The French Defense has a reputation of being a very solid, but not a very exciting opening from Black's point of view. Says Wikipedia: "The French has a reputation for solidity and resilience, though it can result in a somewhat cramped game for B...
Capablanca possessed terrific tactical powers. In this game, he gives a brilliant display of them. After sacrificing a queenside pawn, he proceeds to hunt down the enemy queen and capture it.After that, he has a material and positional advantage. ...
The Pirc Defense is a really strange opening. It looks almost like the Sicilian Dragon, except White has a strong center and Black has no open 'c' file for counterplay! Yet, it is a sound opening played by many great chess players. Still, seeing s...
The Alekhine Defense has always been the opening that has puzzled me the most. Since I was a child, I was taught that the goals of the opening were to occupy and control the center while bringing my pieces out as quickly as possible, and while fa...
The Scandinavian Defense (also known as the Center Counter in the USA) has one unique advantage compared to any other sharp line we've analyzed so far. Let's say you want to play the Latvian gambit (1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 f5). If your opponent plays th...
Long gone are the days when the words "Marshall Attack" would make the chess fans' hearts beat faster. These days it is a weapon of choice for many 2700+ GMs looking to make a quick draw. Using their computers, they have analyzed the Marshall At...
The Ruy Lopez is one of the most popular positional openings. In fact, Capablanca recommended to play the Ruy Lopez in order to improve your positional play. So, what should a tactical player do in order to avoid the notorious " Spanish Torture"?...
Last week we discussed the old main line of the Four Knights Game, the one where Black simply plays symmetrical moves hoping just to equalize. Modern treatments are getting more aggressive and sharp,which is why the Rubinstein Variation is t...
Vasily Panov (Nov. 1, 1906-Jan. 3, 1973) is known today for the Panov Attack in the Caro-Kann Defense. He won the Moscow Championship in 1929 and played in the USSR Championship five times. Unfortunately, not all of his games are found in database...
The Evans gambit is a true chess link between the romantic past and the computerized present. This sharp opening was played by the biggest stars chess ever produced: Morphy, Fischer, and Kasparov. This fact alone should tell you that the Evans G...
I know, your first reaction to the title of today's column could be : "What?? Four Knights Game for a tactical player??" And I can understand your scepticism. Even Wikipedia says : "The Four Knights usually leads to quiet positional play", but th...
OK, I have to admit that I totally made up the name of this opening. If after the moves 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Black doesn't want to play the Italian Game (3...Bc5), the Two Knights Defense (3...Nf6) or the Hungarian (3...Be7) and instead pla...
The Italian Game is one of the oldest opening in chess. And it's sharpest line known as 'Greco Attack" is almost 400 years old. You might think that 400 years is enough for everyone to learn the main traps of this sharp opening and yet this dange...
Despite its very respectable age, the Scotch Game is very popular these days. Super GMs like it as a convenient way to avoid the Marshall Counter-Attack in the Ruy Lopez and amateurs like it for its relatively simple strategic pattern. Unfortunate...
The subject of today's discussion is the Göring Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4. c3!?). Just like practically any gambit, this opening is a very dangerous weapon and since it is not particularly popular these days, most of your opponents wi...
The Petroff defense is loved by super GMs and hated by the average chess players! Why so? Here is what the Wikipedia says about this opening: "The Petrov has a reputation of being dull and uninspired." Indeed, this is a weapon of choice for many ...
The Ponziani Opening is one of the oldest openings in chess (it was mentioned for the first time in 1497!). Yet it was never really popular. Top chess players avoid it because Black has many reliable ways to equalize. For the club players the open...
Before we start the discussion about the Latvian Gambit (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 f5), I have a confession to make. I never really trusted in this opening. It is one thing to play a risky King's Gambit and it is a totally different thing to p...
It is difficult to imagine a chess player who never fell into a well-known trap in the so-called Fried Liver Attack in the Two Knights Defense. It happened to me in my very first tournament. I played all the logical moves (1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc...
Last week when we discussed the Urusov Gambit, we learned that the safest option for Black was to transpose the game to a very old and reliable line of the Two Knights Defense. What an attacking player should do in this case? Well, the position a...
Today we will examine the favorite opening of most beginners- 1.e4 e5 2. Bc4 which is the Bishop's Opening. Of course, most beginners play 2.Bc4 with the sole purpose of playing 3. Qh5 and then 4. Qxf7 checkmate. Pretty quickly we all learn ...
Joseph Henry Blackburne (1841–1924), nicknamed "Black Death," started playing chess as an adult but reached master level in mere months. He learned how to play draughts as a child; however it was not until he heard about Paul Morphy's exploits aro...
When we analysed the King's Gambit a couple of weeks ago, you could notice that even though this opening is a dream for a chess player looking for tactical complications starting right from the beginning of the game, there is still a major drawbac...
Today we are going to talk about the Danish Gambit. The main concept of the opening is very simple. After the initial moves 1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. c3 dxc3 4 Bc4 cxb2 5. Bb2 White is down two pawns but he is ahead in development and his Bishops are...
