A chess match is an exciting struggle between two persons which, in most cases, allows one to find out which of them is the better player. The more games, the more justified the result (as long as no one dies from exhaustion). Therefore, it is n...
Mikeyt asked: How realistic is it for me to set a goal of achieving a master chess rating? To help you out, I’ll give a little info on my background. In my younger days I played myself to a 1900+ USCF rating without ever putting serious study in...
William Davies Evans was born in Pembroke, Gales, January 27, 1790. Marine by profession since age fourteen, he became sea Captain in 1819 in the United Kingdom Postal Service. By 1818, he had learnt the moves of chess. During his free hours in of...
ankitthemaster asked: I posted this same question on chess.com and most of them insulted and/or discouraged me. My query was simple: I am age 22, keen to play chess professionally, and I will say that I am an advanced beginner who has mostly play...
Reader Comments To Articles – Love Letters to a Chess Writer! Ah, time to revisit all my previous articles and mention a few of the many comments that appear under them. I’m sure they will all be positive … perhaps offering me riches and praise a...
I have stated that chess pieces are connected. As a result, I have been asked to explain how pieces are connected. The way a player deploys the pieces should take into consideration their coordination. The first part of this is simply development....
Aaron Nimzowitsch (7 November 1886 – 16 March 1935), one of the most influential players and writers in chess history, was born in Riga, (the birthplace of two chess geniuses: Mihail Tal and Alexei Shirov!) Latvia, one of the Baltic states, along ...
The French Defense has a reputation of being a very solid, but not a very exciting opening from Black's point of view. Says Wikipedia: "The French has a reputation for solidity and resilience, though it can result in a somewhat cramped game for B...
John Watson was born in 1951 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He earned the title of International Master, but is better known as a chess theorist and writer. He has written dozens of books and pamphlets. His Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy: Advance...
Francois André Danican Philidor (September 7, 1726 – August 31, 1795) was born in Dreux France. His father was seventy-nine at the time! He was a French composer whose operas were successful and widely known in his day and who was a famous and rem...
Two Opening Questions No-Name asked: A recent book by GM Glenn Flear advocates playing against the exchange Queen’s gambit thus: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Bb4 (Which my mentor GM Hans Berliner says is bad) when he only covers W...
Too Much Opening and the Grand Plan Abhilash_007 asked: (In response to my article, HELP! I FEEL SO LOST WITHOUT A PLAN!). How do you decide it’s time to map a grand plan? Dear Abhilash_007, Grand plans are rare, even in grandmaster chess....
This week we shall study the Nimzo Indian Classical system. Usually this system is considered to lead to more of a positional game, but the British GM Nigel Short employed an interesting idea against the legendary Garry Kasparov in their World Cha...
“Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy."Siegbert Tarrasch (March 5, 1862 – February 17, 1934) was born in Breslau the hometown of Andersen and Zukertort. The young Tarrasch learned to play chess when he was 15 years old. He...
In my last tournament, the SPICE Cup in Texas, I had 4 blacks out of 9 games. The first 3 blacks I had all saw my opponents open with 1.e4 (I wrote about the first game last week, at http://www.chess.com/article/view/pawn-power). While I've normal...
After the Bacrot game from the 4th round that I went over last week, I had the white pieces against Tiviakov. This was maybe my best game of the event, but in light of my upcoming event in Texas (the SPICE Cup, group B), I didn't quite have enough...
I recently competed in a very strong Category 15 tournament in Montreal. There were 12 players, 8 invitees and 4 qualifiers. I qualified by finishing 3rd in the Quebec Championship in June (from which I have already discussed a few games in this c...
Last week we discussed "Material for Initiative" in the French Tarrasch Variation with a pawn sacrifice on the 9th move. This week we shall see about the other various alternatives for Black. Our first game is between the 13th World Champion Garr...
One of the most difficult things in a game could be just being under enormous attack right from the opening. We will have to end up spending so much time and energy in defending accurately and by the time we reach a safe and comfortable position, ...
Veteran Jan Timman dominated the Staunton Memorial tournament, streaking to the finish. His only stumble was his seventh round encounter with a great Viktor Korchnoi. Perhaps inspired by Korchnoi, Tim on rebounded in the next round by using t...
Last week we saw some of the straight-forward theoretical draws and some exciting well-fought draws. Today we will take a look at some other continuations for black. To begin with, playing the sicilian itself is a huge move towards avoiding a...
In my last article, I showed my game with GM Josh Friedel from round 2 of the World Open in Philadelphia. The following day, I had the black pieces against IM Ray Robson, the 2009 Samford Fellowship recipient. I had planned to play a Winawer Frenc...
Siegbert Tarrasch was born March 5, 1862 and died February 17, 1934. He was close to the best player in the world around 1890. His match with Mikhail Chigorin, a contender for the world championship, resulted in 9 wins for each after 22 games in 1...
Today we will see one of the most beautiful Dutch defence games ever played. The winner Savielly Tartakower (1887-1956) was born at Rostov-on-Don in 1887. His native language was Russian, but he was a subject of Austria-Hungary, and in World War I...
