Here are several “nuggets” that might be gold or might be rabbit pellets. You decide. member AnlamK asked: In your books THE AMATEUR’S MIND and HOW TO REASSESS YOUR CHESS 4th edition, you write about the importance of ignoring the opponents’ (ph...
Capltal asked: My rating is 1130. For Black, I’m interested in both 1.c4 e5 and 1.e4 e5! However, both have many variations so I bought two books: THE MARSHALL ATTACK by Bogdan Lalic and THE PETROFF DEFENSE by Forintos and Haag. Is it a good ide...
This comprehensive series instructs on perhaps the most practical and commonly reached type of endgames (Rook Endings). It is designed to take a chess player with the most limited knowledge of basic rook ending ideas -- to a master level understan...
When you try solving a problem you try to do it the simplest way. Before resorting to complex means, one needs to try at first all the simple solutions. This time I tried to play out the position with the most brutal means. Passive defense is usua...
Last week I assigned a set of positions to test your endgame understanding, to provide new ideas as well as to repeat the covered material. Every learned topic has to be tested, to provide feedback on where we stand. Endgame positions in this set ...
One of the most popular questions that is asked by amateurs and pros alike is “How many games per year should I play?” Of course, no one in the world knows the right answer. In fact, the one and only solution doesn’t exist since this is highly ind...
Farbror asked: This is one of my favorite chess quotes: “Before our first Latvian posting I didn’t care for this gambit one way or the other. Now I hate it with a passion and, when I hit my 80th birthday, fully intend to devote my remaining year...
People often ask me if they should play blitz, how helpful it is in terms of improving in chess. Experts’ views on this differ. Those who enjoy playing blitz often claim that it is very useful, and serves as an indicator of a chess player’s skills...
This week we shall study a rare system against the Slav defence, 5.b3. Many players who wanted to avoid the meran and other mainlines have chosen this system and had success with it. The advantage of this system is that the ideas for white are muc...
The Veresov Opening (1.d4 d5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bg5 or 1.d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Bg5) is an original system developed by Soviet IM Gavriil Veresov. Today he is mostly remembered because of his opening, which is a shame since he was a very strong chess play...
A chess player should follow strong GM-tournaments like a business person follows the Wall Street Journal. First of all, one can see modern opening trends and adjust his opening repertoire accordingly. Secondly, and more important in my opinion,...
Levon Aronian was born October 6, 1982 in Yerevan, Armenia. In 1994 he won the World Youth Championship U-12. In 2002 he won the Armenian Championship and the World Junior Championship. Aronian won the World Rapid Championship in 2009. He won the ...
This week we shall study The Chebanenko Slav.This system is considered to be a super solid opening and the number of its followers seems to be growing fast.This system has become popular in the last few years thanks to the efforts of Grandmasters ...
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...
This week we have decided to dwell a little more on the Spanish opening, also famously called the Ruy Lopez. We studied one of the main lines, the Chigorin defense last week, this time around we can discuss the Anti-Marshall variation. As the name...
Hi again everyone, This time we will try to take a look at how black can answer a variation which a lot of sources consider to be critical to the whole survival of the Dragon. I’ve tried to include a lot of possible deviations for black that c...
Two years ago I spent the summer in Ukraine, a chess Mecca, took chess lessons, played a couple of tournaments. In theory I know many methods that are designed to improve your chess, but in practice I hardly ever put any of them to...
This week we shall study another interesting early g2-g4 idea in the Slav Defence. To play against the Slav Defence Meran is not everybody's choice. The side that comes up with a new idea has a better chance of winning the game. For white players ...
This time I would like to deviate slightly from my usual topic of exchanges. I recently thought of pieces that make exceptionally huge numbers of moves during the game. Particularly, a queen can cross the whole board creating threats. In this arti...
International Master Andrew Martin from England presents a regular series of articles to answer any questions that Chess.com readers have about the game of chess. If you want to ask Andrew a question, then send an email to askandrew@chess.com an...
There is so much material in chess where the queen is the super hero of the play. The queen checkmates, the queen puts itself on the altar to finish up a nice attack, the queen does obscure maneuvers to save the game with perpetual etc. We like to...
International Master Andrew Martin from England presents a regular series of articles to answer any questions that Chess.com readers have about the game of chess. If you want to ask Andrew a question, then send an email to askandrew@chess.com and...
Ruy Lopez, Marshall attack, are you afraid of it? You actually should be (frankly, I am afraid to play it for White). Two world champions played/play anti-Marshall lines to avoid it - Gary Kasparov, Kramnik, same with quite a few other GMs , wh...
Viswanathan Anand (born December 11, 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and the current World Chess Champion. Anand is one of four players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list and he has been among the top three ranked ...
