Back rank checkmates are very common in chess. As a matter of fact, many tactical textbooks start with exactly this kind of combination due to their simplicity. The vast majority have one thing in common: You need to deflect your opponent's b...
The already famous game So vs Kasparov played in the Ultimate Blitz Challenge is both fascinating and puzzling. Not only did GM Wesley So produce a game of unbelievable beauty, he did it against the arguably strongest chess player in the...
There are many patterns in chess which you should know if you want to become strong. I have discussed many of them in this column through the years. Today, I'll talk about the deadliest chess pattern, the one that usually ...
The recent super-tournament in Bilbao is a part of chess history already. It will be remembered for many different things. While Hikaru Nakamura will always cherish the memory of his first win over Magnus Carlsen, many chess enthusiasts will ...
In our article last year, we talked about how to improve your positional chess. Today, I want to give you an opportunity to test your strategic skills. The game we'll use for our quiz is quite remarkable. Anatoly Karpov is...
George C. Parker was a famous con man. Here is what Wikipedia says about him: "He made his living conducting illegal sales of property he did not own, often New York's public landmarks, to unwary immigrants. The Brooklyn Bridge was th...
The world championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin is getting closer, and it is time to update our old forecast. This time I will channel my inner Nate Silver and provide you with some numbers. Let's loo...
There are basic rules of chess strategy that we learn as soon as we start playing chess. One of the most fundamental premises is the importance of the center. We quickly learn that one of the major goals of positional chess is control ov...
This article concludes our exploration of the best moves played by each chess piece throughout history. To my surprise, the tiniest guys in chess provided so much material that I have to agree with the great Philidor that "pawns are...
Last week, we discussed the trickiest knight moves. Today, we'll choose the most amazing bishop move ever! I want to thank all the readers who contribute to our search for the ultimate chess beauty. While it is difficult to choose which b...
Today, we continue our investigation (started in this article) of the weirdest, funniest and trickiest moves ever played. This time, we'll talk about knight moves. To tell you the truth, I thought knights were going to be the easi...
First of all I would like to thank our readers for their contribution to last week's article. Many of you shared your chess knowledge and helped to uncover some little-known games with really stunning moves. Since in that article&nb...
The death of GM Viktor Korchnoi is a huge loss for chess. I am not going to repeat the obvious facts that he was the strongest chess player who never became the world champion or tell you about his enormous chess heritage. There are thousands...
We continue our discussion about the funniest, craziest moves ever played and today it is the rook's turn. While it is difficult for me to choose the funniest rook move ever played, I know for sure what was the funniest rook move that ...
In one of my recent articles, I mentioned a funny story where an illegal king move was played, which made me wonder: what are the craziest king moves in the history of chess? So here I am presenting the games where such moves were made. In order...
At the end of last week's article I mentioned that "recently we witnessed a real outbreak of touch-move rule violations." I think we can explain this phenomenon by a huge advance in modern technology and particularly devices...
I am probably a lucky guy, because I never had any "touch-move rule" episodes in my whole chess career. Don't get me wrong, it happened numerous times in my games that either I or my opponent touched a wrong piece at a wrong time, but i...
In last week's column we talked about the chess heritage of Francois Andre Danican Philidor. While his three endgame positions are truly a cornerstone of the endgame play, Philidor's most quoted saying that pawns are the soul o...
The chess heritage of Francois Andre Danican Philidor is enormous. There is an opening named after him (1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6) and three endgame positions all called "the Philidor Position"! The Philidor position in rook endgames is o...
"You might not be able to fight like a samurai, but you can at least die like a samurai." -- Kill Bill, Vol. 1. The Berlin Defense in the Ruy Lopez is a very peculiar opening. Spectators hate it, most chess players hate it (coun...
The Candidates' Tournament 2016 is a part of chess history already. You all know the results, so there is no point to recap it again. Two popular internet memes summarize very well how the tournament will be remembered. One of them depicts Presi...
Two months ago, one of the oldest grandmasters in the world, Mark Taimanov, turned 90. Just like any professional chess player he had many ups and downs in his career, but due to his limitless optimism he is still a very active person. ...
Every chess player knows that losing a game is no fun! Some of us take it better than others, but it is always a little tragedy. We all cried after losing a game when we were kids, but even some adults cannot tolerate what Korchnoi called o...
His whole life, Robert James Fischer was fighting against someone or something. Thousands of books, articles and videos have been produced to describe the outlandish behavior of the chess genius. It is difficult to count all the social, moral...
