Most chess players face this problem pretty frequently: what should I do against a much stronger opponent? And here when we say "a much stronger opponent" , we talk about somebody who is at least 300-400 rating points higher. Let's start from maj...
We continue our analysis of typical attacking ideas in the King's Indian Attack (KIA). The trade of the 'd' pawns. Many inexperienced chessplayers facing the KIA for the first time try to open the center by playing d5xe4. Generally it is a good...
In last week's article (hocus-pocus) we discussed the connection between the King's Indian Defense (KID) and the King's Indian Attack (KIA). Today we'll analyze some typical attacking ideas of the KIA. The Nf3-g5 maneuver. This is the most aggre...
Exactly 20 years ago, in 1991, I was playing the Soviet Championship Under-26 years old. This was an invitational tournament for the top Soviet players and not surprisingly all participants of that tournament later became Grandmasters. One of the ...
Most chess players prefer to play White and the statistics clearly favors the side who opens the game first. One of the amazing features of Korchnoi's chess is the number of games he won with Black (unfortunately I know it from my own experience, ...
One of the best movies ever produced in my opinion is "Scent of a Woman". If you've seen the movie, then I don't need to explain why. In the very unlikely situation that you never watched the movie, stop right here and run, don't walk, to rent thi...
Last month the world chess community celebrated the 80th Birthday of the legendary Grandmaster Victor Lvovich Korchnoi. There are hundreds of books and thousands of articles devoted to this extraordinary person, so it is very difficult to write an...
The biggest part of Botvinnik's chess legacy is his contribution to opening theory. I don't think there is another chess player who could compete with Botvinnik in this department. The Patriarch managed to completely change whole openings! The be...
Amongst a variety of strategical and tactical ideas developed by Botvinnik, the one that really stands out is the position with an isolated Queen pawn on d4. According to Kasparov, this kind of position was a true Botvinnik favorite, where he dis...
Today we'll discuss a powerful opening/middlegame set up called the Maroczy Bind. The following diagram shows a typical Maroczy Bind pawn chain. To tell you the truth, I don't know where this name came from since I was not able to l...
Can you spot the promising sacrifices? Some are easy but the hard part was achieving the positions. ...
Today is my birthday, but there is nothing to celebrate. It was my worst year ever, spent mostly in hospital dealing with leg and arm amputations and other medical problems. I'm stuck in a dump of a nursing facility with nothing to do but try to w...
The sixth World Champion Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik was born on August 17, 1911, so this year the World Community will celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth and FIDE has announced that 2011 will be the "Year of Botvinnik." He was the fo...
We all know popular myths that can easily be refuted just by checking the facts. Ones like "A penny dropped from the Empire State Building will kill a person" or "Thomas Edison invented the light bulb." I am sure you know many popular but false st...
Vitali Golod is one of those strong GMs who is not very well known outside of the professional circuit. And yet, he managed to win national championships in such traditionally strong chess countries as Ukraine and Israel (1991 and 2010 respectivel...
In previous articles we discussed cases where the Kings helped your attack by just vacating a square for a Rook or moving out of a pin in order to push a pawn. So, mostly their role in the attack was very limited. But what about the famous Steinit...
In the first part of this article (http://www.chess.com/article/view/a-little-move-with-deadly-consequences) we analyzed games where one side moved his King to prepare pushing the 'g' pawn to launch a Kingside attack. Today we'll discuss other b...
While researching material for the article on the best games of GM Artur Yusupov (mona-lisa-of-gm-artur-jussupow ), I found the next little known gem. The position in the following diagram is typical for the King's Indian pawn structure. Usuall...
Most people hate to memorize the countless opening variations published in chess books and magazines, and yet, this is unfortunately the most common way amongst chess players to master openings. Leaving aside the fact that it is a very boring thin...
Every chess player hopes to play his immortal game some day. Borrowing lyrics from the hit song of Kelly Clarkson "people wait a lifetime for a moment like this." You never know when it will happen, but if you look at the best games played in che...
While doing research for last week's article about GM Klaus Bischoff's best game, I found the next cute attack where GM Bischoff was on the receiving end of a combo. (Just like in most of my articles I give you a chance to test your attacking ski...
Klaus Bischoff is another name that is virtually unknown for most chess amateurs. Indeed, he was never close to the chess elite and his best result was probably third place in the 1980 World Junior Championship behind Kasparov and Short. Yet he is...
According to some Russian chess books, the famous writer Leo Tolstoy played around 600 recorded games. I was able to locate only a half dozen of them. Based on them I can conclude that the famous Russian writer had a very sharp attacking style. ...
First of all, let me take this opportunity and wish to all my readers a Happy and Prosperous New Year! The goal of my highly unscientific research is to establish who was the best chess player amongst celebrities. And I am talking about celebriti...
