Archives

      DESTRUCTION The term “destruction”, in the sense it is applied here, is something I didn’t read anywhere in chess literature. This, of course, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t [...]

  Aaron Nimzowitsch – the father of prophylaxis   PROPHYLAXIS Many players have a rather egocentric approach and are mostly occupied with their own ideas and plans. The stronger [...]

Gary Kasparov – the master of the positional sacrifice   THE POSITIONAL SACRIFICE A broad definition of the term “sacrifice” is a material investment; however short-term it may be. But [...]

  After having dealt with pawn structure, piece activity and king safety, we now come to the material aspects of the value system. THE EXCHANGE The exchange is one of the most important [...]

      DEFENSE There are different forms of defending. On the one hand, you have to defend a passive or inferior position. On the other hand, you have to defend when attacked, which [...]

  As the king is the ultimate target in chess, king safety is one of the four pillars of my value system, apart from material, piece activity and pawn structure. The two sides of this medal [...]

Anatoli Karpov – the master of restriction RESTRICTION Restricting your opponent’s pieces is just as important as activating your own. The difference is that there are much less [...]

PIECE ACTIVITY Piece activity is at the heart of chess strategy. It is connected with everything else. If you want to give an early check mate, you need active pieces. If you want to win [...]

    PAWN BREAKS Let’s first define what a pawn break is. If you move a pawn in a way that it could be taken by an enemy pawn and hence you would be able to take this pawn next move, we [...]

  PAWN MAJORITIES Positions with mutual pawn majorities are generally more demanding than others, due to the inherent imbalances. Often, there are at least four positional themes to pay [...]