The Story Behind Today's Daily Puzzle
Today's Daily Puzzle came from a game played at the Staunton Memorial Tournament in 2006 between GM Peter Wells and GM Jon Speelman. Here is my video telling the story and explaining the game:
Happy Birthday Ljubomir Ljubojević
Ljubomir Ljubojević is a Serbian chess grandmaster. He was born on 2 November 1950 in Titovo Užice, Yugoslavia (now Užice, Serbia). He was awarded the International Master title in 1970 and the Grandmaster title in 1971. Ljubojević was Yug...
Remembering Miroslav Filip
Miroslav Filip (27 October 1928 – 27 April 2009) was a Czech chess grandmaster. He was awarded the title of International Master in 1953, and the Grandmaster title in 1955. He represented Czechoslovakia in 12 consecutive Chess Olympiads from...
Remembering Heinz Lehmann
Heinz Gerhard Lehmann (20 October 1921, Königsberg – 8 June 1995, Berlin) was a German chess grandmaster and 1956 Berlin Chess Champion. He studied law. He was a national player in the 1950s and 1960s, took part in the 13th and 14th C...
Happy Birthday Ralf Lau
Ralf Lau was born in Bremen on Oct-19-1959. He was awarded the GM title in 1986 and in tournaments he was 1st= at Budapest 1985, 2nd= at New York 1985, 2nd= at Solingen 1986 and 1st at Budapest 1986. He also played on the German Olympiad teams of ...
Puzzle Rush Moment #5 - Greco's Checkmate
Greco's checkmate is a common method of checkmating that frequently appears in Puzzle Rush. The checkmate is named after the famous Italian checkmate cataloguer Gioachino Greco. It works by using the Bishop to contain the opposing King by use of h...
Just the Facts, Please, Just the Facts
A list of facts in no particular order: Fact Number 1: So far, Magnus Carlsen has NOT made ANY allegation of cheating at the Sinquefield Cup. Fact Number 2: The Magnus Carlsen Twitter post does not even mention Hans Niemann or cheating. Fact...
Puzzle Rush Moment #4
Here is one of the most common puzzle themes that I get during Puzzle Rush. It is cool to have gotten it in an actual game. I'm sure you've seen it many times (comment below). Here is the game in full with my own annotations and commentar...
My First Win Ever
On August 31st, 1972, Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky to become history’s 11th official World Chess Champion. Interest in chess suddenly surged in the United States. Though the book, “Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess,” ...
Remembering Vladimir Malaniuk
Vladimir Pavlovich Malaniuk (July 21, 1957 – July 2, 2017) was a Ukrainian chess grandmaster and three-time Ukrainian champion. He competed in the FIDE World Chess Championship 1998. In team events, Malaniuk played for Ukraine in three Chess...
Clear and Contain
A clearance sacrifice is a tactical motif which involves a square on the chessboard being vacated to open up lines of attack. The tactic may also result in the substitution of a piece hindering the attack by a piece useful to the attack. A ...
Pin, Pin, Pin, Pin, Pin, Pin, Pin, WIN!
In chess, a pin is a tactic in which a long range attacker fixes a defender in place, because moving the defender would expose a more valuable target along the same rank, file or diagonal. In the following game, I was able to repeatedly utilize ...
Puzzle Rush Moment #3
Here is a position that I have seen come up in Puzzle Rush from time to time. It has occurred many times in my games. I call it the Pivot Maneuver.
Endgame Skewer
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post regarding The Skewer. In Chess, a skewer is an attack by a long range piece of multiple targets on the same rank, file or diagonal. Here is another example: In this position, the game came down to an en...
Happy Birthday Daniel Cámpora
Daniel Hugo Cámpora was born in San Nicolas, Argentina on June 30th,1957. He became Champion of Argentina in 1986 and 1989. Awarded the IM title in 1982 and the GM title in 1986, he led the Argentine team at the 1986 Olympiad. In the 1994 O...
Puzzle Rush Moment #2
A few weeks ago I posted A Puzzle Rush Moment as the beginning of a catalogue of positions reached in actual games that I have been able to employ a tactic see frequently in Puzzle Rush. Well here is another one: The combination begins with...
The Hook Checkmate
The hook mate involves the use of a rook, knight, and pawn along with one enemy piece to limit the enemy king's escape. The rook is protected by the knight, and the knight is protected by the pawn, while the pawn also attacks one of the enemy king...
Happy Birthday Sergio Barrientos
Sergio Barrientos Chavarriaga (born June 29, 1986 in Medellín), is a Colombian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2011. I want to show a couple of the games he won on his road to that title. Barrientos has pa...
Back Rank Weakness
The Back Rank checkmate pattern is proof that your own pieces can sometimes work against you and help your opponent achieve their objective! It is the source of a common tactical idea know as a back rank weakness. When you take advantage of a po...
Zwischenzug
The zwischenzug (intermediate move) is a chess tactic in which a player, instead of playing the expected move (commonly a recapture), first interposes another move posing an immediate threat that the opponent must answer, and only then plays the e...
Piece Relationships
When Calculating moves, there are five steps that I follow: Identify my opponent's threats. Identify the Targets. Identify Piece Relationships. Identify all Active Moves. Identify the continuation. Piece relationships can exist between ...
The Skewer
In Chess, a skewer is an attack by a long range piece of multiple targets on the same rank, file or diagonal. In the following position, my opponent grabbed a "free" pawn, allowing the skewer of three targets. Don't forget to tell in comm...
The Arabian Checkmate
In the Arabian checkmate, the knight and the rook team up to trap the opposing king on a corner of the board. The rook sits on a square adjacent to the king both to prevent escape along the diagonal and to deliver checkmate while the knight sits t...
Interference
In the game of chess, interference occurs when the line between an attacked piece and its defender is interrupted by interposing a piece with another attack. In the bullet game below, my opponent made a nothing move giving me the time to win a p...
The Desperado & Zwischenzug
In chess, a desperado is a piece that is either en prise or trapped, but captures an enemy piece before it is itself captured. The zwischenzug is a chess tactic in which a player, instead of playing the expected move (commonly a recapture), firs...
