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...
In Part 2 of this series I pointed out that Lasker’s tactics are a bit different than tactics by Tal or Kasparov or Alekhine. In fact, when you take a long look at Lasker’s games, you realize that tactics is the fuel that drives all hi...
Stalemate is a vital part of many theoretical endgames. For example the whole defensive mechanism in such a basic position as king and pawn vs. king is based on a stalemate: Image: Thoughts from the Line Here is a bunch of imp...
In Part 1 of my series about Emanuel Lasker’s tactical prowess, I mentioned his various chess skills and how many aren’t aware of his outstanding tactical abilities. What I didn’t clearly point out was the general nature of his t...
Last week we saw violent outbreaks of stalematis in the games of Kasparov and Reshevsky. One of the most curious cases of this infectious disease happened in the games of another famous world class player, Mikhail Chigorin. Look at the position th...
Imagine a chess position where you have almost your whole army and your opponent has just a lonely king. The game is practically over and yet he just keeps playing. Even if you blunder some of your pieces and pawns, there is still no chance for hi...
