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A New Junction

by SubscriberHikaruShindo on Dec 13 2018 04:40 | 932 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 | 693 views | 4 edits | Last edit on Dec 11 2018 22:02


Title here

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 | 2501 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 | 1254 views | 2 edits | Last edit on Dec 06 2018 02:30


Well that was fun.
Title here

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 | 5574 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 | 7263 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.

Title here

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 | 3694 views


Title here

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 | 3370 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.
Title here

page 40 has this to chapter...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

October 2018 update

by SubscriberRuss on Oct 02 2018 13:57 | 1642 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 | 3515 views


Title here

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 | 3452 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 | 1639 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 | 2126 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 | 2261 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

Qc_v9mTfhC8

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 | 1912 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 | 1874 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 | 1449 views


Title here

This is the painting ‘Cornered’ by G.C. Hindley circa 1900
Title here

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 | 2888 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

Chess, The Camel and Zwischenzug

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Jul 20 2018 13:09 | 2493 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Jul 24 2018 20:27


This advert appeared after Arnold Denker won the USA Championship in 1944.
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I have resized each pic to save your weary old eyes from squinting.
Title here

Title here

Title here

{imgblock=/imgu/blog/1/b4u437199-1531386541.png}Title here{/imgblock...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Taking On the Traxler

by SubscriberHikaruShindo on Jul 15 2018 22:02 | 2597 views | 3 edits | Last edit on Jul 17 2018 18:39

Hello everyone, and welcome to the only chess blog on the internet that speaks to clients on the phone about quantities and type of copier paper. As I mentioned several posts ago, I’ve been re-watching episodes of The Office, set in Pennsylvania, and there’s a scene where one of the main characters (Jim, played by John Krasinski) plays a game against one of the other office workers.

To make a long story short, if you google: (“wilkes-barre” “krasinski” “chess” ) the first result is the following delightful little minature:

Krasinski–Yakov Estrin Istra 1947
1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 {Estrin, as usual, seeks to control the game, and countergambits a pawn.} 3. exd5 e4 4. d3 Nf6 {If 5. dxe4 now, Nxe4 is uncomfortable for white: Qh4 is an immediate threat, and the knight is positioned well.}...

Posted to Hikaru Junction

A Chess Coincidence and 1813

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Jul 03 2018 21:18 | 3592 views | 3 edits | Last edit on Jul 26 2018 13:56


Hands up everyone who knows about Egerton Smith (1774-1842 ).
Title here

1. 32-33 47-45
2. 22 -24 58-14
Is Fool’s Mate.

rnb1kbnr/pppp1ppp/8/4p3/6Pq/5P2/PPPPP2P/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 3...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

The Curse of the Electronic Chessboard

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Jun 13 2018 11:19 | 4995 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Jun 13 2018 11:26


Hello again and first question of the day is...What is this?
Title here

It is infact the mascot for the 2018 Chess Olympiad which is being held
in Batumi, Georgia from the 23rd of September to the 6th of October.
I have not been able to find out the turtles name. All I can find is ‘The Turtle.’

The dates are important because the World title match between Carlsen and...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

The ‘Game of the Century’

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on May 23 2018 14:39 | 5648 views | 1 edit | Last edit on May 24 2018 10:13


Title here

Title here

Title here

Title here

Yes I know and also my quote from these pages way back on my 60th
blog when I was complaining about writers copying from each other ...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Chess and the Indian Navy

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on May 11 2018 14:20 | 4342 views


Found in a 50p box at the ‘Homes for the Homeless’ Charity shop.
no title

The 50p is the actual change I got from the £1.00 I handed over.

A solid gold chess bracelet. Well not actually solid gold but when
I give it to my newest girlfriend, Bald Flo Jones, I will tell her it is.
{imgblock=/imgu/blog/1/b4u437199-1490275699.png}green pawns{/imgblock...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

The Milan Vidmar Trap

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Apr 22 2018 16:59 | 4440 views | 2 edits | Last edit on May 10 2018 12:33


OOPS!
Title here

Apparently 100's of these were on sale at a tournament in Florida in 2002.
The position is correct, so are the names and the place.........but the price?
red pawns

Title here

At Hasting in 1926 Milan Vidmar (1885-1962) sprang a trap that with the...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Karpov was Jack the Ripper

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Apr 10 2018 00:22 | 4765 views | 3 edits | Last edit on Apr 10 2018 01:27


Title here

There is a moment in this film when Emma Prentiss (as played by
Jane Seymour) shows Inspector Frederick Abberline (as played by
Michael Caine) an artists impression of Jack the Ripper ( as played
by.....nobody really knows). She says she is selling the drawing to
The Stand Magazine but (and I’m sure most of you know this) the
grisly murders took place in London in 1888, the Strand Magazine...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Chess Junk and Russian Endings

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Mar 13 2018 12:57 | 8387 views


And this is how badly I am afflicted by the chess bug...
Title here

...I’m now buying broken china just because it has a chess theme.

My research, and here I remind my readers of my diligence in such matters,
took me to a small village in southern Italy called Polominto and it was here
I met with a one legged man called Luigi ‘He Who Hops’ who told me it wa...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Tournament: Part II

by SubscriberHikaruShindo on Mar 04 2018 05:39 | 2984 views

Hello all,

And welcome back to Hikaru Junction, the only chess blog on the internet that waves the flags that the robots made. Today we’ll be looking at the second half of the last tournament I played, in which I scored 0/3 due to some atrocious mistakes. Cheers to schadenfreude! After scoring 1/3, with a win and two draws, in the first half of the tournament, I was a little demoralized, but still took a positive attitude into the first game. I was wrong to do so, as it turned out.

Charles Hua–HikaruShindo Empire City Open 2017
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 {I played the opening as usual, developing my pieces in fairly standard fashion.} 5. d3 Be7 6. O-O b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 {The move weakens the d3 pawn– I generally prefer to only play c3-d4 as it’s more efficient if at...

Posted to Hikaru Junction

Tournament: Part I

by SubscriberHikaruShindo on Mar 01 2018 14:26 | 2470 views | 1 edit | Last edit on Mar 01 2018 19:48

Hello all–

Welcome to Hikaru Junction, the only chess blog on the internet with absolutely unimaginative titles. Today I thought I’d catch you all up on the last tournament I played in over the board, as a way of easing back into this blogging business. In any case, I last played at the Empire City Open in NYC, where I scored a rather pitiful 1/6. Hopefully my mistakes will prove instructive. Let’s get into it, then!

Mario Guevara-Rodriguez–HikaruShindo Empire City Open 2017
1. c4 f5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 e6 4. e3 b6 {Since White hasn’t fianchettoed his bishop, Black can control the light squares.} 5. Be2 Be7 {b4 is a better location, since it discourages d4.} 6. O-O O-O 7. d4 d6 8. Qc2 {White prepares to push the e-pawn.} Bb7 {Black finally fianchettoes, preventing the advance.} 9....

Posted to Hikaru Junction

Chess with Tal, Nana and Frodo

by Subscribergreenpawn34 on Feb 15 2018 00:46 | 8862 views | 3 edits | Last edit on Mar 04 2018 03:09


This is Frodo from one of the many L.O.T.R. Chess sets
Title here

Which gives me a great excuse to show the Frodo Game.

If any of you are coaching kids or just wanting a game to show
to your merry men down at the club then this is it. It's a classic. ...

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

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