by GM Magesh and GM Arun Over the years that I have been teaching chess, I have come to realize that explaining 'what not to do' is actually easier than explaining 'what to do'! Hence, today we will be discussing one of my worst nightmares on ...
Siegbert Tarrasch (pictured) was born March 5, 1862 and died February 17, 1934. Around 1890, he was the best or one of the four best players in the world. In 1908, he clearly lost a match for Emanuel Lasker’s world championship (+3 =5 -8). Tarrasc...
Some normal and some very strange lines in this installment as we continue our journey through King's Gambit territory.
This is the first in a series of articvles exploring a variety of lines in the King's Gambit. You'll see popular lines, rare lines, and outlandish experiments. Keep in mind that just because a gambit is "refuted" doesn't mean it can't hbave practi...
by GM Magesh and GM Arun We have studied the Caro-Kann advance variation before in our articles, but after seeing a game today I was compelled to get back to this variation. The game was played by none other than the creative genius Alexey Shirov...
Karel Opocensky was born February 7, 1892 in Most, Bohemia and died November 16, 1975 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. My databases show his games from 1912 to 1972. In that long career, Opocensky won the championship of Czechoslovakia four times in 192...
If you would like to spice up you repertoire against1.d4, consider the Janowski Indian, a rare but reliable fighting variation of the Old Indian. It is easy to learn as there are only a limited number of plans for White after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nc...
This week we shall see the French Defence Rubinstein Variation. The speciality of this variation is that it can be used both against the Tarrasch Variation as well as the Winawer Variation. Black immediately reduces the tention in the centre and m...
The Nimzo-Indian is considered a solid positional defense. However, the soundness of an opening is often tested by tactical problems. The line presented includes the offer of a piece by White. This has been played in only a few games. Black has b...
This week we shall study the Bogo Indian Defence. Recently, the Catalan has become one of the most played systems and the specialty of this system is that White keeps playing for a win without any risk. For many players to play against the Catalan...
This week we shall see an update in the Caro-Kann Advance Variation. http://www.chess.com/article/view/caro-kann-advance-variation-by-gm-magesh-and-gm-arun. As we concluded in our last article the idea of grabbing the b2-pawn was playable for Bla...
It is not news anymore that the World number 1 is having a bit of a slump in the last month or so. Carlsen ended up losing a bunch of points in the Olympiad and now he is struggling in the Bilbao Masters tournament. While Carlsen is trying to find...
Today we will study the Sicilian Scheveningen variation. One of the best things about this variation is the amazing potential of all the transpositions into this variation from other branches of the Sicilian. Our first game today is the 9th game...
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi was born March 23, 1931, in Leningrad, USSR. He defected (the old word for escaping from the Soviets) to the Netherlands. Later, he moved (what a free person does) to Switzerland. In 1974, he lost the Candidates final to Ka...
Judit Polgar was born July 23, 1976 in Hungary. She has dazzled the chess world since she was a child. In 1991, she became a grandmaster at 15 years and four months. That was the youngest ever at the time. She is the best female player ever. Her ...
This week we shall an idea against the Alapin system for Black. The Alapin has been a super solid variation for White against the mighty Sicilian. Many of the players who are not ready to face the long theoretical battles in the Sicilian often pr...
Boris Gelfand was born in Minsk, Belarussian SSR (now Belarus) on June 24, 1968. He was Soviet Junior Champion at 17 and European Junior Champion two years later. In 1988, he tied for first in the World Junior Championship, but Joel Lautier was aw...
This week we shall study the Leningrad system in the Dutch defence. The Leningrad Dutch is an interesting dynamic opening combining many strategic and dynamic possiblities for both sides. Dutch players often argue that it is better than the King's...
The Keene Defense (1.e4 e5 2.f4 Qh4+) involves two early moves by her majesty, since after 3.g3 the queen must retreat. What is the point of this maneuver? The basic idea is to set up tension on the e-file while the pawn at g3 just gets in the way...
The English Opening is very flexible for both sides. In many games, the player who is more flexible is the winner. Each move played gives the opponent information and while gaining ground a move can reduce the flexibility of the position. An advan...
The Stonewall Dutch has been part of my Black repertoire for a long time and I have also used it effectively against various flank openings. It is rock solid and allows some nice kingside attacking possibilities. Here are four examples. ...
We have studied several opening ideas in our past articles. All those plans and those tiny little nuances that we try to understand are all very important, but also important is the question of when to use them exactly and when to neglect them? Th...
Many people seem to think that if an opening is good for Black it is even better for White with an extra tempo. In fact, that is not the case. The problem with such thinking is that it fails to take into account the fact when you play the openin...
Perhaps the most aggressive reply to the Queen's Gambit is the Albin Countergambit 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 3. dxe5 d4. It is sound enough for use in amateur games and has even been used by the pros in Interzonal competition. Here are a few examples with m...
