The first part of this article has brought a great response and many reader suggestions. But I have a confession to make. It was a totally tongue-in-cheek article and I am surprised that the majority of our readers took it for face ...
Some time ago, I wrote an article with a similar title where we discussed a sacrifice that happens when Black plays h7-h6 and attacks White's Ng5, but instead of moving the knight back, White plays Ng5xf7! starting an attack. Today we'll analyze...
In 1920s, the world chess champion Jose Raul Capablanca was at the height of his career. He was so much better than anyone else that he was called "the chess machine" due to the merciless precision of his play. So when Capablanca predicted ...
Garry Kasparov is definitely one of the best players in the history of chess. His games have been analyzed over and over in hundreds of books and thousands of articles and videos. Then how can I be so sure that you somehow missed some of his bri...
Computers continually change the way we play chess. The reports about new cases of computer cheating are a sad reality these days. We already discussed the many way computers affect chess in this series of articles: (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 an...
July was the month of chess weddings. Dutch super-GM Anish Giri got married to Georgian IM Sopiko Guramishvili, and Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek tied the knot with Russian WGM Alina Kashlinskaya. If the title of this art...
The Chinese chess prodigy Wei Yi wins the hearts of fans with every new tournament he plays. It is not just his phenomenal results (with his current rating, he should be the highest-rated 16-year-old ever!), but also his sparkling style of play th...
The last month was rich for chess tournaments, so I cannot blame you if you missed the U.S. Junior Girls Championship. Meanwhile, I suspect that you'll hear a lot in the future about some of the girls who played there. If you ask me why I ...
Today we are going to continue our analysis of "chess-boxing" combos. According to Wikipedia, in boxing, the one-two combo is a nickname of a jab and cross combo. In chess, the one-two combo starts with a queen jab, which we discussed here. Then...
In my previous articles, I discussed two "chess boxing" combos, "The Chess Uppercut" and "The Chess Sucker Punch." Today, I'll show you "Fischer's Jab." The definition of a jab is "a quick, sharp blow, especially with the fist...
This is the time of the year when kids are passing their final exams in school, so I decided to offer a quiz for our readers too. We did regular chess tests before (for example, here and here), so today I decided to try something new. You...
Some time ago, we analyzed a typical combination where the key move resembles an uppercut in boxing. (You can find the article here.) Today we are going to discuss a similar tactical pattern where the main piece is again a rook. In the "chess up...
Some time ago we tried to answer the question "Do Grandmasters Know The Rules Of Chess?" and concluded that sometimes even world-class GMs forget the most basic rules of chess. But what about arbiters (called tournament directors in the U.S.)...
There is a positional sacrifice that is quite popular in the games of top players, particularly world champions. It works like this: you have your rook on an open file and you have an outpost there. (I hope most of our readers remember that an o...
The second world champion in chess history, Emanuel Lasker, was a unique person. Besides being the champion for 27 years (this record will never be beaten for sure!), he was also a famous mathematician and philosopher. In his prime Lasker ...
One of the most intellectual sports, chess, surprisingly has many similarities with one of the most barbaric sports, boxing. In both activities you are basically trying to "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” Today we are going to ...
Legend: a story coming down from the past; especially: one popularly regarded as historical although not verifiable (Merriam Webster Dictionary). There are great chess players and there are legendary chess players. What's the differenc...
The recent Women's World Championship was a fascinating event. You could find everything we love about chess competitions: neat combinations, unpredictable results (will we ever forget Natalia Pogonina's amazing comebacks in almost every single ma...
The Benko Gambit is one of the most popular openings among club players. It is indeed very appealing to grab the initiative early in the game playing Black against your opponent who likes to play positional chess. Why do I assume that your oppon...
Last week, we discussed that in good hands a symmetrical position can be a very dangerous weapon. But judging by my own experience, it is more common that chess players try to use symmetry to achieve a draw playing against stronger opponent or whe...
There is a popular misconception amongst amateur players that a symmetrical position in chess inevitably leads to a draw. We already discussed here why playing a "copycat chess" can be extremely dangerous for your own position. Yet, there is a g...
It is time for the big national scholastic tournaments here in the U.S., and that means that we are going to witness thousands of kids making similar mistakes on and off the chess board. A clear sign of a person getting older is when he starts c...
"We have to play by the !@#$ rules!" -- Amanda Young, Saw II. In last week's article, we discussed a dangerous strategic concept, the saw. So, what should you do if your opponent turns it against you? Well, as Amanda put it, you should ...
"I want to play a game." -- John '"Jigsaw" Kramer (from the movie Saw). You all probably know this cliche from many horror movies: A group of people are having fun (like a bunch of drunk college kids partying in a remote location), upbeat...
