Update for Week 4

Super Friends team members completed a record 33 games this week, bringing the total count of finished matches to 75. As of Saturday night, our team rating was down 10 points from a week ago to 1275, which moved us down 5 spots to 94th place in the Gameknot team tables. Let's work on maintaining a spot in the top-100.

Our team record for the week on finished matches was 16 wins, 16 losses, and a draw, bringing our total to 35/37/3 for a team score of negative 2. Wins this week came in from 1987DODGE, BEANOBUDDY, HOME_ALONE_MARV, JAMES55, JASQUET, JVOLD, PIZZAKEITH, and PUPPY_KING.

Super Friends added three new members for a team record 25 players as of Saturday night. Here are our recent additions: RKBA6 (Aug. 22), SIR_LANCELOT (Aug. 27), and THELLOO (Aug. 28). Welcome to Super Friends!

DALEMAN set up a new team forum on the Gameknot site. It's a bit random and irreverent and not at all related to chess, but it's another way to get to know your teammates, so I encourage you to at least visit if you get a chance. The Gameknot forums run out when they reach 50 posts, so we'll let you know when we start a new one.

E-mail me at dirtwindow@myway.com if you would like to have me sign you up with a username and password for posting messages at this site.

More Chess Openings

Here's another helpful study tool.

"Since the beginning of the sixteenth century, chess theory has been the subject of intense investigation. The majority of this study has been dedicated to the Chess Openings. Since these opening moves will eventually determine the course of the game, it is understood that the first moves are those of greater importance."

--Al Horowitz & Fred Reinfeld

Poor Sportsmanship

"Maybe the guys were just trying to impress someone by saying they were grandmasters," he said. "Or maybe they were trying to give chess players a bad name."

Come to find out, these criminal offenders might not even know how to play chess. The most disturbing part of the story, however, is the number of bodies discovered in the last week. (Once you get to the story, the body count is in the fact box on the right.)

Another Game to Analyze

Thanks again, Daleman, for posting the first game. I'll go next. Here is a game I'd like to have help thinking through. I felt like I was playing pretty well, building up my forces to bear on his king in the corner. But something didn't work, and I ended up minus a minor piece, enough to let him whittle away at my pawns in the endgame. Is there a single mistake here that any of you can see? Sure would appreciate your help.

New Gameknot Forum

Thanks to Daleman for setting up the new Gameknot team forum. It's a convenient spot to discuss just about anything, but it's limited to 50 posts, so we'll let you know when it's full and where we've put the new one.

Update for Week 3

Super Friends team members completed a record 22 games this week, bringing the total count of finished matches to 42. As of Saturday night, our team rating was up 21 points from a week ago to 1285, which moves us up 20 spots to 89th place in the Gameknot team tables. Brilliant!

Our team record for the week on finished matches was 10 wins, 11 losses, and a draw, bringing our total to 19/21/2 for a team score of negative 2. Wins this week came in from 1987DODGE, BEANOBUDDY, DALEMAN, ETERNAL_SHADOW, PIZZAKEITH, and ROKHOUND.

Super Friends added two new members for a team record 22 players as of Saturday night. Here are our recent additions: XTERMINATOR (Aug. 16) and PUPPY_KING (Aug. 21). Welcome to Super Friends!

E-mail me at dirtwindow@myway.com if you would like to have me sign you up with a username and password for posting messages at this site.

Chocolate for the Win

Jonathan Rowson, ranked 150 in the world and a grandmaster since 1999, proved that you can "Make it Happen with Snickers" when he attributed his win at the British Chess Championship to the American-made chocolate bar. Looks like an easy way to improve your game, but I'm not sure it would work for me.

Extra Skill

This article suggests that learning to play chess helps children with creative thinking, reading, and math. But has playing chess helped you?

This Week at Super Friends

Super Friends team members completed a record 19 games this week, bringing the total count of finished matches to 20. We entered the Established Teams table Saturday night at a team rating of 1264 or 109th place. Let's work on getting up into the top 100.

Our team record for the week on finished matches was 8 wins, 10 losses, and a draw, bringing our total to 9/10/1 for a team score of -1. Wins this week came in from 1987DODGE, DALEMAN, KAVJACK and PIZZAKEITH. Our only completed game the previous week and first-ever team win was due to the efforts of ETERNAL_SHADOW.

Super Friends has a team record 20 members as of Sunday afternoon with JVOLD topping off the list as the newest Friend. Here are some of our recent additions: BORBA and Z-DAWG (joined Aug. 13); BILLYTHEWONDERGOAT (Aug. 11); JASQUET, JAMES55, and MIKE_MAXTED (Aug. 10); KAVJACK (Aug. 9); PIZZAKEITH (Aug. 8). Welcome to Super Friends!

DALEMAN and I have started work, developing a team philosophy. Please e-mail me at dirtwindow@myway.com or send either one of us a private message if you would like to be involved or have helpful ideas.

Announcements

Here are just a few team announcements:

Thanks to Daleman for setting up the new Gameknot team forum. It's a convenient spot to discuss just about anything, but it's limited to 50 posts, so we'll let you know when it's full and where we've put the new one.

Welcome to new team members: James55 and Jasquet joined today. Since we're still a fairly new team, I encourage you to click on comments after this post and introduce yourselves.

If you haven't already done so, send me a private message or e-mail me at dirtwindow@myway.com regarding team games. I'd like to know the maximum number of games you are willing to play at any one time and whether you need more than the standard three days to move on team games.

Chess City

Looks like I've finally found a reason to visit the Middle East. Chess City, a Russian-funded development in the United Arab Emirates, will include 32 buildings shaped like chess pieces when complete.

Favorite Resources

I'm developing links (on your right) to useful chess resources. What are your favorites?

New Members

Our team is growing. Rokhound — from the Boise, Idaho area — just joined us this morning. Send him a message welcoming him to the team if you get a chance. Right now, we're getting two or three team challenges a day, but I have to reject most because we don't match up very closely on ratings. Our biggest holes are at 1150 (we need two players in the 1100 to 1250 range) and at 1600 and above. Let me know if you have some ideas for players we should recruit.

Opening Mistakes

I've been on Gameknot for just over a year now, and my rating's already gone up almost 200 points. But when I visited this site last week, I realized that I'm still making silly mistakes in my openings. Unfortunately, it's small errors like these that lead to bigger problems later in the game.