Stalemate is a vital part of many theoretical endgames. For example the whole defensive mechanism in such a basic position as king and pawn vs. king is based on a stalemate: Image: Thoughts from the Line Here is a bunch of imp...
John Watson and I are finishing our new book Taming Wild Chess Openings, and I will be posting some of our analysis, starting with this offbeat way of handling the Russian Game with 4.Nd3!? This is not a scary line but it can catch Black by surpri...
Today we will continue with the topic of converting an advantage according to Vladimir Kramnik. Over the past few weeks we have covered different methods that Kramnik uses to bring home points from better positions. Today's article does not have a...
There is a well-known advice that when you have less space you should trade pieces. In many positions this is true, but quite often trades simply remove your source of counterplay and allow the opponent to consolidate his space advantage. In queen...
No time to study opening theory? Shock your opponent with an SOS! With an SOS you deviate early (usually before move 6!) from regular lines in mainstream openings. So you will reach positions you have actually studied without having memorized tons...
In Part 1 of my series about Emanuel Lasker’s tactical prowess, I mentioned his various chess skills and how many aren’t aware of his outstanding tactical abilities. What I didn’t clearly point out was the general nature of his t...
Last week we saw violent outbreaks of stalematis in the games of Kasparov and Reshevsky. One of the most curious cases of this infectious disease happened in the games of another famous world class player, Mikhail Chigorin. Look at the position th...
My Top Tips for Chess Improvement included hanging out with strong players and reviewing your games with them, ala The Improvement Feedback Loop, consistently trying your best on every move (since it only takes one bad move to lose a game), and us...
Today we will continue with the topic started a few articles ago on how Vladimir Kramnik converts an advantage. No doubt Kramnik is one of the best technical players out there, and therefore it is of interest to observe what kind of methods he use...
One of the things I mentioned when I introduced my new column last week was the paradox of the column itself. It deals specifically with positions without the queen, but is not necessarily about endgames. There tends to be differing methods of pla...
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Imagine a chess position where you have almost your whole army and your opponent has just a lonely king. The game is practically over and yet he just keeps playing. Even if you blunder some of your pieces and pawns, there is still no chance for hi...
This article continues the series on Kramnik's conversion of advantage. Last week we talked about a method where Kramnik first maximally improves his pieces and only then proceeds to more direct ways of converting the advantage. This article featu...
In general, when one asks what any World Champion’s strengths were/are, it’s fairly easy to give a somewhat educated answer. Steinitz: the first master of positional chess. Alekhine: dynamic, combinative genius. Capablanca: endgame mas...
I am starting a new column now, as I promised before. The subject of the column will be positions in which the queens have been traded. I don't say "endgames", because I don't think all positions without queens can be called as such - there are "q...
When you first learn how to play chess, you pick up a few opening setups that suit your taste, you absorb classic bits of advice like “always capture towards the center”, “center pawns are more valuable than pawns on the wings”, “knights are best ...
Which modern super-GM would have the most interesting match vs Paul Morphy in his prime? Probably won't happen but, if it did, someone who would try to fight with the Morph. Kramnik, with his positional style and transpositonal modern openings, wo...
Last week we started the series of articles 'Convert an Advantage According to Kramnik' with an introduction. Today we will continue with the topic and explore some of Kramnik's games where he used Method 1: Maximally improve pieces, and then go f...
We have come to the last part of my series on the positional exchange sacrifice (see also part 1 and part 2). By no means have we covered all possible reasons to sacrifice the exchange - were I to try to do that, the series would go on for many ar...
ACO World Amateur Chess Championship Crete 2013 The ACO World Amateur Chess Championship took place on Crete from 11-20 May. 168 players with ages between 7 to 94 fought for the title of ACO World Champion in the 4-star all-Inclusive hotel Aquis ...
No time to study opening theory? Shock your opponent with an SOS! With an SOS you deviate early (usually before move 6!) from regular lines in mainstream openings. So you will reach positions you have actually studied without having memorized tons...
In part one of this series I discussed how a good chess teacher can turn a bunch of opening moves into something that makes sense. This tightening of one’s opening repertoire pays enormous dividends as one becomes more and more familiar with...
In the last two articles we analyzed brilliant attacking games of Rashid Nezhmetdinov. There the Great Master of Attack showed a number of useful attacking techniques that you can use in your own games. But one of the readers expressed the followi...
Grandmaster Melikset Khachiyan is a genuinely great conversation partner and a tough chess player, something former world champion Boris Spassky got to experience over a bottle of whisky in Teherean in 1992. Born in Aserbadsjan, Khachiyan left for...
