Piece of Chess

Category: Lessons

  • Smothered mate

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    “The smothered mate is a most beautiful kind of mate, produced by the knight. It is made possible by the inability of the opposing king to escape because he is completely surrounded by his own pieces.“(Aaron Nimzowitch, 1925) Smothered mate is one of the oldest checkmate patterns in chess, as shown in the diagram below.…

  • Centre as a Strategic Resource

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    “Chess is a terrible game. If you have no center, your opponent has a freer position. If you do have a center, then you really have something to worry about.” (Seigbert Tarrasch) Openings are partly about controlling as much space of the centre as possible directly or indirectly. The centre is one of the most…

  • About chess in a few words

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    “Every chess master was once a beginner.” (Irving Chernev) Chess is a sequential move (one move at a time), asymmetric (players have different strategies), zero-sum game (one player’s win is the other player’s loss). It involves dimensions of space, time, “economic” value, and often personality. Space refers to how well one controls the playing area…