Category: The Middlegame

May 18, 2025 Matthew Sadler 4 comments

While indulging myself in some analysis of games by the legendary Italian grandmaster Sergio Mariotti, I came across an extraordinary positional episode in some engine games I ran as part of my analysis. It’s one of those engine recommendations that make you question everything you thought you knew, as well as awakening feelings of guilt…

January 26, 2024 Matthew Sadler 16 comments

I am pretty confident I have analysed more engine games than anyone else in the world, and I truly feel that my understanding of chess has benefited greatly from it. However, some aspects of engine play and evaluation are still difficult to grasp and internalise. I came across an instructive example of this while analysing a line of the Classical Pirc with 6…Nc6.

November 10, 2021 Matthew Sadler 3 comments

We witness a fantastic tactical episode from Stockfish against Leela. Black’s king is caught in the centre and its kingside pieces are undeveloped but it isn’t clear how to transform these dynamic advantages into something concrete. Stockfish shows the way!
Lots of useful tactical motifs to drill into your head here – they will certainly come in handy in your games!

November 9, 2021 Matthew Sadler No comments exist

A central break on move 14 unleashes the attacking potential in White’s position creating an attack which combines mating threats and queen traps to leave Black bound hand and foot!
It’s a really unusual attack with some instructive themes from a typical Queen’s Indian structure – well worth remembering!