In the US, *the* annual chess celebration is not the exclusive and elite US Championship, but the World Open – the biggest US open tournament hosted in Philadelphia. Many sacrifice their time with family during the long weekend to get a shot...
This article is designed for beginner chess players -- by Mrs Jessica Prescott The queen is the most powerful piece on the board -- the king is the most important -- but the queen is more powerful than anybody. She can move in 8 different direc...
Originally my “Travelling Chess Player” series was going to be a one-time thing – just three parts, and that’s it. But it seems it was well-received, so the editors of Chess.com have asked me to continue the series. F...
An Inspiration When I read GM Becerra's article last week about a man who was an absolute inspiration to me, I just knew I had to share my own tribute to Lev Polugaevsky this week. Prior to reading GM Becerra's article, I actually did not know ju...
This article is by WIM Alexey Root. The Garden Song begins, "Inch by inch, row by row. Gonna make this garden grow. All it takes is a rake and a hoe." In the two-rook checkmate, one rook is the rake, one is the hoe. And soon the garden wi...
An Inspiration When I read GM Becerra's article last week about a man who was an absolute inspiration to me, I just knew I had to share my own tribute to Lev Polugaevsky this week. Prior to reading GM Becerra's article, I actually did not know j...
Starting from today I would like to share with you some articles on chess psychology. This topic is relatively neglected in books, so most chess players have to learn by making their own mistakes and then corresponding adjustments to their behavio...
Top Ten Rules to Chess Endgames! For a lot of beginner level chess players, the endgame can be a difficult challenge. Many of my early games ended in checkmate in the middlegame, so I did not have a lot of early experience playing endgame...
David writes: Hi, I've been playing chess online for 5 months and my rating is almost 1000. I've heard some people say that you should "simplify when ahead." What does that mean? Am I supposed to play very differently when I'm ahead or behind? T...
Chess has plenty of huge egos and there are many infamaous feuds. The latest conflagration is between software giant Chessbase and chess publishing giant New in Chess. Chessbase has always hated it when peope disagree with them, as I often have (a...
The first three parts of this article were devoted to the analysis of typical mistakes that cause opening disasters (and you would agree that it is a real disaster to lose a game in 10 moves or less!). Today you have a chance to demonstrate the kn...
Viktor Korchnoi was born March 23, 1931 in Leningrad, USSR. He was a candidate for the World Championship ten times from 1962-1991. He won the USSR Championship four times from 1960-1970. Korchnoi never won the world title, but has been considered...
I have been recently fascinated with the short stories of American writer David Foster Wallace. Particularly, his profound discussions about sport and specifically about tennis (he was once a competitive junior tennis player) intrigued me, because...
Today we will be looking at the psychological effects of a material sacrifice. No matter how hard we try to look at the board objectively, no real chess player can remain totally dispassionate when a sacrifice is made, either by himself or by his...
I posted a brilliant game that was won by Dmitry Ostapenko a while ago. You can find it here. Ostapenko won another great game that I would like to show you guys. He sacrifices a knight while the game is still in its early stages; he then shockin...
Lev Abramovich Polugaevsky was born November 20, 1934 in Mogilev in the Soviet Union (now Mahilyow, Belarus). Unlike many of his grandmaster colleagues, his development in chess was slow, and he did not receive the Soviet master title u...
Top Ten Rules to the Opening! There are many rules and principles for the three different stages of a chess game, but the focus of this article is how to "get out of the gates" in a hurry! Rule #1 - Develop Your Pieces! Development means "...
The life of a chess pro is a sequence of trips from one tournament to another. Some prefer to play virtually non-stop; others can afford to compete from time to time. Naturally, a person who wants to improve in chess should not only play, but also...
In Ivan Sokolov's brilliant new book "Ruy Lopez Revisited" he brings out his personal experience in sidelines such as the Schliemann Defence 3...f5, an old favorite of mine. Let's see what he says about one discarded variation and try to find some...
Kkjimbo asked: I am a low ranked club player (British Chess Fed 109) A fellow patzer at my club has agreed to spend some time with me in the close season training. We plan on a once a week 1 or 2 hour session. Have you any tips on how we could ge...
Boris Spassky became the challenger for the World Championship held by Tigran Petrosian after a successful campaign in which he defeated Keres, Geller, and Tal in Candidates Matches. The title match was held in 1966 and resulted in Petrosian winni...
Last time we looked at the main lines, now we'll look at the other options, starting with the Lolli Attack, which is an improved form of the Fried Liver.
In the previous two installments of this article we discussed how important it is to pay attention, know openings you play and watch out for forcing moves of your opponent. But even if you do all the above-mentioned things, there is still risk. S...
When starting out in chess most games begin 1.e4 e5 and the Two Knights Defense is most often seen, hoping for the dreaded Fried Liver AttACK. That is actually not the best way to play for White, as we will see in the next article. Let's start, ho...
