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The Polish defense is a strange opening that arises from the Queen pawn game.
White is doing better with massive control over the center. That is the reason this remains unpopular.
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William Pollock (1859-1896) was the winner of the 1885 Irish Chess Championship. At the time, he was not a resident of Ireland. He had been a member of the Dublin Chess Club from 1880 to 1882 during his stay at as medical student. ...
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Lev Abramovich Polugaevsky (1934-1995) was a Soviet International Grandmaster (1962) and one of the top 10 players in the 1970s. He won the USSR championship in 1967, 1968, and 1969. He played in 20 Soviet chess championships, and fini...
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Domenico Lorenzo Ponziani (1719-1792) was a chess author, law lecturer, and priest. From 1742 to 1772, he was professor of Civil Law in the University of Modena. In 1766 he was Canon of the Cathedral. In 1785 he was Capitular Vic...
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In almost every war with Prisoners of War (POW), POWs have credited chess literally with saving their lives. Any many POW camps, chess playing was the main diversion. During World War II, POWs played chess with their German guards to d...
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Edith Charlotte Price (1872-1956) was five-time British Ladies Champion (1922, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1948). She first played in the British Ladies Championship in 1912, finishing 2nd. She won it in 1948 at the age of 76, the oldest p...
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The principle of two weaknesses is an important principle you should always know.
In chess, besides checkmate, you should also be creating weaknesses, which will lead to advantages, which in turn lead to checkmate and a win. Sometimes, you will c...
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In 1960 Bobby Fischer gave a simultaneous exhibition at Rikers Island prison. He defeated all 20 prisoners while 2,400 inmates watched the exhibition and the prison band played. In 1971 a prisoner failed to return to Western Penitentia...
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The $300 first place money for the first American Chess Congress was refused by Morphy. Instead, he accepted a silver pitcher, four goblets, and a silver tray. He defeated Stanley in a match, giving odds of pawn and move. Morphy ...
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The first composed chess problem was by the caliph Mutasim Billah of Baghdad around 840 A.D. The earliest known European collections of chess problems were copied at the English monasteries of Abbotsbury and Cerne Abbey in Dorset around 1250...
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