We’ll continue our exploration of squares by showing a couple of different ways one can milk them. Of course, a weak square or hole in the enemy camp can (and usually should) be used as a home for one’s pieces. We will look at that aspect of squa...
In our first two installments of “Mastering Squares,” we looked at some extremely instructive positions from one of my students. In the third installment, I stepped back and looked at square basics. Now that everyone is “on poi...
The year was 1985. Garry Kasparov just became the world champion, and together with his mentor, ex-world champion Mikhail Botvinnik, he was running the first session of the famous Botvinnik-Kasparov school. A group of young aspiring c...
I noticed that some readers had trouble understanding what a weak square is. I don’t like leaving people behind, so I am going to devote 75.23 percent of this week’s “Mastering Squares” article to square basics. Of course...
Some chess players love to play offbeat openings. I knew one class-A player who was a die-hard devotee of the Vulture Defense (1.d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 Ne4?!). He was showing me a book (why do they kill trees to publish such books?) that explaine...
Topic for next month: Chess Teaching (Please start submitting questions concerning the above topic for the next column. Questions outside of that theme should be submitted to other Chess.com departments. If I get a chance to tackle a different ty...
In part one, I discussed a game that I feel is extremely instructive. There were opening nuances, tactics, and the usual highs and lows. But the main thing that fueled the game’s soul was the existence of two potentially weak squares on e5 a...
Two active bishops working in tandem are a mighty force. Indeed, the bishop's long range enables it to dominate vast swaths of the board, and to simultaneously play both a defensive and an attacking role. While the power of two bishops is...
When I have lessons with students, we usually go over their games. Invariably, the student comes to me thinking that the errors in the game are based on blunders, missed tactics, a bad opening, or some form of positional atrocity. Of course, thes...
Chess is well known as a game of strategy. This is why it is prominently pictured in all kinds of television commercials that have to showcase long-term planning (e.g. insurance, banking, etc.). It is a popular myth among people who don't play c...
There are many basic endgame rules you can find in any chess manual: Centralize your king! Create an outside passed pawn! Rooks should be placed behind passed pawns! ...I bet you've heard them dozens of times. And yet one very...
I think about chess a lot. I think about chess news, chess history, chess openings and endgames, my chess friends (living and dead), beautiful chess games, and how my 4,000 chess books are pushing me out of my home. But my main chess thoughts ar...
When I was still playing in tournaments I answered 1.e4 with various Sicilian lines (Richter-Rauzer, Accelerated Dragon, Paulsen and Taimanov systems, etc.) and the Caro-Kann. I always loved the Caro-Kann, and at the end of my career it became m...
The concept of overprotection, invented and verbalized by Nimzowitsch in My System, is defined by IM Jeremy Silman as "a strategically important pawn or square that is given more protection than it seemingly needs. Essentially a prophylactic ...
These games might or might not be masterpieces; the criterion for this series is that they taught me an extremely important lesson(s) that made me well rounded and much stronger. I’m hoping that these games will teach you the same lessons, t...
Dealing with a fortress — especially when you have a significant material advantage — is an infuriating experience. Indeed, what can be more frustrating than completely outplaying your opponent, only to find that he has con...
This series is all about the classic games that, as a young teen (15 years of age), affected me in a profound manner. In general, they were positional games since, for a kid that grew up on attacking chess and combinations (12 to 14 year...
This series is all about the classic games that, as a young teen (15 years of age), affected me in a profound manner. In general, they were positional games since, for a kid that grew up on attacking chess and combinations (12 to 14 year...
This series is all about the classic games that, as a young teen (15 years of age), affected me in a profound manner. In general, they were positional games since, for a kid that grew up on attacking chess and combinations (12 to 14 year...
This series is all about the classic games that, as a young teen (15 years of age), affected me in a profound manner. In general, they were positional games since, for a kid that grew up on attacking chess and combinations (12 to 14 year...
This series is all about the classic games that, as a young teen (15 years of age), affected me in a profound manner. In general, they were positional games since, for a kid that grew up on attacking chess and combinations (12 to 14 years of age),...
Am I going to write about chess players misbehaving during their games? Not really, at least not this time. In this article I will try to show you that chess can really be beautiful and surprisingly or not, this can be achieved without sacrificing...
This series is all about the classic games that, as a young teen (15 years of age), affected me in a profound manner. In general, they were positional games since, for a kid that grew up on attacking chess and combinations (12 to 14 year...
In the previous installment of this series, we discussed the situations where it is beneficial to break one of the cardinal rules of chess: do not push pawns in front of your king. As you could notice, in all the games that we analyzed last time...
