Alisa Maric and Mirjana Maric were born January 10, 1970 in New York. They moved to Belgrade and each became a Woman Grandmaster. In addition, Alisa became an International Master. Alisa has been a candidate for the Women’s World Championship. She...
What would you say if it was the last word you were to speak? What would you do if it was the last thing you were to do? What opening would you write about if it was your last opening column you were to write? That was a little too dramatic for a ...
In 1951, David Bronstein was the challenger seeking Mikhail Botvinnik's title as World Champion. The rules provided for a match of 24 games with the champion retaining the title with a score of 12-12 or better. In game 21, Bronstein had the black ...
Continuing our study of important pawn breaks, we will take a look at some important ideas in the Sicilian Defense. We did have some comments about studying pawn breaks in other openings, and we can guarantee our viewers that we are definitely goi...
In my last article, http://www.chess.com/article/view/karpov-beliavsky-tilburg-1986, Alexander Beliavsky played the black side of the Exchange Variation against Anatoly Karpov. This time, Beliavsky plays the white side against another top player, ...
The main lines of the Open Spanish, including the Dilworth Attack, continue to be lively. Let's explore some of the action.
by GM Magesh and GM Arun It is never possible to sufficiently emphasize the importance of pawns in a chess game. The tiny little soldier which is worth the least materialistically (1 point) happens to be the most important part of middle game pla...
Alexander Beliavsky was born December 17, 1953 in Lviv, Ukraine. He won the World Junior Championship in 1973 and the USSR Championship in 1974, 1980, 1987, and 1990. In 1983, Beliavsky lost to Garry Kasparov in a quarterfinal Candidates match. He...
by GM Magesh and GM Arun This week we will study the Stonewall Defense. An interesting idea from black to use his pawn chain to build a wall-like formation that stops white from encroaching into black's territory. But, just as any idea has its o...
member Matt Chapman asked: I’m looking not so much for an answer to this question (unless you happen to have the knowledge, which would be fantastic) but a reference to someone who might know (and indeed, how to contact them). You see, I’m having...
Paul Keres (1916-1975) was a great player from Estonia. He was one of the world’s leading players from the 1930s to the 1960s. Keres won the AVRO tournament in 1938 and became the leading challenger to World Champion Alexander Alekhine, but a matc...
by GM Magesh and GM Arun Last week we saw how Morozevich used his sharp tactical skills and his creative play to use this opening successfully against strong opposition. This week we shall see how one would normally counter a counter-gambit! T...
The Marshall Attack has long been popular with top players, but can Frank Marshall's Gambit hold up against the Houdini monster? A team of mere masters proves that it can in a theoretically important game complete with fireworks!
Here is another of my pet openings you've probably never heard of but I have used it consistently against titled players with good results.
by GM Magesh and GM Arun The last few weeks we have studied some conventional openings such as the Lasker Defense, Caro-Kann and the Petroff, now it is time again to switch gears and study some Kamikaze attack. The Albin Counter-Gambit, as su...
Robert James Fischer (1943-2008) won the world championship in 1972 from Boris Spassky and stopped competing, except for a match with Spassky twenty years later. He became a legend and is considered by some to be the greatest chess player ever. O...
by GM Magesh and GM Arun While some very young and vibrant chess talents are battling it out in the Dubai open, the Bundesliga league as always has some of the strongest pulling their brains out to take their teams home successfully. Chess playe...
The tournament at Linares in 2002 was called a Super GM event. There were seven players in a double round robin playing twelve games. The results were: Kasparov 8, Ponomariov 6.5, Ivanchuk 6, Anand 6, Adams 6, Vallejo Pons 5, and Shirov 4.5.Kaspar...
by GM Magesh and GM Arun This week we shall study an idea against the King's Indian Defence often played by Super Grandmaster Alexander Moiseenko. The King's Indian Defence in recent times has started doing well and many strong players have ad...
Geza Maroczy (March 3, 1870-May 29, 1951) was a Hungarian grandmaster who was one of the world’s top players in the early twentieth century. His opponent in the game shown is Georg Marco (November 29, 1863-August 29, 1923), who was a Romanian w...
In 1972 Bobby Fischer won his first ever game against Boris Spassky in game 3 of their World Championship match using a very interesting idea in the Modern Benoni: The great Yugoslav Grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric wrote one of the first and best ...
These three letters might not mean anything to a Non-Indian, but trust me it means a world to Indians right now. MSD stands for Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the captain of the Indian Cricket team. India won the Cricket World Cup last week beating Sri Lan...
There is no wilder variation of the Spanish Gam than the Classical Schliemann. The controversial opening was first analyzed seriously by Jaenisch and has been a favorite of correspondence players, emerging briefly in the 1990 under he patronage of...
Arturo Pomar Salamanca (pictured) was born September 1, 1931 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. At the age of 11 he won the championship of the Balearic Islands. He was able to draw a game at age 13 with his teacher, Alexander Alekhine. He was the yo...
