To join: make a $25 (or more) tax deductible donation to ChessEdu.org and we will send your log in details for one-year access. (It may take up to 72 hours to receive your log in.) In Trial by Tactics you are shown the position just before the tactic occurs and then asked to visualize the winning sequence. Thereby emulating a real game scenario. We intersperse these puzzles with endgame studies and chess problems to explore the broad spectrum of chess creativity. We recommend using Trial by Tactics in conjunction with the ChessEdu.org curriculum. A new puzzle is posted daily. A tactic a day keeps the losses at bay! [FEN “1rq1r1k1/p3ppbp/2n3p1/Pp6/R1bP4/2N1P1PP/5PB1/1QBR2K1 w - b6 … [Read more...]
Play Like Yehuda Gruenfeld!
To join: make a $25 (or more) tax deductible donation to ChessEdu.org and we will send your log in details for one-year access. (It may take up to 72 hours to receive your log in.) In Trial by Tactics you are shown the position just before the tactic occurs and then asked to visualize the winning sequence. Thereby emulating a real game scenario. We intersperse these puzzles with endgame studies and chess problems to explore the broad spectrum of chess creativity. We recommend using Trial by Tactics in conjunction with the ChessEdu.org curriculum. A new puzzle is posted daily. A tactic a day keeps the losses at bay! [FEN “r1r5/3npk2/1q1p2p1/pP1P4/P1pbPPp1/2N3P1/2QB3K/1R3R2 b - - 0 … [Read more...]
My Memories of Tartakower
Inside Chess, 1989/9 Hungarian journalist and chessplayer Ladislas Lindner met the legendary Dr. Tartakower for the first time in the 1930s. So began a friendship between the two that was to last for decades. In telling the story, Mr. Lindner recreates the events and flavor of a time long past and shows the great Doctor to be a philosopher as well as a chessplayer. My Memories of Tartakower by Ladislas Lindner When a devoted chess enthusiast is a journalist-and, as such, a chronicler of chess events, as I have been - then he feels that he owes a debt to posterity if he fails to share all his remembrances of the great players and the interesting events of his youth. During my youth, … [Read more...]
Fortresses and Shadows
Fortresses and Shadows by Karsten Müller Theoretical rook endings are often difficult to defend. 162.01 Heinemann,Thies (2467) - Zelbel,Patrick (2419) BL 1415 Hamburger SK - Hansa Dortmund (6.8), 07.12.2014 The position is drawn, but Black must act actively. 39...g6?! 39...h5! 40.Kg2 Kh7 41.Kf3 f6 42.Ke3 g5= is much easier. 40.g4! White marks the f- and h-pawn as weaknesses in typical style. 40...Kg7 41.Kg2 Ra1 42.a4 Ra3 43.g5 h5 44.Ra7 Kg8 45.a5 Ra4 46.Kg3 Rg4+ 47.Kh3 Ra4 48.a6 Kg7 49.f4 Ra3+ 50.Kg2 Now only a miracle can save Black. 50...Ra2+? Black will end up on the wrong side of the reciprocal zugzwang due to this check. [After 50...Ra4 51.Kf3 Kf8 I … [Read more...]
Knowing the King’s Indian is a Must!
Knowing the King's Indian is a Must! Review by Davide Nastasio Winning Against King's Indian with the Main Line, by Mihail Marin, ChessBase, 4 hours 11 min, $39.95 (ChessCafe Price $29.96) I don't play the King's Indian, and I'm not sure if I will play it in the future. So why did I get this DVD? Because in the last fifty years or so the greatest battles of the greatest chess players have been fought around this opening. Thus, the road to mastery is clear: knowing the King's Indian is a must! Just as it is important to read the classics of chess literature, it is equally essential to become familiar with classical structures. And the King's Indian teaches a player about all aspects … [Read more...]
The Five Coin Dudeney
The Five Coin Dudeney by Jeff Coakley Get out your lucky pennies. It's Friday the 13th! And time for round two of artist appreciation month, featuring four more puzzles by the great Henry Dudeney. Plus a couple Cafe originals. "It is extraordinary what fascination a good puzzle has for a great many people. We know the thing to be of trivial importance, yet we are impelled to master it, and when we have succeeded there is a pleasure and a sense of satisfaction that are a quite sufficient reward for our trouble, even when there is no prize to be won. What is this mysterious charm that many find irresistible? Why do we like to be puzzled? The curious thing is that directly the enigma … [Read more...]
Lessons with a Grandmaster II
Lessons with a Grandmaster II by Boris Gulko and Dr. Joel R. Sneed Boris: So we meet again to continue our study of the mystical teachings of chess. Joel: Yes! Working with you on the first book had a major impact on my playing. I added several hundred points to my rating. Immediately after completing the book I scored 4 out of 5 with 2 draws and 3 wins at the Marshall Chess Club under-2000 tournament in New York. I tied for first and had a performance rating of 2100! My increased playing strength is a direct reflection of the work we did studying your games, solving exercises, and, in general, listening to you talk about chess. I will never forget the experience of going over your … [Read more...]
Chinese Heading for World Domination
Chinese Heading for World Domination by Tim Harding As most readers will recall, the People's Republic of China won the chess Olympiad for the first time in Tromsø last August. The question began to be asked, how long before a Chinese player challenges for the world championship. China, it will be recalled, has already had three women's world champions, including the current holder. Several young players performed excellently and the whole team had only one lost game in the 44 played. Ding Liren, on board two, was particularly impressive. Then in December Yu Yangyi, who was also on that team, won the very strong open in Qatar, confidently crushing early leader Anish Giri in the … [Read more...]
Further Investigations of a Standard Structure
Further Investigations of a Standard Structure There are some openings where this structure (with doubled pawns on Black's f-file) appears from the very first moves. Rauzer's Attack in the Sicilian is too complex and wide-ranging a topic for us even to touch on here. And as for the French Defense variation 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 de5.Nxe4 Be7 6.Bxf6 gf, or the Caro-Kann variation 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 de4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ gf - they have long since gone out of style, so there's no point in delving into them. I shall only present one example each of the above-cited openings. Sigurjonsson - Dvoretsky Wijk aan Zee 1975 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 5.ed (this was a popular … [Read more...]
Chess Mazes #381
Chess Mazes #381 There are two types of chess mazes: checking and mating. For bishop, rook, and knight mazes the play is to check the black king. For queen, pawn, and king mazes the object is to checkmate the enemy king; here checks are not allowed. The rules in common for each type of maze are as follows: Black never moves. Only the maze piece (in the case of pawns – the maze units) may move. A maze piece may never move to a square where it can be captured by enemy forces. A maze piece may capture undefended enemy forces. Plus we look for the shortest solution. Helpers in queen and king mazes are frozen to the diagram position, unable to move or be removed. In pawn mazes … [Read more...]
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