I am finding difficulty defining this post, and that is the main reason for the title. My first intention was to center the post around the Geller-Mikadze game, and its comparison to its predecessor, the Keres-Smyslov game. But then, as I was bu...
In 1974 Karpov faced Korchnoi in the Candidates' Final, to decide who would play Bobby Fischer for the World Championship in 1975. Recently, in the comments section of one of my recent blog posts, https://www.chess.com/blog/kamalakanta/vidit-p...
Dear chess lovers, in the recent FIDE Candidates' Tournament 2024, Praggnanandhaa played the ....f5 variation against Vidit's Ruy Lopez. In the chessgames.com database, the first instance of this opening being played is a correspondence game from ...
Sergey Voronkov has published a three-volume set of books titled "Masterpieces and Dramas of the Soviet Championships". These books are masterpieces of chess literature and chess history. Each chapters has, before the actual games shown, stori...
Sometimes it takes generations to find the truth in a position. In his book, Issac Lipnitsky gives the following position: and writes: "In the diagram position White's pawn centre is more of a weakness than a strength, as it consta...
Sometimes an idea or pattern will strike your mind like lightning. You see it and do a double-take: "What was that?" And then you realize you saw it before, but in a different way. Position 1: Position 2: So, this is the m...
Where do I start? So many thoughts to share on one simple theme....pushing the e-pawn! But of course, there is more to it than that. This article ties Keres and Euwe, Bronstein and Gukesh in one theme..... The funny thing is that I have been t...
In 1994, Alexei Shirov was ranked #2 in the world. Yet Judit Polgar beat him in 21 moves! Polgar placed 3rd in Amsterdam 1995, ahead of various world-class players: Here is the game against Shirov: On page 361 of the 2nd volume in her ...
Hello, everyone. Wishes of peace and joy to all! Recently my dear friend Simaginfan published an article about the great Ukranian theoretician, Vsevolod Rauzer (1908-1941). https://www.chess.com/blog/simaginfan/rauzer-botvinnik-two-games...
Concatenation: a series of interconnected things or events. What is quantum entanglement? Quantum entanglement is a bizarre, counterintuitive phenomenon that explains how two subatomic particles can be intimately linked to each othe...
Peace. I have been meaning to write a blog post, and while I am aware of the fact that all human activities should, in principle, continue during moments of conflict and strife, my heart hurts too much to dedicate my creative energy to a chess a...
Hi, all. I hope you are alright, and having some semblance of peace and joy in your life. Recently I have been looking at the book Tal wrote about his World Championship Match with Botvinnik in 1960. It is considered by some to be ...
Where to start? This game caught my attention; Ravinsky-Bronstein, Moscow Championship 1946. Now, one thing that Bronstein points out in his books is the fact that both the Moscow Championship and the Soviet Championships often featured t some ...
When I examine, in any detail, the games of the great Masters-Teachers whom I admire (Chigorin, Rubinstein, Capablanca, Alekhine, Bronstein, Nimzowitsch, Lasker, Tartakower, Keres, and now Romanovsky) I cannot help but feel like a firefly looking ...
I cannot help but notice the trend.....beginners want to know how to raise their ratings in blitz and bullet...and the answer, of course, is....concentrate on tactics! Because if your game is filled with tactical blunders, you will lose games and ...
Andras Adorjan (March 31, 1950- May 11, 2023) was, in my opinion, a genius in the game of chess. He was one of Kasparov's trainers for his World Championship matches against Karpov in the mid-80's. His original contributions to chess theory...
Hi! Creative geniuses like Geller and Bronstein intersect today in this theme....sacrifice your Queen on c4! Bronstein's game has an interesting story. In the 1960 Mar del Plata Tournament in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bronstein was due to play ...
Two games, 127 years apart......a Master from France and a Grandmaster from the Soviet Union....the difference in the amount of chess theory between these two Masters is staggering; yet the same concept can be applied to different positions in dif...
The Road Not Taken BY ROBERT FROST Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Th...
"Experience is the greatest Teacher." And I would have to add that good Teachers are those who are able to transmit the wisdom of their experience! In this regard, certain chess authors stand out as great Teachers: Chigorin, Steinitz, Tarrasch, ...
About a month ago my dear brother and friend (Suren) Torfi Leosson invited me to play, once again, for the Reykjavik Club in the Spring session of their Icelandic Chess Club Team Championship. To say that I am rusty is a gross understatement; I ...
Chess is so many things......different things to different people....to the chess professional, chess is work. To club tournament players, chess may be mostly a sport. To me, chess is Art. And thus it was with some of the greatest players of the...
Today's elite players are indeed great. They also play openings that our ancestors played more than 100 years ago! One of my favorite chess streams is Chessbase India, with Sagar Shah. He is really entertaining, and at the same time very profess...
Chess is not infinite; yet it is wide enough to baffle the human mind. While computers continue to amaze us with their capacity for calculation, elite GMs are still finding ways to stay creative. Chess is not exhausted, far from it. It is a game, ...
A few weeks ago I wanted to publish a multi-game post about Chigorin's endgame prowess. This came about because I had read a quote stating that Chigorin was a very skilled rook endgame player. The truth is, Chigorin was a world-class Master at eve...
