One of the main ways to combat the Stonewall Defense is to break down Black's strong central pawn chain with f2-f3 and then e2-e4. Assuming there are pawns on c4 and d4, the pressure on d5 will likely force some action, leaving the e6-pawn weak in...
Basheer Unneenkutty asked: Today I had a game in which my opponent played 3…Nxe4? in the Petroff Defense: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4. I played 4.Qe2 (aiming Nc6+ to get black’s Queen). He responded with 4…d6 and after 5.Nxf7 Kxf7 6.Qxe4 I had ...
Before we start the discussion about the Latvian Gambit (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 f5), I have a confession to make. I never really trusted in this opening. It is one thing to play a risky King's Gambit and it is a totally different thing to p...
Mikhail Tal, the former world champion, and Bent Larsen, the Great Dane, met in a semifinal candidates match in 1965. Larsen was ahead after winning game one. Tal won game two. Games three and four were draws. Larsen won game five and Tal came bac...
2009 US Women’s Chess Championship Report By GM-elect Ben Finegold I will be taking over WIM Iryna Zenyuk’s column this week. After reading this, the readers may wonder, “Where is the real Iryna?” Since Zenyuk is busy preparing and trying t...
This week we shall study another interesting early g2-g4 idea in the Slav Defence. To play against the Slav Defence Meran is not everybody's choice. The side that comes up with a new idea has a better chance of winning the game. For white players ...
Hi everyone, this is my first article after a long time and like the previus ones this is written for guys with rating around 1800-1900. This article have a purpose to familiar you with some basic structure which arise from Budapest gambit. I play...
While I was writing my last article about the “Janowski Bishops,” I found an exciting game between Janowski and Chajes, New York, Rice Tournament, 1916. The combination conceived by Janowski, besides being too deep, has an interesting history. Fif...
The past two weeks, I've shared my games from rounds 4 and 6 of the Montreal International. This week, I want to share my game from the 5th round, as white against GM Sergei Tiviakov. With a draw against Bacrot in the books, I was looking to take...
Chronotis asks: One bit of common advice for selecting openings is to choose those that match your style of play. I have three questions about this. Do players under master class really have a style other than patzer style? Supposing we do, how w...
It is difficult to imagine a chess player who never fell into a well-known trap in the so-called Fried Liver Attack in the Two Knights Defense. It happened to me in my very first tournament. I played all the logical moves (1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc...
Last week when we discussed the Urusov Gambit, we learned that the safest option for Black was to transpose the game to a very old and reliable line of the Two Knights Defense. What an attacking player should do in this case? Well, the position a...
Anatoly Karpov was born May 23, 1951 in Zlatoust, Russia. He won the European Junior Championship in 1967. In 1969, he won the World Junior Championship. He was the world champion from 1975 to 1985. He played three matches in for the title from 19...
In this article I would like to give my thoughts on an important subject matter, but I warn you in advance there are no chess positions; I took a so- called chess break. I hope the reader will forgive me… Today, I woke up in the middle of the n...
Most smart players have a knack for taking their opponents into uncomfortable areas very early in the game. Like we have discussed in previous articles, chess not only involves strategy over the board, but also before the actual game is started. S...
Dawid Janowski (25 May 1868–15 January 1927) was born in Wolkowysk, Poland, but soon relocated to France. His chess career began in the “Café de la Regence” in Paris, becoming one of the most brilliant players of his epoch!He started his professio...
After the Bacrot game from the 4th round that I went over last week, I had the white pieces against Tiviakov. This was maybe my best game of the event, but in light of my upcoming event in Texas (the SPICE Cup, group B), I didn't quite have enough...
COMMENTING ON READER COMMENTS Here are answers to various comments (in regards to my Q & A articles) by readers: crowrevell says: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 is a strong answer to 2…Nc6. I’m not familiar with 2...g6, though it seems White...
Today we will examine the favorite opening of most beginners- 1.e4 e5 2. Bc4 which is the Bishop's Opening. Of course, most beginners play 2.Bc4 with the sole purpose of playing 3. Qh5 and then 4. Qxf7 checkmate. Pretty quickly we all learn ...
Alexei Shirov was born on July 4, 1972 in Riga, Latvia. He was World Champion Under 16 in 1988 and became a grandmaster in 1990. He defeated Vladimir Kramnik in a match to play a world championship match against Garry Kasparov. Instead of playing ...
Many of you have requested before that I put the text of the whole game here. The reason why I prefer fragments instead of full games is that by putting the whole game one can get distracted by other parts less relevant to the given topic. I mean ...
This week we shall have a look at the Dutch Defence. To begin with we have an interesting concept, the 'h-file operation.' Usually the advancement of the h-pawn occurs in variations like Sicilian Najdorf, Dragon, Classical System, KID samisch vari...
Joseph Henry Blackburne (1841–1924), nicknamed "Black Death," started playing chess as an adult but reached master level in mere months. He learned how to play draughts as a child; however it was not until he heard about Paul Morphy's exploits aro...
I recently competed in a very strong Category 15 tournament in Montreal. There were 12 players, 8 invitees and 4 qualifiers. I qualified by finishing 3rd in the Quebec Championship in June (from which I have already discussed a few games in this c...
