Chess Articles - Middlegame
Weakening Your Castled Position
Posted by Chess Chit ChatIt stands to reason that leaving the king in the center often means exposing the king to a dangerous, very possibly fatal, attack. This leads us to the conclusion that castling is the best way to safeguard the king. Read more »
Evaluating Exchanges
Posted by Chess Chit ChatIn my opinion, it's fair to say that many beginning chess players love the chance to take their opponent's pieces. Infact, I would go as far to say that, nine times out of ten, beginners will exchange pawns, minor pieces and major pieces without even considering how it will affect the position. This can be extremely dangerous: habits are hard to change, and this is no exception. I see decent chess players returning to this particular bad habit more often than any other. Exchange possibilites must be fully evaluated, rather than grabbed for no reason. Read more »
Vukovic's Guidelines for Attack
Posted by Chess Chit ChatAttacking the enemy king is one of the most exciting parts of chess, but it is also one of the hardest to play acurately. Every chess player has had the experience of seeing a promising-looking attack crumble into dust. Using these guidelines to work out whether an attack is worth pursuing or not can prevent would-be-failure attacks from ever starting. Read more »
Faith In Your Position
Posted by Anyone4ChessSometimes when you play chess you just have to have faith in your position. This is sometimes hard and forces us to take a closer look at the board. The following game follows in the footsteps of a game already played by a master. The game is not the important issue however, the notes and the observation may be of value to the reader and were written with the idea of providing instruction. Read more »
Planning: Part 1
Posted by Chess Chit ChatThe most challenging aspect of a chess game is finding yourself involved in a complex position without a clue in the world as to what to do. With the clock ticking and your heart pounding, you may well ask yourself why you even started playing this game in the first place. Reaching out to the "greats" of the game, you ask the divine spirits for some guidance. What you get back is silence (dead grandmasters are no help), the knowledge that Kotov's "Think Like a Grandmaster" reads like quantum physics, and physically you've just broken out in a cold sweat. All you ask for is some simple, easy to use method for analyzing that can be done while the seconds are ticking away. Read more »
Planning: Part 2
Posted by Chess Chit ChatWhen you are playing a correspondence chess (CC) match, you could easily sit down and work out the lines for each move and find the correct one. Might take a while, but in CC you have the luxury of time. Over the board (OTB), you do not. You may well spend a half hour looking at all of these and calculating variations three or four moves deep, or you could play it safe with a simple developing move, and that might be your worst mistake. Wouldn't it be nice to have a quick way to eliminate all but one (or two), of these moves? Read more »
Planning: Part 3: Game Planning and Move Selection
Posted by Chess Chit ChatRead more »