The 2024 Southern California Chess Championship concluded in exciting fashion. Here are the final standings: You can find even more information about this tournament and the SCCF by visiting this site: www.scchess.com/tournaments_n_results/state...
Could've Would've Should've A big part of chess improvement is going over your games. My preferred way of going over my games is to first talk it over with my opponent (if he/she is willing). After talking it over with my opponent I'll try to p...
Many people ask the question, how long will it take to become a master if I started studying right now? Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to this question; there are way too many variables to consider. Fortunately, I do have the answer that w...
The (Oft Butchered) Art of Exchanging One reason why chess is such a hard game to master is that aspiring student constantly needs to learn things and then unlearn them over and over. What I mean is that the beginner should be concentrating on n...
Many people have been seduced by the play of the winner. Sometimes to the point of recommending that the victor played perfectly and to emulate this person's play. This is all well and good, until you find out that many an annotator has been misle...
I got flagged (for only the 2nd time ever in 1200+ games!) in my round 2 game of the Leigh Hunt Memorial. I could easily blame it on the fact that were using an analog clock and I thought I still had 3 minutes left, while thinking my opponent only...
Many people want to make their way out to Southern California for the beaches, the celebrities, the weather, or even (as popularized by the Beach Boys) the California girls. But what people don't know is that the chess scene is also quite strong...
Fake It, 'Til You Make It “I'd rather be an optimist and a fool than a pessimist and right.” ― Albert Einstein Last Friday, 9/2/16 I played round 1 of a 7 round tournament held at a local chess club. I'm excited that I now live close to a club,...
A lot of chess players are playing in the many labor day tournaments around the US (and maybe the world?). This post is for those that are a little less serious about their chess or maybe just want to have a 3 day weekend to recharge (like me)! Se...
Why does a person with the rating of 800 (a beginner) lose, what about a 1600 (intermediate player) what about a Master (2200 rating/advanced player) and above? We know they all lose, some less than others, but they do all lose. Do they lose the s...
I've had many a student suggest that they want to change their opening repetoire. They usually state some reason such as: "it's just not my style". When I was a new teacher I'd go along with their request and teach them about this new opening they...
While I was eating a fish burrito for lunch (so So Cal), I got a text from a friend who is an 1800 USCF rated player himself. I had told him to check out the Sinquefield Cup coverage; that I had thought that it had a lot of very interesting games....
I recently viewed a blog titled "Build Your Opening Repertoire" <--click on the link to view the excellent video with a bunch of advice about building an opening repertoire. Which gave me the idea for this blog about HOW to build an opening rep...
The title of this blog is a Russian (chess) proverb that has always stuck with me. The stronger the player, the more likely they are getting THEIR ideas onto the chessboard. You've probably heard that the quickest way to chess improvement is thr...
One of the trickiest openings I know, is what I call the "Win a Piece" variation of the Caro-Kann. Full credit for developing the opening should be given to Colorado's infamous NM Brian Wall; developer of such crazy openings as the "Fishing Pole" ...
One of the best ways to keep yourself honest when going over chess puzzles, is to set a timer and write down everything you were thinking. At the end compare to the correct answer. If you have a coach/teacher this information will be invaluable to...
28th Southern California Championship July 7-10, 2016 The 2016 So Cal State Chess Champs were held in Temecula, CA. This year's cowinners were John Daniel Bryant and Keaton Kiewra, congrats to both! This was a very strong tournament with an averag...
Yesterday I had my most successful (to date) Titled Tuesday, with a 5/9 score. This was greatly helped by a last round win against a disgruntled/half hearted GM Simon Williams; but I'll take it! The game we'll be going over today featured a curre...
When you reach the rating of 1600, you are considered a club player. You may not think this means anything, but in actuality it really means you can walk into 100 American coffeeshops, and at least 90 times you'll be, by far, the best player there...
I hope it goes without saying that we are building upon previous blogs. So until you feel comfortable with the previous blog (click here to review) I wouldn't touch this blog. But if you are ready to move on to a new level of endgame understanding...
In this endgame series we will be going over what I believe each rating level should know. As I said in the introduction to this endgame series, it's important to study endgames that happen in your games and the endgames that you should be able to...
On June 11th and 12th I played in a 4 game tournament designed to qualify 3 people for the Southern California State Champs. I had to win my final game with the Black pieces (which I did, barely, after 5+ grueling hours) in order to get to 2.5/4 w...
Over all my years of teaching I've heard all the excuses: "My games don't get to endgames anyways." "What's the use of being good at endgames, if I just killed in opening or by some devastating tactic?" "Everyone says studying tactics is the quic...
Chessbase is doing a great job, analyzing and going over the US 2016 Chess Championships. Click here for their latest coverage (as of 04/19/2016). However, running concurrently with the US Chess Championships is the US Women's Championships! IMO ...
So you think you know all about defending against 1. e4 with 1...e5!? Let's test out your skills with some puzzles below. This will test out your opening knowledge along with some tactics that developed from games that started 1. e4 e5. Good luck!...
