When most of us learned chess, we were first taught to grab material and have a material advantage. This is not that bad, but playing positonally is usually better. Take a look at the starting position of the example below. You'll quickly notice t...
Here is a game from the 2008-2009 Hastings Chess Congress, IM Aikhoje - IM Bates with full annotations and commentary: Sometimes in chess you must throw caution to the wind and play for the win without fear of losing. In this game ...
Most beginners know that f7 is their target as White until Black castles. You need to know that f7 doesn't get ignored after castling. It is often still the target. The games in this article show you how important it is to keep f7 on the target li...
Here is a trap in the ruy lopez
Here we see an old game from 1935. Salo Flohr, normally a classic positional player and endgame expert, had build up with a King`s Indian set-up and played now a typical kingside attack.- White tried to lock the kingside, but at last a halfopen h...
In serious tournaments, I am more of a passive player, choosing more modern openings such as the Pircs or the Alekhine's as black, and occasionally Larsen's Opening (1.b3) as a surprise weapon when playing white. In the middlegame, I don't rush ou...
Many players, especially club-levelled ones, loses hope at the first sign of a need to defend, when actually, the position is quite playable, and their opponent does not have that much of an advantage as they thought. It was not until when Wilhel...
Here is a game from the 2008 Bundesliga, GM Mainka - GM Buhmann with full annotations and commentary: This was a very instructive game to observe, especially with some of the pawn play. White started off with the unusual ca...
The finals took place on 15th of November and here it goes the $2000 price to the winner. This tie breaker came to the boy Alex Carmanav.
The 1 minute blitz game, or any game with short time controls is one of the exciting treasures of chess, one that brings excitement and logic, anxiety and miracles, and triumph and failure together - all in mere seconds. This post is aimed at impr...
Am very sorry that my poor handling of English does not allow me to further develop this article. However, today I bring an interesting example of castling weakened and attack the King, in this case, with the mastery of Mikhail Tal, without dou...
When you loose a game, you would think why did you loose? to know that, analyzing would be the best step for improving. Chess.com Already has an analyzer, so you can easily analyze your games. Analyzing could be fun, like if you make a blunder, yo...
Today, I was playing a game on live chess. Our ratings were very similar. Although my rating was higher, he was a better player. He used many tactics on me to get the upper hand. During the endgame, he had a rook and a king when I only had a king ...
Don’t you just love it when it comes to maturation day on a growth investment which grows all the way from launch day to pay day? Even better, imagine if you started with eight investments and all you needed was one to make you rich upon maturin...
Chess principles are not a list of don’ts like the ten commandments. Rather they are more like a list of do’s which all work together such that if you heed them, they will not only improve on your capabilities but tell you things like: • What sta...
Here is a game from the 38th Chess Olympiad, IM Espinosa Flores - FM Cave with full annotations and commentary: This game is a great example of how to play a strong positional game. White methodically and slowly improved ...
Here is a game from the 2008 World Senior Championship, GM Jansa - GM Westerinen with full annotations and commentary: This game is a clear example to dismiss the myth that isolated pawns are always weak and should be feared. In ...
In this game, correct me if I am wrong, but the person playing white castling seemed to hurt him more than help him in the position he was in. Once he stepped up his pawn to stop my queen-rook attack, he left an opening for my knight to fork th...
Target Audience: 1400-2000 Hey guys! The following is a position that occured in one of my friendly games with my friend in school. In this position, Black has a minor advantage with his rooks being stronger than the white rooks! I played Blac...
Bring you queen out after 7 moves and you will always win.
Here is a game from the 2008 European Club Cup, IM Bogut - GM Grischuk with full annotations and commentary: This game was a great example of how to play for an advantage in what seems like a boring position with no chanc...
In my last article I showed two examples, where a pawn was offered to get the control and use of an open file. The second example was the first game of WC- match 2008. Anand gave a pawn to get the open c-file for his rooks. You remember? : ...
So please look at the following pawnstructure. It is clear, white has the better one! He has a protected passed pawn at d5 and black pawn at c5 is a "weak" one. Would do you think about endgames with that pawnstructure? Right, they are in most o...
here are some tips to improve an be a better sport in chess: Control the center Think of your opponent's move Plan every move. Keep your king side defensive Keep the other side offensive Use most of your pieces... Use the Queen, King. İn the e...
