Back for more
© 2014, José Diaz Links Interview with José Diaz José Diaz Official Website
Schrödinger's Chess Puzzle
Warning - the article you are about to read might produce a variety of symptoms, including lightheadedness, altered vision, eye or face twitching, jerking or shaking of arms or legs, disorientation, confusion, or momentary loss of awareness. ***...
Humans vs. Computers
Many peoples think, the computers are better than humans. Today I want to speak about that, because I think not! Think a little bit. We (the humans) made the engines, that was one thing, why humans are better.In the next game (I follow in video) t...
Pandolfini's Puzzler #35 - The Good Knight
Professor: Good day, class. Would you rather be a knight? Or would you rather be a bishop? Zephyr: That’s quite a “hello,” Professor. Lucian: I’m fine. How are you? Professor: I’m doing OK. Forgive me f...
Grandmasters also can make mistakes!
Some peoples think, grandmasters can't make mistakes. Today I want to say a very important rule: Grandmasters also can make mistakes! Not only 2200-2300 players miss for example a rook. This thing I want to tell in some diagrams. After this unbe...
Amazing tournaments - Part I - 1938 Avro - Nederland
In this article I want to show some intresting things from the amazing Avro tournament. The tournament was played in 1938 with 8 best players from the 1938 FIDE list! You can see the player's names: Paul Keres Reuben Fine Salo Flohr Mikhail Bo...
First Saturday Budapest chess tournaments 5th-16th April Budapest
We will start our forthcoming GM-IM-ELO closed tournaments on 5th April. The GM-s who will play: IGM VARGA, Zoltan /HUN/, IGM CZEBE, Attila /HUN/, IGM SERES, Lajos /HUN/. We have some vacancies yet in all groups. Our site is: www.firstsaturday.hu
The Art of Setting Traps
Most tournament players scoff at the notion of Coffeehouse Chess. Even so, some of the most famous brilliancies in chess history were produced under dubious, non-tournament circumstances: The Immortal Game (Anderssen-Kieseritzky) was played at the...
The Art of the Two Bishops
Imagining that the pieces have stable values which are written in stone is an oversimplification of chess. One of the ways to become a better player is to develop a more subtle understanding of the relative values of pieces. Often a piece gains ...
How two Icelandic DJ's saved my life
For the second time in two years I decided to visit the Reykjavik Open tournament in Iceland – not to play chess, but to watch it, and enjoy the country’s hospitality and natural wonders. Last year, I didn’t have enough time to see any glaciers o...
Q&A with Coach Heisman Mar 21, 2014
"How can I tell if a chess book is too advanced for me?" Excellent question. Often you can't! Even books' suggested reading levels (eg by rating) are often misleading, partly because the publisher wants to sell books, not exclude readers who migh...
Pandolfini's Puzzler #34 - Around the Chessboard
Professor: Hey, class, welcome to our circle of chess friends. Zephyr: Welcome to you as well, Professor. Lucian: We’re happy to arc across your day. Professor: And I’m pleased to hear that I’m surrounded by such g...
Surprising results between titled players: lost half points
If someone knows surprising results of chess games I would be interested to read. Here are some of them from Finnish championship tournament that was played last year 10th-18th June. To just keep the article shorter I mostly just added Houdini 3 e...
Gain 100+ rating points quickly and start improving your chess
Having been a chess master since 1981 my goal is to give back to the chess community everything I possibly can. I wish to share all my knowledge and enjoyment of chess with the world. You will be able to take the knowledge my simple teaching offer...
Double Dutch at Death Match 22
You might think that two boys from the Netherlands, born on exactly the same day and both reaching the upper echelons of chess, would have met even earlier. It took them about a decade, and by the time they did, they weren't equals. "I think we ...
The Endgame Cunning of Emanuel Lasker, Part 2
In the first part of my series on Emanuel Lasker's endgame play, we saw how he began the St. Petersburg 1914 tournament rather poorly, nearly failing to qualify for the finals. Even in the finals he was still playing catch-up to José Capabl...
Riding the Winds of Fashion, Part 2
In Part One of Riding The Winds Of Fashion, I talked about the Hübner Variation of the Nimzo-Indian and how, at one time, it was one of the most fashionable openings in the world. In the main example (Bruce Leverett – Silman, National O...
The Art of Doing Nothing
I cannot tell you, my dear readers, how many times I've had this conversation with my younger students while we analyze their games: "What did you try to accomplish with your last move?" "Nothing!" "Then why did you play it?" "I don't know...
Punishing Unsound Openings
Unsurprisingly, one of my favorite movies of all time is Searching for Bobby Fischer (I know - the things you find out about me!). Hollywood-style dramatizations of chess games aside, the film is extremely well-made, featuring a thoughtful ex...
Surprise Me!
© 2014, José Diaz Links Interview with José Diaz José Diaz Official Website
Positional Combinations
I will begin by affirming that the title of this article is deliberately oxymoronic. According to David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld's The Oxford Companion to Chess (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), a combination is "a series of forci...
Pandolfini's Puzzler #33 - Knights to Remember
Professor: Class, how special it is to see you. Zephyr & Lucian: Hello, Professor. We do feel pretty special. Professor: Don’t let it go to your heads, but I’d like to start off with a question, if you don’t mind. Zephyr: I don’t mind...
A Chess Player's Best Friend, Part 2: Check Your Discovered Checks!
Last week we discussed one of the most powerful chess weapons: a discovered check. Today you can hone your tactical skills by solving our big test. These puzzles have many different tactical themes, but all of the combinations are based on discove...
The Endgame Cunning of Emanuel Lasker, Part 1
It has been said that the second World Champion, Emanuel Lasker, was unique among the top players of his time period in that he didn't create a chess school of thought. Others have said that he did create a school - the "psychological school." It ...
