Pins are very popular and powerful chess weapons, and I am sure you've used them in dozens of your own games. If you just started playing chess and never heard about pins, I strongly recommend you check the Tactics Trainer. But even if you are...
In the beginning of 1980s, a young and promising British international master (let's call him Nigel) played a chess tournament in the Soviet Union. At that point, a tournament in the USSR was the best possible chess school for any chess player, an...
The recently finished Sinquefield Cup is going to attract chess players' attention for a long time. Mostly, chess analysts will concentrate their efforts trying to explain the phenomenal result of Fabiano Caruana. You can read my version here.&nbs...
The Sinquefield Cup is a fantastic event! It is the strongest tournament in chess history, the players demostrate fighting, very "tasty" chess, and the coverage on the official website is amazing. Of course, the whole chess community must thank Re...
You cannot be a really strong chess player unless you know how to play endgames. This simple statement was a cornerstone of the Soviet school of chess. There was even a well known Russian chess saying: "С молодёжью - в эндшпиль!" -- which...
In the first part of this article, we left our Chess Terminator playing countless blitz and bullet games during the last free day of the championship. In the following seventh round, Nakamura had a very tough opponent. By the way, this is a good...
In one of my previous articles, I compared Mikhail Tal to a chess version of the Terminator. To be fair, except for his ultra aggressive playing style, the always-friendly Mikhail Tal looked like anything but this terrifying creature played b...
There are many different traps in chess. Some of them are so well known that you can hardly use these tricks even against relatively weak players. However, some traps are good enough to catch even grandmasters. Sometimes, the world's leadi...
There is no need to explain the importance of tactics for a tournament player. I bet you've all heard the cliche "chess is 99% tactics," or an anecdote about a grandmaster who was a famous endgame specialist. (Was it Smyslov? I don't remember.) ...
The majority of chess players like opening traps. I believe the main appeal of setting a trap is not the chance to win the game instantly. What really makes an opening trap attractive for chess players of all levels is the thrill of a hunt...
The game from round 17 of the Soviet Championship 1957 was more proof that Tal was getting back to his great form. Even though it was just a draw, this game was one of Tal's favorites. In his book, Tal wrote that he always loved the b...
If the title of this article sounds like the action movie "The Bourne Ultimatum," it is pure coincidence, since here we are talking about Mikhail "Chess Terminator" Tal and his first win in the national championship. As you probably remember, af...
Last week, we left our amicable chess terminator at a position where his opponent set a devilish trap for him. Many of you, my dear readers, correctly found the refutation of the trap. In his book, Tal wrote that White's move (25.Rd2) made him ver...
This year we celebrate the 30th anniversary of one of the most influential movies of all time: The Terminator! Is there any person on Earth who hasn't said "I'll be back," imitating the great Arnold? Even though The Terminator is just a sc...
How many of you could get a winning position against Magnus Carlsen after just eight moves of play? How many chess players in the world could do it? I know one of them, and his name is Bill Gates! Image: NRK/YouTube Not only did he achiev...
Today we'll continue learning typical ideas of the Modern Benoni using Velimirovic's games. But first, I would like to address the concern of one of our readers who, in his comments, expressed disappointment that none of Velimirovic's opponents pl...
In last week's article we discussed the chess heritage of GM Dragoljub Velimirovic. You probably noticed that all the games used for the article shared the same opening - the Sicilian Defense. This is, of course, not a coincidence s...
Chess is a reflection of life. Our modern lives go faster and so too do the time controls we play today. When I tell kids that I played the so-called Capablanca's time control (two hours and 30 minutes for the first 40 moves) and then the game wou...
The question in the title of the article might sound stupid. We are called Homo Sapiens for a reason: translated from Latin it means "Wise Man." By accumulating the knowledge of the previous generations, humankind has made tremendous progress in t...
In last week's article, we discussed how alcohol affects a chess player's abilities. There I mentioned the Soviet grandmaster Ratmir Dmitrievich Kholmov. I don't want the readers to have an impression that this great chess player was mostly famous...
FIDE elections are getting closer, so it is time to revisit one of their "brilliant" inventions: the doping test. I briefly touched this absurd innovation here. No one has ever been able to prove that a mythical chess-enhancing drug even exists,...
There are not many duels between elite chess players that generate as much interest as the games between the World Champion Magnus Carlsen and the U.S. number one Hikaru Nakamura. Indeed, everyone can find something of interest. What will prevail:...
Kasparov's My Great Predecessors series of books is a trove of invaluable information. Garry is a real King Midas of chess since whatever chess subject he touches, he turns into gold. Whether you want to improve your tactical skills, le...
Let me start from the very end of this story. Sousse Interzonal 1967 will always be remembered for Fischer's withdrawal after ten rounds. At that point he had seven wins and three draws. Even though the participants were supposed to play 22 game...
