Smooth Criminal
One of the most famous quotes of Aron Nimzowitsch is: "A passed pawn is a criminal which should be kept under lock and key. Mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not sufficient." What did the famous Grandmaster mean? We ...
Tactical Patterns Everyone should Know. Sacrifice on the e6-square.
It is a very common situation: the opening is almost over but your opponent's King is still in the center. One more move and the King castling will mark the official end of the opening, but sometimes one move in chess is an eternity and what looks...
Twins
Good tactical skills are all about pattern recognition. If, for example, you have solved a dozen 'back rank checkmate' problems, then I can guarantee that next time you play a tournament game and your opponent doesn't create a luft for his King by...
Read your Opponent's Mind!
Let me start with a disclaimer: I cannot read other people's minds. It would be extremely helpful in many different activities but especially so when you play chess. The good news is, sometimes you don't even need to guess your opponent's th...
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Recently it has become fashionable to criticize FIDE. Indeed, some of the FIDE inventions could be featured in the "you cannot make this up" column. But they definitely managed to achieve one goal: chess is 'rediscovered' by the media. Wheth...
Superstitions!
Chess players are very superstitious people! Almost every strong player I know has his own superstition. By far the most common one is a "lucky" pen or pencil. Even Mikhael Tal (who had the nickname "the Magician") half jokingly blamed the loss of...
Three Fools, Part 2
In the first part of this article we discussed the cases where two Bishops are a very powerful weapon. We also analyzed Steinitz's games where the first World Champion showed the correct way to take advantage of the Bishop pair. In the next ...
Three Fools
About 30 years ago I was playing in a kid's team tournament. I don't remember who won the tournament, my own result or even who played there. The only thing I remember about the tournament is what happened during one of our team's gatherings...
Surviving the Perfect Storm
There are many openings where you fianchetto your Bishop (i.e. you develop your Bishop to g2 for White or to g7 for Black). There your Bishop is going to control the long diagonal and offer an extra protection for your King. But what is that? Your...
It Ain't Over Till It's Over!
If I ever create a list of things I tell my students most frequently, then the title of today's article would be at the very top. We all make mistakes ( read my series of articles on the subject here: http://www.chess.com/article/view/to-err-is-hu...
I See Dead Pieces...
Do you remember this memorable line from the 1999 blockbuster "The Sixth Sense": Cole Sear (played by Haley Joel Osment) says: I see dead people... They don't see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don't k...
To Err is Human, Part 4
It is well known fact that we learn the most from the games that we lost. But you need to analyze all of your games because sometimes a draw can teach you more than a bunch of losses. I want to present two draws that definitely helped ...
To Err is Human, Part 3
In the previous two parts of this series, we have already established the fact that you really need to analyze your games in order to find your mistakes so you'll never repeat them again. Unfortunately, you don't always realize the true reason for...
To Err is Human, Part 2
In the first part of this article we saw examples where chess players didn't learn from their mistakes and therefore they were falling for the same traps again and again. Here is one of the most amazing stories. It started in 1971 in the traditio...
To Err is Human
We all make mistakes. In my opinion it is just a natural way to self improvement, so you shouldn't be ashamed of your mistakes. As a roughly translated Russian saying goes "Only a person who does nothing makes no mistakes". Therefore I want to tha...
Run, Forrest! Run!
The playing styles of two chess giants GM Aron Nimzowitsch and the World Champion Tigran Petrosian have many similarities. It is not just a coincidence since Petrosian was a diligent student of Nimzowitsch's books, and especially his iconic "...
Baby Shoes for Sale. Never Worn.
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 ...
Tactical Super-Test # 2!
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...
A Useful Waste of Time, Part 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 un...
A Useful Waste of Time
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...
Classical Games Everybody Should Know: Isolated Pawn, Part Two
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...
Classical Games Everybody Should Know: Isolated Pawn
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 ...
Keeping up with Paul Morphy
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...
Keeping up with Frank Marshall
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...