i play chess on the ICC and sometimes in tournaments, and my rating is about 1600. My favorite openings are the Morra Gambit, and Siclian opening, and the dutch defense

as white, i like the queen's gambit, as it prevents black from playing the sicilian. it goes like 1) d4, d5. 2) c4, d5xc4. 3) Bxc4, and the whatever black does, you'll have control in center board.

as black, if white does queen's gambit, i play d5, but i don't take the c-pawn when white plays c4. if white plays e4 then i like to respond like ths...1) e4, d5. 2) e4xd5, Qxd5. then whatever white does, play Qa5, and white does a move, then pawn c6, which allows your queen to run back to safety if threatened. it's not possible for white to threaten your queen before your c6 move. :)

The angel problem is a question in game theory proposed by John Horton Conway.[1] The game is commonly referred to as the Angels and Devils game. The game is played by two players called the angel and the devil. It is played on an infinite chessboard (or equivalently the points of a 2 lattice). The angel has a power k (a natural number 1 or higher), specified before the games starts. The board starts empty with the angel at the origin. On each turn, the angel jumps to a different empty square which could be reached by at most k moves of a chess king, i.e. the distance from the starting square is at most k in the infinity norm. The devil, on his turn, may add a block on any single square not containing the angel. The angel may leap over blocked squares, but cannot land on them. The devil wins if the angel is unable to move. The angel wins by surviving indefinitely.

The angel problem is: can an angel with high enough power win?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_problem

@Ottovanbis et. al. For a better chess challenge, where the rules are the same but the game is very different, try Chess960 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess960).

@Hellalt - Thanks. I'd never heard of that one.

@chess master, I'd love to play 3. Bxc4 in the Queen's Gambit, but usually after e3 :p
I'm a King's Indian and Sicilian Man. Closed Sicilian or Vienna Gambit as white.

Anyone know of a way to play 3 chess online? (not graphics, but with extra levels)

Re: angel problem, i'd have said yes...

but the interesting problem would be how low a power can the angel still win with?

i like to open with a bishop. the usual answer is to try to make me loose time sending my bishop back.
but if my oponent is not a school player i get many options.
for instance, i like to sacrifice my bishop to put a check and avoid oponents castling

about angel problem: don't know, bu i'd try to proof iductivly that fon any natural k, the devil could develope a winner strategy

sorry for my spell: it's "but" instead of "bu" and "for" instaed of "fon"

If you're looking for a nice site to play online, I used to play here a lot before I found diplomacy and didn't have time for both:

http://gameknot.com/

www.chess.com is another good site.

In chess I mostly play the sicilian and grunfeld defences as they offer nice chances to counterattack.