Chess.com Player Profiles: GM LittlePeasant
Name: Alejandro Ramirez Title: GM Date of birth: 21 June 1988 Fide rating: ...
Q&A with Coach Heisman Aug 17, 2012
This week's show, as always, featured an eclectic set of questions on all topics. One viewer asked what was the most beautiful game in literature and I responded "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. There's many games I find quite beautiful, bu...
Extra Pawn vs. Activity
Today we will look at two endgames from the recent and very strong Washington International chess tournament that took place in Maryland. The two endgames that I chose are similar. Both feature a position where one side has an extra pawn but the o...
Forcing Moves, Part 1
An important principle in chess is the concept of the “forcing move”. A forcing move is one which requires the opponent to reply in a certain way, or which greatly limits the ways in which he can respond. Essentially, a forcing move is either a ch...
Blunder Gland Redux: First Baby Steps, and Then The World
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...
Past and Present
I am frequently asked (mostly by young chess players) if the best players from the past could successfully compete against today's chess elite. I always had an opinion that the human natural abilities are approximately the same today as they were ...
From Middlegame to Endgame
Today we will look at my endgame against GM Joel Benjamin from the recent Washington International chess tournament. The endgame was worse for me and usually such a small advantage is enough for a GM of Joel's class to win. However, this time I de...
Attack and Defense in the IQP
“The cavalcade, the jamboree of life I thought was meant for me. I never dreamed that it would be replaced by this eternity of isolation.” – The Mighty Boosh &nbs...
Material Imbalances, Opening Ideas, and Hanging Stuff
MASTERING MATERIAL IMBALANCES HiddenDeath said: “After reading your HOW TO REASSESS YOUR CHESS 4th Edition and going over the examples where a player sacrificed his queen for two pieces, a pawn, and some positive imbalances, I decided to give thi...
Russia vs. China Match: Rapid Chess
If you have read Part I of the article, you already know that China prevailed in the classical games over Russia: 26-24. Now even more points were at stake: 100 instead of 50; contested in rapid chess. This offered us good chances to overcome our ...
Q&A with Coach Heisman Aug 3, 2012
Hi! Glad to be able to communicate with the chess.com members! Tonight was our first show, and after each I will be providing a quick summary, including the best question or two and the most pertinent answers. Since this our first summary, it mig...
Positional Rxe6 Sacrifice - Part Two
Last week we discussed the basic ideas of the Rxe6 (or Rxe3 for Black) positional exchange sacrifice. Today let me present the hit parade of games where this effective and useful chess tool was utilized. 7th Place - GM Vlastimil Hort and his tot...
In the Tal Grass
This game is yet another fantastic effort by the great Mikhail Tal. On his 11th move, he sacrifices a knight, apparently for no reason. However, after whipping up an attack on Szukzszta's king out of nowhere, Tal throws in a couple of neat sacrifi...
SOS - Secrets of Opening Surprises - August 2012
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...
Beware of Endgame Checkmates!
The topic of today's article is checkmating ideas in endgames. The inspiration for the article was a recent game played in the Biel tournament, Nakamura vs. Bologan. This article features that game at the very end, first introducing relevant examp...
The Knight's Moves
Of all the pieces, one has to admit that the knight most illustrates the romantic aspect of chess. Symbol of an ancient institution in a society that no longer exists, and moving in a “crooked” non-linear way, unlike all the other piec...
The Fried Liver's Identical Twin
After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 we get the exciting Two Knights Defense. In that case, white’s most combative move is 4.Ng5 when 4…d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.Nxf7!? is the Fried Liver Attack (an amateur favorite… the name alone makes y...
Russia vs. China Match: Clash of the Titans
From July 1-9 St. Petersburg, the cultural capital of Russia, hosted the 8th unofficial match between Russia and China. The format of the event has usually been different each year. This time the participants had to play 5 classical games and 10 r...
The Positional Rxe6 Sacrifice
Today we are going to talk about a relatively common positional exchange sacrifice - Rxe6 (or Rxe3 for Black). As a rule, a player achieves two main goals with such a sacrifice: 1) eliminates the opponent's Bishop and therefore completely dominate...
Mission: Checkmate! the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit
For the last few months I've been working on a new book on the Blackmar Diemer Gambit. This gambit is sort of a Rodney Dangerfield of chess openings, it just doesn't get any respect. Statistically, it performs quite well especially if you consult ...
The Business of Chess
Ignatz Kolisch was, according to historical calculations from Chessmetrics, the number one chess player in the world from 1867-1868. Although he did not frequently play in tournaments, he was known for his aggressive style, which often produced so...
Sokolov - Master of Endgame, Part 2
Last week we looked at a B+N vs. 2Ns endgame where there are fixed and isolated d-pawns present on the board. The endgame was played between the World Open winner Sokolov and American GM Lenderman. For the last 20 moves Sokolov has been pressing w...
A Skirmish in the Center
From our earliest beginnings in chess we learn that the center is the most important part of the board to try to control. To some extent this is self-evident – probably many people don’t even need to read or be taught this, but just understand it ...
Timing, Your Move's Purpose, and a Hard Move to Find
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 M...
