Today I am going to talk about the h2-h3 (h7-h6 for Black) move in an opening. Let me tell you right away that in the majority of the cases when my students (mostly kids) play this move, it means only one thing: they find themselves in an unfamil...
For the past few weeks we were busy exploring opposite-colored bishop endgames with other material present on the board. Today I will deviate from the topic by showing you my recent endgame experience from a tournament in Las Vegas. I cannot call ...
Everyone has heard the saying “an attack on the wing should be met by a counter in the center”. Or, if you haven’t – now you have. But what does a central counterattack look like, and why is it so strong? Every attack uses up some kind of energy,...
checkmateibeatu (1200) vs. jetfighter13 (1130), friendly game, chess.com 2011 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f4 jetfighter13 said – “White has an impressive center built up, my goal is the same a...
From the battles of the early rounds to the middlegame of the tournament. Our team had to face two tough competitors – Georgia and China. Lately we have scored well against Georgia, but this time that wasn’t the case. The match was a really close...
In the first part of this article we started analysis of the classical position with an Isolated Queen Pawn where Black's e6-pawn is moved to c6. This kind of position happened in many games of the famous match La Bourdonnais - McDonnell. Tod...
This must be one of the craziest chess games ever played. This is not a typical Maroczy game, as he and Forgacs duke it out with one wild, unpredictable move after the other. Even the uncommon opening (ten straight pawn moves!?) is notable. Here...
Today we will look at rook and bishop endgames where the bishops are of opposite color and where one side has a passed pawn. We will explore attacking and defensive strategies by examining three examples. The complexity of the examples increases f...
Every once in a while, someone asks me the question “who is your favorite player?” That’s always a difficult question to answer, because I don’t really have a single favorite player. If I have to name one, though, I would probably say Alexander Al...
MB said: “I have a game for your consideration. Lately I have been “playing up” in chess tournaments, trying to raise my own rating or at least learn from the better competition. I often find myself with a small advantage, but one that I’ve paid f...
The World Team Chess Championship is one of the most prestigious team events, although women’s championships have a very short history. This year’s edition in Mardin, Turkey was only the third. The previous two tournaments ended in the same way: 1...
Even though the progress of modern chess theory is truly amazing, we can still learn a lot from the old classical games. In the "Classic games" series of articles we analyze the games which were played long time ago but still could benefit modern ...
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...
A rook and a bishop is a powerful combination. If their joined force hits a weak point the defending side might find it hard to defend, especially if the weak point is located around the king. A very typical pawn structure arising from many openin...
As you probably could have guessed, I write my articles some days in advance of when they are published. I noticed that this article would be my last in 2011, so I wanted to do a farewell article to 2011. At the moment I am visiting Alaska, where ...
xombie said, “I aim for a restraint formation to prevent black’s development and park on the light squares, following which some tactics emerge in the form of a pawn break and a knight sacrifice. Black’s pieces are too slow to pr...
If you missed it, the first half of this tournament report is here. And now for the decisive moment in the match-- The 5th round failed our expectations, and the Oldhands won again. Hort defeated Kulovana, who was fighting rather desperately in e...
Last week you had the chance to compare your chess skills with the famous American GM Frank Marshall. This time your task is harder as the new benchmark you are supposed to keep up with is the legendary Paul Morphy. In one of my previous art...
Today we will look at an opening-endgame transition resulting from the Queen's Gambit Accepted (QGA). We will see the analysis of three games, the first one being from my game a few years ago. In this opening it is usually white who chooses to go ...
The game I will show you today is – as you could guess from the title of the article – a comedy of errors. And the source of those errors is a surprising misjudgment of the “speed” of play (for more on this subject, check o...
CP said: “This game was played a few weeks ago, at a strong tournament in which I played up into the Open section. I was playing with the black pieces and lost the game after a five-hour struggle that went past 1 AM – to date the longe...
The Snowdrops vs Oldhands match has been taking place in the Czech resort Marianski Lazne for fourt years in a row. The name of the event is connected with a movie which was quite popular in that country. There are two teams of 4 players each: mal...
I want to share my frustrations with you, my dear readers. I find it extremely annoying that these days you cannot turn on TV, read a newspaper or browse the Internet without being attacked by the Kardashians' news. Their weddings, divorces, fragr...
Suppose you play a lower-rated opponent and the game steers into an endgame right away. This can be due to you trying to outplay your less-experienced opponent and prove that your endgames skills are worthy or due to your lower- rated opponent try...
