Last week, we worked through the beginning of a student game, played between two eight year old’s with roughly eight weeks of chess instruction each. I was going to show you the rest of the game this week, but decided to hold off until next week because I want to cover an important middle-game idea, … Continue reading "A Foundation for Beginners Thirty Five" The post A Foundation for...

“All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.” Sun Tzu Here is a common scenario we are faced with: we have played a good game and still lost. Analyzing the game postmortem is an absolute must. What you should identify … Continue reading "Planning for Victory (4)" The post Planning for Victory (4)...

My thanks to IM Paul Littlewood for posting this on Facebook. It’s Black’s move in this position from the recent game Awonder Liang (2587) v Santosh Gujrathi Vidit (2726) (Aimchess US Rapid Preliminaries). What would you suggest? This position is mostly about understanding king and pawn against king, but there’s another subtlety as well. The … Continue reading "Queen and...

Last week, we dug into defending weaknesses in your position. Today, I’ll introduce you to this idea via a beginner’s game. I am using beginner’s games rather than the games of masters because, as a beginner, you are more likely to find yourself in the positional situations we’ll examine over the next two weeks as … Continue reading "A Foundation for Beginners Thirty...

Είμαστε πολύ χαρούμενοι που η προπονητική περίοδος 2021-2022 ξεκινά και ο Σκακιστικος Όμιλος Καλλιθέας είναι έτοιμος να υποδεχτεί παλιούς και νέους γνώριμους.Σας προσκαλούμε όλους στις πρώτες συναντήσεις και τον...

“A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer” Bruce Lee A quick reminder how it works: Have a look at the position for 1 minute (watch the clock) Think about the choices in front of you and pick the one you feel it is … Continue reading "“What Say You?” The 1 Minute Challenge (49)" The post “What Say You?”...

If you were taking up chess in the UK at any time between the 1950s and the 1970s, you had several books to choose from. There were, of course, any number of US books written by various combinations of Reinfeld, Chernev and Horowitz, but there were also a number of books written by prominent British … Continue reading "Wrong Books (5): The Right Way to Play Chess" The post Wrong Books (5)...

Last week, we examined the concept of attackers and defenders from the attacker’s point of view. This week we’ll briefly look at being a defender, how to defend against middle-game attacks, and when to give up on the defense of a position. The principle of attacking and defending is relatively simple; when attacking, have more … Continue reading "A Foundation for Beginners...

One of the biggest issues many improving players face is where to get some decent practice. Playing online tends to be fraught with difficulty because many players are there for fun rather than structured improvement. I’ve now discovered a way round this by setting up a Tigerchess Themed Training team at Lichess. Once enough players … Continue reading "Lichess Training Events" The...

“A dream becomes a goal when action is taken toward its achievement” Bo Bennett (businessman) A good number of players like to prepare opening surprises for their future opponents. We have touched this subject a few times here; some choices involved new ideas in well known openings, while others involved off beat or old openings. … Continue reading "Need sure points? Vienna...

I reached this position (with black, to move) in an online rapid game against a much stronger opponent. Basic endgame theory is so important these days. Everyone should be aware that there’s a fortress here: I can just move my rook between f6 and h6, when White can’t make progress. The game continued: 67.. Kg8 … Continue reading "Fortress" The post Fortress appeared first on The...

Last week, we took a closer look at the principle of attacking and defending as it applies to the middle-game. The basis of this principles was; if attacking, you want to have more attackers than your opponent has defenders, and when defending, you want to have more defenders than your opponent has attackers. However, there … Continue reading "A Foundation for Beginners Thirty Two" The post...

“You always admire what you really don’t understand” Blaise Pascal GM Evgeny Sveshnikov (11 Feb 1950 – 18 Aug 2021) lives on through the games played using the Sicilian Sveshnikov by players from all over the World. I am one of those players. It started back in the early 90s when I felt the urge to … Continue reading "The Great Ones (4)" The post The Great Ones (4)...