Any real fan of chess can tell you that, in many ways, chess is a lifelong addiction. Hundreds or even thousands (in some case, tens of thousands!) of chess books take over an apartment or house, chess sets can be found in bathrooms, bedrooms, kit...
The year was 1969, I was 15 years old and had just made the trip from San Diego to beautiful Santa Monica to participate in the American Open (which, at that time, was held in the luxurious Miramar Hotel). I got there early, checked out the playin...
The Pin is a must-know tactic, and it’s particularly feared by amateurs who find themselves pinned in a myriad of different ways. As with all tactical devices, pins range from very basic to beautifully complex. Our first example goes way, way bac...
This week we’ll take a look at the extremely important concept of Double Attack, in which one piece attacks two enemy pieces at the same time (that’s the definition championed by Martin Weteschnik in his magnificent book, CHESS TACTICS FROM SCRATC...
. A discovered attack is a very common, and often very strong, combinative strike based on one piece getting out of the way and allowing a connection to occur that, ideally, leads to a decisive gain in material. Here's a very basic example: ...
We'll finish up our study of forks by looking at Bishop, Queen, Rook, and even King forks. Instead of waxing poetic, I'll just jump right to the puzzles since, by now, I expect all of you to be fork experts. As always, make sure to look at the h...
The pawn fork: fun, often game changing, sadistic. In fact the David vs. Goliath feel of a lowly pawn simultaneously hitting two far more valuable enemy pieces is one of the game’s great pleasures. But, is the pawn fork really some rare nuclear ...
One might think that going after material (Part One) or using the fork as an attacking device (Part Two) would be the main themes regarding Knight forks. And that’s true. But there are other uses for this tactical weapon that you might not b...
In Part One of the Misunderstood Knight Fork, I compared the Knight fork’s raison d’être as “leaping into an unapologetic orgy of material gain.” In Part Two we take the chains off those well fed horses (after all, ...
Forks are one of the most useful tactical tools in chess (not to be confused with cutlery). Most people view forks as a way to attack more than one enemy piece at a time and, by doing so, winning a decisive amount of material. While that’s t...
So far this new series on “attacking the enemy King oriented tactics” has explored kingside weaknesses on h6, h7, g7, and f7 that often lead to some form of mating attack catastrophe. We added to the “h7-square as a target” via looking at the Clas...
Our final article on the Classic Bishop Sacrifice is simple and too the point: it features nothing but puzzles, which will allow you to see if you fully gasped the concepts we explored in Parts 1 – 3. ...
In Part One of this series, the main topic of the Bxh7+ thrust concerned the win of material. In Part Two, we explored what happens after 1.Bxh7+ Kxh7 2.Ng5+ Kg8 and 2…Kh8. In Part Three, we’ll move on to 2…Kh6 and 2…Kg6...
In Part One of this series, the main topic of the Bxh7+ thrust concerned the win of material. This might have been boring to some, but it is no less important than a full bore mating attack. Now, in Part Two, we’ll let the blood fly! Here we...
Continuing our theme of “mating tactics,” this time we’ll explore one of the most famous sacrifices in chess, the Classic Bishop Sacrifice. In our beginner mating patterns trilogy, we took a good look at the h7-square and how Qh7...
In my first article on beginner mating patterns, we explored Back Rank mates, Queen mates on h7, Queen mates on g7 (while also discussing general dark-square weaknesses around f6, g7, h6, and even h8), and smothered mates. In the second article we...
In my first article on beginner mating patterns, we explored back rank mates, Queen mates on h7, Queen mates on g7, and smothered mates. This week we’ll explore the two beginner favorites: Scholar’s Mate and Fool’s Mate. However,...
The ins and outs of a mating combination are, on one level, simplicity itself, and on another level deep, complex, and (like a fine wine) full bodied and intoxicating. In this new column we will explore how beginners can create mating combos, whil...
Today we'll analyze the last case of the Queen getting to the center early in the game. This time she doesn't go there voluntarily, since she must do it to recapture a piece or a pawn to keep material even. The simplest example is the ...
Last week we analyzed games where an early "development" of the Queen broke a well known opening principle and led to a disaster. Today we'll discuss the exceptions from this rule. Exception #1 is when you move your Queen and immediately a...
The following opening moves are extremely popular among inexperienced chess players: When I ask my students who play Black why they trade the knights and bring the White Queen into the center the usual answer is: "it is a bad idea to develop y...
In the first three parts of this article we analyzed many positions where a Rook was fighting two minor pieces. You could see how difficult it is sometimes to correctly evaluate the situation even if the material balance is about even. Today you'l...
In the first two installments of this article we mostly discussed positions where a Rook was fighting against two minor pieces in an opening or a middle game. Today we will talk about endgames. The good thing is, unlike openings and middle g...
It is common knowledge that in openings, as a rule, it is not a good idea to give up two minor pieces for a Rook and a pawn. The explanation is very simple: there are not many open files for your 'extra' Rook to work on and therefore such a sacrif...
