Guys, Here are 39 reasons to feel happy about being who you are: 1) Phone Conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. 2) You know stuff about tanks. 3) A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase. 4) You can open all your own ...
Drawing by repetition is not a too frequently used method, but it has produced some remarkable finishes. It implies an equilibrium of forces, in which both players are compelled to draw because they have no better line of play. The position below ...
In the following position, can you see what White is threatening? Black misses it completely, because he ignores his weakness on the first rank. How can Black make his position reasonably safe? Black sees a chance to win White's h4 pawn. Without...
In the following position Black played...h6 under the impression that this wins White's Bishop. This reasoning seems convincing, as a move of the menaced Bishop will lose the White Queen. How does White's aggressively posted Rook at g3 spoils...
Once upon a time, a mouse was looking through a hole in the wall and saw a farmer and his wife opening a package. He wondered what type of food could be in it, to his horror, he saw that the package contained a mouse trap. The mouse ran to th...
In this beautiful miniature, Bobby Fischer, defeats his formidable Newyorker counterpart Reuben Fine. This is truly an amazing game because Fine was nobody to mess with. Very few times in his brilliant chess career has this American...
As you all probably know, Anna Zatonskih won the United States Women's Championship by defeating IM and two-time Champion Irina Krush in Tulsa. The two girls tied for first by scoring 7.5 points each, and according to Chess Life writer Tom Br...
Sixteen-year-old Bobby Fischer suffers four defeats against Mikhail Tal during the Candidates' Tournament of 1959. He faces Tal again at Bled in 1961, this time things turn out differently, the boy has become a man and he ...
Mikhail Tal (1936-1992) won his right to a World title match with Botvinnik by sweeping the interzonal at Portoroz in 1958, coming in ahead of Benko, Petrosian and Fischer; and then winning the Candidates' Tournament of 1959. It was at this Candid...
In the following position, White is a Knight and a pawn to the good; yet he is apparently lost. If he moves his Queen off the g-file, he gets mated. Resigning in such situation would have been completely understandable. Once again...
One of the worst types of defensive blunders comes about when a player walks into a trap that has been deliberately set for him. Nothing, in fact, is so conducive to blundering as the belief that your opponent has blundered. Our powerful sense of ...
Have you ever realized how your ambitions change during the course of a game? When your opponent is attacking fiercely and when you are hard pressed, you'd be very glad to escape with a draw. Yet, a moment later, when the pressure has eas...
Agressive defense is good, if you can achieve it. Simplifying is good, if you can achieve it. But what do you do where neither of these methods is possible? In that case you must bide your time, not with passive squirming, but by constantly remain...
Of all the different kinds of mistakes in Chess, losing a won game is undoubtedly the most exasperating. No other mistake is more likely to rob you of self-confidence. Some players, when they have an advantage in material, seek complications inste...
Because Alexander Alekhine was probably the greatest tactician in the history of Chess, it is always interesting to read the comments of his opponents on his style. One significant observation is that, whereas in most tactical sequences it is the ...
Even the most persuasive swindles will sometimes be defeated by one artful check, as witness the following position from a game played in Iceland in 1949. Max Euwe, a former World Champion has been completely outplayed. He is behind in material an...
Pins are often so powerful that it becomes a matter of habit to think of them as invincible. They are not. That is the sad discovery that Black makes in the following position: Black's position is anything but inviting, his King is u...
In the following position, we can see once more what can happen when a player sets up a pitfall for his opponent but overlooks weakness in his own side. The position arose in a match game played in 1888. White has the problem of guarding...
In the following position White has two pawns for the exchange, so that material is approximately even. If Black is to seek a win, it must be on some combinative basis. Yet the position of his Rook on g4 is an awkward one, for it is pinned by the ...
This game was contributed by Mike Ardrey to the June 2008 issue of "Chess Life" Magazine. These are Mr. Ardrey's comments in his own words: "My thanks to GM Andy Soltis for his tribute to GM Al Horowitz in th...
Albert Whiting Fox from Boston (1881-1964) plays this famous game in 1901. He uses his opponent's greed to bring him down to his doom. White's 17.Ndc4!! places a knight in prise; very few of us would have been able...
In almost any game of Chess there comes a crisis that must be recognized. In one way or another, a player risks something; if he knows what he's doing, we call it a "calculated risk." If you understand the nature of the crisis; if yo...
Whoever said: "It's not over till it's over" was probably a Chess player. You can be winning a game and then your opponent makes one of those out-of-the-blue moves that forces your immediate resignation. Such moves...
The endgame is the special domain of the swindle, for it is in this final stage that players dream up last-minute expedients to save themselves from otherwise certain loss. Some of the cleverest gimmicks we know have been concocted in positions th...
Here is the shortest game on record from Master tournament play, according to "The Golden Treasury of Chess" by Al Horowitz. White has two choices: Losing his Queen or getting mated, he resigns. If you ever lost in such a fashion, don&#...
