After seven rounds played at FIDE Candidates 2020 in Yekaterinburg, FIDE decided to stop the tournament on 26th March 2020 due to enhanced Covid19 prevention measures by the Government of Russia. Five months later, International Chess Federation FIDE brought a decision to continue the event from 1st November 2020 keeping the results of the first [...]

Last week, we started our study of preparing for the endgame by talking about about pawn structure and isolated pawns. Today we’ll examine isolated pawns further and talk about pawn islands. We’ll primarily examine ways in which you can avoid creating pawn problems early in the game because, once you reach an endgame position, any … Continue reading "Preparing for the Endgame...

There was some feedback on my post last week about Why I don’t Recommend the London. Firstly I received a somewhat creepy anonymous email drawing my attention to this Reddit discussion and then, rather more usefully, Max Illingworth’s comments on my Facebook page. Here are the games again together with what Max had to say: … Continue reading "London Reverberations" The post...

During the lockdown caused by pandemic of Covid19 virus, almost all chess players throughout the world were forced to turn to online chess. Many over-the-board chess events were postponed, altogether with the FIDE Olympiad and the biggest European official events. The first international Chess Organisation to stage an official event in accordance to new circumstances [...]

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken” Oscar Wilde This week’s perusal of online chess information brought me in front of the following. It is about one of the most famous moves ever played by Shirov in below endgame versus Topalov: It is possible some of you have seen this before. For me it was … Continue reading "I Discovered the Most Famous Move" The post I...

Last week I explained how I teach endings to young children: by getting them to play out positions and providing feedback. If you’re playing a complete game, you might win a pawn by using a tactical device, by sustained positional pressure, or perhaps by refuting a dubious gambit or sacrifice. But it’s not much use … Continue reading "Bishop Endings" The post Bishop Endings...

In recent articles, I’ve presented some basic endgame positions you might find yourself in during your chess career. However, to get to anything that even closely resembles those positions, you have to steer the game in that direction, towards a pawn and King endgame or any other configuration of pawns and pieces, for example. What … Continue reading "Preparing for the Endgame" The...