Chessalutations!
About a month ago, I finally checked out the chess server lichess.org! My immediate impression was this is a great server to play and learn chess. Here are some of the features that I like:
1) Free! It does not cost anything to play, and never will according to the developer.
2) Can be played on a computer or through a mobile app (iPhone and Android). However, there are some features the mobile will not have access, but good for playing on the go.
3) Tactics Trainer! Called "training" from the Learn menu, or main list on the app version, you will be presented with a tactics problem to solve, typically several moves to play, and given a rating based on getting the problems correct or incorrect.
4) Arena Style Tournaments! Different than your typical tournament, you are in a pool of players for the length of time of the tournament to play as many games as you can as you are paired with people. Wins are two points, Draws are one point, Losses are zero. If you manage to win two games in a row, you start a streak, where wins are now worth four points and draws are worth two until you lose again. There is also an option to go Berzerk, where before your first move, you can choose to cut your time in half, but gain one extra point for a win or draw.
5) Speaking of first move... a nice feature is that your clock does not start running until you have made your first move to give you time to say hello to your opponent, or collect your thoughts. However, you do have a 20 second window to begin the game, else it will be aborted.
6) Study! This is a very, very cool feature of lichess.org that allows you to create your own interactive lesson with notes, arrows, circles, etc. to teach others or show your own games with annotations. Many people will post and your can browse through their content.
7) Post game analysis and Learn from your mistakes features! When you finish a game, you can have a computer analysis done fairly quickly to identify inaccuracies, mistakes, and blunders to see key moments where you could have made a better choice. Even better, by selecting the Learn from your mistakes feature, the game will pause at moments where the computer found a better option, and let your test out a different choice before you let it reveal to you the better move.
8) Lichess TV! You can select this option to watch high rated players online in the different formats of chess: Bullet, Blitz, Standard,...
9) Other variants of chess! Play several other variants like Crazyhouse (no two player bughouse yet), Suicide Chess, Three Checks, Atomic, Horde, Chess960, King of the Hill, Computers, or Racing Kings.
10) Many YouTube chess videos are organized by opening, player, theme, etc. in the collection of videos you can watch.
11) Practice! Newly added, are lessons on basic chess themes and positions that you can practice vs a computer to test your skills and improve your chess knowledge.
12) Ability to export games and diagrams to blog posts.... speaking of which, part two of the An Unusual Response to the Caro-Kann series will be my next post....
May your kings always have a safe square!
Sunday, March 19, 2017
Thursday, March 16, 2017
Symbaloo (and my Chess WebMix)
Chessalutations!
One of our technology coordinators at school introduced us to the website Symbaloo. It is free to create an account and to setup. Symbaloo allows you to create a tiled page where you can preset various links to websites all in one spot! Kind of like a favorites folder, but more visual. Some people have their WebMix as their start page when they open their web browser. Below is a link to my WebMix I created with links to various chess website that I frequent or thought worth a look. It is a work in progress, so it'll change as I continue to develop it.
ChessHavoc's Symbaloo WebMix
May your kings always have a safe square!
One of our technology coordinators at school introduced us to the website Symbaloo. It is free to create an account and to setup. Symbaloo allows you to create a tiled page where you can preset various links to websites all in one spot! Kind of like a favorites folder, but more visual. Some people have their WebMix as their start page when they open their web browser. Below is a link to my WebMix I created with links to various chess website that I frequent or thought worth a look. It is a work in progress, so it'll change as I continue to develop it.
ChessHavoc's Symbaloo WebMix
May your kings always have a safe square!
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Visit to the 2017 Texas State Scholastic Chess Championships - South on 3/12/17
Chessalutations! (Chess + Salutations),
Though I did not have a team competing this weekend, or my own children (next year), I decided to go by the 2017 Texas State Scholastic Chess Championships - South on Sunday, March 12. This year I discovered, the scholastic event was to be split into two events:
(North on March 3-5: http://dallaschess.com/2017%20Texas%20Scholastic/index.htm)
(South on March 10-12: http://www.utrgv.edu/chess/tournaments/south-texas-scholastic-chess-championship/index.htm)
It is my understanding that next year will be split again, then a united one the following year possibly in the Dallas area. I will have to verify this. Just from a quick count using a standings sheet, I counted about 1433 students competing across K to 12. Once final standings are posted, I'll run the numbers again (being a math person and chess enthusiast) to compare to estimates I saw for the Regionals events from Region 8 and 10 (roughly 1400+ and 1000).
Any big event like this is a challenge to run and host, and UT-RGV this year utilized several buildings around the east side of the campus for the playing halls and team rooms. The weather was unusually cool for this time of year... below 70 with a brisk north wind blowing and a chance of rain in the forecast. Parents, coaches, and students were stationed inside classrooms and outside in the main gazebo area as well as making their own outdoor tents for the teams to hang around outside. A couple of chess vendors and several food vendors were around as well.
One of the nice ideas that I saw was the use of e-mail to send out pairings to individual teams in addition to the traditional posting at a table near results. Online pairings were utilized as well, though maybe not as efficiently as the e-mails or checking the pairings posting outside the tournament halls. Another nice feature, which I took advantage of on Saturday to follow round 4, was the top 6 boards of the high school section (I presume) broadcasting the moves live on the host website.
It was good to run into many of the chess coaches and directors of the event and meet a few new faces as well. Many of these people have been running chess events for well over 20 years since I first started to coach and become involved in the chess community of the RGV and our neighbors from Region 7 (our home region many years ago). Also wonderful to see is the generation of students who are now the adults coaching and continuing the chess traditions and legacies of chess here in South Texas. We are truly the capital of scholastic chess activity in the nation.
May your kings always have a safe square!
Though I did not have a team competing this weekend, or my own children (next year), I decided to go by the 2017 Texas State Scholastic Chess Championships - South on Sunday, March 12. This year I discovered, the scholastic event was to be split into two events:
(North on March 3-5: http://dallaschess.com/2017%20Texas%20Scholastic/index.htm)
(South on March 10-12: http://www.utrgv.edu/chess/tournaments/south-texas-scholastic-chess-championship/index.htm)
It is my understanding that next year will be split again, then a united one the following year possibly in the Dallas area. I will have to verify this. Just from a quick count using a standings sheet, I counted about 1433 students competing across K to 12. Once final standings are posted, I'll run the numbers again (being a math person and chess enthusiast) to compare to estimates I saw for the Regionals events from Region 8 and 10 (roughly 1400+ and 1000).
Any big event like this is a challenge to run and host, and UT-RGV this year utilized several buildings around the east side of the campus for the playing halls and team rooms. The weather was unusually cool for this time of year... below 70 with a brisk north wind blowing and a chance of rain in the forecast. Parents, coaches, and students were stationed inside classrooms and outside in the main gazebo area as well as making their own outdoor tents for the teams to hang around outside. A couple of chess vendors and several food vendors were around as well.
One of the nice ideas that I saw was the use of e-mail to send out pairings to individual teams in addition to the traditional posting at a table near results. Online pairings were utilized as well, though maybe not as efficiently as the e-mails or checking the pairings posting outside the tournament halls. Another nice feature, which I took advantage of on Saturday to follow round 4, was the top 6 boards of the high school section (I presume) broadcasting the moves live on the host website.
It was good to run into many of the chess coaches and directors of the event and meet a few new faces as well. Many of these people have been running chess events for well over 20 years since I first started to coach and become involved in the chess community of the RGV and our neighbors from Region 7 (our home region many years ago). Also wonderful to see is the generation of students who are now the adults coaching and continuing the chess traditions and legacies of chess here in South Texas. We are truly the capital of scholastic chess activity in the nation.
May your kings always have a safe square!
Thursday, March 9, 2017
An Unusual Reply to the Caro-Kann Defence (Part 1)
As a chess coach, I try to play a variety of openings against my students that I might not play in tournament conditions without some good preparation. A student of mine played 1. e4 and I replied with 1. ... c6, signaling the Caro-Kann Defence. Black's plan is to play 2. ... d5 with the support of the c-pawn and queen, countering White's pressure on the d5 square.
By far, the most common second move for White is 2. d4, creating the ideal pawn center and grabbing space in the center of the board. This is always a good idea, and is highly recommended.
However, this blog post is going in a different direction.
My student's reply to 1. e4 c6 was the move 2. Nf3. At first, you might think this is the move
of a beginner, having been taught to develop quickly, knights before bishops, and prepare for castling early. This is all great advice, and is highly recommended as long as there is not anything tactically or strategically wrong with the move. So, instead of creating the ideal pawn center, by developing the king's knight to its most natural square, White is also staking claim to the d4 and e5 squares in the center of the board, a strategically sound complement to the control White's first move of 1. e4 provides, attacking the d5 and f5 squares.
Now, White should realize that 2. ... d5 is very likely coming and has a response prepared to meet it. As a side note, I personally play 2. d4 vs the Caro-Kann as recommended in a book by Chris Baker called, "A Startling's Chess Opening Repertoire." So, when I saw this move played, it was not familiar to me already. Against the French Defence, 1. e4 e6, Baker's book recommends playing 2. Nf3 which allows Black to play 2. ... d5, or transpose into another opening.
Therefore, I did thematically play 2. ... d5 like a Caro-Kann player would normally do.
Black's second move immediately poses White a question. "What are you going to do about the threat on the e4 pawn?" To answer this question, let us go back to the main response to the Caro-Kann 1. e4 c6 2. d4. Yes, I know. I said this post was not about this move. And it still is not, but this is worth a look.
In the main line 1. e4 c6 2. d4 Black plays the move 2. ... d5 immediately creating the same question, "What are you going to do about the threat on the e4 pawn?" White's most popular responses are 3. Nc3 (Main Line), 3. Nd2 (Modern Variation), 3. exd5 (Exchange Variation), and 3. e5 (Advance Variation). In future blog posts, we will compare the 2. d4 lines to their counterparts in the 2. Nf3 lines.
By far, the most common second move for White is 2. d4, creating the ideal pawn center and grabbing space in the center of the board. This is always a good idea, and is highly recommended.
However, this blog post is going in a different direction.
My student's reply to 1. e4 c6 was the move 2. Nf3. At first, you might think this is the move
of a beginner, having been taught to develop quickly, knights before bishops, and prepare for castling early. This is all great advice, and is highly recommended as long as there is not anything tactically or strategically wrong with the move. So, instead of creating the ideal pawn center, by developing the king's knight to its most natural square, White is also staking claim to the d4 and e5 squares in the center of the board, a strategically sound complement to the control White's first move of 1. e4 provides, attacking the d5 and f5 squares.
Now, White should realize that 2. ... d5 is very likely coming and has a response prepared to meet it. As a side note, I personally play 2. d4 vs the Caro-Kann as recommended in a book by Chris Baker called, "A Startling's Chess Opening Repertoire." So, when I saw this move played, it was not familiar to me already. Against the French Defence, 1. e4 e6, Baker's book recommends playing 2. Nf3 which allows Black to play 2. ... d5, or transpose into another opening.
Therefore, I did thematically play 2. ... d5 like a Caro-Kann player would normally do.
Black's second move immediately poses White a question. "What are you going to do about the threat on the e4 pawn?" To answer this question, let us go back to the main response to the Caro-Kann 1. e4 c6 2. d4. Yes, I know. I said this post was not about this move. And it still is not, but this is worth a look.
In the main line 1. e4 c6 2. d4 Black plays the move 2. ... d5 immediately creating the same question, "What are you going to do about the threat on the e4 pawn?" White's most popular responses are 3. Nc3 (Main Line), 3. Nd2 (Modern Variation), 3. exd5 (Exchange Variation), and 3. e5 (Advance Variation). In future blog posts, we will compare the 2. d4 lines to their counterparts in the 2. Nf3 lines.
Saturday, March 4, 2017
(Re)Introduction and Chessalutations
Welcome to my RGV Chess Blog! I am Cody Pemberton, around a 1600 USCF player currently, returning to active involvement in the chess community. In the past, I was coach of the Alamo Middle School and PSJA Memorial High School chess teams from 1996 to 2006, a local tournament director, and the first webmaster of the Region 8 website for a couple of years after its formation. For the past 8-10 years, I have played in a handful of tournaments and run the chess club at South Texas High School for the Health Professions (Med High).
Chess never really leaves you. Over the past couple of years, I have seen my own kids take an interest in chess, students at school express interest in playing chess competitively, and my own ideas and aspirations in chess grow. Some projects I have worked on recently are a scholastic chess novel, Rivals of the Board, presently in a completed rough draft form with sequels and a prequel novel planned. I also have a chess card game I am presently developing (in its very early stages). I have an idea for a series of small scholastic chess books geared toward learning various aspects of chess. Returning to online team league play through the Lichess Team 45 45 League (more about this in a future post) is another fantastic medium to get the competitive juices flowing. And finally, if all of that is not enough chess, this blog will be the place to create chess content I want to share publicly that does not fit elsewhere.
This blog is an expression of my own opinions and does not necessarily reflect the views of my school district or other chess institutions. The content I release will be geared toward various levels of chess ability and interest. I hope you find my chess ramblings interesting, entertaining, informative, or at least thought provoking. May your kings always have a safe square!
Chess never really leaves you. Over the past couple of years, I have seen my own kids take an interest in chess, students at school express interest in playing chess competitively, and my own ideas and aspirations in chess grow. Some projects I have worked on recently are a scholastic chess novel, Rivals of the Board, presently in a completed rough draft form with sequels and a prequel novel planned. I also have a chess card game I am presently developing (in its very early stages). I have an idea for a series of small scholastic chess books geared toward learning various aspects of chess. Returning to online team league play through the Lichess Team 45 45 League (more about this in a future post) is another fantastic medium to get the competitive juices flowing. And finally, if all of that is not enough chess, this blog will be the place to create chess content I want to share publicly that does not fit elsewhere.
This blog is an expression of my own opinions and does not necessarily reflect the views of my school district or other chess institutions. The content I release will be geared toward various levels of chess ability and interest. I hope you find my chess ramblings interesting, entertaining, informative, or at least thought provoking. May your kings always have a safe square!
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