US Champs

Hi everyone! As you may know the US Championships just ended. If you see them congratulate US Champion Gata Kamsky and Women's Champion Irina Krush. In this US Championship came dozens of interesting games. Here are a few games where I learned the most.

In chess you have to think out of the box. Also you have to think out of the box for your opponent. Here is an example of how an elite player like Shulman failed to do that.

As you can see, if you fail to think outside of the box, your position can turn from equal to theoretically lost.

A lot of times in chess, especially versus lower rated opponents we have the strong desire to win. This can be good but sometimes we push too hard and take too many risks. In these types of games we can even lose! Here is a great example of a game where Gareev took some risks but never enough to lose.

I hope you're able to pick up something from those games. I would advise you to take a peek at all of the games at the US Chess Champs, many of them quite instructive. 

Well, see you soon!