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Tactical patterns in Chess are what will give you a material advantage. We have studied the Pin in Chess and how to win material with it, the Skewer is another fundamental Chess pattern you need to know. The Difference Between A Skewer And A Pin In Chess Why…
The Italian game is one of the oldest Chess openings. Analysis about the Italian game have been found from as early as the fifteenth century, by Italian players such as...
A few weeks ago, I discussed some typical ideas for Black in the Ruy Lopez. This article started to grow so much that I decided to split it into two...
In every opening, White is trying to achieve something. For instance, the Italian game creates an early pressure on f7 to drive the game through tactical motives. In some other...
In the last few articles, we have been looking at the most common sacrifices in the Sicilian defense. These sacrifices are, in no particular order, the Rxc3 sacrifice in the...
The Ruy Lopez is an opening that withstood the test of time. It has been played by players of the highest levels of strength since the Renaissance. It is one of the evergreen, classical, super-solid opening choices which are in every strong player’s repertoire. It...
This article focuses on positions arising from the Ruy Lopez opening, after the Ruy Lopez exchange variation starting with Bxc6 dxc6. This variation does not arise from the Ruy Lopez tense center, as White immediately exchanges the bishop rather than trying to keep the tension...
The Marshall gambit belongs to the great family of positions arising from the Ruy Lopez opening. But, let’s be honest, it is a one-of-a-kind opening and pawn center. So the usual plans in the Ruy Lopez do not exactly apply here. Stjepan Tomić is a...
This article focuses on plans and ideas in central formations after white plays d4-d5 from the Ruy Lopez tense center. The closed center is one of the many pawn structures arising in the Ruy Lopez. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7Y_-9v0vDU The first type of center we are going to...
After Key Squares in pawn endgames, the next fundamental concept in King and pawn endgames is opposition. What is the opposition If you have the opposition, your opponent will be...
Do you see yourself as the master of Rook and pawn endgames ? It is time to assess your true strength ! At the end of this article, you will...
This article is a follow up of my previous articles on the Lucena position and the Philidor position. Rook endgames offer rich possibilities for both sides and, previously, I have...
There are two crucial positions to know in Rook and pawn endgames: the Philidor position and the topic of this article, the Lucena position. Its name comes from the Spanish...
Tactical patterns in Chess are what will give you a material advantage. After the Fork pattern, the pin is another fundamental Chess pattern you need to know. Absolute Pin More generally in Chess, we say that a pin is a situation brought on by an...
This is the first article of a long series to come about tactical patterns. If you are reading this, you probably already know how pieces are moving, the value of pieces in Chess, standard checkmate patterns like the h7 mate or the back rank mate,...
This is another checkmate every beginner should know. If we compare it with the checkmate with two Queens VS sole King, the checkmate with one Queen against sole King, and the checkmate with two Rooks against sole King, this is also the most difficult one,...
The strategy to mate with two Rooks against a lone King is very similar to the strategy to checkmate with two Queens: in both cases the idea is to make little jumps with the pieces to drive the King to the edge of the board....