LT-PGN Firefox problem

It turned out that the moves in the previous post aren't visible within Firefox, so we have to adapt some things before we can use this method.

But I still think that this alternative looks very promising.

Update:
The problem has been solved as you can see in the previous posts.

LT-PGN Editor and Viewer

Instead of using ChessPasteBin it is possible to use the LT-PGN-Viewer directly. In this example post I pass the commands via url to http://www.lutanho.net/pgn/ltpgnboard.html.

We are in control of the kind of chess pieces, the background color and the lay-out of the moves, comments and variations.



Update:

But there seems to be a problem with Firefox. See the next post.



Update 2:

The problem has been solved by the programmer of the LT-PGN-VIEWER. See his comments below this post.

Publishing chess games (again)

I am still looking for a better way to publish chess games on blogsites.
Some progress has been made since my initial post about this subject, but you haven't seen much about this.
One of the problems with blogspot is the lack of a possibility to use php or at least to upload javascript files, but now I have some ideas about dealing with this without getting dependent on other people's sites.

Chess Publisher 2

There is a new version of Chess publisher. It is still a FREE Chess PGN viewer, but it seems that you now have to register before you can use it.

One of the problems with Chess Publisher was the need to press the ‘Replay Game‘ button first. Now a new version of Chess Publisher has been written in which they have removed the ‘Replay Game’ button to make it more “user friendly”.

Another change is that if the move text is very long it will now ‘wrap under’ the board. In the older version the space under the diagram is just blank.
I think that these improvements are rather important and this is now my new favorite. Even the variations went rather well, but the lay-out of the moves may need some improvement.

Update Januari 2010
Chess Publisher 2 as well as the complete Chesspublisher site isn't available anymore and I haven't made a screendump of this post to show you.

Chesspastebin

On ChessPasteBin a tool can be found to share chess games. The tool is based on JsPGNViewer, which can also be used if you are able to include the jsPgnViewer.js in your webpage.

The game is the same game as in the previous post, but now the moves are click-able and the comments can be added. However we still are unable to show the variations and some copying and pasting as well as a dependency on another website is involved.

Update september 2009
The game has disappeared so I decided to upload the game again, but to use an image taken from a screen-dump instead of the original iframe.

Chesspublisher

This game between Howard Staunton and Elijah Williams is very illustrative of the importance of the different kind of oppositions in chess. As you will see Staunton has lost the game, but you have to know that the virtual opposition was something nobody was aware of in 1851. Without these kind of guidelines it is very difficult to play this kind of endgame the right way.

I use this game as an example of the possibilities to publish Chess games on a blog site. This time I have used Chess Publisher.

The main drawbacks are the lack of clickable moves and the fact that It is impossible to add the winning variations. Compare this post with the Staunton - Williams post on Chess Teaching.

[Event "London m6"]
[Site "London"]
[Date "1851.??.??"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Howard Staunton"]
[Black "Elijah Williams"]
[Result "0-1"]

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bd3 Bd6 6.O-O O-O 7.Bg5 Bg4 8.c3 c5 9.dxc5 Bxc5 10.Nbd2 Nbd7 11.Qc2 Qc7 12.Bh4 Bd6 13.Bg3 Nc5 14.Nd4 Bxg3 15.fxg3 Nxd3 16.Qxd3 Rfe8 17.Rae1 Bh5 18.Qb5 a6 19.Qa4 b5 20.Rxe8+ Nxe8 21.Nxb5 Qc6 22.Qh4 axb5 23.Qxh5 Nf6 24.Qe5 Qb6+ 25.Kh1 Rxa2 26.Qf5 Qe6 27.Qb1 Ra8 28.Qd3 Qc6 29.Qf5 Qe6 30.Qd3 Qc6 31.Nf3 Qc4 32.Qd1 Re8 33.Nd4 b4 34.Nf5 Re6 35.Qf3 bxc3 36.bxc3 Qe4 37.h3 Qxf3 38.gxf3 Re2 39.Nd4 Rd2 40.g4 g6 41.Ra1 Nd7 42.Ra8+ Kg7 43.Rd8 Ne5 44.Rxd5? Nxf3 45.Nxf3 Rxd5 46.Kg2 Rc5 47.Kg3 Rxc3 48.h4 h5 49.g5 f6 50.Kf4 Rxf3+ 51.Kxf3 fxg5 52.hxg5 Kf7 53.Ke3 Ke6 54.Ke4 Kd6 55.Kd4 Kc6 56.Ke5 Kc5 57.Kf6 h4 58.Kxg6 h3 59.Kf7 h2 60.g6 h1=Q 61.g7 Qd5+ 62.Kf8 Qf5+ 63.Ke8 Qg6+ 64.Kf8 Qf6+ 65.Kg8 Kd6 66.Kh7 Qf7 67.Kh8 Qh5+ 68.Kg8 Ke6 0-1

Chesstempo tactics

Chesstempo.com seems to be a rather new site and they are offering a rather nice PGN viewer. However I was unable to use it on this blog site, because you need to upload the PGN-file first. But I liked the way the pieces were moving very much.

On the mentioned website a Chess Tactics page can be found, which seems to use the same PGN viewer to solve tactics puzzles. This is somewhat similar to the more familiar Chess Tactics Server.

Both links may be worth visiting if you want to train some tactics, but the ultimate PGN-viewer has not been found yet.

Daily updated chess puzzle

In my search for ways to publish chess games on a blog I came across Shredderchess.
Shredderchess.com offers a possibility to add daily updated chess puzzles on a chess page.
This results in the following diagram.



I think it looks rather nice, but I prefer to add my own chess puzzles and the internal frame is depending on another site.
The search continues.

New Fide rating

The new FIDE rating list has been published.

The list with the top 100 players only contains Grandmasters with the exception of number 78 on this list: Vladimir Afromeev, with only the title FIDE Master. This is rather remarkable, since you should have at least a rating of 2624 to be on this top 100 list.

Who is this Mr.Afromeev, whose birth year is listed as 1954?
I have found him in Chess Today of 3 september 2001:
It seems that he is a local businessmen from Tula (city about 120 km from Moscow) who has decided first to get and then to raise his Elo.

That guy - Mr. Vladimir Afromeev - has been so successful in his
fraud, that he now has an international rating of 2520! I call it a fraud,
because many know that the some of the tournaments, which he 'organised' never took place, while in some others certain players threw points at Mr. Afromeev.

By the way, at some point Mr. Afromeev decided that his personal driver
should have Elo rating too. (who wants un-rated drivers nowadays?!). Now that guy has a rating in excess of 2440. Mr. Afromeev is even claimed to have said that if he wanted, his cat would get a rating like that too!

But now I know something about Mr. Afromeev I'm curious about the rating of his driver and his cat.

Publishing of chess games

I am currently looking for a way to publish chess games on this blog.
There are some tools that may be helpful, but at the moment I haven't found a way that enables all my wishes.
Probably other chess bloggers are also facing this difficulty of posting Chess games on their blog.

My wish list:

• A chess board that shows the position after each move
• The moves also have to be shown
• Clicking on a move shows the position on the board after this move
• Autoplay
• Variations in the moves have to be possible
• Comments between the moves
• A possibility to hide the moves (= solution) for puzzles
• Based on entering PGN
• Without the need to copy and paste all kind of code
• And only depending on my own blog site

I probably even have more wishes and will let you know if something has been found that almost fulfills my needs.

Gorenjo 2007

Gorenje 2007 has ended

In the last round Michael Roiz and Suat Atalik drew after 14 moves. This left them tied on the first place in the final crosstable. Two of the other games also ended in a quick draw, within 8 and 10 moves. Therefore only two serious games were played in this last round of the tournament.

Roiz - Atalik (Gerenje 2007, round 9)
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Bb7 10. d4 Re8 11. Ng5 Rf8 12. Nf3 Re8 13. Ng5 Rf8 14. Nf3 1/2-1/2


Roiz ended on the first place after the tiebreak.


Final Standings:

1. GM Roiz Michael       2616 ISR 6.5 (First after tiebreak)
1. GM Atalik Suat        2584 TUR 6.5
3. GM Karpov Anatoly     2668 RUS 5.5
4. GM Ivanisevic Ivan    2614 SRB 5.0
4. GM Nikolic Predrag    2631 BIH 5.0
6. GM Georgiev Kiril     2653 BUL 4.5
7. GM Damljanovic Branko 2585 SRB 4.0
8. IM Stojanovic Mihajlo 2588 SRB 3.0
9. GM Iordachescu Viorel 2587 MDA 2.5
9. GM Pavasovic Dusko    2567 SLO 2.5 

Gorenje 2007 (Round 5)

Chessdom is covering the Valjevo Chess Event:

Three players leading after the fantastic round with four decided
games
Atalik scores first win ever against Nikolic. Roiz tactically outplayed
Stojanovic and Karpov forced Iodrachescu to give up after the threats on the
back-rank. Damljanovic played perfect Rook endgame to beat Pavasovic.

Damljanovic B. (2585) - Pavasovic D. (2567)

1.c4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.d4 Nf6 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 Nc6 6.Qa4 Nd7 7.Qxc4 Nb6 8.Qd3 e5 9.Nxe5 Nb4 10.Qc3 Qxd4 11.O-O Qxc3 12.Nxc3 Bd6 13.Nf3 c6 14.Ne4 Be7 15.Bf4 O-O 16.Rfc1 N4d5 17.Bd2 Re8 18.Nd4 Nf6 19.Nc5 Bxc5 20.Rxc5 Ne4 21.Rc2 Nxd2 22.Rxd2 Rd8 23.Rdd1 Be6 24.f4 Nc4 25.Nxe6 fxe6 26.Kf2 Kf7 27.b3 Nb6 28.e4 Ke7 29.Ke3 a5 30.Bf1 Rd7 31.Be2 Rad8 32.Rxd7+ Nxd7 33.Rc1 Ra8 34.h4 h6 35.h5 Rd8 36.Rc4 Ra8 37.Rc1 Rd8 38.Rd1 Ra8 39.Rb1 Ra7 40.a3 Ra8 41.Bf3 Nb6 42.Rc1 Nd7 43.e5 Nb6 44.g4 Rd8 45.Rc5 Ra8 46.Rc1 Rd8 47.Be4 Nd5+ 48.Bxd5 Rxd5

This is the start of this very interesting Rook endgame.
White certainly has the best possibilities, but it is not easy to win the game.

49.a4 Kd7 50.Rg1 Ke7 51.Rb1 b5 52.Rc1 Kd7 53.Rc3 bxa4 54.bxa4 c5 55.Rb3 Kc6 56.Rb8 Rd7 57.Rc8+ Kd5 58.Ra8 Kc4 59.f5 Rd3+ 60.Kf2 Rd2+ 61.Kg3 Rd3+ 62.Kh4 exf5 63.e6 Re3 64.gxf5 Kb4 65.Rg8 c4 66.Rxg7 c3 67.Rc7 Kb3 68.e7 c2 69.f6 Kb2 70.Rxc2+ Kxc2 71.f7 Rxe7 72.f8=Q Re4+ 73.Kg3 Rxa4 74.Qxh6 1-0

ChessLoser's Blog

Chess Blogs are a very useful source of chess information. Most of these blogs are from chess players that are working actively on chess improvement and are writing about their successes and failures. Some are very serious, while other blogs are very humorous.
One of the most humorous blogs is the one from Chess Loser. It is called hardcore pawnography.
A quote of a part from one of these articles will make this clear.

I'm just like Tal, only I lose
as i study and play, i notice how my style is evolving and changing, and i notice my style is a lot like GM Tal, with his crazy cavalier attitude, his macho bravado laden sacrifices, his almost wreckless, “i don’t give a fuck” attitude. the only difference, really, between him and me is, he knew what he was doing, he calculated and analized and had a plan, and he won the majority of his games, where as i have the wreckless sacrificing down pat, the bravado, but i don’t back any of it up with sound play or a halfway decent plan, i often fail to see the consequences of my moves, and then i lose miserably. but, every once in a while, i catch someone on a bad day, and it works out for me, like in this game here.

Chess Lessons

This site is not about chess lessons, but about publishing chess games on blog sites. On the Wordpress Chess Teaching site a lot of chess lessons can be found. At the moment there are more than 50 chess tutorials on almost all the stages of the game and for all levels of play on this Chess Teaching site. You can get a quick overview by looking at their chess lessons index page, but you can also start at this introduction post and follow all the chess lessons by means of the next chess lesson link.