Some games are meant to be pored over, deeply analyzed, and learned from. Some games are simply meant to be enjoyed, mouth agape, as we bask in the beauty of chess. I would argue that Anand's 1997 miniature against Lautier is the latter. Like a ...
Could I do that? I think many of us have sometimes wondered if we would have the courage to play like our heroes should the moment arise. Would we offer Anand's brilliant exchange sacrifice in this game even if we saw the move and the coming ideas...
It's rare to see a Closed Sicilian at the highest levels of chess. In fact, Anand himself famously defeated Magnus Carlsen once when he attempted the Closed Sicilian. In this game, it proves to be the perfect surprise weapon as Anand's idea of 1...
Viswanathan Anand's pivotal world championship match with Garry Kasparov took place early in his career. Kasparov had been stripped of his world championship title in 1993 when he formed the Professional Chess Association (PCA) and played Nigel Sh...
Viswanathan Anand has always been famed for his fluid, fast, and intuitive attacking style. In the following rapid chess game against Ivan Sokolov, those skills are on display as a misstep by Sokolov allows the tactically aware Anand to land a ser...
Once while riding to the Dallas Chess Club I was talking to IM Daniel Fernandez, and I asked him who his favorite player was. He turned the question back on me, and I said Alexander Morozevich was my favorite player. Daniel scoffed and said that I...
Paul Keres defeated more world champions (9!) than any other chess player. That list includes every world champion from Jose Capablanca through Bobby Fischer. Here is his very first recorded win against a future world champion, Vassily Smyslov. ...
Much is rightly made today of Viswanathan Anand's and Vladimir Kramnik's achievements in their 40s, but little remember Keres' longevity. Keres was at the top of world chess from the 1930s through the 1970s, a career spanning five decades! In th...
Trash talk is a rich part of chess culture. Born in the coffeehouses and parks where real chess is played, where real men (and women battle) and only cowards turn down a sacrifice, and no one pays a mite of attention to the elements. Here are se...
In 1939/1940, Max Euwe and Paul Keres played a "friendly" match which the chess world followed enthusiastically in light of the current turmoil in the world championship situation. In 1937, Euwe had lost his rematch with Alexander Alekhine, whil...
Paul Keres' baptism by fire was the 1935 Warsaw Olympiad. There the young Keres played greats such as World Champion Alexander Alekhine, Savielly Tartakower, and Salomon Flohr. He lost to these chess giants, but he did score a respectable 12/19, i...
Paul Keres is a fascinating player with a fascinating history. Winner of the star-studded 1938 AVRO tournament, he was a presumed challenger to Alexander Alekhine when WW II intervened. After the war, his native Estonia had been subsumed by the So...
Castle, castle, castle and develop, develop, develop. Sometimes being a chess coach is easy You just tell your students to do the same things over and over again until they do it! Except they never do it. Maybe that's just my experience though 🤷 ...
It's rare that the Soviets were out-prepared, but in a game preceding our featured game against Yasser Seirawan, Anatoly Karpov found his prepared piece sacrifice (likely prepared by Efim Geller) refuted over the chess board in fine fashion. You c...
Anatoly Karpov rarely entered full-on "Tal-mode," but in this magnificent attack against the German grandmaster, Robert Huebner, he does just that! An extremely speculative bishop sacrifice on g7 leads to extreme pressure, but accurate and creativ...
There's a certain additional thrill and electricity in games from the world chess championship. With tensions high, two magnificent players at the height of their game battle for a month, trying to break their opponent's sturdy defenses. Tension...
Anatoly Karpov rarely played speculative attacking chess, but in this famous brilliancy against Gyula Sax, he ventured the thrilling 18.Rd5!? The ensuring attack is extremely difficult to meet as a relentless Karpov pins down the black king while ...
Anatoly Karpov is one of my favorite chess players. He demonstrates perfect harmony in his chess games and thrives at one of my weak points: anticipating his opponent's ideas. In this game against Jan Timman, he finds a brilliant prophylactic move...
Hi chess players I recently opened a Twitch channel at twitch.tv/samcopeland and am streaming puzzles, tournaments, 4-player chess, and whatever else piques my and the viewers' interest. Here's a highlight from a recent stream with a tense...
"Is my child ready for a chess tournament?" As a chess coach, I get this question all the time. My answer is invariably yes! If your child knows the rules to chess and enjoys the game, they are quite ready to try their first tournament. Every ...
Note: This piece is a blog. The opinions are the author's. So are the errors The World Open is a uniquely American tournament. Held this year for the 45th year (which a little math dates back to 1973), it is always held over the 4th of July wee...
Blindfold chess is becoming quite trendy these days. GM Timur Gareyev has been a big promoter of the discipline and is ramping up for a blindfold world record attempt. Currently, FM Marc Lang holds the record at 46 boards (played in 2011...
How did it come to be that, in chess, stalemate is a draw?! In the most ancient known forms of chess, such as shatranj and chaturanga, stalemate was a win. Today in the (arguably) most played form of chess, Xiangqi, AKA Chinese Chess, stalema...
Last night I fell victim to a unique and pretty trap from a young opponent in the South Carolina State Championships. I don't want to preface the combination too much so I'll simply ask this... In the below position, I intended 22.fxe5 fxe5 23. d...
I don't know about you, but I constantly get chess earworms stuck in my head. Sometimes these are simply popular chess sayings such as "Patzer see check; patzer give check." or "Every Russian school boy knows." Other earworms include chess phrases...
