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USA Chess Championships + Sam Loyd

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Mar 19 2019 23:43 | 1483 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Mar 20 2019 00:31


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Caruana in relaxed mode leaning against a White King in...er....em....Spain!

Caruana, Nakamura, Wes So and Sam Shankland are all playing in the USA
Championship which will probably have started by the time you are reading this.

From amongst this group, which I will call the Big Four, who will win?...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Boxing and Blitz

by SubscriberHikaruShindo on Mar 16 2019 17:14 | 819 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Mar 16 2019 17:14

Hello readers of the Junction,

Today we’ll be following up on last week’s dissertation with a dissection of the actual chess games from several relatively high-profile chessboxing matches (i.e. the ones which were filmed online with a board.) First up is coverage of the most recent tournament I have video of from the London Chessboxing page: the International Chessboxing Brexit Belt.

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Ville “Jukola” Makinen – Guy Cohen, International Chessboxing Brexit Belt 2017 ...

Posted to Hikaru Junction

Your Chess Lottery Numbers

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Mar 11 2019 22:47 | 1931 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Mar 11 2019 23:11


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Today I am going to make some of you endgame lovers lottery millionaires.

Title here

1. The number of people at you club that will be actually
interested when you say you have an endgame to show them. ...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

A Chess Trap No One On RHP Has Fallen Into

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Feb 27 2019 19:32 | 6291 views | 3 edits | Last edit on Feb 27 2019 21:04

The Road signs have been arriving. Thank you one and all.

The first one in came from Moonbus and this sign is found in Germany.

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Now a mixture of street names all from around the London area.

{imgblock=https://www.redhotpawn.com/imgu/blog/1/b4u437199-1551294076.png}Title here{/imgblock...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

18 years of Chess at RedHotPawn

by SubscriberRuss on Feb 21 2019 15:48 | 1552 views | 2 edits | Last edit on Feb 21 2019 15:50

18 years ago today, after a couple of months of intense late night coding, what was at the time one hobby project among many hobby projects, RedHotPawn was released to the world.

That chess site with the ridiculous name.

Happy 18th Birthday RHP


Now RedHotPawn has reached adulthood! 🎂 By dot com standards, it is virtually prehistoric! ...

Posted to The Flaming Pawn

The Boxing Day Mystery

by SubscriberHikaruShindo on Feb 20 2019 19:35 | 717 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Feb 20 2019 19:35

I started my journey armed with two critical facts: It was Boxing Day, and the Wu-Tang Clan make excellent music. If you can’t see where this is going, stop and listen to the below. Or, even if you can.



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There was only one problem, I discovered, as I attempted to piece together a chessboxing-themed blog: it’s really hard to find any actual chessboxing games. Substantial-time-Googling hard. I emailed several supposed governing bodies of chessboxing, the majority of which didn’t respond, although I did get one email back several months later (02–20–2019, for those of you keeping score,) from London Chessboxing. I posted in several chess forums, including this site’s, and got a few leads over in r/chess. It was on. ...

Posted to Hikaru Junction

A Chess Mnemonic and Chess Street Signs.

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Feb 13 2019 15:33 | 5219 views | 2 edits | Last edit on Feb 13 2019 15:37

...and now at no expense spent...The History of Chess (the last bit)

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In 1984 Karpov and Kasparov started playing the first of their 144 World
Championship games in Moscow, London, Leningrad, Lyon, Servile and
New York. It finally finished in 1990 with the score Kasparov 21 Karpov 19.

(I make that 104 draws which is the same number of books covering these matches....

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Chess History (part 11¾)

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Jan 29 2019 15:23 | 1078 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Feb 13 2019 15:05


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Where were we...Oh yes...the mid 40’s.......Alekhine passed away in 1946

Russia decided that FIDE needed a Chess World Champion and so invited
three Soviet players, Botvinnik, Keres and Smyslov to play for the vacant
title. FIDE meekly pointed out that it would look better if chess players from
other nations were allowed to take part. In the spirit of fair play Russia agreed....

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

A History of Chess (parts 3 to 9)

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Jan 17 2019 13:51 | 7013 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Jan 20 2019 13:32


....continuing with our history of what really matters in Chess.

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We left part II with Phildor, moving onto 1813 and we get the first
Chess Column ‘The Liverpool Mercury’ edited by Egerton Smith.

Egerton published a hand drawn diagram meant to show a checkmate in...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

A History of Chess Part 1 (and part II)

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Jan 10 2019 13:04 | 4105 views


So what prompted this....well it was this.

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It’s massive, by the time you finish reading it Chess will have a new history.

The book is even bigger than me! ...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Marshall, Alekhine, Nunn and Morphy.

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Jan 02 2019 23:43 | 3074 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Jan 03 2019 12:16


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An early Christmas present I treated myself to was this.

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I picked it up when I down in London for the World Championship...

Yes there is something wrong. The picture of the pieces have been mirrored...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

The Delayed Exchange

by SubscriberHikaruShindo on Dec 19 2018 20:20 | 7719 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Dec 19 2018 20:21

Hello all, and welcome to Hikaru Junction. While I was looking through my few binders of chess scoresheets, I happened upon something rarer than a game score. I came across an original Orion masterwork, stuffed in amongst the myriad records of past tournaments.

The below is several years old, the opening half-page of a chess comic I was going to write and draw. Unfortunately, it comes from the time before I allowed myself to accept I was skilled at neither.

My Chess Comic


Although this may be of great archeological significance, I’m nevertheless forced to turn us from these diversions towards the main topic of the blog– the games which I was searching for in my Romney-esque ‘binders full of chess games.’ ...

Posted to Hikaru Junction

A New Junction

by SubscriberHikaruShindo on Dec 13 2018 04:40 | 5559 views | 2 edits | Last edit on Dec 13 2018 04:42

Hello readers,

Last time around I went in hard on the introduction. This week I’ll only mention that one of my favorite tournaments, the London Chess Classic, is currently being played, and you should check it out. The format is a knockout this year, unfortunately, but games between Caruana, Nakamura, Karjakin, Aronian (at least, from three of them) aren’t ones you’ll want to miss.

With that housekeeping completed, let’s dive into what you’re (presumably) here to see: the games from the second day of the tournament weekend. (The first day’s, you ask? 404 Look no further.)

Orion LE (1713) – Craig B Roll (2257) MCC Open
1. e4 c5 2. d4 {I respond to Craig’s Sicilian with my trademark (or, soon to be, anyway) Smith-Morra Gambit.} cxd4 3. c3 dxc3 {He accepts.} 4. Nxc3 {The speedy d...

Posted to Hikaru Junction

2018 RHP Christmas Chess Quiz

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Dec 11 2018 14:36 | 4968 views | 4 edits | Last edit on Dec 11 2018 22:02


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A Merry Christmas to all and what would Christmas be without Charades.
All you have to do is spot the chess link from the charade. The first one is easy.
The answers are right under each picture, just click on the ‘hidden’ button.

A Famous Opening ...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Return of the Junction

by SubscriberHikaruShindo on Dec 07 2018 01:30 | 7068 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Dec 07 2018 01:31

Hello all,

Magnus Carlsen’s back, and so, apparently, am I. What is it that I usually do here? Claim I’m the only chess blog on the internet that does something? Apparently, I’m the only chess blogger that routinely loses a train of thought, since I wrote “I’m working on a bigger project for next week” in an introduction three months ago, and have since completely forgotten what that could have been.

I do have a new thing I’m working on now, though, and that brings me to my next point: In my absence, I’ve tried to re-evaluate my attitude towards chess. For some time, I’ve been a little discouraged, I think, partially because of the below rating graph.

last few years
...

Posted to Hikaru Junction

The 2018 World Chess Championship...BOO!

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Dec 04 2018 16:26 | 1566 views | 2 edits | Last edit on Dec 06 2018 02:30


Well that was fun.
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After 12 games, 12 draws and 3 rapid 25 minutes games Magnus Carlsen is still
the World Champion, the challenger Fabiano Caruana is now $510,000 richer and
we are all standing about, scratching our heads and wondering what just happened.

Punters on Chess Forums all over the net are coming up with suggestion...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Caruana - Carlsen, Game 5 and I was there.

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Nov 18 2018 16:27 | 5907 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Nov 18 2018 19:55


I went down to London for game 5 of the Carlsen - Caruana Match.
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This is me outside the venue with people queuing up to get in.
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And what was it like inside....
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...I’ve no idea because you could not buy a ticket at the door and...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Back Rank Mates and Chess Stamps

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Oct 31 2018 14:27 | 7555 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Nov 01 2018 10:35


“There are two kinds of chess player - those that have been back rank
mated and those that are going to be back rank mated.” Russian proverb.

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No amount of reading, studying or prior warnings will suffice. You
will only learn the Back Rank lesson when it has happened to you. ...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

On The Trail Of The Lone Bishop Mate.

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Oct 24 2018 13:02 | 4051 views


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I drew that at work. My skill in all fields has no known boundaries.

I was on Edward Winter’s Chess Notes site looking for something else,
whilst there I stumbled across a section on single Bishop Checkmates.

Mr Winter gives some nice examples a few of which I will use to set us off...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

2018 Chess Olympiad and a Cardboard Box

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Oct 10 2018 09:45 | 3627 views


A picture of a cardboard box with the word CHESS on it.
Title here

...er....that’s it.
green pawns

This charming wee book dropped into my lap a few days ago.
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page 40 has this to chapter...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

October 2018 update

by SubscriberRuss on Oct 02 2018 13:57 | 3467 views | 6 edits | Last edit on Oct 05 2018 11:59

The update scheduled for release October 3rd has a few changes that will be unfamiliar.

no title


Every large board will now consistently have the flip board button/icon in the top right hand corner.

Board settings includes set and piece options, as well as "after move preferences". It also includes options to prioritize different games when moving to the next game. ...

Posted to The Flaming Pawn

The Unicorn and the Cyclops + the 2018 Olympiad

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Sep 25 2018 18:09 | 3896 views


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A Unicorn playing with a Cyclops is an accident waiting to happen.

The Unicorn and Cyclops syndrome in Chess is a Rook and King.
Often in Rook endings the worse thing you can do is have them
playing together on adjoining squares. Accidents waiting to happen. ...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Writing Chess in Fiction

by SubscriberHikaruShindo on Sep 08 2018 18:48 | 3691 views | 2 edits | Last edit on Sep 08 2018 18:50

Hello, and welcome to the only chess blog on the internet that’s written in the school library.

Still working on some other stuff, and since it’s post-Labor Day here in the States, it’s been a little busy. As I think I’ve mentioned on here, I’m an amateur writer, and this week I thought I’d put up a post I originally wrote elsewhere on writing fictional scenes with chess in them.


–––––––––––––––––––
...

Posted to Hikaru Junction

The Backward Facing Knight and Lolli

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Sep 05 2018 16:59 | 2022 views


Picked this book up on the 1986 Kasparov - Karpov World Championship
by Wade, Miles, Bronstein, Hartston....(phew!).... Blackstock, Martin....

Here is a picture of the cover listing all the names.
Title here

It’s OK, reasonable notes, nice bit of background chit chat and the book is built
to last (a lot of my books fall to pieces during study), but.....there is always a but...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Bronstein and Chris de Burgh

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Aug 28 2018 01:46 | 2371 views | 2 edits | Last edit on Sep 04 2018 23:25


Did You Know No.182.

That Chris de Burgh brought out a CD called ‘Best Moves’
and on the cover is a famous position from a Bronstein game.
Title here

Title here

{imgblock=/imgu/blog/1/b4u437199-1535419861.png}Title here{/imgblock...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Yippee-ki-yay,

by SubscriberHikaruShindo on Aug 24 2018 03:03 | 2498 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Aug 24 2018 03:09

Hello all, and welcome to Hikaru Junction, the only chess blog on the internet that must have missed 60 Minutes. I’m working on a bigger project for next week, but for the sake of consistency I’ve dug up the games from my most recent tournament.

For those diehard fans among you, I’ll have to apologize and defer the topic to a later date, leaving you instead with

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Now, then, I could talk about industrialization and men's fashion all day, but I'm afraid work must intrude… ...

Posted to Hikaru Junction

Four Chess Books (what a naff blog title)

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Aug 21 2018 22:16 | 2152 views | 2 edits | Last edit on Aug 24 2018 11:05


The Edinburgh Festival is in full swing so to avoid it I visited an out of
town book shop I had not been to for a while. Oh Joy. I picked up four
books all for £1.00 or £2.00 each. So a quick review and the challenge
of finding an RHP game I can link too. I find two out of four...Not bad.

Title here

The first thing I noticed was that of the 60 pages 27 were devoted to Draughts and...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Aronian: Turn Off the Dark

by SubscriberHikaruShindo on Aug 08 2018 20:04 | 2067 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Aug 08 2018 20:08

Hello all, and welcome to Hikaru Junction,

the only chess blog on the internet whose author produced the startlingly insightful commentary “I think most likely is Aronian, for experience, consistency, and his recent superb form…Caruana is one of the stronger contenders, but he doesn't seem to play as aggressively, which I think will hurt him.” (176208)

As I’m sure you know, Aronian then proceeded to make me look like a fool by scoring 4.5/14, and Caruana doubled Aronian’s score to win the tournament.

In this handy-dandy graph I made, Aronian is the line far below everyone else’s. ...

Posted to Hikaru Junction

Chess for Dummies and a Pop-Up Book

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Aug 06 2018 22:31 | 1849 views


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This is the painting ‘Cornered’ by G.C. Hindley circa 1900
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A large copy of this painting hangs on the wall of the Edinburgh Chess Club.
We have on some evenings re-created the position in the painting on the board

1R4K1/6PP/8/3q2n1/8/Q7/2R5/4k3 w - - 0 ...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Tournament (Redux)

by SubscriberHikaruShindo on Jul 25 2018 01:40 | 3165 views | 2 edits | Last edit on Jul 28 2018 01:14

Hello all, and welcome to the only chess blog on the internet that saw that ludicrous display last night– the blog I had been back-burner-ing was scuppered by the necessity to get my computer fixed. Regular service should be resumed next week, but instead this week we’ll take a look at a tournament I played during my last long absence.

I started off the tournament paired against a stronger opponent, and although it didn’t show in my play, it did in my scorekeeping– deciphering what I had meant by the following scoresheet, four months after the fact, proved immensely difficult.

Bad scorekeeping

Look at this mess! Not only did I make several scorekeeping mistakes in the first few moves, I marked down which color I was to pl...

Posted to Hikaru Junction

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