As we approach the holiday season, I’d like to remind everybody of the few days that the club will not be meeting between today and the end of the year.  The club will NOT meet on the following days:

• 11/19/08 - closed
• 12/17/08 - closed
• 12/24/08* (No rated play - but we will have “skittles with Fred” so feel free to come out if you wish) 
• 12/31/08 - closed

Now the good news - we do meet just about every Wednesday during the year.  In fact, the “Thanksgiving Swiss” is currently underway.  Feel free to pay a visit if you want to come out next week for Round 2.

Check out our news section for a new article on the results of the recent world championship in Bonn Germany.

On another note, we have also added The House of Staunton as a new link in our chess resources section. Click here

As we celebrate another Halloween we can give a free plug to the coolest book cover that has nothing to do with chess!  In a recent Chess Life article they note that the book “Breaking Dawn” is actually the third book in a wildly popular vampire saga.  The over 700 page tome doesn’t even allude to strategy or have a single mention of the royal game.

I came across this book at the end of the summer while on a family vacation in Nantucket.  I was intrigued by the cover and was wondering what this new chess book was all about.  As I leafed through the pages, I realized that this wasn’t a chess book at all!

I’m not sure what the author Stephanie Meyer was thinking when she agreed to this design, but it is a really striking image and a cool cover.  So for all you vampire lovers out there - you might want to check this one out for yourself.

We have added a new website to the GrandMaster section.  Alexandra Kosteniuk, the “Chess Queen” is much more than just another pretty face.  She is an international Grandmaster and the Women’s World Champion.

She also has a nice website that has a variety of content for the aspiring chess player.  As noted in this month’s Chess Life, The Chess Journalists of America and the Cramer Committee voted this as the place for the best video podcast.  Check out the Free Chess Video Podcast link on her site, or go there directly by clicking this link: www.chesskillertips.com 

(note: you may need to adjust your firewall to see the instructional videos) 

The news section has also been updated with new items.  Take a trip to this section of our site to learn more about The World Mind Games, Super Grandmasters and the chess prodigies in Cuba.

We’ve added some new content to a couple of sections of the site.  First off is a new Grandmaster link to Alexander Onischuk’s website.  You can find this link on the right side of this page in the Grandmaster Section.

Second is new content for the analysis page.  The Hard Labor swiss recently came to a close with a hard fought match between Roger Pedersen and Howard Kushner.  This match had a lot of material that is instructive for players of all levels.  In light of this, we have posted three positions from the game as well as a full transcript and analysis.

The Internet Chess Academy is having their Fall 2008 Championship on October 12, 2008.  All players over 1400 are welcome to enter the tournament.

The tournament will be held in Hackensack, NJ.  The format is a 4 round Swiss System, Game 60.  Entry fee is $40 if you pre-enter by October 8.  The fee is $45 if you choose to enter on the day of event.

For more details, click the link to ICA and go to the tournaments section.

Over the 10 years or so that I have been playing chess in a club setting, I have found that the road to improvement is full of ups and downs, detours, and potholes! There are few quick fixes that will suddenly make your rating improve drastically.

One of the best methods to improve your game is to take time to do regular post-mortems on all of your matches. This can take many forms including: reviewing the game with your opponent, discussing the match with a chess-playing friend, or self-study combined with running the game through a chess engine.

Another helpful step is to put together your own chess library. A good library should include be well rounded and include volumes on openings, middlegames, endings and tactics. I have found that general study of chess strategy and tactics was a good way to get started. Once you have a good grasp of these areas, you can move on to purchasing books on specific openings. After that it can be very helpful to purchase a beginning endgame book so you learn one of the hardest things - “how to win won games”.

That said, the following is a sampling of books that are in my collection.

Winning Chess Openings - Yasser Seirawan

This book is part of the “winning chess” series by Yasser Seirawan.  I highly recommend all of the books in the series, but I will say that this volume is one that I come back to again and again.  The strength of the book is that it covers just about every major opening that you are likely to come across during your matches and explains the basic principles in great detail.  I have experimented with a few ideas from this book and once I found a few that I liked, I purchased specific books that went into more detail on those openings.

Winning Chess Endings - Yasser Seirawan

Similar to Winning Chess Openings, this volume focuses on the basics of endgame play.  Common pawn and rook endings are major features as well as an explanation of key nuggets such as the “in the square” rule and the Luciena and Philador positions.

MCO-14 (Modern Chess Openings) - Nick deFirman

A comprehensive volume of all openings and key variations.  This book has since been updated with more recent material.  Of course, you can also buy many computer programs with the same information - but many times I have found this to be a useful dictionary to look up the decision trees (and counters against) openings and defences that I have not seen before.

Reassess Your Chess Workbook - Jeremy Silman

If you have a hard time seeing your own mistakes, this is the book for you.  It contains a number of exercises that are designed to enlighten students about common mistakes and how to overcome them.  Silman’s writing style can be somewhat sarcastic, but if you can get past the occasional insult against all of us “patzers”, you can pick up some great tips on strategic planning.

Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual - Mark Dvoretsky

This one is for serious players who have already read a beginning endgame book.  The content is very dense and contains a pleathora of information on a number of endings.  I’ve been looking this one over for a few months now and have only gotten to page 35!  However, if you are willing to hang in there and plow through the material, it is sure to provide the information needed to turn “losses into draws” and “draws into victories”.

We are always striving to add new content to our site.  As such, we are exploring the possibilities of WordPress video capabilities. 

The video below was recorded during the winter of 2007.  It contains a snippet of a skittles game being played as other players were milling about waiting for the pairings to be posted for that week’s matches.

If you get to the club 15-20 minutes before 8 p.m., there is always time for some 5 minute speed chess before the real matched get underway!

The jokes section has a new top 10 list in honor of the new posting about the US Chess League.  Take a peek in the “Fun Stuff / Trivia” section to see the newest entry.