Regular readers will know that I think endgame study should form a major part of every improving chess player’s routine. One of my favourite authors on the subject is GM John Nunn. GM Nunn is not just a prolific chess …
Read moreMalcolm Gladwell popularised Anders Ericsson’s work on deliberate practice in his book Outliers: The Story of Success. Incidentally, I found Ericsson’s Peak a better read.
Whichever version of the idea you read, I believe nobody could master (not ‘be …
Read moreThis visualization exercise is linked to this tactics post, but that’s as much of a clue as I’ll give!
Click through the game below, consider the position after 24…h6 (even better if you set up the position on a …
Read moreThis master game is another from one of my chess heroes, José Raúl Capablanca. Here he takes on the Soviet Grandmaster Viacheslav Ragozin in the Moscow tournament of 1936.
This was the third of the Moscow tournaments organised by Nikolai …
Read moreThe tactical device of removing the guard is also known as removing the defender. The name of the tactic is almost sufficient in itself to describe how it works.
The opponent has a piece which is defending another piece, or …
Read moreTwo bishops, or a bishop and another piece, can work together to cut off the king’s escape squares, protect the mating piece and deliver mate. The long-range impact of the bishop is often the key to these patterns.
The mating …
Read moreIn this round-up of recently published chess books we look at:
This problem presented itself recently while I was doing tactics training on ChessTempo.
The three features which jumped out were the semi-exposed king on the g-file, the unprotected knight and the awkwardly placed queen. I quickly dismissed the opportunities …
Read moreFollowing a recent up and down tournament, I reviewed my play and decided to make some adjustments to my study plan. Here is what I learned in my review. In a later post I will show how I …
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