What do you think (both about the match and plugin)? How’s this player compare to some of the others I’ve used in the past? (Next time, I’ll try it with some annotated games, assuming it can handle them.)

EDIT: Now that I’ve published this, I can see it leaves an ugly amount of space when you have a list of games queued up. I’m guessing it uses the longest game to carve out a spot for the Javascript.

EDIT2: Even worse, it also turned out to be a little flakey, sometimes not displaying at all, other times taking forever to load. I may try it one more time yet, but just with a single annotated game. We’ll see.

“Forced moves are the easiest” You know I always thought this was some chess lore from some great mind, but a google search turns up nothing. This saying, which I’ve totally integrated into my life philosophy, appears (to me) to be an Erin Dame original. If so… well done, my friend, and as it turns out, it is good advice from a great chess mind.

Thank you, Keith, for the kind words! To the best of my knowledge, it is an original. I’m glad to hear it has helped guide you beyond the confines of the 64 squares.

Just past the mid-way mark, with five rounds of nine in the books, the USA team is playing inspired, fighting chess. They now sit in 2nd place a half point behind Russia who beat them in the third.

My favorite game so far? It’s a tough choice, but this one, having been played today, is fresh in my mind. It contains some beautiful tactics (talk about hammering home a single square weakness [g2]!) and adds another stunning notch to the King’s Indian Defense’s belt.

 
And a few rounds before that, he had this even shorter and far more spectacular game. As you play it out, really slow down at move 16 and on to appreciate the ideas and lines behind the moves. And, did you honestly see that last move coming?! Wow. Good stuff.

In the meantime, I wanted to bring to your attention a novel way in which you can still enjoy heated card battle over the virtual felt and win money while you’re at it!

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I encourage you to head over and read their FAQ for all the details.