Been looking through the electronic archive of the 64 newspaper (it's available at the Russian Chess Federation website for free). Among other things, I found a small report about the Margate 1935 tournament, including the famous Reshevsky (B...
Hello & Namaste! Get ready to become a student again and take this hilarious chess exam! A few years back, I prepared a set of questions for my students to make it funny. Some are mentioned here: https://8cross8.com/funny-chess-exam/ ...
We're continuing the ChessPathways.com "Openings" series today with a video on the Ponziani Opening. This tricky opening has never been popular in elite chess, but it's easy for white to get a sizeable advantage if black is caught off guard! ...
Underpromoting to a bishop must be the rarest move in chess. We can easily think of some famous examples of rook promotions (such as the brilliant Saavedra study), and by comparison knight underpromotions happen every day - just think of this open...
Hello chess friends! I am pretty busy for the next 5 days, so this blog post will be brief. What would you play in the position below? Try and solve it for yourself: If you want to see more chess puzzles, dai...
Hello & Namaste! Get ready to become a student again and take this hilarious chess exam! A few years back, I prepared a set of questions for my students to make it funny. You can post the answers in the comments I'm really exci...
Dear chess lovers, in this second blog post about Najdorf we present you with their first meeting, at Groningen, 1946. This game was won by Najdorf, and there is a story attached to it. "This is Najdorf's very famous win against the future World...
Hi, Stacia here! This week I played my first round of the Parma Championships at the Parma Chess Club, a series of G90 games, one per week for 7 weeks. I thought I would share this USCF rated tournament game because it was my second...
Every '1.d4 player' faces Queens Gambit Declined very often. This is probably the most common opening after 1.d4 among players in the rating range between 1000-2000. If you are bored playing popular lines with the Bg5-move and looking for so...
Hello everyone! I have been busy lately, so here are a few more puzzles to keep you tactically sharp for your games Puzzle #1 Puzzle #2 Were the first two puzzles too easy? Then here is a tougher one ...
Dear readers, I was casually reading the book "Najdorf: Life and Games", and came across a wonderful game, with notes by Najdorf, and it inspired me to share it with you. Tonight, looking at Najdorf's notes more closely, I realize that he has some...
Hello & Namaste!Continuing the series on the lists, today I'm going to share 7 simple habits for elevating your chess performance. You can start small and pick whichever seems doable and eventually instill all the seven for your next even...
One of the most exciting tournaments to watch, the World Cup in Khanty Mansysk, is well under way. With every passing round the tension rises and as the usually say for knock-outs, the players with best nerves win. As I write this Round 3 finish...
This is an experiment and I would like to see how far it goes. Welcome to this adventure! 1. The Pandas of Lagavi are finding it hard to live under the rule of Zingados - a two-headed creature community. It is that time of the year where re...
Hello chess friends! Here are a few puzzles from Round 3, Game 1 of the FIDE World Cup. Good luck! Vitiugov vs. Karjakin So vs. Vidit Now for my favourite, from Duda vs. Andreikin: ...
For the second video in my new series on the history of computers in chess, I covered one of the most famous examples of human dominance over the early versions of Chess AI. Bobby Fischer's legendary victory over the machine known as "Gree...
As promised, I'm continuing to offer my notes and analysis as I prepare videos for our YouTube and Twitch channels during the 2019 FIDE World Cup. In Round 2 we, once again, saw fighting chess (the kind only a knockout event with stakes like the W...
We're continuing on with the ChessPathways.com "Openings" series today with a video on the Evans Gambit. This Romantic-era chess opening originated hundreds of years ago, but retains its popularity today. Kasparov even famously used it to take d...
Hello & Namaste! I'm sharing some of the tips extracted from my experience in chess life. What if you had seven days to prepare for a tournament? I think you could make the most of the time you have before a tournament by following s...
Which move was the highlight of the 2019 FIDE World Cup thus far? There are quite a few candidates, but many are already saying that Firouzja's 37th move, in his Round 2 World Cup game against 2018 World Rapid Champion Dubov, is the...
I wish I could say I found the right move in my 3/2 blitz game. It's an elegant line. 19 Sept 2019 update — I couldn't help but notice the similarity between the pattern in my game above and the one that popped up i...
Hello people who love a game invented in India. As you already know, one of my favorite topics is chess endgames. Today we are analyzing an interesting position I found in a book written by one of the bests: Mark Dvoretsky. The name of the book is...
Hi All, Hope you have had a fantastic weekend and so here comes the continuation of my blog series on Scottish Championships 2019. (You can find Part 1 here) So after the first 3 rounds I was standing at 2.5 points out of 3, which is not...
Round 2 of the World Cup 2019 saw an Armageddon, an endgame with five knights, and Hikaru Nakamura going down in flames against Nisipeanu. This round featured very few upsets, but a couple of thrilling matches which went down to the wire. The to...
Hello chess friends! How do you determine whether doubled pawns are a strength or a weakness? It is not so often that you see a position where both sides have doubled pawns, but that's what happened in the game I've annotated for tod...