Although I have played against the Sicilian defense (1. e4 c5) a lot, I have mostly played against the Sicilian Dragon with the Yugoslav attack. This is a very sharp line of the Sicilian that a lot of people played in my high school chess league, so I learned it quickly after starting high school. The Najdorf Sicilian is different, and I am not very experienced against that variation. For a while, I used to play 1.

Recently, I finished an interesting game as part of the USTCL chess league. This league is an online chess.com league for US states and Canadian territories that play each other throughout the year. 2020 USTCL, D1, R9: New Jersey vs. Pennsylvania - Board 16 This French defense, the normal variation of the French, is a bit different because black plays 2 .. b6 instead of d5. The light squared bishop fianchettoes on the diagonal and the bishop (in addition to a knight on f6) puts extra pressure on the e4 pawn.

Although I haven’t posted in a while, I’ve been playing more chess since the end of last year’s chess season. Since starting college at Olin College of Engineering, I’ve studied the Alekhine defense and practiced a few endgames. This game I’m sharing with you is from an online tournament at chess.com. Blue Christmas: Round 1 In the Alekhine defense, black (me, in this position) lets white control extra space in the center of the board with plans to counterattack later.

On April 27, 2019, High Technology High School had a heavily outrated team at the chess state championships. Our team of 5 students had an average rating of about 1400, in comparison to the 1700 rating of the favorite team, Bergen County Academies. Although I prepared a lot with the HTHS team, reviewing games, practicing tactics, and preparing openings, the team knew it would take a miracle to defeat Bergen. I barely ate any of my lunch that day because I was so nervous for the match, and soon realized that I would be facing Daniel, a 1900 rated player.