After taking the title from Wilhelm Steinitz in 1894, Emanuel Lasker won a rematch against Steinitz in 1897. His reign as world champion lasted until 1921, and the 27 years he spent on the throne were the longest anyone has remained world champion...
Professor: Class, how wondrous to see you! Here, the burble of garbled voices seemed to say pleasant prattling things back to the professor. Professor: They say all good things must come to an end, and that’s the case today. Thomas: Are you lea...
At the recent FIDE Congress, delegates from the 103 countries represented made some rule changes that had been debated for the past few years. Here are the highlights- 1. Changes for title requriements: a. By a margin of 100-4, it was voted fo...
Professor: Class, how special it is to see you. Zephyr & Lucian: Hello, Professor. We do feel pretty special. Professor: Don’t let it go to your heads, but I’d like to start off with a question, if you don’t mind. Zephyr: I don’t mind...
Playing the French is the second opening repertoire book by the Quality Chess authors Jacob Aagaard and Nikolaos Ntirlis. I was very enthusiastic about their first book, The Tarrasch Defence (2011), not because I am a great fan of this opening mys...
What is an impossible checkmate? If you open any book for beginners it will inform you that a king and a lonely knight cannot checkmate an opponent's king. Moreover, if you only have a king and a knight and your opponent lost on time in an Interne...
During the first quarter of the 18th century when Deschapelles and Labourdonnais reigned supreme at the highest level of French chess, it's said that the next level was occupied by Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant, Hyacinthe Henri Bon...
"After Anderssen's departure, Paul Morphy declared he would play no more even matches, and, certainly, his resolve was justified by the unheard of manner in which he had walked over all opponents." -Frederick Edge &n...
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 ...
In my new weekly column "Pros and Cons" I am aiming to show that a well known strategical concept can be both an advantage and a disadvantage for you, depending on the position. Today is the special Holiday edition of the column and for your ...
The ninth world champion, Mikhail Tal wrote in his autobiography, The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal: “After an event, certain players like to indulge in an unusual form of statistics; they count up the points that stand alongside their names...
No time to study opening theory? Shock your opponent with an SOS! With an SOS you deviate early (usually before move 6!) from regular lines in mainstream openings. So you will reach positions you have actually studied without having memorized...
No time to study opening theory? Shock your opponent with an SOS! With an SOS you deviate early (usually before move 6!) from regular lines in mainstream openings. So you will reach positions you have actually studied without having memorized...
What is up with all these strong players leaning more and more towards variations where they develop their light-squared bishop to g2? Maybe it is my imagination or it is just a pure coincidence, but it does feel like strong players these days are...
In the first video on this topic we saw a good time to use chess engines is to check a game you played or witnessed where an opening you "know" (or remember, or have a hunch) is bad/refuted paid off for the underdog (the person trying it) and you ...
In my younger years I was a big fan of Dvoretsky’s books. I read them all, even though I did not fully understand them. I still like to go back to the chess shelf to flip through pages from his books to see the many marks and under...
As all the chess.com members here surely know, any game that comes down to K+B vs K or K+N vs K is immediately declared "drawn due to insufficient material". With just those three pieces left on the board, a mating position cannot be created eve...
The 'Magician from Riga', has been both commenting, and commented on about his sacrifices. 'Tal doesn't move his pieces by hand, he uses a magic wand' - Ragozin, commenting on Tal 'You must take your opponent into a deep, dark forest, where 2+2=...
The Cheating Chess Tournament ©2002 by NM Dan Heisman “That was the third person we caught recently who had a handheld computer with Pocket Fritz!” Chester Nimfield was distraught. As a member of the Hookley Valley Chess Club’s Organizing...
I am a beginning player with only a few games under my belt, but I strongly feel that the title of this Article is true. I am curious about others' thoughts on this point. When I first started viewing games of more experienced players, I was sur...
Hello, everybody! I decided to write a series of articles on endgames, since I decided to study them so I can improve my game. In this, first article I will bring your attention to what can happen if your knowledge about endgames is not good enoug...
Every novice soon learns a table of [DH: "average"] material value for the pieces, the most popular being 1-3-3-5-9, but with a bit more experience he learns that this table is not always reliable. There are two reasons for this: one is that an ac...
Fischer and Spassky Ready to Play Chess Not Far From a War Even by his own eccentric standards, the reclusive American chess genius Bobby Fischer has come up with something seriously weird in agreeing to make a comeback against his old rival Bori...
Wilhelm Steinitz (vil'helm shti'nits) was born to Jewish parents in a Prague ghetto, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) in 1836. His exact birth date is unknown. The best research comes from Dr. Hermann Neustadtl who establishes his birt...
