The Center Game is a relatively easy-to-learn and provocative opening for White. A lot of Black players don’t give the Center Game enough credit. It’s a very aggressive and ambitious way to start the game. One of the positives of being an amateur player is that you can choose from a wide range of openings. Rarely will you face an opponent booked up to move 15 or 20 in an opening like the center game. You can be assured that a large proportion of your opponents will know very little about it You get a dynamically balanced position out of the opening. Although White cannot expect an advantage in ..read more

I have a very special opening for 1.e4 players today. This could be your real chance to take your openings to the next level. After 1.e4 e5 most players would expect something like Ruy Lopez, Bishop’s Opening, or perhaps the King’s Gambit… But, you play the 2…d4!  See the diagram below: Fast forward a few moves – you castle long, obtain an excellent setup, and tons of attacking chances. There are 3 reasons why you should play the center game: It is an Opening System – you don’t need to memorize move-by-move theory. You just learn the key plans & ideas and are ready to go. Plenty of ..read more

There are many beautiful endgame wins that are worth studying, where you will come across useful ideas you can use in your own games. In this article, I am going to present only a few that will hopefully inspire you to look deeper into this part of the game. Improving your endgame understanding is a big part of every player’s quest to improve their level. There are many ways of studying endgames, with the most common being learning the most important theoretical positions. Apart from this, it is important to know how to play and improve your position little by little in an endgame. This can be ..read more

In this article, we will take a look at 7 things we can learn from Magnus Carlsen’s Endgame Play. Magnus Carlsen is arguably the greatest endgame player of all time. He has developed such an amazing reputation in the endgame that many players hesitate to go into the endgame against him. Carlsen is famously known to ‘squeeze water from stone’, a style and technique so powerful that he can play on and get the best out of any position. He has produced many endgame masterpieces. Players can learn many things from these instructive endgames. 1. Harmony Among Pieces A telling trait of the greats of ..read more

Piece interaction is one of the fundamental aspects of the game that every player needs to master. A beginner player faces questions like How to use different pieces together. How to attack and checkmate with the Queen and Knight? The answer is to combine the individual power of the pieces and the knowledge of patterns. The beauty is that we can see the idea of ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ in action when pieces combine forces to work as a team. The game contains a large number of possible piece team-ups. Each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Through experie ..read more

In this article, we will understand the bishop in chess in depth, how the bishop moves on the chessboard, and its strengths and weaknesses. Many chess players love Bishops in chess. The bishop in chess has a great range of possible functions that it can perform. They are the building block of a fianchetto structure and the aggressor in the timeless Greek gift sacrifice. For many players, such versatility draws comparison with the Knight, which excels in its ways. The battle of Bishop vs Knight has been a subject of fascination for generations. It is known in chess circles that many masters giv ..read more

In this article, we will take a look at how to evaluate a chess position systematically and logically. Analysis of chess positions is a process that involves assessing various factors to determine which side has the advantage. During a game, every player goes through a large number of different positions on the chessboard. A chess player’s strength is proportional to the correctness with which he analyses these chess positions. The winner is the player who can perform a deeper and more accurate assessment of the positions that arise or in the variations he calculates. Thus, the art of correctl ..read more

Nimzo Semi-Tarrasch Defense for Black combines the power of the Queen’s Gambit Declined and the attacking potential of Tarrash and Grunfeld. It took IM Marcin Sieciechowicz over a decade to research and battle-test… Yet, Marcin kept working on it. He tweaked the lines. Updated the theory. Re-baked the variations. And then he did this all over again just to make sure he gets an ultra-solid system against 1.d4. 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 c5 Nimzo Semi-Tarrasch Defense for Black was tournament-tested against experts, IMs, and GMs, and it stood up to the challeng ..read more

Understanding chess algebraic notation is pivotal for professional chess players. In today’s guide, you’ll not only grasp reading and writing chess notations but also delve into analyzing others’ games to refine your own skills. Learning chess notation is a must-know for any ambitious chess player. It’ll allow you to read and write chess moves, spectate games and will take reading chess books to the next level. Algebraic Chess Notation – How to Read and Write Chess, a game of strategy, is widely known for its complexity and depth. Therefore, understanding how to read and write algebraic chess ..read more

In Larsen’s opening (1.b3), White aims to steer the game away from the tried and tested paths with an immediate Queenside fianchetto. This line is deservedly named after the great Danish player GM Jørgen Bent Larsen. He successfully used this opening in the 1960s-70s. White employs the hypermodern opening strategy in Larsen’s opening. The idea is to encourage Black to occupy the center and then attack it later with pawns and pieces. One of the biggest advantages of this opening is that White enjoys great flexibility in choosing where to put his pawns and minor pieces. This makes it an attracti ..read more