2/25/2017 – Two American grandmasters won the first major chess events of 2017. Wesley So triumphed in the traditional Dutch tournament in Wijk aan Zee and Hikaru Nakamura prevailed in Gibraltar. Their victories were almost upstaged by the Women’s world champion Hou Yifan. She deliberately lost a last round game in five moves with the white pieces. GM Lubomir Kavalek recapitulates with seven annotated games.

2/1/2017 – In part one of his extensive look at queen sacrifices in top level chess GM Lubomir Kavalek discussed the final move of the World Championship match Carlsen vs Karjakin, Wesley So's queen sac plan against Topalov, and Nezhmedtinov’s famous 12.Qxf6!! sacrifice. Today he shows us Timman's failed queen sacrifice against him, Kavalek, and Caruana's successful 19.Qxf6!! sac against Nakamura at the London Chess Classic. There's a lot to learn and enjoy.

1/31/2017 – On November 30 last year, in a tie-break game, Magnus Carlsen played the queen sacrifice 50.Qh6+!!, "the most brilliant final move of any world chess championship in history," as GM Lubos Kavalek puts it. "Chess players are always attracted to queen sacrifices. They symbolize victory of mind over matter, and bring mysterious twists into chess. Some are waiting to be discovered, stay behind the curtain and never show up." Kavalek pulls out a few from his rich knowledge of chess history.

12/20/2016 – His graduation from National Master and International Master to full GM took just seven months and happened 51 years ago. “A grandmaster title is like a driver’s license,” an experienced colleague told him. “You don’t yet know how to drive well, you learn on the go.” In his Huffington Post column Lubos Kavalek looks at memorable players – Flohr, Spassky, Petrosian, Fischer – and games from that time. His article is historically and didactically interesting.

10/19/2016 – In his very substantial column GM Lubomir Kavalek compares World Champion Misha Tal (1936-1992) to saxophonist Charlie Parker, "both flying high with no barriers, no limits to their intuition, imagination and improvisation." In a review of October games Kavalek shares his thought on a study-like fininsh by Anand in the Tal Memorial, and compares it with masterpieces by Bent Larsen and Henry Bird. It is historically and didactically interesting.

9/20/2016 – We can't get enough of the 42nd Chess Olympiad that finished last Tuesday in Baku. It was one of the most exciting events of the year, and saw some extraordinary chess and results. Huffington Post columnist GM Lubomir Kavalek tells us how the US Americans bested 170 teams to win Gold and gives the three rules required to achieve this. His game analysis is as always profound and entertaining. Perfect for an early autumn Sunday.

8/20/2016 – “I am living a dream,” exclaimed Wesley So after winning the 2016 Sinquefield Cup, the strongest tournament of his life and one of the year's best. With this victory he took the lead in the Grand Chess Tour. Huffington Post columnist GM Lubomir Kavalek shows us how Wesley handled a sharp Catalan against Hikaru Nakamura, Kavalek also looks at the best game of the event, Nakamura vs Ding, and a geometrical gem by Ulf Andersson from 2012. There's a lot to learn.

7/30/2016 – Magnus Carlsen has won the event twice before. This year the Norwegian World Champion, playing in a six-player double round robin, started slowly, losing for the first time to Hikaru Nakamura in the classical time limit. He went on to win four games, one more than all his opponents combined. Huffington Post columnist GM Lubomir Kavalek analyses two games of the winner who turned the other world-class players into spectators.

7/6/2016 – Magnus Carlsen leads the Grand Chess Tour after the speed events in Paris and Leuven. But the world chess champion will not be around for the next two established classical events in Saint Louis and London. He is leaving the competition, mainly to prepare for the world championship match against Sergey Karjakin, scheduled for November in New York City. Carlsen’s exit gives other players a chance to win it all.

5/6/2016 – The spectacular game Wesley So played at the Ultimate Blitz Challenge against legendary World Champion Garry Kasparov – with echos of Anderssen and Morphy – will go down in history. But there were other highlights in a month filled with exciting chess. Huffington Post columnist Lubomir Kavalek treats us to seven examples taken from the events in Norway and St Louis. It's a column to enjoy.

3/31/2016 – ... for the World Chess Title. Karjakin’s one point victory margin at the Candidates seems large, but the tournament’s finishing stage was dramatic and exciting, with veteran Anand playing a key role in determining the winner. Huffington Post columnist Lubomir Kavalek looks back at the final phase of the event and points out to some interesting tidbits from the rich history of the Candidates.

2/10/2016 – In his game the world's top-rated woman Hou Yifan World Champion Magnus Carlsen found himself in an endgame that was a theoretical draw. But it was not as easy as one may have thought: the Chinese GM would have to find a precise defense in a wonderful world of zugzwangs, stalemates and critical, correspondence or conjured squares. Huffington Post columnist Lubomir Kavalek explains in a very instructive column.

1/3/2016 – Magnus Carlsen finished the year with a victory at the Qatar Masters Open in Doha on last Tuesday. The World Champion played more sharply and created a masterpiece that was reminiscent of chess history. The same moves and similar middlegame ideas that occurred in the past suddenly reappeared in Carlsen's game against Li Chao. Huffington Post chess correspondent GM Lubomir Kavalek elaborates.

12/19/2015 – Many chess fans complained about the cumbersome tie-breaking rules of the Grand Chess Tour. The three-way tie for first in London was decided by a playoff in which Vachier-Lagrave beat Anish Giri, but then a single loss to Carlsen decided the tournament and an overall Tour victory. In his Huffington Post column GM Lubomir Kavalek analyses key games and tells us how the Chess Grand Tour points could have been simplified.

12/9/2015 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen, 24, has been slipping a bit lately, but still sits at the top of the rating list – alone against three forty-plus players. The conflict of the generations is a never-ending topic that dominates one of the most important novels of the 19th century, Fathers and Sons, by prominent Russian writer Ivan Turgenev. GM Lubomir Kavalek explains.

10/16/2015 – Magnus Carlsen was in Berlin to defend his rapid and blitz world championship titles. He succeeded in the former but succumbed to Alexander Grischuk in the latter. Hikaru Nakamura won the Millionaire Open, collecting the $100,000 first prize. Hou Yifan dominated the Women's Grand Prix and finished two points ahead of the field. GM Lubomir Kavalek provides game analysis.

10/7/2015 – "It is the best result of my life," said Sergey Karjakin, 25, after he won the 2015 FIDE World Chess Cup, the grueling 128-player elimination tournament that took 25 days and finished on Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan. Karjakin defeated Peter Svidler in the all-Russian final match 6:4. Huffington Post columnist Lubomir Kavalek provides analysis of the resounding first-round win – of Peter Svidler.

9/8/2015 – Levon Aronian won the third Sinquefield Cup, the second leg of the recently established Grand Chess Tour. The top Armenian grandmaster finished a full point ahead of a group led by the world champion Magnus Carlsen and the U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura. Huffington Post columnist Lubomir Kavalek provides an evaluation and analysis of Aronian's and Nakamura's games.

8/2/2015 – Remember the breathtaking king march executed by Prague-born David Navara in the Biel Chess Tournament recently? The first official world chess champion Wilhelm Steinitz, born in Prague, based his gambit in the 1860s on a magical stroll of his king. Huffington Post columnist Lubomir Kavalek, who was also born in Prague, provides extensive analysis of Navara's incredible game.

7/9/2015 – Fabiano Caruana's outstanding victory at the Dortmund tournament, a U.S. rating record and a magnificent king's hunt by the Chinese wizard Wei Yi marked the first days of summer. Huffington chess columnist Lubomir Kavalek walks us through the 1.5-point Caruana triumph in Germany and Wei Yi's incredible king hunt, as always with an eye to historical predecessors.

5/6/2015 – As you know the world chess champion Magnus Carlsen, 24, scored another amazing victory with seven points in nine games at the Gashimov Memorial tournament in Shamkir, Azerbaijan. Huffington Post chess correspondent Lubomir Kavalek looks back at this remarkable performance, and also at some wonderful chess by Vishy Anand. Read about it in Kavalek's latest chess column.

4/16/2015 – The 2015 U.S. Chess Championships in Saint Louis, Missouri, ended last Sunday as expected: the top-rated grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura won his 4th U.S. title; on the women's side, Irina Krush defended the title, her seventh. But it was not that simple, as Huffington correspondent Lubomir Kavalek looks back at this dramatic championship.

3/27/2015 – Most people who don't play chess believe that the checkmate ends the game. They may not know they can also lose by overstepping the time limit or by resigning – something unheard of in sports like football, basketball or hockey. Of course, you don't win by resigning. But Huffington correspondent Lubomir Kavalek once offered to resign in a lost position and curiously saved a draw.

2/14/2015 – The year 2015 is very young and the world chess champion Magnus Carlsen has already won two strong tournaments – in Wijk aan Zee in January and in the German health resort Baden-Baden this week. But GM Lubomir Kavalek in his Huffington post column first goes to Gibraltar, where earlier this month the American GM Hikaru Nakamura was tearing the competition apart.