In late summer of 2008 I played a small local tournament which had no monetary prizes. The prizes were donated, and the top one was a chess set which I figured was worth maybe two hundred dollars. I decided to play – it was not unlike many o...
IMPORTANT: [At the end of the puzzles, you should click MOVE LIST so you can see my instructive notes and variations. If you are having trouble solving a problem, just click SOLUTION, and then MOVE LIST. Even if you solve everything, DO click MOVE...
The European Chess Club Cup is usually held in one of the European countries. This year was an exception – it took place in the Middle East, between Asia and Africa. The leading clubs travelled to Eilat, Israel, to determine the best of the ...
In the first three parts of this article we analyzed many positions where a Rook was fighting two minor pieces. You could see how difficult it is sometimes to correctly evaluate the situation even if the material balance is about even. Today you'l...
As I checked out the news items that chess.com offers, one game from the Spice Cup caught my attention. The opening featured a Maroczy-bind type of structure, which I play and therefore was interesting to me but what really was interesting was the...
The game begins, and within a few moves your opponent pitches a pawn. It’s not considered the most correct gambit, and might even fall into the category of “cheesy”. But by taking the pawn, you are playing “his” game....
Four years ago my wife Shelly and I were having our anniversary dinner at a restaurant in downtown Philadelphia. The meal was rather sumptuous, so afterwards we decided to take a walk. After we strolled a while Shelly made an unexpected suggestion...
IMPORTANT: [At the end of the puzzles, you should click MOVE LIST so you can see my instructive notes and variations. If you are having trouble solving a problem, just click SOLUTION, and then MOVE LIST. Even if you solve everything, DO click MOVE...
I bet that you are no longer surprised to learn that the Bulgarian team championship took place on the Black sea again. The differences are the names of the resorts that hosted the event and the dates. After two years in the north part (Albena) th...
In the first two installments of this article we mostly discussed positions where a Rook was fighting against two minor pieces in an opening or a middle game. Today we will talk about endgames. The good thing is, unlike openings and middle g...
There´s a lot to be said about this week´s target for a Player Profile interview.... What you probably don´t know is that he lives in a village with less than 200 people, he is a husband and a dedicated father of three ...
One of the main questions on tonight's show involved "How much does X help my chess?" where X was Chess960, Correspondence Chess, or something else. My first reaction is that everything that is "chess work" helps your chess, but the real question...
"Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."- Mark Twain I feel like this saying fits perfectly as the theme of many chess games. How many chess players are romantics at heart and go after a dr...
SEE FOR YOURSELF HOW AN SOS CAN SHOCK AND CONFUSE! Every month, the editor of the SOS Secrets of Opening Surprises book series, IM Jeroen Bosch, annotates a game which was recently played with an SOS-variation. SOS Game of the Month: October ...
Breaking down a passive fortification can be difficult, even when you have a large positional advantage. If you have seen my article “A Fatal Compulsion”, you know that one of the methods is to use Zugzwang – your opponent’...
IMPORTANT: [At the end of the puzzles, you should click MOVE LIST so you can see my instructive notes and variations. If you are having trouble solving a problem, just click SOLUTION, and then MOVE LIST. Even if you solve everything, DO click MOVE...
Analyzing your games is one of the main ways of improving in chess. During this procedure you will be able to pinpoint your typical mistakes, as well as weaknesses & strengths. Your games are your business card in the world of chess. Each per...
It is common knowledge that in openings, as a rule, it is not a good idea to give up two minor pieces for a Rook and a pawn. The explanation is very simple: there are not many open files for your 'extra' Rook to work on and therefore such a sacrif...
Today's endgame is from Sao Paulo and features a fight between Caruana and Carlsen. Carlsen playing black captured the initiative in the late middlegame and tried many resources to capitalize on it. In the end with two consecutive mistakes he let ...
There is a funny thing about chess: to succeed, you only need to be good at it. Up to a point, Fate can turn its back on you, but you can override it by simply playing really well. The upshot is that in the chess world, there are some great player...
IMPORTANT: [At the end of the puzzles, you should click MOVE LIST so you can see my instructive notes and variations. If you are having trouble solving a problem, just click SOLUTION, and then MOVE LIST. Even if you solve everything, DO click MOVE...
In Part II I described a rather tough period for our team: we made three draws. This allowed China to take the lead by one match point. What could we hope for? Win all our matches, while China loses at least a point? This scenario was not very lik...
I cannot even tell you how many times I had to discuss the subject of ' A Rook vs. Two Minor Pieces' with my students. Usually it starts in a position like this: And I face the same problem again: how do I explain that the trade of a ...
Even though today´s featured interview subject hasn´t played a serious game of chess in over a decade, he is an obvious choice for a presentation here on Chess.com. He is an International Master of chess and he has won the U...
