rpdatchessnia

Congratulations on the new site design and features. Also Happy Christmas to youall!

Javier, Thanks for your last & prompt return reply. I now see what threat you were alerting me to- if black pushes the a5 pawn to a4 I will lose the bishop, as it has no safe escape square to go to. That prompts me to consider the opponents direct & immediate threats and then to consider what threats could occur some moves later (I may call these static & dynamic threats). Is this what Cecil Purdy was advising? Where do I find out about Cecil Purdy's advice? (who is/was Cecil Purdy?) I will do an internet search for this! Thanks for your advice with this game & welcome to the site. I am going to look at some of the games on the free download page & try to learn from them. I have also downloaded the email book & it is good, but I need to look at all of it. There is a lot of good material here to help to play chess better, and it will take a while to study it. I hope your games and chess plans are going well. Here is a link to the junior club I help at www.buryknightschess.org.uk My son (u12) plays there & enjoys chess & I am trying to keep up with him! We have several good coaches there (& this is a game I am playing against one of them!). If I get any more questions or problems I may mail you again! I am sure you are a good chess coach and again thank you for your help, and goodluck with your coaching & playing.

Hi Javier, Thanks for your reply to my game query. The board graphic is neat & helpful. I can see the white d5 pawn is attacked x3 and defended only x2. Sadly, even though you think I can see the point of 5....a5 I still do not know what this is threatening! Could you please explain the point of 5....a5 directly for me? As I also said, I felt 6.Nf3 was a reasonable move. If though I play 6.Qf3 then this will defend the d5 pawn but gets the Queen out early before developing the minor pieces. Also I could play Ba4+ and then either a. swop off the light square bishop for the knight at b6(recapturing it with my knight at c3) or b.swop off the light square bishop for either blacks light square bishop(c8) or either black knight, when black will probably take back with the queen and the d5 pawn will remain threatened. Can you clarify this a little more here for me please? I feel from any game position there are many alternative move choices and many do depend on personal style, but how do I learn which ones put most pressure on my opponent, which is the personal style I would like to play with! Many thanks and best wishes again to you & for this fine website that gives help to all learning to improve their chess games.

Hi, I have just registered here & posted on the general forum (on chess coaching). However I wanted to download some free files but have been denied access to them. Can you fix this so I can access the free files to make downloads. Thanks.

Hi, I would like some chess coaching with an email game I am playing.Is this possible? The game moves so far are: 1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Nf6 3 Bc4 Nbd7 [scandinavian B01] 4. Nc3 Nb6 5. Bb3 a5 I am White and would like advice on what my next best move is and how I decide on that. I have so far taken advice from my Fritz & internet databases on what moves to play so far. However now 5...a5 is not in these game databases, so I have no games to compare with & have to make my own decision (I do not want to use an engine for this, but to try to reason the best move out with chess principles only as if I was playing OTB). I think 6.Nf3 seems fine (developing the knight) but wonder whether I need to move the a pawn in response to 5...a5 (what is black possibly trying to do with this a pawn move?). I would appreciate any help and advise anyone can offer to me with coaching for this game. If anyone is able & willing to advise and coach me through this game I would be very grateful. Of course I hope this will be possible and am happy for any replies/advice. I have just registered at this site which looks very good and I am keen to use it's resources to help my chess improve (& if I can help anyone similarly I will try!). Thanks