Velocity Chess

 

Playing on Velocity Chess is fun!

Are you tired of the suspicious lag and disconnects on Chess.com? Don’t want to pay to play like on the ICC? Has FICS not been stable enough to meet your needs? There is a new contender for the title of best online chess server. Meet Velocity Chess!

On Velocity Chess you won’t have to worry about any of the problems listed above. Until recently, Velocity Chess’ only weakness was the lack of a large enough player pool to allow the die-hard chess players(like me) the ability to get a game of chess on at any hour. Apparently, the word has gotten out about the advantages of playing on VC and now it is full of players!

Velocity Chess has a state-of-the-art interface.

 

Velocity Chess offers several options that blow its competition out of the water. Below is a list of some of my favorite reasons for playing on Velocity Chess:

 

• Free chess play for everyone who signs up
• Being able to use Virtual Chips to wager on your games
• The ability to cash-out Virtual Chips for cool prizes and gift cards
• Honest game play
• A stable platform
• Velocity Chess is its own social network
• Sharing games across multiple platforms is easy
• The highest level of customer service I have ever experienced on a chess server.

 

 

No wonder so many top chess players are upgrading to Velocity Chess.

 

*I am not employed by or receiving any payment from Velocity Chess for this review. I simply want to share the best online chess server with my friends and fans.

 

April’s Chess Combination of the Month

This month’s chess combination comes from a nice win I had over “Flash,” the number two ranked player on VelocityChess.com. Each Month I will select one combination that I played in a real game to examine in detail for the benefit of my students and readers.

Black to move

 

When it is your turn, the first thing you should do is examine all checks, captures and threats. In this position, we have one check-capture, four checks, three captures and several more threatening moves. If you take the time to identify all these possibilities and run through any automatic or nearly automatic replies, you will automatically begin to spot brilliant tactical combinations. It’s that easy!

 

I chose to play Nc4+!

 

This is precisely the kind of move you might miss if you do not force yourself to examine all checks without regard to how silly the move may seem at first glance.

 

Flash plays dxc4?

 

If this wasn’t a blitz game I am sure Flash would have played something like: Kd2-d1 Qf6xc3 Re1xe8+ Ra8xe8 Ra1-a2 Bh7xd3 c2xd3 Qc3xd3+ Ra2-d2 Qd3-b3+ Rd2-c2 Nc4xa3 Nf3-d2 Re8-d8 Bg2-e4 Qb3xh3 Kd1-e1 Na3xc2+ Qc1xc2 c7-c6 Qc2-d1 Qh3-c3 Qd1-c2 Qc3xc2 Be4xc2 a7-a5 Ke1-d1 b7-b5 Kd1-c1 a5-a4 Nd2-b1 Rd8-e8 Bc2-d3 b5-b4 Nb1-d2 Kg8-f8 Nd2-c4 a4-a3 Kc1-b1 Kf8-e7 Kb1-a2 Ke7-e6 Ka2-b3 c6-c5 Nc4-a5 f7-f6 Bd3-c4+ Ke6-d6 Na5-b7+ Kd6-c6 Nb7-a5+ Kc6-b6

But as you can see, Black is still crushing white. So, in a sense, Flash did us a little favor by simplifying the result into a nice and neat mating attack.

 

I played Ra-d8+. This develops the unemployed rook with a threat.

 

White’s move of Nd4 is forced.

 

Now examine all of the checks, captures and threats again.

 

Correct is Rxd4+!

 

cxd4 is a forced response.

 

and Qxd4 is mate.

 

I hope you enjoyed April’s Chess Combination of the Month. If you missed it, feel free to check out March’s Chess Combination of the Month. On a side note, I must say that www.VelocityChess.com is evolving into a great online chess site. You can see my original review of Velocity Chess from this link. Right now if you open an account, they will deposit 2,500 vChips in your bank– redeemable for giftcards! http://bit.ly/1gCnVPp

Below is the entire game so that you can see the combination in context:

[Event “Blitz”]
[Site “VelocityChess.com”]
[Date “2014.04.16”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Flash”]
[Black “Chris.Torres.524596”]
[Result “0-1”]
[BlackElo “1917”]
[ECO “C40”]
[Opening “Elephant Gambit”]
[Variation “Maroczy”]
[WhiteElo “2610”]
[TimeControl “5+0”]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d5 3. exd5 Bd6 4. Qe2 Nf6 5. Nc3 O-O 6. d3 h6 7. Be3 Bb4 8.
a3 Bxc3+ 9. bxc3 Nxd5 10. Bd2 Bg4 11. h3 Bf5 12. g3 Re8 13. g4 Nf4 14. Qd1
Bh7 15. Bxf4 exf4+ 16. Kd2 Nc6 17. Bg2 Qf6 18. Re1 Na5 19. Qc1 Nc4+ 20.
dxc4 Rad8+ 21. Nd4 Rxd4+ 22. cxd4 Qxd4# 0-1

 

Chris Torres is NorCal’s most popular chess coach.

Chris Torres will be teaching with Susan Polgar and many other great instructors at the 2014 Fremont Summer Chess Camp at Mission San Jose Elementary School. Sign up today!