How not to win a game?
Hi, I wish to share with you my analysis of some of the games I have played in this site. The first of my analysis, is where I have played as black and there were ample opportunities for white to win, though in the end white lost. I am...
Book Review: The Immortal Game
With a title like “The Immortal Game: A History Of Chess” you would think the subject of this book is pretty obvious. Not quite, my friend. Witness the subtitle, “Or How 32 Pieces On A Board Illuminated Our Understand...
King's Indian Defense
For those interested in using the KID: The KID (king's indian defense) is one of the most dynamic openings for black in response to 1. d4. It starts with the odd 1... Nf6, at first allowing white to grab control of the center, bef...
Perfect Score in U1600
I played down in the U1600 section at a tournament this month and walked away with a perfect score. It amazes me when a beginner trying to improve studies advanced books like Art of Attack but neglects mastering basic tactics. Castles made of sa...
Book Review: Winning Chess Endings
Raise your hand if you hate playing the endgame. That’s what I thought; I’m not alone. OK, well, “hate” might be a bit strong, but maybe “dread” is a better term. Nothing about chess is easy, b...
what to do in your first tournament
First, try to find somebody who had been in a tournament before to help you out. If not, follow these instructions: Go to the appropriate section's pairings, then find your board number When the TD (tournament director) says you can begin you...
Video Review: PRO CHESS
If you’ve been keeping up with my various chess ramblings here on Chess.com, you know I’m pretty much up to my eyeballs with Seirawan books. I hadn’t really considered the notion that there might be a Seirawan teaching vide...
Book Review: Modern Ideas
The full title of this book by I. A. Horowitz is “Modern Ideas In The Chess Openings, ” but that is way too long for this review’s title, so we’ll just call it “Modern Ideas,” shall we? In this case, you c...
Book Review: Winning Chess Openings
With Winning Chess Openings, Yasser Seirawan’s writing style has much improved. In a previous article I mentioned that his pros are often a bit on the goofy side. This time around the syrup has taken a backseat to irreverence.&nb...
2 rooks and a king checkmate
this is a king and 2 rook checkmate. it is very easy to do and i made it a puzzle for everyone on chess.com. &n...
McChess: Shredder Chess
First, the preamble, in case you missed it from my last McChess article. At the moment, I run OS X and only OS X, so although Shredder Chess comes in Linux and Windows flavours, I won’t say much, if anything, about the alternativ...
Book Review: Winning Chess Strategies
Following on the heels of Winning Chess Tactics, Winning Chess Strategies is the third book in Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan’s seven book Winning Chess series.If you are going to play chess, ya gotta have a plan. Some would argue that ev...
Why the endgame is important
I know that this advice (to study the endgame) is very common, and has probably been covered comprehensively many times elsewhere, but I wanted to share some things I've learned on the subject, mostly for newer players who go "Why bother?...
Easy Chess Puzzle
Very easy checkmate( one move)
Book Review: Winning Chess Tactics
"Winning Chess Tactics" is the follow-up book in Yasser Seirawan's Winning Chess series. WCT picks up where the sections on tactics in "Play Winning Chess" left off. Not too surprisingly, WCT details more subtle or less obvious points about the ta...
Before the Basics
I just ran a keyword search for the beginner's section for "territory" and "space", and I did not find a single result. This concerns me. "What is 'territory' or 'space'?" one might ask, and that i...
Prepare yourself for war!
So your at the chess board like a general leading his/her army to war. But have u ever wonder why u have to go for the center and y u have to develop and all the many different principles in chess. why is all that so important if u want to b...
McChess: Chessmaster 9000
With any luck, this is the first in a series of chess software reviews. I should state up-front that, at the moment, the only operating system I use is OS X. So, although many of the programs that I will review have versions that run on other oper...
Book Review: Play Winning Chess
First, a bit of backstory is in order.I started taking chess semi-seriously about three months ago when I started playing Facebook Chess. I decided I would do some reading and get my learn on. Of course, I started with reading whatever I could fin...
Oh Nooo! and I don´t know!!
We all know the feeling... you make your move with the unpleasant sensation something is not quite right. You look again and you realise you just lost your queen! It happened to Karpov so don´t feel that bad, as you can see in move 29 of thi...
how to study chess actually remember what you learned
phycologists have known for more than a century that your brain keeps more information longer if it has an opertunity to prossess what you have learned between training seccions the advantage of spread out learning are large and releable two studd...
A Little Castling Rule!
Look at the position on the left, can black do a queenside castle(0-0-0)? I asked this question in my school and they anwered NO, because the Knight at d7 holds the b8 square. If your answer is NO too, then you are wrong. Black can do 0-0-0, ...
how to improve your game with music
studies have said that listening to clasical music ( you know the violin stuff) while studing actually increased brain activity so why cant it work for chess after all it is a mental game