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 In my younger years, I had a headache when there were too many pawns in the center and too many possible captures. With white pawns on d4, c4 and black on d5, c5 my thought process went like this: I take on c5, he takes back, oh no he takes on c4 ... http://www.chess.com/article/view/what-to-do-with-the-pawn-center Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:41:57 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/what-to-do-with-the-pawn-center Hi everyone I want to tell you something about winning mentality. I personaly think that this kind of mentality is very important in every day life, in other sports and also in chess. I was training basketball for about 7 years and in that time I ... http://www.chess.com/article/view/winning-mentality Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:37:47 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/winning-mentality I just finished playing in a reasonably strong round-robin in Montreal. I finished with 6.5/9 in the category 7 field (2411 FIDE average). In the third round, I played an interesting game with IM Thomas Roussel-Roozmon. The game was not perfect by... http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-3rd-rank-barrier Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:21:07 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-3rd-rank-barrier Hi everyone!  in a world of advanced chess eengines and sophisticated programs like Rybka, Zappa and HIARCS etc..., do you remember the old fashioned chessmaster and his funny personnalities and their odd names? ok, this time , i will represent ... http://www.chess.com/article/view/in-memory-of-a-chess-engine Sat, 27 Jun 2009 05:12:28 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/in-memory-of-a-chess-engine I would like to talk about the topic of exchanging off fianchettoed bishops, whether it is on b2, g2, g7 or b7. A fianchettoed bishop is useful both in defense, since it covers the king and on the other hand, without it there would be a complex of... http://www.chess.com/article/view/exchanging-a-fianchetto-bishop Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:59:11 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/exchanging-a-fianchetto-bishop Most players think mates only occur during kingside attacks in the middlegame or after one side promotes a pawn to a queen and the other side keeps playing.  But I have learned that mates can be found even in a wide open position in an endgame wi... http://www.chess.com/article/view/its-never-too-late-for-mate Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:53:53 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/its-never-too-late-for-mate On my last tournament run in Europe, I had the good fortune of checkmating two opponents with a pair of minor pieces (bishop and knight and then two bishops). There were other pieces on the board, but the minor pieces did the heavy lifting. With t... http://www.chess.com/article/view/mating-with-minor-pieces-two-knights Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:20:29 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/mating-with-minor-pieces-two-knights This is the final game on the Open Ruy Lopez I plan to investigate, and along with the other two examples this should provide the reader with a good introduction into the typical themes and plans in this slightly unorthodox opening. For instructio... http://www.chess.com/article/view/test-your-chess-open-ruy-lopez3 Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:39:00 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/test-your-chess-open-ruy-lopez3 Some time ago one of my students told me that it is hard to find rook moves that do not capture the opponent's rook but rather put it in close proximity to the enemy rook. The examples of white playing Ra7 when black’s rook is on a8 came to my m... http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-unstoppable-ra7 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:27:19 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-unstoppable-ra7 INSTRUCTIONS:    The following is a game designed to test some of your chess skills, including: opening knowledge, positional understanding, tactical sight, and endgame know-how. The idea is to play through the moves below belonging to an anno... http://www.chess.com/article/view/test-your-chess-open-ruy-lopez-2 Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:38:02 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/test-your-chess-open-ruy-lopez-2 My normal weapon as Black against 1.e4 has been the French Defense for many years. A couple years ago, I started playing the Ruy Lopez as Black as well, but I still tend to choose the French against lower-rated opponents. Unlike the Ruy Lopez wher... http://www.chess.com/article/view/beating-the-exchange-french Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:44:50 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/beating-the-exchange-french I would like to address the question of exchanges in endgames. Unlike middlegames, having a material advantage in endgames almost always leads to winning positions. There are different methods of converting either positional or material advantages... http://www.chess.com/article/view/what-to-trade-in-endgames Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:31:04 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/what-to-trade-in-endgames In chess, like in life, the hardest blow is the one that comes unexpectedly. When one knows what to expect, he can prepare, adjust, adopt, defend, and can do many things to ease the blow. What do we call unexpected exchanges? I would think of it ... http://www.chess.com/article/view/ah-what-a-surprise Thu, 28 May 2009 23:57:35 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/ah-what-a-surprise I would like to talk about exchanges as a means to achieve some strategic objective. The first objective that I want to concentrate on here is to exchange in order to get an open file. An open file is a powerful weapon; the side that has the file ... http://www.chess.com/article/view/it-is-all-positional Fri, 22 May 2009 00:06:25 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/it-is-all-positional The US Championship is the event that all American players wait for with anticipation. This year it is being held at the glamorous St. Louis chess club from May 7 to 17 and gathers twenty four of the best American players. Let's just name few: Gat... http://www.chess.com/article/view/a-dream-championship-in-st-louis Fri, 15 May 2009 01:27:03 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/a-dream-championship-in-st-louis In the Sicilian Defense the exchange sacrifice on c3 is quite typical. In Dragon lines it is almost mandatory to sacrifice a rook for the knight on c3. In the other lines of the Sicilian defense it is not so clear if giving up a rook for the knigh... http://www.chess.com/article/view/sicilian-exchange-sac Fri, 08 May 2009 00:08:33 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/sicilian-exchange-sac “Extra Piece”… I think prominent chess coach Mark Dvoretsky coined this term. Let's say white has a great square in the center, which is defended and supported by a pawn and cannot be attacked by the opponent’s pawns. Naturally, white woul... http://www.chess.com/article/view/an-quotextraquot-piece Fri, 01 May 2009 00:41:10 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/an-quotextraquot-piece There are many openings where black gets his knight to a5: Sicilian, Ruy Lopez, Gruenfeld etc. In the Gruenfeld the knight is a rather active piece there, while in the Ruy Lopez and Sicilian it does not do much there. I would like to take a look ... http://www.chess.com/article/view/grab-the-bishop-to-take-control-of-whitey Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:19:55 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/grab-the-bishop-to-take-control-of-whitey This past week I played in the Foxwoods Open, one of the major US tournaments. Every year top GMs as well as less qualified players get together to play (chess, as well as other things…) at the world’s largest casino in Connecticut. This year ... http://www.chess.com/article/view/foxwoods-battles Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:30:08 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/foxwoods-battles There are structures where black has a strong Bg7 on the open diagonal a1-h8. These positions can happen from Kings Indian, Dragon Sicilian, Benko etc. Usually white has his dark squared bishop on the c1-h6 diagonal, thus not opposing the bishop o... http://www.chess.com/article/view/giving-up-the-dragon-bishop-for-the-noble-steed Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:05:57 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/giving-up-the-dragon-bishop-for-the-noble-steed