Last week we analyzed a common situation that happens in many different openings. Black voluntarily creates a 'hole' on the d5 square hoping to compensate it with activity of his pieces (it is especially typical for certain variations of the ...
Many openings (especially when you play Black) have specific strategical problems typical for that particular opening. If you play the French Defense, then the bishop on c8 is your constant headache. In the Tarrasch Defense you need to live with a...
Today we'll talk about the positions with the shortest possible checkmates. I almost hear your question: “Are you talking about checkmate in one move?” No, we actually discussed this kind of checkmates here, but today we will talk abou...
Last week we discussed the 'impossible' checkmate with just a king and a knight and today we'll analyze a similar 'impossible' checkmate with a king and a bishop. As all of you know, king + bishop cannot checkmate a lone king. But if you add...
What is an impossible checkmate? If you open any book for beginners it will inform you that a king and a lonely knight cannot checkmate an opponent's king. Moreover, if you only have a king and a knight and your opponent lost on time in an Interne...
I decided to write on this subject after I saw the discussion in the comments section of last week's article where we talked about the tricky B+N checkmate. Somebody asked the question "why not Kd1 ??? what must we do after 58.Kd1 ??" Let's look a...
I call the endgame king+bishop+knight vs. a lonely king an 'embarrassing' endgame because I know too many cases where chess players left a chess board embarrassed. Indeed, just imagine how would you feel if you had a theoretically winning endgame,...
For more cool articles visit http://stuscorner.wordpress.com Ivanchuk, Vassily – Aronian, Levon, Linares 2007 What is thinking “outside of the box”? Before I answer to that question, we should analyse this position first. Black has just taken ...
In “Train Your Brain, Target Consciousness” (Part 1, Part 2) we took a look at weak squares and weak pawns. When studying things like this, you first look at the concept (in this case weak squares and/or weak pawns), you try to intellectually gras...
My last two articles (Train Your Brain! Target Consciousness Part 1, and How to Train Your Brain) were about weak squares and weak pawns, which I view as targets that need to be devoured or used. Creating a permanent seek-and-destroy mentality whe...
En algunas posiciones de medio juego y finales muchas veces el rey es una pieza que determina el resultado de la lucha. En las últimas semanas he estado enseñando este concepto a mis alumnos y revisamos varias posiciones interesantes de partidas ...
For more cool articles visit http://stuscorner.wordpress.com This article will help players to understand how to play against two Bs when you have two Ns. Battle of 2 Bs vs 2 Ns doesn’t occur frequently, but if you are fond of, for example, Chigo...
I was going to do Part 2 of Target Consciousness, but three reader questions (from Part 1) have convinced me to hold off on Part 2 for next week and instead revisit a painful subject for chess hopefuls. THREE READER QUESTIONS Mottsauce said: “I...
Target Consciousness. I coined this phrase long ago, and I still consider it to be of enormous use to students who want to play much stronger chess, and also appreciate high-level games. The concept is simple: you need to train your mind to spot t...
Some time ago we discussed the chess version of the well known phenomenon called the butterfly effect. We could see how a piece or a pawn sitting at one part of the board could affect the outcome of the whole battle on the opposite part of the boa...
The typical idea of trading the fianchettoed bishop by playing Be3,Qd2 and Bh6 is so common that many chess players execute it almost automatically. Indeed, how can you argue with a game like this: It is the games like this firmly engraved...
Last week we analyzed the games where great world champions (Fischer, Petrosian, Smyslov) happily parted with their fianchettoed bishops to isolate and double their opponent's pawns, turning them into long-term weaknesses. Another famous world cha...
Every chessplayer who likes to fianchetto his king's bishop in the opening quickly learns the value of this bishop. It is the main (and in some cases the only) defender of his king. As my first coach used to say, pointing at my Bg7 in the Dragon v...
"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme." - Mark Twain The following game was played just three weeks ago at the FIDE World Cup in Tromso, Norway: I hope you were a...
It is a very common situation in chess when in the last round, one chess player is in a must-win situation and his opponent needs just a draw to achieve his goal. Sometimes it leads to hilarious incidents. The year is 1935 and it is the last gam...
Positional Gains and Tactical Pains Many players feel that balance (doing your best to understand every phase of chess) is only for very strong players. This is hogwash. Of course a 1200 player isn’t going to understand any phase as well as a 200...
I frequently hear the same question from many club players: "The Smith-Morra Gambit is such an exciting weapon against the Sicilian Defense, why don't grandmasters play it? Is there a refutation?" The question is simple, but the answer is not. F...
Amateur chess players are always discussing their style, or claiming that tactics is more important than anything else, or arguing that drug testing is important in top level events, or insisting that Bobby Fischer was actually a Reptilian alien, ...
The World Cup continues and it’s simply one of the most exciting Chess events of the past two years. Before I delve into the article I want to define some terms just so that we’re on the same page. Skill: the ability to play good moves or better...
