Five-time World Champion GM Viswanathan Anand is teaching a one-hour live online lesson on July 14th at Chess University. GM Anand will teach using his recent victories and help students better understand strategy, time management, and other top...
This is a great way to answer the first move 1.f2-f4, and, perhaps, the main reason why Bird Opening is rarely used now. From's Gambit is easy to learn and really dangerous for White. These are my words from the blog To...
Today I played with a strong ukrainen player. I played him a few days ago with the same colour. We played a draw in a long game. I analysed the opening deeply and found an improvment. I decided to play a6 in the alapin to prevent the Bb...
Five-time World Champion GM Viswanathan Anand returns to Chess University this weekend to teach a 1-hour live online chess masterclass. The class starts at 10:00 AM Pacific Time (PDT) on Saturday, July 14th, 2018. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP Sig...
I have to admit, I'm starting to get into the hang of playing blitz and streaming simultaneously. After taking about a 100 point rating dive last month on one of my streams, I've somehow managed a 19/21 score (granted, against some lower rated pla...
Today I played with a german players who was rated 2001 in standard time control. This time I streamed both the game and the analysis. He played the english opening. I played the Botwinnik setup with c5 and e5 to gain space and control d4.&nbs...
Everybody knows of Fantasy Leagues, but I don't think I've heard of one dealing with chess! As I recently discovered, there actually is one here on chess.com - https://www.chess.com/club/fantasy-chess-league. The rules are pretty much the...
I've mostly only had time for the random 1 minute game lately, so the few blitz games tonight felt almost slow. I'm not in serious chess shape right now, but I was able to play a very brutal and mostly accurate attack, so I thought I'd share. Enjo...
Today I decided to increase my standard rating and to play 1 game every day. My first game was a quick one, my opponent resigned after 3 moves. Possible he needed to run somewhere. My next opponent played the Dutch defense and I decided to te...
Hello. Once again I was looking into my databases, just trying to find a good game to learn as part of my chess training. And then, what a nice surprise, I found this. I had already seen it, but I think I can look at this one hundred times, and I ...
A spoilt winning game hurts more than just a lost one. A spoilt masterpiece hurts like hell. I analyse one such game played by my good friend GM Neelotpal, his comments of the crucial moment included. Also a fantastic achievement by GM Tivia...
A few days ago, in a post here I mentioned Jonathan Mestel. As the name will mean less than nothing to most of you, I have quickly thrown some stuff together for you to enjoy. sadly real life stuff means that a full article is out of t...
What's up, guys and gals? Many of us know of the strides Rameshbabu Praggnanandhha has been making, and his hard-fought journey to the highest title in chess, International Grandmaster. He fell short of Karjakin's record for youngest...
Hello! This is my game report about last week. My blitz rating continued to grow and today it reached the mark of 2169. This week fortune favors the brave. Add the coment if you like my games!
Hello everyone. Today I come with another bullet game. As you may know, I enjoy a lot playing fast games (blitz and bullet). I do not play it more often because my internet connection is not ideal to do that. I just like to analyze it with the e...
Last week we started looking at how White can respond to the Benoni move 1. d4, Nf6 2. Bf4, c5 with 3. e3 and 3. dxe5. This week I'll look at the main recommendation, 3. d5, and try to come to some conclusions (at least for myself) as to which is ...
I'm happy to announce that second part of my series Improving the Endgame Technique is already available on Amazon. In near future it will be also available on ForwardChess app (if you do not have this app on your electronic device I strongly reco...
[Note: This is a cross-post from my blog at www.davidsmerdon.com on my reflections in Kenya. Part 1 isn't about chess.] “Have you been to Africa before?” asked my taxi driver as we left the airport. “Yes,” I ...
Hello my chess friends. Have you seen Kasparov’s last game before his official retirement? Well, I was looking at my database, and I found it. This is a historical game. A very interesting game too. I was a child when it happened, it was Lin...
Hi, there! So, we have four different openings.We have four players of different strengths.And we have four games.Choose one now. Write, please, what game you like more? Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 Game 4 W...
What's an Anti-Grunfeld? This might be a good starting point In this Anti-Grunfeld, White delays d2-d4 so that when Black inserts ...d7-d5, the same strategic ideas are not accessible to him. I've had a few chances to play this opening,...
The King is the most important piece in a game of chess. After all, if your King is threatened in such a way that escape is not possible (checkmate), the game is over! Therefore, it is usually tucked away early in the game as the other pieces arou...
In number 8 of this little series, it was suggested that I might post a favorite game by a woman player. By a coincidence, I had been looking at this week's game just a few day before. Spooky!! The wonderful Vera Menchik. A full article goes out...
Hello, my old and new friends! This week my blitz rating reached 2148, which has never been so high on this site. I'll open our selection of games this week with a combination of an interesting gambit. The player from th...
With a performance rating of 2855 over the first six months of 2018, Anish Giri inched out Magnus Carlsen (2853). Both Carlsen and Giri started the year off with a strong performance at the Tata chess tournament, where both scored +5. Crucial game...