Today, we will look at an endgame where the evaluation will change as we explore the hidden ideas behind the position. This is the reason for the name of the article. In other words: not every position that looks winning is indeed a win. First, th...
This week we shall see an idea against the Benoni system. The g3 fianchetto system is one of the strongest replies against the Benoni. Benoni is one of the dynamic systems where Black seeks counterplay on both wings and white needs to be careful i...
James Mason was born on the 19th of November 1849 in Kilkenny, Ireland. His real name is unknown; it seems James Mason was adopted by his father to avoid prevalent anti-Irish prejudice when they arrived in New Orleans in early 1861. There he learn...
I. Opponents’ profiles. A standard dossier featuring one of your opponents should reflect his opening repertoire, as well as weaknesses and strengths. This information might prove extremely useful both during preparation for the game and over-the-...
Ridley asked: I fairly recently invented the following line for Black against the English opening 1.c4. I have tested this extensively through computer analysis and with help of some friends and it seems to be a very good option for Black. Black...
Grandmaster Igor-Alexandre Nataf is not exactly a household name in the Chess World. There is no article about him in Wikipedia and according to the FIDE web site his rating never crossed the 2600 mark. Yet, the game he calls his most beautiful ...
Larry Melvyn Evans was born March 23, 1932 in New York, New York and died November 15, 2010 in Reno, Nevada. He won the US Championship in 1951, 1961, 1962, and 1968. In 1980 he was in a three way tie for first, but lost the playoff. Evans was kno...
As I mentioned in the previous article, my friend sent me the endgame to take a look at it. At the end of the article you will find the details of who played which side. At first, I couldn't figure out what is going on in the game but after playin...
This is one of Rashid Nezhmetdinov's most brilliant games. Here's a little information (from Wikipedia) about him: Rashid Gibiatovich Nezhmetdinov (Russian: Рашид Гибятович Нежметдинов; Tatar Cyrillic: Рәшит Һибәт улы Нәҗметдинов, Latin: Räşit Hi...
by GM Magesh and GM Arun Over the years that I have been teaching chess, I have come to realize that explaining 'what not to do' is actually easier than explaining 'what to do'! Hence, today we will be discussing one of my worst nightmares on ...
Just wanted to share we just hit 5000 users online in Live Chess! To all Chess.com members: Thank you for your patience and support! Anybody remembers our 100-users celebration? :) EDIT: Max users history: 100 users (2008), 1000 users (20...
Here and there we hear all types of things about “home prep”, but how do grandmasters prepare for their games in real life? The pre-game stage is often as important as the game itself. So, what is the most efficient way of preparing for your next ...
Glen asked: I have an old chess book titled Chess Traps, Pitfalls & Swindles by I.A. Horowitz and Fred Reinfeld published in 1954. In the first pages of the book they use notations like N-N3 and B-N5 etc. There is no explanation in the book ...
Siegbert Tarrasch (pictured) was born March 5, 1862 and died February 17, 1934. Around 1890, he was the best or one of the four best players in the world. In 1908, he clearly lost a match for Emanuel Lasker’s world championship (+3 =5 -8). Tarrasc...
Just like any chess player, I have my own personal Mona Lisa. Since you my dear readers asked about this game in your comments to the previous article, it is probably a good opportunity to show it now. I knew that I was going to play a special ga...
Some normal and some very strange lines in this installment as we continue our journey through King's Gambit territory.
When you try solving a problem you try to do it the simplest way. Before resorting to complex means, one needs to try at first all the simple solutions. This time I tried to play out the position with the most brutal means. Passive defense is usua...
We move on the the Soviet Era, with lessons in poisoned pawn/trapped piece and demolition in semi-open games.
This is the first in a series of articvles exploring a variety of lines in the King's Gambit. You'll see popular lines, rare lines, and outlandish experiments. Keep in mind that just because a gambit is "refuted" doesn't mean it can't hbave practi...
by GM Magesh and GM Arun We have studied the Caro-Kann advance variation before in our articles, but after seeing a game today I was compelled to get back to this variation. The game was played by none other than the creative genius Alexey Shirov...
The Major Georg Marco was born on September 29, 1863 in Czernowitz, Romania, later moving to Vienna and becoming secretary of the Viennese Chess Association. He was a professional chess player and journalist.In tournament play Marco debuted in Dre...
Sure, he was a great writer. Yes, he was a mighty political force at times. Always a great storyteller. But what about the chess? Here are some moments from a fine career, not necessarily the best known. An actual checkmate: Drsagonslay...
Shirov had a disastrous tournament (3/8), winning only one game against Eljanov. But Kramnik had almost the same (3,5/8) and in the last round he wanted to reach 50%. This produced a wild game where Kramnik played in Shirov's style!Here are my com...
Opposite-colored bishops never cross each other’s paths. As they control squares of different colors, a chess game featuring them has its own specifics. By saying “a position with opposite-colored bishops”, we mean that there are no other light pi...
