karpov - tag
Caro-Kann is one of the openings that has become more and more popular in recent years, as many strong Grandmasters have decided to include it in their repertoires. For a long time, this has been considered an unambitious and boring opening, suitable for those players whose only goal was to equalize with the black pieces. […]
Most chess players are all familiar with the concept of prophylaxis; it is one of the most important elements in the chess battlefield. By definition, prophylactic thinking means “to prevent the opponent’s plans beforehand”. Certainly easy to understand; however, as it happens with every chess concept it is much more difficult to play in practice. […]
Tarrasch Defence is a neglected one. It had its glory days in the late 1960s when Boris Spassky used it first in his Candidates match against Geller in 1965 and then as a very efficient weapon in his title-winning match against Petrosian in 1969 when he scored 1 win and 4 draws with it. The […]
The Carlsbad pawn structure refers to the formation that arises usually, but not exclusively, from the Exchange Variation of the Queen’s Gambit. It can also be reached from other Queen’s Pawn openings such as the Nimzo-Indian and Grunfeld. We find the same structure, but this time with reversed colors, in the Exchange Variation of the […]
Polugaevsky Lev was one of those Grandmasters from a generation of great players who left a mark in the chess world. A player with a unique style, one mostly positional but also aggressive when given the opportunity, his games are truly a delight to study and represent a never-ending source of learning. His first international […]
Typical maneuvers that every chess player must know. The Isolated Central Pawn or IQP (isolated queen’s pawn) is one of the classic structures in that every player must learn how to play with both sides. It is a unique structure with established characteristics and plans of playing with it or against it. Part of chess […]
Caro-Kann Structure Explained in Details: The pawn structure in the diagram above is very familiar in chess practice. It can arise from openings like Slav and Semi-Slav, Alekhine, Scandinavian, French, and of course Caro-Kann, the latter being the most common source of appearance. The special thing about such a structure is that although white has […]
Chess Improvement: Going serious at chess all by oneself is something truly admirable. It is unnecessary to say that chess is one of the most difficult things to master and every day it continues to become more difficult as the level of the players keeps rising. How to become better at chess? That is a […]
It is not easy to achieve positional mastery. The reason is that in order to do so one must follow the path of the development of chess since Morphy up until today. To give you a better idea here is a very brief description of what you would learn. Here is an (in)complete list of […]
Hedgehog is a Fabulous and Must-Have System for Every Chess Player. The black pawns resemble the spikes of a hedgehog, not letting white cross the 5th rank without getting hurt! The so-called Hedgehog System is one of those mysterious ways to play that captivate every chess player. There is a certain beauty in how one […]
