The 61st Women’s Russian Championship took place in Moscow from August 18 to 29. This prestigious tournament didn’t get an adequate coverage in the chess media due to language barriers (most of the materials were available only in Russian), and th...
One of the events of the Botvinnik Memorial held recently is a senior tournament. There were ten players in a round robin. Viktor Korchnoi came in clear first with 5 wins and 4 draws. The particpants are listed with their ratings, scores, and birt...
[part 2] In 1958, Fischer became the youngest grandmaster in history, at 15 years and 6 months. This record held until 1991 when it was broken by Judith Polgar. In 1959, in the Candidates Tournament Bled / Zagreb / Belgrade, he finished fifth to...
Here and there we can hear about people either wanting to earn a chess title, or wondering how and what for they are earned. Instead of offering a link to a formal encyclopedic page about this matter, I would rather share with you some insights ba...
In 1985, Anatoly Karpov was challenged by Garry Kasparov in their first championship match with a fixed number of games. Instead of an unlimited match, which was stopped when they played the year before, there would be only 24 games. In this match...
[part 1] Fischer attended Erasmus Hall High School at the same time as Barbara Streisand and Neil Diamond; Frank Brady talked to someone in the Grade Advisor's Office at Erasmus Hall while Bobby was a student there. This person said, "His I.Q. w...
When planning how to train, it is essential to know all the most efficient techniques. One can often hear the question: “Do you study chess on your own, or with a coach?” This leaves us under the impression that there are only two possible options...
Akiba Rubinstein (1882-1961) was a Polish Jew born when Russia ruled most of Poland. He learned chess at the age of 16, which is now considered too late. Within five years, he gave up his studies to become a rabbi to play chess. It took him anothe...
Robert James (Bobby) Fischer was born at 2:39 pm on March 9, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois (Michael Reese hospital) by the banks of Lake Michigan, his mother Regina Wender Fischer Pustan (born in Switzerland of Jewish parents on March 31, 1913 and rai...
No one likes to resign, but we are all happy to accept the opponent’s capitulation. So, when is it the perfect time to wave the white flag? Of course, you have heard the cliché 'it’s never too late to resign' and 'no one has e...
Guillermo Garcia Gonzales was born in Santa Clara on December 9, 1953 and learned chess at the age of six. His triumphs were predicted one day when an unknown woman, overwhelmed by the heat, took water at the Garcia residence in Santa Clara and gr...
The games of the final Candidates match of 1977 between Viktor Korchnoi and Boris Spassky in which the positional lines of the French Defense, Winawer Variation were played will be shown. These are the games without 7.Qg4. Instead 7.a4 or 7.Nf3 we...
In the two years that Alekhine was without the world champion's crown, he finished 2nd place, at Podebrady with 12.5 of 17 half a point behind Salo Flohr. Also in 1936, Alekhine played in Nottingham, where h is game with Capablanca was the first t...
At this point this will be the final article of this little cycle on psychology in chess, but I will return to that topic in the future. After all, chess psychology is a very large field, and one of almost universal interest. Today we are going to...
The final match of the Candidates in 1977 was between Viktor Korchnoi and former World Champion Boris Spassky. Korchnoi won 10.5-7.5. Two-thirds of Korchnoi’s three point lead came from the French Defense, which he used in two-thirds of his games ...
Leaving the USSR After the world championship match, Alekhine returned to Paris and spoke against Bolshevism. Afterwards, Nikolai Krylenko, president of the Soviet Chess Federation, published an official memorandum stating that Alekhine should b...
Chess ratings are used as a tool for evaluating the current playing strength of a person. However, it is important to remember that it is the average number, while in a single game one can perform way above or below his rating. This can be connect...
Tigran V. Petrosian (pictured) lost the World Championship to Boris Spassky in 1969. It was Petrosian’s second defense to the same challenger. A brief opening review shows that the plus two margin of victory for Spassky came with the white pieces....
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...
Winning the World Championship was no walk in the park when Boris Spassky challenged Tigran Petrosian. Spassky earned the opportunity to meet Petrosian in 1966 in a 24 game match which required the challenger to be ahead after 24 games. A score o...
Any chess game is a clash of personalities, each of whom has a unique character and chess style. Both contenders want to win. If the opponents are more or less of equal skill, the game rarely unrolls in a straightforward fashion with one of the pl...
The Variation As I said at the end of last week's article, Polugaevsky devoted much of his considerable analytical energies to one particular ultra-sharp variation of the Sicilian, which now bears his name. Polugaevsky devoted his first book la...
The great rivalry between Boris Spassky and Viktor Korchnoi had turned in Korchnoi’s favor. Halfway through their Candidates match to determine which one would face Anatoly Karpov for his title, Korchnoi was five points ahead. After ten games, Kor...
The Variation As I said at the end of last week's article, Polugaevsky devoted much of his considerable analytical energies to one particular ultra-sharp variation of the Sicilian, which now bears his name. Polugaevsky devoted his first b...
