GM Levon Aronian won the recent American Cup in St. Louis with terrific fighting play—and a little luck! In one game, his opponent, Sam Sevian, reached this position and missed a winning continuation. Aronian had missed ...Read More

This is one of those positions you probably won’t be able to figure out; HOWEVER, if you want to get better, set up the position on a board, look at the answer, then cover the answer and try to imagine how to do it over ...Read More

Chess Tricks, Part III.

Chess Tricks, Part II Black went Nh5 to threaten to take the bishop, but White had a trick up his sleeve.

I was looking through my first chess book (The Game of Chess by Golombek)and found a section on “tricks.” We’ll do some tricks this week. Here, Black surprised White in what seemed like a stable position.

OK, suitable for a weekend puzzle, this is a long sequence with a central theme of attacking along the diagonal from a2-g8. See if you can work it out all the way to mate at the end.