Today we will be looking at the psychological effects of a material sacrifice. No matter how hard we try to look at the board objectively, no real chess player can remain totally dispassionate when a sacrifice is made, either by himself or by his...
Kkjimbo asked: I am a low ranked club player (British Chess Fed 109) A fellow patzer at my club has agreed to spend some time with me in the close season training. We plan on a once a week 1 or 2 hour session. Have you any tips on how we could ge...
Recently I was playing in the Forni di Sopra Open in Italy. As it so happened, another American player was there, IM Marc Esserman. In the second round I wandered over to look at his game with GM Oleg Korneev. Esserman is a very aggressive player,...
Eniamar asked: Finally, I leave with a question, since this may be the last chance I get to ask it of you: I am a sicilian player, and I am deeply in love with the Najdorf. After 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6, I often see w...
Chess is unique from sports in that it is usually possible for the players to simply agree to a draw. Of course, many people think that this rule should be abolished, and many tournaments include a rule forbidding draw offers before a certain numb...
A new column has appeared! The topic is “chess and psychology” and the author-- me. Why this topic? Well, I noticed that most of the other columns deal with strictly chess factors – analysis of this opening line, this endgame, what kind of plan to...
Dear Readers, We have been a part of chess.com for the past two and a half years writing opening columns. Today we are making a switch to help you guys by answering your questions. We have personally read some of IM Jeremy Silman's columns and we...
Written by: ChessMarkstheSpot and RookedonChess For those who have been following my blogs about the “Candidates Matches” tournament, you know I haven’t hidden my feelings about the fact that I’ve found this event a disgrace, and following i...
A zillion people screamed: Don’t leave and let the trolls win!” Dear zillion, My view of the troll attacks never had anything to do with winning or losing. In fact, I’m very familiar with trolls. Allow me to share a bit of (true) background. Wa...
Sydney, the Capital city of New South Wales, was again hosting its 5th International Open from April 27th to May 1st. This year was quite risky for the event. The previous organizer FM Brian Jones announced at the closing ceremony in 2010 that h...
With most of my "national championship experiences" coming as a player, I am here to tell you that participating in an event like the Elementary (K-6) National Chess Championships in Dallas, Texas from May 5-8 as coach/business man was entirely di...
member BCG1 asked: In Andrew Soltis’ book BOBBY FISCHER REDISCOVERED, page 278, he states (regarding the rematch in 1992 with Spassky), “In fact the match games were of a fairly high quality particularly when compared with Kasparov’s championship...
There are all sorts of ways to merge chess with art or music. Music critic and chess writer and aficionado, Harold Schonberg considered chess itself an art "in that it deals with the materials and processes of creation and evokes an aesthetic re...
The Doeberl Cup took place between April 21 and 25 in Australia’s capital. It was the 49-th edition of the event, which features the who's who of Australian chess. The tournament is named after the architect Erich Doeberl who strongly...
Part 3 This is the third part of my series of articles about my move to Europe to play chess. In the first two parts I described the reasons why I decided to move, the first tournament I played in this year (the Prague open) and the sec...
member Yigor asked: Please tell me what you think about 1.d4 Nc6 2.d5 Ne5 3.Nc3? Dear Yigor: A logical question. I probably should have given it a quick nod in my article. However, my article on this line wasn’t meant to be thorough (that would...
This is the second part of my three-part series about my travels while playing chess. In Part 1 I described my decision to move to Prague, my troubles last fall which led to me feeling like quitting chess, and my first tournament, the Prague Open,...
member UNiMEDia asked: I’m writing about 1.d4 Nc6. I work with a man who is presently obsessed – and I do mean obsessed, in that I have to listen to him rant and rave about the plusses of this opening every time I see him. We are of more or less ...
In this three part series, IM Bryan Smith describes his trip to Europe in search of a better life as a chess player. Hi, my name is Bryan Smith. I am an international master who grew up in Alaska. I have been writing for Chess.com&rsquo...
Many players aggressively asked (in effect): Can a non-titled, low rated player who desperately wants attention from players in his own category also become well known in elite chess circles? Dear “I want to be a chess star” hopefuls [This sound...
(Continued from) Round 8: Postny drew against the top seed Areschenko with the black pieces and raised his tally to seven points. GM Ni Hua, IM Nabaty and GM Greenfeld joined the lead with victories over GM Zharebuk, IM Thejkumar and GM Kuzubov ...
member polydiatonic asked: I’ve been reading a book by GM Soltis called: WHY LASKER MATTERS. In it, Soltis makes the following interesting point: “What is truly typical of Lasker is that he relied on tactics, not combinations. Ther...
member Dannyhume asked: Why should I bother reading anything written by someone other than a top-10 or candidate super-GM from the last 5 years? If there is a reason, then why can’t that reasoning apply to reading the works of a lower master/expe...
When asked which book had a profound influence on their development as players, most strong players would name manuals like Nimzowitsch’s My System or books with selections of games like Fischer’s or Kasparov’s best games. Modern players will name...
