My Dear Chess Friends,On Sunday I conducted a Master Class for Beginners and for those who missed it I would like to show a fragment where I explain how to think systematically (step-by-step guide how to find the best move) by example of my classi...
In this game, I played one of the sharpest lines in the French Defense and my opponent got lost. You can also watch a game with a live commentary______________________________________________________________________________________________...
Hi all! Time to post a blog on the adventures that I'll have at TATA steel chess. I'll be playing the amateur ten camp - ten days and 9 rounds of intense chess right next to the pro players. This will be day one of my blog and I will stream the an...
Hi chess enthusiasts. This time I found an old puzzle I had already solved some years ago. When I saw it, I immediately knew what I would post about this week. In this study we deal with several tactical themes: attraction, deflection, skewer, sta...
Sometimes our life is full of "coincidences"; or is it Destiny? I was looking at "The Game of the Century", where Bobby Fischer, at the age of 13, played a brilliant Queen sacrifice against Donald Byrne. The game was played in the Third Rosenwal...
You should not only be ready for your bughouse opponents to sacrifice on you--you should want them to. It might seem scary at first, but eventually you can learn to swat aside any early attack. Instead of being a sac sitter, you will do bette...
During my series on constructing a Master-Level Opening Repertoire, I've gotten several questions about what the most important aspects of opening preparation are. (I actually have an exclusive training video that covers this in detail. It's NOT...
Hi all! Time to post a blog on the adventures that I'll have at TATA steel chess. I'll be playing the amateur ten camp - ten days and 9 rounds of intense chess right next to the pro players. This will be day one of my blog and I will stream the an...
While looking at this Taimanov Sicilian game from Gibraltar, using an engine, I noticed something that impressed me very much. See the note to White's 10th move!
Hi all! Time to post a blog on the adventures that I'll have at TATA steel chess. I'll be playing the amateur ten camp - ten days and 9 rounds of intense chess right next to the pro players. This will be day one of my blog and I will stream the an...
The title is not an oxymoron, I promise (but yes, this is another objectively drawn rook endgame with all the pawns on one side ). As discussed in that previous article, these endgames are actually very rich and interesting. Bring on th...
I returned to tournament chess after a very long absence in 2014. USCF gave me a provisional rating based on my 2100 FIDE rating (I don't know what happened to my previous USCF rating) and it promptly crashed to around 1800--no wonder, as I'...
Hi all! Time to post a blog on the adventures that I'll have at TATA steel chess. I'll be playing the amateur ten camp - ten days and 9 rounds of intense chess right next to the pro players. This will be day one of my blog and I will stream the an...
As early as 1982 the USCF had already started making preparations for the upcoming events commemorating the centennial of the death of Paul Morphy (1837-1884). Paul Morphy, as most chess enthusiasts realize, was the most celebrated ch...
Over 9 years ago I delved into my thoughts about respect in chess specifically around the idea of when is the appropriate time to resign. It actually turned out to be one of my most viewed and commented on blogs. Likely because no matter what leve...
In 1966 the cultural revolution begun in China. It was a socio-political movement aiming primarily at purging China of all capitalist elements of society and promoting Maoism as the dominant ideology. Young people were actively encouraged to rebel...
Hi everyone! In this blog I will discuss an entertaining, frustrating, and relatable subject: blundering! Here's how I've organized today's blog: displaying a panoply of 5 horrible yet instructive blunders from the past and present, a catalog of w...
Hi all! Time to post a blog on the adventures that I'll have at TATA steel chess. I'll be playing the amateur ten camp - ten days and 9 rounds of intense chess right next to the pro players. This will be day one of my blog and I will stream the an...
I recently caught up with the newly-crowned 2019 South African Women’s Chess Champion, WIM Jesse February, to find out her future chess plans, her chess training and advice, and her thoughts on South African chess. As top finisher at the SA ...
In 1851, London held the "Great Exhibition" to showcase British technology and culture. Concurrent with the event, Howard Staunton organized the world's first international chess tournament. This 16-player knockout invited all of the greatest play...
Dear Chess Friends, I’ve already posted 2 articles: About mistakes that beginners make (and, of course, I shared my ideas of how to avoid these mistakes) in Chess. You can find the article here – “4 Typical Mistakes Beginne...
I was browsing through chess magazines online and tracked an article in Tidskrift för Schack [10/1980] on young then Kasparov. He had just won, at the age of 17, the 19th World Junior Chess Championship, held in Dortmund during Aug 1980. Seco...
by David Pruess, manager Last year, GM Daniel Naroditsky played all 10 regular season matches for the team. And in addition to scoring well, he was famous for some really exciting games, such as this, earning him game of the week nominations wee...
I could play chess for a century and never again get a game like this 3/2 blitz game where I finish with all my eight pawns still on the board on their original columns, checkmating a naked king. Enjoy this game and please share a crazy gam...
It is rare for two players that one has not heard of to play a masterpiece, but that is what happened in the game Schmidt vs. Kuligowski. This game, played in Poland in 1979, won the best game prize in the Informant issue of it's quarter. The vict...