Emboldened by FM Liu's decision to trade queens, his opponent plays a sharp line trying to win material. Liu responds confidently, activating his pieces further to highlight the dangers of an undeveloped position even...
IM Shankland's series on the Najdorf continues with a look at the currently most popular move 6.Be3. Sam will provide two different systems for black against this move. In this video he considers e6 and then the three...
If the opponent doesn't let us "have" the center, but seeks to create their own strongpoints there and contest it, it is still often possible to adopt a central strategy. In this followup to The Center in Ch...
FM Liu analyzes his favorite from the 2007 PanAmerican u18 Championship where he won the gold medal. The lesson includes a good explanation of how to consider opening moves by comparing them to similar positions you k...
In his fourth video on the strategy surrounding development advantages, IM David Pruess talks about the role of weaknesses in the less-developed player's position. Two highly instructive examples are examined: one whe...
The fifth in FM Daniel Rensch's series on Rook and Pawn endgames. Here he begins to look at R+P v. R situations where the defending king is cut off along a file. If the king is cut off by only one file, there are good...
In this video IM Sam Shankland demonstrates what he himself called "the greatest move" he had ever played. While playing a game, Sam made a huge oversight, and suddenly realized that his position was in dang...
The first video in IM Pruess's series about strategies surrounding development advantages. In this video he explains what development is, and how to measure the size of a development advantage. After mentioning some t...
In this video, IM Pruess helps viewers uncover an awesome tactic by breaking it down into two basic patterns. The video also discusses responding to apparent blunders from the opponent.
Sam Shankland's series on the Najdorf Sicilian starts with a look at responding to 6.Bc4, the move championed by great Najdorf expert Bobby Fischer. Sam explains a defensive system for black based on a quick Nbd7-c5,...
The second in IM Shankland's series on the Najdorf continues his look at the 7...Nbd7 variation against the Fischer-Sozin 6.Bc4. This time he considers white's response of 8.Bg5, changing the nature of the struggle.
In the space of two videos, Fide Master Todd Andrews will have you ready to play your first chess game. The board, pieces, and rules are covered in this two-part introduction, freely viewable by all.
In his third video on the strategy surrounding development advantages, IM David Pruess examines the very tricky fluid positions-- positions where it is not yet determined whether the position will later become open or...
In his second video on the strategy surrounding development advantages, IM David Pruess examines how the value of a development advantage varies depending on how open or closed a position is.
The second in FM Daniel Rensch's series on Rook and Pawn endgames. In this video, he extends his analysis of the Philidor Defense, to show that a passive defense can also hold against a N- or R-pawn, and to show what...
In his third Rook and Pawn endgame lesson, FM Rensch provides deeper coverage of the concept of short-side and long-side, going over all the most important theoretical positions where the stronger side has a central p...
The fourth video in FM Rensch's Rook and Pawn endgame series covers rook and rook-pawn (a pawn on the a- or h-file), demonstrating the winning method of using your rook to get your king out from in front of the pawn....
GM Khachiyan goes over a remarkable game of his. Half a point behind his Grandmaster opponent in the last round, and with the black pieces, he went all out to create a sharp positional struggle that would give him cha...
In this lesson, GM Khachiyan analyzes another excellent game of his. It starts out as a calm positional game, but when he senses that a couple white pieces are temporarily misplaced, he knows that the position require...
FM Elliot Liu shares his thoughts and analysis during one of the more important games of his young career, a victory that brought him his second IM norm. His GM opponent achieves a very good, solid opening, but Elliot...
GM Friedel became an expert in R+B v. R through repeatedly being asked to explain it by friends. Not only will you learn the proper defense for the weak side in this video, but you will also learn more about the inter...
R+B v R is, in practice, more often than not won by the side with the bishop, despite being a theoretical draw. However, the techniques for making progress against faulty defense or for winning the winning positions t...
GM Friedel analyzes the decisive phase of the last round win that brought him a 5-0 first place finish in the 2009 Toronto Open. Though on the surface it looks like a crushing and beautiful victory, Friedel's purpose...
GM Friedel analyzes a very exciting phase of his recent game with India's GM Gopal, with a view to giving the viewer a lot of practical advice for how to deal with time pressure. In the case where both sides are in ti...
FM Liu analyzes "one of my most crazy games" in two parts. In the first half he covers the opening phase of the game right up to the moment where his opponent sank into deep thought for 45 minutes, and then...
