Sacrifice Explorer and Endgame Explorer

Are you aware, that as a holiday gesture Chessgames has opened the access to two of its popular premium features to all users. Until the end of the month, the Sacrifice Explorer and the Endgame Explorer will be free to all users to try out.

The Sacrifice Explorer is a tool that allows you to search the database for combinations and sacrifices. You can quickly find sacrifices in your favorite openings, players, recent events, and more. The Endgame Explorer is a search tool that enables you to find chess games based on the material balance in the endgame.

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Technorati Tags: Sacrifice Explorer, Endgame Explorer, Chessgames, Sacrifice Explorer and Endgame Explorer
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Chess Blogs Lens

Famed marketer Seth Godin and others have setup a new online platform called Squidoo that is finally in public beta mode. Eric Giguere says that Squidoo is all about building portals, not blogs. A portal is an aggregation of content into a single page. It's meant to provide a snapshot view of things. But unlike standard portals, Squidoo's portals -- which they call lenses -- are meant to be viewed by the general public. They're outward-facing portals instead of inward-facing portals. They get ranked through a feedback system. There's also a revenue-sharing incentive to encourage the Squidoo users to setup and maintain the portals, although you can donate the money raised to charity if you want to be philanthropic.

I have started building a Chess Blogs Lens, that hopefully would drive more traffic to our chess blogs. Let me know if the description of your blog is what you want others to see, and if your blog is not listed, just comment on this blog post.

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Technorati Tags: Chess Blogs Lens, Squidoo
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Famous Chess Players: Dr. Max Lange

Mark Weeks talks about Famous Chess Players, that has a list of 112 names and also explains as to why such-and-such a name does or doesn't appear. Dr. Max Lange is one such player whose name does not appear in that list. Dr. Max Lange was from Germany and was born on 8th July, 1832. He was not only a player but also a theoretician and problemist. As a player he was 1st at Dusseldorf in 1862, 1863 and 1864, 1st at Hamburg 1868 and 1st at Aachen in 1868. His book 'Handbuch der Schachaufgaben' (published 1862) was the first systematization of problems and he also invented the 'Helpmate' problem. He was the organiser of the Leipzig 1894 tourney and he edited 'Deutsche Schachzeitung' from 1858 to 1864. Perhaps he is best known for the 'Max Lange Attack'. I reproduce here one notable game (Italian Game: Evans Gambit) played by Dr. Max Lange. Dr. Max Lange severly punishes his opponent after one of his moves. Can you guess which one?

[Event "Berlin -"]
[Site "Berlin -"]
[Date "1853.??.??"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "0.42"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Lange"]
[Black "Mayet"]
[ECO "C51"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "36"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O d6 5. b4 Nxb4 6. c3 Nc6 7. d4 exd4 8. cxd4 Bb6 9. h3 Na5 10. Bd3 d5 11. exd5 Qxd5 12. Nc3 Qh5 13. Re1+ Kd8 14. Ng5 Qxd1 15. Nxf7+ Kd7 16. Bf5+ Kc6 17. Nd8+ Kd6 18. Bf4# 1-0

A small tribute to Dr. Max Lange on his death anniversary today.

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Technorati Tags: Germany, Famous Chess Players, Chess Players, Dr. Max Lange, Max Lange Attack
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Fruit 2.2.1 Chess Engine

This bit of news is for all the chess engine fans - There is a 14 day trial version of Fruit 2.2.1 chess engine for windows which is fully functional and not restricted in any way. Use the Fruit site for downloading this chess engine.

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