Thanks for the heads up on that. Did you notice on page 8 that Tech is the Chess College of the Year? I wish A&M would get in that arena. I wonder what the budget requirements are for a competitive college chess team are?

Kaspy (among other greats, Carlsen, So, Caruana, etc) playing 960 at 1PM CST today. You can watch here:

Stupid work. I would definitely watch that if I were home. Fischer chess is the best. Perfect for everyone that likes chess but hates studying openings

I can't play 960 worth jack.

I hate studying openings too, which is why I play various systems, but the down-side of that is I've gotten used to playing openings basically on principle only. So I'll see a 960 position, blitz out the opening on principle, but not realize I'm making a tactical mistake because I'm totally, totally unfamiliar with the position.

But it is a lot of fun to watch, esepcially when you have quality commentary. I'm a big fan of Yasser Seirawan, who will be providing commentary today. Maurice Ashely and Jen Shahade will be there too.

Let me be clear. I'm not good, just slightly better when playing people who are good.

Levy Rozman and Anna Rudolf covering the 960 tourney on Hikaru's Twitch channel.

Chess.com moved 10-0 games from Blitz to Rapid yesterday, impacting millions of players and ratings.

Holy hell, GK somehow survived Magnus. And managed to beat Firouzja too.

Lulz.

nm

Have you guys checked out Queen's Gambit? I've only seen the first episode, but it looks really good so far.

AstroAg17 said:

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(tipping over the king)

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I've always one this (including at tournaments) to resign. Is this considered rude, and I just don't know about it?

dargscisyhp said:

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AstroAg17 said:

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(tipping over the king)

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I've always one this (including at tournaments) to resign. Is this considered rude, and I just don't know about it?

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You're supposed to tip over their king when they should resign

dargscisyhp said:

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Have you guys checked out Queen's Gambit? I've only seen the first episode, but it looks really good so far.

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I don't play chess. Hardly know anything about it. This was a great series about the tournament aspect of the game, as well as the mental preparation people go through for championship chess. Also a great insight into Soviet chess back in the day.

That said, I didn't learn a darn thing about how to play.

AstroAg17 said:

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Rude? No, just weird. And I'm sure you know more about tournament etiquette than me. But I have never seen a titled player tip over their king.

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So I got curious about this, and the rules of USCF explicitly mention tipping the King as a way to indicate resignation in Chapter 1 section 13B. But you're right, I looked at several videos and didn't find one where a professional player resigns by tipping the King. Maybe I'll stop doing it. Maybe that's what's kept my game from shooting into that level.

Old, but...

Congrats!

I want to file a shame. My neighbor's kid came over (he's 14) and I played my first chess game in maybe 20 years.

I beat him on the first and then lost the second when I got greedy trying to fork his rook and queen. The guy completely dominated the center of the board with a knight I could never dislodge. I had to fight the urge to ragequit and actually did say "man, it's been a while since I played..." as I slunk off.

Yes. I found out later he's been taking chess coaching lessons for a couple of years and I felt a lot better. Still it was a total ****** move to say it was only because I was rusty.

I use the Follow Chess app to follow certain GMs including Gawain Jones (besides his cool name, he plays a lot of Scottish Opening/Gambit type stuff that is right down my alley).
He used that to knock off Wesley So (2741) in 21 moves at the New In Chess Classic just now.

Guess I'm a jinx - Gawain has lost 3 games in a row (but all were to +2700 guys including Carlsen).

BUMP to say that Jeffrey Xiong (2700) drew a wild first round game today with Wesley So (2778) at the 2021 US Championship.
I saw it on the free "Follow Chess" app.
Xiong is from Texas.

Pretty exciting. Best player out of Texas of all time probably.

Firouzja is going to be exciting to watch over the upcoming years as well.

Xiong is definitely the best Texas player although someone like Ron Henley probably would have gotten to 2700 if they had the kind of computer resources that Jeffrey has had.
I think current top players are all at least 100 rating points higher than they would have been 50 yrs ago.

Well, as soon as I bragged on Jeffrey, he did the same thing Gawain did - lost 3 in a row.
He came back to win 2 and had what I thought was a won end game vs Caruana, but drew, then in the last round he lost to the lowest rated player in the tournament.
Maybe next year.

Edit ti say that Wesley So won the Championship with playoff victories over Caruana and Sevian.

I didn't watch, but didn't Caruana do terrible early and then come back to make the playoff?

Caruana. the highest rated player, was at 1 win and 3 draws when he hit a bad streak and lost 2 straight games.
Humans are not computers and do get bothered by all sorts of stuff, but I don't know if he was headachey or what, maybe just bad luck...but he did come back to tie with So and Sevian for first.
Wesley So has had several good results and may outrank Caruana in the near future...or more likely will lose 3 games in a row since I just jinxed him.