Becoming a Better Chess Player
Hey Folks! Long, long time since I wrote, but I did learn something from the time since I stopped taking chess seriously and yes, it's changing my life. Yes, and it's changing my chess too. I used to search...
Magnus Carlsen: A Genius or Automaton?
Some of his colleague GMs say Carlsen doesn’t play chess actually. They say he is not a real chess player. Few players still do play chess “in contrast to Carlsen, who prefers to wait for his opponent to make a mistake rather than tr...
Distant Opposition (+ Video)
Hi everyone. Probably, you have already heard about distant opposition in chess. But maybe you are not so clear about what it is, or what is it good for, or how to use it. In this post we are going to try to learn about it and answer those questio...
New Chess.com Navigation Rolling Out In Coming Weeks
Navigating around Chess.com is obviously an essential part of the site; what good are a million new features if you can't navigate to them? To that end, we are releasing a brand new navigation slowly to a few members (roughly 1 percent) at a tim...
The 2nd Youngest GM of All Time - Javokhir Sindarov
Earlier today, I learned that Javokhir Sindarov, the promising 12-year old junior from Uzbekistan, achieved his final GM Norm at the October 2018 First Saturday GM Tournament, at the age of 12 years and 10 months. Like most young players...
Play the Catalan like Magnus
In my first post as a Top Blogger (@SamCopeland, thanks for the honor!), I'd like to try my hand at an exercise that one of my many favorite bloggers, FM Michel Coto (@Michel2426), recommends. If you're not already reading Michel's posts and ...
Keres Attacks with the Hanging Pawns (Keres vs Taimanov, Moscow 1951)
I recently wrote two long posts comparing the D-Pawn Systems: Part 1: (Lame Torre, Levitsky, Stonewall Attack, Richter-Veresov, Jobava Attack) Part 2: (Colle, Rubinstein Attack, London) In case you missed them, do check these out. ...
Chess World Championship Data - Magnus Carlsen
Chess World Championship Data The FIDE World Chess Championship is just under a month away! In anticipation of the event I wanted to take a closer look at the data from the games of World Champion Magnus Carlsen. In particular the games fro...
Fight Fire with Fire
Hello chess friends! For today's post I have analyzed a short game from last year's PRO Chess League, from which we can learn an important concept about playing positions with a material advantage: We shouldn't assume that th...
Another day at the European Club Cup in Halkidiki
The third round of the European Club Cup has been played this Sunday. Of course there are many interesting games to share with you dear readers, but I'd rather share with you my special experience of the day. My German team Werder Bremen faced the...
Standard #27: The Queen Wedge
This is a Round 4 of a USCF rated tournament game from the Parma Chess Championships. (G90;d5). I played the white pieces against Dave Bumba, a 1700-1800 USCF player. White played solid and not precisely enough and black equalizes in ...
Overcoming Difficult Opponents
I feel a bit tired now after talking virtually nonstop for 12 hours today, but that didn't stop me from winning two blitz games tonight against an anonymous GM who only a few weeks ago was one of my most difficult opponents on the Chess.com server...
Топ 5 лучших дебютов для блица
Здравствуйте, сегодня я хочу вам показать топ 5 дебютов для блица. Это будут и гамбиты, многие забытые шахматистами. И поэтому, я покажу вам их, чтобы вы могли применять их, и выигрывать, так как люди не будут знать их. ...
Still Life: Modern Chess Under Predation Press
15 STILL LIFE CHESS PIECES OF ART. What is the meaning of modern chess? "Just to take control over sixteen unoccupied central squares, and the two central horizontals. Art of chess has long ago been reduced to struggle for space. So following ...
My good games at this week #37
Hello, my dear chess friends! This is my new game report about my chess games. Have you heard about Friday's Big Event? Its regular bullet tournament on chess.com with time control 2/1. I had the courage to take part in one such, along wi...
Sergey Karjakin: "Carlsen now is stronger than Kasparov was in his prime"
Sergey Karjakin's big interview after the Chess Olympiad. Taken by Marina Makarycheva and her husband Sergey. Source: http://kavkaz-chess.ru/?p=37850 THE TOURNAMENT WAS TOO SHORT FOR THE RUSSIAN TEAM Marina Makarycheva: Hello dear frien...
The Cat With Nine Lives
For today's post, I've shared a recent blitz game I played, where I used one of my nine lives to win a game where I got outplayed up and down the board. My annotations ended up being quite brief, so I've included them in full. Three th...
Capablanca: Always in Zeitnot?!
THE GREAT CUBAN HAD ALWAYS BEEN IN THE TIME PRESSURE... IN ONE THING. The Hungarian Russian Grandmaster Lilienthal played ten world champions in his career, and beat six of them. In his time, he was one of the top elite players, next to such wor...
Introducing the Petrosian QID
In this post, I will introduce the Petrosian Variation of the Queen's Indian, so that almost any player can understand the basic ideas of this opening. It arises after the following moves: Why would White spend a tempo on a non-developin...
The Platov brothers capture a Queen (+ Video)
Hello everyone. As part of my preparation for next tournaments, I found this study; it was created by the Platov brothers (Vasily and Mikhail) and published in 1909. I encourage you to try to resolve it, focus for some minutes, think, and the...
Endgame Tactics from Vidit-So
In this post, I've taken some endgame positions from my analysis of the recent Speed Chess Challenge match between Wesley So and Santosh Gujrathi Vidit, where you have the opportunity to find some nice ideas Vidit was White in each of the pu...
Challenger's Corner Recap: Making the Most of Small Advantages
Missed my stream on Monday night? Here are some highlights of key points during my Challenger's Corner stream. If you like what you see, you should follow my Twitch Channel for updates on my chess.com partnered stream! As always, I like to do a ...
Comparing the D-Pawn Systems (Part 2)
Last time we started comparing the D-Pawn Systems that you can play after 1...d5, going through the the "Lame Torre", Levitsky Attack, Stonewall Attack, Veresov, and the Jobava Attack. This time we'll look at the big three, starting wit...
Awakening of Reserves: When ugly transforms into harmony
Life transforms. A number of times. And it happens in chess too. When the ugly transforms into harmony, it becomes a spectacle. It has a striking impact. In the following game my pieces are not developed and they seem rather ugly. But then the p...
Don't Feed the Hippo
A few months ago, I visited Adelaide Zoo and saw many beautiful and interesting animals, including the Hippopotamus. I don't think I'll ever forget Brutus the old hippo - he would spend nearly all his time in the water, lured only by the prospect ...