In this game, Berkes' slightly passive opening allows Judit Polgar to establish a lead in development. Berkes decides to set a trap, which Polgar seems to fall into. However, a White's neat 14th move showed that Black was actually the one that had...
Last week we analyzed one of Morphy's games and you had a chance to see why Fischer once said that by the precision of his play Morphy was the best chess player of all time. In Part 4 we saw that Adolf Anderssen would give his opponent a chance be...
Target Skill Range: Intermediate (Rated 1400-1799) Put your skills into practice, and use everything you've learned to win chess games! Tasks: Play in 20 chess tournaments (100 rated games). Learn to analyze your own games. Publish you...
I am holding a book called “Grandmaster Chess Strategy” by Jurgen Kaufeld and Guido Kern published by New In Chess in 2011. The book is a collection of Ulf Andersson’s games with excellent annotations by the authors. If you have ...
You cannot always get a great position out of the opening. Besides falling into preparation or just making a mistake (everyone does) you can also have a temporary loss of control or weak nerves. Being able to fight back in a bad – or even lost – p...
drakkar-noir (1786) - E. Karadayi (1808), ECO B15, 2011 1.e4 d5 A Center Counter, which has had a revival in recent years. 2.d4 White usually chops on d5 (2.exd5) when 2…Qxd5 3.Nc3 is met by both 3…Qa5 and also 3&hellip...
I have been playing chess professionally from my childhood, and most of my friends are also pros. Quite often amateurs send me emotional messages stating they are willing to start training intensively in order to become a grandmaster, and even mov...
Dear Grandmasters Arun Prasad/Magesh Panchanathan: I have questions and I hope you may answer them. I have not played over the board chess for a year and have mainly played blitz or rapid chess online. Before I took a break I managed to achieve ...
Target Skill Range: Intermediate (Rated 1400-1799) Arrive at your final chess destination with the knowledge you need to win! Tasks: Increase your knowledge of fundamental endgames. Improve your endgame technique. Complete these endgame ...
First of all, let me assure you that I am not discontinuing my 'classical games' series. As a matter of fact, this is a continuation of our journey through the classics. But the game I am going to present today is so beautiful and instructive that...
![Megatheory 16: Spanish Closed: Zaitsev [Event "Analysis"] [Site "Mountain View"]](https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/8814.fdf64cd4.300x169o.915a4d0aae9d.jpeg)
The aitsev Variation of the Closed Ruy has been played over 8000 times and the theory runs very deep. Here is a look at the main lines. Â Â Â
At the age of 15 I had the wonderful opportunity to work with International Master, and world renowned chess trainer, Mark Dvoretsky. He visited Arizona, courtesy of the sponsorship of my father and grandfather, to work with a group of me and my p...
To play endgames well one has to know how to use general strategies of endgame play such as positioning the king actively, creating passed pawns, placing rooks behind passed pawns etc. However, this is not enough as there are theoretical positions...
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...
One chess player said that I have a problem sensing the tempo of the game, that this is my weakness. I don’t know if it was legitimate advice or just an insult, but I found it interesting. True, I have seen, especially when I am in bad form, that ...
Semyon Abramovich Furman was born in Moscow, Russia (formerly USSR). He was a factory worker in Leningrad, who developed his chess skills in his spare time, and was a late bloomer by chess standards, not reaching National Master until adulthood. F...
"The other day someone was talking about how an opening I played "transposed" to another opening. What does this mean?" Dear Reader, Transposition is one of the easier concepts in chess and yet it can be really painful if you do not understand...
This is a quick guide to a video series. For other video series, go here. In this series we will break learning one of the most complicated and theoretically sound responses to 1.e4, the Najdorf Variation, into digestible parts. The en...
In this article a popular pawn structure will be reviewed: when White has pawns on e5 and d4, and Black – on e6 and d5. It is typical of the Caro-Cann, French Defense, and can occur in other variations as well. For example, in the following game i...
Since we finished last week's article with "the Immortal Game" it is only fair to start today with its twin - "the Evergreen game". (Just like in most of my articles I give you a chance to test your chess skills, so the games are given as a Quiz....
Some people wonder why White doesn't respond to the Nimzo-Indian pin 3...Bb4 with 4.Bd2, breaking the pin. The plan was tried long ago by several strong players, but was abandoned and has no followers in the professional ranks. Basically, it allow...
Two weeks ago we looked at my game against Shahade and learned the importance of categorizing endgame mistakes. The article featured the importance of king activity – something I neglected during the game; and going through Lasker’s ga...
Target Skill Range: Intermediate (Rated 1400-1799) Tactics, tactics and more tactics! Learn what it takes to win using tactics! Tasks: Memorize every fundamental tactical pattern of chess. Do tactics, tactics, and more tactics. Develop "...
Target Skill Range: Intermediate (Rated 1400-1799) Learn to develop long-term, strategic plans and outplay your opponents! Tasks: Learn the basics of positional chess: pawn structures. Learn the basics of positional chess: weak squares....
