WHITE TO PLAY!!

​White is a FIDE Master and the match score is 1.5-1.5 so this winning tactic won the match for my "Tenacity" team.
​

​1. Rxc6! and Black is down material. Black resigned after 1. ...Bxd5 2.Rxc8; 1. ...Rxc6 runs into a fork 2.Ne7+ with 3.Nxc6 to follow.


​League4545 is hosted online by the Internet Chess Club (ICC), www.chessclub.com and teams that make the play-offs get membership extensions which is a nice way to save money.

​The time control is 45 minutes with 45 second increments and it's a nice alternative to constant blitzing. You can actually slow down and think. The only annoying part is scheduling your weekly games with players from different time zones.

​Having a FIDE-titled player on board one is also fun. You can learn from his play.

If you play on ICC, give this league a try. You might like it. New rounds start all the time. You can put in your name and team captains looking for players will contact you.

​And, remember, practice your tactics because they win you matches!

White to move! (Easy)



​

​This is a continuation of the position I presented in my last blog (NCM Vas vs. WCM). 

​31. Rxc8! +- Rxc7 32. d7 Rd8 33. dxe8+=Q Rxe8 and White has a winning endgame piece up. 

 Please consider the position below. White to play. NCM Vas Sladek vs. WCM. 

​White is up an exchange but now what? We need a plan! How would you continue?

​

​Finally, after suffering through a horrific BC Active Championship, I managed to find a good move against a FIDE-titled player.

27. e4! +- 
​
White needs to stay active and open up lines for both rooks. Sacrificing the e pawn is the best move here. Black played 27. ...dxe4 28.Rxc4 Nf6 29. Rc7 and it was lost because White has a giant passed d pawn.

This was exciting! I rushed home from work to login into my chess.com account with minutes to spare. Then I made some coffee and got ready. The cat would eat later.

​This was a 7-round 3 2 US Chess Federation rated online blitz event. I usually score 4-5/7 but today EVERYTHING went my way. I either played really well or the others made serious mistakes. I rolled to 6/6 before conceding a draw in the last round. And it was fine because I won the event by 1.5 points.
​It feels great to finally do it after trying since January. 

​My plan is to play these USCF-rated blitz and rapid events all year and see what my ratings look like. And I can do it from home. No need to jump Trump's walls.

​So what did I learn today? I learned about overloaded rooks.
​
​White to play!!
​

​Black's rook on d8 is extremely overloaded because it's guarding the bishop on d5 and it's connecting its partner on c8. So White wins with 22. Ba5!

​No what can Black play?  22. ....Rf8 loses the bishop on d5; 22. .....Rd7 runs into 23. Bg4 so the only move is 22. .... Rd6 and then comes 23. b4 and White wins a piece and the game because the rook on c8 is pinned.

Lesson: don't overload your rooks!!

Today I finally broke through on chess.com by winning my first USCF-rated rapid 15 10 event with 4.5/5 points. That's the only way to gain rating points.

​In round 3 I reached the position below. My rook is en prise but it's important not to panic. There might be some other moves; automatically retreating the rook would be a mistake. Plus my opponent was down to something like a minute and a half. So I gave up the exchange but as it turns out Black couldn't afford to take it anyway. I love the messiness of the position.

WHITE TO  MOVE!

​

 24... Nc3 ?? (24... dxe5 25. Rxe5 Bg7 and white is better) 25. exd6+ Kxd6 (25... Kd8 26. dxe6 Bxg2 27. exf7 +- ) 26. dxe6 Bxg2 27. exf7 (27.
Nf5+ Kd5 28. exf7 +- ) 27... Nxb1 ?? (27... Rg5 28. Re6+ Kd7 ) 28.
fxg8=Q Rxg8 29. Kxg2 Nc3 30. Nf5+ (30. Nf5+ Kd7 31. Nxh6 +- ) 1-0

The position below is from my US Chess Federation rated online blitz event. Yes, you can get your official USCF online ratings from the comfort of your own home. Both chess.com and ICC offer USCF rated events (blitz and active) several times a week. Give it a try. Your membership dues include a subscription to the monthly Chess Life magazine.

​In the position below it's White to move. Level: easy. What's white's next killer move? 20. ?

​

Solution:

​I know it was easy but sometimes during blitz games it's not. 20. Qc2 wins a piece because it's a double attack. The c8 bishop is hanging and we are threatening mate in two 21.Qh7+ Kf8 22.Qh8#. Black played 20. ...Nf8 21. Qxc8 +-. I had plenty of time to collect the point.

This is chess and, as in life, things don't always go your way. I didn't play well in round one against my low-rated opponent. I will spare you the excuses like missing my son's soccer game.

​White to move!

​White is playing off his 10 second increment and play continued 1. Rxf5+? ( The best chance was rook down to the first rank to cut-off the Black King. ) Rxf5+? 2. Kxf5 Kh6 3. Kf6 Kh7 4. Kxf7 draw.

​Homework: 
​After 1.Rxf5? what does Black play? Hint: there are only so many good legal moves for Black.

Today was the last round of regular season and David Bissell came in on fire. He calmly demolished all three VCS3 kids. My sad contribution was a win and two draws; Len Molden had 1/3 for a total 6-3 win. The goal today was to finish in 3rd place and we achieved our aim.

​Now we look forward to the play-offs in April. And remember, we will need new team members for the new season starting in the fall 2018. Message me (Vas) if you can play. Enthusiasm and availability are key, not your rating necessarily. 

​

This blog post is about the dark side of online chess. Here I was playing in a rapid 15 10 chess.com tournament. You will notice that it's the same time control as in our Vancouver Rapid League. I firmly believe that this training pays off. But I digress.

​When we reached the position below my opponent messaged me: "It's a draw, idiot!" This is very sad behaviour. I always tell my kids to express themselves intelligently.

​Black is an exchange up and play is way more difficult for White. And I am also very stubborn. Once I'm insulted, I concentrate even harder. White went down hard and resigned one move from mate. I am a proud, and very humble, National Candidate Master. If it's a draw, we'll find out soon enough.

​

​

White to move. Is this a draw? Let's find out.

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2018.02.12"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Tornike Ruxadze"]
[Black "NCM Vas Sladek"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D13"]
[WhiteElo ""]
[BlackElo ""]
[Annotator ""]
[SetUp "1"]
[PlyCount "51"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]
 46... Rb7 47. Kg2 Rh7 48. Kh3 g5 49. Bg3 gxh4 50. Be5 Kg5 51. Kg2 h3+ 52.
Kh2 Kg6 53. Kg1 Kf7 54. Kh2 Ke7 55. Kg1 Kd7 56. Kf2 h2 57. Bxh2 Rxh2+ 58. Kg3
Rh8 59. Kf4 Rf8+ 60. Ke4 Rf5 61. f4 Kd6 62. Ke3 Kd5 63. Kf3 Kxd4 64. Kg4 Ke4
65. Kg3 Rxf4 66. Kg2 Rf3 67. Kg1 Ke3 68. Kg2 e5 69. Kg1 Rf2 70. Kh1 Kf3 71. Kg1
Kg3 0-1

Well, did you find the correct move? If not, thanks for trying. See the full game below.

[Event "BC op"]
[Site "Richmond"]
[Date "2018.02.11"]
[Round "3.3"]
[White "Nyamdorj, Davaa-Ochir"]
[Black "Doknjas, John"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C11"]
[WhiteElo "2223"]
[BlackElo "2296"]
[PlyCount "69"]
[EventDate "2018.02.10"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "6"]
[EventCountry "CAN"]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Be3 Be7 8. Qd2
a6 9. Be2 b5 10. Nd1 b4 11. c3 a5 12. O-O f5 13. exf6 Nxf6 14. Nf2 cxd4 15.
cxd4 Ba6 16. Rac1 Qb6 17. Ne5 Nd8 18. g4 Qb7 19. Bxa6 Rxa6 20. Qe2 O-O 21. Rc2
Ra8 22. Rfc1 Bd6 23. g5 Nd7 24. Nfd3 Nf7 25. Qg4 Rfe8 26. g6 hxg6 27. Qxg6 Nf8
28. Qh5 Nh6 29. f5 Nxf5 30. Rc7 Bxc7 31. Qf7+ Kh8 32. Rxc7 Qb5 {32. ...Qxc7 33.
Qxc7 Nxe3 was best.} 33. Bh6! Rac8 34. Bxg7+ Kh7 35. Bxf8+ 1-0