Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Positional Imbalance
This post is a collaboration with Mr Andrew Crosby who is an expert in chess gambits. Andrew usually plays them in his games with great success. In addition, he is an active member of...
Tagged: positional chess
Tigran Petrosian the Master of Prophylaxis
Tigran Petrosian, a Soviet Armenian grandmaster, defeated Botvinnik to become the 9th world chess champion. Petrosian focused on safety and prophylactic play, happy to pounce on any mistake. His defensive prowess earned him the...
Capablanca the Human Chess Machine
Many chess players considered Capablanca one of the best chess players of all time. He is famous for his fabulous endgame technique and great defensive skills. As an adult, Capablanca only lost 34 serious...
Wilhelm Steinitz Founder of Modern Chess
Wilhelm Steinitz, an Austrian and later American chess master, was the first official World Chess Champion from 1886 to 1894. More impressively, he was unbeaten in match play for 32 years, from 1862 to...
Bobby Fischer Ends Soviet Domination
Let’s take a pause from the Kenyan chess scene and look at some of the world’s greatest chess players. Many consider Bobby Fischer to be the best chess player who ever lived. He played...
Nathan Ateka Kenya’s Highest Rated Chess Player
Currently, Kenya’s highest-rated chess player is Nathan Ateka with a FIDE rating of 2131. He won the Kenya National Championship in 2005 and represented Kenya in several Chess Olympiads. However, few would argue that...
Brilliant Queen Sacrifices
In chess nothing speaks more to the imagination than a brilliant queen sacrifice. It involves exchanging the queen for less material to gain a positional advantage that wins the game. Queen sacrifices are even...
The Notable Chess Career of Richard Polaczek
Richard Polaczek won the inaugural Kenya Open in 1979 at the age of 13. He repeated the feat in 1982 before relocating to Belgium. Polaczek became an IM in 1989 and has represented Belgium...
