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Jose Raul Capablanca

Capablanca had a gift for chess that may never be seen again. He was able to play beautiful positional games, spiced with deadly tactics, and all at breathtaking speed, at least in his early years. He could see at a glance what other masters struggled with.

I have included a couple of his elegant combinations, and two smooth endgames in the style for which he was best known. Both endgames have a crisp tactic, but the tactics are there to win positional goals, not material.

Click [...] to see list of games

Emanuel Lasker

Steinitz could do everything well, and Lasker beat Steinitz.  So what was Lasker doing?

We are used to seeing the many photos of Lasker taken when he was an old man, but we must notice that Lasker was a young man when he beat Steinitz in 1894.  So age may have had something to do with it.

But there are a couple of other things: 

1. He won five games in a row in the middle of the match, in part because he steered for positions that he thought Steinitz didn't handle so well -- queenless middlegames (where the Queens have been swapped and not much else).

More Opening Traps

There are good traps and bad traps.

A good trap is a trap you set with a good move

A bad trap is a trap you set with a bad move

If your opponent plays a good move against your bad move, you will have a worse position! So don't play a bad trap, but do learn about them.

Good AND bad traps teach you nice tactics ideas, and remind you to be careful -- especially in the opening! So they are all worth looking at.

Traps

Click [...] to see list or F3 to see the next one

Wilhelm Steinitz

Wilhelm Steinitz was the first official World Chess Champion in 1886, when he beat Zukertort. He had probably been the best chess player in the world for a long time before then! Andersson was reckoned to be the best player before then, and Steinitz beat Andersson in a match in 1866. So he may been Champion for 28 years.

Steinitz was a brilliant attacking player who really loved the King's Gambit and other wild openings, and that was how he played for a long while.

How to play with KNIGHTS

A game with the best Knights in the world ever 
[Event "Model game"]
[Site "Knights"]
[Date "1995.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Pegoraro"]
[Black "Scheipel"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C86"]
[PlyCount "60"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Qe2 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. c3
d6 9. a4 b4 10. cxb4 {[#] Black can take back but chooses not to, instead making it a gift. For the pawn Black has some initiative. In
particular the d4 square is a potential launching-pad} Bg4 {(threat ...Nd4)}

Playing against an IQP

The rules for playing against an IQP are logically the opposite :
  • Seek exchanges and the endgame
  • Put pressure on the d-pawn and make your opponent defend
  • Occupy d5 (the square in front of the pawn) to stop the pawn advancing
[Event "weak pawns IQP: avoid exchange"]
[Site "weak pawns IQP: avoid exchang"]
[Date "1981.??.??"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Kortschnoj, Viktor Lvovich"]
[Black "Karpov, Anatoly"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D53"]
[WhiteElo "2695"]
[BlackElo "2700"]
[Annotator "Wch30-Merano"]

How to use your ROOKS

To flip the board, click E7 or press keyboard f 
[Event "rooks on files: open"]
[Site "rooks on files: open"]
[Date "1907.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Van Vliet"]
[Black "Znosko-Borovsky, Eugene"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "D00"]
[PlyCount "72"]

{A game mostly about rooks} 1. d4 d5 2. e3 c5 3. c3 e6 4. Bd3 Nc6 5. f4 {The
dangerous Stonewall Attack.  Castling quickly would be dangerous for Black.}
Nf6 6. Nd2 Qc7 {!  Just great.  White completely misses the point.  Black
plans to open the c-file.} 7. Ngf3 {?!} cxd4 $1 8. cxd4 (8. exd4 Qxf4) (8. Nxd4

Pawn breakthroughs

Some to learn, some to test yourself and some just to enjoy Do you know this one? Or can you work it out? White to play and win 
[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2020.04.17"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Pawn"]
[Black "Breakthrough"]
[Result "1-0"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "8/ppp5/8/PPP5/8/7k/8/7K w - - 0 1"]
[PlyCount "3"]

1. *
See the position in the final list for the solution. Here's the same idea in a real game. Black to move (click E7 to flip). again, answer at the end 
[Event "queening breakthrough"]

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