Recently, Ben Finegold an American who became a grandmaster at age forty said that he wants to win every chess game equally. When not quite getting what he was saying, Ben clarified to me by giving the example from the King's Island Open where the...
Mikhail Botvinnik, a World Champion for fifteen years between 1948-1963, with two brief interruptions had a tremendous impact on the development of the chess game. Dominating the chess world for such an unbelievably long time required character an...
To come up with a correct plan one needs to have a correct positional evaluation. We were taught that a bishop is better than a knight in open positions, that the two rooks are better than the queen, etc. This common sense knowledge guides us dur...
Our life-preservation instincts generate fear and awareness of danger. At a chess board a player also experiences similar reactions. One can hear from time to time that this or that chess player has a "good sense of danger." Among super-grandm...
Today we will look at examples where forming plans involved moving the pawns. Pawn moves can change the structure of the position and the associated plans. We open the game by sacrificing pawns and grab space by pushing them forward. Sometimes, ad...
Today’s article features two losses that happened because one of the sides (which happened to be me) did not have a plan in the game. To have a plan in any position is a very important step in choosing a move and a trend that the game will follow....
A chess player has to know how to use a variety of methods of chess strategy. Super grandmasters mastered numerous methods of leading chess battles. This is why it is good to go over their games and learn typical plans. Today’s two examples are ta...
Today, as promised I will look at the positions that the readers posted. Two positions were similar in that one side had a material advantage but had trouble finding a winning plan. It is very hard to win a winning position. It is hard from a psyc...
A chess player should follow strong GM-tournaments like a business person follows the Wall Street Journal. First of all, one can see modern opening trends and adjust his opening repertoire accordingly. Secondly, and more important in my opinion,...
Last article featured two positions from the Aeroflot Open, which was hosted in Moscow. Grandmaster Le Quang Liem won the event, scoring an impressive 7/9 with 5 wins and 4 draws, and 0 losses. Going into the last round Liem shared...
The two positions that I posted for you to solve are new to me as well. The first one David sent me and I believe it is as a position from a Chess.com TV lesson, while the second position my coach gave me to solve. These two positions are not that...
The art of attack in chess is really much simpler than you think. It comes down to one simple rule: Remove the defenders! Everything else is just a variation on that theme. You see it all the time, but here is a wonderful example as Grandmaster Sh...
In this game, White plays the initial phase of the opening well enough, but then he starts to drift with some questionable and unnecessary moves, which allow Black to work up a strong queenside initiative. At that point, White: recognizes the pro...
I have stated that chess pieces are connected. As a result, I have been asked to explain how pieces are connected. The way a player deploys the pieces should take into consideration their coordination. The first part of this is simply development....
In this game, the players castle on opposite sides, which usually signals attacks on both sides. Both players pursue their chances on each side, but Black misses something that costs him the exchange. But he stays calm and uses the time White sp...
I usually set aside time on Wednesday evening to write my weekly column. It has already become a routine, though for such tasks I typically rely on my mood to determine when and what to write and not a schedule. Tonight, I am in no mood to talk t...
This article is the first in a series that will illustrate what a player needs to do and how he needs to think when facing a losing position or one that appears to be going from bad to worse. The first step is to realise that we all throw in a fe...
How does one plan a sacrifice? Sometimes the position requires for one side to sacrifice a piece or the exchange. It is often apparent when the position is bad and some active measures need to be taken. What about the positions that are better, bu...
The weak dark square complex is a group of squares that are undefended by nearby pawns on white squares. For examples in this article, Black has pawns on f7, g6, and h7, and the squares f6, g7,and h6 are undefended by Black pawns. They form a we...
Chess Exam: Matches against Chess Legends, You vs. Bobby Fischer IM Igor Khmelnitsky 2009 IamCoach Press 190 pages http://www.chessexam.com Hello chess enthusiasts and readers! I have just finished working through my copy of C...
In my younger years I was a big fan of Dvoretsky’s books. I read them all, even though I did not fully understand them. I still like to go back to the chess shelf to flip through pages from his books to see the many marks and under...
Imbalances Tom asked: If I’m doing a tactical puzzle, should I be looking at the imbalances before I start calculating? Or does this not apply when you know there’s a tactical shot in the position? Dear Tom, Imbalances (space, material, pawn...
There are different theories of how one should choose a move. Some of the theories are systematically developed and are presented as practical methods. Deciding on a chess move, unless you are a computer, is a very complex process. The decision-ma...
The Art and Science of the Isolated d-Pawn Madhacker asked: I’d like to ask about the correct handling of positions where White has an isolated queen’s pawn. The question was raised in my head by the following game I played in a lo...
