tournament-play

I don’t believe that the Sicilian is necessarily the “best” opening, or that everyone should play it. I do believe, however, that any player who wants to answer 1.e4 with 1…c5 can find a system to their liking. Answer the Big Question First I discussed the Smith-Morra Gambit and other Anti-Sicilians in passing in previous … Read more

The Swiss-system is the method of pairing players together in a chess tournament. It’s used for most events and can accomodate hundreds of players if necessary. In the United States, think of the World Open, or Nationals. Internationally, think of Gibraltar or Biel. In a round-robin event everyone plays each other, so a 10-player event … Read more

The playing venue, in a great location! Photo: TripAdvisor The 2022 New York Summer Invitationals concluded on July 11, once again organized by the dynamic duo of Keith Espinosa and IM Aleksandr Ostrovskiy. The event featured four sections: GM A, GM B, IM C, and IM D. GM and IM norms were available in the … Read more

I don’t believe that the Sicilian is necessarily the “best” opening, or that everyone should play it. I do believe, however, that any player who wants to answer 1.e4 with 1…c5 can find a system to their liking. Answer the Big Question First I discussed the Smith-Morra Gambit and other Anti-Sicilians in passing in previous … Read more

Quad is short for quadrangular, a four-player chess tournament. Each player plays one or more games against the other three players. These are popular for good reason, but let’s get into some details first. Sections If 20 players enter a tournament before the start, the tournament director sorts the players by rating from highest to lowest. The … Read more

The starting position of the Italian Game. The Italian Game begins with the sequence 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4, and is extremely popular at all chess levels. It is named for “Il Calabrese,” Gioachino Greco (c.1600-1634) who analyzed the opening in the early 17th century. I definitely recommend playing through Greco’s many instructive games and … Read more

The 2022 New York Fall Invitationals were held at the Aloft Long Island City — Manhattan View hotel from November 9-13, organized by IO Keith Espinosa and IM Aleksandr Ostrovskiy. The playing venue, Aloft Long Island City—Manhattan View. Photo: TripAdvisor There were five sections in this edition: GM A, GM B, IM C, IM D … Read more

For a long time now, the chess world has tried to get more girls involved and keep them in the game long term. In my years as a chess teacher I’ve seen a similar story as many others: female chess participation is often quite good in elementary school, but later falls off a cliff. When … Read more

Unless you enter a quad, you will most likely compete in a Swiss-system chess tournament. That means you could face players with a range of ratings. A club event might only have one or two sections, but larger events routinely have many sections. Sometimes, you have a choice of sections — your “natural” section, and … Read more

A game review during a lesson is very different from a review that takes place during a chess tournament, with emotions at their highest. Post-game review at scholastic tournaments is what I will focus on here. My Best Advice This post is intended to give advice for inexperienced coaches (and parents serving as coaches). The most … Read more