Opening traps in the sicilian

A new version of Chess Trainer is going to be released soon. Here is a preview of the new lesson, "the ultimate collection of opening traps".
Download the opening traps in the sicilian free lesson now !

My picking of Chess puzzles - solutions

Hi there !

Here are the solutions to the 5 positions taken from Chess Trainer in last week's post
Please have a look and do not forget to suscribe to the Chess Trainer mailing list.


test 1

My Picking of Chess Puzzles

Spring is coming,  ans you're feeling motivated again to improve your chess. Why not look at these 5 positions taken from Chess Trainer and try to find the right move ?
I will give the solutions in the next post.

First, you have to find how to save the draw here:

 

"Typical mistakes" by IM Valeri Lilov

Which move did David Bronstein miss ?

The answer and much more can be found in "Typical mistake" by IM Valeri Lilov, available from today only on Chess Trainer (awarded best app of the year by the Chess Club Live Facebook group).

Download the app now at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chess-trainer/id398398860?mt=8

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Can you find the move missed by Bronstein ?

Black to play. In the following position, David Bronstein missed a decisive move:

The position appeared in his game against Vladimir Savon. Can you find what this move was ?
If you think so, suscribe to the Chess Trainer mailing list to get the full analysis of this position here: http://eepurl.com/MqmI5

"Playing like Paul Morphy" and "Basic Rook endings"

Hi !

Two new lessons are available only on Chess Trainer as of today:
- "Playing like Paul Morphy" by GM Dejan Bojkov
In this lesson, GM Dejan Bojkov guides you some of the most brilliant games by Paul Morphy:

- "Basic Rook endings" by GM Victor Mikhalevski
Here, GM Victor Mikhalevski teaches you the basic Rook endings that every chess player should know: Lucena, Philidor, and more !

Download the app here: https://itunes.apple.com/app/chess-trainer/id398398860?mt=8

Opening principles - Time

This is the last of a 3-lessons series about the generic principles of the opening that are Space, Time and Material.
The first post was about managing space in the opening, the second post was about material, both are aimed at beginners to intermediate players looking for sound opening pieces of advice.

How to avoid losing time making useless movers ?
How to protect your King as fast as possible?
How to buy time or space with material when the situation requires it ?
All the answers are in this post.

First advice: in the opening, make only one or two pawn moves, no more.
Developing your pieces is more important, and too many pawn moves will leave you behind in development.

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 f6 

Here Black should have played exd4 or Nf6. This is seriously weakening

4. Bc4 c6 5. O-O a6

Opening principles - material

Hi !

in last week's lesson, we focused on how to deal with space in the opening, mostly how to control the center and support it with the Knights.

Today, we are going to look at the material, how to use your pieces in the best possible way during the opening ?

 This lesson can be found in its interactive format in the Chess Trainer app for free.

 After controling the center, the next question arising in the opening is how to develop your pieces harmoniously. This is the topic of this post.
We will see which pieces should be developed and how they should be moved with a few examples. Let's go !
One of the most important primciples of the opening is to try to develop your pieces so that they threaten something or make it difficult for your opponent to develop.

Opening principles - Space

Many of you have downloaded Attacking lessons of Paul Morphy. If you have not yet done it, feel free to download it and share it with whoever you like.

Now I am starting a 3-lessons series about the generic principles of the opening that are Space, Time and Material.
This first post is about managing space in the opening, it is aimed at beginners to intermediate players looking for sound opening pieces of advice.

This lesson can be found in its interactive format in the Chess Trainer app for free.


Managing space correctly in the opening is a lot similar to managing the center correctly: getting a grip on the centre of the Chessboard is crucial.

Attacking like Paul Morphy

Dear readers, sometimes I feel like creating free lessons (that are subsets of real lessons featured in Chess Trainer) and sending them to my followers.
These particular lessons are not featured on the blog though, but to get them it is pretty simple.
Suscribe to themailing list here to be sure not to miss any free Chess Trainer lesson: http://eepurl.com/MqmI5

And I am also giving you the direct link to download my latest lesson, which deals with the attacking games of Paul Morphy: https://www.dropbox.com/s/so6765xuvwpadhc/Attacking%20like%20Paul%20Morphy.pdf

I hope you will enjoy this lesson.
Simon

Test your chess - a few puzzles (2)

You have tested your tactical abilities in the previous post.
Good news ! There are more puzzles !


Let's see if you can solve these few problems, taken from Chess Trainer.

Puzzle 1:
try to checkmate in only 2 moves...

Time to test your chess ! A few puzzles

Now that we have studied a lot of tactical patterns together, it is time to put these concepts into practice. !
You have already read my articles about the fork, the pin, removing the guard and so on, so you are only a few steps away from being a tactical wizard, correct ?

Let's see if you can solve these few problems, taken from Chess Trainer.



Puzzle 1:
an easy one to start with

New lesson on the Evans gambit available on Chess Trainer !

I am glad to announce that a new lesson on the Evans gambit is available on Chess Trainer.
This lesson has been written by the Chess coach Michael Fournier, from Canada, and deals with every possible answer to the gambit.
Some famous Chess games are shown as an illustration of the variants studied. For instance, the victory of Bobby Fischer against Ruben Fine is analyzed in this lesson.

I you buy it today, you get a 50% discount ($0.99 instead of $1.99), so hurry up, but really, paying 2 dollars for this lesson isn't that much.

Enjoy your lesson on Chess Trainer ; )

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Zugzwang

My last post on Removing the defender seems to have interested a lot of people.

Now we are going to have a look at another subtlety in Chess which is called Zugzwang. This topic was dealt with in the "How to play chess - Part 3" lesson from the Chess Trainer app, and I am making it available in this blog as well.

Zugzwang is not really a tactic. It is a situation where one player is put at a disdvantage because he has to make a move when he would prefer to pass and make no move. We have already met that situation in the Rook VS Lone King checkmate.

As usual, let's make it clearer with an example:

Removing the defender

Today's post is about one of the most basic, yet efficient tactics.
By the way, have you already checked the last post about the zwischenzug ?

The idea of removing the defender is simple: an important piece or square is defended by a piece: the defender.
Removing the defender gives you the ability to capture the important piece or occupy the important square.
This post is inspired from the corresponding Chess Trainer lesson.

Let's start with this example:

Zwischenzug, say it again ?

The zwischenzug (don't ask me how to pronounce it please !), is a german word, whose equivalent in english is "in-between move". That's what we are going to talk about today.
I enjoyed a lot talking about Deflection in my previous blog post, go here if you want nice examples and puzzles about that beautiful pattern.


So what does this german word mean ?
A zwischenzug occurs when a player, instead of playing the expected move, first plays another move, posing an immediate threat that the opponent must asnwer, and only then plays the expected move.
Usually the expected move is an exchange or a piece retreat, but the in-between move allows doing the exchange or the retreat on more favourable terms.

This post was originally published on Chess Trainer (iPhone) to help intermediate players understand the basic tactical motifs.
Download it as well to see the new lesson on the Carlsen-Anand match, which is worth a look, believe me !


But first, I want to show you a basic case of in-between move. It seems like the opponent has set up a winning fork here:

Carlsen - Anand lesson is out !

The 12 annotated games of the last World Championship match Anand-Carlsen are on Chess Trainer now !
Buy it today and get a 33% discount on the price: $1.99 instead of $2.99 (offer available only today)



As a little gift to my readers, here are 3 positions taken from the quizzes in the Anand-Carlsen pack.
The first position is the first critical moment of the fourth game. Carlsen's turn to play with Black:

Deflection

This new blog post is about Deflection, one of my favourite tactics I must say. A good deflection often comes as a surprise to your opponent and can therefore be very efficient.
The previous post was about discovered attacks, feel free to have a look at it to know more.


Deflection is a tactic that forces an opposing piece to leave the square it occupies. It is then deflected away from defending a piece or an important square
This post is inspired from the corresponding Chess Trainer lesson, I want to help beginners to grasp the tactical motifs of Chess.


Let's start with a very simple example of deflection:

Discovered attack

This is another blog post about the basic tactical patterns everybody must know. Today we are going to study the Discovered Attack. This attack is another way of forcing your opponent to deal with 2 different threats at the same time. I have already explained why this is so efficient in my blog post about double threat.

So, let's start with the definition: a discovered attack is an attack revealed when one piece moves out of the way of another, discovering this second pieces' attacking potential. This is a very poweful tactic.
This post is inspired from the corresponding Chess Trainer lesson.

Double Threat

Welcome to my fourth lesson about well-known tactical patterns. We are slowly going through all the patterns an intermediate player must be able to recognize instantly.
Remember the Fork ? This lesson is about the double threat, which is a generalization of the fork, in a sense.

 I have taken the screenshots from my app, Chess Trainer, download it to get even more free lessons.

Let's start with the definition: a double threat (or attack) is a single move after which the opponent faces two dangers. The idea is that the opponent only has time to address one of these threats. Fork, as seen before, is an example of a double threat, but the topic of this post is to detail other types of double threats that are not exactly forks (but very much alike).


As usual, here is a little puzzle for you (Don't jump too fast to the solution !):

Suscribe to my newsletter and get exclusive content !

Hello ! just to let you know that you can suscribe to my newsletter to get the latest news on Chess Trainer releases.
I will also share some exclusive content that I won't put on the blog. This month: a free pdf lesson on the main principles of the King's Indian !

The Skewer

Hello everyone !

This is my third lesson about well-known tactical patterns. We have already studied the pin together. Our following lesson is about the skewer, and as usual, all screenshots are taken from Chess Trainer.

A skewer is very similar to a pin. The only difference is that the piece of greater value is now in front.
The opponent is forced to capture the more valuable piece away to avoid its capture, thereby exposing the less valuable piece, which can be captured.

As usual, we start with an example:

The Pin

This is my second lesson about well-known tactical patterns. We have already studied the fork together. Now we are going to have a look at the pin.
As usual, all screenshots are taken from Chess Trainer.

We are here to learn how to win this material advantage with a pin. this post includes some examples and also a few puzzles to help you dealing with this configuration.
First, the definition: a pin is a situation brought on by an attacking piece in which a defending piece cannot move without exposing a more valuable defending piece on its other side to capture by the attacking piece.

Sounds obscure, right ? Let's see an example of an absolute pin:

The Fork

With this blog post, I intend to start a series of lessons about well-known tactical patterns. The fork is surely one of the most important tactics in Chess, thus it seems logical to start with it.

(Before starting, have you read my previous article about How to checkmate with King and Rook ?)

The goal of many tactical patterns is to win material. As an advantage of 2 pawns is often enough to win a game, a single tactical shot can put you in a winning position. It is very common to win a full piece after a fork. And once you have a significant material advantage, the rest is "only a matter of technique" as they say.
So we are here to learn how to win this material advantage with a fork. this post includes some examples and also a few puzzles to help you dealing with this tactical pattern.


Let's first start with the basic principle of the fork: