4/13/2018 – In any endgame the bishop f3 would clearly dominate the knight f6. With queens on the board, however, White's vulnerable king on f2 becomes the decisive factor. How can Black exploit it?

4/5/2018 – A calm position... in which one is about to see a wealth of tactical motifs: knight fork, intermediate move, decoy, pin, deflection, overloading and mate combinations. Things start with 12.0-0 — tally charts allowed! :-)

3/30/2018 – Larsen, the fighter! This time my inspiration was the great article "Vlastimil Hort: Bent Larsen". More to come, I hope! Your eyes do not deceive you, there is a black king on h3. Find out why.

3/23/2018 – Playing 13.Nh2! in the diagram position, White signals his ambitions on the kingside - however, until he finally strikes (on h6!) there a some subtleties left to find. Are you fit for the task?

3/19/2018 – Test your tactical ability with these positions grouped in rough order of difficulty. The games come from various recent events: Gibraltar, Moscow, Riyadh, etc.. Don’t forget that whilst sometimes the key move will force mate or the win of material, other times it will just win a pawn. Take your time analysing the positions, on our news page, assisted by a JavaScript chess engine.

3/16/2018 – Black's king has the queen at its side, while the knight c8 is also ready to join the defence. And yet in the diagram position the case is crystal clear: White to play and win!

3/9/2018 – Playing 10...Nxc5! in the diagram position might send a shiver down your spine in view of the possible replies 11.Nb5 and 11.Nd5 when Black can never allow his own queen to be captured on c7. Can you make the move work in both cases?

3/2/2018 – An only move is usually not so difficult to find — provided one has enough time and knows that there is one, of course! In the diagram position, White fired away with 19.Rxd7 Qxd7 20.Nf6+ gxf6 21.Bxf6, ripping open the enemy king position and threatening checkmate on the dark squares. How did Black prove him wrong?

2/16/2018 – The bishop b2 is longing for action, and 19.fxe5 in the diagram position is the first step to activate it. Can you see the best continuation for White following 19...dxe5, and then, possibly, all five moves until the end of the game?

2/9/2018 – The diagram shows a position from a rare Nimzo-Indian line (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 d5 5.a3 Be7 6.e4 dxe4 7.fxe4 c5!?) in which Black can immediately start making pressure. White commits a single mistake and only seven moves later is plain lost.

2/3/2018 – Winning against a reigning world champion is always something special. In this example, Vlastimil Hort finds a tactic to take a point off of Anatoly Karpov.

1/26/2018 – White cannot castle, but with his knight blocking the centre and the king ready to scarper to f2 his position seems just fine. Can you prove this evaluation wrong?

1/19/2018 – The sacrifice 23.Bxh7+ in the diagram position gives White a dangerous attack, enabling him to use this rooks on both edge files. How far can you get in your calculations?

1/12/2018 – In the diagrammed position, White has two ways to make his static advantage (protected passed pawn e5) dynamic. The piece sacrifice 32.Nxc6!? is the first one. Can you see the alternative — and what would have been your choice?

1/5/2018 – Do you remember this game from the London Chess Classic last year? By playing 43...Rh7 in the diagram position Anand could have completed the line-up of kings and rooks on the h-file, creating the deadly threat ...Kg7+. Do you see the reason why he dismissed this?

12/30/2017 – In the diagram position the fork 38.Ne6+ forces Black's hand. 38...Qxe6 39.dxe6 Rxd3 40.e7 - which result is to be expected? A) White wins B) Black wins C) a peaceful ending

12/22/2017 – Black has attacked the white knight e5 with 18...f6 (diagram position). Two questions: What's the best square for it? And how can it get there?

12/18/2017 – Botvinnik has many quotes which well describe this book. One which comes to mind is the following: "Chess mastery essentially consists of analyzing Chess positions accurately." Often as chess players we look for the miraculous shortcut, which will improve our strength, without putting in the necessary hard work to achieve it. Instead, the following review shows how one cannot become good at chess, without the painstaking work of analysis!

12/18/2017 – For an adult player Christmas can come early — In this case more than a year ago, May of 2016, when reviewer Davide Nastasio discovered Magic Of Tactics 2. Here's his take just in time for the holidays. There's also a corresponding book, which Davide will look at in a follow-up post.

12/16/2017 – The most well-known quote by Tarrasch, if memory serves me well, is, "he who fears an Isolated Queen Pawn should give up chess." There are many steps one must follow in order to become a chess master. While tactics are fundamental, at a certain point it becomes obvious one needs to know how to treat pawn formations resulting from certain openings. The Isolated Queen Pawn (IQP) results from many different openings, hence the need to know it. When the topic of the DVD is the IQP and Tactics, one knows this is a DVD to have at all costs!

12/15/2017 – The diagram shows a typical Taimanov Sicilian position (though it was 3.Bb5!) where Black has two ideas — the lever ...d6 and ...b5 shutting out White's bishop on a6. Yet Nakamura found a remarkable way to counter both, enabling him to completely dictate the further course of game. How would you have continued?

12/14/2017 – "It was like visiting an art gallery with an art critic who is explaining in detail each masterpiece", says reviewer Davide Nastasio. IM Sachdev has an interesting view on how to teach tactics. In this review of her second DVD, one can discover how Tactics can be created in one's own games. While we often associate tactics with repeating patterns, based on specific themes, the truth is more complex. IM Sachdev quite skilfully outlines it in many example videos, and then through exercises from her own brilliant games.

12/8/2017 – Sometimes it is enough to make just one right decision in a position — afterwards the rest of game (almost) plays itself. In the diagram White intends 17.Nf3 followed by 18.Bg5. Which black continuation hits the bullseye now?

12/1/2017 – Holding a gun to your opponent's head can be a double-edged thing — set under pressure, some players start to display unforeseen creativity, like for example Black following 37.Rb7 in the diagram position. What followed?