However, there are games very interesting and known, but unfortunatelly don’t exist in BrainKing.com. So, I propose a new game: Domino.
Domino History
Dominoes are the descendants of dice sticks and dice. Although possibly used as a method of divination, fortune telling and certainly for gambling there is no doubt that dominoes have developed and evolved as a popular form of entertainment in which all players, regardless of literacy skills, can enjoy exciting games of chance and skill. Believed to originate from early Chinese tile games in 12th and 13th centuries, dominoes their more identifiable form of the game as we know now it was first recorded in 14th century China. The game appears to have reached western civilization when it first became popular in the courts of Mediterranean Europe trading nations in the 1700’s. Its popularity then spread though the rest of Europe in the 18th century and the game became known by the French word referring to a black and white hood often worn by catholic priests in cold weather, “Domino”.
The Domino
Traditional dominoes tiles are rectangular with a centre line dividing the domino face into two ends. Each end being marked black spots, commonly referred to as pips, arranged similar to those on a six-sided die (dice). It has become popular to also add a blank face to the domino set so that there seven possibilities on each domino end. A standard set of double six dominoes includes seven dominoes tile combinations featuring a blank (including a blank-blank), six with a one (including a 1-1), five with a two (including 2-2), four with a three and so on for a total of 28 unique dominoes. For longer games, games with more people or rule variations (such as Chicken Foot or Mexican Train) other domino sets such as double 9’s (55 tiles), double 12’s (91 tiles) and even double 18 (190 tiles) domino sets have become available.
Metal pins or studs were also inserted into the face of the domino between the two halves are known as “spinners” or spinner dominoes. These allowed the dominoes to spin more freely and make them easier to mix or shuffle while face down, as well as helping to protect the face of the dominoes.
Originally used to reduce cheating, at one point dominoes where made with ebony, matching the black pips, or another material on the back of the domino to prevent being able to see pips the face of the domino while they were face down. This two tone or bi-colour feature today is used to simply to add professional and unique look to a set of dominoes.
Modern commercial are mostly made from a durable resin and although they are available in a variety of sizes, materials and colours the traditional domino is ivory (off white/cream) coloured with black pips and usually measures about 1 inch long, ½ inch wide and ¼ inch thick.
Continue reading "A new and funny game: Domino"
Sunday, September 17. 2006
Author: King Reza
I think explaining the techniques while talking about a game is more understandable than just saying do this, do that! So I’ll be pasting different parts of the game and then I’ll talk about each part.
White played 4.Be2 which seems to be a good move giving him the opportunity to castle and also giving him a Bishop + Knight on e2. However, my opponent never castled in this game!
I played 4.Qd6. Another good move would have been 4.Bd7. But I like it when I have my Queen on the board. It’s very powerful especially when accompanied by a Knight.
So as you see, I’m trying to get my pieces into the board so that I can benefit from their abilities.
Continue reading "How to play Knight Relay Chess (part 2)"
Saturday, September 16. 2006
Author: JohanT
My name is Johan Tenge, and I am a gamer. A gamer in the modern sense of picking up a videogame controller, a handheld system or a mouse (or touchpad). A regular (weekend-) day for me involves waking up, turning on my radio, listening to the news, starting my laptop and playing World of Warcraft for a bit. I then read up on videogame news, and play Kingdom Hearts (the sequel is set for a release two weeks from now), which is followed by coding my blog to do what I want it to do. Meanwhile, I’m amused by the inability of me turning around my glass without the icecubes staying where they are.
Where does BrainKing fit into this, you must wonder?
Well, above I described a regular day. A day that was regular right up until the moment I discovered BK. Before, when getting behind a school computer, I sneakily looked up some videogame news, watched flash movies and doodled in Paint.
Now, my day mostly involves playing boardgames on BK, playing Chess against my brother (on and off BK), and writing that novel which my brain seemed unable to produce until I found out about BK. At school, people wonder about what something called BrainKing.com is doing in the browser’s history, and I have a text editor in my Boot folder. One of my characters in my Science Fiction novel is an avid BrainKing member (in the year 2147  ), and gets literally dragged into a Chess tournament on the planet Gann, in an attempt at saving the President of an alien planet, who happens to be both the Galactic Champion for Ludo and for Chess.
All in all, BK has honestly changed my life for the positive. Thank you Fencer, for being awesome.
Saturday, September 16. 2006
Author: !Undertaker!
BrainKing.com has many games and they are very different between itself, like Chess, Checkers, Backgammon, Go, Reverse, for example. Each player has theirs favourite games, but there is a special game, the game most played in BrainKing.com. This game is Backgammon. Now, there are 1030 rated players in Backgammon.
Many times, we like to play a game and we think that know everything about this game, but in true, we don’t know anything about his history, his variants and his strategies.
So, I decide to make known a little more about this game.
History:
Backgammon is believed to have originated in Mesopotamia in the Persian Empire or the present day Iran Iraq and Syria. It’s the oldest known recorded game in history and it can be traced back thousands of years BC to boardgames played by the Egyptians, Sumerians, Romans and Persians.
Variants:
There are many variants to standard backgammon rules. Some are played primarily throughout one geographic region, and others add new tactical elements to the game, such as by altering the starting position, restricting certain moves, or assigning special value to certain dice rolls. Some variants: hyper-gammon, nackgammon, domino backgammon, duplicate backgammon, backgammon to lose, blocking backgammon and many others.
Continue reading "Love for Backgammon"
Friday, September 15. 2006
Author: King Reza
Since BrainKing.com is asking players to write articles, I thought it would be a good idea to write about Knight Relay Chess which is a very interesting variation of Chess and brings extra thinking and fun to the games. I am pretty good at playing that game and will try to share some, of course not all, of my knowledge with you who are interested in learning how to play the game and improving your skills at it.
I’ll start with the rules. Basically, Knight Relay Chess has the same rules of regular Chess, meaning that pieces move like they do in Chess, etc But when a piece is located in a square covered by a friendly Knight, meaning that Knight could move to that square if the piece weren’t there, it gets the moving abilities of a Knight as a bonus. So if that piece is a pawn, now it is a pawn plus a Knight at the same time.
So, assuming that a player has made 1.E4, if the player moves his/her Knight to C3 the next move, he/she will be having a Pawn + Knight on E4. This is true even if the player first makes 1.KC3 and then moves the pawn to E4.
There’s more to the Knights than just that. They cannot be captured. So neither can you take your opponent’s Knights nor can they take yours. Not only can’t your Knights be captured, but also they cannot capture any pieces either. The Knights don’t put the Kings in check . So you can safely say that the only thing they do, up to this step, is that they give extra moving abilities to the pieces.
It’s worth mentioning that this extra moving ability is NOT permanent. So if you move the Knight to a square that no longer covers your piece’s location, the piece loses its extra moving abilities and becomes what it originally was. This is true if you move the piece to a square not covered by a Knight too.
Now, let’s start with different strategies.
Continue reading "How to play Knight Relay Chess (part 1)"
Friday, September 15. 2006
Author: Gror
I'm not in the team of the organizers of this event, nor even a helper. But this thing, with so huge amount of the games ane people included, exceeds all, what I ever have seen in the world of games and I would like to bring this event nearer to you.
The Mind Sports Olympiad is already 6 years old. During yeard it gained high popularity among many of the players of the board games such as Checkers, Chess, Scrabble, but also Settlers of Cattan, Carcassone and many others. Games played every years are about 300. And, that's the point, the entry fee is zero and you can play every game you want also for free. You must only pay for tournaments, which, usually, have very interesting prizes. And the Game of the year is chosen here.
Olympiad offers also some of the high grade tournaments such as Czech Championships - In Carcassone, Settlers of Cattan, Scrabble, Checkers, ... These tournaments often have many preliminary rounds during the years and are very prestigious. Average number of the players playing Champs is 128. Some of these are also international.
But the main aspect, which this Olympiad has, is the atmosphere. You come and for instant you are surrounded with friends that you have never seen before. And you earn even more in the 10 days of the duration of the Olympiad. And the organizers are always ready to help you with everything and especially with every game rules you want to know.
And some more numbers? Last year's visitors were more than 4000, there were 94 tournaments in 34 disciplines, attendants of the tournaments were 1779. The people were from 15 countries.
Well, are you interested? If you look on the Official site, you can learn everything about it. And it's worth of your time and money.
Thursday, September 14. 2006
Author: Summertop
One of my favorite games on BrainKing is Loop Chess. In this game captured pieces are help in reserves to be played at a later time. These captured pieces can be quite valuable. Many of your opponents will under-value captured pawns. If you know how to use a pawn, it becomes as valuable as a bishop. Especially as the game progresses. True the pawn is much more limited in mobility, but this is negated by the ability to "drop" the pawn anywhere you want it. Take the following Example:
If Black were to drop a pawn onto G2...
It would put White into a potentially difficult situation. Not only could the Black player promote the pawn to a queen, he would also have a nice rook in reserve.
There are other ways to maximize your captured pawns. You can often drop a pawn onto the board in such a way that it challenges two powerful pieces at the same time. This forces the opponent to swap a more powerful piece for your pawn. Just remember to drop your pawn onto a protected square.
You can also use pawns to force the opponent's king into a position where you can check mate him. You can either lead him around by forcing the king to capture the unprotected pawn or you can force him to move into less protected areas of the game board.
Continue reading "The Mighty Pawns"
Wednesday, September 13. 2006
Author: arimakat
Among many chess-like games, there is one that means a lot to me. As there are lots of variants of this game, I'll give here the rules I consider standard:
ANTI CHESS RULES
All the rules of normal chess apply, with the following exceptions:
- If you can capture an opponent's piece, you must do so;
- If there are no legal moves, the winner is the player on move;
- 3) The king is just a regular piece: the king can be captured, you can promote a pawn to a king, and castling is not permitted.
The initial position is the same, and all the pieces follow the same rules for moving and capturing as in normal chess. If a player can capture an opponent's piece, including the king, he is obliged to do so. If there is more than one move for capturing available, it is on the player to choose one. The main characteristic of the game is that the player without any pieces left wins. Of course, there exist no checks, checkmates, or castling.
ANTI CHESS VARIANTS
There are several variants of anti chess, which mostly differ in the above stated rule 2. It is the case of stalemate to be decided. It has been done in one of the following ways:
- Suicide Chess: In the case of stalemate the remaining pieces are counted. This variant is played on FICS server.
- Vinciperdi: The stalemate is a draw. This variant used to be played in corresponding tournaments organized by AISE (Italian association for chess-like games)
- 3) Giveaway: The player who can't move wins the game. This is, in my opinion, the most logical variant because here applies a very simple rule: the winner is the player with no legal moves! This is a variant which you can play on our great Brainking site.
Continue reading "ANTI CHESS"
Tuesday, September 12. 2006
Author: Servant
What is Brainking? Why a Brainking? And who is the Brainking? That was my first thought when I discovered the site existed at chessvariants.com. So sure enough I checked it out, and registered with all my petty details and my first thought was what is that big thing in the middle of the screen? Oh, its a large wooden chess queen with a warped chess mat around it, a kind of original graphic art, since you commonly see knights representing chess, usually because they are mysterious in the way they move, sideways, forward, back and once in awhile deliver a check or a smothered mate. People have always had an affection for horses right? And apart from that you can always create a new knight.
But the queen, what can I say? Well she is kind of graceful as well as powerful, watch out she says, i'm coming through! And doesn't she move quickly, from one side of the battle, then back again in only two moves, crikey that sort of thing deserves respect and the most important countrie's bravery medals. As for the king as the mascot well, thats a bit so-so isn't it. I mean the king always likes to tell stories about how he beat this opponent, beat that opponent and how he directed his armies to win the war in less than 20 manouevres, quite frankly people would get sick of such talk in a short period of time and the image of him would only drive people away or deliver demands everyday to the webhost for a replacement. Then there is the rook, he is always telling the other pieces how he is stuck in the corner, and how he can't show how tough he is until the battle is half over or nearly finished. He has a brother in the other corner who says exactly the same things. He is also sensitive and if you say something wrong according to him he will refuse to participate and not move from his coffee chair. The bishop is trying to convert people to his way of thinking knowing that he can travel a long way in achieveing his goals. He is humble and placid usually, refusing to take place in the politics of showbusiness. The pawns are the students in the army and have yet to learn the knowledge possessed by a leader. They do know however that if they can courageouly get to the other side of battlefield they have have the reward of promotion and honour. The conclusion is that i think that having the queen as the mascot for Brainking is the right choice. She is to most people highly valued. So next time i see her majesty at Brainking I will say that I salute you!
Today I am pleased to announce that it is exactly 8 months since I registered and I want to say that the site is outstanding, easy to use and that I didn't know what I was in for!
Monday, September 11. 2006
Author: Problemist
In his excellent new book, Rudolf Spielmann-Master of Invention (2006), Neil McDonald notes that not only are Spielmann’s wins of value, but one could also learn much from studying his losses. I have long been a Spielmann fan; his games are models for learning attacking techniques, especially for players without a lot of experience – as opposed to a player like Alekhine, who could also attack with the best of them, but had a style that is much more difficult for the average player to pin down.
Usually, when one finds a “TN” or technical novelty in chess, it is deep in the Sicilian or some other modern opening. Often this leads to many finding GM games “played out” or “boring.” However, I think there is still much to be learned from and improved on in the games of the old masters.
It was very rare for Spielmann to lose a King’s Gambit, although he did later give it up, writing a famous article, “Am Krankenslager des Koenigsgambits” – “On the sickbed of the King’s Gambit.” However, as we know, modern players such as Bronstein, Spassky, Fischer, and the Polgar sisters have all had their tries at the famous gambit, and I am one who does not think it is dead yet. Here is one of Spielmann’s rare losses with his beloved Bishop’s Gambit, in a variation that is essentially the Schliemann defense to the Ruy Lopez, up a tempo, for white (if you search a chess database for the position after Black’s 5th move, you’ll find a number of King Gambits and Schliemanns).
Continue reading "Living la vida Gambitto! Improving on Spielmann?"
Sunday, September 10. 2006
Author: !Undertaker!
Many people think that online games sites are only for playing...however, BrainKing.com is different. I remember the first time I played in this site, I was confused with so many links. In the beginning, I only play a few games, because Brains, Teams, Fellowships, Forums and so many others features were totally unknown for me.
After a while, I use others links and day after day I discover new features and I was searching for everything. I was amazed with the brilliant way how the site is organized. Everything is perfect since players' level, Brains, Teams Tournaments, Statistics, Ratings, etc. The most interesting thing is the players' level with different privileges, in accordance with his importance. This hierarchy, originating from chess, remembers me a monarchy, where everybody wants to have more power and go up level. The competition between players is entice and, on BrainKing.com, I can compete individually in standard games or tournaments. Unfortunately, I cannot play on Team Tournaments, but I look forward to join them. When I'm not playing, I like to visit Forums and talk with so different people from different countries. For me, this is very important, because I meet a lot of different and interesting people. Besides, I can frequently talk in French and especially in English and this is good for my vocational training. Everybody has ideas about the site and would like to see them put in practice on BrainKing.com. I tried to introduce classic checkers game and maybe this idea can become true. In my opinion, BrainKing.com belongs to everybody and this is fantastic for its success.
But BrainKing.com is much more than this and I usually search news in press monitoring or I use the search link to find everything I want.
So, for me, BrainKing.com is a big world.
Saturday, September 9. 2006
Author: gambler104
I have played at three different game sights in the past three years. These are itsyourturn.com, goldtoken.com, and of course, brainking.com. And I know many other people play at multiple sites as well. And from over 90% of the comments I have heard, BrainKing is by far the favorite of these or other sites. I think that this comes from the approach that the owner, Filip Rachunek, takes as opposed to the approach that the other sites take. While some of the other sites attempt to limit non-members and even members in what they can do, Brainking gives non-members lots of benefits and give members almost unlimited benefits. As a current non-paying member, BrainKing offers me a great variety of games, an unlimited number of moves a day, and a lot of flexibility in such things as dropping tournaments after I am eliminated. And for paying members and non-members alike, BrainKing has an efficient rating system, a wider variety of games than found at other places, and an owner who cares about the opinions of all players at his game site. These are simply qualities that you don’t find or rarely find at other game sites. That is why I continue to devote a lot of my time to BrainKing instead of to other sites.
Friday, September 8. 2006
Author: Summertop
BrainKing offers several levels of memberships. The basic level, Pawns, is free. This level is very usable. Pawn level members can have up to 20 games at one time, but they can make unlimited moves. They can even join a tournament. Some tournament offer prizes to the winners. There are public discussion boards where members, including Pawns, can talk about everything from games to poetry to sports. These discussion boards are well moderated so all of the unpleasantness that exists on other sites doesn't exist on BrainKing.
So, if the free Pawn membership level is so feature rich, is it truely worth the money to upgrade? well, there are two main features given for the upgraded memberships. Each one, by itself, is worth the cost of the upgraded membership. Combined, they offer more for your membership than any other online game site. Add in all the other little features, such as animated smileys and the referal program, and it is a "No-Brainer" to upgrade your membership. Let's visit the two main features for upgraded membership levels:
More Games: When you upgrade your membership, you can have an UNLIMITED number of games at one time. You can also join as many tournaments as you want. With that many games, you don't want to "time-out" and lose by default. So, you get up to thirty "Vacation" days per year to help. Pawns only get five vacation days. You even get a new game, not available to Pawns, called "Run around the Pond".
Fellowships: Fellowships are a place where a group of friends can get together. Most fellowships are themed. For example, you might join a fellowship devoted to the game of Backgammon. You also might join one devoted to Sports. You can join as many fellowships as you want. In these fellowships there are private discussion boards and private tournaments. A fellowship can even put together a team and join an tournament against other fellowships. You can even create your own fellowships and invite your friends to join it.
So as you can see, it is well worth the expense to upgrade you membership to take full advantage of the BrainKing community.
Wednesday, September 6. 2006
Author: rednaz23
I started out like everyone on BrainKing, a simple pawn playing a few games for fun. I soon found the links to discussion boards where I discovered a world of opportunities! I found I could discuss just about anything and everything with people from all sorts of different backgrounds. Soon after I joined the standard stairs and climbed quickly to the top. I joined a tourney and ended up winning! I was simply hooked! I wanted more. I wanted the ability to join multiple stairs, multiple tourneys, and of course as many games as I wanted! I soon anted up the small amount to be an official member of BrainKing. I now enjoy literally hundreds of different games with opponents all over the world. I played in multiple stairs and tourneys, created my own tourneys, and of course what I feel is the biggest perk of all; the ability to be a member or Big Boss of a fellowship.
Within a fellowship, there is a small community within the BrainKing community. All fellowships are linked by a common trait. Some fellowships are all about sports or politics. Some are all for playing pente, line games, chess, or froglet. But the common thing is that it is a smaller, much tighter-knit community within BrainKing. There are so many wonderful things in each of these little communities at BrainKing; Fellowship stairs, tourneys, and discussion boards are all typical to a BrainKing fellowship. But one of the greatest things to come from a fellowship; is the ability to challenge another fellowship in a team match. A team match really causes members within a fellowship to unite. It makes these little communities stand out ever so much more. To me, the best thing about the best gaming site on the net; are these wonderful little fellowships. I hope to see you there.
Wednesday, September 6. 2006
Author: gambler104
Young grandmasters are superb players. There is no question about it. But the one area that they seem to struggle in is endgames. In fact, that is a common theme among many chess players. They are very sharp in their openings and middle games, but they struggle somewhat in the endgame. If you looked at most C level chess players (rating 1400-1599), you would likely find that many of them could not mate with a knight and bishop and king versus a king in fifty moves or less. And I find myself at times, drawing won endgames or losing drawn endgames. And there is personally nothing more devastating than playing a great game for thirty or more moves just to blow it at the end.
So I am giving one quick piece of advice: learn your endgames. Most players know the simple ones such as queen and king, two rooks, and rook and king. But I would challenge you to learn to mate with a knight, bishop, and king. And I would encourage you to at least acquaint yourself with the general strategy of rook and pawn versus rook, and minor piece and pawn versus minor piece. It would be hard to learn every situation and it certainly is important to spend some time on openings and the middle game as well since you have to do well in those to get to a difficult endgame ahead. But spend a little time on endgames now- it will save you a lot of heartache later.
Wednesday, September 6. 2006
Author: Allison
When I first was invited to check into brainking.com, I was so involved in other game sites and trying to run my household that I put the idea on hold for several weeks. I finally got the chance to sign up for a free membership and the vastness of games and knowledge on the site impressed me immensely, I began to ask myself “why did I wait so long?”, soon having just the rank of a pawn wasn’t enough-I wanted….NEEDED…more games, I learned the different variants of backgammon and chess, I had always played anti-checkers but now I was hooked on Ludo. I met people that lived right in the next town - to far away countries that I only visit in my dreams, I have made friends of various ethnic and cultural differences, see it makes no difference here at brainking.com, we are all the same.
Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to grow in new games and accepting the difference in our fellow man. I disagree with some of my fellow players in the use of "aids" during gameplay, personally I rather use my brain than to use a checker program or a checkerboard to play out the moves, countless people have informed me that this is an okay thing to do, but I have learned to play better and think smarter "than your average bear", I have learned that just because some use aids not all do, and I have not minded "teaching" those that are less knowledgeable than I.
Overall, I would give brainking.com 4 stars for overall gameplay and enjoyment.
Tuesday, September 5. 2006
Author: gambler104
If someone were to ask a chess master how to become better, he might suggest many different options. The person could play games, read books, or insert their games into a chess program and let it evaluate the game for it. The third option here is the most effective. For a relatively cheap price, a person can be given expert analysis move by move. By doing this, a person can learn different situations and learn better moves for future games, and by doing so, they improve their performance. This could be done without a computer, but it would take a much longer time for humans to analyze and much more game experience to learn different situations and the correct moves for them. This is not the case in backgammon.
Computer programs are still in very early stages for analyzing backgammon games. The major reason for this is the complexity of analyzing backgammon games. There are 21 unique die rolls that must be taken into account. This means that there are going to be many more combinations in each position to analyze in backgammon than in chess. When one considers that the programs have to this for many moves into the future to effectively analyze a position, he can easily see that computer programs for backgammon are not going to be as effective as ones for chess. It is important to remember that these numbers must come from humans and to look at just two die roll for each opponent requires looking at 194,481 permutations of die rolls not to mention the different possibilities of moving associated with each one. The amount of time that this would take to set up is enormous. Thus, although some computer programs are being developed for backgammon, they are not near where chess programs are.
The second reason for difficulty in mastering backgammon is how luck affects how much players have to memorize. In chess, a player can learn a set variety of openings and positions. For example as white, the player may choose to focus solely on positions that start with e4. This takes away roughly 1/18 of the possible positions. In backgammon, there is no way to this. Any of the 21 rolls are possible. Despite the fact, that 15 of the rolls are twice as likely as 6 of the others, a player must be prepared to play any of them. Thus there is even a greater discrepancy in the number of unique possibilities between chess and backgammon.
Due to these two reasons and perhaps a few others, learning backgammon is more difficult than learning a game such as chess.
Monday, September 4. 2006
Author: nivabef
“You look so sleepy today!” said the receptionist as I slumped into my office at 8:30. I contemplated admitting that the reason I was so tired was that I was up all night playing games of Backgammon, Ludo, Halma, Chess and my personal favorite, Froglet with dozens of online opponents. Instead I just shrugged, walked to my cubicle, clocked in and immediately typed BrainKing.com into my Internet browser.
I was introduced to BrainKing by a fellow online boardgamer who goes by the screen name “Hannelore.” At first I was intimidated by the huge menu on the left of the screen and the dozens of different games hosted on the site, most of which I had never heard of. I wanted to see all the site had to offer and had no idea where to click first. I started a game of Crowded Backgammon with Hannelore, who assured me that I’d soon get the hang of it.
Hundreds of games later, I am severely addicted. BrainKing is a turn-based site, meaning that you take your turns at your convenience and don’t have to actually be online at the same time as your opponents. However, if I can catch a quick-playing opponent online we will often finish a half or whole game in one sitting. If just playing fun board games wasn’t addictive enough, the site also offers discussion boards, tournaments and fellowships, which are clubs where members can join in even more discussion boards and tournaments. And to ensure that you will never, ever work, sleep or go outside for fresh air again, the beloved site creator, Filip Rachunek, who goes by the screen name “Fencer,” has recently introduced “action points,” a system in which you earn points for playing on the site. The top points earners each month win prizes to reward them for giving their lives up to BrainKing.
I am currently in the middle of about 350 games. That sounds like an insane amount of games to be playing at once until you look further and realize that there are some players with literally thousands of games being played. Rachunek has definitely found a way to tap into people’s love of competition, games and wasting time and has created something that people find irresistible. Honestly, who needs sleep when you can play Checkers with people halfway across the world?
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Comments
Thu, 18.01.2007 17:07
Jasne
Thu, 18.01.2007 17:06
Tue, 19.12.2006 10:08
Anyone want to play anti-check ers?Comments ()
Tue, 19.12.2006 10:07
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
Sat, 16.12.2006 16:54
Guess everyone gave up writing these neat articles, they wer e very helpful in games I have never played--thanks ev [...]Comments ()
Sat, 16.12.2006 16:39
Fri, 08.12.2006 15:45
tried this again-I am definetl y doing something wrong:(Comments ()
Tue, 05.12.2006 13:25
guess everyone is through writ ing articles--could have reall y used someone's expertise in some!Comments ()
Sat, 25.11.2006 15:09
what would be the best opening move?Comments ()
Fri, 24.11.2006 14:24
Anyone have any ideas/thoughts on jungle and lines of action ?Comments ()
Fri, 24.11.2006 13:53
Alot of ppl still are confused about this!Comments ()
Wed, 22.11.2006 13:44
played this and it was actuall y fun! thanksComments ()
Tue, 21.11.2006 07:54
Nice article!~Comments ()
Sun, 19.11.2006 21:00
ugh, didn't work for me #1Comments ()
Sun, 19.11.2006 13:41
Strange game! Maybe if the wh ites used the long castling...Comments ()