Have you ever lost a chess game in one move? Probably not. Unless you're playing provocatively, you're unlikely to lose material or get mated early on in standard chess. However, in Freestyle Chess (Chess 960), even master-level players have resig...
Chess is a significant part of human culture, which is why it is often referenced in movies and, especially, in financial advertisements, where it symbolizes intelligence and acumen. I remember watching a kids' show with a famous Russian a...
In normal chess, White has a small advantage in the opening at the start of every game. Because White can move first, engines like Stockfish give White an edge of about 0.25, an advantage, but well within the drawing margin. However, in Freestyle ...
Not many people can say they are a professional football player with a master's degree in electrical engineering and a strong chess player and streamer on top of it. But July 2025 Chess.com Creator of the Month Matt Henningsen is all of those thin...
As the second half of 2025 begins, there is a lot going on at Chess.com, as always. But what is new is chess at the Esports World Cup, where $1,500,000 will be up for grabs starting on July 29. This past month also saw exciting events, a new half-...
Once upon a time, before Stockfish and glowing evaluation bars, analyzing your games meant something entirely different. You'd grab a notebook, sit with a friend or coach, replay the moves from memory, and try to answer questions like: "Where did ...
After having introduced you to Mahesh Chandra and Shyamcharan Ghatak, let's go to another personality whose brilliance inspired me to write the second part of this series: Pandit Trivengadacharya Shastri. His Sanskrit text, Vilasmanimanjiri, serve...
GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu's dramatic come-from-behind win at the UzChess Cup was his third major tournament victory of the year, along with prior wins at Tata Steel and the Superbet Chess Classic. This win expanded his already strong lead in th...
Recently, WGM Maria Manakova posted an interesting position on her Facebook page. She wrote: "A fun puzzle for third or forth category players." According to the old Soviet chess classification, it refers to people with a US Chess rating somewhere...
GM Valeriy Aveskulov earned that prestigious title of grandmaster at the age of 20, but largely walked away from competitive play when he was just 23, in order to focus on imparting everything he learned as a player in coaching professionally inst...
Chess truly is an international game. It was invented in India and then spread to the Middle East and Europe. A dozen countries, as large as the United States or India and as small as the Netherlands or Armenia, can brag about producing a world ch...
Welcome to Prodigy Watch! This page shows the young stars whose current ratings stack up best against the top players of all time at their same age. This is a permanent landing page, where the most recent Prodigy Watch update will always...
Chess has a deep-rooted history in India, tracing back to its origins as chaturanga. The transition from the traditional Indian version to the westernized format remains an overlooked chapter, but a remarkable discovery has now brought this forgot...
Maybe you've heard of Freestyle Chess, where you shuffle the pieces before a game to create wild starting positions. We decided to test some more extreme setups: Are two rooks better than a queen? How about six rooks against three queens? Theory d...
Cheating in chess happens when someone decides that they do not want to play using their own abilities, and they turn to using help from a chess engine or friend to find better moves. This is obviously unfair to the other player, and ruins the exp...
WGM Dina Belenkaya is the latest guest to sit in the hot seat for Lie Detector Chess, the popular Chess.com series that turns up the tension with a polygraph and a panel of friends asking very personal questions. Belenkaya is a U.S.-based Russia...
Did you see Magnus Carlsen's dramatic outburst against world champion Gukesh Dommaraju? A seething Magnus Carlsen slammed his fist into a table after suffering his first defeat to world champion Gukesh Dommaraju in a classical game https://t.c...
Julien Song is one of France's biggest content creators, and not just in the chess category, recently ranking third among YouTubers in all languages. Julien, an international master, was introduced to many English speakers recently in PogChamps 6,...
In the Chess.com Classic tournament in May, GM Hikaru Nakamura, one of the best players in the world, resigned in a winning position against GM Magnus Carlsen! Watch and listen how shocked commentators GM Aman Hambleton and IM Levy Rozman are as t...
In the past four-plus weeks, GM Magnus Carlsen won not one but two major tournaments, and also concluded the strongest Titled Tuesday run of the past five months—although we were sure to see him in the Speed Chess Championship either way. Bu...
With the recent passing of GM Vlastimil Hort, the chess community reflects not only on the loss of a great player and very nice person, but also on the huge chess heritage he left behind. While for most people, Hort is associated with his games, o...
What’s the best way to improve at chess? A new study from Stanford University sheds light on the most effective practices for players across various skill levels. The study (PDF version here) Deliberate Practice and Chess Mastery: Analyzin...
Ken Rogoff is a very hard person to pin down. He's both a GM and has a doctorate in economics. He's drawn Magnus Carlsen, Mikhail Tal, and Tigran Petrosian, yet he is better known as the former Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund. ...
Even the world's best players go through challenges. For GM Anish Giri, a brutal stretch of losses was more than just a slump. It was a defining moment, the grandmaster shared in a new documentary. The 30-year-old has been ranked among the world...
In my previous article, I discussed how to build a strong opening repertoire with the white pieces. Now, we will figure out the even harder challenge of getting a good game as Black. What To Play Against 1.e4 What To Play Against 1.d4 Wha...
