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I recently won the Northern California International, and I’d like to take you through what I believe were my three most important psychological decisions of the event. The first one came in round 3. I had won my first two games without much tro... | Read More
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Today we will look at bishop vs. knight endgame where one or both sides have connected passed pawns. Two examples feature an extra two pawns in these endgames and as we will see, having two extra pawns does not necessarily guarantee a win. The thi... | Read More
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Chess isn’t all about winning games as if proving mathematical theorems. It isn’t all about obtaining an advantage through superior preparation and then using technique to coast to victory. A big part of chess strength is craftiness in the hea... | 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 ton... | Read More
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Here is a game I played in a G/60 tournament on 9/24/11. This game is the third of a four round tournament. Both my opponent and I have one point and need to win to have a chance of doing something in the fourth round. I am playing white... | Read More
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The king is the main piece in chess, and the central object in any player’s thoughts. How do I protect my own king and checkmate the opponent’s monarch? While being quite valuable, the king can’t boast being mobile enough to figh... | Read More
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As the well-known legend goes, Ernest Hemingway once won a bet that he could write a short story which would have just six words. You see this story as the title of this article. It is a perfect story indeed: it has a beginning, a middle and ... | Read More
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The topic of today's article is piece sacrifice in bishop vs. knight endgames. The most typical scenario is to sacrifice a piece in order to get a passed pawn. This is common because in endgames the price of a passed pawn can be much higher than t... | Read More
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If you follow my column, you will notice that I have not often been covering the most recent games from top-level tournaments. I don’t really want to annotate the same game that other commentators (and their computers) have already picked ap... | Read More
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“I read Winning Chess Strategies and RAYC 4th Ed. this year and then decided to enter my first OTB tournament in 20 years: the 2011 U.S. Class Championship.
“GM Timur Gareev, at over 2700, was heading up the master section, while I was sett... | Read More
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While most of us prefer to be on the attacking side, quite often we end up under the opponent’s pressure. In fact, the nature of the pressure can lie in the chess realm and/or in the field of psychology. By chess pressure we mean a long-last... | Read More
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It's been two month since we did our first tactical Super-Test, so now it is time to check your chess skills again and compare them to the best players in chess history! Let me remind you that unlike typical tactical tests, here in most of the pu... | Read More
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Aotearoa, or "the land of the long white cloud", or simple New Zealand as most of you know it hosted an exceptional event- the Queenstown Classic Chess Tournament. It is exceptional first of all for its occurrence-- only once every three years-- a... | Read More
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No two pieces have faced off more often, or with greater acrimony, than the bishop and knight. With today's article we are starting a series on bishop versus knight endgames. Here are a few examples that show different scenarios that can happen in... | Read More
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Tactics naturally flow from “tactical weaknesses” – an unguarded piece, an exposed king, two heavy pieces on the same line, etc. Often this weakness is out in the open and the only question is if it can be utilized. But occasiona... | Read More
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Nowadays powerful chess engines have become routine assistants of competitive chess players. Both amateurs and professionals use them to analyze their games, prepare opening lines, evaluate certain positions, etc. Most websites that broadcast game... | Read More
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The Tradewise Gibaltar Chess Congress, the strongest Open ever, is underway and the excitement is building. The top seeds are truly inpressive:
1
4102142
Svidler, Peter
g
RUS
2749
bio
2
13401319
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar
g
AZE
2747
bio
... | Read More
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Vivasyriaa (1651) – JoLou77USA (1259), chess.com 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6
Ah, the Philidor Defense! There's a lot more to this interesting opening than most realize.
3.d4 Nf6
Gambit lovers occasionally try 3…f5.
&n... | Read More
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Last week we analyzed games where it was wise to spend a whole tempo and play h2-h3 (or h7-h6 for Black) to avoid a very unpleasant pin. But sometimes it is a good idea to play such a move even if the pin is not our concern at all. In order to u... | Read More
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There is a common debate on the subject of what separates the different echelons of chessplayers. Some say it is tactics, others strategy. A lot of folks are of the opinion that opening knowledge is very important. Others claim ... | Read More
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It was the first round of the North American Open in Las Vegas and I was paired against the top 50 player Vallejo Pons, rated over 2700. Usually I don't get to play foreign chess players because they don't often come to play in American Opens. Val... | Read More
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The Benoni Defense was first mentioned – and got its name – from an 1825 manuscript by Aaron Reinganum, Ben-oni, or the Pawn-Sacrifice Defense in Chess. The word “benoni” means “son of sorrow” in Hebrew. Accordi... | Read More
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2000 – 1900, Kolty Merope 2011 [A00a]
1.d4 d5 2.e4 e6
1900 said: “Instead of playing into a Blackmar-Diemer Gambit, I chose to transform the structure into a French Defense, with which I have more experience.” ... | Read More
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The final part of the report about the Women’s World Team Chess Championship features the last three rounds. These are especially important in terms of the tournament’s results. Usually by that point everyone is tired, and the cost of making a... | Read More
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This game features a rather unique attack. Korchnoi puts some pressure on Fischer's queenside, but throws away his advantage there with a few errant moves. This allows Fischer to attack his opponent's king without nay opposition. With the aid of a... | Read More