I am frequently asked if the classical games played by great champions should be memorized. In my opinion it is not necessary. But what you should do for sure is to understand and memorize the key ideas of those games. If you learn typical p...
Wilhelm Steinitz is widely known as the founder of a new positional school of chess, so you might expect to see long boring games played by the first official World Champion. In fact, Steinitz created many beautiful attacking gems, so we can lear...
Target Skill Range: Intermediate (Rated 1400-1799) Acquire the knowledge you need to approach the opening with confidence and achieve success! Tasks: Extend your base knowledge of "tournament openings." Aim for consistency. Learn the con...
Need a little help navigating the thousands of videos on Chess.com? Use this guide to find all the videos you need on topics such as: Starting Out The Opening Tactics Strategy Master G...
A Star Emerges Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was born on October 31, 1892 in Moscow, Russia, the third son in a family where children and adults played chess. He learned at the age of seven, and from twelve Alekhine played seriously, especiall...
Today we'll continue to discuss the nature of chess blunders and the ways to prevent or at least minimize them. 2) Blunders due to premature relaxation This is an extremely common type of blunder and an especially painful one. It happens when y...
member polydiatonic asked: I’ve been reading a book by GM Soltis called: WHY LASKER MATTERS. In it, Soltis makes the following interesting point: “What is truly typical of Lasker is that he relied on tactics, not combinations. Ther...
Emanuel Lasker was born on December 24, 1868 at Berlinchen, son of a Jewish cantor. At the age of eleven he was sent to Berlin to study mathematics, where he lived with his brother Berthold Lasker eight years his senior, who taught him how to play...
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...
In previous articles we discussed cases where the Kings helped your attack by just vacating a square for a Rook or moving out of a pin in order to push a pawn. So, mostly their role in the attack was very limited. But what about the famous Steinit...
Here is a list of chess terms and personalities and their pronunciation. Abramov (ah-BRAHM-ahf), Lev - Russian arbiter and Correspondence International Master (IM)Acs (larch), Peter - Hungarian GMAdorjan (A-door-yan), Andras - Hungarian Grandmast...
Countless chess “fans” say: “Please talk about chess moves and only chess moves!” Dear “chess moves and only chess moves” fans: Ever since I first put chess pen to chess paper, I have run into people that scream to the heavens when anything ...
Jahnknight asked: Could you tell me your honest evaluation of the Colle system as a whole. Is it effective at the sub 2000 level? Dear Jahnknight: First, let’s clarify the difference between the Colle and the Colle - Zukertort: Colle - Zukert...
James Mason was born on the 19th of November 1849 in Kilkenny, Ireland. His real name is unknown; it seems James Mason was adopted by his father to avoid prevalent anti-Irish prejudice when they arrived in New Orleans in early 1861. There he learn...
Siegbert Tarrasch (pictured) was born March 5, 1862 and died February 17, 1934. Around 1890, he was the best or one of the four best players in the world. In 1908, he clearly lost a match for Emanuel Lasker’s world championship (+3 =5 -8). Tarrasc...
This is the first of a series of articles from my new eBook, available for Nook and other eBook readers from Barnes & Noble. The 15 official World Champions show how to follow the opening guidelines and then launch a quick attack to destroy th...
Louis Paulsen was born at Nassengrund, in Germany, on January 15th, 1833 and at an early age he learned chess from his father. In 1854 he immigrated to America and was the number one player when Paul Morphy wasn't playing. He was a resident of Dub...
Amos Burn born on the 31st of December 1848 in Hull, Yorkshire, England, was one of the world's leading players at the end of the 19th century, and a chess writer. He became apprenticed to a firm of ship-owners and merchants. He only learned chess...
The English Opening is very flexible for both sides. In many games, the player who is more flexible is the winner. Each move played gives the opponent information and while gaining ground a move can reduce the flexibility of the position. An advan...
Jackson W. Showalter, Herman Steiner, and Diane Savereide are all being inducted to the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame this afternoon in Irvine, CA (USA). I am still working on the manuscript for the Showater book and hope to have it completed by Spring...
The chess club of the English coastal town of Hastings was founded in 1882 and in 1895 the club organized a tournament that was the strongest ever held up to that time. Taking place over the month of August, it included all the leading players of ...
Max Weiss has the immense honor to be the co-winner (tied with Chigorin) of the longest [over-the-board] tournament in chess history, a true marathon of twenty players in a double round event through 64 days! A tournament that was organized t...
Rudolf Charousek (September 19, 1873, Prague – April 18, 1900, Budapest) was a Hungarian chess player. He had a tragically short career, and he was once called by Reuben Fine the John Keats of chess. A brilliant player and a tremendous talent,...
Emanuel Schiffers, Russian chessmaster and chess writer, was born to German parents in St. Petersburg on May 4, 1850 and died there December 12, 1904. He was educated in his native city, studying the classical, physical, and mathematical faculties...
