After the fourth game of his 2016 world championship match versus GM Sergey Karjakin, GM Magnus Carlsen famously said, "I don't believe in fortresses!" What he probably meant is that even though fortresses do exist in chess, the majority of the po...
At first glance, chess and ice hockey have nothing in common—unless we are talking about this bouncing chess hockey game. Unfortunately, this entertaining game has nothing to do with either chess or hockey. And yet we can learn some use...
Endgames. The word, alone, may conjure up feelings of happiness, dread, or even despair for many chess players. Some adore the endgame while others despise it. There is a grain of truth in the old Soviet saying that amateur chess players "play t...
Practically all strong players from the former Soviet Union made their first chess moves in their local Pioneer Palace. All kids were accepted there. Even those who didn't know the rules of the game. In order to assign players to a group that matc...
Endgames are difficult to learn for most of players who have recently begun their chess journey. Indeed, the endgame has many sets of rules that contradict well-known opening and middle game axioms. For example, an outside passed pawn, which is us...
Social distancing and mask wearing is a hot topic for many chess players. Take a look at Facebook pages of many masters and grandmasters, and you'll see plenty of discussions about COVID-19, some have called it a worldwide scam. Such conspiracy th...
The ongoing Chess.com Computer Championship saw a fascinating endgame between Stockfish and Komodo played on April 3. GM Dejan Bojkov and IM Daniel Rensch take a closer look at the main theme: zugzwang. In the absence of major chess events,...
Endgames with opposite-colored bishops are probably the most difficult endgames for lower-rated players to understand. The common misunderstanding here is that all of these endgames are drawn. I wish I had a nickel for every time my students sai...
Just like most people who love chess, I have certain favorite players. Notice how many times I've mentioned Mikhail Botvinnik, Mikhail Tal, Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen in my articles and you'll get an idea of my chess prefer...
In the end of 1984, the leading Soviet magazine Chess In The USSR published a big article about the first game of the world championship match Capablanca-Alekhine, Buenos Aires 1927. The author, master V. Goldin (no relation the U.S. grandmaster...
The concept of time in chess is one of the most difficult topics for young kids to grasp. While they have no trouble understanding how you can lose a piece, a pawn or the right to castle, the subject of losing time is usually confusing for them. ...
When we talk about blitz chess, we usually think about tactics, blunders and opening surprises that force our opponents to spend their precious seconds. I doubt that many people would mention good endgame technique as an integral element of b...
I learned the phrase "a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse" in school when I studied Richard III by William Shakespeare. These days, people use this expression when they want to underline the importance of something. There is a story about a...
The classical format of our beloved game is under attack. People are complaining about boring games that lead to an abundance of draws in super-GM tournaments. They are trying to change everything: the scoring system (three points for a win, one...
The recently concluded Tata Steel chess tournament was very memorable for the U.S. grandmaster Sam Shankland. From now on he will be forever remembered as a chess player who the beat the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik in his last profess...
With a majority of pieces removed from the board, does the calculation in an endgame become minimal? No! At one time or another, you may have found yourself on the losing side of a won endgame. Perhaps you've also been fortunate enough t...
What happens when the almighty engine leads you astray? In this series, GM Simon Williams examines the missteps of our silicon chess masters. Enjoy! Try The Challenges! Not what you were looking for? Back to the video guide. The Simple...
During my game against James Tarjan at the US Open last week, I swore that I would write an article on pawn endgames. The entire game was crazy and lasted six hours, two of which we spent on figuring out how to play the pawn endgame. Although ther...
Welcome back! It is time to wrap up our rook endgame series. In the previous four articles (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4), I covered important rook endgame positions and ideas. Now I'd like to present couple of games that illustrate the fun...
Welcome to part four of the Rook Endgame Essentials! If you've missed the previous articles of the series, please click here: Part 1 (only in Turkish!), Part 2, Part 3. Today we are going to examine four different positions, all bearing the name...
The third world chess champion Jose Raul Capablanca once famously said : "In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before anything else; for whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middlegame and th...
Hi guys! It is been a while since my last post - "Rook Endgame Essentials - Part 2". It is time to enhance our understanding. In this article, we are going to cover the third part of the rook endgame essentials. Let's begin with an example ...
I am back with part two of our rook endgame essentials topic. In this article, I am going to cover few more positions that need to be known by heart. Knowing the basics is extremely important in any field. It increases chances that you will make t...
Chess is a game of dramatic possibility. Within a few moves, the number of potential positions is in the millions. Soon, there are more permutations than a human could count in a lifetime. This is well known; you sometimes hear that there are mo...
"I detest endgames!" said Dawid Janowski more than 100 years ago. He elaborated further by saying that a good chess game should be decided in the middlegame. Today such an opinion would make most professional chess players smile, but please reme...