Priceless Initiative
Here is a game from the 2008-2009 German Schachbundesliga, IM Lauber - GM Naumann with full annotations and commentary: This game was a very entertaining game to view with two different approaches out of the opening. Blac...
Why a Cramped Position is So Bad
We all know that a cramped position is bad. But where is the real danger, if there aren't good attacking lines aiming at the king? The brilliant Rashid Nyezhmetdinov shows us how to crack open the shell by opening up a file and using it as an inva...
Using a strong center to launch a kingside attack
Controlling the center is a key opening principle, but it has advantages in the middlegame and endgame, too. In this famous game, both sides complete all four of the openin goals (control center; castle; connect rooks; aim rooks). Therefore it is ...
The art of Infiltration
Chess strategy is based on identifying weaknesses and attacking them. sometimes you need to infiltrate the enemy position with your pieces in order to get to the targets. This game is a great illustration of the art of infiltration.
Queenside advance can kill!
this is a good example of what can happen when a Queenside advance and a passed pawn combine.Enjoy!
Enjoyable Efficiency – Simple Winning Ideas You Must Know, Especially When Playing Speed Chess
Professionals focus on achieving the victory in every game, while amateurs usually happy to enjoy the process, where the victory is a bonus. Mostly, the amateurs can only find time for speed chess. When I was growing up, 5 minutes per game for eac...
Never out of the game
In this game, i made a couple of mistakes and a blunder. Not only did I lose an extra piece (the white rook), but also was out of position. Yet, due to a couple of lucky breaks and mistakes by my opponent, my end game was sound enough to get me ...
It Was A Blunder, Not A Brillant Queen Sac.
In the following game, my opponent easily wins my queen but for the neglection of his development, I would of resigned. Since he wasn't using a one rook, bishop, had not castled and was about to exchange off his other bishop for my queen, I decide...
Staying Calm Under Pressure
Here is a game from the 71st Corus Tournament, GM Iturrizaga - GM Leon Hoyos with full annotations and commentary: This is a great game to show how to properly defend against a speculative sacrifice. You must not lose your ...
How To: Beat Little ChessPartner on Hard
So everyone probably knows by now that chess.com shut down yesterday, and when you attempted to access the site, a new page prompted you to try your hand against Little ChessPartner. I thought, why not? I chose White set it to the highest difficul...
Part One: Material VS Position
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...
The Fear of Winning
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 ...
The eternal target at f7
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...
Ruy Lopez Trap
Here is a trap in the ruy lopez
Attack on the halfopen h-file!
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...
Before you Attack...
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...
Defending
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...
Power Pawn Play
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...
2008 Burbank U18 Finals
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.
Improve at 1 minute blitz!
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...
Mikhail Tal, castling weakened and attack the King
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...
Analyzing and demonstraiting
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...
Rook+King vs. King Mate
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 ...