Dear readers, It is with great pleasure that I am announcing a huge upgrade to this blog. For the last dozen years, chessmusings.wordpress.com has allowed me to share my great passions for writing about and teaching chess with a global audience. I’ve covered the local Northern California...
Black to move and mate in 1 (two solutions).
Question: Why wasn’t Rashid Nezhmetdinov a Grandmaster? Answer: By most accounts, Rashid Nezhmetdinov should be a Grandmaster (if for no other reason than having won the Russian Championship over a talented field in 1950, 1951, 1953, 1957 and 1958.) It wasn’t until 1950 that the Grandmaster title...
Black just played Bxf3. How should white respond?
Question: What are some common chess strategies? Answer: Below is a list of chess strategies known as Reuben Fine’s “Thirty Rules of Chess”. Chess is a complicated game and there will always be exceptions to any rule. However, it is a good exercise to understand why each item below is generally...
White to move and win. (Hint: Bishop domination is the key strategy.)
Question: Who are the most controversial or unorthodox chess players? Why? What do you think of them? Answer: GM Bent Larsen (Jørgen Bent Larsen 3/4/1935 – 9/9/2010) was the greatest unorthodox chess player to have ever graced Caïssa with his devotion. Famous for his innovative and...
White just played Nc3. What is black’s crushing move? (Hint: Analyze checks, captures and threats.)
Question: Which Indian GM can replace Vishy Anand? Answer: In a recent interview, Viswanathan Anand likened the the proliferation of chess Grandmasters in India to a “snowball effect.” This common analogy couldn’t be more fitting for how the Anand Effect has so rapidly increased the popularity...
Question: What was Bobby Fischer’s playing style at chess? And what was his approach to the game based on the openings he played? And how was it, that such a narrow opening repertoire, made him so machine like? Answer: Bobby Fischer played chess the manner in which chess aficionados trust...
The famous Checkmate by Castling Game! [Event “Friendly Game”] [Site “New Orleans (USA)”] [Date “1850”] [Round “?”] [White “Morphy, Paul”] [Black “Morphy, Alonzo”] [Result “1-0”] [SetUp “1”] [FEN...
Question: What is the best book on theoretical chess endgame positions? Answer: Reuben Fine’s “Basic Chess Endings” is an incredible manual for both fledgling and advance players. While I battled through this book as a beginner, my exertion was paid off with overall improved...
Question: What kind of chess player do other chess players dislike? Answer: Sadly, there are players of the trollish influence that after acknowledging they have lost, will neither leave nor move. If tournament directors inform me that any of my chess students engaged in such unsportsmanlike...
The Torres Chess and Music Academy and the Learning Bee Learning Center Present: FremontChess.com Saturday Quads December 21st Where: Learning Bee Learning Center, 39977 Mission Blvd., Fremont, CA 94539 When: December 21, 2019 R1 @ 1:00 pm (Please check in...
Paul Morphy was a 19th-century New Orleans chess prodigy who was the de facto world chess champion during much of his short life. He rarely lost when he played throughout Europe and the United States. He was also a lawyer who graduated from what is now Tulane Law School. As a student, he was...
This one is really not as hard as it looks. White to move and mate in 6 (Wilhelm Ropke, 1942.)
Question: Is it possible for the chess grandmaster to make a fatal mistake? Answer: Alexander Alekhine, the strongest chess player of his time, was found dead, next to a chess board in his hotel room, on the morning of Sunday, March 24th, 1946. The cause of death was stated as “Angina pectoris,...
Question: What do you think of the saying “There in no luck in chess”? Answer: It depends on how we define luck and whether we separate the game of chess from its human combatants. If you characterizes luck simply as pure chance then there is no luck in the game of chess, for deep...
Question: How do I manage my desire to learn multiple chess openings (I play 1 e4 and suddenly I want to learn the Catalan from a book I bought)? Answer: Perhaps restrict yourself to playing online blitz games with your e4 repertoire on days that start with S and T and attempt to play the […]
White to move and mate in 7 (Aron Nimzowitsch, My System).
Question: Who can play chess backwards? By playing “chess backwards” I assume you are referring to retrograde analysis chess puzzles. The individuals who appreciate these bewilders enjoy intelligent reasoning yet are exhausted by standard chess puzzles. A well conjured retrograde chess puzzle...
White to move and win.
White to move and mate in 5.
If you had two identical Deep Blue machines playing chess against each other, would each win half the time? No, there still would be a first move advantage for white. I once created an experiment pitting the same version of stockfish against itself in a match consisting of 100 games played with...
White to move and draw (D. Lolly, 1763).