Important

  SPACE Many authors consider space as an independent value category. That is okay with me, as there are different ways for constructing a taxonomy. In my worldview however, there are only 4 [...]

  WEAK SQUARES The topic of “weak squares” is at least as important as the question of “weak pawns”. There are simply more of them on average, mainly because there are more squares on the [...]

  WEAK PAWNS The pawn structure is probably the most important characteristic of a position. Not only is it important by itself, it is also strongly connected with king safety and piece [...]

    THE CCT-RULE Success in chess depends heavily on the thought processes employed during the game. The aim is to assess the position in terms of relevant characteristics, values, [...]

In the last post I promised to present a “fantastic example” for an invisible move. Let’s see, whether this announcement is backed by numbers. Our invisible move is 9..b5!. It [...]

Invisible moves mainly exist in the realm of possibility, as they are only very rarely executed. Basically, they are overlooked in the brainstorm phase of the decision-making process by getting [...]

The following short overview is an explanation for my clients why I refrain from offering the normal move 6..Bb4 in favor of 6..d6, which leads to the Classical Scheveningen. It serves as a good [...]

  In blog post 42 I presented My Principles for composing a generic Opening Repertoire. Obviously, such a generic approach has to cater to the biggest possible number of users. Finding an [...]

In the previous post I described the traps you can fall victim to when studying openings in a superficial and passive way. Such warnings are important, but only half as valuable, if not [...]

There are many pitfalls when it comes to learning an opening. Some exist on the repertoire level: Picking bad quality lines Not taking into account one’s style Not taking into account [...]