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No time to study opening theory? Shock your opponent with an SOS! With an SOS you deviate early (usually before move 6!) from regular lines in mainstream openings. So you will reach positions you have actually studied without having memorized tons... | Read More
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In the last two articles we analyzed brilliant attacking games of Rashid Nezhmetdinov. There the Great Master of Attack showed a number of useful attacking techniques that you can use in your own games. But one of the readers expressed the followi... | Read More
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In part one of this series I discussed how a good chess teacher can turn a bunch of opening moves into something that makes sense. This tightening of one’s opening repertoire pays enormous dividends as one becomes more and more familiar with... | Read More
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As a player and coach the question of how best to prepare for chess tournaments is constantly on my mind or being posed to me by students and friends. For this blog I am going to share some insights and ideas that I have about tournament preparati... | Read More
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Today we start a new series: 'Convert an Advantage According to Kramnik'. Vladimir Kramnik is not only one of the best players in the world, but also one of the best technical players. Converting an advantage, either positional or material, is not... | Read More
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It is my goal to give back to the chess world every single bit of knowledge I have acquired about the game, without exception. Chess has been a major part of my life and it's time for me to share. How can you be a part of this? Please read on for ... | Read More
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I have seen many articles and books that talk about the bishop pair. We all know the basic rules "knights are better in closed games, and bishops are better in open games", but why are bishops generally preffered? First, it is easier to open a po... | Read More
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I would like to apologize for the organization of the text/board. I tried for hours to fix this and I was not able. If someone knows how to fix this please send me a message so my future articles are better organized
Before we start this very c... | Read More
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Today we continue our series on positional exchange sacrifices. Last week we saw some examples of exchange sacrifices to create a general situation which benefits the minor pieces. This week we will be focusing on examples of exchange sacrifices w... | Read More
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Everyone has heard about chess lessons, but the dynamics of a lesson depends on a myriad of different factors: Is the teacher an “all moves” kind of guy, philosophical, an openings’ maniac, etc? And is the student open to change, stuck in hi... | Read More
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Today we will analyze one of the most remarkable games of Rashid Nezhmetdinov where the deadly attack against the black king appeared almost from nowhere! Also at the end, as an added bonus, you'll learn a typical tactical pattern.
(The game is g... | Read More
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In the last three articles I told you about my games at the US Women's Championship. Today we will wrap-up the topic by looking at some of the interesting moments from the US Championship. With 24 players and 9 rounds, there were a lot of fighting... | Read More
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A few years ago at the US Amateur Team Championship East (USATE) I saw a gentleman who was age 93 playing for one of the teams. Apparently the story was that at age 90 he was advised to take up something mentally pro-active, the idea that those wh... | Read More
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I am going to begin a series on the positional exchange sacrifice, consisting of several articles. There are of course many different possible justifications for an exchange sacrifice, and I cannot cover all of them. But we will be focusing on a f... | Read More
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This week we are wrapping up the overview of my play from the U.S. Women's Championship. The last two articles featured the first six games and today we will look at the key moments from the last three games.
With this article I would like to con... | Read More
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It never fails; in time with Magnus’ chessploits, the debate in Norwegian newspapers’ commentary fields rages red hot over whether chess is a sport or athletics, with no surprising conclusions: one agrees to disagree, definitions do not dimini... | Read More
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I have written about this in my blogs with all the details and everyone is raving about it. And chess.com has it!
Essentially, 35 chess clubs in five different time zones across the world have been created where you may easily sign up for a long ... | Read More
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Last December the chess community celebrated the 100th birthday of Rashid Nezhmetdinov, one of the most creative attacking players in the history of chess. He is one of my most favorite players and the game we'll analyze today shows why he w... | Read More
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According to a fairly trustworthy source:
"Isidor Arthur Gunsberg (November 2, 1854 – May 2, 1930) was a chess player, best known for narrowly losing the 1891 World Chess Championship match to Wilhelm Steinitz."
"In the late 1880s and early 18... | Read More
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In the last article we analyzed King-and-Pawn endgames, and today we'll talk about Kings and Queens. I don't mean King and Queen endgames. Instead, we'll see how chess Kings play with their Queens. Well, it sounds even more confusing... OK, in thi... | Read More