Word Chess Championship 2012 – Anand vs Gelfand

Winning is chess is often over-thought and underachieved. Chess players by nature are very interested in psychology, and this often leads to detrimental effects on their quality of play as it easy to “psych yourself out” and over-think simple decisions. For the experienced player, playing chess should be ingrained in your brain similar to seasoned athletes retain muscle memory in sports. The best way to approach a game of chess is with a strong mentality […]

In Lev Alburt’s seminal Test and Improve your Chess he offers an interesting recommendation. The GM, once one of the world’s best players, says we should be willing to invest a few hours into analyzing any given position. This develops the fabled GM memory which is said to hold ten times more patterns than the brain of an average NM. Putting thirty-two pieces into some semblance of order takes quite a lot of work indeed. […]

The 2012 US Chess Championship kicked off with a bang yesterday with 5 out of 6 games reflecting a decisive result in the first round. The clear favorite to win the event is US #1 and World #7 rated Hikaru Nakamura, who began with a clean win over rising star Robert Hess. Although Nakamura is only 24 years old, he is already an experienced veteran at the elite levels of chess. In this exciting round […]