En Passant

Attacking too soon

Antone Roundy — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 13:16:00 -0600

Why is it usually important to complete development of your chess pieces before going on the attack? For one reason, consider the following hypothetical sequence of moves:

1. e4 Nf6
2. d3 Ng4
3. Be3 Nxe3
4. fxe3

What is the single most obvious fact about the state of the board? Black has no development (other than being one empty space closer to castling), while white has a strong presence in the center. Black may have thought he was making an even trade swapping a knight for a bishop. But it's im...

Taking notes during chess games

Antone Roundy — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 08:49:00 -0600

In chess tournaments, players are required to record each move that is made, but forbidden from taking notes to assist them in remembering their analysis. Outside of tournaments, the rules of the game are often relaxed somewhat--for example, players may choose not to enforce touch play, clocks may not be used, etc. So, how about note taking during online games?

Any rule that the players agree on is obviously acceptable. But who wants to be bothered with negotiations about rules before each gam...

Nursing my ChessMaster ranking

Antone Roundy — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 14:02:00 -0600

The other day, in spite of how few chess games I've played recently, I gathered my courage and played a ranked game against ChessMaster 8000. I lost. Then I played another, accidentally choosing blitz game instead of the slower game that I prefer, and lost again. After a few losses, choosing weaker opponents each time, and knocking my rating down a ways, I got to a level where I could beat the computer fairly consistently (playing a bunch of blitz games, by the way--my blitz rating was lookin...

Farewell Garry Kasparov. Don't go too far.

Antone Roundy — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 08:54:00 -0700

Garry Kasparov, the world's top ranked chess player 20 years running, announced his retirement from professional chess after winning the Linares tournament in Spain. I'll let others cover his reasons for retiring and plans for the future, and instead share the role Garry played in the beginnings of my interest in Chess.

This is a photo of two ads I framed together while working at the company formerly known as Claris. The text on the picture of Garry begins, "How do you make a computer blink?...

Don't forget, that pawn is pinned!

Antone Roundy — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 22:27:00 -0700

I was playing a game against ChessMaster 8000 today, and made a little blunder. I'd been piling up pressure on my opponent's e-pawn, and with everything ready to roll, pushed a pawn to attack it. I also had a knight and my queen attacking it, while ChessMaster had a knight and bishop protecting it. It couldn't avoid the confrontation by capturing my pawn because my queen had it pinned to it's king.

The plan was that I'd capture with my pawn, threatening ChessMaster's bishop and another knight....