<Tournaments<>><:I haven't played in a tournament since '03 in Denver, where I saw many GMs, IMs & lower rated masters (GMs: a 15 yr old Naka [who became a GM that same yr before this tourney...the U. S.' youngest-ever GM at that time!], Shabalov, Stripunsky, Ibragimov & Browne just to name a few players)...tourney results: http://www.chesstour.com/elm03r.htm I met Patrick Wolff (2-time U. S. Chess Champion: '92 & '95) in New Orleans @ a tourney there in '92 after he won the U. S. Championship. He played a simultaneous exhibition vs ~20 players the day before the tourney. I remember that he had only 1 draw & he won the rest of the games. He played in the tourney & won it; he had a Q & A session as well. I asked him who some of his favorite chess players are & he mentioned Emanuel Lasker because: "He epitomized the struggle in chess.">

<20 of the games that I submitted to be game of the day (w/ my puns) have been chosen for it!<>>: Li Shilong vs Ding Liren, 2011 — S Factor vs Gilg, 1928 — Kasparov vs Anand, 1995 — Stockfish vs Rybka, 2013 — N Evseev vs Flohr, 1949 — Polgar vs A S Rasmussen, 2013 — D Bit-Narva vs R E Nielsen, 2014 — L Bruzon Batista vs C Zhu, 2004 — Bagirov vs N Radev, 1976 — Kramnik vs Bluebaum, 2017 — Speelman vs J Horner, 1976 — L Day vs B Nickoloff, 1977 — Pelletier vs C McNab, 2012 — Ding Liren vs Wei Yi, 2015 — W M Byland vs C F Tears, 1951 — M Diamond vs Santasiere, 1922 — Bondarevsky vs Smyslov, 1946 — Leko vs Nepomniachtchi, 2016 — Anderssen vs Mayet, 1855 — J Turn vs Petrov, 1929

<<>some of my analysis<>>: N Karaklajic vs Smyslov, 1955 -- I Odesskij vs P Skacelik, 2001

<to see my games & stats/profile page on gameknot.com (username: eternaloptimist): http://gameknot.com/players.pl -- Type in eternaloptimist in the search box. (You have to have a gameknot acct. to see it.)<<<>>>>

<Right now I'm trying out different chess variants for something different. Please feel free to mention variants that you like in my forum.<<<<>>>>>

<Some of my favorite chess books are: 1) My Best Games by Anatoly Karpov 2) The Search for Chess Perfection by C. J. S. Purdy 3) 125 Selected Games by Vasily Smyslov 4) Modern Chess Strategy by Ludek Pachman 5) Transpo Tricks in Chess by Andrew Soltis 6) Pawn Structure Chess by Andrew Soltis 7) The Wisest Things Ever Said About Chess by Andrew Soltis 8) The Development of Chess Style by John Nunn & Max Euwe (Nunn added material to the original text that Euwe wrote.) 9) H.O.T. Chess by Paul Motwani 10) Salo Flohr's Best Games of Chess by Salo Flohr (translated by Gregory S. Donges) <<<<<<>>>>>>>

<1 book that helped me improve a lot is "How to Reassess Your Chess" by Jeremy Silman. Although he isn't the most honest guy in the world b/c he makes himself out to be a better chess player than he actually is. (I'm aware that he's an IM so I'm not saying that he's not a strong player.) He does this by giving a lot of his moves in the book a "!" or "!!" that don't deserve them. If you analyze some of his games on a chess engine then you will see that some of his moves that got a "!" or "!!" actually aren't anywhere close to being the best move. In addition to that sometimes he doesn't mention if his opponent plays a move that deserves a "?" to make some of his victories appear brilliant & to show the triumph of the strategical theme in a particular section of the book.<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>