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 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 ... http://www.chess.com/article/view/baby-shoes-for-sale-never-worn Sat, 04 Feb 2012 23:55:00 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/baby-shoes-for-sale-never-worn 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... http://www.chess.com/article/view/tactical-super-test--2 Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:00:59 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/tactical-super-test--2 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... http://www.chess.com/article/view/a-useful-waste-of-time-part-two Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:05:25 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/a-useful-waste-of-time-part-two Today I am going to talk about the h2-h3 (h7-h6 for Black) move in an opening. Let me tell you right away that in the majority of the cases when my students (mostly kids) play this move, it means only one thing: they find themselves in an unfamil... http://www.chess.com/article/view/a-useful-waste-of-time Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:22:22 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/a-useful-waste-of-time In the first part of this article we started analysis of the classical position with an Isolated Queen Pawn where Black's e6-pawn is moved to c6. This kind of position happened in many games of the famous match La Bourdonnais - McDonnell. Tod... http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-isolated-pawn-part-two Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:16:49 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-isolated-pawn-part-two Even though the progress of modern chess theory is truly amazing, we can still learn a lot from the old classical games. In the "Classic games" series of articles we analyze the games which were played long time ago but still could benefit modern ... http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-isolated-pawn Sat, 31 Dec 2011 21:15:55 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-isolated-pawn Last week you had the chance to compare your chess skills with the famous American GM Frank Marshall.  This time your task is harder as the new benchmark you are supposed to keep up with is the legendary Paul Morphy. In one of my previous art... http://www.chess.com/article/view/keeping-up-with-paul-morphy Sun, 25 Dec 2011 00:33:47 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/keeping-up-with-paul-morphy I want to share my frustrations with you, my dear readers. I find it extremely annoying that these days you cannot turn on TV, read a newspaper or browse the Internet without being attacked by the Kardashians' news. Their weddings, divorces, fragr... http://www.chess.com/article/view/keeping-up-with-frank-marshall Sat, 17 Dec 2011 18:23:14 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/keeping-up-with-frank-marshall After reading your feedback for the Tactical Super-test that we had a couple of weeks ago (http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-tactical-super-test), I learned 2 main things: 1) A majority of the readers enjoye... http://www.chess.com/article/view/tactical-super-test-lite Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:28:33 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/tactical-super-test-lite While doing my research for the "Classical Games" series, I have discovered many interesting and exciting things. And I am not talking just about games. Today I want to talk about an intriguing chess personality from the past - Josef Cukierman. I... http://www.chess.com/article/view/a-forgotten-master Sat, 03 Dec 2011 23:28:48 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/a-forgotten-master Most chess players have probably heard the saying "Chess is 99% tactics". While it is an exaggeration, the goal of this saying is to emphasize the importance of calculation in chess. Indeed, the fastest and most efficient way to improve your ... http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-tactical-super-test Sat, 26 Nov 2011 22:40:08 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-tactical-super-test The most obvious and important benefit of working on classical games is that such a work significantly broadens your chess horizons. This is what just happened to me since I discovered something new and very important, at least from the historical... http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-part-12 Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:20:28 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-part-12 The so-called Steinitz variation in the French Defense arises after the next sequence of moves: 1.e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 where Black gives up space for an opportunity to attack White's center. When he succeeds, the results a... http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-part-11 Sat, 12 Nov 2011 21:32:55 -0800 http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-part-11 In the previous instalments of this column we already discussed the importance of the knowledge of classical games and ideas.  Today I'd like to discuss how to generate your own ideas.  Again, sometimes it just means using somebody else'... http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-part-10 Sat, 05 Nov 2011 22:38:21 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-part-10 This is another game in which Bobby Fischer comes up with another ingenious idea. On his twenty-third move, he seemingly sacrifices his rook, and then reveals his point when he traps the black queen in his own territory. After that, he springs a f... http://www.chess.com/article/view/queen-trap Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:34:44 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/queen-trap Many times in my articles I addressed a very important question "How to study chess openings?" You can find some of my suggestions here: http://www.chess.com/article/view/do-the-opposite and here: http://www.chess.com/article/view/how-to-lea... http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-part-9 Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:50:00 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-part-9 There are not many games in the chess history as popular as the next one played by the great Emanuel Lasker. You'll be hard pressed to find a book on tactics that doesn't mention this game. The combination was even named after the second World Cha... http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-part-8 Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:28:21 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-part-8 I am frequently asked if the classical games played by great champions should be memorized. In my opinion it is not necessary. But what you should do for sure is to understand and memorize the key ideas of those games.  If you learn typical p... http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-part-7 Sat, 15 Oct 2011 23:09:47 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-part-7 Wilhelm Steinitz is widely known as the founder of a new positional school of chess, so you might expect to see long boring games played by the first official World Champion.  In fact, Steinitz created many beautiful attacking gems, so we can lea... http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-part-6 Sat, 08 Oct 2011 23:25:37 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/classical-games-everybody-should-know-part-6 In this game, Berkes' slightly passive opening allows Judit Polgar to establish a lead in development. Berkes decides to set a trap, which Polgar seems to fall into. However, a White's neat 14th move showed that Black was actually the one that had... http://www.chess.com/article/view/hey-jude Sun, 02 Oct 2011 19:44:55 -0700 http://www.chess.com/article/view/hey-jude