Recap of Tuesday Night Action 48 at Charlotte Chess Center and Scholastic Academy
The burning question in chess.
There is a concept/idea ... that you MUST teach to every rank beginner. Further, EVERY good chess player does this ... whether he/she is consciously aware of it or not. And I have asked dozens of really good and well-known chess teachers this ques...
7 Times Chess Players Talked Trash
Trash talk is a rich part of chess culture. Born in the coffeehouses and parks where real chess is played, where real men (and women battle) and only cowards turn down a sacrifice, and no one pays a mite of attention to the elements. Here are se...
Final Thoughts On Carlsen vs Caruana From Robert And Me
And then life went back to normal... When the smoke cleared after November, despite all the action (and 12 rounds of no satisfaction ), nothing had really changed: Magnus Carlsen was still world champion, Fabiano Caruana, while still being Ameri...
Nikolai Kuzmin (also known as Karamboll)
On December 6, my friend Nikolay Vasilievitch Kuzmin (1963-2018) died. He was an excellent analyst, a chess composer and a strong practical player. Despite the modest title (Candidate Master), being the heir to the Soviet school, he has repeat...
Andras Adorjan- A True Creator!
Andras Adorjan is a supremely creative player, an innovator who influenced both Candidates' Matches and World Championship matches with his original ideas. In this article we will take a look at one of his original ideas in the Queen's Indian De...
Najdorf Sicilian Typical Endgames by GM Jose Gascón
Najdorf Sicilian Typical Endgames Hello guys! I've just uploaded a new video to my Youtube Channel with Najdorf Sicilian Typical Endgames, here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlzVhOY1OuQ&feature=youtu.be Hope you...
Stonewall Dutch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unoZSyzUmn8 Ever wanted to learn how to play a system for Black against 1.d4? This is your opening! Easy enough and always coming up with new ideas! Let's dive in together and take them pesky 1.d4 play...
AlphaZero, Stockfish 10 en Komodo 12.2.2
At the beginning of December Stockfish 10 was released. Stockfish has won the last three unofficial world championships for chess engines (TCEC) and confirmed its dominant position by also winning the chess engine tournament at chess.com recently....
Short vs Timman, 1991: The King commands the Battle (+ Video)
Hello my chess friends. This is a fantastic game where Short won with a supernatural idea, something completely different. I won’t say anything, just look at the video or the board and enjoy it. I keep posting once every week. I would love...
Individual European Rapid and Blitz Championship 2018
The tournament took place in my city of Skopje from 6-9 December and I was eagerly waiting for it. I did some preparation for it and was curious to see how things will work out. In short, they didn’t. I was forced to leave the tournament (...
My good games at this week #45
Hello, my old and new friends! Thanks for visiting my blog. I again approached the level of 2200. This week my rating on chess.com is 2186. This was the result of several interesting games, some of them I will show you now. The week bega...
The wild and woolly world of 960 chess.
I have now played a handful of games of 960 chess. On another site, I lost the first 5-10 games that I played in this variant as correspondence games. And I want to see if I can figure out why, I also thought it would be fun to post the ga...
Cecil De Vere. 'The English Morphy'. Part Two.
Back in Part One, we left the story at the end of the great Baden-Baden tournament of 1870. Some five months later he took part in the huge City of London Chess Club Handicap Tournament. There were four players - out of the 48 competitors ...
Put first things first
In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey advises us to "put first things first." This puzzle (which is inspired by a position that popped up in a recent 15/10 rapid game) is a helpful reminder of this simple yet powe...
Cecil De Vere. 'The English Morphy'. Part One.
O.K. A handful of you will have seen the bulk of this article before, but I have, in view of new information and further digging, decided to redo it in two parts. I have also added some notes to all the games. Since my original effort, I have fo...
ih8sens On The "Draw Problem"
I have a slightly different opinion on this nonsense. What nonsense? Well for those of you who have been living under a rock, Carlsen and Caruana just drew 12 consecutive classical games in their WC match and a bunch of people are screaming that...
Classical time control has to go, at least for now?
Let's face it: chess fans don't like draws. They complained about them in 1920s (Alekhine vs. Capablanca), in the 1980s (first Karpov vs. Kasparov match), and especially now, after Carlsen and Caruana drew all 12 classical games. Still, Carlsen ...
The best game of November
Hello! This blog summarizes the my creative results of November. And I have one question for you. Which game is the best, in your opinion? Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 Game 4 Write in commentary number of g...
What Shape is the Elephant? (Part I)
There is a famous story, which I believe originated in India. Five blind brothers were asking themselves, what is the shape of the elephant? So they decided to find out. They went to the river and touched the elephant. One of the brothers touche...
Chess Masterpieces: Euwe vs. Keres, 1940
In 1939/1940, Max Euwe and Paul Keres played a "friendly" match which the chess world followed enthusiastically in light of the current turmoil in the world championship situation. In 1937, Euwe had lost his rematch with Alexander Alekhine, whil...
Tactical Themes: Obstruction (+ Video)
Hello everyone. As you already know, tactics is a very important aspect of the game if you want to raise your level. In this post, I’m going to try to help you to improve, explaining 5 puzzles, where you have to win using Obstruction Tactica...
WCC 2018 Tie-Break: Magnus Carlsen defends title
Reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen proved his dominance in speed chess by whitewashing Fabiano Caruana 3-0 in the rapid tiebreaks after all the classical games ended in draws. The World Chess Championship 2018 was a match-up for the ages. Af...
Richard Reti on the Carlsen - Caruana match
Well, of course I'm joking. Richard Reti wrote the article titled "Some Conclusions: Alekhine vs. Capablanca" in 1928 for Shakhmatniy Listok. Still, many of the things written 90 years ago seems still relevant today, so I think it's worth rep...
Just the basics.
This will be a blog of annotated games ... for the average player ... say 1650 and below! (If you are a higher rated player, please look away, this blog is not for you!) This is a chance for me to teach and try to help all the lowe...