Andrea Coda asked:I am playing online chess mostly as preparation for OTB tournaments, and I am focusing on slow games; I believe that at my level it is very important to reason through every move, trying to increase my board vision and analysis s...
We have all had games where we knew we were winning, but we couldn't seem to finish it off with a win. You play well enough to get to a position where you both know you are winning, but then he seems to play better or you play worse. You have p...
Today we are going to talk about the unsung heroes of chess - pawns. In openings we are happy to sacrifice the little guys in order to get some positional or dynamic advantages (a strong center, lead in the development, etc.) and that's a purpose ...
Siegbert Tarrasch was born March 5, 1862 and died February 17, 1934. He was close to the best player in the world around 1890. His match with Mikhail Chigorin, a contender for the world championship, resulted in 9 wins for each after 22 games in 1...
I would like to talk about a particular situation, which usually happens out of the Hedgehog opening. Black has a6, b6, d6 and e6 pawn structure and white tries to attack the d6 pawn with a bishop maneuver to f4, while his major pieces are already...
Our topic this week has nothing to do with exchanges and slow maneuvering like the ones we saw last week. This week it is all about being imaginative and being able to handle haphazard positions. It is the Anti-Moscow variation. The positions aris...
I wrote an article called "Learning By Induction", the main point of which was that a player could learn chess better by playing through the games of strong players and extracting for himself the lessons contained within them (inductive reasoning)...
Zugzwang: A situation in which a player is limited to moves that cost pieces or have a damaging positional effect or A situation in a chess game in which a player is forced to make an undesirable or disadvantageous move.According to Nimzowitsch, w...
ed note: GM Bhat is in Brazil playing in the Contintental Championship. In his absence, who better to replace him than... a former student of his. IM Sam Shankland has two GM norms and is quite a strong player in his own right. In July he played 3...
Derek Silsby asked: One of my friends at a local chess club often plays the Budapest against me and wins. He is certainly a stronger player than me, but I feel like if I knew this opening better I could beat him. What do you suggest? Dear Mr. ...
The following game was played in Hagerstown (Maryland) City Park, once voted the "second most beautiful city park in America" (I presume Central Park in NYC is first). I was visiting relatives there, and we decided to go for a walk in the park. ...
Hi in my previous articles on the Sveshnikov many raised the issue of the Rossolimo and how it has had good results against the Old Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6). Since I received your comments I have looked into the variation and it has grow...
Andy Soltis' "Chess to Enjoy" column in the February, 1981 issue of "Chess Life" (yes, young'uns, he really has been writing the column for that long) opened with the provocative claim, "Immortality is hard to come by, but in case you're intereste...
Last week we analyzed the games where the castled King was attacked along the 'h'file. Today we'll continue this subject and see what happens when a fianchetto is involved. The good news about a fianchetto, it bring...
Sometimes you start a game and wait for your opponent to castle so you know on which side to begin mounting your attack. But what if he won't castle? What if he stays in the center and the center is closed? What do you do then? Sometimes a wel...
This time I would like to deviate slightly from my usual topic of exchanges. I recently thought of pieces that make exceptionally huge numbers of moves during the game. Particularly, a queen can cross the whole board creating threats. In this arti...
Richard Teichmann was born December 24, 1868, which is also true of Emanuel Lasker. He died June 25, 1925. This German player was one of the best in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As late as 1921, he held Alekhine to a draw in a match. Th...
Last week we studied how white can convert his minute structural advantage into something useful in the Exchange Ruy Lopez. Black's agenda here would be opposite to White's ideas as one would expect. Black has a pair of bishops, but lacks space to...
Rudolf Spielmann (1883-1942) "The Master of Attack" and "The Last Knight of the King's Gambit"! He was a lawyer but never worked as one! He learned to play chess while still a boy and was exhibited in public as a prodigy. He loved complex position...
Not every attack ends in mate in under 30 moves. Some attacks go through phases, where goals are accomplished in parts and acheiving one goal leads to the creation of a new goal. This pattern may be repeated several times in one game. And tacti...
After my tournament in Montreal, I went to Philly to play the 7-day schedule of the World Open. The 7-day featured a pretty small group of players, most of whom were above 2500! After a draw with GM Vladimir Potkin (2721 USCF) in round 1, I got th...
OK. I was bored today. This is the second installment in my series of articles on the Checkhover Variation of the Sicilian. In my first article I went through 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Bb5 Bd7 6.Bxc6 Bxc6. This time I will be ...
Hi today I would like to share with you one of my favorite openings. This opening is called Ponziani’s opening. I have played this opening both tournament play as well as in casual play. In both areas I have had high success rate. The Ponzi...
James Dong asked:I was wondering whether you would give your views on the Bxf7 sacrifice variation in the Ruy Lopez Norwegian Defence? I consider myself an aggressive player and would like to add this to my repertoire as it is very interesting. ...
