Submitted by
spassky on Tue Nov 3, 2009 9:37am.
In games where the players castle on opposite sides, an attack against the opposing king is almost always in order. The rational for this is "If you don't do it to him, he's going to do it to you" or, if you like, the more pithy "Kill or be kill... Read more »
1755 reads | 14 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
GM vbhat on Mon Nov 2, 2009 9:21pm.
After playing in Montreal, which I wrapped up with a loss to Naiditsch in the 11th round (covered at: http://www.chess.com/article/view/developing-an-opening-repertoire), I had a week off before playing another strong round-robin. This one was in ... Read more »
2651 reads | 14 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
WIM energia on Thu Oct 8, 2009 11:51pm.
2009 US Women’s Chess Championship Report
By GM-elect Ben Finegold
I will be taking over WIM Iryna Zenyuk’s column this week. After reading this, the readers may wonder, “Where is the real Iryna?”
Since Zenyuk is busy preparing ... Read more »
3075 reads | 17 comments | 1 vote:
Submitted by
IM Silman on Sun Sep 20, 2009 11:52pm.
IM DAVID PRUESS asked:
I do know a few things about planning-- I even teach “how to plan” to my own students sometimes. But I still come across positions fairly often, maybe one in ten games, where I feel I should have a plan, but can't come ... Read more »
4411 reads | 29 comments | 6 votes:
Submitted by
WIM energia on Fri Sep 18, 2009 12:01am.
[Ed: This is the last article of our switch-around week. Each of this week's daily columns (beginning last Sunday) was actually written by one of our other columnists. If you have a guess as to who wrote what, send it to me (dpruess). From entries... Read more »
3998 reads | 22 comments | 7 votes:
Submitted by
GM vbhat on Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:31pm.
I recently competed in a very strong Category 15 tournament in Montreal. There were 12 players, 8 invitees and 4 qualifiers. I qualified by finishing 3rd in the Quebec Championship in June (from which I have already discussed a few games in this c... Read more »
2152 reads | 16 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
chessbibliophile on Thu Sep 10, 2009 11:06pm.
http://www.chess.com/article/view/how-good-is-your-chess
The preceding part of this test must have been a disappointment to many readers. There was no win to be found in the first three positions.The solution indicated just an extra edge in th... Read more »
1033 reads | 7 comments | 0 votes:
Submitted by
spassky on Thu Aug 6, 2009 8:44am.
The title of this article refers to the computer program BELLE, which was the first one to reach master strength (unlike now when they are all grandmaster strength or better), Boris Baczynskyj, a master who annotated one of BELLE's games, and Arth... Read more »
1161 reads | 14 comments | 1 vote:
Submitted by
IM Shankland on Mon Aug 3, 2009 11:17pm.
The recent Chicago Class Championships was won by GM Dmitry Gurevich with a score of 4/5. My result was not amazing and I think fatigue was starting to settle in- I had played three nine round tournaments in a row and was not well rested. However,... Read more »
2910 reads | 15 comments | 0 votes:
Submitted by
spassky on Wed Jul 29, 2009 9:41am.
I wrote an article called "Learning By Induction", the main point of which was that a player could learn chess better by playing through the games of strong players and extracting for himself the lessons contained within them (inductive reasoning)... Read more »
2204 reads | 20 comments | 3 votes:
Submitted by
spassky on Fri Jul 24, 2009 6:53am.
Sometimes you start a game and wait for your opponent to castle so you know on which side to begin mounting your attack. But what if he won't castle? What if he stays in the center and the center is closed? What do you do then? Sometimes a... Read more »
1917 reads | 27 comments | 3 votes:
Submitted by
steevmartuns on Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:13pm.
Game 1: Siege, Standoff, and Strike
In the first game of the Leningrad Dutch (A84) series, we will see a positional struggle between Chess.com members fcpanginen and albatros1 turn into an all-out 7th rank invasion.
The game follows a non-mainli... Read more »
1149 reads | 8 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
GM vbhat on Mon Jul 6, 2009 9:35pm.
Kasparov has written about chess as a game of "material, time, and quality" on a few occasions. Material is pretty straightforward - just count up the pieces on the board. By my understanding, time refers to more dynamic factors in the position, n... Read more »
3507 reads | 17 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
IM Silman on Mon Jul 6, 2009 2:49am.
Piotr Linek asks:
When I play the Sicilian with the sequence 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 as Black, I don’t even think about it and automatically play …e6 because I find it stronger as it attacks white’s Knight and forces it to retreat... Read more »
3592 reads | 14 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
bronzefeet on Thu Jul 2, 2009 9:16am.
Russians called Napoleon's 1812 invasion "The Patriotic War". The largest army up to that point in history, 690,000 French troops, crossed the river Nemen intent on taking the Russian capital Moscow. After a brave defenses and dire predictions... Read more »
1131 reads | 9 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
spassky on Wed Jul 1, 2009 3:39pm.
Sometimes you play games where things almost magically unfold before you, seemingly without any help from you. "Wow, that worked like a charm, didn't it?", you marvel at your amazing attack. Yet it did have help from you. If you play active,... Read more »
1202 reads | 15 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
spassky on Mon Jun 29, 2009 6:59am.
Sometimes a move has more than one purpose. And sometimes, the obvious purpose is so non-threatening, and relaxes your opponent so much, that he ignores your move and doesn't look for any other, more hidden, threats. In the first game, White's... Read more »
866 reads | 5 comments | 1 vote:
Submitted by
Ripper89 on Sun Jun 28, 2009 12:13pm.
This article is about playing f4 as white in different parts of a game like Bird Opening,King's Gambit,Bishop's Game,Sicilian.
After viewing the article don't forget to lookup the Kairav's chess masters (KCM) homepage:http://www.chess.com/groups/... Read more »
849 reads | 4 comments | 0 votes:
Submitted by
cs_master on Sat Jun 27, 2009 2:32pm.
Chess puzzles. Ya gotta love’em. Speaking personally, I can’t get enough of them. Nothing satisfies the soul like solving a chess puzzle that you deem truly worthy of your intellect.
Working chess puzzles actually can give a serious boo... Read more »
604 reads | 0 comments | 1 vote:
Submitted by
Patzer24 on Mon Jun 1, 2009 11:49pm.
Here is a game from the 2009 Copper State Open, IM Ginsburg - WFM Cardona with full annotations and commentary:
This was a nice game to observe as it shows a common theme in chess. The b7 and b2 squares for both sides can be a sens... Read more »
2572 reads | 18 comments | 8 votes:
Submitted by
Patzer24 on Mon May 25, 2009 10:48pm.
Here is a game from the 3rd ACP World Rapid Cup, GM Movsesian - GM Tregubov with full annotations and commentary:
I believe this is a very instructive game which can change the mind set of playing against the Sicilian Defense. Many... Read more »
4176 reads | 28 comments | 5 votes:
Submitted by
PMorphy123 on Tue May 19, 2009 11:15pm.
Having the correct mindset when going into a chess game is critical in the way you play out the game, even if you only need a draw. My coach told me that you play what the position gives you and go from there. I was recently at the Ontario Open in... Read more »
883 reads | 3 comments | 0 votes:
Submitted by
Alphastar18 on Sun May 10, 2009 1:31pm.
Often when a player is paired with someone ranked much higher, he doesn't follow his usual routine. A player who usually uses the Morra gambit against the sicilian suddenly goes for a quieter line. Others will try to trade off as much material as ... Read more »
931 reads | 7 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
Jochem220 on Wed May 6, 2009 6:32pm.
Black to move. Mate in 13. I know there are lots of variations to this puzzle so don't lose your cool if the variation you play isn't the correct move. Read more »
971 reads | 6 comments | 0 votes:
Submitted by
rab63 on Mon May 4, 2009 11:19am.
This Gambit is Named after russian Player Sergey Urusoff 1827-1897 who introduced new ideas in the King's Gambit And the Scotch Game here is just one of many examples i could find of it in grandmaster play Read more »
967 reads | 8 comments | 2 votes: