kamalakanta's Blog

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Do You Want to Win? Sacrifice Your Queen on c4!

Do You Want to Win? Sacrifice Your Queen on c4!

kamalakanta
| 27 days ago

Hi! Creative geniuses like Geller and Bronstein intersect today in this theme....sacrifice your Queen on c4! Bronstein's game has an interesting story. In the 1960 Mar del Plata Tournament in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bronstein was due to play ...

When a Blocked Position is Not Really Blocked!

When a Blocked Position is Not Really Blocked!

kamalakanta
| Apr 4, 2023

"Experience is the greatest Teacher." And I would have to add that good Teachers are those who are able to transmit the wisdom of their experience! In this regard, certain chess authors stand out as great Teachers: Chigorin, Steinitz, Tarrasch, ...

A Work of Art

A Work of Art

kamalakanta
| Mar 11, 2023

Chess is so many things......different things to different people....to the chess professional, chess is work. To club tournament players, chess may be mostly a sport. To me, chess is Art. And thus it was with some of the greatest players of the...

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

kamalakanta
| Mar 2, 2023

Today's elite players are indeed great. They also play openings that our ancestors played more than 100 years ago! One of my favorite chess streams is Chessbase India, with Sagar Shah. He is really entertaining, and at the same time very profess...

Smyslov Inspires Petrosian's Masterpiece

Smyslov Inspires Petrosian's Masterpiece

kamalakanta
| Feb 23, 2023

Chess is not infinite; yet it is wide enough to baffle the human mind. While computers continue to amaze us with their capacity for calculation, elite GMs are still finding ways to stay creative. Chess is not exhausted, far from it. It is a game, ...

A Masterpiece by Chigorin

A Masterpiece by Chigorin

kamalakanta
| Feb 14, 2023

A few weeks ago I wanted to publish a multi-game post about Chigorin's endgame prowess. This came about because I had read a quote stating that Chigorin was a very skilled rook endgame player. The truth is, Chigorin was a world-class Master at eve...

Nezhmetdinov- A Quiet Masterpiece

Nezhmetdinov- A Quiet Masterpiece

kamalakanta
| Jan 22, 2023

"His games reveal the beauty of chess and make you love in chess not so much the points and high placings, but the wonderful harmony and elegance of this particular world." "In Nezhmetdinov, more than in anybody else, you can see the difference ...

Tartakower- The Dance of the Pieces

Tartakower- The Dance of the Pieces

kamalakanta
| Jan 15, 2023

There is great joy in sharing things that are beautiful or unique; sometimes both! The book "The Hypermodern Game of Chess", by GM Savielly Tartakower, is a jewel. He covers many different opening systems, and gives lucid explanations (and many ...

Great Mastery! Thomas-Rubinstein, 1922

Great Mastery! Thomas-Rubinstein, 1922

kamalakanta
| Jan 5, 2023

Great players are like virtuoso pianists...Rubinstein's play reminds me of Vladimir Horowitz..... The following game was played in Hastings, 1922 between George Thomas and Akiva Rubinstein, the great Polish player. Rubinstein's games ha...

Romanovsky the Great

Romanovsky the Great

kamalakanta
| Nov 10, 2022

Fame and fortune are very fickle, unpredictable realities. Recently I was looking at Peter Romanovsky's book: .....and upon looking at one or two of his games, was reminded of what a great player he was! Yet I had never heard of him, unt...

The Enigma Variation (and The Centre)

The Enigma Variation (and The Centre)

kamalakanta
| Oct 27, 2022

Some variations and positions are evaluated in one way initially, and then some Grandmasters do some more research (this is before engines, thank God) and discover hidden resources and themes in it, and I love it! This particular variation that ...

Rashid G. Nezhmetdinov- Some Combinations, Part I

Rashid G. Nezhmetdinov- Some Combinations, Part I

kamalakanta
| Jun 12, 2022

Rashid, Rashid, what can I say? Your moves make me fall in love with chess. Your passion deepens my respect for you as an Artist, even though this passion of yours for attack and combinations often cost you points on the scoreboard. Rashid, you ...

Mark Taimanov- An Optimist!

Mark Taimanov- An Optimist!

kamalakanta
| Jun 2, 2022

Hi, dear chess lovers! I have not posted in a while, partly because of the natural rhythm of life, but also because of the humanistic crisis enveloping the world now. This crisis is not new, it has been going on for the last 77 years.....but tha...

Chigorin- A Creative Genius 'Till the End!

Chigorin- A Creative Genius 'Till the End!

kamalakanta
| Apr 24, 2022

Chigorin was a great pioneer of modern chess. His creativity was unbounded, and even when his health started to fail, he maintained his creative attitude to the game. In 2018 I published a small post, titled "Marshall's Attack is Actually Chig...

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