"Move every piece once before you move any piece twice, unless there is a tactic" is the most important principle (not goal!) in the opening. This principle is ancient. I found an almost identical one in Emanuel Lasker's book Common Sense i...
Instructive Pawns Endgame (+ Video) Hi everyone. As you probably know, I really like to study and work with endgames, I think it’s very important for any chess player who wants to improve and make progress at chess. In this post we will an...
Searching in the Soviet chess magazines of the 1960s for my previous blog, I've bumped into these interesting photos of the head picture, where, as you can see, a chesstable for four players is presented. The host article had the title Great Frien...
Good morning everyone. Well, I am working on one of my big history blogs about a forgotten figure from chess history at the moment, but there has been a noteworthy day to take notice of! For anyone who hasn't noticed it, I will point you...
Hello, my dear chess friends! This week a lot of small things left me quite a bit of time for chess.But still, this week I played, perhaps one of my best games.The second game is not so interesting, but it still illustrates the ideas of some of ...
To play a gambit is to sacrifice material, usually a pawn, right in the opening. This is done to get something in return, what is known as your compensation. The concept of compensation is essential in understanding gambi...
Most of the time, all you do is hear me complain about chess engines and cheaters ... how a human has no hope against a chess engine ... BUT!!! Did you know there are times that chess engines are absolutely ZERO help? (No, this is not a jo...
Like all top chess engines, Stockfish is a super-tactician and as such it’s normally able to uncover any forced-mate sequences that aren’t excessively long. Yet there are certain directmate problems – composed positions requiring...
Continuing our series on Mikhail Chigorin's love of chess problems, let's look at the third etude that Chigorin wants us to solve. Problem no. 3 White to move and mate in 2 It took a bit of detective work to figure out who composed ...
Continues from Part 2. FISCHER'S STYLE AND MODERN STYLE Favoured Techniques Fischer's play very rarely features "irrational" strategic plans in the middlegame, with quick violation of symmetry and balance. But he's always ready to accept suc...
Inspired by my latest series of Mikhail Chigorin's love of chess problems, I'd like to share an interesting position that popped up in a 3/2 blitz game I just played. Find the fastest mate. If you'd like to brush up on this tactic, GM Pat...
Hello Again Readers! It has been a long time, nearly three years now, since I have put a blog post up at Chess.com. In that time frame, many things have happened, and not many of them were good. All of that aside, afte...
If you want to improve your chess game, we have big news. Today, we released an entirely new Analysis product: one that will transform your post-game experience into an eye-opening encounter with everything you have to learn from your own g...
Something's ailing me. I'm not playing well after coming out of my semi-retirement. Nevertheless I've not completely lost my chess marbles as evidenced by the following beauty that I played in the first round of the Marshall Masters against the am...
I have just finished two tournaments in Austria, the excellently organised Lienz Open and Graz Open and I am astonished at the number of Caro-Kanns that were played in the latter. Perhaps, it is because the inventor of this opening, Markus Kann is...
by David Pruess, manager Following the same methodology as in this first post on the Pacific, here is my analysis of the top lineups in the Central Division and their playoff prospects. This post also includes Final Four picks!! This analysis ...
Who doesn't like Tal? Not me... Hanging pieces, sacrifices... and the opponent gets checkmated! I always wanted to explore somehow his games, but it seemed to me a little difficult. Haven't specified exactly why. This cycle of games attracted me, ...
by David Pruess, manager Following the same methodology as in this first post on the Pacific, here is my analysis of the top lineups in the Central Division and their playoff prospects. I'll note that throughout the season, I had some misgivin...
As we discussed in my first post in this series, Mikhail Chigorin loved chess problems. As editor of Shakhmatny Listok, Chigorin selected the best chess problems for his readers. In my first post, we looked at the first study published in ...
by David Pruess, manager Following the same methodology as in this first post on the Pacific, here is my analysis of the top lineups in the Atlantic Division and their playoff prospects. 1. St Louis Archbishops St Louis Official Accu...
Hi mates. Emanuel Lasker, Second World Champion since 1894 to 1921, played some great and instructive games. The one we analyze today is the best game of his chess career (according to his words). In this battle he beat Harry Nelson Pillsbury, a v...
Today all chess-lovers celebrate a big holiday – 50th birthday of ukraininan Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk, true Chess Wizard and Genius. Team Ukraine hosts a big event – online blitz tournament Vassily Ivanchu...
How many chess games have you played? I am NOT talking about your ratings ... just the total number of games that you have actually played? As you can see from this image. I have now played over 100,000 bullet games!!!!!!!!!...
by David Pruess, Manager I've looked over the 4 pacific playoff teams, looking for lineups that best utilize the players with the strongest performances so far this year-- although in some cases there are still some potentially strong players on...