The popular French writer/reformer Voltaire once said, “The danger which is least expected soonest comes to us.”
When it comes to chess, this quote is especially relevant. In order to limit the danger potentially thrown at us by our opponent, how can we ensure the best safety for our king? [hint: castling]
For any player who is trying to improve, finding the right opening is an important step. Especially if the time you can allocate to studying chess is limited, choosing the opening has to be done wisely. Ideally, you shouldn’t dedicate this time entirely to studying and learning endless opening lines, but divide it between all the phases of the game. Most of the time, it is in the middlegame and endgame where the decisive mistakes happen, so make sure you give them their due attention.
A beginner may easily feel overwhelmed when facing the choice of what to play at the beginning of the game. There are so many openings, so much theory!
What is he or she supposed to do?
What are the best openings for beginners?
Looking for a great gift for a chess player.. or for some inspiration? Chess is Art is a unique book based on seven years of detective work searching art’s hidden archives. Consisting of paintings by more than 700 artists, Chess in Art captures 800 years of artistic progression through social, political, technological, and industrial evolution. Just released this spring, the book is sure to inspire, educate, and delight. A perfect addition to your library.
The game can be divided into two big parts – chess strategy and tactics. There are games that can be classified as positional and games where the tactical, attacking ideas dominate. However, most of the times, the two go hand in hand, and a game that had a slow, quiet start, could finish with a beautiful sacrifice. In the same way, a game that started in a dynamic way could be finally won with the use of strategic ideas. Moreover, tactics can be used to gain a certain positional advantage.
London System is one of the most popular openings nowadays, on both Grandmaster and Club levels.
In this 3-hour crash course, GM Marian Petrov will reveal everything you need to know about playing the London System for White.
The study of basic chess strategy is one of the things that will help you improve your level and become a better player in time. It is amazing to see how many times strong masters win their games against lower-rated opponents by applying the very basics of chess strategy and showing a better positional understanding, overall. When replaying through their games, many of the moves will seem “easy”, but they only make it look so thanks to the hours they have invested in studying and then practicing and polishing their positional skills. It requires a lot of hard work, but the feeling of being in control throughout the whole game and understanding where your pieces should go and why is worth all the effort. [Tip: Missed our post on Chess Strategy for Beginners, well here it is.]
The Reti Opening has been, for a long time, a second or third opening choice for white, being considered a dull and harmless alternative to the more popular 1.d4 or 1.e4. However, things could not be farther from the truth. In fact, its founder, Richard Reti, considered these moves to be inferior, since black could immediately start and attack in the center and equalize.
We get tons of questions, all of which come down to this “I know what to do in the opening, I know how to start the game, but then I begin to struggle… unless I have a clear attack I really don’t know what to do in the middlegame”.
In this course, IM Kolosowski will address those concerns and questions. Mat will demonstrate how you can spot your opponent’s weaknesses and use them for your benefit.
The Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Opening, named after the Argentinian Grandmaster Miguel Najdorf, is probably one of the most popular openings among chess players. Whether they play it or not, most players have already seen many famous games played in this particular variation.
Not only this, but beautiful games still spring every time the Najdorf appears in top-level games.
