The Best Games of the Parsvnath Open
Last week, I wrote about the players and results at this tournament. This week, as a follow-up, I'm sharing some of the best games played at this event, with my notes and comments. Enjoy! &...
Amazing Games for Everyone!
Sometimes, it requires a Rembrandt to appreciate the Mona Lisa; or a Karpov to appreciate a Fischer endgame. But there are also many works of exquisite artistry on the chessboard which are accessible to novices. And this is where you can find them...
Aeroflot: Impressions and Puzzles
Aeroflot is the strongest open chess tournament in the world. This year’s edition is the 10th. The four main features of the festival are: A group (players over 2550 with a few exceptions – female stars, prodigies, etc.) B group – strong play...
My Final Final Norm?
The 4th Berkeley International concluded on Jan 8, 2011. This tournament, which was organized by Arun Sharma, was the strongest event in California since the disappearance of the Lone Pine events, with such stars as GMs Loek van Wely, Timur Gareye...
Playing with Fire
In my recent articles I have touched upon such intricate matters as material imbalances and initiative. Today I would like to share with you annotations to a baffling game of mine played at the Russian Superfinal against GM Tatiana Kosintseva (the...
Nezhmet Kismet
This is one of Rashid Nezhmetdinov's most brilliant games. Here's a little information (from Wikipedia) about him: Rashid Gibiatovich Nezhmetdinov (Russian: Рашид Гибятович Нежметдинов; Tatar Cyrillic: Рәшит Һибәт улы Нәҗметдинов, Latin: Räşit Hi...
Kramnik - Shirov, Memorial Tal 2010
Shirov had a disastrous tournament (3/8), winning only one game against Eljanov. But Kramnik had almost the same (3,5/8) and in the last round he wanted to reach 50%. This produced a wild game where Kramnik played in Shirov's style!Here are my com...
Book Review:: Capablanca A Primer of Checkmate
Capablanca: A Primer of Checkmate By Friso Del Rosario (chess.com’s friscodelrosario) Mongoose Press 2010 ISBN 978-1-9362377-02-5 176 pages $19.95 Capablanca is usually thought of as an endgame specialist and great strategic thinker, and his ...
Careful Planinc
This is a brilliant miniature that I saw recently. Planinc unleashes a bold combination on his nineteenth move by leaving a rook en prise to start an attack on Vaganian's king. A neat quiet move follows two moves later, and white is forced to resi...
Inspiration as Preparation
This is a really cool game. White develops a deep plan towards the end of the opening and on the 27th move, sacrifices the exchange to start a neat 15-move combination. A neat knight sacrifice enables a pawn to move forward, which eventually wins ...
Sacrifice all the pieces!!
Every chess player should aim to create a masterpiece when playing a game. The next example was played between two GMs: GM Serper, G - GM NIkolaidis, I- in 1993. This amazing game shows the beauty of combinations in chess. GM Serper sacrificed ...
"Mag-Town" Takes World To "Ouch-Town"!
by IM Daniel Rensch To start this "post game review" off right, I would first like to say that I had a lot of fun broadcasting this match, G-Star Raw's World Chess Challenge, Magnus Carlsen vs the World, for all of you here on Chess.com/TV! Ever...
Double exchange sacrifice stories
In modern chess it's now wellknown that being an exchange up or down is not that much! Topalov's tendency to sacrifice a rook for a bishop some years ago contributed to that, among other things. Of course you need something in compensations, it co...
The World Verse
There have been a few challenge matches in the past that test the solitary genius of one exceptional person against the wisdom of the masses. In these "World v. X" matches, "The World" always comes upon its move by voting: every individual who wis...
The World Verse
There have been a few challenge matches in the past that test the solitary genius of one exceptional person against the wisdom of the masses. In these "World v. X" matches, "The World" always comes upon its move by voting: every individual who wis...
Empty Square Sacs
Sacrifices on empty squares are not as common as other kinds of sacrifices, but they can be just as deadly. Take this game, for example. Kalegin, playing white, decides to sacrifice a rook on the 20th move on an empty square. After it is captur...
Marvelous Escapes!
The late great chess player Reuben Fine wrote: “Drawn games are usually looked down upon by the chess public. The common attitude is that if anything is worthwhile it must have resulted in a clear-cut decision. This point of view compels editors t...
Artist of the Chessboard
This is a truly remarkable game. It starts off normally until Nezhmetdinov sacrifices his queen on the 12th(!) move for just two pieces. He then proceeds to build up an attack that his opponent is helpless to prevent. Eventually, Nezhmetdinov cras...
Staircase to Heaven
Here's a lovely game by Tartakower, in which he unleashes a long and pretty combination. His opponent snatches an unprotected pawn midway through the game and is quickly attacked. However, it looks as if he will be able to weather the storm, when ...
Back in the USSR
Here's a remarkable game that I came across recently. The players are largely unknown, and Karmov, playing black, unleashes a neat combination in the opening that leaves his queen hanging for several moves. Musaiev puts up a resourceful defense, ...
Old Combinations Forgotten
To reach the current evolution of chess knowledge, chess like science, art and sport, has absorbed the best of the most outstanding and gifted players, as well as many other not so famous but who contributed with many ideas that after have bee...
Pogonina vs. Chess.com - Analysis
While everyone is following closely the exciting WC match between Anand and Topalov, I still have to pay my dues and share with you my analysis of the Pogonina vs Chess.com game. The first part of the article included a story about the game, some ...
Genius Kids
Before I get into today's column, I'd like once again to thank Grandmaster Bhat for his excellent contributions to this site for over a year. His articles have been uniformly excellent, and he took the time to come up with thought-provoking questi...
Fire on Board
Last week, I shared my best game from Seville. This time, I'll move on to my second tournament of the trip in Gibraltar (the GibTelecom Masters) and show my best game from there. After a win in the first round, I had drawn my next 3 games against...