Chess, Chess, and some more Chess

 

A Checkmate Pattern

Submitted by Nytik on Wed Aug 19, 2009 1:15pm.

When sifting through the archives of forgotten webpages, I found an interesting column on a certain checkmate pattern, which should be familiar to most of you. Today I present the positions that appear in that column, as puzzles for you to solve, ... Read more »

King's Gambit Accepted- 3... g5

Submitted by Nytik on Fri Jun 12, 2009 7:06am.

So, you're the sort of player who likes to play gambits, huh? Sacrificing a small (sometimes large!) amount of material to get the initiative and so, hopefully, win more material than you gave to the opponent. These days, computer analysis has ref... Read more »

Zukertort - Steinitz, 1886: Game 1

Submitted by Nytik on Thu May 28, 2009 8:49am.

The year was 1886. Three years previous, Johannes Zukertort had shown the world his commanding power over the chessboard, crushing all opposition in the 1883 London International. He was already considered the unofficial world champion by many of... Read more »

Italian Game: Odd Responses

Submitted by Nytik on Sat May 9, 2009 3:01am.

I play the Italian Game OTB religiously, and have seen practically every response to 3. Bc4. While some are complete rubbish (3... Na5? 4. Nxe5 Nxc4 5. Nxc4) there are one or two that require pondering over. It is these that we will look at today.... Read more »

Pulling Off The Pirc

Submitted by Nytik on Mon Mar 16, 2009 1:40pm.

My openings OTB have recently taken a turn towards the more modern openings... one of these being the Pirc. In these two games, two grandmasters beat two of the best players in the world using this sometimes underrated defence. Read more »

The Ware Opening

Submitted by Nytik on Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:46am.

The Ware Opening (1. a4) is often dismissed as a pointless move, doing nothing for development. However, like every move, it does have its advantages. In this game, I manage to use the a-pawn to open up the queenside, allowing a rook penetration d... Read more »