10/8/2024 – Every chess piece has a favourite region of the board. Knights like to be in the centre, kings rely on the safety of the corners. However, no piece loves a specific diagonal, file or rank as much as rooks do. Rooks love the 7th rank. On this rank, they feel like a kid in a candy shop. There are so many pawns to consume! Also, sometimes the opponent’s pieces are vulnerable as well. But why is the seventh rank so attractive for rooks? Jan Markos has some answers and examples! | Diagram: Final position of the game Vidit Gujrathi vs Wei Yi, Global Chess League 2024

7/15/2024 – The Maroczy structure - named after Hungarian star Geza Maroczy (pictured) - is one of the most popular setups against the Sicilian: White has pawns on e4 and c4 which guarantee a space advantage. Black, on the other hand, has a solid position and good counter-chances, often based on breaking through with ...b5 or ...d5. Jan Markos takes a closer look at this structure, focusing on the role of the "inconspicuous hero" of these positions. | Photo: Cuba News

6/24/2024 – It is incredible to see how many drawish or marginally better endgames is Magnus Carlsen able to win. The computer claims the advantage of the Norwegian is minimal, let us say +0,2 or +0,4, and yet he wins. Again, and again. What is his secret? Jan Markos tries an answer. | Photo: Magnus Carlsen at the World Blitz Championship 2022 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/27/2024 – Most of the time, chess pieces can rely on the pawn structure. Pawns serve as a shelter, as a support, and as a natural barrier. However, sometimes all the central pawns get exchanged. The pawn structure evaporates, and the pieces are hovering in an open, empty, pawnless space. What does change in the lives of chess pieces when pawns disappear? | Photo: David Baron

5/6/2024 – When it comes to manoeuvring, Anatoly Karpov in his best years was in a class of his own. The Slovakian GM Lubomir Ftacnik used to say: "Karpov just had to figure out where to put his pieces. Once he found the right squares, he always knew how to get them there". Manoeuvring is an important skill to master and Jan Markos helps you to master this skill. | Picture: freevector.com.

4/22/2024 – It is not very common to have an article focused solely on one specific square. Today, we will make an exception. We will speak about the d5-square, or rather about the weakness that often forms on this square in various lines of the Sicilian defence.

4/9/2024 – In the present world, good marketing is everything. Surprisingly enough, this applies also to chess openings. For example, the Kings Indian Defence has got a phantastic PR among club players. It is considered to be fun to play, and a good weapon when it comes to playing for a win. On the contrary, the Nimzo Indian Defence is perceived as dull and drawish. The result is that after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4, club players (rated around 1800) play 2…g6 more often than 2…e6. Interestingly, with the GMs the ratio is considerably different. Players rated 2500+ play 2…e6 three times as often than 2…g6. But why? | Photo: Aron Nimzowitsch, name-giver of the Nimzo Indian Defence (Photo: L'Echiquier 1931)

2/6/2024 – Winning at chess is hard work. It is difficult and it costs a lot of energy. Especially calculation. Therefore, it is no surprise that our brains and minds are trying to find all the possible shortcuts. Sometimes, avoiding hard work equals being practical. However, often it is simply laziness. We are often being lazy, and we don´t have enough willpower to force our minds into exact calculation. And thus, we often play a move that looks good, instead of looking for one that actually is the best. | Photo: RalfDesign, Pixabay.

1/18/2024 – In real life, staying safe is often a good idea. A human being has almost always more to lose than to gain. By being a daredevil, you might gain fame or wealth, but you might also lose health, or even your life. And what is more important? Health or wealth? Life or fame? Therefore, most of us mortals are quite fearful, and rightly so. Fear protects us from unnecessary harm. However, in chess the situation is rather different.

1/6/2024 – Some topics in chess strategy are more fashionable than others. This can happen for various reasons. For example, some topics may be easy to explain and understand. This is the case with the "good and bad bishop" theory. Or it might happen that some strategic phenomenon becomes a favourite topic of a famous chess writer. This happened, for example, with Nimzowitsch and the art of blocking passed pawns. In the following article we will look at a very striking example of this phenomenon. | Photo: Tigran Petrosian 1973, Dutch National Archives, The Hague, Algemeen Nederlandsch Fotobureau (Anefo)

11/28/2023 – In some sports, being a lefthander might give you a substantive advantage over your opponents. In table tennis or in tennis, for example, lefthanders score better over their right-handed opponents. Why? Approximately 90 percent of professional table tennis players are right-handed. Therefore, a left-hander plays a right-hander in 9 out of 10 matches, whereas a right-handed player plays a leftie only in 1 out of 10 matches. Left-handed players therefore have 9 times more experience with such a match, and therefore score consistently better. | Photo: John McEnroe, one of the most famous and successful left-handed tennis players | Photo: Wikipedia, Nrbelex

11/15/2023 – In chess, blunders are inevitable. Of course, you might try to minimize them with tactical training, but you will never be able to get rid of them altogether. The same is true for unpleasant surprises. Whatever you do to be fully prepared for anything that might happen at the board, your opponent will still be time to time able to play a nasty unexpected move that gets you in a state of shock and horror. | Photo: A shocked Magnus Carlsen, analysing a game he played against Levon Aronian at the Grand Chess Tour tournament in Zagreb 2019 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/24/2023 – Playing with the knight is easy and enjoyable if the position of your opponent resembles a Swiss cheese. If his pawn structure is full of holes, you simply transfer the knight to the best possible outpost and then enjoy watching how it destroys your opponent's army. However, things get much more difficult when your opponent's position is compact, without weaknesses. What to do with knights in such a case? Jan Markos has some answers. | Photo: Pixabay

10/2/2023 – How do you win a stage of the Tour de France? As well as endurance and cycling skills, a rider needs to be able to think strategically. It is an art to choose the right moment to break away from the peloton. If you break too early, you may lose your energy before the finish. If you wait too long, someone else might take the chance instead of you. Timing is also very important in chess, for example when planning a pawn move. | Photo: Hilmar Buschow, Pixabay

9/11/2023 – Chess is a game of imbalances, and depending on the circumstances a piece is sometimes strong and sometimes weak. Jan Markos explains how to take advantage of these imbalances, focusing on the battle of a rook against two minor pieces. | Photo: Alan Light, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

8/15/2023 – Structures with "Hanging Pawns" can occur in many openings and it helps to know how to play these structures. In the following article Jan Markos gives some general guidelines, but focuses on one piece in particular: the "Restless Knight".

7/31/2023 – Opposite-coloured bishops (OCB) are tricky beasts. In many (but not all!) endgames, they turn the fight on the board into a boring tea-party, mostly ending in a draw. Many club players therefore expect that in the middlegame they will behave similarly. However, nothing can be further from truth. | Photo: pixabay.

7/17/2023 – "KISS", which stands for "Keep it simple, stupid!", is a design principle first formulated by the US Navy in 1960, but which quickly caught on. KISS suggests that simplicity is preferable to complexity in most systems. Chess is no exception - Jan Markos knows more. | Photo: Jimee, Jackie, Tom & Asha on Flickr.