When I reflect on the earliest stages of my chess career, it's not the thrill of victory, the five-foot trophies that I could barely lift from the ground, or even the accolades, certificates and triple-digit rating gains that dominate my recollect...
The 10th world champion Boris Spassky was married three times, but unfortunately all three marriages ended in divorce. Describing his first marriage, Spassky famously said, "we were like bishops of opposite color." When I saw this catchy phrase ...
Positions with material imbalances are difficult to play, especially for less-experienced chess players. You will never see a positional queen sacrifice or an exchange sacrifice in games played by people rated below 1700 or 1800. At this level, ...
Chess is a very complicated game that requires utmost concentration. Therefore most of the time chess players have a very serious facial expression. I doubt that a fianchettoed bishop or a semi-open file would make many people laugh. Yet th...
Siegbert Tarrasch was one of the best players of his time and definitely deserves to be included in the list of strongest chess players who never became world champion. Tarrasch. Photo via Wikipedia. Just like Reuben Fine, Tarrasch wa...
What is a pawn structure? From my online glossary, I define it as “the positioning of the whole pawn mass. Also referred to as the pawn skeleton. This positioning of the pawns is what usually dictates the types of plans available...
Making forecasts is not one of my best skills. Actually it is quite the opposite: Usually my predictions of the future are quite bad. Yet one of my forecasts was a no-brainer, since I couldn't possibly have gone wrong with it. Almost four ...
What is pawn structure? From my online glossary, I define it as "the positioning of the whole pawn mass. Also referred to as the pawn skeleton. This positioning of the pawns is what usually dictates the types of plans available in a gi...
Destiny makes its urgent way to the mighty and those who do violent deeds. This is the beginning of Stefan Zweig's famous Die Weltminute von Waterloo (The World Minute of Waterloo). While this short novel describes the decisive moment of the his...
There is a well-known chess joke (or maybe not even a joke!) that it is much more difficult to sacrifice a pawn than a queen. Indeed, in most queen sacrifices you get huge dividends right away, since it is difficult to imagine a player sacrifici...
What is pawn structure? From my online glossary, I define it as “the positioning of the whole pawn mass. Also referred to as the pawn skeleton. This positioning of the pawns is what usually dictates the types of plans available in a given ...
What is pawn structure? From my online glossary, I define it as "the positioning of the whole pawn mass. Also referred to as the pawn skeleton. This positioning of the pawns is what usually dictates the types of plans available in a given ...
The recent Grenke chess tournament turned out to be a one-person show, since everyone was watching and talking about Magnus Carlsen. The world champion's game against a young prodigy, Vincent Keymer, was especially intriguing. While the ...
What exactly is positional chess? I find some players get confused by the difference between tactical and positional chess, especially because both skills are needed to play a strong game. Therefore, I prefer to distinguish the two main ap...
There is a very powerful strategic chess concept called the Shvedova attack. What, you never heard about this mighty chess weapon? Shame on you! The Shvedova attack is named after a seven-year-old Russian girl, Alexandra Shvedova, who beautifull...
In my experience teaching, playing, and hanging out at the local chess club, I have come across many players who succeed in reaching a level in the 1600-2000 range but get stuck, often for life, trying to get beyond that and become an expert or ma...
In one of my recent articles I shared a story of how I became a lucky owner of an amazing book that really helped my chess development. This is how that article ends: "It might be a pure coincidence, but the next year after I bought The Test ...
The Chess.com member kurniadigautama asked: Something has been bothering me since I saw the game between GM Vidit Santosh and GM David Eggleston in The Chess.com Isle of Man international open tournament (round 1). In the game, we see that Vid...
Let me start with a disclaimer. While the title sounds sinister, I can assure you that no frog or any other animal was hurt for the sake of this article. It is just a metaphor! This is how Daniel Quinn describes it in "The Story Of B": If you ...
Nowadays, it is normal for chess players of all levels to make a quick draw once in a while. The so-called "Sofia Rules" and other measures that attempt to prohibit draws by mutual agreement are typically applied in elite tournaments and even worl...
A classic movie and literary ploy is when the hero must stay out of sight behind enemy lines, and decides to disguise himself as one of his foes. Students of classical literature might recall the ancient story about Achilles, the Greek hero of the...
For those that enjoyed my previous article, Test Your Positional Chess, let’s do it again. It’s fun to follow positional concepts, and it’s also extremely instructive. Please keep in mind that these puzzles aren’t li...
May 28, 1992. Moscow. The newly-established Russian Federation is enmeshed in social and economic tumult following the dissolution of the USSR. But chess fans have been treated to a small respite: a blitz tournament, broadcast live on television...
Even beginners know that castling is a very important part of an opening strategy since it moves your king away from the center into a comfortable home created by a rook and three pawns. But what if the new king's house is not so cozy, since the...
The games played by Jose Raul Capablanca have been analyzed in countless chess books, magazines and videos. Today, I want to show you two of his less famous games. Both were played against the strong American master Alexander Kevitz, and both de...