The most unpleasant situation a chess player experiences is when his/her opponent plays an unexpected move. Many times, beginners use to memorize moves played by masters in order to save time playing quickly the...
In a previous post, I wrote about the opposition. I showed there that the kings are in opposition when they are in the same rank or file with only one square between them. Specifically,...
In pawn endgames, beginners have the inclination to launch immediately pawns towards promotion. Frequently they realize too late that the opponent’s king stops them. The right approach in that type of endgames is to...
In a previous post, I have presented the Mortimer trap. In today’s example, Black plays for that trap, but White comes with an unexpected move preventing it. Black gets confused and is unable to...
The pin is a tactical resource which every chess player knows. Pins are annoying moves because restrict the activity of pieces. Nevertheless, on occasions, chess players use pins deliberately with the purpose of attracting...
Playing risky variations against experienced players is a step towards disaster. In the B group of the prestigious tournament ‘Corus’ held in Wijk aan Zee (Nederlands) in 2009, Erwin L’Ami was the victim of...
Most readers probably see traps as chess tactical resources for winning or getting some advantage (positional or material). Nevertheless, there are players who use off-the-board traps and tricks, which also influence the result of...
A game in which one player is defeated in less than 25 moves is considered a chess miniature. Reasons for such short games can be, for example, a) blunders, b) surprising novelties or c)...
In a previous post, you have seen that playing routine moves is risky. In the game shown there, White started an attack over Black’s kingside taking advantage of Black’s fianchetto. The type of attack...
Keeping the concentration for the length of a game is difficult. So imagine the huge effort that top players have to do throughout a whole tournament. And what can we tell when speaking about...
