Let's get one thing straight: sometimes, playing with the Black pieces isn't all that fun. White tends to dictate the pace of the game, take the initiative early, and gain more space. Meanwhile, we sit back and wait for the right opportunity to st...
Hello Everyone! National Master Dave Mohan here, back with an addition to the Chess Concepts series. One question I get a lot from my beginner students is "why should I even castle?" It's a strange king move that, in the minds of many amat...
Watch how a National Master takes on a tough defensive task, winning the game in style with a crazy king walk. Game played in the chess.com 15+10 pool, with live commentary and post-game analysis. If you learned something from this video, ple...
Attacking in chess is a tough concept to master. Everybody who has even heard of the game knows that the primary motivation of each player is to checkmate the enemy king. This sounds like a simple enough objective; however, the path to your oppone...
Hello Everyone! National Master Dave Mohan here, back with Part 2 of the Road to NM video series. The first part of the series focused on getting from the beginner level to 1700, so this part concentrates on the next big jump: 1700-2000! While thi...
Ever since I first started playing chess, I desperately wanted to achieve the National Master title. In fact, in one of my very first chess lessons, my coach brought up the NM title, telling me that it's a goal I should have my eye on. And seeing ...
Many chess players, no matter whether they are beginners or experts, attempt to improve their game by playing tons of online blitz and doing tactics. And while these are both good ways to improve, reaching the master level requires a deeper unders...
Bobby Fischer once claimed that 1.e4 was the "best by test." However, he must not have heard of the Caro Kann! This solid opening is the key to crushing 1.e4, as it is the perfect combination of solidity and aggression, allowing Black to even clai...
Greetings fellow chess players! Since this is my very first blog, I think it is only fitting for me to preface this post with a little bit of my personal history. I'm a National Master, and have been playing chess for about a decade now. In fact,...
Hi Everyone! My name is National Master D. R. Mohan (aka NM Giraffe_Chess). Like many of you, I have a relentless addiction to chess and often find myself hunched over my computer screen, playing blitz games into the late hours of the night/early hours of the morning. So, I thought I would share a couple of my interesting thoughts, especially now that we all have some extra time to grow our game 
