ChessKids did you know that September 15 is the official Opposite Day? Well we're celebrating this weekend with ProfessorPando's puzzler! Check it out: ---- “Checkmate is fun, but it’s even more fun if you make the opponent mate himself. Examine t...
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...
By the fifth round of the World Cup in Tromsø, Norway, the field had been whittled down to eight players. Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik faced Anton Korobov of Ukraine, Gata Kamsky played Evgeny Tomashevsky, Dmitry Andreikin played Peter S...
"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme." - Mark Twain The following game was played just three weeks ago at the FIDE World Cup in Tromso, Norway: I hope you were a...
In my previous article (Having Fun With Blunders), I gave my personal definition of a blunder (some will choose to make use of it, others won’t, and the world will continue to turn). To make the article fun to read, I mixed a serious and fir...
Accepting a piece sacrifice can lead to complicated positions that require a sequence of accurate moves from the defending side, which sometimes is even challenging for the top players. We will look at two games from the recent FIDE World Cup that...
Today we will continue with the topic of blunders in modern, top level chess. Last week we saw a fireworks display of mistakes in the game Shimanov-Kamsky from the recent FIDE World Cup in Tromso. Today's examples are very mild compared to what we...
“Some situations seem so innocent,” Professor Pando observed. ---- “Yet even the simplest positions can hide a clever tactic.” ---- “Take a look at the following position, with White to move.” ---- ---- Question: How can White win a rook by...
What some people may not realize is that before Anderssen rose to fame by winning the first international tournament at London in 1851, before his Immortal and Evergreen games, before his stunning loss to Morphy and less stuning loss to Ste...
At this point we know who won the World Cup - former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik showed that he was of a higher class and won the tournament very professionally. But we will continue to look at the endgames played throughout the tournament, no...
Recently I was involved in a small discussion about blunders and was shocked that the term’s meaning wasn’t as rock solid as I had thought. Everyone is used to symbols like “?” (poor or bad move), “?!” (dubious), “!” (good or excellent move), “!?”...
It is a very common situation in chess when in the last round, one chess player is in a must-win situation and his opponent needs just a draw to achieve his goal. Sometimes it leads to hilarious incidents. The year is 1935 and it is the last gam...
Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint Amant (also written: Pierre Charles-Fournié de Saint-Amant) After the death of La Bourdonnais, the mantle of leading chess player of France fell upon the shoulders of Pierre Char...
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...
"How do you know which candidate move(s) to analyze first, especially in non-tactical situations?" This is the kind of question that you can write an entire book (or at least a big chapter) about, such as Soltis' How to Choose a Chess Move. Howe...
Today's article is the continuation of the topic of Blunders in Modern Play. Last week we went over the examples of opening blunders from the World Cup tournament. Today I would like to concentrate on one example that features the position from a ...
ChessKids: Have you ever heard your parents talk about clothing being "retro"? It means "in the past." Well today we have a "retrograde" problem - you have to think into the past instead of into the future! Professor Pandolfini put forward the fo...
This week I will continue with the third installment of my series on the endgames played in the World Cup, currently taking place in Tromsø, Norway. One of the biggest surprises of the third round was top seed Levon Aronian's elimination ...
Hello Chess.com Community!Today, we're happy to announce an open invitation from the Amateur Chess Organization (ACO) and Chess.com! Did you know that every chess player now has the opportunity to become a world champion? That's right! As we...
Positional Gains and Tactical Pains Many players feel that balance (doing your best to understand every phase of chess) is only for very strong players. This is hogwash. Of course a 1200 player isn’t going to understand any phase as well as a 200...
I frequently hear the same question from many club players: "The Smith-Morra Gambit is such an exciting weapon against the Sicilian Defense, why don't grandmasters play it? Is there a refutation?" The question is simple, but the answer is not. F...
Benjamin Franklin - 1706-1790 Born the ...
Today's article features a fun topic of opening blunders! It feels great to catch an opponent in an opening trap, but not so great when we end up being caught by some tricky line. There's a variety of opening blunders and most of them have occurre...
The fourth article from ProfessorPando has a big trick in it. Take your time and see if you can spot the trap - don't rush in to this one! ---- “Lucian,” Professor Pandolfini intoned, “please look at the next setup.” ---- “Let’s assume the fol...
