Engines are amazing at sacrificing material, both in attack and defence. Leela neutralises unpleasant pressure against its position with a fabulous pawn sacrifice leaving Stockfish with no winning chances. -All players should study how engines defend – nobody does it better!
Category: Defence
GM Matthew Sadler analyses a critical decision in game 80 of the TCEC SuperFinal between Leela Zero and Stockfish.
Another Steve Giddins book I’ve been getting into is the Best Games collection of Russian Grandmaster Ratmir Kholmov (1925-2006). Best known in the West for convincingly beating Bobby Fischer at Havana 1965 on the Black side of a Ruy Lopez, Kholmov is one of many extremely strong Russian players who – for whatever reason –…
The last game in this series was a Marshall near-miss: the exciting game where Marshall was White against Lasker in New York 1924. The game featured an Exchange Slav – a favourite of Marshall’s (“A capture I have favoured throughout my career, and with very good results”) which was later taken up with great success…
The World Championship Match of 1907 played in the US was a complete disaster for Frank Marshall as he was defeated by eight wins to none with 7 draws. In “Marshall’s Best Games of Chess”, Marshall doesn’t even mention the match taking place which probably indicates just how much the match affected him. Despite the…