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- Shirov's One Hundred Wins
Today, I offer all of the games in Sergei Soloviov's Shirov's One Hundred Wins, exciting, complex games all, as well as one of the two games in the book that involve the Perenyi Variation. - Uncompromising Chess
Many of you may never have heard the name Victor Kupreichik, perhaps the fiercest fighter amoung all Russian GMs. That says a lot when you consider names like Keres and Tal, but Kupreichik's games stand apart. A relentless desire to win, in every game, and enormous creative talent, finding original ideas in positions that others have dismissed. - The Chess of Richard Reti
Chess master, chess journalist, and chess composer Richard Reti participated in most of the great tournaments of the 1920s until his early death from Scarlett fever in 1929. He leaves us with a lifetime worth of wonderful games and, more important perhaps, a range of fabulous compositions and an opening (The Reti) that continues to attract interest at the highest levels. - The Closed Sicilian
Boris Spassky had great success on both sides of the Closed Sicilian, always seeming to win the game with white or black by a single tempo. The name of the opening suggests a passive approach, but the games in this line tend to be very sharp and double edged, with white attacking on the kingside and black on the queenside. Black's attack sometimes seems to succeed more quickly, but the presence of the white king on the kingside gives black more to do than just break through the pawn structure. - The Spanish Exchange
In 1998, English IM Andrew Kinsman produced a highly readable book on an important opening, the Spanish Exchange. After the standard opening moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6, Fischer, Timman, Shirov and others have helped to champion a line that rewards understanding, not just rote memorization. - Blockade
Aron Nimzovich's first published book? Most might say My System but in fact, earlier in 1925, Nimzovich published Blockade. It was a short work and was quite scarce until my uncle, Dr. Joseph Platz, translated it from the original German into English. - Isolated Pawns
Yesterday, I gave some tips on fighting against isolated pawns. If only it were that simple. It's complicated enough that GM A. Mikhalchishin and two other authors have provided an impressive tour of the issues related to isolated pawns. - Five Steps to Victory
On the main Chess is Fun instruction site, I take visitors through the five steps to victory. (1) Identify the weakness; (2) Fix the weakness; (3) Attack the weakness with your pieces; (4) that will force your opponent to defend the weakness with his pieces; (5) then AND ONLY THEN attack the weakness with a pawn. - Chess Blog: Exploiting Small Advantages
In 1985, GM Eduard Gufeld produced a fascinating manual, Exploiting Small Advantages that offers 80 examples of the kind of careful technique required to achieve consistent results. If you are lucky enough to find this book, you will find gems that do not often appear in databases. - Chess Blog: Solitaire Chess
Horowitz's column in Chess Review, Solitaire Chess, was a fixture for decades. In each column, he presented one game, usually a classic encounter, with instructions inviting the reader to play through the game, one move at a time, with a specified number of points for each move. Readers could then compare their scores with others and judge their progress from month to month. - Chess Blog: 1001 Brilliant Ways to Ckeckmate
The best way to improve your chess tactics? Practice, practice, practice. For years, before every tournament, I used to review the positions in Reinfeld's books just to sharpen my tactical focus. - Chess Blog: Take my Rooks!
Here at Queensac, we adore queen sacrifices. Almost as exciting is the double-rook sac! Yassar Seirawan and Nikolay Minev have produced a compelling book, Take my Rooks!, devoted to this theme. They have found more than 130 games that involve the theme and help us to understand when it works, when it doesn't, and what some players missed along the way. - Chess Blog: The Art of the Attack
In 1965, Vladimir Vukovic authored perhaps the premier manual on tactics, The Art of Attack in Chess. More than just a presentation on how to attack a castled king, he classifies attacks and focuses upon grandmaster games to illustrate his points. He provides a special section on the games of Capablanca and Alekhine, a real treat for those who have not yet seen these games. - Chess Blog: Super Nezh, Chess Assassin
Five time Russian champion Rashid Nezhmetdinov sustained his standing atop the world of chess by attacking... always attacking. As the story goes, he defeated Mikhail Tal so many times that Tal hired him as his trainer. - Chess Blog: Russian Chess League
Today's game was no exception, but I call your attention to the diagram. That position dwelled on our screen for about 30 minutes. I wish that I could tell you that my students and I figured out all the complications. The fact is, I wound up devoting a few afternoon hours to the task and, indeed, there were a more than a few surprises that we had missed. - Chess Blog: Winning with the Najdorf
There are many books on the Najdorf. Today, I focus on one, a 1993 effort by Danny King Winning with the Najdorf. He reviews all of the main lines in 61 well annotated games played between the early 1940s and the mid 1990s. - Chess Blog: Huebner's devotion
In 1996, Huebner authored a memorable book, 25 Annotated Games. That may sound like a thin book, but those 25 games occupy 413 dense pages (with more diagrams within the analysis than within the game scores)! The analysis is detailed and comprehensive, a real joy to those who demand proof or just enjoy chess as science. - Chess Blog: Caro Kann in Black and White
Most books on chess openings have a bias towards one side or another. The bias is natural because players tend to play the opening as white or black but rarely both. An exception is The Caro Kann in Black and White by Anatoly Karpov and Alexander Beliavsky. - Chess Blog: How bad a bishop?
Just how bad are bad bishops? And are all bad bishops equally bad? These are some of the questions explored in a 1989 Thinkers' Press book Strategical Themes by Senior Master Tom Unger. - Chess Blog: On the Endgame
You don't become world champion without mastering the endgame. That's probably fair to say, and Botvinnik's On the End Game gives a pretty fair view of what it takes. Certainly experience, but also a fair imagination and a strong dose of creativity. - Chess Blog: Exploring the Endgame
When I write stories, I like to have to have a good sense of how the story will finish. If I know the ending, I can more easily get there. So too in chess, expertise in the endgame is a great aid throughout the middlegame. If I trade off my pieces, is the endgame favorable? It's a key question that underlies much good chess. - Chess Blog: Epic Battles of the Chessboard
In 1952, R.N.Coles wrote Epic Battles of the Chessboard, an unusual collection because most of the games feature astounding recoveries. To be sure, there are exciting contests and often astounding combintations, but these games were selected because they are tenacious, resourceful, and more closely resemble the type of chess that one might aspire to play at the club. - Chess Blog: 15 games and their stories
When Mikhail Botvinnik defeated Capablanca in a 1925 simultaneous match, the Cuban world champion predicted great things for the young 14-year-old. And so it was to be for the great Botvinnik, a cool pragmatist who precisely dismanted the competition for four decades. - Chess Blog: The most important discovery of the 1490s
What's the most important discovery of the 1490s? Columbus's discovery of American in 1492? Nah! It was Lucena's discovery of how to win Rook and pawn endgames! After all, the Vikings had already discovered the Americas, and without Lucena, there'd have been no hope for chess. - Chess Blog: The Sicilian Labyrinth vol 2
Volume two of Polugaevsky's Sicilian Labyrinth looks at pawn structures, key central squares, open files, piece placement, and strategic sacrifices. He also covers typical endgame features in the Sicilian, notable the importance of the open c-file for black and using the two bishops when you are fortunate enough to have them. - Chess Blog: The Sicilian Labyrinth
In 1991, Lev Polugaevsky introduced a wonderful two volume set, The Sicilian Labyrinth, that draws upon his many years of experience and insight. Volume 1 focuses upon avoiding opening disasters, preparing theoretical surprises for your opponents, and a variety of counter-attacking measures for black. - Chess Blog: New for this year
Some thoughts about new directions for the web site. Please feel free to comment on these possibilities and to offer your own suggestions on the Message Board here. During the coming year, I'm going to try to add a tactics page that will randomly offer a different position every time you load it... It will take some time to load in 3000-4000 positions, so I ask for some patience!
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