Puzzle Worthy Position 41

At just 19 years of age, FM Ekaterina Goltseva has made quite a name for herself by twice tying for first place at the European Youth Championships and also winning the silver medal at 2017 Russian Youth Chess Championship. Today’s Puzzle Worthy Position comes from the seventh round victory by Fide Master Ekaterina Goltseva overContinueContinue reading “Puzzle Worthy Position 41”

Winning Chess Moves: Zhongyi vs Wagner, FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2022

Grandmaster Tan Zhongyi of China finished her tenth round game at the 2022 Women’s Grand Prix with a very unique mate in 2. GM Zhongyi, who was the FIDE Women’s World Champion from 2017-2018, was facing WGM Dinara Wagner when Wagner played 43… Kh6 with the black pieces giving Tan a golden opportunity to finishContinueContinue reading “Winning Chess Moves: Zhongyi vs Wagner, FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2022”

Chess Position Worth Sharing 148!

When accuracy matters, IM Vaishali Rameshbabu plays with extreme precision. You can test your own accuracy with this position from her sixth round win over IM Elisabeth Pähtz. Black (Pähtz) has just played 59… d1=Q. Having promoted to a queen a half move ahead of her opponent, White (Rameshbabu) has a winning advantage but mustContinueContinue reading “Chess Position Worth Sharing 148!”

Winning Chess Moves: Chiburdanidze vs. Malaniuk, 1990

Grandmaster Maia Chiburdanidze, the Sixth Women’s World Chess Champion, has played many notable games that I regularly use as lesson material. Today’s puzzle comes from her final move against GM Vladimir P Malaniuk played in Round 9 of the 1990 Kusadasi Open in Kusadasi, Turkey. Chiburdanidze (white) plays a crushing move that causes her opponentContinueContinue reading “Winning Chess Moves: Chiburdanidze vs. Malaniuk, 1990”

Winning Chess Moves: Borisenko-Belova vs Nakhimovskaya, 1968

During her illustrious career, WGM Valentina M Borisenko-Belova (1/28/1920-3/6/1993) won the Women’s Soviet Championship five times (a record she shares with Nona Gaprindashvili.) Zara Nakhimovskaya was a formidable chess player who won the Latvian Chess Championship for Women four times. In our feature position, Valentina M Borisenko-Belova is playing with the white pieces against ZaraContinueContinue reading “Winning Chess Moves: Borisenko-Belova vs Nakhimovskaya, 1968”

Chess Chat: Q&A with Lauren Goodkind, Chess Educator Extraordinaire

I first me Lauren around in the Spring of 2000 as I was an assistant tournament director assigned to help out in the High School room for the CalChess Scholastic Championship. Since then, we’ve crossed paths numerous times at tournaments I worked at in Fremont, California, then at the Sojourner Truth Tournaments in Menlo Park,ContinueContinue reading “Chess Chat: Q&A with Lauren Goodkind, Chess Educator Extraordinaire”

A Learning Moment

Chess is full of opportunities to learn from mistakes. There may be no take-backs in chess and also life for that matter. But as chess players, it is critically important to be honest with ourselves when we make mistakes so that we can improve both as a player and a person.  Yesterday I published anContinueContinue reading “A Learning Moment”