As everybody knows by now, d5 is perhaps one of the best continuations for Black in the main variation of the Yugoslav attack. But more and more players accept the variation and try to swap off queens on d4 differently, by playing the knight to a4! Finally, a trendy move for White is now to […]
Monthly Archives: January 2024
Last Tuesday, this young lad turned 15. Shreyas Royal gained his IM title in 2022, the youngest English player to do this. As a result he was invited to the London Chess Classic in December. There he was the lowest ranked player, but finished with 2630 performance, 226 points above his FIDE rating. In the […]
Arnold Schwarzenegger is well known for his love of chess. The Terminator actor and former governor of California has now found a chess partner who is also a physical match for him – “The Incredible Hulk”. | Photo: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Defending champion Anish Giri joined Alireza Firouzja in the lead of the Tata Steel Masters after beating Alexander Donchenko with the black pieces. Full points were also scored by Ding Liren, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Jorden van Foreest — all three grabbed their first wins of the event. In the Challengers, six players are sharing first […]
On 15 January 1930 one of the strongest chess tournaments of the time began in the Italian resort of San Remo. 16 players took part, including the reigning world champion Alexander Alekhine and chess legends such as Aron Nimzowitsch, Akiba Rubinstein and Efim Bogoljubow. Alekhine won comfortably with 14 points from 15 games, achieving one […]
The term was first used by Fred Reinfeld and Irving Chernev, in 1933. It is a chess tactic in which a player, instead of playing the expected move (commonly a recapture), first interposes another move posing an immediate threat that the opponent must answer, and only then plays the expected move. Leading chess trainer and […]
Every chess player likes to attack. Every chess player likes to put pressure on their opponent. But when the tables are turned, and we become the target of an attack, we may feel uncomfortable, anxious, and insecure. Yet, we can save an incredible number of defensive positions if we know the techniques and rules-of-thumb.
Alireza Firouzja became the first sole leader in this year’s Tata Steel Masters after beating Parham Maghsoodloo with white in the second round — the Frenchman is the only player who started the event with back-to-back victories. Gukesh D. and Max Warmerdam also grabbed wins on Sunday. Meanwhile, in the Challengers, five players are sharing […]
Chess legend Vlastimil Hort turned 80 on Friday. In a short interview, he talks about when and how he learned to play chess, which player he admired the most, why he left the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and what he thinks of online chess tournaments. | See also: Vlastimil Hort, the great chess entertainer, turns 80! […]
The much-anticipated Tata Steel Masters kicked off on Saturday in Wijk aan Zee. A lively first round saw four players scoring full points, all with the black pieces — Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri and Wei Yi are sharing the lead after the first day of action. The Challengers also saw four players grabbing […]