A pawn break brings a pawn into contact with an enemy pawn, hoping to free the position, open lines or force some other benefit. “A break is generally an unexpected or sacrificial pawn move that can serve multiple purposes, including, but not limited to: Opening up files or diagonals Directly attacking opponent’s king Gaining space…
A hole in a chess position is a square in the pawn structure that cannot be defended by a pawn. It is a square that your opponent’s pieces might be able to sit in and you can’t get them out. (Steinitz-Blackburne) It’s like having a nail in your shoe… A hole used like this is…
Thank you for filling in the opening questionnaires online, and I’m sorry we didn’t get time to look at your responses on Saturday. But here is what I might have said: Systems for White Scotch Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4)My main recommendation for a first opening system, leading to an open game with chances…
“I detest the endgame. A well-played game should be practically decided in the middlegame.” ~ Dawid JANOWSKI “In order to improve your game you must study the endgame before everything else; for, whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middlegame and the opening must be studied in relation to the endgame.” ~ CAPABLANCA…
All pieces, except pawns, can move backwards. But because the opponent’s pieces are trying to attack us, we get used to them moving down the board towards us, and our pieces moving up the board in the other direction. So that means, backwards moves are sometimes hard to spot. Here are some junior players missing…
Co-ordination at its simplest is when pieces help each other — as when your Bishop and Knight gang up on f7 (first example), or fail to help each other, when they are pointing in different directions (also the first example). When it works, you can feel the pieces ‘flow’ nicely on the board, having a…
Here’s a list. There are different levels of appreciation, from Know-That to Know-How Anyhow, here’s the list, each linked to a post.
If you have an Isolated Queen’s Pawn: Botvinnik does all this so clearly in the following game:
An endgame puzzle with a long solution is usually called a study. Here’s the most famous of them all. White can’t catch the h-pawn nor force through their own passed pawn. But it’s White to play and draw: Here’s a really neat one with the same limited material. White to play and win, but I…
