A familiar tactical pattern
The first game in Zenón Franco’s Morphy: Move by Move
From a king’s gambit opening, Morphy sacrificed a piece to expose Black’s king and then opened the centre to launch …
Read moreTactics
Game Analysis: On (almost) every move, consider ALL Checks, Captures and Threats
This position arose in one of my recent games. White is better here to the tune of about +6, partly because of the knight on the great c6-outpost, the pressure on the backward c-pawn and the superior dark squared bishop.
My …
Read moreThe beauty of pattern recognition in chess
Focussing on patterns in chess is a good idea. Depending on who you listen to, the number of patterns a chess player knows could be the difference between being mediocre and good, or between being a master and a grandmaster.
This …
Read moreHow to Choose a Chess Move
How to Choose a Chess Move
Do you remember a time before satellite navigation? If you went anywhere new, planning started the day before. You had to take out the large map book, find your destination and map a route. …
Read moreChess Sample Study Plan
Now that I have explained the various aspects of my chess study plan, I thought it would be worth showing an example of what this looks like in summary.
I allocate around two hours per day to chess and …
Read moreMy Chess Study Plan – Tactics
Richard Teichmann famously declared that “Chess is 99% tactics”. Some players and authors disagree though. In a recent article on GM Nigel Davies’ site, The Chess Improver, contributor Hugh Patterson eloquently challenged the view that tactics should be studied at …
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