Try moving your pawns to squares that anticipate the opposing Knights second moves in opening play. For example: If playing Black, move c6 to counter N-f3 on the King side or f6 to counter N-b3 on the Queen side. This is an extension of the Car...
Here is a game from the 2009 Reykjavik Open, FM Thorfinnsson - FM Lucaroni with full commentary and annotations: I was very interested in first seeing this game. The Dutch defense has been a bit suspect at the highest levels of...
In Chess, you start out with your prepared opening. Here is one thing to consider. When playing your opening, I reccommend that do not move a piece twice in the beginning unless you are forced to or their is a good thing in return. When white, m...
This game is about one line of the Queen's Indian Defense. White is Garry Kasparov. He was born April 13, 1963 in Baku, Azerbaijan. He won the world championship in 1985 from Anatoly Karpov. He was FIDE champion until 1993 when he split with FIDE....
A gambit, traditionally, is a pawn sacrifice in the early stages of the opening. There are many reasons that gambits are played: often to gain tempo, good/quick development, to weaken an opponent's position; but not many people realise the psychol...
You have probably noticed that we have changed our title names in the article. You must have read plenty of articles and maybe seen some videos where people and sometimes Anand himself try to explain the secret behind his first and last names. Wel...
Once again I will be addressing my favorite defense to 1. e4, the Sicilian Pelikan This opening is characterized by the move order 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5! ...
Hi everyone have a little bit of a suggestion for you. There are people in this world that are straight forward and totally honest. Some are the cheating scoundrels that we hear about for cutting corners. Then we have the tricksters, like me. ...
According to the Gameknot database, the Alapin Variation is the third most popular reply to the Sicilian. Many top grandmasters have used sometimes during their chess playing career - giving Alapin a reputation of solid, and highly respectable. I...
This week we will be studying the Nimzo Indian defense. This opening was introduced by Grand Master Aron Nimzowitsch who can be called the Father of the so-called "hypermodern" chess era existing today. He has been one of the most influential writ...
Several days ago I was watching a wonderful DVD on the Najdorf variation created by Garry Kasparov. Garry who besides being considered one of the greatest chess players in the history of the game is also becoming one of the best commentators of th...
Frank Marshall (1877-1944) won the U.S. championship in 1904, but refused the title because Harry Pillsbury was unable to play. In 1907, Marshall lost a world title match against the champion, Emanuel Lasker. Marshall became the U.S. champion in 1...
After our lesson in the calm and positional Ruy Lopez last week, we are ready to get back into some sharp variations again. This week we will take a look into the Sicilian Dragon. Our readers may wonder how one can explain the strategy and the bas...
Hi! Today I am going to tell you about a opening called the Philidor Defense. The ECO of the opening is C41. This is one of my least favorite openings when my opponent plays it, but I quite like to play it when I am Black. The reason to play the P...
What do you think about my new opening?
The Caro Kann Defense is a suitable answer to 1.e4. It can lead to positional and tactical games. In this game I was playing the black pieces. White was Roy Mallett, who was a master in that era. When answering 1.e4, he played the French Defense, ...
Zugzwang is a term originally used in chess which also applies to various other games. The concept finds its formal definition in combinatorial game theory. It describes a situation where one player is put at a disadvantage because he has to make ...
It was nice to read your overwhelming responses to last week's Najdorf article. We could see plenty of opening requests, however we are writing only one article a week, and we will try to cover all our readers' interests eventually. Also having se...
The Urusov Gambit can prove to be a dangerous weapon to use against 2...Nf6 in the bishop's opening. At the cost of a pawn can come a dangerous attack. It is not as dangerous for white as the King's Gambit, itself. The Urusov Gambit ensures a g...
Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-1995) was the Soviet champion numerous times and world champion most of the years from 1948-1963. One of the openings he was well known for playing was the Caro Kann Defense. With the white pieces, he pioneered the 6.Bg5 li...
This will be our first article aimed at guiding enthusiastic chess fans with useful opening ideas. Rather than focusing on deep calculation and analysis, our goal is to provide the readers with a better objective understanding of opening theory. P...
This shows a classic pawn storm turned mating attack in the King's Indian Defense. This is a game every King's Indian player should know by heart, the strategies in it are fundamental.
Here is a game from the 2008-2009 Bundesliga, GM Golod - FM Deglmann with full commentary and annotations: In this game we see the move 6. b4!? which is a very aggressive and interesting choice to combat the Dutch defense. Wh...
Hello. This is my first article. I'm am writing about an opening that for me seems great. I havnt yet found a weakness in this opening. Its the Scotch Game - Classical Variation 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 I am wondering if. What ...
