TheChessWorld: Chess Tips to Help You Win Chess Games

08.21.2019

GM Alex Colovic

I have never considered myself an attacking player even though most of my games when I was young were decided by attacks on the king. I attribute it to youth and not feeling too comfortable in other areas of positional play. Still, I was good at seeing tactics and calculation, but I had a rather limited vision of how the game should be played and what is possible in chess and what is not.

Middlegame Tips

Typical Sacrifices in Sicilian Defense: The Piece Sacrifice on b5

08.12.2015

WGM Raluca Sgîrcea, IM Renier Castellanos

Continuing our series of typical sacrifices, this time we take the time to discuss a common idea in the Sicilian, the piece sacrifice on b5. It's a common idea, and it should be well known to the Sicilian experts.

Power Moves: The Pawns

01.01.2016

WGM Raluca Sgîrcea, IM Renier Castellanos

Pawn play is one difficult element in chess. Mastering the art of knowing what pawn you should move, and most important, when to do it, is definitely something that takes years to learn. In this article we are going to have a look at a specific type of pawn play, the central ruptures.

Destroying the Opponent’s Castled King

04.27.2017

WGM Raluca Sgîrcea, IM Renier Castellanos

Knowing how to attack is an essential part of the chess struggle. An attack can emerge for several reasons – a poor coordination of the opponent’s pieces or a weakness in his king’s shelter could be enough to launch a direct offensive. However, there are other types of attacks that arise very often and this is the situation when the kings are castled on opposite wings. In such positions, the most common method of starting an attack is by throwing the pawns at the castle in order to create weaknesses in the opponent’s pawn structure and open the lines.

Training Tips

Openings Ideas Middlegame Advice Endgame Strategies

5 Things We Should All Learn from Mark Dvoretsky

04.22.2018

WGM Raluca Sgîrcea, IM Renier Castellanos

Known as one of the best coaches of our times, Mark Dvoretsky left us a valuable legacy to help chess players improve their training technique and take that much-awaited leap forward. His books are a great source of inspiration and help for every aspiring chess player. Mark Dvoretsky learned how to play chess before elementary school, but back then he was mostly interested in mathematics, so the game wasn’t given that much importance. He started to take chess seriously and began going to the district’s chess club and studying only when he was in the fifth grade.

10 Ways to Improve Your Calculation Skills

01.27.2017

WGM Raluca Sgîrcea, IM Renier Castellanos

Chess is mostly about tactics. That doesn’t necessarily mean complicated combinations, but simply minor operations that take place at every instance of the game. The positional ideas and concepts often have to be backed up with accurate calculation or in extreme cases they can only be enforced by precise and well-calculated variations. Therefore, the calculation is the muscle of every chess player.

Visualization Chess Training

04.29.2015

Yury Markushin

Chess position visualization is a very important ability. This ability allows a chess player to calculate tactics precisely multiple moves ahead and most importantly it makes it possible to picture and evaluate the final position correctly. This is exactly what Magnus Carlsen was referring to when he was asked how many moves ahead he can calculate. Carlsen replied that the trick is to evaluate the final position, not simply to calculate the moves.

Opening Tips

Closed Center in KID and Benoni

05.31.2017

WGM Raluca Sgîrcea, IM Renier Castellanos

The pawn structure in the diagram below is not an unfamiliar one to the average player. As we all know, it can arise from different openings, mostly from those starting with 1.c4 or 1.d4 and Black responds with the King’s Indian Benoni-type of defense.

The London System: Part II

06.12.2017

WGM Raluca Sgîrcea, IM Renier Castellanos

The London System has always been a sideline, far from the latest hype when it comes to opening trends. However, this is not the case anymore, for in the past 2-3 years, maybe more, thanks to the efforts put by Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik and needless to say Gata Kamsky, the London has become just as dangerous and respectable as any other opening choice among the main lines of 1.d4 or 1.e4. Perhaps due to the so many analyzed lines, the world has found in the London the perfect opening to force your opponents to play by themselves, without the possibility of engine analysis or too relevant theoretical support.

Handling the French Defense – Bacrot Method

05.28.2019

WGM Raluca Sgîrcea, IM Renier Castellanos

In previous articles, we have written about the importance of being practical in your opening choice. Following the sharp lines in the mainstream theory is not for everyone, but fortunately, chess is rich enough and can be played in many different ways. In this article, we would like to draw your attention to the exchange variation of the French as played by the French Grandmaster Etienne Bacrot. Bacrot is an extremely strong player with a wonderful chess career. Although for most of his career, he has been a 1.d4 player, Bacrot switches to 1.e4 every now and then.