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How to Avoid Traps

  ‘A player of average strength asked us how to avoid traps in the opening. We gave him four rules: Move nothing beyond the fourth/fifth rank till all your pieces are developed (except a pawn, if it hits a piece or takes something). When Black,…

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Move 40

‘Here I spent quite a bit of time. First of all, even if you have enough time approaching the time control, you will inevitably get some heightened emotions approaching move 40. It is almost always very useful to calm down before making more decisions. Chess…

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Chess and Politics

John L. Watson [This withering indictment of the stupidity and arrogance of chess players was written over 16 years ago. It is still relevant today and lends weight to Sarah Hurst’s recent observation that ‘chess brilliance has nothing to do with high intelligence in other areas,…

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The Last Romantic

 Schmidt – Rossolimo Heidelberg, 1949 Black to play   This game is annotated in Victor Kahn’s La Conduite de la Partie d’Echecs, an attractive little book brimming with instructive examples of attacking chess. Too bad that it’s in French and long out of print. One of the great chess…

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Recipe for a Plan

  ‘What does the average player do when he can neither threaten anything useful nor has to parry some specific threat? He just has no guide, and probably ends up making a pawn move which he thinks will do least harm, but may actually ruin…

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Work

‘Our activity, playing chess, is not work in the proper sense. Restoril It creates no value, it produces nothing. Remarkably, it is barely a means of providing work for others. Whoever hopes to make money out of us, condemns himself to a depressed trade ….

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Missed Brilliancy

 Sznapik – Bhend Bath 1973 White to play The game continued 19 Bh4 g5 20 Bxg5 fxg5 21 Rh3 and White won in a few moves. Can you do better?

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Kamikaze King and Queen

 Segel – Fox Antwerp, 1900 Black to play        23…Qxg3+! 24 Kxg3 Rg8+ 25 Kh4 Ng6+ 26 Kh5 Nf4+      27 Kxh6 Ne6+ 28 Kh5     28…Rh8 mate The winner of this game, Albert Whiting Fox (1881-1964), is one of the forgotten masters…

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Logic and Romance in Conflict

  ‘. . .  although chess may be a thoroughly logical game when boiled down, you can’t boil it down when actually playing, so it is of more practical use to see it as logic and romance in conflict. Be ready to adjust your mind…

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