4/16/2026 – Strategical rules are important. Without them, learning chess would be much more difficult, if not impossible. When a beginner starts learning about the royal game, he needs a lot of guidance. Rules like “a bishop pair is stronger than a bishop and a knight” or “the threat is stronger than its execution” can provide such help. However, once the beginner turns into a grandmaster, he finds out that there is no need to follow the rules every time. Rules tend to have exceptions. Sometimes, specific aspects of the position are more important than an abstract rule. Let us have a look at four positions where it was good to break the rules! | Image: Markus Winkler

5/7/2025 – Despite trying our best, time trouble is sometimes unavoidable. We all have experienced the stress that comes with being under time pressure. Our hearts race, our palms sweat, and our minds become confused. However, it is useful to understand how being in time trouble affects the decisions we make. Of course, we don’t play our A-game. But what kinds of mistakes do we make? I am sure that understanding the nature of these mistakes is the first step in minimizing them.

4/28/2025 – When an inexperienced young person enters the gym hoping to build big muscles and an attractive body, there are two mistakes they often tend to commit. Firstly, they go weights far heavy for them. Secondly, they tend to focus on one particular body part (especially arms when it comes to boys), omitting the body core. However, the body core is essential.

2/13/2025 – Imagine that you are at a party. A person you are talking to is just speaking endlessly. It feels like they will never stop, and there is only one thought in your head: "How can I interrupt this person before I go deaf?" Changing the course of a conversation is sometimes a tricky task. Changing the course of a chess game might be similarly challenging, but not for those who know the noble art of intermediate moves! | Photo: Christine Schmidt, Pixabay

11/30/2024 – Chess fans revel in dazzling sacrifices and intricate checkmates, but the true essence of tactical mastery lies in the understated brilliance of "small combinations". Coined by José Raúl Capablanca, this term refers to concise, 2-3 move tactics, often easy to spot but just as easy to miss. Even grandmasters rely heavily on such calculations, scanning for subtle opportunities in every position. Dive into these examples to uncover the hidden gems of chess strategy and elevate your play.

11/5/2024 – Club players love to attack against the king. Perhaps it has something to do with the ancient hunting instincts. After all, most young footballers want to play strikers. Almost no one wants to defend. Grandmasters love to attack as well. However, they understand that there are many more creatures to be hunted, not only the king. Basically, every piece can become a prey! A professional chess player is hunting on the entire board. And he or she is satisfied with a knight or a rook if the monarch can’t be trapped. With a material advantage, the mate will come. Let us have a look at several examples in which a strong player traps and hunts down a piece of the opponent.

10/22/2024 – Queens are very peculiar pieces. They love to attack and hate to defend. The difference in the value of this piece when attacking and defending is striking. An attacking queen is perhaps twice as valuable than a defending one. In a way, it makes a lot of sense. A queen is a very mobile and precious piece. Being mobile, it can attack very well, creating double attacks, forks, moving from one side to the other with ease. Being precious, it is barely able to cover anything. (For the same reason we don’t use golden locks to protect our bicycles. Thieves would gladly steal both the bike and the lock.) The qualities of a queen are very visible in situations when it must fight less valuable pieces. Let's have a look at some examples! | Photo: Ecolinho (Pixabay)

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