Chess Blog

Many beginners have a natural talent in chess, but it comes to light (to others and also to themselves) only when they start on the game. There is no limitation on the age at which you can take it up, though the process becomes easier if you start at a younger age.

Unfortunately, many people tend to stay away thinking wrongly that they are not up to what it takes to become a good player. No one likes to be a loser and this fear of failure often works at the back of their mind, preventing them from taking the initial steps.

At this site we have been trying to encourage beginners by showing them how they can improve upon their game, taking a look at chess from different angles. In 10 steps to raise your game, we pointed out the importance of having confidence in yourself. Is this how world champions adopt winning strategy? in Morning shows the day? showed how a player of Karpov’s standing could make mistakes a novice might avoid. Take your defeats in your stride, treating those as opportunities to learn from your mistakes.

To bring home further the message to beginners, we showed you Chess Games: Amateurs can also produce gems. If a beginner follows the basic strategies and tactics discussed in many articles here, there is no reason why he cannot take the measure of a more established opponent. You have seen such example in Chess Tactics: how a mouse challenged a lion and to prove that this was not a rarity, we put before you two more games where the weaker player successfully challenged a stronger one.

In the first game (Korchnoi-Djurasevic, Belgrade, 1956), Black was not yet an IM (he earned the title in 1957) whereas White became an IM in 1954 and a GM in 1956. Besides, Korchnoi had the slight advantage of playing with the white pieces. We show you the position after White’s 13th move (13. a3).

Follow the subsequent moves to see how Black outmaneuvers his famous opponent.

White resigned in view of the threat 26. … Nb1+ 27. Rxb1 Ra2#.

Here is another one (Dementiev-Karpov, Riga, 1970) with the position after 27 moves. See how White disposes of Karpov who was to become World Champion in another five years.