In his book Positional Decision Making in Chess, GM Boris Gelfand describes how excited he got as a boy when his father brought home a new chess book, a collection of the games of Akiba Rubinstein. He read the book cover-to-cover and immediately s...
There are many ways to work on your chess improvement. You can study opening variations or typical endgames, solve tactical puzzles, and learn chess strategy. Also, it is extremely useful to analyze the games of the greatest chess players as well ...
Plot twists are popular in Hollywood because people really love them. After his breakthrough mega-hit The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan decided that every single movie he produces should have one at the end. As a result, while watching his movie...
Checkmate is the essence of chess. It ends the game, providing a satisfying closure to a long struggle. Checkmates can also be incredibly beautiful. By definition, checkmate involves coordination and teamwork between your pieces. No single piece...
A pin is probably the most common chess pattern. It is difficult for me to imagine any master game where there would be no pins in the actual game or in the variations that could've happened during the game. Also, it is probably one of the easiest...
Today we are going to discuss a common tactical idea that usually starts an immediate attack against your opponent's castled king. Here are the elements of this pattern: Your opponent castles to make their king safe They play h7-h6 (or h2-h3 ...
There is a very interesting situation that happens sometimes in chess. A player sets a trap and gets very excited when his opponent falls for it. Unfortunately, the euphoria is very short-lived since it turns out that there is a big hole in the tr...
Throughout all of chess history, so-called super tournaments have always had their own honorary place. That's why even today we still remember Hastings 1895, New York 1924, Montreal 1979, and many others. What's the main attraction of all these ...
I know, many of you, my dear readers, chuckled reading the title of this article. You must be thinking: "Are you really going to teach us how to play like a computer? Can you play like a computer?" The answer is quite obvious, no I cannot play lik...
GM Ray Robson recently won the 2022 Puzzle Battle World Championship for the third consecutive year. To achieve this incredible feat, he had to outperform players like none other than GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Shakhriyar Mamedya...
The 2022 Puzzle Battle World Championship is here. It's at times like these that we can catch a glimpse of what true puzzle-solving excellence looks like. It's not often that you can sit back, relax, and watch 50+ puzzles get solved in three minut...
PogChamps 4 presented by Coinbase is over and we already miss it. Who doesn't love to see some of the most entertaining content creators blundering their pieces, stalemating with minutes to spare on the clock, and commentators losing their minds? ...
It is not a secret that most inexperienced chess players love checks. I guess it makes them feel empowered. This is why GM Bobby Fischer famously said: "Patzer sees a check, gives a check." I am not going to discuss here the obvious point that jus...
The FIDE World Cup 2021 is like a breath of fresh air after the series of tournaments where we see the same players playing the same openings achieving mostly the same results. The match between GMs Michal Krasenkow and Praggnanandhaa R, in partic...
Competitive chess is a very demanding activity. It requires players to constantly keep the highest level of concentration, stay calm under the pressure and be creative throughout the whole fight. Unsurprisingly, each game has its own story. I have...
One of the most famous quotes of Kozma Prutkov states: "Throwing pebbles into the water, look at the ripples they form on the surface. Otherwise this activity will be an empty amusement." While it is obviously a humorous phrase, similar to Yogi Be...
"The Song Of A Stormy Petrel" is probably the most famous work of the Russian writer Maxim Gorky. It was required reading in the Soviet schools, so we had to memorize it and know it by heart. I still remember the line: "So he dashes, like a demon,...
For most of true chess aficionados, Mikhail Tal is not just a legendary world champion but a true symbol of attacking in chess. He got his name "The Magician" for his inimitable ability to start a king hunt in almost any position. How did ...
The last two days of PogChamps 3 presented by GRIP6 were nothing short of amazing. High-level games, impressive tactics, and more than $150,000 raised for charity marked the end of this record-breaking event. Neeko vs. Tubbo Neeko vs. Michell...
Days 11 and 12 of PogChamps 3 presented by GRIP6 showed us once more how fast players can improve if they put in the work. Every player who took their time to study chess before or even throughout the event showed tremendous growth. Ludwig vs....
Tactics continue to decide the fate of the participants of PogChamps 3 presented by GRIP6. Those who failed to spot tactical shots were sent home by their opponents. Rainn Wilson vs. MoistCr1tikal Ludwig vs. Logic Neeko vs. Rubius Pokimane ...
The first day of matches in the champions bracket of PogChamps 3 presented by GRIP6 was an exciting one, with two of the strongest players in the tournament advancing to the semifinals. xQc vs. Sardoche Benjyfishy vs. Daniel Negreanu xQc...
Tactics made all the difference on the eighth day of PogChamps 3 presented by GRIP6. Commentator WFM Alexandra Botez pointed out that Tubbo had been grinding in puzzles, and it showed. MoistCr1tikal's coach GM Daniel Naroditsky said that Char...
The seventh day of PogChamps 3 presented by GRIP6 brought us four different matches. Pokimane, xQc, and Logic impressed with their improvement, surprising the audience once more. Pokimane vs. Rubius Daniel Negreanu vs. xQc Rainn Wilson vs. L...
On the sixth day of PogChamps 3 presented by GRIP6, we saw the performance of a few of the best players in the tournament. Once more, the most tactically skilled players came out on top. Notably, the battle between Benjyfishy and Sardoche is pro...