I was asked to analyze a game I played 10 years ago for a book on the President’s Cup (the Final Four). That year our Webster team completely dominated the field. We scored 10 out of 12, the best result any team had ever achieved. I scored 3...
I created this game yesterday, coincidentally just before the chess world started debating ratings. I got this idea after watching Dubov’s interview on LevitovChess a while back. The idea is simple: Guess which players were top 10 in a cer...
Today we’re announcing ChessEver 🚀 A pro-grade app to follow chess like never before. Here’s a sneak peek of the app's unique features: Sign up now!
Your goal in chess is not to mate the enemy king but to avoid being mated first. Take the most famous example: according to the Lichess database, over 341,000 games allowed the simple Qf7# mate. The real number across history is probably 100 tim...
Last week, Ediz Gurel stunned the chess world with a brilliant queen sacrifice against Denis Lazavik. The queen sacrifice almost always creates a striking picture on the board. Why is that?The queen is the most valuable piece in chess. Beginn...
Fischer famously said, “I don’t believe in psychology, I believe in good moves!” Did he really believe that? I don’t think so. Intentionally or not, he kept opponents under constant psychological pressure by being unpredict...
Want a better way to follow chess? I did too. So I created ChessEver: simple, elegant, and to the point. View games and prepare for your own. Don’t miss our first move, sign up now! Update 1 : What sets the ChessEver app apart from exist...
What's the greediest chess move you’ve ever played? For me, it was this position from a 2018 game. My knight was on d5, his pawn on f4. I just needed 5 minutes to calculate the crushing Ne7 … But I grabbed on f4 because...
This well-known quote from the second World Chess Champion, Emanuel Lasker, has stood the test of time. But is it still practical? Time control in Lasker’s era was extremely long compared to today’s formats. Back then, if a player en...
I am proud to announce my fantasy chess project! We want to connect chess fans and players through fantasy chess. Fans draft their favorite players, compete with others, win prizes, and become invested in every move their team makes. Through these...
“Why is the position getting worse with every move even though the opponent isn’t doing anything extraordinary?” Obviously, every position is unique; however, the most likely answer to this question, in general, is that your po...
In the good ol’ days of the Romantic Era of chess, winning with a beautiful ending was a common end goal. Players would try to create aesthetically-pleasing finales; sometimes, even their opponents in a lost position would assist in crafti...
Why is the role of the center so important in chess? The main reason is that having control of the center allows the side controlling it to conduct its plan with ease. For example, a player's attack on the opposing side’s king is more like...
“Centralization of the king in the endgame is hardly ever incorrect. It can only be inopportune.” - from Endgame Strategy by Shereshevsky Mating the king is the primary purpose of chess; therefore, each side usually tries to ...
A ruined pawn structure around the king is a recipe for getting mated in the middle game. However, closer to the endgame, the chance of the weaker side being able to defend the king increases, which is why they usually offer trades to make...
During Chess.com’s coverage of the FIDE World Championship, Caruana said that he likes to go against the engine’s will in his opening preparation. Today, it is almost impossible to find any significant advantage in serious openings. ...
How do blunders happen in strong players’ games? Usually, strong players blunder when they encounter a surprise in some part of the game (for example, opening moves that they have not analyzed, moves that change the evaluation, etc.) that ...
When there is no light piece in front of the king, such as a knight on the 3rd or 6th rank, I call it a “lone king concern”. As you would guess, in these situations, the king becomes vulnerable, especially when enemy pieces are nearb...
What happens when a player is “on fire”? This phenomenon is observed in chess tournaments from time to time when a player exhibits much higher performance than his rating would predict. In such cases, it seems that all of the element...
The following question frequently arises in practice: How can I create winning chances if I’m playing with Black? The question above is very difficult to answer because there are several possible variations depending on the opponent, and a...
All chess players encounter situations where it is necessary to effectively respond to their opponents' moves and ideas. Preventing them or preparing against them is known as prophylaxis (from Ancient Greek: πρό (pró = before) + &phi...
There are several types of advantages in chess. After the material advantage, the easiest one to recognize is probably the space advantage, where a player controls considerably more squares than their opponent. It is common knowledge that the si...
A wise man once said that a player in a lost position is like a drowning man who will try all possible ways to escape from his dire circumstances. However, just trying to save themselves may not help the player because an experienced opponent cl...
“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” - George Santayana This quote reminds us why we should learn from history in order to help us to avoid the mistakes made by prior generations. A common ...
This Game of the Week teaches us the following chess concepts: 1) It is always necessary to pay attention to the opponent’s ideas; 2) In most cases, trades are favorable for the side that has a space disadvantage. However, it...
