Any chess player who is familiar with the enormous heritage of the great Nimzowitsch should know his "Immortal Zugzwang Game." The last move of the game is a treat for a real chess connoisseur: In his book, Nimzowitsch expressed h...
There are chess games that have their own names. Everyone knows the 'Evergreen Game', the 'Immortal Game', the 'Opera Game', etc. We enjoy the genius and tactical skills of the winners and their names are engraved in the Golden Book of Chess. But ...
As you might remember, in the "Personal Mona Lisa" series we analyze the best games played by strong chess players who as a rule are not that well known. Of course most of you probably heard about GM Isaac Kashdan thanks to his numerous books and ...
We have just entered 2014 which is the year of the Wooden Horse. It should be a lucky year for people who take care of their wooden horses on a daily basis. Of course I am talking about chess players. For the majority of people the Wooden Hor...
Last week's column provoked a lot of comments. Most of you enjoyed the humorous puzzles, but some readers had different opinions. Some of them were quite interesting. Like one of the readers wrote: "Seems a bit silly to invent your world with its ...
Hi all! In my first part I followed combination from Spassky. Now I follow combinations from another World Champion, from Mikhail Tal! He is a great tactic player. Have fun! After this nice combination, see a great attack play and win, in 17 m...
My last article didn’t have any chess puzzles, which I know Chess.com readers enjoy. To make up for that, we’ll have a simple article this week composed entirely of puzzles. And, as I did in Part 2 of this series, all examples will be ...
Most chess players discover this pattern thanks to the next notorious game (I give it as a puzzle, so you can try your tactical skills!) There is a strong evidence that the game is a fake and was never actually played but it is irrelevant fo...
The so-called Lasker variation of the Scandinavian Defense (a.k.a. Center Counter) arises after this sequence of moves: I was not able to find one single game where the second world champion played the variation named after him. My guess is...
The pattern that we are going to discuss today is extremely common in the Sicilian Defense (the Dragon variation in particular). Therefore, if you play this opening for either color, you might want to memorize this useful tactical pattern. The r...
Once again, I would like to thank the readers for their support, interaction and kind comments in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. In this final segment of Great Singapore Swindles, I would like to introduce you to a good friend, International M...
Hi! Firstly, thanks for the positive comments on Part 1 of this series. I do hope to continue to have your support. Before I continue showing some more swindles concorted in this part of Asia, I would like to make a distinction between the 'sw...
The pattern of the Crafty Queen requires Qh3, Ne5 and a bishop on the diagonal b1-h7 (usually Bd3) for White, and the black king should be castled to the kingside. Superficially it looks like the white queen is only looking at a good opportunity t...
Greetings from Singapore! Now, the island I come from isn't exactly well known for chess (prowess) but very often, when FIDE-rated expatriates show up (usually for post-grad studies) in our local tourneys for the first time, they tend to be stu...
The combination we are going to discuss today happens mostly in openings. The key features of the pattern are: The opponent's king is surrounded by his own pieces that block all the escape squares except two. Your bishop covers two remaining ...
I've noticed that many inexperienced players believe that becoming a good tactician is primarily a matter of obtaining a large mental "database" of familiar tactical patterns, somewhat as they think becoming a good opening player means memorizing ...
What in the world is the Siberian Trap you might ask. Is it what Russians use in taiga to hunt the Siberian tiger? One of the World Heritage Sites, the Putorana Plateau, is composed of Siberian Traps | Image Wikipedia Well, if you ever tr...
Last week we discussed the game where Russian Super Grandmaster Evgeny Tomashevsky missed a checkmate in one. Of course that was a special situation where a draw was enough for him to win the match and qualify for the next round, but in general, h...
The positioning of the counters on the pitch affects the result and is essential for managing to win the match. The player\coach must use all his or her strategic capacity and tactical knowledge to put out a well-balanced line-up. The player expre...
Grandmaster Mark Paragua from the Philippines is not a household name. But he is a very strong and solid GM who can be a dangerous opponent for anyone. The next remarkable game played by Mark both fascinates and puzzles me. Let's see what happened...
Since tactics are the most entertaining and important part of chess, it comes as no surprise that there have been many books written about them. This site—which amounts to another book, and not a short one—thus requires a few words of justificatio...
During the past several weeks we had a big discussion about stalemate. I hope from now on you won't allow your opponent to miraculously escape when you are winning and also won't miss your last chance to save the game when you are losing. Tod...
In this series, and especially in this particular article, I’m trying to instill a love of chess history with Chess.com members. For those who simply don’t like to read, or those who hate chess history, just go right to the puzzles. Ho...
Last week we discussed a very important role of a stalemate in many endgames. Believe me or not, but a stalemate can be very useful in openings too. Say, you want a draw and your opponent doesn't mind too, but the pesky Sofia rule doesn't allow yo...
