Winning the Won Game

All players who aspire to chess mastery need to learn the techniques for winning a won game: that means they must better recognize the positional advantages they already have and know how to use them to get closer to victory. The examples laid out here will help them do exactly that. Each one comes from the most brilliantly played games at the Women’s and Men’s United States Championships in the past 20 years—games that have won a special $2,000 prize for excellence, donated by Paul M. Albert Jr. Players at all levels will benefit from the moves presented, described, and illustrated here, all with illuminating commentary.