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Develop your style

Chad Lieberman

There have been thousands of excellent chess players throughout the years, but they each have a unique style or combination of styles with which they play. One player will be attack-oriented and is always pushing for a beautiful sacrifice, while another will play more positional chess and slowly squeeze his opponents until the opposing king dies of claustrophobia.

Your style will not be evident in the first game you play. It takes several years for you to learn how you like to play. Do you like to risk everything for a quick mate? Are you a brilliant tactician and can't stand slow positional maneuvers? Or do you bask in the glory of defeating your opponent in a game where you gain more and more space, gradually pushing him off the board?

You will only be able to learn what kind of player you truly are by playing in as many games and tournaments as you can. I have mentioned this several times in this column: the best way to improve your play (and even to learn about yourself) is to play, play, play!

In this week's column, I have included a classic battle from the 1972 World Championship title match in which Bobby Fischer not only plays with superb tactical accuracy, but he shows his positional eye too. Enjoy!

White to mate in two moves.
Link to solution at the bottom.