Today we'll discuss a powerful opening/middlegame set up called the Maroczy Bind. The following diagram shows a typical Maroczy Bind pawn chain. To tell you the truth, I don't know where this name came from since I was not able to l...
The sixth World Champion Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik was born on August 17, 1911, so this year the World Community will celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth and FIDE has announced that 2011 will be the "Year of Botvinnik." He was the fo...
We all know popular myths that can easily be refuted just by checking the facts. Ones like "A penny dropped from the Empire State Building will kill a person" or "Thomas Edison invented the light bulb." I am sure you know many popular but false st...
Vitali Golod is one of those strong GMs who is not very well known outside of the professional circuit. And yet, he managed to win national championships in such traditionally strong chess countries as Ukraine and Israel (1991 and 2010 respectivel...
In previous articles we discussed cases where the Kings helped your attack by just vacating a square for a Rook or moving out of a pin in order to push a pawn. So, mostly their role in the attack was very limited. But what about the famous Steinit...
In the first part of this article (http://www.chess.com/article/view/a-little-move-with-deadly-consequences) we analyzed games where one side moved his King to prepare pushing the 'g' pawn to launch a Kingside attack. Today we'll discuss other b...
While researching material for the article on the best games of GM Artur Yusupov (mona-lisa-of-gm-artur-jussupow ), I found the next little known gem. The position in the following diagram is typical for the King's Indian pawn structure. Usuall...
Most people hate to memorize the countless opening variations published in chess books and magazines, and yet, this is unfortunately the most common way amongst chess players to master openings. Leaving aside the fact that it is a very boring thin...
Every chess player hopes to play his immortal game some day. Borrowing lyrics from the hit song of Kelly Clarkson "people wait a lifetime for a moment like this." You never know when it will happen, but if you look at the best games played in che...
While doing research for last week's article about GM Klaus Bischoff's best game, I found the next cute attack where GM Bischoff was on the receiving end of a combo. (Just like in most of my articles I give you a chance to test your attacking ski...
Klaus Bischoff is another name that is virtually unknown for most chess amateurs. Indeed, he was never close to the chess elite and his best result was probably third place in the 1980 World Junior Championship behind Kasparov and Short. Yet he is...
According to some Russian chess books, the famous writer Leo Tolstoy played around 600 recorded games. I was able to locate only a half dozen of them. Based on them I can conclude that the famous Russian writer had a very sharp attacking style. ...
First of all, let me take this opportunity and wish to all my readers a Happy and Prosperous New Year! The goal of my highly unscientific research is to establish who was the best chess player amongst celebrities. And I am talking about celebriti...
All chess players regardless of their strength have their own chess gems. NapoleonBonaparte was not an exception and also had his own Mona Lisa. He played it not long before his death in his exile on Saint Helena. Here is the game: (Just like i...
GM Macieja is one of those strong chess players who is not well known outside of the professional chess players' circle (even though he was European Champion in 2002!) Meanwhile, he has an achievement that would be very interesting for the general...
Russian GM Evgeny Bareev is widely known as a strong technical player. Probably for that reason Vladimir Kramnik invited him to be his second during the World Championship match vs. Garry Kasparov. Indeed, Kasparov was never able to break the Be...
Last week we analyzed the game Nunn-Nataf (the best game of GM Nataf). I think it is only fair to talk about the best game of GM John Nunn. These days GM John Nunn is mostly known as an author of very high quality chess books, chess compositions ...
Grandmaster Igor-Alexandre Nataf is not exactly a household name in the Chess World. There is no article about him in Wikipedia and according to the FIDE web site his rating never crossed the 2600 mark. Yet, the game he calls his most beautiful ...
Just like any chess player, I have my own personal Mona Lisa. Since you my dear readers asked about this game in your comments to the previous article, it is probably a good opportunity to show it now. I knew that I was going to play a special ga...
In my opinion it is impossible to say for sure which game of Alexei Shirov is the best one he ever played. He is one of the most imaginative contemporary players and therefore he has dozens of true masterpieces. So it would be impossible for me to...
Preparing last week's column I replayed the "Immortal Game" one more time and couldn't help but think: yes, the Anderssen - Kieseritzky game is wonderful, but is it really the most beautiful game ever played? Of course it is impossible to answer a...
This is one of the most beautiful patterns. It happens when one of the players uses his Queen to capture one Rook with check and then immediately wins another Rook. Usually it goes like Qb7xRa8 check and then QxRh8 for White or Qb2xRa1 ...
There are many ways to go wrong in the opening and lose quickly. Today we'll talk about one of the Opening's Cardinal Sins : pawn grabbing. Everyone knows that in the opening we are supposed to develop our pieces as quickly as possible and castl...
Today, one of the most talented chess players of his generation, Gyula Breyer is mostly remembered for the variation of the Ruy Lopez named after him: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d6 9.h3 Nb8! The last pa...
