App Review: Forward Chess

Forward Chess is a chess ebook app available for Android and iOS. Forward Chess provides an ebook experience that is specifically tailored to chess books on mobile devices. Readers can toggle an analysis board on and off and play through the moves on the analysis board as they read through the book. This experience is seamless. Users simply need to tap any chess move in the book to instantly load the analysis board to that position. For chess readers used to setting up physical boards to play through a chess book, the experience is ecstasy. Playing through a well annotated game on a physical board is a slog; here one can easily whip through the main line and all the variations and feel that one has absorbed far more. The app also includes Stockfish 4 and one can easily toggle the engine on and off for any position.

Book Review: Techniques of Positional Play

I love chess books. Opening Books, Tactics Books, Endgame Books... - to me, chess books are like... pizza, when they’re good they’re great, and even when they are bad, they are still pretty good. As much as I enjoy chess books, few have changed the way I approach the game. In recent years, I can point to Watson’s Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy and Hendricks’ Move First, Think Later. I am now happy to include Bronznik’s (translator and editor) and Terekhin’s (original Russian author) Techniques of Positional Play in that list. This book is a wonderful work which will open the reader’s eyes to many positional patterns of which they were previously unaware. Unlike the previous books I mentioned, this book makes no grand overarching statements about chess theory or chess teaching. It is a more practical work, which provides the reader with plenty of positional ideas that they may implement in their own games.

Book Review: Mating the Castled King

Mating the Castled King is a new book from GM Danny Gormally published by Quality Chess. This is the first book by GM Gormally that I have read (He also wrote Calculate Like a Grandmaster.), and it is one that inspires considerable enthusiasm. The topic of mating the castled king is clearly a critical one, but, to my knowledge, it has rarely been the solitary topic of a book before. Perhaps the nearest competitor is Vukovic’s classic work - The Art of Attack in Chess, but it has been decades since Vukovic first published his book. There certainly seems room in the market for Gormally’s book. In addition, the publisher, Quality Chess, has established an outstanding reputation for quality so naturally I expected great things.

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The Best Android Apps for Chess

I have used LINUX as my primary operating system for about seven years now. I love the ability to tinker with and customize my computer, and LINUX has provided me with all the flexibility I could want. Personally, I use the Ubuntu distribution; it is the most popular distribution, and it is favored by none other than former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov :) However, I have also tried openSuse, Fedora, Mint, and Arch over the years.

The Best Linux Apps for Chess

I recently enjoyed reading Jeremy Silman’s Chess Life Online article on his favorite chess apps (http://www.uschess.org/content/view/12291/719/). However, as IM Silman notes in the first sentence, the article is exclusively about apps for Apple products. As an Android user and fan, I wondered if there was a comparable writeup on Android apps. After a little searching, I did find a few articles, but they were a bit dated, and didn’t include some of my personal favorite apps; so I decided to write an article for the Android fans out there. I have played with many of the popular android apps that are available, but I am sure I am missing some so please include them in the comments!

Tournament Adventures: Tree Doctor International

This past weekend (June 7th and 8th) the Amateur Chess Association of Western New York (wnychess.org) and the the Archangel 8 Chess Academy held the first annual Tree Doctor International Chess Tournament. The tournament was generously sponsored by the Tree Doctor and Simpson and Simpson, PLLC. Through their generous sponsorship, the Tree Doctor International was able to fully guarantee $4,000 dollars in prize money. This was the largest prize fund in Buffalo in some time.

Tournament Adventures: Marchand Open

Sometimes when one is in the midst of an event, one can tell it is a special event. Gata Kamsky playing in this year's Marchand Open in Rochester, NY was one such occasion. Naturally, everyone was talking about Gata's presence, and there were always plenty of spectators around his board. For my own part, I found it very inspirational to see a super grandmaster like Gata play in a \"weekend warrior\" open. In the US, weekend opens are generally the strongest tournaments available, but it is very rare to have a super grandmaster compete. It is a wonderful thing for us mortals to be able to play and observe such great players first hand.

Tournament Adventures: Charlotte Chess

I had the great pleasure of visiting the Charlotte Chess Center and playing in the Reverse Angle tournament this past week and weekend. I began playing chess in Columbia, South Carolina, so I cut my teeth (so to speak) in some of the Charlotte events. For instance, my first win over a master was in Charlotte. Charlotte is about an hour and a half away from Columbia, SC so it is very feasible to drive up for a day or night when I am visiting my family. I had recently read the following article (http://www.uschess.org/content/view/12581/757) about the new brick and mortar chess club built by the Charlotte Chess Center, and I was eager to see it when I was visiting family this last week.

Tournament Adventures: Hopscotch Quads

The Hopscotch Quads, run over two Thursday nights in Buffalo, NY, was a first for me in several ways. Most notably, it was the first tournament that I have directed and played in. In the previous weeknight tournament that I directed for the newly formed Amateur Chess Association of Western New York, I had restricted myself to the directing role. The work was very light both because the players were experienced and professional and because I only had to pair one game a night. Based on that experience, I felt comfortable mixing playing and directing in the Hopscotch Quads.

Tournament Adventures: Columbia Open and Breaking 2300

It's been a while since I've been able to post. Fortunately, the reason is that I've simply been too busy playing chess This past weekend (August 15th-17th) I had the pleasure of playing in the Columbia Open run by the Columbia Chess Club. The tournament was very professionally and smoothly organized by Daniel Smith and Jordan Anderson with assistance from Lendel Robinson and Drew Plyler. The rounds were prompt, the venue was welcoming with great board space in the lobby, and the players were affable yet fiercely competitive. Huge thanks to the organizers for all the time and energy they contributed!