Chess

[Murat B.]

I did the World Open in DC over 4th of July weekend, Under 2200 section. I definitely came with aspirations to win big money; top prize was $12,000 and 2nd was $6,000. Figured 7.5 points was a reasonable goal as that would potentially tie for 1st or be clear 2nd. And anything over 7.5 would be great while 7.0 would be decent.

Ended up with 4 wins and 5 draws for a very underwhelming 6.5/9, a 7-way tie for 8th for $290 which barely covers one night at the hotel. I was right that 7.5 would have been clear 2nd. The winner was a 14 year old Russian kid who scored 9/9 which is pretty insane.

Even if I had won my last game I would have tied for 2nd with 6 others and got about $2,500 which would have covered my trip, so it was a big difference. I started terribly with 1 win and 2 draws that were miracle saves by me against pretty weak competition. I then played pretty well the last 3 days and the remaining draws were all well played. Sometimes it just works out that way with the draws. But a good first day and maybe this is a whole different tournament.

I at least was able to do the touristy stuff yesterday since the tournament ended on Sunday. While I wanted the $$ I also was here to win a lot of points and unfortunately only gained 9 and am now at 2180. Not sure when I will play again…got promoted at work and now it’s going to be crazy the next 3 months.

With all the draws lately…7 of my last 12 games, they should send me overseas to negotiate peace

I have a question, a rookie question of course. I played chess growing up, learned the rules but it never caught with me because I needed to chase balls , weather it be tennis, soccer or basketball.The question is this. Anytime I watch a game someone says "Ok, so this is the so and so opening..." So it seems like people know every opening and the strategy to go along with it. Is that the case, or is there something that is not known under the sun? Is there room for improvisation? If everyone knows everything, how do you win?

 

[DarthFed]

I have a question, a rookie question of course. I played chess growing up, learned the rules but it never caught with me because I needed to chase balls , weather it be tennis, soccer or basketball.The question is this. Anytime I watch a game someone says "Ok, so this is the so and so opening..." So it seems like people know every opening and the strategy to go along with it. Is that the case, or is there something that is not known under the sun? Is there room for improvisation? If everyone knows everything, how do you win?

It’s an excellent question and one that’s not easy even for me to answer. But yes, openings all have names, and even intermediate players can name openings; ie 1.e4 answered by 1.c5 is the Sicilian Defense, the most common opening in chess. And those intermediate players will also know many variations, possibly many moves deep.

But with that said, even the best players typically can’t memorize every opening variation after a certain point, though it may seem like they do since they are strong enough to find the best moves over the board even if they aren’t necessarily familiar with the position.

The “improvisation” you refer to is called an opening novelty in chess, which means it hasn’t been played in a professional game before. It generally should be a sound if not strong move to qualify, otherwise anyone could play a horrible move and call it a novelty.

Overall, given greater and greater opening preparation with stronger computers, there are those who have the opinion that classical chess is already dead. I don’t think it’s there quite yet as there is still a healthy enough % of decisive results. But eventually it probably will be dead at the top level and then there will be more and more of an emphasis on rapid, blitz and freestyle chess. Magnus Carlsen clearly favors all those over classical and he’s still the strongest player in the world.

 

[Fiero425]

I haven't seriously played Chess in 30 years, but am usually amazed by how many aren't privy to a little known move; En Passant! I perform it just to throw people off & have to laugh as I expain it again & again::

The en passant rule is a special pawn capturing move in chess. "En passant" is a French expression that translates to "in passing", which is precisely how this capture works.

Pawns can usually capture only pieces that are directly and diagonally in front of them on an adjacent file. It moves to the captured piece's square and replaces it.

With en passant, though, things are a little different. This type of capture is the only one in chess where the capturing piece doesn't land on the same square as its victim.

To perform this capture, you must take your opponent's pawn as if it had moved just one square. You move your pawn diagonally to an adjacent square, one rank farther from where it had been, on the same file where the enemy's pawn is, and remove the opponent's pawn from the board.

There are a few requirements for the move to be legal:

1. The capturing pawn must have advanced exactly three ranks to perform this move.
2. The captured pawn must have moved two squares in one move, landing right next to the capturing pawn.
3. The en passant capture must be performed on the turn immediately after the pawn being captured moves. If the player does not capture en passant on that turn, they no longer can do it later.

This type of capture cannot happen if the capturing pawn has already advanced four or more squares. Another instance where this capture is not allowed is when the enemy pawn lands right next to your pawn but only after making two moves.