To the chess-players of England the 18th century was just a fading memory. Philidor had died and Verdoni, a man with a forgotten first name, took up his reins as professional at Parsloe's in London until he himself died in 1804. At this poi...
This series is about chess lessons and how a chess teacher tries to push key points home. If you are looking for a chess teacher, don’t grab anyone that comes along! Take your time, take a lesson or two from various teachers so you can get...
Last week, we examined the depths of my chess ineptitude for the first 21 moves of a recent blitz game played on the Chess.com live server. Join me, grandmaster Roman Dzindzichashvili, and the fictional voice of Stockfish 6 as we now analyz...
Garry Kasparov, the 13th world champion, is closely connected to the King's Indian Defense. Indeed, he has created much of the foundation of what the opening is today. Yet, early on in his epic rivalry with Anatoly Karpov, Kasparov restricted hi...
Mr. Bone(Aug. 31, 1810 - Dec. 14, 1874) William Bone, along with the Rev. Horatio Bolton, is considered to have been one of the two best early English chess problemists. John Augustus Miles, a problemist (who knew them both and studied th...
The response from the Chess.com community has been overwhelming. Readers demand to see more of my ungainly intermediate chess. Once again, the brilliant grandmaster Roman Dzindzichashvili has stooped down to my level to analyze ...
Is chess art? I bet that’s not the first time you’ve been asked that, or something like it. To the basic question, all kinds of answers have been offered, sometimes logical, sometimes passionate, sometimes contrived. Many might wonde...
The 2015 edition of Norway Chess was a memorable event in several ways. Above all, it heralded the resurgence of Veselin Topalov and Viswanathan Anand, who both stormed through the field and turned in 2900+ performances. Topalov won the tournament...
In today's world of competitive chess, it is easy to imagine that you have to surprise your opponent every time. That you have to continually rotate your openings to avoid preparation. That you cannot develop a deep understanding of an opening wit...
Many players dream of getting chess lessons, though they aren’t quite sure what it would be like. The fact is, the experience (for both the student and teacher) depends on several factors: Question: Does the student want to learn or does h...
"This match is, in respect of its vicissitude, perhaps the most remarkable in the annals of chess." - from I. O. Howard Taylor's obituary of John Jacob Löwenthal in "American Chess Journal" of Sept. 1876 At precisely n...
After six rounds of the Zalakaros Open in Hungary, I had four points -- which was not a bad score, since the average of my opponents' ratings was high. Earlier in the tournament, I was sure that it was time for me to give up chess, or at...
From time to time I put together various reader questions and comments (while ignoring the “Die Silman Die!” raves) and share them with the good folks on Chess.com. I try to give a good mix of subjects so that there will be a bit of so...
n 1616 Augustus of Brunswick‑Lüneburg, writing as Gustavus Selenus in his work, "Das Schach- oder König-Spiel," tells of his visit to Ströbeck where he encountered three types of chess being played. One was the Mediæval Chess, which had been...
In my last article, I gave you five tips to improve your tactics. If you did your homework and practiced your tactics (either Tactics Trainer, or my Chess Genie app) you will see the benefits right away! However, learning strategy is compl...
Many have tried to increase chess awareness over the years. None have succeeded to the degree GM Maurice Ashley did recently, in the Millionaire Chess Open of October 2014. GM Ashley, a brilliant entrepreneur, took a page from the NFL for his ow...
We've known for a while that the former world blitz number-one GM Maxim Dlugy would play in this month's Death Match 32. Now we know his opponent: blitz maven and past Death Match champion IM Yaacov Norowitz. The match will be three hours of bli...
I’m still going through some (sadly) neglected games, comments, and lectures. This time I’ll look at a game of one of the site’s best chess historians, Spektrowski, and I’ll also answer a question or two. The most p...
Last week, we presented the first part of my intermediate-level blitz chess game, annotated by GM Roman Dzindzichashvili and checked by Stockfish 6, in an effort to learn from my predictably subpar play. Now, let’s proudly conclude th...
In The Complete Book of Chess Strategy, IM Jeremy Silman defines prophylaxis as "a move or strategy that stops the opponent from undertaking some type of action or plan." Coined by Aron Nimzowitsch in his seminal work My System (1...
It has been some time since I wrote about my own tournaments or annotated my own games. In general, it seems more legitimate and honest to annotate one's own games. You know precisely what was going on in your head, you remember your emotions, wha...
From time to time I put together various reader questions and comments (while ignoring the, “Die Silman Die!” raves) and share them with the good folks on Chess.com. I try to give a heady mix of subjects so that there will be a bit of ...
Many comments on my previous articles have noted that while my Monday column is fun, it provides little in the way of chess instruction. That's clearly true. As an intermediate player, I've got decent general chess knowledge, but I have to...
In the early 21st century, a new permutation of the evergreen Sicilian Dragon appeared: rather than place the queen's rook, obviously, on the open c-file, to put it instead on the closed b-file, supporting an advance of the b-pawn: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3...
