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Part I was published last week.
The third round became the duel of heavyweights. SHSM-64 vs Tomsk-400, St. Petersburg vs Ugra. Saratov was facing a solid team Nagivator (Moscow) with Sutovsky and Sasikiran on the top boards. Given the short dista... | Read More
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Recently it has become fashionable to criticize FIDE. Indeed, some of the FIDE inventions could be featured in the "you cannot make this up" column. But they definitely managed to achieve one goal: chess is 'rediscovered' by the media. Wheth... | Read More
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Today we will look at endgames where one side had a queen for either a minor piece, a rook or both. Having an extra queen does not automatically guarantee an easy win. As you will see today there are many possible ways of losing or drawing while h... | Read More
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Francois-Andre Danican Philidor, born in 1726, was one of the first chess theoreticians. In an era when chess was seen by almost everybody – even its most dedicated enthusiasts – as a mere game, Philidor had to have a certain “we... | Read More
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Mahto_Man said: “This game was from a local tournament between schools in the district, which is pretty low rated to begin with. Being on board 3, most of the games are won or lost from simple tactical blunders, so most aren’t good to ... | Read More
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The traditional Russian Team Chess Championship (both men’s and women’s divisions) was held from April 8th to 16th in the Loo district of the resort city Sochi on the coast of the Black sea. From 2005 to 2011 I have been playing in the women... | Read More
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Chess players are very superstitious people! Almost every strong player I know has his own superstition. By far the most common one is a "lucky" pen or pencil. Even Mikhael Tal (who had the nickname "the Magician") half jokingly blamed the loss of... | Read More
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I wanted to dedicate this article to winning endgames while being several pawns up but it happened that most of the endgame positions that I looked at resulted in transpositions to the endgames we looked at last week when one side is down a piece.... | Read More
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Emanuel Lasker, who was famous for his psychological insight and philosophical approach to chess, made a keen observation:
“He who has a slight disadvantage plays more attentively, inventively, and boldly than his antagonist, who either takes i... | Read More
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Mr. Schell said: "Last weekend I played in the 40th Annual Queen of Hearts tournament in Montgomery, Alabama. I found the atmosphere overwhelmingly friendly and competitive. In the interests of full disclosure, I withdrew after the third round bec... | Read More
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Just like last year in Tbilisi, in 2012 in Gaziantep I had to score 2/2 in the final two games to qualify for the World Championship. In round 10 of the European Championship I won a nerve-racking game against Voinovich, and in the final round I w... | Read More
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Now that I am an older player in my 60s, old age is creeping up on me (I can feel it in my knees), but I can still enjoy chess. Even after playing almost 50 years in hundreds of tournaments, I still like the chess tournament atmosphere and can a... | Read More
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In the first part of this article we discussed the cases where two Bishops are a very powerful weapon. We also analyzed Steinitz's games where the first World Champion showed the correct way to take advantage of the Bishop pair. In the next ... | Read More
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I would like to introduce you to a game, played by the 4th World Chess Champion, Alexander Alekhine. The game was played in 1925, when he was 33 years old. Two years later, he won the World Title against Capablanca. Alekhine played this ... | Read More
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Best match player. William Steinitz played 27 chess matches from 1862 to 1896, and won 25 of the 27. He won 160 games, lost 70, and drew 57.
Best Selling Chess Book. Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess has sold over one million copies.
Best w... | Read More
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Last week we explored strategies for winning with an extra rook. Today we will explore the situation when one side has an extra knight or bishop for a pawn, two pawns or for no compensation. There is a famous joke my coach likes to use that can be... | Read More
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In this and the next article I will be discussing the situation where one player holds an advantage which is tangible but not necessarily of the level we call a “winning advantage”. But while we are at it, what exactly is a “winning advant... | Read More
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N.N. (1770) - Vanilla Cokehead (1820), England 2012 [time controls: 30 moves in an hour and 15 minute blitz finish]
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3
2.Nf3 g6 is known as the Hyper-Accelerated Dragon. Instead of playing 2...d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6... | Read More
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Castling is a move performed simultaneously by a king and a rook with the aims of ensuring the king’s safety and connecting the rooks. There are three ways you can castle: long, short and 'artificial.' The latter is when your king and rook event... | Read More
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This is a rather entertaining game that features the pin quite often. After an interesting opening, both kings are exposed, which leads to a rater double-edged fight in which both players fight to stay alive and checkmate the other side first. Ehl... | Read More
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About 30 years ago I was playing in a kid's team tournament. I don't remember who won the tournament, my own result or even who played there. The only thing I remember about the tournament is what happened during one of our team's gatherings... | Read More
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Today's article is for players rated 800-1000, and we will look at rook endgames where one side has an extra rook. There are several rules that one has to follow in realizing this extra rook into a win. I will go over the most important ones here.... | Read More
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There is hardly a world championship match that illustrates the dichotomy of attack and defense more clearly than the two battles between Mikhail Chigorin and Wilhelm Steinitz. Therefore, I have decided to use a game from this match for the week... | Read More
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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 t... | Read More
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N.N. (1950) - Sam (1850), Bristol District League 2012
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5
Not so long ago, the extremely dangerous Taimanov Variation (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.f4 Bg7 8.Bb5+
... | Read More