Vasily Smyslov was born in Moscow, Russia in 1921. He learned to play chess at the age of 6 and became one of the greatest players of all time. Beside playing chess, Smyslov was also an accomplished opera singer. He became Worl...
William Henry Pollock from England (1859-1896) was a player of International Master strength and Irish Champion in 1885 and 1886. He played the Black pieces against Max Weiss (1857-1927) in a game that will forever be classified as a wor...
Julio Bolbochan (1920-1996) was an Argentine Champion in 1946 and 1948. He was awarded the International Master title in 1955 and became Grandmaster in 1977. He played in six Olympiads and qualified for three interzonals. The following g...
For unexplainable reasons, a player often loses his head and makes absolutely inane stupid moves only because his opponent's reputation. In the game shown here, Bobby Fischer, winner of the great Stockholm Interzonal Tournament of 1962, p...
Yugoslav Grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric plays White against Robert Fischer in this amazing game at Bled International in 1961. The result is a draw, but not the typical grandmaster draw, famous for their lack of interest on the part of the con...
Edward Lasker (1885-1981) was an engineer and an author. He was awarded the title of International Master, even when his play was of Grandmaster strenght. He was five times US Open Champion (1916, 1917, 1919, 1920 and 1921).&nb...
Sometimes in Chess, one single move has the power to change a lost position into a won one. The position below is a primary example: Black is two pawns behind, plus his Queen and Knight are both attacked by the powerful placed White Rook at c5;&nb...
Svetozar Gligoric (1923-) is a Serbian Grandmaster and one of the all-time great figures in Chess history. He is considered the best Chess player ever in Serbia; he has also been Champion of Yugoslavia an impressive 12 times. The following game wa...
Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1900), Austrian-American Grandmaster and first official World Champion, defeated English Grandmaster Joseph Henry Blackburne, alias "The Black Death" (1841-1924) in this game played in London in 1876. The game was ...
Max Euwe (1901-1981) was a Dutch Grandmaster, Mathematician and author. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Champion 1n 1935. Euwe was also President of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) from 1970-1978. He defeat...
"In the Middle Ages, the Roman Church condemned chess, as it did many other forms of amusement, as a tool of the devil. In later times, however, the church not only has softened its position, but has come around to warmly encouraging the...
Andor Lilienthal (1911-) is a Hungarian Grandmaster born in Moscow; he moved to Hungary at the age of two. He played against many World Champions during his ilustrious chess career. Among the great players he defeated are: Lasker, Alekhine, E...
Viacheslav Ragozin (1908-1962), Soviet Grandmaster, chess writer and editor, played Black in this game against Hungarian Grandmaster Andre Lilienthal (1911-). White was winning by move 22, but when he missed the killer 23.Bf4, Black ...
This game was played at Nottingham in 1936 between World Champion Alexander Alekhine (1892-1946) and future World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-1995). Alekhine played White, he had Botvinnik a Knight down and it seemed like he had&nbs...
Here is what Al Horowitz had to say about this great Polish Grandmaster from the 20th century: "Akiba Rubinstein (1882-1961), what a player! Only by a strange quirk of fate did he fail to reach the World's Championship, having defeated ea...
This is not a puzzle, is a complete game played in 1942 in New York between Herman Helms and Oscar Tenner. White offers his Queen as a juicy bait to get the Black King into a lethal mating net.
The following position happened during the US Championship of 1951, which resulted in a victory for Larry Evans. Max Pavey (1918-1957), an American Chess Master and Medical Doctor, completely outplayed I A Horowitz. Black finds himself t...
Salomon Mikhailovich Flohr (1908-1983) was one of Czechoslovakia's greatest chess players ever. He established himself as a legend during the Olympiads of the 1930s. His tournament record was impressive, with his tactical skill ...
The following Giuoco Piano is from the book "How to Win in the Chess Openings" by I A Horowitz. It is an awesome game and I wanted to post it. Unfortunately, the names of the players are unknown, so is the time it was...
Israel Albert Horowitz (1907-1973), better known as I A Horowitz, was a Jewish-American International Master, a Grandmaster by today's standards, but he never got the title. Horowitz won the US Open Championship in 1936, 1938 and 1943. He is the m...
The following game ilustrates what poor development can do to a chess player. I played Black against Michael189, a very good player and a good friend of mine. White sacrificed a Knight early in the game for no apparent reason, then he ha...
Here is a game I played a while back, it is one of my favorites because I sacrificed three pieces and won nicely. First, I sacrificed a Bishop to get my Rook into play, then followed a Knight, lastly, I sacrificed my Rook. My eager and younge...
In 1920, Richard Reti (1889-1929), one of the top players in the world at the time, played a match against future World Champion Max Euwe (1901-1981). The result was 5-3 with four draws in Reti's favor. The game below is fr...
This game was played in 1844 between Hoffman and Petroff, both Grandmasters of the era. Black's idea of surrendering his Queen to bind the enemy King with the lesser pieces is a true triumph of mind over matter.
