Recently I was involved in a small discussion about blunders and was shocked that the term’s meaning wasn’t as rock solid as I had thought. Everyone is used to symbols like “?” (poor or bad move), “?!” (dubious), “!” (good or excellent move), “!?”...
Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint Amant (also written: Pierre Charles-Fournié de Saint-Amant) After the death of La Bourdonnais, the mantle of leading chess player of France fell upon the shoulders of Pierre Char...
Amateur chess players are always discussing their style, or claiming that tactics is more important than anything else, or arguing that drug testing is important in top level events, or insisting that Bobby Fischer was actually a Reptilian alien, ...
For the next few weeks, the FIDE World Cup will be taking place in the arctic town of Tromsø, in the very north of Norway. Many of the best players in the world are competing, beginning with the top seed, Levon Aronian (2813). The winner and runne...
In Part 1 of this glimpse into Alexander Alekhine’s life and games, we left off with him winning the Moscow Championship (late 1919/early 1920) with a spectacular clean sweep (11-0) followed by victory in the first USSR Championship (9 wins, 6 dra...
Imagine this is YOU It’s 1918, and you’re one of the strongest chess players on earth. You live in Odessa, during one of Russia’s most chaotic periods. Trying to stay on top of the political upheaval, you take whatever side offers the best chance...
"Show the first 14-15 moves of a Sicilian Dragon and explain the main ideas of some of the moves" (!) Hmm. They write entire books about sub-variations of the Yugoslav Attack (like Mayer's book on the Soltis variation) and I am supposed to show th...
SPACE: CLOSED CENTER, DUELING WINGS When the center is closed, both sides need to gain space on the wings. One gains space by advancing pawns, which acts as a sort of fence that lays claim to any territory within the fenced borders. Pushing pawns...
In Part 2 of this series I pointed out that Lasker’s tactics are a bit different than tactics by Tal or Kasparov or Alekhine. In fact, when you take a long look at Lasker’s games, you realize that tactics is the fuel that drives all hi...
Today we will continue with the topic started a few articles ago on how Vladimir Kramnik converts an advantage. No doubt Kramnik is one of the best technical players out there, and therefore it is of interest to observe what kind of methods he use...
When you first learn how to play chess, you pick up a few opening setups that suit your taste, you absorb classic bits of advice like “always capture towards the center”, “center pawns are more valuable than pawns on the wings”, “knights are best ...
We have come to the last part of my series on the positional exchange sacrifice (see also part 1 and part 2). By no means have we covered all possible reasons to sacrifice the exchange - were I to try to do that, the series would go on for many ar...
In part one of this series I discussed how a good chess teacher can turn a bunch of opening moves into something that makes sense. This tightening of one’s opening repertoire pays enormous dividends as one becomes more and more familiar with...
In the last three articles I told you about my games at the US Women's Championship. Today we will wrap-up the topic by looking at some of the interesting moments from the US Championship. With 24 players and 9 rounds, there were a lot of fighting...
This week's review of The March of Chess Ideas by IM Anthony Saidy might be my last "My Bookshelf" article. I say "might" because you never know, I could change my mind. First of all, although I have heard that some people like the book reviews, I...
In the last article we analyzed King-and-Pawn endgames, and today we'll talk about Kings and Queens. I don't mean King and Queen endgames. Instead, we'll see how chess Kings play with their Queens. Well, it sounds even more confusing... OK, in thi...
Right after the show tonight my wife and I ran out for the 3-D showing of Star Trek: Into Darkness. It was a good movie - we've come a long way in portraying science fiction on the big screen. Ironically I started watching Star Trek about the same...
Knowing all the different tactical devices in chess is both easy and extremely important since they turn up all the time. This means that you will be able to use them when the opportunity presents itself, and avoid falling for them when a suicidal...
In my last article I discussed “fetish chess moves.” I consider a move to be a fetish if it’s out of the ordinary, has serious positional clout, and gives the person who played it such deep pleasure that his reaction can almost be called orgasmic....
Everyone eventually learns that it’s important to find or create open files for your Rooks, or they might not be able to join in the battle (actually the “find” part is easy, but the “create” part demands a good deal ...
I’m going to come clean here. It’s time to let the cat out of the bag and admit to something strange and weird. It concerns my chess, and it’s about a particular chess move. No, I’m not going to wax poetic about a favorite opening or favorite move...
A viewer asked if, in the Ruy Lopez, White should play 5.d3 or 5.O-O after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6: I responded that while 5.d3 is currently fashionable among some higher level players, that does not make it better. Top GMs are only...
Chess isn’t just about playing a human or computer opponent. Chess history can become a lifelong addiction, chess news is avidly followed by people who stopped playing decades before, and going over master games can be exciting, relaxing, instruct...
In Part One of How To Play Against Old Guys, I gave the weaknesses and strengths of older players. I’ll repeat them here: WEAKNESSES * Old players get tired. Really tired. Often really fast. * Old players can (and do!) easily lose c...
