Welcome to the final instalment of the three-part series on chess.com bots. Previously, I’ve written about both the chess.com bots and adaptive bots. Now, I will discuss the final topic in this series – Chess Celebrities vs Celebrity B...
About three weeks ago, I published a piece entitled “Are Chess.com Bots’ Ratings Accurate?” where I discussed the strengths and playing styles of the standard bots. As promised, this is the second of the three-part series. Here, ...
In the second half of 2020, chess.com has introduced close to a hundred bots to their new version of “Vs Computer”. This army of droids has generated much buzz within the chess community. Some of the most frequently asked questions in ...
Blindfold chess exercises have countless unique merits. For one, they can significantly enhance your ability to visualise and calculate quickly. On top of that, at least for the ones that I am going to recommend, they can be done without the need ...
Queen endings are notoriously difficult to calculate. For one, there are often so many variations of long series of checks to work through. Even very careful players can find themselves getting skewered, mated, or forced into an unfavourable trade...
Opposite coloured bishop endings are known for their high drawing tendencies. In an article that I wrote several months ago entitled Opposite Coloured Bishops: Playing Against Connected Pawns, I addressed some important theoretical positions....
In this third part of "Understanding Minor Piece Imbalances", I present you a few tips to help you use the bishop pair effectively and appreciate its value. I will be making references to some of the points discussed in parts one and two of this s...
This article is the second edition of a series covering minor piece imbalances. In the first part, I wrote about the bishop's characteristics in such situations. Click here to check it out! In today's article, the discussion will be on a knig...
Bishops and knights have very similar nominal values but the way they move is completely different. A bishop is able to snipe his enemies from a distance but can only have access to half of the board by himself. Knights, on the other hand, have ac...
To many people, it seems that good chess players are always lucky and are able to make a comeback from terrible positions. Of course, the truth is that they can find the correct resources and set up traps to ensnare their opponents. As Sam Shankla...
Knights are one of the trickiest pieces on the chessboard. The way they move and where they can end up in 2 to 3 moves is not intuitive to the human mind at all. In this article, I hope to provide some clarity as to how knight endings should be ap...
When most chess players hear that stalemate has occurred on the board, they will most likely think that one side played the ending carelessly. However, as we will see in this article, stalemate is a key defensive resource that can be deployed even...
The French Defence is a dynamic way for black to meet 1. e4. An extremely solid opening, it offers good attacking potential. Although it remains a mainstay for many grandmasters, newer players can easily adopt it. For these reasons, I recommend th...
The bishop and knight checkmate is said to be one of the toughest checkmates to master. Even then, it is worthwhile studying because it appears regularly enough. In the recent three years of competitive play, I have seen it more than 10 times!&nbs...
I have written about a particular type of rook ending where the attacker has a lone central or bishop passed pawn while the defender's king is cut off last week. If you have not seen it, please click here to check it out. In part 2 of this mini-se...
Rook endings are by far the most common ones in chess. This is why I believe an article about them is long overdue. Here, we will be looking at an important ending, R + P vs R but with the defender's king cut out by a file or two. This appears i...
Mined squares, as its name suggests, refer to a pair (or more) of corresponding squares where both players should avoid. Otherwise, the first to do so will get into zugzwang. For the benefit of those who are still confused, I will show you an exam...
Last week, I wrote an article entitled "Opposite coloured bishops: Playing against connected pawns". It would only be fitting, I think, to proceed with endings with bishops of the same colour complex. Given that a 2 pawn advantage is often...
Most club players are aware that opposite bishop endings have very high drawing tendencies, and that even if the pawns are connected, B + 2p vs B is a theoretical draw. However, they often think that holding the fort is trivial and hence there is ...
How many endings have you failed to convert, simply because you tried to play for the quickest win, disregarding simple moves to cut out your opponent’s counterplay? In this article, I am going to share with you how you can improve your endg...
Due to the great mobility of queens, queen endings can be some of the toughest endgames to calculate and play accurately. Therefore, it is important to follow some general principles when you find yourself in such a situation. Here are 5 guideline...
In pawn endings, both sides may have their passed pawns rushing to queen. The most critical of such situations are those where both players queen at (almost) the same time. When deciding whether to head into such endings, it is important to consid...
