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Posted by Matthew Sadler on 23rd August 2025

A typical Colle-Zukertort position – Part 1

English grandmaster Stuart Conquest had a wonderful finish to the 2025 British Championships in Liverpool, winning his last 2 games against grandmasters Shreyas Royal and Nikita Vitiugiov to tie for first with Michael Adams and Peter Roberson, subsequently finishing second to the evergreen Mickey after a rapid playoff. I was particularly interested in the quick

Posted by Matthew Sadler on 19th August 2025

Explaining complex tactics – Part 6

So we’ve seen the wildest the engines have to offer us! But how could / would / should a human player approach such a position? Well I’ve mentioned a couple of times that in after these now well-known opening moves 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5

Posted by Matthew Sadler on 16th August 2025

Explaining complex tactics – Part 5

In this blog post we dive a little deeper into the main lines after 17…Be3+ 18.Kb1 Nxe5, focusing on lines that a human player (like me!) might think of while playing through the game! 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Be3 a6

Posted by Matthew Sadler on 9th August 2025

Explaining complex tactics – Part 4

In this blog post, having settled the end position, we start a little further back within the game and work our way forwards, trying to understand the course of the middlegame. We’ll get as far as one branch from move 17 and then we’ll finish off the rest in a subsequent post. Let’s go! 1.

Posted by Matthew Sadler on 4th August 2025

Explaining complex tactics – Part 3

We round off our examination of the amazing tactics from the game Stockfish-Torch with White’s second alternative on the 27th move. 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Be3 a6 8. Ne2 Be7 9. c3 a5 10. dxc5 a4 11. Qc2 O-O 12.