When amateur chess players start a game, they tend to think in terms of winning. They hope to find some combination that will wow their friends and leave their opponent in awe. They want to play a great game so they can show members of their club,...
In “Train Your Brain, Target Consciousness” (Part 1, Part 2) we took a look at weak squares and weak pawns. When studying things like this, you first look at the concept (in this case weak squares and/or weak pawns), you try to intellectually gras...
My last two articles (Train Your Brain! Target Consciousness Part 1, and How to Train Your Brain) were about weak squares and weak pawns, which I view as targets that need to be devoured or used. Creating a permanent seek-and-destroy mentality whe...
I was going to do Part 2 of Target Consciousness, but three reader questions (from Part 1) have convinced me to hold off on Part 2 for next week and instead revisit a painful subject for chess hopefuls. THREE READER QUESTIONS Mottsauce said: “I...
Target Consciousness. I coined this phrase long ago, and I still consider it to be of enormous use to students who want to play much stronger chess, and also appreciate high-level games. The concept is simple: you need to train your mind to spot t...
Salo (short for Salomon) Flohr was born 1908 in Horodenka, which was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Alas, 1908 was a bit close to WWI (which started in 1914), and when his parents were butchered during the war, Salo and his brother, suddenly...
Rudolf Spielmann was born in Vienna on May 5, 1883, and he learned how to play chess at a very young age. Reti, in his classic book Masters of the Chessboard, said this: “He learned to play while still a boy and was exhibited in public as ...
Johannes Zukertort was born September 7th, 1842 in Lublin, Poland. It’s always interesting to wonder what a person will eventually become — a life in the military perhaps, a businessman, will he struggle to survive, a doctor or lawyer, or will he ...
Since the beginning of time everyone had an opinion, whether or not they had a clue about the subject being discussed. However, in the past opinions usually stayed in one’s own mind or went no further than your friends or acquaintances. Now that’s...
The “Plan” Fails In Part Two of our Alekhine series, I described Alekhine’s plan to force a match with Capablanca: “Play against the world’s best and win every tournament, thus showing that he was the true challenger to the title. And, at first h...
I constantly see amateurs raving about how tactics is 99% of chess. However, if that was actually the case then chess wouldn’t be the amazing game that it is. A true fan of the game sees beauty in opening theory, in subtle positional play, in barn...
In my previous article (Having Fun With Blunders), I gave my personal definition of a blunder (some will choose to make use of it, others won’t, and the world will continue to turn). To make the article fun to read, I mixed a serious and fir...
Recently I was involved in a small discussion about blunders and was shocked that the term’s meaning wasn’t as rock solid as I had thought. Everyone is used to symbols like “?” (poor or bad move), “?!” (dubious), “!” (good or excellent move), “!?”...
Positional Gains and Tactical Pains Many players feel that balance (doing your best to understand every phase of chess) is only for very strong players. This is hogwash. Of course a 1200 player isn’t going to understand any phase as well as a 200...
Amateur chess players are always discussing their style, or claiming that tactics is more important than anything else, or arguing that drug testing is important in top level events, or insisting that Bobby Fischer was actually a Reptilian alien, ...
In Part 1 of this glimpse into Alexander Alekhine’s life and games, we left off with him winning the Moscow Championship (late 1919/early 1920) with a spectacular clean sweep (11-0) followed by victory in the first USSR Championship (9 wins, 6 dra...
Imagine this is YOU It’s 1918, and you’re one of the strongest chess players on earth. You live in Odessa, during one of Russia’s most chaotic periods. Trying to stay on top of the political upheaval, you take whatever side offers the best chance...
SPACE: CLOSED CENTER, DUELING WINGS When the center is closed, both sides need to gain space on the wings. One gains space by advancing pawns, which acts as a sort of fence that lays claim to any territory within the fenced borders. Pushing pawns...
In this series, and especially in this particular article, I’m trying to instill a love of chess history with Chess.com members. For those who simply don’t like to read, or those who hate chess history, just go right to the puzzles. Ho...
In Part 2 of this series I pointed out that Lasker’s tactics are a bit different than tactics by Tal or Kasparov or Alekhine. In fact, when you take a long look at Lasker’s games, you realize that tactics is the fuel that drives all hi...
In Part 1 of my series about Emanuel Lasker’s tactical prowess, I mentioned his various chess skills and how many aren’t aware of his outstanding tactical abilities. What I didn’t clearly point out was the general nature of his t...
In general, when one asks what any World Champion’s strengths were/are, it’s fairly easy to give a somewhat educated answer. Steinitz: the first master of positional chess. Alekhine: dynamic, combinative genius. Capablanca: endgame mas...
When you first learn how to play chess, you pick up a few opening setups that suit your taste, you absorb classic bits of advice like “always capture towards the center”, “center pawns are more valuable than pawns on the wings”, “knights are best ...
In part one of this series I discussed how a good chess teacher can turn a bunch of opening moves into something that makes sense. This tightening of one’s opening repertoire pays enormous dividends as one becomes more and more familiar with...
