A few months after I started playing, my coach showed me an ultra-famous game. I recall grinning from ear to ear, thinking that nothing quite so beautiful would ever see the light of day again. Although Lasker's double-bishop sacrifice is sicken...
The discovered check is a key weapon in every attacking player's arsenal. To be sure, it has received excellent coverage in chess literature, its potency examined from every angle. However, players still frequently tend to underrate its power....
The ability to recover after a tactical oversight is a difficult skill to master. Indeed, the temptation to panic after blundering an ostensibly crushing sacrifice or combination is overwhelming. It is the mark of a strong, experienced player to r...
Two active bishops working in tandem are a mighty force. Indeed, the bishop's long range enables it to dominate vast swaths of the board, and to simultaneously play both a defensive and an attacking role. While the power of two bishops is...
Last week, we deconstructed the elements of a successful attack through the lens of Garry Kasparov's magisterial attacking displays. Simply put, his tactical vision, calculation, and imagination were second to none. Garry would pounce on the sli...
I clearly remember that day in March 2005 when Garry Kasparov announced his retirement from professional chess. I was convinced that it was all a misunderstanding, that my days of waking up at dawn to watch Garry massacre one super-GM after...
As beginners, we are invariably warned that pawn grabbing in the opening is a cardinal sin. Indeed, what could be more incautious than throwing your development to the wind and setting yourself up for tactical calamity? Pawn grabbing usually st...
"Every time the Berlin endgame shows up on the board," GM Vladimir Kramnik remarked a few weeks ago, "everyone starts to cry quietly, [because] such positions are boring. However, games are often full of exciting play, although there are...
The concept of overprotection, invented and verbalized by Nimzowitsch in My System, is defined by IM Jeremy Silman as "a strategically important pawn or square that is given more protection than it seemingly needs. Essentially a prophylactic ...
The double attack is a devastating tactical weapon. A double attack can come out of nowhere, instantly winning the game in a complex position. Combinations and tactical shots are usually made possible by a certain aspect of the position -- a vul...
Dealing with a fortress — especially when you have a significant material advantage — is an infuriating experience. Indeed, what can be more frustrating than completely outplaying your opponent, only to find that he has con...
At one time or another, all of us have experienced the agonizing pain of drawing or losing a completely winning position. One move — one millisecond of imprecise thinking — can nullify hours of hard work and inspired play. ...
Bobby Fischer was one of the most well-rounded players in history. He was at once a tactical wizard and a positional genius, a theoretical expert and a peerless endgame player. He was essentially unbeatable in match play largely because his oppo...
In online blitz chess (and especially in bullet), resignation is largely frowned upon. Indeed, with so little time remaining, there is always a possibility that your opponent will make a disastrous blunder, an unfortunate mouse slip, or &mdas...
In his excellent 1995 work Winning Chess Brilliancies (part of the acclaimed Winning Chess series), GM Yasser Seirawan developed a novel analytical method: he literally broke every game down into its three stages, separately analyzing the opening,...
Many beginners tend to assume that pawn endings are easy to master. After all, with material so limited, how hard can it be to untangle the complexities of any given position? The answer, as any endgame maven will tell you, is unequivocal: ...
Today, we will continue our exploration of brilliant combinations that have been wrongly cast into oblivion. First, I would like to share one of my own games from many years back, in which I missed a gorgeous mating sequence. It was a very pain...
In this day and age, nary a chess player is unfamiliar with the most famous tactical games of all time: Morphy-Count Isouard, Anderssen-Kieseritzky (The Immortal Game), Anderssen-Dufresne (The Evergreen Game), Glucksberg-Najdorf (The Polish Immort...
Imagination is a vital component of every attacking player's arsenal. When attacking, it is easy to assume that a certain move or sequence is forced, thereby allowing your opponent to build up a sudden defensive bastion or attain counterplay. In ...
In last week's article, we examined Tigran Petrosian's peerless tactical insight through the lens of his finest attacking efforts. Today, I would like to explore the second component of his tactical acumen: sharp combinational vision. ...
The ninth world champion, Tigran Petrosian (1929-1984), is frequently perceived as the patriarch of defense and positional play. There is a tendency to believe that most of his games feature protracted, yawn-inducing stages of maneuvering in which...
All chess players, whether they're GMs or novices, have bad days. However, chess is not a cumulative game — one blunder, one moment of premature relaxation — can instantly nullify hours of hard work. A few months...
Through the years, I've heard quite a few players claim that having an equal position against a stronger player is pure torture. Even though you might be playing for a win, once a desirable result is close at hand, it becomes tempting to overestim...
Legendary chessplayers are usually remembered for their virtuosity in a particular area of the game. Tal is remembered primarily for his otherwordly tactical genius. Petrosian, as a master of prophylaxis and defense. Karpov, as a titan of positi...
