Today, leafing through Isaac Linder's wonderful book on Wilhelm Steinitz I came across a profile about Alexander Petrov, ALEXANDER PETROV(born Feb-12-1794, died Apr-22-1867, 73 years old) Russia PRONUNCIATION: "Alexande...
Some positions in chess look like the ultimate chess fantasy....for example, the following final position (after ....Ng1#!) The position looks like a composition, not a practical game, yet it is one more example of Planinc's virtuosity in ...
My good friend Simaginfan has introduced me to quite a few great chess players. One of these is Howard Staunton: HOWARD STAUNTON(1810-1874) United Kingdom "Howard Staunton was born in Westmorland, Northern England. Learning the game in 1830...
When the idea came for this blog, it was just about the game Barcza-Planinc.....but thinking about Planinc, and looking at the wonderful book by Pablo Iglesias, ....which I recommend highly, by the way, you come across quite a few jewels by t...
Hello! I hope you are alright, that everyone is in good health and good spirits. Certain points about chess keep coming to me; certain points of wisdom or philosophical points about our game which have come to me over time. By time I mean 50 yea...
Hi, chess lovers.... Just found, by chance, another pattern in common between Rubinstein and Tal. It is uncanny how similar the particular maneuver is! The first game is from St. Petersburg, 1909, a tournament organized to honor the great Mi...
When you study the games of the Great Masters of the past, it becomes easier to understand what players are doing in the present. Two contradictory things are happening at the same time: The younger generation, deluded by the "intelligence" or "...
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...
