Entries by Servant

Author: Servant

Chess is like a triathlon, their are three parts to it, the opening, middlegame and the ending, three stages that are different. You can start out well in a triathlon, the swim and bike ride but it is the final run that decides who wins. A person in the lead after the bike ride can easily lose if they are too tired to run fast, the same applies in chess as a person who has the advantage after the middlegame can still lose in the ending, this thought should boost ones confidence in their abilities when playing a tougher opponent. Knowing endgames can help you as you can then think ahead in the late middlegame and have a better idea if you are winning, drawing or unfortunately losing. This knowledge then dictacts how you play, if you swap of pieces or just keep a central knight, long range bishop or a file sweeping rook. If you want to be a strong player then you have to play the best move until move 70 or 80 and try not to make a mistake after that. This is the approach of the modern day Grandmaster who is a really competitve player. I have been following the ongoing Chess World Chamionship in Elista, Russia and have noticed the strong moves by both Topalov and Kramnik in their games. They both have played brilliantly in the endgame and have been able to win and draw when there have been little pieces left. I can see that they are very committed to their endgames, they know that the game is usually decided at the end. To add to that they seem to be very patient too at the table. Much of the endgame requires thinking ahead, perhaps up to 7 moves ahead if one can do that, one such situation is when there are passed pawns and you have to see ahead to see if you can deliver check when you promote to a queen, rook, bishop or knight. You have to see if the opponent can do the same thing to you as well. These days, chess endings are exciting and tend to get alot of focus in tournaments rather than the opening where people who finish their games early come and watch the top board players take each other on right until the last move. I read about endings in the Australian newspapers and there are lots of tricks worth knowing. I have eight positions here where the pawns are invovled. To be honest these foot soldiers can really make a difference in the ending.

Author: Servant

One day i was outside watching the clouds for inspiration perhaps for a minute or two and came up with a novel idea that was profound.

What opening can put your opponent in a spin? When can you dream of excellent moves? What is recorded in magazines and newspapers as the starting moves of choice? In chess one of the best openings for Black is the Sicilian. Currently fashionable and trendy it is also one of the most popular openings ever. The Sicilian starts of 1.e4 c5 and then White has a choice of some different moves and the game can go in any direction, with names for certain positions like a najdorf, dragon, smith gambit, closed game, fianchetto game or a scheveningen. Black after starting slowly complicates the position, then heads into a great middlegame and then reaches an ending with chances to win. The Sicilian is used by the top players in the world. They seem to enjoy it in every tournament. I use it myself whenever i get the chance and have had some great results against the strong experts. In the Sicilian you will find subtle moves, sacrifices and unusual moves. A recipe for some deep thinking and excitement. I find that the centre of the board is critical since the central squares control the battle. King safety is also a huge priority, it can be left in either corner or stay in the middle. Consider the following games where Black moves first in all of them.

Author: Servant

I have dived into my collections of chess games and found some gems and even gold!. I'm rich. Well not in a monetary sense, just rich at chess.

There were many brilliant games to choose from and very instructing were most of them. Games from the world's best including Kasparov, Kramnik, Karpov, Svidler, Topalov and Anand. Not to mention great Australian players that no one has heard of. I did learn much from these and are worth revising. There is nothing so as important in chess than going into favourable tactics once a winnable strategic position has been reached. Tactics will turn up in the chess game about 99% of the time. There will be opportunities in chess where you may need to sacrifice pieces to end up with a winnable position or winnable endgame. This requires a bit of bravery and daring, especially when there are clouds hiding things in the poition. Since the middlegame is before the endgame there should be alot of thought into making a capture, checking or getting passed pawns. You should also create space for your pieces and not have them cramped. There is also opportunities to have a bishop vs knight ending where the bishop is the better piece because it can travel to more squares. Also the pawn structure has to be taken into account because doubled pawns are easy food in the ending. I like to have my knights and bishops in the middle squares d5, d4, e5, e4 and my rooks on open files. King safety is a priority too. In fact there are lots of things to look out for in the middlegame. No shortage of thinking. Here are some games that one can learn from. They are also rather enjoyable.

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.

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.

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.

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!