GM Elmars Zemgalis was born in 1923 in Riga, Latvia. In 1951, Zemgalis emigrated to the United States where he became a mathematics professor, and in 1952, he was sponsored as part of a program to bring European sportsmen to the state of Washingto...
In chess, beginners find that they don't know much about the openings, have a small amount of tactical understanding, and positional play is something from Mars. Fortunately, after a while, you will get a bit better. However, if you really want to...
Siegbert Tarrasch was born in Germany, March 5, 1862. Parents always dream that their children will be super-special, but Tarrasch really was! He excelled in school and, after that (in 1880), he moved to Halle, studied medicine and opened up his o...
Kurniadigautama: “Hello IM Silman, I hope you are doing well wherever you are and no matter what you are doing. I just have one simple but rather perplexing question. Why are grandmasters always taking up more time than necessary to play a m...
josephyossi: “Why don’t you play games?” JS: Almost everyone has some sort of job. My job is chess. For decades I played in many tournaments, winning the American Open, the National Open, the U.S. Open, and other events. And th...
As everyone knows, there are books about tactics and books about positional skills. However, in serious chess, you often don’t know if either are useful or powerful. Perhaps you don’t see anything, then your moves melt into nothing but...
My last article was about how George Koltanowski slowly got better and better as a chess player; first in the early/mid 1920s (boring and slow), and then in 1928 when he embraced dynamics. Though he was a strong player at that point, he was e...
George Koltanowski was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1903. When he was 11 years old he experienced his first taste of horror. Here’s what Kolty wrote about it: In 1914, the Germans marched into Belgium. When they were on the point of reac...
@Jed1w1zard writes: I am a club-level chess player. I was wondering if you could clear up an issue for me that I have repeatedly been encountering in my games. When I play as White, I typically like to play the London System since it’s a ...
How strong was Samuel Reshevsky in his prime? Well, he won the U.S. championship eight times, the same number as Bobby Fischer. Reshevsky also played eight times in the Chess Olympiads (six times on first board). Was he good enough to b...
Samuel Reshevsky was born in Poland on November 26, 1911 and started to play chess at the age of four. He came to the U.S. permanently at age nine (1920). From 1924 to 1931 he quit chess completely to get an education in the U.S., and graduated...
For Jeremy Silman's article on the early life of Pal Benko, click here. Pal Benko: My ticket to freedom was, naturally, chess. First on my agenda was to qualify for an out-of-country zonal. Of course, I didn’t want to play in a Soviet-co...
Pal Benko was born July 15, 1928 and died August 25, 2019 at the age of 91. Instead of throwing endless games at you (okay, okay…I will throw you a lot of games), I first want you to understand Benko’s personality and who Benko r...
What is a pawn structure? From my online glossary, I define it as “the positioning of the whole pawn mass. Also referred to as the pawn skeleton. This positioning of the pawns is what usually dictates the types of plans available...
What is pawn structure? From my online glossary, I define it as "the positioning of the whole pawn mass. Also referred to as the pawn skeleton. This positioning of the pawns is what usually dictates the types of plans available in a gi...
What is pawn structure? From my online glossary, I define it as “the positioning of the whole pawn mass. Also referred to as the pawn skeleton. This positioning of the pawns is what usually dictates the types of plans available in a given ...
What is pawn structure? From my online glossary, I define it as "the positioning of the whole pawn mass. Also referred to as the pawn skeleton. This positioning of the pawns is what usually dictates the types of plans available in a given ...
In general, when a very strong player faces a lesser one, the result is usually easy to guess. However, once in a while the “victim” turns the tables and devours the giant. In this article I will give you six games where the little fis...
WHO ARE THEY? Everyone wants to win a brilliancy prize, but few get to experience it. In this article, I’ve found several “unknown players” who actually were able to grasp that dream. Can you solve these positions? If you ...
Well, I’m back with six chess puzzles, with each game being given a brilliancy prize. However, a little secret: I like the little bios as much as the puzzles! Anyway have fun, and if you fail to solve a puzzle, just click the “?&rdqu...
The great Russian chess player Mikhail Chigorin (born 1850, died 1908) was put in the Gatchina orphanage at the age of 10 (his parents died young). Here is a small bit of what that was like, written by a historian of the Gatchina Insti...
Well, here I go again, answering questions from the Chess.com members. We will start out with an oldie but goodie: planning. MAKING A PLAN The Chess.com member @001GENERAL_GRIEVOUS asked, “Isn’t planning good to know?&rdq...
Last year, I wrote about the French Defense. I am bringing this up because this new article is all about the French Defense and many of you will learn a lot if you read the old one too. You can find it here. During the Batumi Olympiad in 2018 I ...
The old time brilliancy prize games are fun to watch, but for some people they are even more fun if you can solve them in puzzles. Then, when you get little bios for the players too (winners and losers)…well, it’s a good time for all....
Yes, I did another “Little Things” article (highlighting IM Cyrus Lakdawala again). Why another? Because I think it’s very instructive. See (and understand) a ton of these and your chess IQ should skyrocket. Once again, I am...
