"I captured on d5. I was terribly ashamed, and from the time I swore: to play for a draw, at any rate with White, is to some degree a crime against chess." - GM Mikhail Tal on the Exchange Variation of the French Defense. Mikhail Tal on a less...
Last month marked 88th birthday of GM Eduard Gufeld, who was born March 19, 1936 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Even though he died over 20 years ago in 2002, he is well-remembered for his entertaining style of play and strong sense of humor. Among many pictur...
It was on July 17, 2019, that I lost all faith in humanity. That was my first loss to the shameful Englund Gambit, which left me wondering what type of person does this. Why would someone play a dubious opening trap that either gives them a quick ...
When initially working with beginner students, I am often told something like, "I struggle to remember opening theory that I have studied." This is because their study is not taking place in the right way to optimize their results. Luckily, Chessa...
There are 20 possible first moves in chess: each of the eight pawns can move one or two squares forward, and each of the two knights has two squares it can go to. But not everything that is equally legal is equally advisable as a course of actio...
In the age of ChatGPT and artificial intelligence computer algorithms that know everything (or almost everything), a YouTube algorithm started recommending me videos of a doctor who promised to cure most health problems with just one simple recipe...
The opening is the part of chess that players study the most. I doubt that this statement came as a big surprise to you, considering the humongous amount of books and videos on this subject. When I ask my students what kind of chess books they hav...
Nowadays, there are two things every new chess player learns very fast. The first is how to move the pieces, the second is that you must hate the London System. pic.twitter.com/tqfhwOS3Wb — Chess.com (@chesscom) November 14, 2021 ...
The 2022 FIDE Candidates Tournament recently ended with a convincing victory for GM Ian Nepomniachtchi. The best chess players in the world prepare for months for such an important tournament and try to find new opening ideas. The question for ama...
I spent the end of March 1994 playing the Oslo Open in beautiful Norway. The tournament was very memorable for me mostly for two things: I tied for first place with GM Ilya Smirin and also I had the opportunity to talk to legendary GM David Bronst...
Last week I had one of the worst nightmares a chess coach can experience. No, none of my students blundered a queen nor played the Berlin Variation of the Ruy Lopez—the danger came from a totally different direction. I was watching a playoff...
The whole chess community was stunned by GM Garry Kasparov's disastrous result in the first half of the blitz section in the Croatia Grand Chess Tour Rapid & Blitz. While 0.5 out of 9 games is indeed an utter catastrophe, I completely disagree...
In chess, an opening transposition occurs when a sequence of moves leads to a position that is more commonly reached by a different move order—same resulting position, different paths to reach the position. Transpositions can be a powerful...
Last week my student told me that his internet opponent played a weird opening. I wasn't surprised a bit since any opening that doesn't allow the Scholar's Mate is labeled as "weird" by this little kid. Yet, I was intrigued when he mentioned that ...
"Every strong chess player should have his own opening theory which is different from the mainstream theory." This is one of the most important rules I learned from World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik as a student in his famous Botvinnik-Kasparov s...
How does IM Tuan Minh Le compete in blitz with the top players in the world? He uses the rare and sharp Nimzowitsch Variation of the Sicilian! In this course, Minh Le, along with NM Sam Copeland explains his favorite variation and all of its compl...
In his recent stream, Russian GM Alexey Dreev called a certain opening "indecent." Moreover, he said that it is disrespectful towards your opponent to play this opening. He also said that if you don't understand why it is disrespectful behavior th...
Grandmaster Aman Hambleton has played both sides of the London System for years. He knows that many players try the London to reach an easy-to-play, quiet position, but there are tricks for both sides that can win quickly against an unprepared opp...
Do you want to take your opponents away from opening theory and lead them into an endgame that you know how to win? If so, the Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation might be your best bet! IM Keaton Kiewra demonstrates the key ideas for both sides in this ...
Do you want a sharp opening that most opponents won't know how to defend against? IM Keaton Kiewra demonstrates how 5.d4!? in the Ruy Lopez is easy for White to learn and hard to handle for Black. Try The Challenges! Not what you're looking for...
The Catalan is one of the most popular openings at the Grandmaster level and can be a fearsome weapon in the hands of club players as well! Follow along as Grandmaster Georg Meier, one of the world's leading Catalan experts demonstrates how to win...
In the late 1860s, the legendary Paul Morphy had almost entirely retired from chess. He was not the same young genius that he once was. But he still managed to introduce an important opening idea which hadn't been seen in chess before. After the...
For chess to flourish, we need a new challenge. The increasing strength of chess engines, the millions of computer games and the volumes of opening theory available to every player are making top-level chess less imaginative. Decisive games in s...
The Halloween Gambit is surely the spookiest way to start a chess game. If you're a conservative chess player who doesn't like to give away pieces, it may indeed be "2 spooky 👻4 u." Could this early knight sacrifice be a legitimate opening? No, ...
In past articles we've discussed why people play bad openings and how to deal with such dubious lines. Are these openings really that bad for your chess? While the answer might seem quite obvious, the reality is not that simple. Let me giv...
