The Chess Mind

There's the ChessBase show tonight, of course, but I've also got two newly released videos on ChessVideos.tv. The first is the 17th-place winner in the USCL Game of the Year countdown (video here), featuring the interesting attacking game Bonin-Molner.

The second is something completely different, a fun look at some weird, fascinating backwaters in the Italian Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4). You won't learn much of mainstream theoretical value, but I hope you'll be entertained, enthused, and feeling wonder about the fascinating possibilities present in even the simplest and best-known positions. That video is here.

The U.S. Chess League is counting down to the 2007 season's Game of the Year, releasing one game per week. Yesterday, the 17th place finisher, Bonin-Molner, was released; you can find the game and the judges' report here. (In a day or two, my video of the game on ChessVideos.tv will be released. You'll be shocked to read that I'll put up a new post when that happens.)

In this post I mentioned that the U.S. Chess League had released the identity of the 18th place game in their Game of the Year countdown for the 2007 season. The game was Mikhailuk-Schroer, and I've presented the game for ChessVideos.tv. It's an entertaining and initially mysterious game, as White seems to be in control until Black suddenly sacrifices the exchange for a whirlwind attack the finishes quite nicely. I think you'll enjoy the presentation, which you can watch for free and without any special software - it's just a click away.

The U.S. Chess League is counting down to the 2007 season's Game of the Year, releasing one game per week. Yesterday, the 18th place finisher was released; you can find the game and the judges' report here. (In a day or two, my video of the game on ChessVideos.tv will be released. You'll be shocked to read that I'll put up a new post when that happens.)

Each week, as the U.S. Chess League powers-that-be reveal another finisher on their countdown to the game of the year for their 2007 season, I offer a presentation of that game on the ChessVideos.tv website. This week, I present the 19th place game, Friedel-Milman, and you can watch that game here. (It's free and no special software is required.)

Take a break from Wijk aan Zee and enjoy!

The U.S. Chess League's 2007 season is over (appropriately enough, since it's 2008), but the countdown to its Game of the Year has barely begun. Last week they released the identity of the 20th place winning game (Bonin-Shmelov), and last night it was the turn of #19. That game was a battle between Josh Friedel and Lev Milman, a Marshall Gambit where Black played a little better than White, but a draw was the seemingly inevitable result before Friedel first imbalanced the position and then blundered in a drawn rook ending.

You can see the game and read the judges' comments here, and if you check back in a day or two you can watch my video presentation of the game on ChessVideos.tv.

As mentioned in the last post, the U.S. Chess League is doing a countdown of their 20 game of the year candidates. Starting with #20, they'll release a new game each week, culminating with the big winner. Game #20 was Bonin-Shmelov, and I've done a video presentation of that game on ChessVideos.tv, which you can find here. (Every week, I'll present that week's game right after it's released.)

These shows are free and require no special software: just click and watch. And don't forget my other videos, if you haven't seen them: they can be found in this room. (The most recent one is part 3 of Tate-Monokroussos, from the Indiana State Championships last fall.)

As mentioned in this post, the U.S. Chess League is counting down the 20 entrants in their Game of the Year contest, for which I'm one of the judges (along with Alex Shabalov, Jenn Shahade, Robby Adamson and Ron Young), and game #20 has been revealed. The worst of the best is Bonin-Shmelov, a goofy but exciting game that shows the value of dogged defense. Bonin missed a shot in the early middlegame and should have lost right away, and even after surviving to the endgame he was in trouble there, too. Yet his resourcefulness, and ultimately Shmelov's lack of vigilance, wound up netting him the full point.

You can find the judges' report and a link for replaying the game here. And if you really want to go deep with these games, tune in to ChessVideos.tv in a day or two, as my weekly videos there will cover each of the USCL GOTY entries as they are revealed. (I'll give the direct link once they've posted the show.)