Click here to look for "chess" with the Google search engine. Hello friend! ............... Welcome to one of the best {private} chess sites around. (Recognized as such by several national chess federations and also "C.J.A." Site of The Year for 2004.) ................ Check out my School of Tactics!! .......... Many improvements and NEW PAGES!!!! (Be sure to check the T.L.A. in 'Chess Life' for the tournaments in your area.) Thanks, and have a great day!!!

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Samples

Various (selected) samples of my writing.

On these pages, I will record various samples of my writing skills. I will try to brief and to the point, yet save only those examples that others have said are outstanding passages that I have written.

I was recently (December, 2003) annotating a game ... for a collection of short games. (Based on Nunn's book of 101 miniatures.) I sent out a copy of my writing to about 75 - 90 friends and {former} Internet students. Many of these acclaimed the writing as especially fine, and told me I simply had to post some of this on my web site. I finally agreed, but only after 20+ e-mails convinced me that they might really have a point! So here is the first sample for your enjoyment.

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After the following moves: 1.d4, d5; 2.c4, e6; 3.Nc3, c6; I wrote:

<< Modern masters understand - quite perfectly - the principles of chess. (That development is a very crucial concept in the opening.) So you have to ask yourself: "Why a master of the < modern age > would play a move that seems to (slightly) neglect his (or her) development?"

The answer is both simple, and also exceedingly complex. I am sure most modern players know that the 'best' move in this position is 3...Nf6. They also understand - too well - that after the pin, (4.Bg5); it is VERY difficult for the second player to find a move that is new, or will challenge White's nearly perfect grip on the position. So players since the late 1960's have {sporadically} sought to try and vary their move order, in a monumental (and often vain) effort to avoid the pin on Black's KN ... and force the flow of the game into channels that are less favorable to the first player.

And - BTW - the move, ...c6; is not a bad play in this position. Black gives more protection to the d5-square, and his piece development is left to be as flexible as the demands of the position will allow. The only real drawbacks to ...c6; is that Black's QB is shut in behind the Pawns, (A very common plight for the second player in the lines of the Q.G.D.); and that he has lost the {possible} use of the break, ...c7-c5. (A freeing lever that Tarrasch said every player must strive to make as Black in these systems - the sooner, the better.)

It is also possible in modern chess ...
by means of an extremely subtle move order ... to head for a main line of a specific system, or even lay down a challenge to enter a certain sub-variant of some line ... simply by the move order one adopts. (Was Black headed for: "The NoteBoom Variation" of the Queen's Gambit?) The flip side of this is that it is also possible to AVOID your opponent's favorite opening system ... simply by the specific move order that you adopt! >>

(Stay tuned for more selected examples of my writing.)

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Page first posted: Wednesday; January 07th, 2004. Page last updated: 02/09/2004.

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