Pawn Promotion

When any Pawn reaches the last rank, it must be promoted to a new piece. Any pawn can be promoted to either the Queen, Rook, Bishop or Knight but not the King. Usually the Queen is taken because it is the strongest piece. Pawn Promotion on Wiki

Pawn Promotion on my Lichess study

Rules of Castling

Castling is a special rule only for King and Rooks. There are 2 ways of castling:

King-side castling - with King-Rook

Queen-side castling - with Queen-Rook

King --> moves 2 squares

Rook --> moves to the other side of the King

Rules

1. The King and castling Rook should not have moved in the game before.

2. There should not be any piece in-between the King and castling Rook.

3. When Check is given, you cannot castle.

4. If the King would come in Check after castling, you cannot castle.

5. If the King would come in Check in-between castling, you cannot castle.

Castling on Wiki

Importance of the Centre

The 4 squares around the middle point of the chess-board (e4, d4, e5, d5) are called as the Centre.

The Centre is a very important area on the board because any piece or pawn becomes stronger and can control more space when it comes to the Centre.

So, to get a good position, try to occupy and control the Centre.

Centre Control on Wiki

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ICA Chess Tournament - Final Standings

Below are the Final Standings of the ICA Chess Tournament conducted on 5th September 2010 at Rajajinagar, Bangalore.

Click here to view the Photographs of this event

Place/Name /Score/Progr.
--------------------------------------
1 /SUMAN RAMESH /6 / 21.0
2 /SUJITH RAMESH /5 / 19.0
3 /HAZUIN HUSSAIN /5 / 16.0
4 /MADHUCHANDRA G /4 / 17.0
5 /ASHRIT RM /4 / 15.0
6 /NARAYAN R /4 / 15.0
7 /AMOGH VARDHAN /4 / 14.0
8 /MAHANTESH C /4 / 14.0
9 /SHREYAS RAO /4 / 13.0
10 /RASHMI DEV /3.5 / 15.0
11 /AUSHIM N /3.5 / 14.0
12 /EASHWAR NS /3.5 / 12.0
13 /ANISH K /3.5 / 10.0
14 /NAGASHREE R /3 / 12.0
15 /ROHIT RM /3 / 11.0
16 /ASHWIN KV /3 / 10.0
17 /ROHIT MG /3 / 8.0
18 /SAIDARSHAN /3 / 8.0
19 /ANAHITHA S /3 / 8.0
20 /ABHISHEK D /3 / 7.0
21 /VAISHNAVI I /3 / 7.0
22 /NAVEEN K /2.5 / 6.0
23 /ANUSHKA JAIN /2 / 10.0
24 /SHRADDHA B /2 / 9.0
25 /ANIL R KASHYAP /2 / 8.0
26 /JHOSH JORDAN /2 / 6.0
27 /ABHISHEK P /2 / 5.0
28 /AKASH IR /2 / 5.0
29 /SIYA /2 / 4.0
30 /SATYAVELU K /2 / 3.0
31 /RAKESH P /1.5 / 6.0
32 /SUDARSHINI V /1 / 5.0
33 /PALLAVI NAGESH /1 / 5.0
34 /VARSHINI V /0 / 0.0

Carlsen beats Anand

Magnus Carlsen continued his fantastic run of victories with yet another first place at the Arctic Securities Chess Stars tournament.

In the final, he defeated World Champion Anand 1.5 – 0.5 in a set of 2 rapid games (20m+10s). Though Anand had impressed in the qualifying games, this result was a setback for Anand after winning the World Championship against Topalov.

In the first game, playing Black, Anand set up a solid structure in the opening, but later blundered a pawn. Anand was stuck with a very passive position which Carlsen skillfully converted to a full point in his favour.

The second game had Anand with White, but he could not make much progress against Carlsen’s defense and agreed to a draw on move 28.

Click here for a detailed report
Download all games of the Final in PGN

Mikhail Tal

Mikhail Tal was the greatest attacking Grandmaster of all time.

Born in Riga, Latvia on Nov 9, 1936, he learned chess while watching his father. In 1951 he qualified for the Latvian championship and by 1954 became a Soviet Master. By winning the Soviet Championship in 1957, he got the title of Grandmaster.

He defeated Botvinnik in the famous 1960 match to become the youngest (till then) World Champion at the age of 23. His highest ELO rating was 2705 achieved in 1980.

Tal won several strong tournaments like Bled 1961, Hastings 1963, Tbilisi 1969, Novi Sad 1974, Montreal 1979 and Buenos Aires 1991.

His playing style was magical. He often sacrificed material for attack and created vast complications in which his opponents would get lost. During his later years, he adopted a more positional style.

He was troubled by health problems throughout the better part of his career, which seriously affected his chess results. Every time he would recover and score another victory.

He was also a profilific journalist of repute (editor of Latvian chess magazine) and authored some famous chess books (Life and Games of Tal). He was a popular person among fellow masters who would be obsessed with blitz chess even during free time.

He died of kidney failure on June 28, 1992 in Moscow.

Tal on Wiki & Chessgames
Best Games of Tal
Play through over 3000 games of Tal

Check this win over Spassky which was awarded the Brilliancy Prize