Category: Blog
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Game of the Week XIX: Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime (2750) – Aronian, Levon (2765)
“Centralization of the king in the endgame is hardly ever incorrect. It can only be inopportune.” – from Endgame Strategy by Shereshevsky Mating the king is the primary purpose of chess; therefore, each side usually tries to keep the king safe during the middle game where their opponent has various opportunities to attack him. However, after trading the…
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Game of the Week XVIII: So, Wesley (2766) – Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (2770)
A ruined pawn structure around the king is a recipe for getting mated in the middle game. However, closer to the endgame, the chance of the weaker side being able to defend the king increases, which is why they usually offer trades to make the position more defensible. Nonetheless, sometimes the attacking side may also…
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Game of the Week XVII: Caruana, Fabiano (2792) – Dominguez Perez, Leinier (2752)
During Chess.com’s coverage of the FIDE World Championship, Caruana said that he likes to go against the engine’s will in his opening preparation. Today, it is almost impossible to find any significant advantage in serious openings. Instead, the main goal of top GMs is to take their opponent out of their preparation. Caruana claims that…
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Game of the Week XVI: Mastrovasilis, Dimitrios (2618) – Fier, Alexandr (2583)
How do blunders happen in strong players’ games? Usually, strong players blunder when they encounter a surprise in some part of the game (for example, opening moves that they have not analyzed, moves that change the evaluation, etc.) that leads to uncomfortable positions for them. They spend a considerable amount of energy trying to calculate…
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Game of the Week XV: Can, Emre (2578) – Nihal Sarin (2648)
When there is no light piece in front of the king, such as a knight on the 3rd or 6th rank, I call it a “lone king concern”. As you would guess, in these situations, the king becomes vulnerable, especially when enemy pieces are nearby. This is why many strong players often keep the knight…
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Game of the Week XIV: Gadimbayli, Abdulla (2451) – Navara, David (2700)
What happens when a player is “on fire”? This phenomenon is observed in chess tournaments from time to time when a player exhibits much higher performance than his rating would predict. In such cases, it seems that all of the elements – good form, luck, and the opponents’ underestimation – come together to create something…
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Game of the Week XIII
The following question frequently arises in practice: How can I create winning chances if I’m playing with Black? The question above is very difficult to answer because there are several possible variations depending on the opponent, and a solution that would work in one situation might not work in another. There are three possible solutions…
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Game of the Week XII: Predke, Alexandr (2682) – Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime (2761)
All chess players encounter situations where it is necessary to effectively respond to their opponents’ moves and ideas. Preventing them or preparing against them is known as prophylaxis (from Ancient Greek: πρό (pró = before) + φύλαξις (phúlaxis = a watching, guarding). There are two types of prophylaxis in chess, which might be translated into…
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Game of the Week XI: Ivic, Velimir (2607) – Markus, Robert (2625)
There are several types of advantages in chess. After the material advantage, the easiest one to recognize is probably the space advantage, where a player controls considerably more squares than their opponent. It is common knowledge that the side with a space advantage should avoid trading pieces because the side with a space disadvantage has…
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Game of the Week X: Grandelius, Nils (2672) – Howell, David W L (2646)
A wise man once said that a player in a lost position is like a drowning man who will try all possible ways to escape from his dire circumstances. However, just trying to save themselves may not help the player because an experienced opponent closes all possible escape routes. Consequently, a player in a losing…
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Game of the Week IX: Valles Moreno, I (2401) – Soham, Das (2330)
“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana This quote reminds us why we should learn from history in order to help us to avoid the mistakes made by prior generations. A common piece of advice to chess players is to study the classic chess books, especially those…
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Game of the Week VIII: Lupulescu, Constantin (2620) – Nanu, Costica-Ciprian (2513)
This Game of the Week teaches us the following chess concepts: Also, please consider contributing to the continuation of this blog by picking up one (or all!) of the products below. Let us know what you think by leaving a review on Amazon. Thank you for your support! Game of the Week VIII: Lupulescu vs.…