Update 7.12.14

My next tournament is probably going to be the Southern Illinois Summer Open in my hometown on August 16. I, at least, hope to win 2 games out of 3 which should be enough to push into the next rating Class (Class B). Other than that there isn't a whole lot that's new. I'm studying daily on Chess(dot)com. I use it's tactics trainer and it's a really good tool for keeping my game sharp. I go over about 20 - 30 puzzles every day. I also watch a few instructive chess videos on YouTube and I try to play about 2-3 games/week online (I use the Free Internet Chess server available at http://www.freechess.org). And I really have no idea when my next BIG tournament is going to be - maybe in St. Louis. Maybe not. Who knows. I've actually been fairly busy the past few weeks. Stay posted for more updates.

Magnus Carlsen, 16th World Chess Champion

The World Championship match started Nov. 9th, 2013 in Chennai, India - home of the (now former) World Champion Viswanathan(Vishy) Anand. After four draws in a row the 22-year-old challenger, Magnus Carlsen, got down to business and won game 5 and 6. It became clear that he was rated #1 on the Fide top 100 for a reason. I sent out a tweet after game 6 comparing Carlsen's play to that of the third World Champion, Jose Raul Capablanca with their exceptional endgame play and their style of grinding down their opponents slowly but surely. Carlsen ended up undefeated and the match ended with 6 points to Carlsen and 3 points (from the six draws) to Viswanathan Anand. The chess crown now resides in the Western World (Norway) for the first time since Bobby Fischer.

Chess - 11.15.13

I have been laying off the tactical training on Chess.com tactics trainer a little bit. I've had a lot go on the past couple of weeks with my move back to Illinois. I've also been following the World Chess Championship match which started on the 8th of this month. The 22-year-old challenger from Norway finally got ahead in the series with a victory today (Round 5 of 12) after the first 4 games that each ended in a draw. I was starting to get a little worried for the sake of chess. I mean, draws are boring (obviously) and a long time ago the Cuban Champion - Capablanca - warned us all of the draw death of chess. His view was that as theory keeps expanding and players get stronger the games will end up nearly all draws (at the top level of course) as the game is believed to be a theoretical draw. Anyways, the win for Carlsen was a bit of a relief. The last round is scheduled November 28th, hopefully we will have a new World Champion (yes, i am routing for Carlsen). Click here for the official website of the match.