London System
Chess is the Best Child Tutor
Just recently, a friend of mine came to me with a question. This friend had been hired to babysit for a relative, though she didn't really know what she was doing. She said, "What would you say would be some good activities for the child?...
The Giuoco Piano - No Quiet Game Here
The Giuoco Piano (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5) means "Quiet Game." Up until the 19th century, the term applied to any opening that was not a Gambit. Here is a game that is certainly not a quiet game. White sacs his Rook...
Ten Tips to Winning Chess by International Grandmaster Arthur Bisguier
Chess is a game of strategy and tactics. Each player commands an army of 16 chessmen --- pawns and other pieces (the king, queen, bishops, knights, and rooks). A well-played chess game has three stages. In the opening, the players bring out their ...
Top 10 Ways to Lose at Chess by Mark Weeks
No one likes to lose, but if you're going to lose you might as well do it in style. Most non chess players assume that chess is a game of pure intellectual skill and that the better player almost always wins. Real chess players know that being...
a Real Benko Baffler
Pal Benko is famous for his chess compositions. He is also a strong grandmaster. Here is one of his own games in which his endgame was voted as the best in the tournament. Benko has the more active Bishop against a cornered Knigh...
Rubinstein Takes Mieses Pieces
Akiba Rubinstein (1882-1961) was one of the world's top 5 players from 1907 to 1922. Before World War I, he challenged Lasker for the world championship title, but negotiations fell through. After World War I, he challenged Capabla...
Nimzovich and the Nimzo-Larsen Attack
The move 1.b3 is known as Larsen's Opening, or sometimes called the Nimzo-Larsen Opening. That's because Aron Nimzovich played it through transpostion. He would play 1.Nf3, then 2.b3. Here is an example of one of his earl...
Rook+Knight+Pawn vs Rook+ 2 Pawns
Here is an interesting endgame with Rook, Knight, and Pawn vs Rook and 2 Pawns. It was won by Yugoslav Grandmaster Boris Ivkov. the winner of the first World Junior Championship in 1951. He won the championship of Yugoslavia in 1958, 1...
Kasparov-Karpov Endgame Classic
Here is a classical endgame between Kasparov and Karpov. It's from the 6th game of the marathon world championship match in 1984-85 where 48 games were played before the match was called off. The 6th game was considered the most dr...
Kibitz with Steinitz
Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1900) was world champion from 1886 to 1894. In 1862, he played in his first international tournament in London, which was the first British Chess Federation Congress. Steinitz took 6th place. The event was ...
Learning to Play Better Chess
THE SERIOUS PART: One of the first things a teacher does with a new student in elementary school is assess their existing level of knowledge. In literacy this is done with an IRI (Informal Reading Inventory). What does the student know about...
Tartakower Power
Saviely Tartakower (1887-1956) was one of the top 10 players in the world in the 1920s and 1930s. He was a Jew of Austrian and Polish parentage who lived in Russia, went to school in Switzerland, moved to Vienna, became a German master, serv...
The problem
Mach in 2 moves &...
A Benoni with a Czech
The Benoni Defense, 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5, can be a good choice for Black if he likes a crampled game for awhile. Ben-Oni is Hebrew for child of my sorrow. In this game, Black was sorry he played this opening, as White sacrificed on the kin...
A killing blinfolded combination
Blindfolded Chess is everything but an easy feat. In 1783 Philidor played three simultaneoulsy blinfolded games; it was said at the time that no one will ever break that record. Experts were proven wrong as usual, Morphy p...
Reading Chess Games
I have noticed at many occasions that some chess players when studying chess games played by grandmasters, do not take enough time to do so that one feels the only gain they get is the enjoyment. Taking into account that the grandmasters themselve...
Improving your Tactical Vision
This exercise will work for most players rated below 2400. It will improve your tactical vision. Prerequisites: Knowledge of chess notation (algebraic recommended). This is normal since most professional chess tutorials start with an overview of t...
History repeats itself.
Frank Marshall, a former United States Chess champion impresed the Chess world with his famous and sparkling victory over S. Lewitzky in the Breslau International Tourney in 1912. Marshall's move 23...Qg3!!! has been considered by many as the ...
A "Ten seconds per move" knockout.
Many people think that Chess games last hours and are boring; to a degree this is true. Oscar Tenner as Black executed the following "ten seconds per move" master piece against Otis Field in New York in 1923. White resigned bef...
Young Superstars: Koneru Humpy
Koneru Humpy (born 31 March 1987 in Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh) is a chess grandmaster from India. She was originally named Hampi but her father later changed it to Humpy, a more Russian-sounding name. She writes her family name (Koneru)...
How I start playing chess
I start chess wen I was 5 years old .I learn chess with my mother now I 9 years old .But I stop playing chess wen I go to school now I learning again chess .But I think that I can't learn chess because the school gonna start again .I play ches...
Keres Plays the Keres Attack
The Keres Attack in the Sicilian Defense, 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.g4!?, is an aggresive opening for White. There were a few correspondence games with this opening in 1900, but it was Paul Keres who first employ...
Michael Adams Plays for Mate
Michael Adams of England, born in 1971, became one of the strongest players in the world. His father taught him the game of chess at the age of 6. His father had intended to teach him checkers, but Michael wanted to play the game with ...
