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The Fried Liver attack is one of the most aggressive and effective openings in chess. I frequently use these in blitz games, and it serves as a perfect way to trap your opponent. If your opponent is careless, they can easily blunder their way into a swift checkmate for you. The game starts off simple, but within a few sacrifices of some pieces, you can draw your opponent into a threatening mating net. Let's take a look. As you can see, black is in a horrible position. Their king is in the middle of the board, their pieces are undeveloped, and white has a great setup. Although white is down material, this superior position should make this an easy game to win. Let's take a look at some variations... Here instead of taking the rook on a1, the knight moves back to d4, which is a better move overall. Remember, in this attack, having active pieces is key to keeping the pressure on offensively as well as not failing on the defensive side. After white takes the knight on d5, the king's best move is to retreat to d6. White's queen can then move to g3, removing the threat from the knight as well as continuing the attack. From there. black may try to develop a piece, but after white plays d3, opening up the dark squared bishop, black will soon find themselves in a mating net. In this second variation, instead of black's c6 knight moving to b4, it moves back to e7 giving further protection to the knight on d5. From this point, white can castle kingside, preparing for the rook to get involved in the game. In response to this, a common move played by black is c6, which again, provides protection for the pinned d5 knight. Then white can move their rook to e1, getting ready to play d4 and activate their dark squared bishop. Black has a couple responses to this, but once white's dark squared bishop is activated, its game over for black... their liver has been completely fried. You may be wondering now how you can defend this attack. This is a common attack and it is key that you neutralize this threat early on in the game, to keep your chances of victory high. Let's go over a few strategies... Here in this setup, you can respond aggressively back. Instead of playing two knights defense, you can sacrifice your pawn on e5, and start to create a pathway to victory. After white's knight takes your pawn, you can develop your queen to g5. White's knight will 9/10 take the pawn on f7, forking your queen and rook. You can capture the pawn on g2, also attacking their rook. If white takes your rook(which most likely he will) you can capture his as well and give check. White's only option is to protect with their bishop, but after taking the pawn on e2, black is at a significant advantage and has multiple pathways to victory. Let's take a look at one more... In this scenario, instead of recapturing the pawn on f5, play knight a5 and threaten the bishop. The only option for white is to retreat their knight, and then black can proceed to attack the knight and kick him away. Black's queen can then recapture, the pawn on f5 and in the end has a positional advantage. Their pieces are developed well, with open diagonals for the bishops and black on the other hand, is in a very awkward and disadvantaged position. The game should be easy to win from here. So there you have it, "The Fried Liver Attack." This opening is a keeper and can help you win games decisively and easily if you practice enough. Your opponents will be utterly clueless on how to respond to this, and you can enjoy a well deserved, tasty victory.

The Queen's Gambit! One of (if not the most) popular gambits out there, and the first opening I ever learned. This opening caught my attention because of how fun it was to use as a beginner; if black accepts this line it can very well lead to some bloodbath and very entertaining positions, and if they decline you still will have a very solid position and development. So let's get into it! This is probably the accepted gambit line that all of you are very or at least somewhat familiar with. The point behind this opening is that you force black's d pawn away from the center and thus gain pawn center control with e3 or e4. As the queen's gambit can be accepted, it can also be declined. This is the mainline for the queen's gambit declined where black chooses not to give up their pawn. In this line, black chooses to give up center control to solidify their defense around the king. In turn, white is able to gain center control and to make it seem like they have more pieces on the board. But like anything, benefits have their costs, and the queen's gambit has a variety of counterattacks. An annoying move that can be played for black is e5. And as you can see there are a lot of ways you as white can be stuck in a not-so-nice spot playing against that move. The best move if you're feeling awfully worried or just being safe, is Nf3.

Do you ever get pumped up to play a chess game only to lose it within the first 10 moves without knowing what even happened? If you're anything like the majority of beginner to intermediate players out there, chances are that this has happened to you. Fortunately, there is a way to avoid losing in this embarrassing fashion and instead reverse the roles onto your opponent. It all starts with a little concept called the "Achilles tendon". This refers to the f7 square for black and the f2 square for white; it is called the "Achilles tendon because it is a soft spot in both camps and is, therefore, a perfect target of attack. Let's see a few examples.

knock yourself out, guys I suggest finding a game plan for the ultimate checkmate first - that would really help

an easier puzzle, relative to the rest

this is one super tough/stale cookie, so take your time and try not to mald :-)

ok so there are several acceptable first moves, but I can only set one as correct. So if you think your first move works but it doesn't accept it, you can just press "hint" and move on to the rest of the variation

have fun yall

Ok so you think mate in 2s are a breeze now huh? Not so fast, I will now test your abilities with the world's hardest mate in 2 puzzle! Legend has it that this puzzle stumps GMs and even Kimmy Liu herself! Anyways, even though this puzzle is practically impossible to solve even amongst GMs, I encourage you all to take a stab at it! SPOILER ALERT IN THE PARAGRAPH BELOW Ok so that was pretty tough huh? There were many tempting moves that looked promising but in fact that is the only mate in 2 in the position. I encourage you all to find refutations to your own attempts (it will help you improve)! It seemed like white could not move his Queen because that would undefend his knight, which would be taken by the black king with a discovered check! But to Black's surprise, Qf1 works! We have to find the invisible refutation of Ke6+ followed by Qf5 Countercheckmate! Crazy how everything is pinned right? After 1. Qf1 white is not actually threatening mate in 1 and black is not forced to take the knight but Black is in zugzwang and anything he does will help white achieve checkmate! What a puzzle!

the moment you all have been waiting for......bishops vs knights! They each have their own advantages, so it's best that you figure it out now Create a position that your minor pieces crave ~ knights tend to do better in closed positions as they can hop around to great squares, whereas bishops thrive in open center positions where they can easily dominate the board. Our first example shows how an apparently simple position can actually be filled with minor piece tension. On the surface, things look easy: white has two bishops and would like to open things up, while black has a bishop and knight and would be happy if he could activate his bishop and find a nice home for his knight. The main questions here are, should white take on e5, push to d5, or simply ignore the face-off between the d4 and e5 pawns altogether. Let's look at the three dif options Closing the center ignoring the tension in the center opening up the center so does this mean the 1.dxe5 is just better for white? Not necessarily! Black lost that battle because he didn't do enough to make his knight challenge the white bishops. So let's return to the original position and show a more principled course for black: hopefully these diagrams give you a better idea of how to effectively use the knights and bishops. Here's a quick review Owner of the bishop: - make it as active as possible by placing it on a free diagonal, or creating one. - prove that it's performing a key function and is extremely useful - steer things into an endgame where the long-range capabilities of the bishop give it a huge edge over the enemy knight. - don't allow the enemy knight to find its way to an advanced permanent support point. Owner of the knight: - closing the position is good for knights - steer for endgames where all the pawns are on one side of the board. This negates the enemy bishop's long-range abilities while amplifying the importance of the knights ability to attack both white and dark squares. - breate a permanent advanced support point for your knight (outpost) - try to find a way to get to the support point! It might take several moves, but that's what moves are for - to place pieces on their best squares so they can exert maximum effect on the board The incarcerated knight I might add more examples here as time goes on, but for now, try to be mindful of the activity of your knights and bishops! They have feelings too

Oops sorry for the infrequent posts - quality over quantity amirite :') anyway today we're gonna analyze the bishop and find out everything about them! While Knights slowly but surely hop to whatever areas of the board they wish to go, Bishops can roar across the length of the board in a single move. This means that if those diagonals aren't blocked, the Bishop can be a fierce and highly prized piece. Bishops can be viewed as Active, Useful, or Tall-Pawns. - A bishop is considered active if it's outside the pawn chain and/or enjoying life on a reasonable clutter-free diagonal. - A bishop is useful if it's doing an important defensive/aggressive task. Such a defensive bishop can be ugly to look at, but its absense would cause your position to undergo serious difficulties - A bishop is a tall-pawn if it's not serving a useful function and is trapped behind its pawns. This kind of bishop takes on the persona of an overgorwn pawn. THE ACTIVE BISHOP ^ in this position, everyone started out with nice Bishops. But then they didn't understand the downside of pushing pawns, which killed their bishops' activity. Every time you move a pawn, check to see how it affects the activity of your Bishops! Obviously, turning an open position into a closed one will negatively affect those pieces, so train yourself to always take the health of your Bishops into account. so this is a highly exaggerated situation, but it clearly shows the Bishop stamping the whole b1-h7 diagonal with the brand of its authority. In the meantime, white's lone pawn will waltz into d8 and promote. THE USEFUL BISHOP active bishops are nice, but at times they aren't really doing anything. In that case, you have to find/create something for them to do. *while an active bishop might look good, a useful bishop trades style for substance and addresses the deeper needs of a position TALL PAWN BISHOPS OF OPPOSITE COLORS A strange battle that resembles a war between two creatures in different dimensions. Because they will live on different colored diagonals, the bishops can't touch, they can't defend what the other attacks, and if you place your pawns/king on the opposite color of the enemy bishop, the ghost-bishop will find that it can't touch anything at all. ^an insane position! Here White is 2 pawns and 3 pieces ahead. Yet, the game is a dead draw!! How can this be? The problem for white is that his army of dark-squared bishops can't touch light squares. final notes about the bishop: - if you have a tall-pawn, try to free it by getting the pawns off its color or by getting it outside of the pawn chain. Failing those things, you can try to exchange it for an enemy minor piece (following the 'trade bad pieces for good ones' rule) - bishops are usually strongest in open positions. The fewer pawns in the way of a bishop the greater its scope. Hope you have some success stories with your active bishops! If you have questions, feel free to ask below good luck, and don't tilt

Hey y'all, we're back with some exclusive content and educational posts! To improve at chess, you gotta know how to utilize your minor pieces, so that's what we're going to cover today. Knights - psychopaths of the board! At times, Knights (aka jumpers, octopus, squid, and horses) are like clowns. They leap over other pieces, they prance about in a drunken gait, and their movements make them seem almost alien compared to other pieces. However, as any clown-wise child will tell you, there is also something scary about them. They seem docile, but behind the facade and horse-like grin is a psychopath, and nothing is safe. Check out this tragicomedy-esque game Don't underestimate Knights! More info - knights are the best blockaders of enemy passed pawns because unlike other pieces, a Knight that's sitting in front of an enemy pawn isn't losing any of its mobility - knights are short range pieces. Unlike Bishops, which can slide the length of the board in a single move, Knights are more restrained. - knights do well in closed positions, because unlike bishops, pawns can't block them. - knights generally gain in strength as they move further up the board (up until the 7th/8th ranks). see examples below to witness the knight in all its glory Knights on the 1st and 3rd ranks Knight on the 4th rank Knight on the 5th rank Knights on the 6th rank Because knights are short-range pieces, you need to calmy march them to the desired post. This might take a few moves, but it must be done. last few words abt the Knight: If you hear a square calling out to your Knight, do everything in your power to get it there (outpost, very strong!). And just because a minor piece is nicely developed to the usual respected squares doesn't mean it's doing anything from that post. Does it have a future on that square? Is it working with the other pieces towards the fulfillment of some unified plan? If the answer is 'no', then it's important that you find a better home for the knight and do your utmost to get it there. Hope you guys have fun hopping around with the Knight/horsie! Feel free to leave any questions/comments below and I'll get back to you asap

If you have ever seen a video of GM Ben Finegold, you've probably heard the phrase "Never play f6". Indeed, one should think twice before moving this pawn. The f7 pawn is known as an "Achilles tendon" and moving it just might sprain your ankle. Anyhow, I could delve into detail about why moving this pawn is a bad idea, but no one likes to read long papers written by a highschool junior anyway (except maybe my English teacher)? Anyhooters, here is a compilation of people getting their "ankles broken" from moving the f-pawn without second thought. 1. Common Opening trap theme 2. Hou Yifan- Lalith throwaway game 3. Another common opening trap 4. PLEASE DON'T FALL FOR THIS 5. Blitz game where DHS's beloved Derek beats a GM in 4 moves     IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GET YOUR ANKLE BROKEN, THINK TWICE BEFORE MOVING YOUR ACHILLES TENDON!

Credit to Daniel Naroditsky - I will share parts of his article "3 Fun Chess Stories" here for you guys to enjoy! The Shkolya Method When I was seven years old, my first coach imbued me with an appreciation for the psychological side of chess. "Chess is played on and off the board," he would sagely proclaim, words that made little sense to me then, but that ring true many years later. To support his point, he told me the story of a Ukrainian master named Shkolya. Mr. Shkolya was a skilled player, but he supplemented his strength through a little psychological trick that was singlehandedly responsible for many of his victories. The trick went like this. Whenever Shkolya set a trap or threatened his opponent's piece, he would intently focus his eyes on a square on the opposite flank. His surprised opponent would inevitably follow suit, and spend a long time trying to figure out what Shkolya was so concerned about. Having found nothing, he will forget all about checking for traps or threats, and will nonchalantly make the most natural move. Flushed with the success of his ploy, Shkolya would exploit his opponent's negligence and win the game. For the longest time, I did not really believe in the efficacy of this so-called trick. Besides, I thought to myself, the story is probably apocryphal anyway. But several years later, curiosity got the better of me and I to test the vaunted Shkolya method in a real game. Just watch what happened!

Chess is a mind game (mind = blown!!). When you sit at the board, it is just you, your thoughts and your emotions. In such a scenario, having the right psychology is of utmost importance to serious tournament players. You may polish your opening knowledge, endgame skills, combinational abilities endlessly, but if you are not able to get in the right frame of mind then improving at the game is very difficult.  Some food for thought: “Our only limitations are those that we set up in our own minds” -Napoleon Hill “When the negative thoughts come — and they will; they come to all of us — it's not enough to just not dwell on it. You've got to replace it with a positive thought” -Joel Osteen [this dude is an obnoxious preacher but I gotta admit I agree with this statement] “I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them” -Oscar Wilde One of the most overlooked things in chess is the ability to manage our thoughts and emotions. This quality separates the pros from the amateurs. So anyone having a serious goal of becoming a good chess player cannot afford to ignore this. 1) Before the game The quality and quantity of training: Before the game, we should focus only on our preparation. We should increase the quality and quantity of our training. No other thought apart from this is needed. 2) During the game Finding the best move: We may be pitted against a higher rated or a lower rated opponent, a tactical or a strategic player, IM or a GM. We may be in a must-win situation. We may be under pressure from our own expectations or that of our parents and coaches. Irrespective of all that, during any game, we should be fully focused on finding the best move at each step. Being solely focused on finding the best move is the only thing that will help us withstand all pressure. 3) After the game What were the mistakes? Only those players who will identify and rectify their mistakes will progress. Hence an honest and a dispassionate analysis should be done of our games to identify our mistakes. We need to uncover the pattern in our mistakes and take steps to strengthen our weaknesses. This will prevent such mistakes happening again.   How to acquire a psychological advantage?  [Player A vs. Player B] Let’s assume Player A knows that Player B does not like to take any risks, and comfortable playing solid chess. Therefore, to acquire a psychological edge over Player B it is necessary to take him out of the “comfort zone”. Player A should make the game sharper, possibly to sacrifice some material, where it is impossible to play without taking risk for both sides. Since Player B is not comfortable playing sharp, double-edged positions he is more likely to make a mistake and to lose a game, than Player A, who loves to walk on a razor blade. A piece sacrifice by Player A can be unsound if properly defended against, but, from the psychological point of view, very effective. A chess master who can better predict the opponent’s game and his strategy has a HUGE advantage. It means that a player who knows the strengths and weaknesses of his opponent will try to exploit those, creating uncomfortable positions on the chess board, generating the most wins. Before a World Championship Match, each player may spend months making a very thorough study of his opponent’s game, searching for weaknesses in his opening repertoire, identifying the types of positions in which he is at home or ill-at-ease, assessing the tendency to over-optimism or pessimism, etc. A great example of home analyzes of the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses can be observed in the 2008 World Championship Match between 14th World Champion V. Kramnik of Russia and his contender, Indian Grandmaster V. Anand. Anand totally changed his opening repertoire and completely surprised Kramnik during the second game of the Match, when he played “1.d4” instead of the usual “1.e4”. Besides the time wasted by Kramnik and his team for preparing the responses against “1.e4” during the past six months prior to the Match, the gigantic psychological pressure on Kramnik could not be underestimated and played it’s decisive role. Kramnik has been taken out from the comfort zone of his home preparation and thrown into the darkness. In result, Kramnik lost the match “4½-6½” losing his title to Anand, who became the 15th World Champion!   Next time, try to steer your game into an uncomfortable position for your opponent! If you can toy with his/her emotions, then chances are the game is in your hands  

twitch has become a great platform to watch chess players play games LIVE. Feel free to explore twitch and follow your fav streamers! This is a great way to stay connected w the chess world Keep in touch with Derek and Kimberly through twitch as well! We stream a couple of times per week - you will receive notifications when we go live (if you follow our channel) Derek's channel: https://www.twitch.tv/famousfreakingleg3nds/ Kimberly's channel: https://www.twitch.tv/kimmyliu18 Stay tuned for tactics, strategies, and tips in the future

When you think about the greatest Chess matches, what comes to mind? Perhaps when Magnus took the World title from Annand, or when Kasparov got frisked by a machine, most likely you will be thinking about when Fischer went against Spassky. An often overlooked match is by non-other Fischer vs Byrn, but not the first one, Da second one. Yeah, I plagiarized this, So what?

We all know that one guy that loses a chess game in less than 2 minutes right? Well, you shouldn't aspire to be that person. With that said, your opponent can lure you into these humiliating losses by setting opening traps. Here are some common opening traps. You can implement some of these in your own games but remember to always be on the lookout!

let us Graduate Imbalances School! Shall we? Whalecom to my Ted Talk Let's start with a quick review of the Fundamentals Control of Key Files Control of Weak Squares/ Holes Lead-in Development Initiative WORK IN PROGRESS BIT CUH Oh another thing: King Safety, you know the thing keeping you in the game. Alright, Gang! It's your Mid-term for imbalances, what do you suppose when you see this position. There are a lot of observations that can be made about white's positions, I suggest brainstorming.