Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Endgame Lecture with Anna Rudolf

Michael Adams - Fabiano Caruana, London Chess Classic 2014

 
The game at Chessgames.com 
  

Hikaru Nakamura - Michael Adams, London Chess Classic 2014

 
The game at Chessgames.com 
  

Endgame study by Richard Réti

Endgame study by A.S. Selezniev

The Life and Chess of Anatoly Karpov

The Life and Chess of Viktor Korchnoi

King's Indian Attack: Robert Jamieson - Greg Hjorth, 1979

Lecture with GM Ian Rogers.

Carlsen - Anand, World Chess Championship 2014, Game 11

Magnus Carlsen defended his title, winning three games, losing one and drawing seven. Congratulations!

Game 11 annotated at Sven Wisløff Nilssen's blog and at ChessBase News.

Wikipedia about the World Chess Championship 2014.

Carlsen - Anand, World Chess Championship 2014, Game 6

White to move 

Magnus Carlsen played 26.Kd2?? with the idea to continue with Ke2. The idea to play Ke2 works if white instead starts with 26.Kd1.

Viswanathan Anand didn't play the winning move 26...Nxe5! and later lost the game.

Game 6 and all other games in the match at Chessgames.com.
   

Anand - Carlsen, World Chess Championship 2014, Game 3

     

   
   
Game 3 annotated at Sven Wisløff Nilssen's blog and at ChessBase News.
     

Carlsen - Anand, World Chess Championship 2014, Game 2

Sven Wisløff Nilssen have annotated game 2 at his excellent chess blog.
Here is the game annotated at ChessBase News.
  
Below is a YouTube video from game 2 by Jerry at the Chess Network. 
     
   

 
   

The Life and Chess of Bobby Fischer

    

GM Giri - GM Shirov, Unive Chess Match 2014

    

GM Huschenbeth - GM So, U.S. Chess League 2014

   

GM Lev Alburt about 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5

     

The Life and Chess of Boris Spassky

    

Lars Grahn's excellent chess blog

 

It's black to move. The game is annotated at Lars Grahn's excellent chess blog.
   

Can your opponent play a better move than you have looked at?

    

    

Beautiful Nature - Autumn

    

Fabiano Caruana - Hikaru Nakamura, 2014 Sinquefield Cup, Saint Louis

White to move

Can you play better than Fabiano Caruana? 
You have one minute to find the best move for white.

Solution
   

Fabiano Caruana - Veselin Topalov, 2014 Sinquefield Cup, Saint Louis

 
  

 
 
More similar games
    

2014 Sinquefield Cup, Saint Louis - Round 5

    
    

The games from the 2014 Sinquefield Cup at Chessgames.com  
  

Loreena McKennitt - All Souls Night

  

Fabiano Caruana - Levon Aronian, 2014 Sinquefield Cup, Saint Louis

   
    

More similar games 
    

Magnus Carlsen - Radosław Wojtaszek, Chess Olympiad 2014, Tromsø

 
    

   
   
More similar games 
     

Grandmaster vs. Amateur, Part 3

10.h3 Qxg2 11.Rh2 Qxh2 12.Nxh2 dxe3 13.fxe3 O-O Dmitry Svetushkin - Hichem Hamdouchi, Ubeda 1999 

9.cxd4 O-O Game collection 
9.Nb5 O-O Game collection 
    
   

9.Nbd2 Nbd7 10.Nf1 Game collection 
9.Nbd2 Nc6 10.Nf1 Game collection 

7...Nc6 8.Re1 b5 9.Nbd2 Bb7 Game collection 
   

Grandmaster vs. Amateur, Part 2

16...Rfe8 17.Bh4 Qc3 Artem Smirnov - Evgeny E Vorobiov, St. Petersburg 2003 

14...Nc4 15.Qxe7 Qxe7 16.Bxe7 Rfe8 17.Bg5 Bxd4 18.Rad1 Bb6 Alexander Moiseenko - Alexander Areshchenko, Ukrainian Championship 2013 
   

Grandmaster vs. Amateur, Part 1

Game collections
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Bg4 4.Nf3 Qxd5 5.Be2 Nc6 6.Be3 O-O-O 7.O-O Qh5 
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Bg4 4.Nf3 Qxd5 5.Be2 Nc6 6.Be3 O-O-O 7.O-O Qh5 8.c4 
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Bg4 4.Nf3 Qxd5 5.Be2 Nc6 6.c4 
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Bg4 4.Nf3 Qxd5 5.Be2 Nc6 6.h3 
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Bg4 4.f3 Bf5 

Game collections
1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 c6 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.O-O Bg4 5.c4 e6 6.Qc2 Nbd7 7.b3 Bd6 8.Bb2 O-O 9.d3
1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 c6 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.O-O Bg4 5.c4 e6 6.Qc2 Nbd7 7.d4 Be7
1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 c6 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.O-O Bg4 5.c4 e6 6.Qc2 Nbd7 7.d4 Bd6
1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 c6 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.O-O Bg4 5.c4 e6 6.d3 Nbd7 7.cxd5 exd5 8.Nc3
1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 c6 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.O-O Bg4 5.c4 e6 6.d3 Nbd7 7.cxd5 cxd5 8.Nc3
   
   

Game collections 
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d6 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 O-O 7.Nf3 b6 8.g3 Bb7 9.Bg2 Nbd7 10.O-O Qe7 11.b4 c5 

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d6 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 O-O 7.Nf3 b6 8.e3 Bb7 9.Be2 Nbd7 10.O-O Ne4 11.Qc2 f5 
  
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d6 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 O-O 7.Bg5 Nbd7 8.e3 b6 9.Bd3 
  
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d6 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Bg5 
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d6 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Bd2 
  
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d6 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.Bd2 
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d6 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.a3 
     

Pia Cramling - Erik Blomqvist, Swedish Championship 2014, Borlänge

  
More similar games
   

Maurice Ashley - The World is a Chessboard

   
  

What Grandmasters Don’t See

       

    
     

   
   

Working backward to solve problems

     
    

Daniel Semcesen - Jonny Hector, Swedish Championship 2014, Borlänge

8.Be3 Bd6 9.O-O-O O-O Ryan Rhys Griffiths - Robin van Kampen, World Junior Championship 2012, Athens
   

Anand - Kasimdzhanov, FIDE World Blitz Championship 2014, Dubai

 
More similar games
   

Jasmine Kara - Beautiful World

   

Lecture with GM Robert Hungaski

 
Robert Hungaski - Yuriy Kryvoruchko, World Junior Championship 2006, Yerevan (The game at Chessgames.com) 
    

Lennon & Maisy - A Life That's Good

    

Magnus Carlsen - Kiril D. Georgiev, FIDE World Rapid Championship 2014, Dubai

  

 
 
  

  
More similar games
   

Magnus Carlsen - Ernesto Inarkiev, FIDE World Rapid Championship 2014, Dubai

 



  

More similar games 
   

BCM Game of the Month June 2014: Nepomniachtchi - Jakovenko

The game at Chessgames.com

Endgame Puzzle

White to move

White can hold this to a draw!

Solution

BCM Game of the Month May 2014: Carlsen - Nakamura

The game at Chessgames.com

Mišo Cebalo - Evgeni Vasiukov, European Senior Team Championship 2014

White to move

The game annotated by Grandmaster Lubomir Kavalek
Game collection 1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 g6
    

Yasser Seirawan - Viktor Korchnoi, Wijk aan Zee 1980

Wonderful video!
     

 
 
The game Seirawan - Korchnoi at Chessgames.com
    

Nice commercial, Anand!

    

BCM Game of the Month April 2014: Anand - Topalov

    

Book: Advanced Chess Tactics - by Lev Psakhis

PDF Excerpt 
The book at Quality Chess
  

Round 13 Candidates Tournament 2014, Khanty-Mansiysk

The games from the 2014 Candidates tournament at Chessgames.com
   

See if you instead can move forward

When a piece is threatened you must sometimes move it backwards to stop a disaster. But "sometimes" is not "always". 

Many players wants automatically to move a threatened piece backwards, easily missing the much better solution to move it forward. Moving forward could be the best defence. Think more like someone who wants to score a goal in football (soccer). Then you or a teammate must kick the ball forward. 

Even a Grandmaster can fail to kick (move) forward. 

Let's take a look at the game Levon Aronian - Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Candidates Tournament 2014, Khanty-Mansiysk.  

White played 13.f5. 



Black played 13...Ne7? 



and was lost after... 
 

14.Nde4!!

The black Queen is trapped.

14...dxe4 15.Nxe4 Qh4 16.g3 Qh3 17.Nf2 Qxf1+ 18.Kxf1 Nxf5
19.Qf3...1-0. 

Black needs to play a more active defence after 13.f5. 

There is one. Move forward. 



13...Qg5! 

Black threats to play Qxe3+ followed by Qxd3.
(13...Nh4 14.Qh5!)

14.Qe2 Nh4! 



Black is OK. 


The game Levon Aronian - Shakhriyar Mamedyarov at Chessgames.com and ChessVibes