Saturday, August 2, 2014
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Sunday, May 11, 2014
My reflections on the Chess Sparring Series with GreenCastleBlock
I really enjoyed my series with GreenCastleBlock and consider it an honor to have been able to do something like this. I know that a lot of people often consider the chess community to be full of pride, which has unfortunately closed down lines of communication and collaboration, but my policy has always been to be open and humble about my personal journey. To come out of 3 games with a US Chess Expert on the verge of becoming a National Master with 1 win and 2 losses is a result I am very happy with, and I am excited about playing more in this series after some training and improvement. I also really like how Matt took them time at the end of the last video to offer some of his personal reflections regarding his training, and I hope many people find that as beneficial as I did! I would like to that Matt for doing this with me, I believe it says a lot about both of our personalities and I have always had the utmost respect for him and his contributions to the chess community since I subscribed to his YouTube channel in 2007.
For my personal training, since the Sparring series began, I have decided to make several changes to my approach to the game. I am going to continue playing E4 openings and I will also re-introduce the King's Indian Attack and Reti lines into my white blitz play to explore those for when I don't feel like an E4 scuffle. For my defense I am making the shift to E4/E5 lines. I have been told by several people that the Sicilian is possibly best left until I reach the next level of the game. I have enjoyed my time with the Sicilian, but unfortunately it creates positions that currently are not emphasizing my playing style and strengths, so I need to explore which defenses align better with my style.
Thanks to all who watched, and please subscribe to Matt if you are not already subscribed! The link to his channel is in all the Sparring videos.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
New Chess Sparring Series: jrobichess vs. GreenCastleBlock
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Getting Inspired Again
Throughout my break I still played chess, mostly 5 minute blitz. My study time was negligible due to the busy nature of life, but I played daily as much as I could - blitz anyway. Very rarely did I play longer time control limits.
The new videos will comprise of a series that I always wanted to do on a personal level, and after that is complete I will resume study and continue with the other series that I have going.
Yours in chess,
jrobichess
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Chess Snapshot Analysis #6 - Can you spot any improvements?
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Magnus Carlsen Quits World Chess Championship Cycle
It's official - Magnus Carlsen has quit the World Chess Championship cycle. Many in the chess world consider him to be the prime candidate to hold the championship in the future. I am sure Carlsen fans around the world are not too happy about him leaving the cycle at this time, but rest assured he will be back. Carlsen has also launched a new website which you can visit here.
The following is a copy of the letter Carlsen sent to the FIDE regarding his decision to withdraw from the World Championship cycle:
-------------------
To: FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov & FIDE World Championship Committee.
Reference is made to the ongoing World Championship cycle.
The purpose of this letter is to inform you of my decision not to take part in the planned Candidate Matches between March and May 2011.
After careful consideration I’ve reached the conclusion that the ongoing 2008–2012 cycle does not represent a system, sufficiently modern and fair, to provide the motivation I need to go through a lengthy process of preparations and matches and to perform at my best.
Reigning champion privileges, the long (five year) span of the cycle, changes made during the cycle resulting in a new format (Candidates) that no World Champion has had to go through since Kasparov, puzzling ranking criteria as well as the shallow ceaseless match-after-match concept are all less than satisfactory in my opinion.
By providing you with four months notice before the earliest start of the Candidates as well as in time before you have presented player contracts or detailed regulations, I rest assured that you will be able to find an appropriate replacement.
Although the purpose of this letter is not to influence you to make further changes to the ongoing cycle, I would like to take the opportunity to present a few ideas about future cycles in line with our input to FIDE during the December 27th 2008 phone-conference between FIDE leaders and a group of top-level players.
In my opinion privileges should in general be abolished and a future World Championship model should be based on a fair fight between the best players in the World, on equal terms. This should apply also to the winner of the previous World Championship, and especially so when there are several players at approximately the same level in the world elite. (Why should one player have one out of two tickets to the final to the detriment of all remaining players in the world? Imagine that the winner of the 2010 Football World Cup would be directly qualified to the 2014 World Cup final while all the rest of the teams would have to fight for the other spot.)
One possibility for future cycles would be to stage an 8-10 player World Championship tournament similar to the 2005 and 2007 events.
The proposal to abolish the privileges of the World Champion in the future is not in any way meant as criticism of, or an attack on, the reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who is a worthy World Champion, a role model chess colleague and a highly esteemed opponent.
Rest assured that I am still motivated to play competitive chess. My current plan is to continue to participate in well-organised top-level tournaments and to try to maintain the no 1 spot on the rating list that I have successfully defended for most of 2010.
Best regards,
IGM Magnus Carlsen
Friday, October 29, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
New Chess Video: Grandmaster Chess Tactics #7
[Event "Reykjavik Open"]
[Site "Reykjavik ISL"]
[Date "2010.02.27"]
[EventDate "2010.02.24"]
[Round "4"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Henrik Danielsen"]
[Black "Tiger Hillarp Persson"]
[ECO "A37"]
[WhiteElo "2495"]
[BlackElo "2581"]
[PlyCount "79"]
1. g3 c5 2. c4 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Nf3 d6 6. O-O a6
7. d3 Rb8 8. a4 Nf6 9. Rb1 O-O 10. Ne1 Bd7 11. Nc2 a5 12. b3
Qc8 13. Bb2 Bh3 14. e3 Bxg2 15. Kxg2 Rd8 16. e4 e6 17. Nb5 Ne8
18. Bxg7 Kxg7 19. f4 f5 20. Qe2 Nf6 21. Rbe1 Qd7 22. Qd1 Rf8
23. exf5 exf5 24. d4 Rfe8 25. Qd3 cxd4 26. Ncxd4 d5 27. c5 Re4
28. Nf3 Rbe8 29. Qd2 Rxe1 30. Rxe1 Rxe1 31. Qxe1 Ne4 32. Nbd4
Nxd4 33. Nxd4 Kh6 34. Qxa5 Qe7 35. Qb6 Kh5 36. b4 Qg7 37. Qd8
Nf6 38. Ne6 Qf7 39. Ng5 Qg7 40. Nxh7 1-0