“ENDGAMES TEACH YOU CHESS” Last year I have had the pleasure of playing in the 2016 edition of the Zalakaros Chess tournament. In the first round I have had the opportunity to play the Israeli…
Browsing Category Learn Chess
Chess middle game principles
WHY IS THE MIDDLE GAME SO HARD? The course of a typical chess game can be divided into three phases: the opening, the middle game and the endgame. In order to become a strong chess…
What Was I Thinking #1 – Henrik Ginderskov
In our first chessentials featured Sunday, we analyze a game submitted by the reader under the name of Henrik Ginderskov. Apparently, after the game, he went on to delete everything related to chess from his web…
Best chess tactics books
Chess tactical Bibles In some of the previous posts on this blog I have considered the subjects chess improvement and chess tactics. As I have mentioned there, I consider chess books as the best source for studying chess. Additionaly, the…
Chess tactics for beginners – Chess combination elements
TACTICS, TACTICS, TACTICS In the previous post we have written about best ways to improve your chess. One of the suggestions was very blatant, as it simply said that studying chess is esential for improvement. The…
How to get better at chess
… OR WHERE TO BEGIN? Very recently a college colleague of mine has sent me the following FACEBOOK INBOX (sorry, EMAILS are so 20th century): ” Hey Vjeko, recently I have started playing alot of chess over the Internet….
How to mate with bishop and knight
INTRODUCTION Finally we have arrived to the most difficult “elementary” checkmate – The bishop and knight checkmate. First of all I would like to enter a short theoretical discussion. There is much to be said about the…
How to mate with two bishops
INTRODUCTION After learning elementary queen and rook checkmates it is time to take another “small step” for a chessplayer and learn another elementary mate. If you recall the basic chess rules, the next piece on…
How to mate with rook
INTRODUCTION In the prevous post we have learned the elementary queen checkmate. Therefore, it is time to move one step forward. Since the rook is the second strongest piece, (remember basic chess rules), learning the rook…
How to mate with queen
INTRODUCTION After we have explained the basic chess rules and movement of the pieces, we can take the next step. And that is learning the elementary ways of checkmating the opponent’s king. Checkmating enemy king is the goal…
Basic chess rules
INTRODUCTION Many times during the course of my life I people have asked me where have I learned the basic chess rules. And I have always answered rather reluctantly that it was my uncle who thought…
Dealing with d4 deviations – Book review
INTRODUCTION Every chess tournament I have participated in has had THAT moment. THAT moment when after refreshing the pairings in the solitude of your apartment and lamenting about how you got the Black pieces again,…