Initiative
Hello, dear friends and chess fans! From today onwards I'll be writing my own blog in Russian. Please follow my articles and kindly share opinions and feedback. Today I would like to talk about a very important elem...
Prophylactic Play
"It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you wil...
The Man Who Was Ahead Of His Time
Ask chess players about the period known as romantic chess and they will probably mention the names of La Bourdonnais, Anderssen and Morphy. Indeed, all three of them were called unofficial world champions of their time. ...
The Positional Queen Sacrifice
In pursuit of a topic for my very first article on Chess.com, I decided to go over my recent games and see if anything interesting would come up. I got really excited when I touched down on my game against GM David Howell from the Winter Classic t...
Principle of Two Weaknesses
Imagine you have been assigned to make a penalty shoot-out for your team. Your eyes are focused on the right side from the goalkeeper. You are determined to shoot there. Obviously, the goalkeeper prepares to jump into that direction. You gradually...
Counterattack
The best way to counter-attack a hater is to make it blatantly obvious that their attack has had no impact on you. (Tim Ferriss) For this article, I have chosen two classical games and three games from my career, to illustrate the method of aggr...
Unbalanced Material
Sometimes, the point score doesn't tell the whole story. A queen and a pawn might add up to ten, but it's not always equal to two rooks. In this series, IM Daniel Rensch and GM Ben Finegold explore the many variations of unbalanced material a...
The Power Of The Bishop Pair
Think twice before you exchange one of those bishops! Most grandmasters would prefer the bishop pair over two knights and for good reason. How do they exploit their opponents with this slight advantage? GM Jon Ludvig Hammer will show you the ...
Secrets Of A Blitz Master
Winning in blitz, yeah... it's that important. Our next compilation is brought to you by GM Maxim Dlugy. There's an art to be being a blitz master, but there's also a secret. This series unveils the strategy and technique behind a prominent blitz ...
Put Your Bishop Behind Your Pawn
We continue our exploration of common chess patterns today by looking look at the pattern "a bishop behind a pawn." While most of you have probably heard about "Tarrasch rule" which recommends putting your rook behind a passed pawn,...
When A Chess Pattern Backfires
Everyone agrees that knowledge of typical chess patterns is one of the main requirements for a chess player to become really strong. In our weekly column, we regularly analyze typical positional and tactical patterns. But imagine a position&n...
How To Learn From Your Defeats Like Karpov
Anatoly Karpov's book of selected games is one of my all-time favorites. It was a part of the famous Soviet "Black Series" about the world's best chess players. Being one of my first chess books, it seriously affected my chess style for years to c...
Tales Of Bishops And Knights
clement41 wrote: My question for you deals with the concept of “accountancy” of tempi; let me make myself clearer: in many instances one side has the opportunity to trade pieces (typically minors) with an imbalance; not only ca...
Melik & Me
It's hard to replace over-the-board lessons with a grandmaster, but this series sure does cut it close. In Melik and Me, we've paired GM Melik Khachiyan with amateur BrotherJosh. Josh will ask all the questions amateurs need answers of which&...
Retreat To Win In Chess
Many years ago, GM Alexander Ivanov made his famous statement "Russians do not retreat!" As one of our readers, Osokor, correctly pointed out, this is not historically accurate. Indeed, in the Great Patriotic War of 1812, the Russia...
Advanced Patterns: Pin And Win
In our last article, we discussed the importance of typical chess patterns using a pin as an example. As you become proficient in recognizing chess patterns, you'll see them everywhere! Suddenly you'll realize that the Morphy's "Ope...
Is A Knight On The Rim Always Grim?
SkladakoV’s question is about this position. He asked: “What if White doesn’t take by 16.Bxa5? Doesn’t that leave the knight on a5 stuck on the side of the board?” Jeremy Silman: I think most people wou...
7 Bullet Chess Tips By Hikaru Nakamura
Editor’s note: Hikaru Nakamura is widely considered the best speed chess player in history. A vote by titled players confirmed this last year. Nakamura will face World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the three-hour GM Blitz Ba...
Botvinnik's Winning Chess Method
The Botvinnik-Kasparov school that I had privilege to attend was an unbelievable experience. The sheer fact that two legends were sitting just about five feet from you was very exciting! One of the strongest memories from the school was the w...
Study Plan for Advanced Players: Strategy
Target Skill Range: Advanced Path (Rated 1800-1999) Tasks: Learn the power of the pieces!!! Improve your knowledge of dynamics and tension in chess. Know how to exploit exchanges. Improve your prophylactic thinking and defense! ...
Study Plan For Advanced Players: Bringing It All Together
Target Skill Range: Advanced Path (Rated 1800-1999) Tasks: Play 50 standard time control games. Analyze your personal games. Document your mistakes. Work through these lessons. Follow Chess.com/news. Wow! You've venture...
Master Path Study Plan: Strategy
Target Skill Range: Master Path (Rated 2000-2199) Tasks: Learn the following master-level pawn structures. Master the art of maneuvering. Learn to use your pawns actively. Study the exploitation of pawn weaknesses. Identify critical...
Master Path Study Plan: Bringing It All Together
Target Skill Range: Advanced Path (Rated 2000-2199) Tasks: Analyze all games with a computer. Compete on the leaderboard. Start a blog. Play solitaire chess. Compete in a major open. Congratulations! You've made it to t...
The Best Of The Old And New Schools
Occasionally I run into players who think that Bobby Fischer "did it all by himself." I.e. he locked himself in his room, studied chess until he was world class, and then burst onto the tournament scene. Uh, no. Every day after school, Bobby w...