Alisa Maric and Mirjana Maric were born January 10, 1970 in New York. They moved to Belgrade and each became a Woman Grandmaster. In addition, Alisa became an International Master. Alisa has been a candidate for the Women’s World Championship. She...
The endgame Kamsky-Shulman is back this week. I had more success in the second game than in last week’s game. It is due to personal experience and particularly due to my shameful loss last week that I decided that I would not lose a single further...
What would you say if it was the last word you were to speak? What would you do if it was the last thing you were to do? What opening would you write about if it was your last opening column you were to write? That was a little too dramatic for a ...
Early Years Max Euwe was born on the 20th of May 1901 in the town of Watergraafsmeer near Amsterdam. He was the second of six children and learned the game at the age of 4 from his parents. At 15 years old he qualified for the Championship Group...
The 12th Women’s European Chess Championship was held in May in the hospitable city of Tblisi, Georgia. 130 participants, 9 of them with ratings over 2500 FIDE, 14 qualifying spots for the World Championship. For me it was the 8th WIECC (not count...
This game is brilliant and clean at the same time. Ostapenko, a little-known player, complicates things early on with a knight sacrifice on the 13th move. He then is given a chance to take his opponent's rook, but instead, Ostapenko decides to beg...
Most chess players face this problem pretty frequently: what should I do against a much stronger opponent? And here when we say "a much stronger opponent" , we talk about somebody who is at least 300-400 rating points higher. Let's start from maj...
In 1951, David Bronstein was the challenger seeking Mikhail Botvinnik's title as World Champion. The rules provided for a match of 24 games with the champion retaining the title with a score of 12-12 or better. In game 21, Bronstein had the black ...
I followed live the game Kamsky-Shulman from the US Championship and it seemed like black made logical moves but nevertheless lost. While following games live it is good to give evaluations to them as they progress. My evaluation for the first par...
Continuing our study of important pawn breaks, we will take a look at some important ideas in the Sicilian Defense. We did have some comments about studying pawn breaks in other openings, and we can guarantee our viewers that we are definitely goi...
Early Years Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik was born on August 17, 1911 in Kuokkola, near Saint Petersburg, to a Jewish family. His father was a dental technician and his mother, a dentist. He learned to play chess at the age of 12, practicing a lo...
Chess theory is based on general principles, regularities, notions. They help us improve our chess understanding and become better players. However, following general principles religiously, without taking into account the features of each particu...
Written by: ChessMarkstheSpot and RookedonChess For those who have been following my blogs about the “Candidates Matches” tournament, you know I haven’t hidden my feelings about the fact that I’ve found this event a disgrace, and following i...
A zillion people screamed: Don’t leave and let the trolls win!” Dear zillion, My view of the troll attacks never had anything to do with winning or losing. In fact, I’m very familiar with trolls. Allow me to share a bit of (true) background. Wa...
In my last article, http://www.chess.com/article/view/karpov-beliavsky-tilburg-1986, Alexander Beliavsky played the black side of the Exchange Variation against Anatoly Karpov. This time, Beliavsky plays the white side against another top player, ...
We continue our analysis of typical attacking ideas in the King's Indian Attack (KIA). The trade of the 'd' pawns. Many inexperienced chessplayers facing the KIA for the first time try to open the center by playing d5xe4. Generally it is a good...
The main lines of the Open Spanish, including the Dilworth Attack, continue to be lively. Let's explore some of the action.
Sydney, the Capital city of New South Wales, was again hosting its 5th International Open from April 27th to May 1st. This year was quite risky for the event. The previous organizer FM Brian Jones announced at the closing ceremony in 2010 that h...
The queen against three pieces is the theme for last week’s and this week’s articles. These endgames are extremely complex as the evaluation of the position can change rapidly. You have heard the expression of "playing for two results." This is ty...
With most of my "national championship experiences" coming as a player, I am here to tell you that participating in an event like the Elementary (K-6) National Chess Championships in Dallas, Texas from May 5-8 as coach/business man was entirely di...
by GM Magesh and GM Arun It is never possible to sufficiently emphasize the importance of pawns in a chess game. The tiny little soldier which is worth the least materialistically (1 point) happens to be the most important part of middle game pla...
Efim Petrovich Geller was born March 8th, 1925 in Odessa, Ukraine. He learned how to play chess as a young man, and was one of the top 10 players in the world for over 20 years. He earned his doctorate in Physical Education. He won four Ukrainian...
This is a game that Tal played in a simul at age 52. It is a remarkable game that is filled with a lot of complications, which arise right out of the opening. Tal immediately goes for more complications, which turn the game into a battle of tactic...
Each piece has its relative value. During the game it may vary depending on what position the piece occupies and what role it plays. It’s hard to win when some of your pieces are misplaced. Therefore, you should make sure all your pieces are takin...
