Usually an article discusses a particular player, or tactic, or some positional concept. When I teach tactical motifs, you know that all the puzzles are going to be about tactics. And if I am discussing a particular idea concerning a pawn structur...
In his 1968 book called "The Poor Knight" ("Рыцарь бедный"). Vasily Panov described 23 year old Mikhail Tschigorin walking down Nevsky Prospect, a busy thoroughfare in St. Petersburg, with his friend Fedor discussing chess, a game Mikhail f...
"When I asked Fischer why he had not played a certain move in our game, he replied: 'Well, you laughed when I wrote it down.'" -Mikhail Tal (1936-1992) Neither Mikhail Tal's life, nor his personality, nor his playing style, nor his ailments can ...
Professor: Hello, class. Why so pale and wan? Class: (No response.) Professor: Well, allow me to enliven your day by introducing two new classmates, Thomas and Rachel. Everyone smiled guardedly. Professor: I believe Zephyr and ...
There's no denying that, whatever your strength in chess, in some games you are going to have to cling to some floating debris just to stay over water. Anyone can fall into some opening preparation or make a blunder. Additionally, you have those g...
A VERY BASIC BENKO This continues the Classic Pawn Structure series as seen in Classic Pawn Structure, Part 1a and Part 1b. In general, chess professionals know the ins and outs of every structure, non-titled experienced/strong pl...
In last week's article we discussed the chess heritage of GM Dragoljub Velimirovic. You probably noticed that all the games used for the article shared the same opening - the Sicilian Defense. This is, of course, not a coincidence s...
Chess is a reflection of life. Our modern lives go faster and so too do the time controls we play today. When I tell kids that I played the so-called Capablanca's time control (two hours and 30 minutes for the first 40 moves) and then the game wou...
© 2014, José Diaz Links Interview with José Diaz José Diaz Official Website
Last week we revealed our plans to organize an online chess camp and included a tentative schedule. Today, we are officially announcing Chess.com University's first online chess camp! Note: There may be a few discrepancies regarding the schedule...
1."If we partition your chess strength (or improvement) into two broad classes, what portion is knowledge (opening moves, endgame positions, tactical positions, principles) vs. abilities/skills (analysis, evaluation, time management, criticality a...
Throughout my chess career, I have resigned in several different ways. During my very first games with my brother, I - well, I resigned by knocking the pieces over in disgust. In my first tournaments, I flicked the king over, old style. Then, for ...
Professor: What do you say, class? Class: (Mumbled voices.) Professor: It’s great that I have a captivated audience. Hale: Captivated or captive? Professor: Now that I’ve captured your attention, let’s talk a...
Wrapping up my series about endgames from the Sicilian, we will be discussing the relevance of the major open lines in that structure: the c- and d-files. In the basic Open Sicilian structure, White generally has primacy on the d-file and Black ...
In my past article "Three Key Ways to Improve at Chess (part 1)" I listed the three key methods of improvement that all chess players striving to get better should focus on: Take in as much information about chess as possible (Learning) Have a pl...
Mikhail Tal was one of the first world class players I saw in real life: as a kid, during my first visit to the Hoogovens chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, I almost ran into him when I entered the playing hall. Even this extremely brief en...
Usually an article discusses a particular player, or tactic, or some positional concept. When I teach tactical motifs, you know that all the puzzles are going to be about tactics. If I am discussing a particular idea concerning a pawn structure, y...
The Sokolsky Opening 1. b4 (also known as the Polish opening, Polish Attack, Orangutan) relates to the closed openings and is considered an irregular opening. It ranks ninth in popularity and is seldom played in top-level games and official t...
Positional Attacks The third installment of the best-selling series of attack books - Formation Attacks, Formation Attack Strategies, and now, Positional Attacks is another 500 page book, full of great attack information with 533 fabulous attack ...
Attacking 101: Volume #001 The goal of the books in this series (Attacking 101: Volume #nnn) is to provide detailed analysis of my own attack games played against lower rated players. The players are all rated in the range of 1000 to 1800 - the t...
Formation Attack Strategies The much awaited sequel to the best selling book, “Formation Attacks”, has arrived. “Formation Attack Strategies” is another 500 page book, full of great attack information with 579 fabulous attack games from all openi...
Formation Attacks The Ultimate Chess Attack Book has finally arrived! As a Chess Master that has spent many years playing aggressive and attacking chess, I was quite dismayed during a past visit to my local bookstor...
"Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before," quipped American actress Mae West in 1936. So it is with defending bad positions in chess. One cannot deny that in the majority of cases, the best way to test your opponent's techniq...
Professor: Hey, class. How’s it going? Hale: Great! Lucian: OK. Ryan: Terrific! Zephyr: It could be better. Professor: Wow, such ups and downs. Listening to you is like being in an elevator. Lucian: It beats g...
