Online chess community where you can play chess, learn strategies and tactics, read chess news, see book reviews, find rules & tips, get free downloads, and more! http://www.chess.com/ 2007 Chess.com 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 heat of... http://www.chess.com/article/view/fighting-defense Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:58:19 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/fighting-defense 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... http://www.chess.com/article/view/just-played Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:07:24 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/just-played 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... http://www.chess.com/article/view/uncovering-a-tactical-weakness Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:10:46 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/uncovering-a-tactical-weakness 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... http://www.chess.com/article/view/attack-and-defense-in-the-modern-benoni Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:05:27 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/attack-and-defense-in-the-modern-benoni Everyone has heard the saying "an attack on the wing should be met by a counter in the center". Or, if you haven't - now you have. But what does a central counterattack look like, and why is it so strong? Every attack uses up some kind of energy,... http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-central-counterblow Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:32:27 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-central-counterblow Every once in a while, someone asks me the question "who is your favorite player?" That's always a difficult question to answer, because I don't really have a single favorite player. If I have to name one, though, I would probably say Alexander Al... http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-young-alekhine Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:49:05 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-young-alekhine The game I will show you today is – as you could guess from the title of the article – a comedy of errors. And the source of those errors is a surprising misjudgment of the “speed” of play (for more on this subject, check o... http://www.chess.com/article/view/a-comedy-of-errors-or-the-tempo-of-the-attack-part-2 Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:34:49 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/a-comedy-of-errors-or-the-tempo-of-the-attack-part-2 It's rare to see the king going on the attack, especially in the middlegame with queens on the board. However, it can happen and when it does it is usually aesthetic and shocking. We learn early on to protect the king, and quickly begin to see hi... http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-boss-takes-it-into-his-own-hands Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:32:37 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-boss-takes-it-into-his-own-hands What is "space" on a chess board? And why is it so important? A simple answer to the first question is that space is "control of squares". So a player with a "space advantage" is one who controls a greater number of squares. This could even be du... http://www.chess.com/article/view/space-and-the-attack Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:56:28 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/space-and-the-attack A positional sacrifice implies giving away material for long-term positional advantages. Such exchange operations don't lead to a straightforward win of the game or material. While any piece can be positionally sacrificed, the most common victims ... http://www.chess.com/article/view/positional-sacrifice Tue, 06 Dec 2011 02:23:35 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/positional-sacrifice I would like to show a game in this week’s article which really amazed me when I first saw it. In the 36th Soviet Championship a fairly little-known player Igor Platonov took on the legend of attack, Mikhail Tal. Playing the Najdorf Sicili... http://www.chess.com/article/view/sustained-brilliant-defense Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:02:38 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/sustained-brilliant-defense Probably the vast majority of games you will see in articles on chess.com or other places end decisively. But overall, at least in the higher levels of chess, the majority actually end in draws. We have been seeing mostly games where the balance w... http://www.chess.com/article/view/attack-and-defense-in-balance Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:19:10 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/attack-and-defense-in-balance There are certain kinds of positions where one particularly well-placed piece leads the entire action, like a conductor in a symphony. We chess players always try to put our pieces in good places, but it is more difficult than it seems. A piece th... http://www.chess.com/article/view/under-cover-of-bishop Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:21:27 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/under-cover-of-bishop How do you know if a sacrifice is correct or incorrect? In the absence of a calculable forced line leading to mate or winning back the material - how can you assess whether the compensation is enough? Let's look at the following position:   W... http://www.chess.com/article/view/intuition-and-the-sacrifice Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:21:21 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/intuition-and-the-sacrifice I want to discuss today a subject that is crucial to the chess player who wants to improve – this is “defensive thinking” – also known as “prophylaxis”. It is strange that this subject is sometimes presented as ... http://www.chess.com/article/view/defensive-thinkingwhen-you-are-attacking Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:57:35 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/defensive-thinkingwhen-you-are-attacking This week I am going to discuss a particular kind of sacrifice. This is usually a piece for one or two pawns. There are no clear-cut immediate threats and the defending side has many possible defenses. However, the defender’s king is perpetu... http://www.chess.com/article/view/defending-against-the-barbecue-sacrifice Thu, 27 Oct 2011 05:36:56 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/defending-against-the-barbecue-sacrifice I have always found attacks on the king in which the queen does not take part (usually because she has been traded or sacrificed) to be quite artistic. Why is this? I think it's because to conduct an attack on the king without the help of the quee... http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-queenless-attack Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:52:31 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-queenless-attack In today’s article I am going to discuss a specific structure which gives a type of position with a complex interplay of attack and defense on opposite sides of the board. This type of structure does not have a specific name, although I am s... http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-ldquowide-battlerdquo-in-attack-and-defense Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:50:44 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-ldquowide-battlerdquo-in-attack-and-defense Dear Thamizhan, I am a d4 player, rated 1300-1400 and I enjoy playing the Samisch Variation against the King's Indian. a) What are the factors or principles that I must use in order to win a game whenever I am in a good position? b) Since th... http://www.chess.com/article/view/winning Sun, 09 Oct 2011 23:08:38 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/winning A big part of being a good player is knowing what liberties you can afford, and where the real danger is. Knowing from experience what kind of attack is deadly and what can be shrugged off is more important than being able to calculate more and fa... http://www.chess.com/article/view/provocation Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:36:16 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/provocation