There have been a few challenge matches in the past that test the solitary genius of one exceptional person against the wisdom of the masses. In these "World v. X" matches, "The World" always comes upon its move by voting: every individual who wis...
After two seasons of pure disastrous results in the United States Chess League (USCL) I was hoping for a fresh start this season. When I played for the Dallas Destiny in the first two seasons of the USCl, it would not be an overstatement to say I ...
Isaac Kashdan born 19 November (like Capablanca!) of 1905 in New York was a phenomenally gifted American chess grandmaster and chess writer, who was spoken of as a possible contender against Alekhine during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Alekhine...
In August the traditional Russia-China match took place. It is held every year, usually shifting the venue from Russia to China and vice versa. The 2010 edition happened to be the 7th one. For Russia this friendly chess match is a nice opportunity...
Farbror asked: This is one of my favorite chess quotes: “Before our first Latvian posting I didn’t care for this gambit one way or the other. Now I hate it with a passion and, when I hit my 80th birthday, fully intend to devote my remaining year...
This is an interesting game. Pogonina, playing White, decides to start an early pawn storm on the 8th move instead of trying to castle. Although Dzagnidze builds up an attack by placing all of her major pieces on the c-file, Pogonina utilizes Bobb...
The pattern we are going to discuss today is unique in many ways. First of all, every single tactical pattern we've talked about so far can happen both in an opening or in a middle game, but today's pattern usually happens only in an early opening...
Svetozar Gligoric (pictured) was born February, 2, 1923. He was the Yugoslav champion many times and competed to seek the world championship. He first became famous in 1947 for his first place undefeated finish at Warsaw 1947 where he defeated Vas...
We explored in the previous article some of the ideas that white and black can exploit in this complex endgame. After playing the endgame twice, David and I had some ideas of what works and what doesn’t. We came to the conclusion that white has to...
This week we shall see some of the more recent miniatures in the Ruy Lopez. Although this system has been played and analysed extensively in the last couple of centuries, it still has so much life in it that even super Grandmasters are not comp...
Reuben Fine, born October 11, 1914, had a greater natural gift than Reshevsky; he is considered one of the most brilliant natural players in history. He is the only player who has an overall positive score in his games with world champions! But he...
The endgame is the final part of a chess game, characterized by a small number of pieces left on the board. Many chess players fall in love with studying the opening and middlegame and forget about the endgame, considering it to be dull. Some of t...
This is a neat little game. Vladimirov, playing White, gives up a knight midway through the opening to start an attack on his opponent's uncastled king. He seems to stumble when he allows Epishin to trade queens, but his killer 26th move settles m...
Jaxxson asked: Why don’t we see 1.e4 in Championship matches anymore? Dear Mr. Jaxxson: That’s an excellent question. Of course, any answer I give is subjective – others might come up with an equally valid viewpoint. But, for all it’s worth (or...
Even if you have never heard of chess surrealism, you definitely encountered it at some point. What is chess surrealism? In art, the key feature of surrealism is the element of surprise, the same is true for chess surrealism. If you see a positi...
My last article showed Miguel Najdorf on the white side of the King’s Indian Defense using the Fianchetto Variation. This line has the advantage of placing the bishop on g2 where it can have considerable influence on the center, but does not exert...
Last week after I assigned two positions to play out, I had no idea that just one would have been more than enough. The positions turned out to have tons of interesting hidden resources that my sparring partner, IM David Pruess, and I successfully...
When you combine the words 'best', 'young' and 'international' with a chess tournament, you know what to expect. One of the most celebrated chess tournaments for the youth, the World Junior Chess Championship, recently concluded in Chotowa, Poland...
Samuel "Sammy" Reshevsky was born November 26, 1911 in Poland. Following the events of World War 1, Reshevsky immigrated to the United States in 1920 where he came into prominence as the most remarkable of all child prodigies! He learned the moves...
Just like I promised last week, this time we will talk about the middlegame. The middlegame is the main stage of the game. Studying this part of chess is essential to understanding concepts such as weak squares, a strong center, open files, the ar...
Musikamole said: Can a 50-year-old beginning chess player ever reach master level play before he drops dead? I doubt it. Silman says that middle-aged people can become titled players so he can sell more books. I do own a few of Silman's books a...
Sacrifices on empty squares are not as common as other kinds of sacrifices, but they can be just as deadly. Take this game, for example. Kalegin, playing white, decides to sacrifice a rook on the 20th move on an empty square. After it is captur...
Mendel Najdorf was born near Warsaw, Poland April 15, 1910 and died in Malaga, Spain July 4, 1997. He was instructed in chess by Dawid Przepiorka and Savielly Tartakower. For links to my articles on Najdorf’s teachers see: http://www.chess.com/art...
I don't think I need to introduce Grandmaster Frank Marshall who was one of the strongest chess players in the World in the beginning of the 20th century and the US Champion from 1909 till 1935!! Today I would like to discuss his stunning opening ...
