Tired of the same old chess openings? Chess960 (also known as Fischer Random) is the game for you. Learn how to play this fun variant that shuffles the starting positions every new game. IM Daniel Rensch shows you the rules, basics and tips to play.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov started with an impressive win against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the FIDE Grand Prix in Riga, Latvia. The Frenchman needs to win tomorrow to stay in the match. So far MVL had played a flawless Grand Prix in Riga. The first sign of weakness quickly led to his first loss of the tournament. Strong preparation once again formed a big part of Mamedyarov's win, like in his white game with So. He pointed out that it wasn’t exactly the same situation;...
Destiny makes its urgent way to the mighty and those who do violent deeds. This is the beginning of Stefan Zweig's famous Die Weltminute von Waterloo (The World Minute of Waterloo). While this short novel describes the decisive moment of the historic battle of Waterloo, my inner chess geek cannot help but see the uncanny similarity with a historic chess battle between Bobby Fischer and Bent Larsen. It was one of Fischer's last defeats before his vertical ascent to the chess summit. This is...
If you've followed the Tarrasch lessons so far, you know that it's a serious opening with many important variations. In this video, learn how to play the main line with the exchange of pawns on c5.
This is a quick post about a position that popped up in a 3/2 blitz game I just played where my opponent and I both missed a key tactic. While this position is so far out of book that you can't even see the book anymore, it showcases a tactic that often sneaks up on me. I figure that if I overlook it, others at my level might miss it too and so am sharing it in this post. What's Black's best move? Black's best move is one of those moves that's immediately obvious as soon as you see it but, if...
The new world number-10 Leinier Dominguez Perez managed to maintain his narrow lead to win first place in the 47th Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting with 4.5/7. Just a half-point behind Dominguez were four players, all at 4/7: Ian Nepomniachtchi, Teimour Radjabov, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, and Richard Rapport. Ulrich Krause, the president of Germany's chess federation, makes the first move in the final-round game between Wojtaszek and Dominguez. | Photo: Georgios...
The 14th world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik reflects on his remarkable career, telling David Cox about his championship battles with Garry Kasparov, Peter Leko, Veselin Topalov and Vishy Anand, and why Kramnik finally ran out of motivation for the game. After more than two decades at the top, Vladimir Kramnik shocked the chess world earlier this year by announcing his retirement at the age of 43. A prodigy, and former student of Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school, Kramnik went on to...
The eighth week of the PRO Chess League Summer Series could not have gone better for GM Sandro Mareco and the Sao Paulo Capybaras. The Brazilian side scored the third six-point week of the Summer Series (Saint Louis and Pittsburgh were first and second, respectively), which was just enough to take a one-point lead over the Moscow Wizards heading into the final week of the group. The Mumbai Movers dropped in the standings after a one-point showing on Saturday....
There is a well-known chess joke (or maybe not even a joke!) that it is much more difficult to sacrifice a pawn than a queen. Indeed, in most queen sacrifices you get huge dividends right away, since it is difficult to imagine a player sacrificing his queen just to get (for example) a good square for his knight. Therefore, it is relatively easy to predict the outcome of many queen sacrifices, like the next one: From the other side, most pawn sacrifices are done for positional gains and so it...
