Madam Dynamics and Statics in Eternal Struggle!
That, too, is a way to understand chess! It is said that in chess there are only three basic components, which are either in conflict or „prefer“ to join forces against a third power (any resemblance to Orwell's 1984 or certain current situations on the battlefield is, of course, purely coincidental...). These are Material, Time and Quality of position. The cards are dealt as follows: Material = Madam Statics, Time = Madam Dynamics; Quality of position is somewhat treacherous and tends to be the privilege of one or the other lady. Which of these two powerful madams do you prefer? This is also answered by a test primarily intended for coaches to assess the knowledge of their more advanced pupils... And you wouldn't be on the right page if we didn't include a few „cultural questions“ in the test as well... Continue reading
For Coaches (3) – Mate in 6 Moves
Black has a decisive advantage in the position and can certainly win in relatively many ways. However, we are interested in something else here: With the help of a brilliant combination, let’s checkmate the white king in no more than 6 moves! Continue reading
Competition – Fun (1)
The following section is intended primarily to give you a break from your daily duties, but we also hope it can bring you—right to your home, your computer or your chessboard—fun and challenge, learning and beauty, the joy of solving for some quite difficult, for others easier diagrams and problems; the chance to win a selected prize if you manage to solve just one, but the hardest, final task! All of the above, according to your kind choice! Continue reading
Obituary of a Coaching Genius
We bring a tribute to one of the world's best coaches and teachers, the writer and my coaching guru Mark Dvoretsky, who passed away unexpectedly on 26.9.2016. On our website, this tribute is also intended as study material for readers, but we have also included Dvoretsky's game examples. After all, contrary to popular opinion, Dvoretsky was not always just an excellent coach! From the wealth of literature, we have focused on the author's favourite topic – prophylaxis and its most successful exponents, Petrosian and Karpov. Deep, almost unsurpassable reflections on a chess player's improvement can be found at the end of the tribute; Dvoretsky seemed ahead of his time, as if he predicted the coming of a new messiah who would try to dethrone... opening theory and thus change the face not only of top-level chess, Magnus Carlsen. Let's read what he wrote in 2007... Continue reading
For Coaches (2) – Openings, Endgames, Humorous
This month, I have prepared for you a number of interesting positions and materials for September. In the attachment, you can download materials from the Opening, Endgame and Humorous sections. There is also special advice on how to work with the materials in the For Coaches section. Continue reading
Let's Analyse No. 11 – The Carlsen Phenomenon
The secret of the crushing performance lead of the world champion; what lies behind it? Botvinnik’s analysis: „Capablanca the greatest natural talent of all time!“ Reincarnation of Capablanca into MC...? We analyse the game Carlsen vs. Karjakin from Basque Bilbao, which reveals a veil of the secret... What are multifunctional games and how to learn from them?... Let’s evaluate positions using analogies... A closer encounter of the third kind: can the system opened by Carlsen 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.c3!? be accepted as the 3rd member of the Delayed Alapin family? […] Continue reading
Overview of pupils' achievements as of 1.7.2016
Overview of achievements and current performance ranking of Chess School students available here: Overview of pupils' achievements as of 1.7.2016 Continue reading
In the Pillory (2) – A Shocking Change to the Chess Rules
Two stories: the knight's path and the Weekly editor at odds with notation. Continue reading
Lights and Shadows (Chess for Schools – School of Chess) – Complete Course
Here, esteemed reader-coaches can download for free a series of popular articles that were published between 2002-2005, first on the pages of the then magazine Mat-64 (under the editorship of Mr Štefan Gross), later also on ŠachInfo (under the title Chess for Schools – chess school) under the leadership of Mr Ing. Břetislav Modr. Although this work primarily dealt with the selection of suitable (and of course also unsuitable) openings for [...] Continue reading
In the Pillory – Part One
The first part of the series "On the Pillory" features two stories. First, we look at an unfortunate case in which the author found himself almost entirely blameless – Jaroslav Hrabě, Isolated Pawn, PLISKA publishing house. The second example, entitled "the unfortunate first diagram", describes a fatal error by the author in the well-known book by Grandmaster Alexei Suetin, 'School of Chess Strategy and Tactics'.
I look forward to your comments in the discussion! Continue reading
Let Us Pillory, but Also Praise
The column "On the Pillory" aims to focus especially on exceptionally poor literary „gems“ produced mostly by our own – Czech, but also international – authors. The purpose of introducing this column is not only to entertain readers and to consider whether pillorying the author, that is, a particular work, is legal or even necessary, but also to learn from it, and in future to steer well clear of any author (or their works) who has become the target of our attention! Here we want to warn against work that is often unbelievably slapdash, carelessly submitted and then published... Continue reading
For Coaches – Introduction
We present a section dedicated mainly to coaches of aspiring chess players. Here we would like to publish mainly materials that may be useful to you in your work with your pupils. We mean both individual training (in person or via Skype) and group sessions – in clubs, at training camps, chess camps, or even so-called webinars and the like. Continue reading
Chess quote
Chess is the touchstone of intellect.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Chess quote
Chess, like music and love, has the power to make a person happy.
Siegbert Tarrasch
Siegbert Tarrasch