Speed your way up to GM! Get insights from the kings of the board themselves.
Late chess evening
Whatever chess may mean to each of us, sport, science or art, I believe we will all agree that it is about ardent passion above all. ©️ Facebook: Maria Yugina Whether we prepare for the next day’s game, analyze our just concluded fight or, for older generations,...
French Agony and Ecstasy
The blocked French structures have fascinated me ever since my early teen-age. The feeling became more complex when I started to play this opening regularly. The typical thinking scenario consists of a move by move plan choices on either wing. It feels like if having...
The sweet taste of revenge
Long time ago, an experienced trainer told me that the individual games played over the years between players who meet frequently over the board should be regarded as parts of an endless match. The opening choice, the general approach and optimism level greatly depend...
The last but not decisive round
Fabiano Caruana entered the Tatasteel Chess Masters tournament's last round one and a half points ahead of the runner-up, the reigning World champion Magnus Carlsen. An interesting, double-edged, psychological situation, allowing one to reveal his deep inner character...
“We all are wiser afterwards…”
Each World title match has its own history, built up by the confrontation between the opponents' mutual strength and hidden weaknesses. After losing his Candidates' match to Tal in 1965, Larsen laconically commented "We all are wiser afterwards". He added that after...
Brief thought on the Women World Championship match 2020
Many decades ago, Botvinnik expressed the curious thought that one of Spassky’s psychological Handicaps against Fischer in 1972 had been playing the match with a big prize fund in western currency. Indeed, all the post war world title matches had been disputed between...
The European Rapid Chess Championship, Skopje 8th-9th of December 2018
The European Rapid Chess championship took place between December 8th-9th in Skopje. Four players finished tied for first with 10½ points out of 13: Valerij Popov (Russia), Andrey Esipenko (Russia), Vahap Sanal (Turkey) and Luca Moroni (Italy), in the respective order...
The European blitz championship, Skopje 2018
The European blitz championship took place in Skopje between December 6th-7th. The 20 year old Russian grandmaster Vladislav Artemiev won with the impressive score of 18,5/22.Blitz games are known to be exciting yet full of inaccuracies, mistakes or just blunders. On...
The World championship match Carlsen-Caruana
The World championship match between the reigning champion, Magnus Carlsen and his challenger Fabiano Caruana, disputed between November 9th-28th in London, established an undesired record: all games at normal (classical) time rate ended in draws! But this was only...
