Chess

[NotOfThisWorld66]

I would like to know if anyone on the board plays chess very seriously.  As for me, I have not yet competed in any tournaments, but I would like to.  Based on games against rated computers, I have estimated I am around 1600-1800 Elo rating.

Anyway, I am quite curious!

[New Raven BR]

i am the cream of the crap in chess 
though i did check out the idiot's guide to chess and chess for dummies

[Gohanick]

I play chess quite frequently and think Im pretty good. I play on a program called playchess.com but don't have an account. Any way we could play?

[Colin Michael]

I like chess, but have a short attention span.

[thestrongangel]

I like chess, but have a short attention span.

That's me too. I hate sitting through a chess game even though I'm a decent player.

[NotOfThisWorld66]

Hey, guys.  Thank you for the quick response!  If any of you know what an Elo rating is, could you post it?  That might give me a good idea of how good you are.  If you do not have an Elo rating, ignore the part of this post written above.

If any of you know what an Elo rating is, 1600-1800 would be about Class C to Class A player.  I personally find chess quite interesting and artistic.  Anyway, thanks again, and feel free to continue posting.

[EmJayBee83]

Send a PM to Egyptian. He's like a 2100 player.

You may also want to sign up for an account on FCS. That's where a goodly chunk of the better players hang out.

[NotOfThisWorld66]

Thanks EmJay!  I actually managed to draw a player in blitz whose rating stats was the following:

Standard:
2200

Blitz:
2190

Bullet:
Can't remember

Pretty cool, huh?  But as for PMing Egyptian, I will do that after I finish school today.  Thanks again!

[Egyptian]

NotOfThisWorld, here are some recommended books:

Zurich 1953 International Chess Tournament (David Bronstein)
Chess Openings Theory & Practice (written in the 1960s by IA Horowitz, somewhat dated but still excellent resource for under 2200)
A Guide to Chess Endings (Max Euwe)

These are the books I use. Below 2000 chess is 99% tactics anyway. And you have to know endgames.

For computer recommendations, PM me.

[Colin Michael]

I mean, if we got chess going on the boards, I'd be down. I need to work on my attention-paying anyways.

[Egyptian]

Bobby Fischer plays Mikhail Tal at the 1959 Candidates' Tournament.
Score: Tal - 4, Fischer - 0

[Event "1959 Candidates' Tournament"]
[Site "Yugoslavia, Bled"]
[Date "1959.??.??"]
[Round "06"]
[White "Tal, M."]
[Black "Fischer, R."]
[Result "1-0"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 O-O 6.Nf3 e5 7.d5 Nbd7 8.Bg5 h6
9.Bh4 a6 10.Nd2 Qe8 11.O-O Nh7 12.b4 Ng5 13.f3 f5 14.Bf2 Qe7 15.Rc1 Nf6
16.c5 Bd7 17.Qc2 Nh5 18.b5 fxe4 19.Ndxe4 Nxe4 20.fxe4 Nf4 21.c6 Qg5 22.Bf3
bxc6 23.dxc6 Bg4 24.Bxg4 Qxg4 25.Be3 axb5 26.Bxf4 exf4 27.Nxb5 Rf7 28.Qc4
Rc8 29.Rf3 Be5 30.Rcf1 Kg7 31.a4 Ra8 32.Kh1 Qg5 33.g3 Raf8 34.gxf4 Bxf4
35.Nd4 Qh4 36.Rxf4 Rxf4 37.Ne6+ Kh8 38.Qd4+ R8f6 39.Nxf4 Kh7 40.e5 dxe5
41.Qd7+ 1-0

[Event "1959 Candidates' Tournament"]
[Site "Yugoslavia, Bled"]
[Date "1959.??.??"]
[Round "13"]
[White "Fischer, R."]
[Black "Tal, M."]
[Result "0-1"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bb3 Be7 8.f4 O-O
9.Qf3 Qc7 10.O-O b5 11.f5 b4 12.Na4 e5 13.Ne2 Bb7 14.Ng3 Nbd7 15.Be3 Bc6
16.Bf2 Qb7 17.Rfe1 d5 18.exd5 Nxd5 19.Ne4 Nf4 20.c4 g6 21.fxg6 f5 22.g7
Kxg7 23.Qg3+ Kh8 24.Nec5 Nxc5 25.Bxc5 Bxc5+ 26.Nxc5 Qc7 27.Qe3 Rae8 28.Re2
Nxe2+ 29.Qxe2 Bxg2 30.Nxa6 Qa7+ 31.Kxg2 Rg8+ 32.Kh3 Qg7 33.Bd1 Re6 0-1

[Event "1959 Candidates' Tournament"]
[Site "Yugoslavia, Zagreb"]
[Date "1959.??.??"]
[Round "20"]
[White "Tal, M."]
[Black "Fischer, R."]
[Result "1-0"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 O-O 6.Nf3 e5 7.d5 Nbd7 8.Bg5 h6
9.Bh4 a6 10.O-O Qe8 11.Nd2 Nh7 12.b4 Bf6 13.Bxf6 Nhxf6 14.Nb3 Qe7 15.Qd2
Kh7 16.Qe3 Ng8 17.c5 f5 18.exf5 gxf5 19.f4 exf4 20.Qxf4 dxc5 21.Bd3 cxb4
22.Rae1 Qf6 23.Re6 Qxc3 24.Bxf5+ Rxf5 25.Qxf5+ Kh8 26.Rf3 Qb2 27.Re8 Nf6
28.Qxf6+ Qxf6 29.Rxf6 Kg7 30.Rff8 Ne7 31.Na5 h5 32.h4 Rb8 33.Nc4 b5 34.Ne5
1-0

[Event "1959 Candidates' Tournament"]
[Site "Yugoslavia, Beograd"]
[Date "1959.??.??"]
[Round "27"]
[White "Fischer, R."]
[Black "Tal, M."]
[Result "0-1"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bb3 b5 8.f4 b4
9.Na4 Nxe4 10.O-O g6 11.f5 gxf5 12.Nxf5 Rg8 13.Bd5 Ra7 14.Bxe4 exf5 15.
Bxf5 Re7 16.Bxc8 Qxc8 17.Bf4 Qc6 18.Qf3 Qxa4 19.Bxd6 Qc6 20.Bxb8 Qb6+ 21.
Kh1 Qxb8 22.Qc6+ Rd7 23.Rae1+ Be7 24.Rxf7 Kxf7 25.Qe6+ Kf8 26.Qxd7 Qd6 27.
Qb7 Rg6 28.c3 a5 29.Qc8+ Kg7 30.Qc4 Bd8 31.cxb4 axb4 32.g3 Qc6+ 33.Re4
Qxc4 34.Rxc4 Rb6 35.Kg2 Kf6 36.Kf3 Ke5 37.Ke3 Bg5+ 38.Ke2 Kd5 39.Kd3 Bf6
40.Rc2 Be5 41.Re2 Rf6 42.Rc2 Rf3+ 43.Ke2 Rf7 44.Kd3 Bd4 45.a3 b3 46.Rc8
Bxb2 47.Rd8+ Kc6 48.Rb8 Rf3+ 49.Kc4 Rc3+ 50.Kb4 Kc7 51.Rb5 Ba1 52.a4 b2
0-1

You can get all the games from the 1959 Candidates' tournament from this address:
ftp.pitt.edu/group/student-activities/chess/PGN/Events/0-1991/59candpg.zip

The ZIP file unzips to a PGN file which you can open with Wordpad. Use Babaschess or preferably SCID to review games.

[New Raven BR]

uhh, what happened to rrules?

[NotOfThisWorld66]

uhh, what happened to rrules?

Are you talking about the user Rrulez?  I do not know.  But I would prefer it if you only posted about this topic.  I think those are the rrules (get it? )

[New Raven BR]

Fail
and i was only asking

[NotOfThisWorld66]

Just a friendly reminder.  Didn't mean to be harsh or anything.

[77matthew]

My dad likes chess, and I enjoy Chess also.

In fact, I beat a life master once!

Here is the Lion Tamer Story:
 
http://home.att.net/~cs.chess/newsletter/Tue_Feb_19_2008.html
 
Here is the game viewer:
 
http://home.att.net/~cs.chess/games/wallanderson10282007.htm
 
Here is a photo:
 
http://cs.chess.home.att.net/chess_photos/pages/B_wall5.htm

[NotOfThisWorld66]

Whoa...a real Life Master.  What was his rating?  That's awesome!
I've only ever gotten to play rated computers.  I beat an expert computer a few times, which is pretty cool considering I'm not quite in Junior High yet!   Of course, computers aren't as good as humans.  There's going to be a difference between an expert computer and an expert human.  But, as I have said before, I have drawn a master in a blitz tournament game online.  He was rated 2190 in blitz and 2200 in standard.  Pretty cool!  Anyway, excellent competition and great playing!

[77matthew]

He was 2200

[NotOfThisWorld66]

Hey everyone!  Just drew a computer rated 2205 in 20 moves!  We agreed to a draw because the position was really unclear and neither of us could figure out any clear conclusions to the position.  Anyway, Chessmaster analyzed the game for me, and it said we played equally, and it agreed with all of our moves equally.  I haven't even drawn a computer rated above 2100 before (except once against a computer made to play like GM Peter Leko, but that was really early in the game when we could have come to some conclusions.)  To God be all the glory since I'm still a youngster!  Praise God!

[crustpope]

I recently discovered the chess titans program on my Dell laptop.  Is it any good?

[EmJayBee83]

I recently discovered the chess titans program on my Dell laptop.  Is it any good?

Define "good." As far as playing chess goes--the engine is not really very good. On the other hand, if you're an occasional player, playing against Chess Titans will probably be more fun than getting destroyed by a Fritz or Crafty on a regular basis.

Oh, and the graphics are shiny--especially using Aero.

[NotOfThisWorld66]

Programs like Chessmaster, Fritz, and Crafty are definitely for regular players.  Such things as engines that are mere programs already installed into the computer are more than likely for occasional players.  Of course, if you want to become a regular player, Chessmaster is the way to go because of its tutorials and wide variety of skill levels.

[adamfincher]

chess titans is cool!

[Felix]

I love chess, I just don't get to play much.

[NotOfThisWorld66]

Chess is an amazing game, and requires extreme intelligence.  Using your head is what makes it so fun.