Smyslov -Tal(1964) The weakness of the pawn on a4 is immediately apparent. The white king is permanently tied to defending this weakness. On the other wing, the weakness of the g4 square quickly becomes apparent. The king threatens to reac...
A weakness is a kind of vulnerable point in a chess position. In this example, it is the two black pawns on c5 and g5. This is because the white bishop can attack both pawns and force the black bishop into defense.But Black not only has two pawn...
Well, I´ve just finished a Correspondence Game, which I enjoyed very much. I played with Black against a strong and fair opponent, obviously not using engine help, as so many other "good" players nowadays do. Besides, we both played quickly. I us...
Lasker once wrote: "There are three important things in the endgame ... 1. active king 2. passers and 3. Zugzwang" Remember it in your games and you will be more successful! This is a critical position for Black, because White has a simple wi...
Please take a look at the following position: Because of the knight fork 1 .... Rxa5 seems to be forced. It´s the obvious move. But after 2. Nxd5 the endgame should be better for White (because of the connected passed pawns) So the Blackplay...
In the following game Black found a brilliant combination: Instead of the brilliant move, that ended in a drawish endgame, Black should have played a simple, but good move So, what can we learn from it? Maybe, that sometimes the good o...
In the following game ex-worldchampion Karpov had a slight initiative in a better endgame. Look, how he transformed it into a win with simple and active moves: Of course, it looks very simple how Karpov transformed his better position into ...
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy (Hamlet, tragedy of Shakespeare) Two weeks ago I finished a (offline) tournament game with the move 24. d6!: As you can see, I simply was winning a pie...
"Es gibt mehr Ding’ im Himmel und auf Erden, als Eure Schulweisheit sich träumt, Horatio ( Hamlet, 1. Akt, 5. Szene, Hamlet, William Shakespeare)" Es ist jetzt etwa zwei Wochen, dass ich ich eine eine ganz gut gespielte Partie nach nur 24 Zü...
Can Black start a decisive attack? Or will White manage to stop the attack. So, please try to solve the "puzzle"
Let me first ask you a question. Do you believe in coincidences by chance? I do not! Last Sunday I played a game in a teammatch. My opponent had pressured me a little bit in the beginning, but I could free myself and started a counter-attack So...
Three weeks ago I had the following position in an OTB-game on the chess board The question here is: Can White in the h-pawn with Qc8+ and Qh8 ? It is obvious that this will be only possible if Black can´t play Qxe4 before. And indeed there is ...
When you have a better position there often comes the moment for a breakthrough, as you can see in the following game: The right Idea and correct calculation have to walk "hand in hand" when you want become a successful chess player Finally,...
If someone sacrifices a pawn or a piece (s)he wants to get something as compensation for it. In the following example the White player sacrificed a pawn to limitate the activity of a black knight: White won that game later. The black knight was ...
The former world champion Emmanuel Lasker wrote: "There are three powerful weapons in endgame: Passer, King activity and Zugzwang!" In the following example we can see all three "weapons" at work 1. White king activity vs. Black passer As we...
In a just finished online game - my opponent and I didn`t take it too seriously - I got a bad position. After the early middle game I faced a material state of "three pawns behind": So, what to do? I decided to take one of the pawns, although it ...
In the background you see a ferris wheel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferris_wheel at night in my home town Duesseldorf Have Fun with the following video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjEmquJhSas
The following game is a typical one of the category: Both side castling and a closed center. So let`have a look at our starting position: Here we have already the both-side castling on the board, but the center is not yet closed. The mai...
In the following game you can see that an amazing king march into the opponents camp became the decisive factor
Inthe following game we have a pawn structure, which often occurs in early middlegame. White has a 4:3 pawn majority on king side, Black a 3:2 majority on queen side. Of course, as we know, it is a pawn structure which favours Black in the endgame...
In the following two examples we see that only by a bishop sacrifice the own king was able to come into opponent`s position. Example one: Example two:
In the following game White got the pair of bishops and a better position. But how to go on? White decided to go for two-wing-attack:
A few days ago someone showed me an example, when White was able to start a decisive mate attack As you have seen, Queen and Knight can be a very effective duo in a mate attack. Here another example. Queen and knight forced the black king in...
"Attack and Defense" is a great theme in chess. You should know when and how you should attack, and when and how you have to defend In the position above the attacking move 21. g5 seems to be ob...
In the game Carlsen-Anand (Norway 2013) they got very soon following pawn structure: As you easily can see it is a better one for white. Black has an backward pawn on d6 and white has the option to build an outside passer. In the gam...
