Articles

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 […]

This is a continuation of our interview series with strong chess players. Previously, we have asked players like GM Alexander Ipatov, WGM Natalia Pogonina and IM Sugar Shah about how to improve at chess. Today IM Renier Castellanos will suggest how to study chess and actually see progress. IM Castellanos worked as a professional chess […]

Many chess players have problem concentrating on a current position during the game. There are many distracting factors that negatively affect player’s ability to fully concentrate. There is no surprise that if a player cannot fully concentrate on the position he will most likely miscalculate, make a mistake and lose the game. Today we will […]

A recent interview with Nigel Short in New In Chess Magazine has generated a lot of controversy in the media and among chess players in the social network. Nigel Short’s words were certainly taken out of context and controversial quotes as ‘‘girls don’t have the brain for chess” created a big noise not only in […]

Playing Against Closed Sicilian: When writing about the closed variation, it is impossible not to mention the ex-World Champions Vassily Smyslov and Boris Spassky. Each one had its own style and they contributed enormously to enriching the theory of this great opening.

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The 4th FIDE World Cup in Composing was held early this year by WFCC. The two-mover section received as many as 50 problems. Valery Shanshin (Russia) was the winner of the First Prize. Two of our readers got the solution right. We congratulate them and thank the others for their efforts-Ed.

The exchange sacrifice is one of the most fascinating themes in chess. It is not a mating combination, nor a temporary sacrifice to get back the material within a few moves. It’s a deep positional sacrifice that changes the character of the position. The pieces acquire the true value for what they do on the […]

Many chess players want to improve their game. Most, however, do not realize that psychology plays a huge role in this process. Today we will talk about 3 most deadly and common mental blocks that prevent 90% of chess players from improving at chess. These 3 simple things, if addressed, can make a huge difference […]

Solving tactical exercises is a crucial part of training for any competitive chess player. If you only choose to work on a single element of chess, focusing on tactics is an obvious choice to get real results. These problems are taken from the actual Grandmaster games, and therefore it is the best type of tactics […]