Grandmaster Chess Games With Analysis

[Salvator Grimard]

Iam currently rated 1850. My coach tells me that in order to get better at my game, I should ''analyze grandmaster' games''. On the surface, I understand that he wants me to learn from great players' moves. But I'm unsure about what I should be ''analyzing''.

For example, just earlier today, I answered a question here, where the person gave a computer line that made no sense as far as the plans for the position were concerned, so the computer was really no help at all there.

I think what you need are grandmaster games that are WELL-ANNOTATED, to tell you what is going on in them IN WORDS, not just variations, although concrete lines are clearly important too. Another thing that happens in modern chess is that games between IMs/GMs have become so advanced that the battles between each side's plans have become too complex for learning early in a chess "career" because the plans are so effectively thwarted by the opponent it is not always clear what each side was aiming for.

What is much better are the games of old masters like Capablanca and Alekhine because their opponents, while not slouches, were not on their levels; so you can see plans more clearly executed from beginning to end as the plans were often not met with the type of resistance that you would see today at the top levels.

I would get collections of their games, written by them, and play through those games. I have also written here extensively about opening pawn structures, and as you read any game trying to understand it, you need to have some understanding of what you are striving for in any given opening.

Calculation prowess can be gained by combining two practice activities: Reading pure tactics books, and reading books that have non-tactical positions for you to practice calculating the best move. Also, try practice reading annotated games without a board, including the annotations, to work on vision in your head.

"Positional Chess Handbook: 495 Instructive Positions from Grandmaster Games" by trainer FM Israel Gelfer. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love this book. It is incredible. (Do not get the Kindle version as there are way too many mistakes)

Set up the position, and try to figure out what is going on. What are both players trying to do. Are there any tactics, threats? What are the candidate moves. And finally, what is the best move. Write it down with some short variations as arguments.

Then see what was actually played. If it's the same move, fine, move on. If it's different, was it at least one of your candidates? Why didn't you choose it? If it wasn't, do you understand why it was played, does it fit in with the "story" of the position you had? If not, try to figure it out for a few minutes. If you can't, shrug and move on.

One old book said to increase your rating then you need to stop playing for a year and do some useful studying. If analyzing helps you study then do it, but for me I find just playing over games and occasionally looking at the annotations for a given move when I would have done something else is more useful.

I have recently been making some endgame studies here on chess.com by analyzing some Grandmaster games. But in order for it to look as best as possible, I want to add the flags and titles to the names of the Grandmasters. I have seen some other people (for example GothamChess, when we does his "How to lose at chess" series, where he adds the GM norms to the people in the analysis out of fun) do it but I have absolutely no idea on how to do that. I have searched the internet but even that could not help me. Does someone here have an idea?

I have recently been making some endgame studies here on chess.com by analyzing some Grandmaster games. But in order for it to look as best as possible, I want to add the flags and titles to the names of the Grandmasters. I have seen some other people (for example GothamChess, when we does his "How to lose at chess" series, where he adds the GM norms to the people in the analysis out of fun) do it but I have absolutely no idea on how to do that. I have searched the internet but even that could not help me. Does someone here have an idea?

Yes of course. I have now posted a picture together with the description. Basically, I want to add flags and norms to the names in the very top and bottom left, as I have seen some people do it, the problem is I do not know how to add them

The videos deal with the exciting French Advance Variation, starting with 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5. Besides numerous sidelines, the main focus is on the two most played systems with 3...c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 and 5...Bd7.

In the first part of our interview with Surya Shekhar Ganguly we had promised to bring you three games annotated by the Indian GM. They are his favourite from his one-month tour where he played 27 games in three different events. These games have been meticulously annotated by the 2627 player and he has revealed many interesting points not only related to calculations and analysis but also with human psychology, preparation and playing under pressure in crucial games.

In the following JavaScript replay screen you can use the browser magnification function (Ctrl + in Chrome and Firefox) to enlarge the board and notation. You can also download the PGN and do your own research and analysis in ChessBase or Fritz.

Unlock the excitement of the Beefeater Variation (1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c5 4.d5 Bxc3 5.bxc3 f5?!) in this 60-minute video course! Dive into an aggressive and daring strategy where Black gives up the dark-squared bishop early.

2024 Candidates Tournament with analyses by Gukesh, Pragg, Vidit, Firouzja and Giri. Kasimdzhanov, Engel and Marin show opening trends from Toronto in the video. 10 repertoire articles from English to Queen's Indian and much more!

In this video course, experts including Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Karsten Mller and Oliver Reeh, examine the games of Boris Spassky. Let them show you which openings Spassky chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were and much more.

If your cheap trick is in the opening database, you will never be able to use it anymore. On the other side, if you manage to outplay your opponent because of your deeper knowledge, you can repeat that over and over again.

It is important to view knowledge as a sort of semantic tree. Make sure you understand the fundamental principles, the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves, or there is nothing for them to hang on to.

This difference is essential. The 3 pawns on the Queenside leave white with an advantage in a possible endgame. Why? Because he will have the outside passed pawn (because most likely both kings will castle to the king-side).

Black already pushed his pawn on e4, while the White queen-side counterplay is nowhere. After 19.h3 Be7 20.Qg3 Qxg3 21.fxg3 Nxe3 I got the Bishop pair and a passed pawn on e4. I won the game quite easily.

This has been a crazy side-line, but still, the principles apply. As a matter of fact, my opponent had a nice idea and some advantage out of the opening. But he did not know how to treat the position!

As I already stated in previous articles, I am not very fond of this company. Their handling of the Fat Fritz 2 incident was far from spectacular. But their program is simply the best-paid version on the market.

So whenever you feel that you understand where your pieces go, and what the plan is, you can stop the analysis for now. The nice thing is that you can always stop, see how it works in practice, and then go back and go a bit deeper.

As you see there is only one move left! 14.Ra3 is what I have decided for. You can also see that there is some text in there. Why? Because explaining the decisions to myself will help me recall them during the game when I need it.

Nol is a former professional chess player who transitioned into coaching and blogging. He made history by becoming the youngest Swiss Grandmaster at just 20 years of age and has accumulated numerous Swiss Championship titles to his name.

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Daniel "Danny" Gormally (1976) became an International Master in 1997 and a Grandmaster in 2005. He was born in South Shields and was brought into the game of chess by his father at the age of 7. Besides distinguished tournament results he played for the England national team in European Championships and Chess Olympiad. Danny Gormally is also an acclaimed chess author and analyst.

Danny Gormally is a Chess Grandmaster stuck in a fugue state. He has forgotten how to analyse - blinded by the brilliance of chess engines, every time he gets stuck he turns on the machine. In this book he attempts to discover his love of analysis and the game of chess by attempting different methods of analysis and calculation. He asks what separates the analysis methods of an amateur player with a Grandmaster, and further still what separates the very best players from super computers. It all culminates in the mind-bogglingly complex "Impossible quiz" where some of the most skilled players in chess are confronted by extremely complex positions.

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