Zugzwang is a position in which every move would make the position worse, and the player that has to move would be better off if he could pass and not move at all. But in chess no such thing as skipping a move is allowed. You are forced to move.
In the picture above whoever [...]
Deflection is a tactic that forces a piece of your opponent to leave the square, row or file where it has to remain, because it is needed there to defend something. This chess term is rather similar to luring, but in luring a piece has to be positioned at the right square to enable an [...]
Most of the time it is an advantage that it is your turn to move, but sometimes it is a very serious disadvantage. In chess this is known as Zugzwang.
This word Zugzwang originates from the German and means something like “forced to move”. It is your move and in chess you have to move since [...]
One of the most used examples of the classical bishop sacrifice is taken from the game Edgard Colle – John O’Hanlon, Nice 1930. This is rather strange because in this game the normal preconditions before sacrificing the bishop aren’t even met. Some chess players and teachers even considered the sacrifice in this game as unsound. [...]
As I have mentioned in the lesson about taking free pieces almost all chess games are won by first obtaining a material advantage.
I have added some capture exercises to this site. They are intended for the beginning chess player, but it is assumed that this chess player knows how the pieces move and also knows [...]