Opposite-coloured bishops (OCB) are tricky beasts. In many (but not all!) endgames, they turn the fight on the board into a boring tea-party, mostly ending in a draw. Many club players therefore expect that in the middlegame they will behave similarly. However, nothing can be further from truth. | Photo: pixabay.
Monthly Archives: July 2023
For a chess player, chess pieces are like specific tools in a toolbox. We need to know how to use them best, like a craftsman knows their tools. We shouldn’t use a screwdriver to hammer in a nail, and we shouldn’t use the queen just for defence. This series will show you in great detail […]
John Jacob Loewenthal is largely remembered as a prominent character in the legend of Paul Morphy. The American champion defeated him twice in two continents: once when he was a boy in New Orleans, and then again when he was a young man during his famous tour in Europe. In his own right, however, Loewenthal […]
For the second time, a Women’s World Cup is being played concurrently with the already traditional massive, biennial World Cup. The knockout events are held from July 30 to August 27 at the Marriott Hotel Boulevard in Baku, Azerbaijan. Follow the action live with expert commentary starting at 13.00 CEST (7.00 ET, 15.30 IST). | […]
Packed to the brim with players, guests, officials and staff, the Baku Convention Centre hosted the festivities, including speeches, music, dance, as the 2023 edition of the FIDE World Cup was inaugurated in the capital of Azerbaijan. In the open section, Ivan Cheparinov, the top player starting in round 1, as well as Magnus Carlsen, […]
Two years ago, we had a collection of “random” endgame studies, a small kaleidoscope, in January, and then again in July. With the vast number of different possibilities in endgame studies, many creations wouldn’t fit into a coherent article, so let us take this approach again. | Pictured: Mikhail Botvinnik during his match for the […]
Johannes Zukertort played the first “Competition for the World Chess Championship” against Wilhelm Steinitz in 1886. He lost the match, fell ill during the match and never recovered. He died two years later in London. His grave in Brompton Cemetery in London was forgotten until Stuart Conquest rediscovered it. This is the story about it. […]
Astronaut Woody Hoburg, a chess enthusiast, is currently on the International Space Station (ISS) with his team. Amid their dense schedule, they manage to find some time for chess. Hoburg plays a remote game against the control centre in Houston and sometimes against his Russian colleague Sergey Prokopyev. Never has it been so important for […]
… and calculations like a Super Grandmaster – which he is. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, born 1994, attained the GM title at the age of nineteen. In August 2022 he became the second highest rated player in India (behind Viswanathan Anand), crossing the Elo rating threshold of 2700. Today we are releasing his latest Fritztrainer, one […]
In the end, the favourite prevailed. The top seed at the Biel Master Open, Chinese GM Bu Xiangzhi, won the strong 10-round tournament. In second place, half a point behind, finished GM Aryan Chopra from India. A group of eight players collected 7 points — the best tiebreak score was obtained by GM Liu Yan, […]