* Good positions don’t win games – good moves do. Silman says, “Make good things happen”. Play with a positive plan (although part of your plan might be prevention). The initiative goes to the side than can devise and (at least threaten to) put into action a realistic plan.
Fischer never defended his title, which passed to the winner of the Candidates’ matches, Anatoly Karpov, in 1975. Karpov was a worthy Champion, though, and his quiet, deft chess dominated the world of chess for a decade. Here are two games where he strangled strong opponents. Click […] to see list of games
Mikhail Botvinnik was the first of many Soviet chess World Champions, winning a tournament in 1948 after Alekhin died, and holding on though a couple of interruptions until 1963. He was known for a very sound, logical style of play, and thoroughly researched all the opening systems he played. Here he is in action with…
A pawn island is one or a group of pawns separated by a file from pawns of the same side The pawns at the edges of islands are not necessarily isolated or hanging, but they are limited in the support they can get without making weakness. So, having fewer pawn islands in the endgame is…
“Mecking does not understand the significance of weak and strong squares. I have played him three times. In 1969 he lost to me owing to the weakness of his light squares. A year later he presented me with all the dark squares and again suffered defeat. And in the San Antonio tournament of 1972, Grandmaster…
* Don’t allow counterplay, e.g. a Pawn race, a counterattack against the other wing, if you don’t have to. Defensive play is difficult, and playing the downside of a position without active chances of your own is doubly so. [Many of the best players are masters at snuffing out the opponent’s plans.]
Classic Bishop Sacrifice Harder Bishop Sacrifice Lev Polugaevsky was a difficult opponent for Tal, I think the decisive games went 9-2 in Polu’s favour. So, even if there is a local hot-shot player whom everyone is scared of, maybe you are their difficult opponent. Certainly, you should try to be just that! Tal maybe had…
