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Igor has published his comments, annotated games, and articles in various chess publications, among them, the most prestigious periodicals – Chess Informant, New in Chess, ChessBase, 64, Chess Life, and Chess Today.  He is also the founder and publisher of his popular chess website.

Check out IM Igor Khmelnitsky's books:

See IM Khmelnitsky's articles and reviews posted right here at Chessville:

• To check or not to check?:  IM Igor Khmelnitsky takes us through a look at this important tactical question, and provides some surprising answers along the way.  "If you happened to witness group of Russians playing blitz or analyzing position and if you are also proficient in Russian to understand their witty comments, you may hear something like this (translated in English) - "Grandmasters don't make checks!" or "Come on! Stop bothering my King!" or "No one ever died from the check!"  These sayings emphasize how little is the respect  stronger players have for checks made without a good reason.  To the contrary, beginners, especially kids, love to make checks, and why not - after all - there is no checkmate without the check!"
   

• Review: Encyclopedia of Opening Errors by Anatoly Matsukevitch, reviewed by IM Igor Khmelnitsky.  "I am not a big fan of Encyclopedias, not lately anyway.  Why carry around a huge book or collection of books if the information is readily available on your computer?  However, there is one exception - Encyclopedia of Opening Errors by Matsukevitch..."
   

• Improving Your Calculation Technique!:  See the latest addition to our Center Squares as IM Igor Khmelnitsky guide's us through the process of improving our calculating ability, both by organizing it logically, and by increasing our knowledge base.  "You will:

  • discover move candidates much faster,

  • eliminate the less promising ones more easily, and

  • assess the position at the end of each variation more accurately."
     

• On Opening Preparation: IM Igor Khmelnitsky shares some thoughts on opening preparation, and gives brief reviews of Starting Out: Alekhine's Defence by John Cox, and Beating the Petroff by Vassilios Kotronias & Andreas Tzermiadianos.  "In my opinion Opening Preparation is one of the most complex aspects of the chess training.  It is very time consuming, puts a lot of demand on your memory and overall requires a serious commitment of financial and physical resources.  To reflect my thoughts on the process, I have devoted a chapter in my new book Chess Exam & Training Guide on the subject of openings.  I also a little while ago I had written a detailed memo for my students (not-published anywhere else) on how to prepare openings..."
   

• Practical Rook Endgames:  IM Igor Khmelnitsky's latest article covers the most frequently encountered endgame of all.  "Rook Endgame is the most common type of Endgame and one of the more complex one. There are many nuances – activity of the rook, king’s position, pawn structure that can easily distort what seems to be a clear picture.  Today, I’d like to show an example from the very recent game that my student has played at the HB Global Chess Challenge..."

• Basic Knight Endgames - Simple or not? You decide!  IM Khmelnitsky looks at some very basic endgame knowledge all chessplayers aspiring to improve need to understand, and the focus this time is on knight endings.  "...knowing basic positions and ideas in the Endgame can prove to be crucial on any level, up to grandmaster.  How devastating can this be - you are playing well for 60+ moves and 4-5 hours, only to blow everything just moments before the game should reach a well-deserved outcome?  The knowledge of Basic endgames is one of the 12 critical skills..."

• What do you do with your king, and why?:  IM Igor Khmelnitsky's latest article asks, What do you do with your king, and why?  "In almost every game we have to deal with the question – "What to do with the King?"  The basic concept is to castle as soon as you can.  Why?  Well, the purpose of castling is to get the R in the game and to get the K in a safer position.  And the bonus – you move two pieces at once.  Well, as you advance your skills you certainly should be looking for a better reasoning and for pointers that would help you to make a decision..."

• Taking the Elevator Down...  "Controlling of the open file with the Rook is an extremely important strategic factor.  It often allows various tactical opportunities.  The common ones are a back-rank checkmate, double attack, penetration to the 7^th rank to win material, etc…Almost like an elevator going to the top floor.  Some of the lesser known ideas - involve using the open file as trampoline for transferring the Rook to another file.  This idea was mentioned by Aaron Nimtsovich in his masterpiece “My System.”  Mark Dvoretsky contributed greatly to the development of this subject.  I’d compare this to the elevator going to the middle floor and you have a skywalk (or something similar) to get to a different tower..."

• Advancing the Passed Pawn - Threat vs. Execution:  Endgame instruction - "In my opinion, promoting a pawn is one of the most exciting thing in chess.  Rarely, however, does the promotion go uncontested.  It is more common that an opponent can stop the promotion for a certain price – material or time.  The question is – what is the right price?  Not only must one gain material, but also foresee how it will influence the subsequent flow of the game.  Let's start with this relatively simple example from the game of two boys; both are my students and rated approximately 800..."
   

• One vs. Many => Examples a Plenty!:  "Today I have a mix of positions from the games that I played in the simul last fall.  I was invited to give a short presentation of my book Chess Exam and Training Guide and do a simul at the North Penn Chess Club back in the fall.  I battled 22 (or so) players of various levels in a nice, friendly atmosphere.  At the end, I was lucky to give out just one draw and won the rest of the games.  From memory, I stored a few of the more interesting examples from that simul..."
   

• One vs. Many => Examples a Plenty! - (Conclusion):  "Last time I showed you some interesting examples from the games I played against the members of North Penn Chess Club in Lansdale, PA.  In this article I will show some more examples from that simul...
   

• (Mis)Adventures of the Rook:  "A rook is the second most valuable piece after the queen (not counting the 'priceless' king).  Just like the queen, it is a long-range fighter that can do a lot of damage.  Also, just like the queen, it can be an easy target, thus often prefers to operate from a safe distance.  It is rather clumsy in cluttered positions and can be attacked by minor pieces, pawns and even the king (this is something that the queen doesn't need to worry about.)  Recently, while reviewing games of one of my students, I've stumbled across several situations in which he 'issued wrong assignments' for his rooks.  Well, as I discussed these problems with him, I thought it might be beneficial to share the fragments with you..."
   

• A Sacrificial Lamb:  "Chess books and software tools dedicated to the subject of Tactics always have a section devoted to the advanced passed pawn.  In my Chess Exam Tactics, one of the six Motives I am rating the readers on is the “Advanced Pass Pawn”.  However, the majority of the examples are usually on the themes (or methods) that are aimed at getting the passed pawn through.  Eliminating and deflecting the defender(s) are the most popular ideas.

• Bishop Off-Side:  "...a bishop is a long ranged piece and needs open space to show its strength in attack.  On defense, a bishop is often a solid force as well.  Depending on its placement, a bishop's range is anywhere from 7 (ex. from a1, a7) to 13 (ex. from d4 or e5) available squares.  When some of these squares become unavailable, the bishop can get into trouble..."
   

• Desperate Measures:  "When a threat is met by a counter-threat, precise calculation is required.  One possibility is yet another counter-threat, when a piece that was attacked, finds a target and gives itself up no matter how valuable that target was.  The latter method is a variation of an intermediate move and is called a 'desperado'..."
   

• Coach Foygel!:  My good friend and former coach, Intentional Master Igor Foygel turned 60 last October 29th.  He remains an active player and also has a chess coaching practice in Boston area.  Among other things, Foygel helped me in proofing my Chess Exam books.  Best wishes!  You can check his website here.  Today's training positions all came from Foygel's games.  Enjoy!
   

• King in the Corner - Trapped or Safe?  "Sending your King to the corner often may seem too dangerous or even counter-intuitive. While sometimes the King can be mated in the corner, in other times, he may find it to be the safest place, mainly due to a stalemate idea..."

Copyright © 2005-2008 by Igor Khmelnitsky & www.IamCoach.com and is used here by permission.  It may not be reprinted or reposted in any format without the express written permission of the author.

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