Monthly Archives: April 2015

There’s some rather odd moves in this game between Patrick Jane and Tolman Bunting in one Mentalist episode here: Chess experts will note that Jane has played the English opening. What many people don’t realize is that openings can transpose … Continue reading →

Here’s the game situation…jrj1701’s next move was c6xe5. Albeit a clever move to get him out of the inevitable situation I set us up with at the beginning where queens would be off the board, it is an illegal move. … Continue reading →

So here’s the basic overall notation right here (I’m black, my uncle’s white): 1. b4 a5 {uncle starts out with the Sokolsky opening–the queen-side bishop is a huge part of his attack so black needs to put some heavy pressure … Continue reading →

This puzzle was created by myself after a game I had on Friday where the only extra pieces brought by the person I played against for pawn promotion were a black queen and a white queen. Find the killer move:

…just think about the grandmasters who have felt stupid after losing to the seven move checkmate. In chess theory, there is a distinction between a relative pin and an absolute pin. An absolute pin is when the piece pinned is … Continue reading →

So here’s the first game that jrj1701 and I played where I was white. It was the third time black won and the first time jrj1701 won. Here’s how it went down: 1. d4 g6 (unusual defense) 2. Nf3 d5 … Continue reading →

A gambit in chess is where a player offers a pawn to his opponent for the means of taking control of the board on his own terms. The Englund gambit is actually a very effective maneuver against many queen’s pawn … Continue reading →

I was wondering if the counter c5?! would actually work for black to play in response to white’s defense against a queen’s pawn game. Here are the moves that could be done… 1 d4 c5 2 d4xc5 Qa5† 3 Bd2 … Continue reading →

So here is a recent game played between jrj1701 and I. e4 d5 I played the Scandinavian defense. My intention was that white would take my pawn and then I would proceed to switch into a more aggressive variant of … Continue reading →

I was playing two games of chess this weekend. I was black in both of them and I lost one and won another. Both games involved a very tricky bishop position. The problem playing defense with black is that you … Continue reading →