What are the greatest chess games of the 21st Century? GM Surya Ganguly brings you his picks of these modern classics!
What should you do when you're losing a chess game? If it's not time to resign, it's time to swindle your opponent! WGM Qiyu Zhou demonstrates the tricks you need to survive lost positions!
Wilhelm Steinitz was the first official chess World Champion. He held the title from 1886–1894. Steinitz was the strongest player of his day and developed the theory that you should accumulate small advantages to prepare a winning attack. See if you can find the moves from five of Steinitz's greatest games.
Bobby Fischer took on the whole Soviet Chess establishment, nearly by himself and became World Champion! He was an eccentric and brilliant player and may well have been the strongest champion of all time! See if you can find the moves in some of his best games.
Join GM Simon Williams as he walks you through how to make a spectacular combination with a bishop sacrifice on h6 or h3. Besides this great attacking idea, you'll also learn how to play strong attacking games with an isolated queen's pawn in any opening and how to attack with a pawn on e5, particularly in French Defense structures.
We've all seen the sac, sac, mate pattern a thousand times. Here, you'll see that sometimes the right path is not to capture a piece, but to put one of yours "en prise" - leaving it hanging out to dry. You'll need to see many examples before looking for this idea in your own games.
In "The Drawing Zone, Part 1" we saw some examples of how to hold a draw in an inferior position. Saving a draw in the endgame may not be the most sexy part of chess, but it is still a very important element of chess ability. Now let's see some more difficult problems on the same theme.
Everyone wants to be a winner in chess. But don't forget that part of winning is...not losing! Every chess player, from the earliest beginner to the world champions, sometimes has a game that gets derailed and needs to be saved. There is beauty in saving a difficult ending, in holding on with subtle and dour defense. This first part will deal with more basic endgames - part 2 will deal with more complicated defenses. So now let's sit back and learn how to keep the game in the DRAWING ZONE!
"Introduction to Tactics" introduces the student to the tactical tools of chess (forks, pins, etc.).
"Step Up in Tactics" presents exercises, both checkmates and tactical, which are somewhat more difficult than the material covered so far.