anyone here

hi again'

looks like we are the only ones here

I was thinking maybe sometime we can play on FICS. I could maybe learn a few tricks from you

sure would be happy to at some point

yeah when do you normally play

random times, depends on when I have a quiet moment

quiet or quite

don't really have a reliable time when I'm online

quiet, typing too fast there

lol i figured

i usually only have time later at night

ok

are you on the east coast

im in Florida

yes, i'm in MA

nice, are you a fan of other sports

don't tell me Boston redsox

haha yes

lol oh no

Giants fan here

Niners for football

that's ok, not like the Red Sox will be a real threat this year

and the magic for basketball

yeah, they have some internal issues

I'm eagerly awaiting the specs of a new phone I might get (The samsung galaxy s3)

oh nice

i still don't have a smart phone - pretty much living in the dark ages

I don't either lol

i have been waiting but I can't wait any longer

my dinosaur is breaking

yeah :(

Have you ever read chess for dummies by patrick wolff

I have heard that despite its name, it is a great beginner book

i have not

i haven't read all that many chess books - a bunch of endgame books and game collection books

but not so many "general knowledge" books

I stumbled upon this website: chessopenings.com

I think it is very nice, the guy speaking in the videos is an NM I believe

Let me know what you think

I have a book by andrew soltis about the end game

wait, I think that maybe the middle game by soltis

i always forget

just posted a long answer to your question about analyzing

i'm interested to see what other people suggest/comment

I asked that based on your recommendation

haha ok

i remember talking about it yesterday, but i tried to expand on some of the things I mentioned

i think silmans book Amateurs Mind does a good job with this. He basically asks players to tell him what they are thinking for each move they make and their opponent makes

do you recommend analyzing right after one game or whenever you want

also are their candidates for games to analyze or are all good

it's important to write down what you were thinking during the game

as soon as possible

the actual analysis session can be later though

if you can see what you were thinking during the game, that helps you pinpoint how you can improve your thought process in future games

lol you accepted that very quickly, thanks

i noticed you said put everything you come up with in a database? What exactly do you mean. For ICC, I use their program to store my games, but how do I store what I come up with

just put it in the pgn file

I read through your answer and thought it was very well thought out

it deserves an answer

:-) thanks

so possibly multiple pgn files

with different options

well probably one pgn file per game

ICC doesn't really support that so well, but you could look into SCID or Chessbase

basically they let you input variations and then use a chess engine at the same time

never heard of SCID

isn't chessbase really espensive

it's not cheap

i know lots of chess players who got it illegally (i guess chess players on the whole aren't the richest people?)

SCID is pretty good, you can google for some tutorial videos

do they make SCID for windows

google.com/…

whoops

chessvideos.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6461

nice thanks

yes, SCID is for windows

i love that website

i think it also runs on macs too

so tell me again what SCID allow me to do

me too

so after my game, i can go back with SCID, and make alternate moves and see what the engine says

correct

but as your post menions, don't use an engine at first, correct?

right

that way you don't lie to yourself about what you saw when you're working on it the first time

tell me what you think of this: playwitharena.com

its free

that should work too

i've never used it though

but same idea as scid or chessbase

i found chessmaster to be very good as well

besides chessvidoes.tv, what other chess video websites do you find useful

that's the main place I go

USCF forums for TD questions

do you have to be a USCF member

to post, yes

In dan heisman video he mentions beginners should try to avoid the french advance, would you agree

to read the general forums, I don't think so

yes, definitely

there are a lot of things going on - space and development advantages

i always played the advanced until i saw that

that are hard to take advantage of

and if you don't play close to perfectly, then black can strike back with c5 and get a good position

similarly, playing the 4 pawns attack against the KID or any of those openings with an early f4 push can be double-edged and dangerous

is it called the advanced because you advance your pawn or because it is "advanced"

advance your pawn

i think it's frequently just called the Advance French

without the "d" at the end

I'm not sure what the actual name is, but I've heard it both ways

i find this website useful: thechesswebsite.com

i learn a lot about the openings and other stuff

do you have any chess puzzle books or sites you frequent

oops missed that last question

chesstempo is nice

and pretty much any puzzle book is fine if you do the puzzles

have you heard of polgars puzzle book

or nunns

no not that i remember

lol there are a few answers on different questions quoting the chessbase april fools thing about the King's Gambit