Pins
A pin occurs when a piece is under attack and cannot move without exposing a more valuable piece to capture. An absolute...
Chess Video Library
Forks
A great way to win material is to attack more than one piece at a time with one of your own. This technique is known as a...
Counting Captures
It's usually a good idea to capture something if you have more attacking pieces than the opponent has defending pieces. That...
Tactics and Hanging Pieces
Tactics are the types of moves you can use to gain an immediate advantage. One way to get an advantage is to capture hanging,...
The Value Of The Pieces
Each piece has a numerical value that can help you evaluate whether exchanging it makes sense. Pawns = 1. Knights = 3. Bishops...
Piling Up
Once you have pinned a piece, it can't or shouldn't move. Frequently the best way to take advantage of this situation is...
Skewers
A skewer occurs when one piece attacks an opposing piece, that has a less valuable piece behind it, that can be captured...
Avoiding Bad Trades
Don't make the mistake of giving up your good pieces for less valuable ones. It's important that you evaluate all possible...
How To Swindle Your Opponent: My Swindle At The Women's World Championship
How did WGM Qiyu Zhou escape a lost position against a higher rated player in the Women's World Championship? She found a...
How To Swindle Your Opponent: Online Swindles
How did Alireza Firouzja swindle Hikaru Nakamura in an astounding blitz game? What tricks work well in online speed chess...
How To Swindle Your Opponent: Never Give Up
The original chess swindler was the great Frank Marshall. Watch how he first survived lost piece and then a bad endgame to...
How To Swindle Your Opponent: Kasparov vs Petrosian
Even World Champions can fall for swindles. Check out how former World Champion Petrosian survived a deadly attack and turned...
How To Swindle Your Opponent: Magnus Carlsen vs Gawain Jones
What should you do when you're losing a chess game? If it's not time to resign, it's time to swindle your opponent. Watch...
Learn From The Best: AlphaZero - Dancing Queen
AlphaZero has changed the game of chess by demonstrating that rook-pawn advances are frequently very powerful. In this game...
Learn From The Best: AlphaZero - What Extra Bishop?
In the French Defense Black often accepts a restricted bishop, but usually has enough counterplay to fight back. In this...
Learn From The Best: AlphaZero - The Long Grind
Stockfish is a brilliant defender, but that didn't stop AlphaZero from sacrificing a pawn, without any real attacking chances....
Learn From The Best: AlphaZero - The Back Rank Pin
How did AlphaZero embarrass Stockfish's queen for the second time in the match? Check out AlphaZero's powerful sacrifices...
Learn From The Best: AlphaZero - Dark Square Domination
In game three of its match with Stockfish, AlphaZero sacrificed a pawn for long term compensation. For many moves Black kept...
Pawn Structures That Win: Maroczy Bind
GM Aman Hambleton starts his series on winning pawn structures with the famous Maroczy Bind. White grabs space with pawns...
Pawn Structures That Win: The f3-e4 Chain
The Queen's Gambit Accepted often leads to an early endgame, but that doesn't mean that White doesn't have tricks to put...
Pawn Structures That Win: The Sicilian Endgame
Why is the Sicilian such a popular opening? One reason is that Black's half-open c-file and active pieces can lead to great...
Pawn Structures That Win: The e3 Maroczy
In many openings, one side can gain a space advantage with a pawn on c4. against one on d6. That space advantage might not...
Pawn Structures That Win: Doubled f-Pawns
It's unusual for Black to gain a big positional advantage right out of the opening. Watch out how GM Aman Hambleton recommends...
Assisted Checkmates
Because the king can't move into check it is often possible to checkmate by placing a queen next to the opponent's king and...
Checkmate With Two Rooks
One good way to checkmate is to use two rooks, or a rook and a queen to force a lone opposing king to the edge or the board....