My first goal is to hit 2000 elo. I have a fair bit of work to do now to achieve this because of my total ignorance in how the FIDE rating system works. If  i’d drawn my 9th game I would have gone in at 2040, as I lost it I went in at 1776. In fact if i’d realised how important the first 9 gamnes are I would have not played in FIDE rated events until I was better! This is quite a harsh... 

I decided to try my hand at chess compositions – I have to say it’s quite tricky thinking of something – let me know how you did!  Read More →

Having an opening repertoire is very important if you plan to take Chess seriously. I read in lots of forums that many players spend too much time worrying about their openings and should just focus on play the ‘best’ move in a given position. This is good advice to a certain extent but I think to make serious progress you must learn some theory and ideas behind certain openings. If you... 

It’s white to play and he’s been playing for 2 hours against a much stronger player, and feels in this position he ought to be able to at least hold for a draw. How should he proceed? Should he exchange pieces?, keep pieces?, shuffle his king around or takgo all out trying to create complications and attack blacks king!? Black is determined to play for a win and they both have ample...