Gyula Breyer was a tremendously promising player and one of the leaders of the hypermodern school of chess. He passed away at a young age (28) in 1921 when he was at the height of his powers. Just one year prior he had won one of the biggest chess...
"If you asked me who would NOT win then I'd be glad to give you a clear reply: Anand. Let's agree on the following: if Anand wins the tournament I'll publicly admit I understand nothing about life or chess, and you'll never ask me to take part in ...
This is not a post about how to destroy your opponents and win tournament after tournament, in case you are wondering. If Garry Kasparov is reading, I'd be happy to let my blog be a platform for his explanation of how to do that . This post is a...
Afternoon everyone! A few days ago my friend @kamalakanta posted a wonderful article. If you havent seen it, go take a look now. It is here. There the name of Furman came up. It struck me that many players will know the name, and perhaps a lit...
My Dear Chess Friends! Finally after 3 months of razor-sharp play between our participants, I'm glad to tell you that all 9 rounds were finished and we have 3 prizewinners! But before I announce who they are, let me tell you more about how thi...
The November recap was written by @dpnorman. Untitled Tuesday: November 2019 The November edition of Untitled Tuesday featured 27 players and a rating range from the 2300s to the 1100s. The field included nine players finishing over 2000 and o...
I like to think about chess. All aspects of it, whether they are psychology, plans in a certain type of position, openings, endgames, ways to study. I have written before about certain puzzling moments from chess history that I will proba...
“In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else, for whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and the opening must be studied in relation to the endgame.” - Jose R...
Mikhail Tal offered many audacious and quite a few suspicious queen sacrifices in his dramatic career. One of his finest, and probably soundest, queen sacrifices was his 1958 offering against Milko Bobotsov. Tal immediately picked up two minor p...
Dear Chess Friends! This is the recording from the webinar that I conducted this Sunday (8th December). On the webinar I tried to explain how to lock enemy pieces out and what to apply to exploit this advantage! We analyzed 3 game fragments wh...
Hello Caissa’s friends. In this post I bring some puzzles I got from my training sessions. These are the 5 most impressive and instructive ones I have seen in last days. I suggest you to work with the video; it is recorded in a way that you ...
I've made blog postings about different aspects of music that had caught my eye— mostly with folk music and usually quite convoluted. These include: Wasn't That a TimeTwo by TwoWild Old FamilyThe First Time ...
I've always enjoyed studying the 4.Bg5 Grunfeld for the wealth of creative ideas that are possible for black. It's one of those lines that for some reason keeps on giving. For instance, here are just a few exotic tries I've toyed around with in th...
In my previous two visits to Reno I'd been within striking distance of the hefty Class A prize both times. This time, though, I couldn't shake the memory of multiple bad tournaments in a row, and I wasn't optimistic. I might have chick...
Some chess moves have a striking impression on our psyche; they leave a mark! When you look at game collections, you find that a Master can give you inspiration in different ways; maybe a new opening line, or how he builds an attack, or defends a ...
In my newest "Every Move Explained" video, I break down the first world chess champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, most famous game. Steinitz gets a bit of a bad rap. He never dazzled the world like Paul Morphy, and by the time Lasker came along, he prov...
In chess, the sporting element is supreme right now. The artistic side of the game has been pushed aside by a more "mathematical", computerized approach to the game. I remember Anand getting in trouble in a game because he "forgot the move order...
The Learner Series will highlight players that have made significant rating progress over the past few years. The second guest in the series, Paul, is a one of my good friends and a chess student. He has gone from 1200-1750 chess.com blitz over a ...
The Hungarian attacking chess master, Rudolf Charousek, may have been the last great romantic chess player. His swashbuckling style, prone to the King's Gambit and general recklessness, was already out of place in the 1890's, but he used this styl...
Dear Chess Friends! Our last webinar was devoted to Semi-Slav Defense sidelines. And, of course, openings are important and sometimes home preparation plays the most significant role in the game. But your ability to think and play strategically ...
The buttons in bughouse allow players to make requests without typing. There are buttons such as "trades are good", "trades are bad", "sit", "go" and requests for each of the pieces. FICS has some good buttons, and some questionable ones, includin...
The biennial SEA Games- sort of like an Olympic Games among the 11 South East Asian countries, is considered the 3rd most prestigious multi-sport event for Singaporeans, after the Olympics and the Asian Games. The gold medal winner of the event is...
Our BOOK OF THE WEEK is FIDE's Book of the Year: Together with the Candidates. Also known as the Averbakh/Boleslavsky Award in respect of these two giants of chess literature, GM Artur Jussupow presided over the three-man indep...
Hey there, Stacia here and I'm at it again with a two for one sale in honor of Cyber Monday! I'm on a quest to get to 1700 before the end of the year and I better hurry so here I present to you not one training game, but two with the same theme....
Hey people from the 64 squares kingdom. As I told you in my last post, there is a Puzzle Battle World Championship. I’d really like to qualify, but honestly, one week ago I didn’t think I could, I will let you know why below. In this p...