Continue reading »]]> Happy New Year to my readers!!! (Sorry for being a month late, I have been occupied by other issues lately.)

I have written a review on Chess Openings Wizard, an advanced piece of software predominantly used for learning openings and managing repertoires.

Here’s a response to a visitor’s question:

Hi GP: I learned to play chess many years ago. I want to improve my game. What do you recommend as the best method to study, board and pieces with books or use a computer. I ask because I see a lot of strong players online, but OTB play is where the proficiency level is determined. When I use a physical board and pieces it becomes a drag to constantly change to the many variations explained from the books and computer monitors. Your input will be greatly appreciated. Tevans2737.

Hi Tevans2737,

I was never a fan of using OTB pieces to study books. I preferred watching video lectures such as those on the software Chessmaster (latest edition is known as Grandmaster Edition). Nowadays, you will find a lot of younger players watching DVDs (such as those from ChessBase) rather than reading books. When I did read books, I liked to play over the variations on the computer (using software such as Fritz) rather than using a physical board. This way, you can check the annotator’s tactical accuracy against a chess engine.

That being said, I am sure some of my very highly-rated chess friends from the same era love to read books and would use a physical board to do so. I am just meticulous about this kind of thing because I really despise tactical errors (you will find quite a few in older books), so I much prefer to ‘read’ a book by entering it into Fritz. However, the way you study really depends on the amount of time you can devote to chess. Chess DVDs are relatively efficient if you do not have too much time to commit. If you do decide to watch some DVDs, be sure to take a look at some endgame and middlegame ones and not just opening DVDs (a common trap for improving players)!

Kind regards,
GP.

Continue reading »]]> Grandmaster Jan Markos’ first simultaneous display on Chess Friends finished with a 4.5-1.5 win for the grandmaster. Markos is the number one ranked player in Slovakia and has a FIDE Elo rating of 2596. Click here for the official ChessFriends.com simul report.

The next simul takes place on Wednesday,  21/9/2011 at 17:00 GMT. The qualification will held on Tuesday and is open to everybody registered on ChessFriends.com (registration is free). More information can be found in the site’s tournament section.

Continue reading »]]> I have published a new chess website called Chess Game Improvement. The site is mainly geared towards beginners. I find teaching this ‘simple material’ quite rewarding, especially given how far a player can go if he starts off with a strong foundation. The main GeniusProphecy Chess website will still be continually updated, although often with more advanced material or reviews.

Continue reading »]]> I have written two new related articles. A review of the excellent book The Art of Learning, by American International Master Joshua Waitzkin. Waitzkin is also the main spokesperson for Chessmaster, one of my all-time favourite chess programs. I have reviewed the Grandmaster Edition of Chessmaster.

I have added acknowledgements to my past coaches on my ‘about’ page. Many great coaches have worked with me over the years, but particularly want to acknowledge my long-time coach FIDE Master Geoffrey Saw.

Continue reading »]]> ChessBase is an extraordinary piece of database software that is sold on a website of the same name. The software dominates the chess market, particularly at the stronger end. ChessBase recently celebrated its 25th birthday and published a story regarding its origins, which involves a science journalist, an exceptional programmer and a world champion.

The world champion himself writes several paragraphs about how he came to be involved in the ChessBase project. The article also includes images of some vintage machines such as a BBC Acorn home computer, an Epson Z80 system with modem and dot matrix printer, and an Atari ST (based on Motorola’s 68000 processor) available back in 1987.

See the full article “ChessBase is 25“.

Continue reading »]]> Apologies, I haven’t published articles in a while. I have been busy with some other projects.

Efstratios Grivas is an author, highly experienced trainer and a chess grandmaster. He recently presented a highly informative series of articles on the world’s most popular chess website, ChessBase. I am going to summarise his tips as well as give my own take on the issues he discusses…

See the rest of the article “Chess Lessons with Grandmaster Efstratios Grivas“.

Continue reading »]]> Viktor Korchnoi is a marvel of human ingenuity. He is one of those exception-to-the-rule people who is able to maintain an extraordinary level of chess ability despite the apparent limitations of old age. Korchnoi has just turned 80 years old and has a FIDE rating of 2557. Click here to see ChessBase’s tribute article for Korchnoi’s 80th.

One of my favourite tournaments of the year to watch is the Amber tournament, which is currently taking place. The blindfold section of the tournament is particularly interesting and while many of the games are ‘spotless’, a handful show that even the world’s greatest players have occasional blind spots! (Note: blindfold play is where players are given an empty chessboard and must communicate their moves via coordinates while visualising where the pieces are.) There is a star field in this year’s Amber with names like Anand, Carlsen, Aronian and Topalov. Aronian is currently going into the final round with a full point lead. See this ChessBase report on the Amber as well as a link down the bottom to download all the games played so far.

Continue reading »]]> If you’re a regular visitor, you may have noticed that the official homepage for the GeniusProphecy Chess website has changed in format. I believe the new format is more visitor-friendly and makes the articles easier to navigate. It also prevents that annoying occurence where text stretches all the way out to the very edges of your screen. You may notice that these days, many websites have text running down the middle, e.g. Blogger blogs.

I have also added the new format to some of my most popular articles, for example, Free Chess Programs.

Continue reading »]]> Given I have been inactive in over-the-board (OTB) chess for a while now, I thought I would take up some extra chess apart from my usual online blitz. This extra training comes in the form of correspondence chess, a topic which I have previously written on and given a positive review about. I thought I would walk my talk and actually give CC a go.

There are several correspondence chess organisations to consider. My original intention was to join the most ‘official’ organisation which is the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF). The ICCF is directly affiliated with FIDE, the official organisation for OTB chess. However, I came to realise that I am rather strapped for cash – ICCF tournaments cost money, both in the yearly national organisation fee and a separate entry fee for every tournament commenced. I will need to earn some money first before I can join.

For the moment, I decided to go with a free alternative called Lechenicher SchachServer (LSS). The International Email Chess Group (IECG) is a long-running correspondence chess server which virtually transferred all of its business to LSS after it shut down in December 2010. LSS is programmed by one of the original founders of IECG and IECG also transferred its rating system over to LSS. IECG previously offered titles such as grandmaster, senior master and international master, although I am not sure how LSS is going to organise its titles. Unlike some other popular correspondence chess websites, LSS (and ICCF, as a side note) allows the use of chess engines to aid in analysis. This is fair enough because a non-computer rule is practically impossible to police anyway.

I have commenced my first tournament on LSS, playing in a double round robin server tournament in a field of 7 players with average rating 2061. The time limit is 40 days/10 moves and I am currently playing 6 games simultaneously.

Ideally, playing this tournament will help my OTB chess (that is, when I choose to return to it). I am planning to use a combination of human intuition along with engine assistance to hopefully play some high quality games.