Losing is no fun! Unfortunately, all chess players end up in lost positions sometimes. The best ones know how to escape as often as possible and steal draws and wins from busted positions. Here are the techniques you need to know to be a chess Hou...
Chess has often been described as a mix of sport, art and science. This laconic definition long ago became an axiom for many generations of chess players. However, in the last 20 years or so, things changed dramatically. Yes, it is still sport; ju...
I would like to start this article with a warning: what you are about to see cannot be unseen. I'll understand if you click away right now. But if you're brave enough to power through this, get ready to see the nine most awful chess sets you've ev...
It's evening in Romania, and WFM Maria Yugina and GM Mihail Marin are sitting on the couch at home for our interview. Their rescue dog, Foxy, bounces around the room, playing around and chasing her own tail, at one point disconnecting the camera a...
I still remember my childhood evenings, watching Searching for Bobby Fischer over and over, the script becoming nearly a manual for my chess pursuits. Even in the mornings before venturing to my earliest scholastic tournaments, I found inspiration...
Last month marked 88th birthday of GM Eduard Gufeld, who was born March 19, 1936 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Even though he died over 20 years ago in 2002, he is well-remembered for his entertaining style of play and strong sense of humor. Among many pictur...
Chess Played Quick (CPQ), Chess.com's series of events where top chess streamers complete bounties for prizes, is back for another edition! Chess Played Quick - Doubles (Bughouse) Edition 2024 happens on April 8 at 12 p.m. ET / 18:00 CET / 9:30 ...
As eight of the strongest women in the world gear up for the Women’s Candidates Tournament in April, let’s celebrate brilliant games played by female players throughout time. What is a brilliancy? Is it the most visually aesthetic mo...
Dylan Quercia is a multi-faceted creator, chess player, and coach who has helped students improve their game for over 20 years. Dylan—a.k.a. Coach Q— is also one of the driving forces behind the film King Chess, an award-winning docume...
Hi, my name is Lula. And I play chess... or at least I did, until I accidentally took an eight-month classical chess break and moved to Paris, France, to pursue my dreams as a chic cat mom. But now I'm back, and I just played my first tournament...
Artificial intelligence is well on its way to controlling the world, or so the computers would have us believe. In reality, computers on their own are still pretty dumb things, even when they appear smart. We spent some time asking ChatGPT some ...
Every chess player wants to play a brilliant move. But how do you know if a move is brilliant, and how can you find it in your own games? This article will tell you exactly what Game Review looks for in determining brilliant moves and offers some ...
It's a whopper of an update this month, with some exciting new features and improvements to make your Chess.com experience better than ever. How many visits did the website receive in January, and how many rating points were refunded by the Fair P...
Eighty-five years ago GM Mikhail Botvinnik won the premier tournament of the year, the Soviet Chess Championship, with a very impressive score 12.5/17 (+8−0=9). Later, in his book about the tournament, Botvinnik shared his methods of chess p...
The recently concluded FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships are already history, and chess actors have left the ancient city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. While it was a very exciting event, many less experienced players didn't follow it at all. W...
"On the chessboard, lies and hypocrisy do not survive long" — Emanuel Lasker, 2nd World Chess G.O.A.T. IMs Danny Rensch and Levy Rozman come together for the interrogation of their lives! Tied to a polygraph, the two exchange questions abo...
There are three things you can watch forever: fire burning, water falling, and movies with Sir Anthony Hopkins. The psychological thriller "Fracture" was a big blockbuster in 2007. A very smart screenplay coupled with brilliant performances by Ant...
After six qualifying tournaments throughout the year, the Champions Chess Tour (CCT) is ending 2023 with one of the most anticipated finals ever. Our last eight contenders for the throne: GMs Magnus Carlsen, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Fabiano Caruana,...
Any experienced tournament player knows that playing for a win with the black pieces can be quite challenging, especially against a well-prepared opponent. Indeed, in most openings, White gets some initiative right from the start of the game due t...
Do you still remember when you were bitten by the chess bug? Followed by that feverish desire to improve in the game? Only to realize that you started “too late” to amount to anything? In this era of prodigies and 12-year-old grandma...
Although you can always let your chess speak for itself, it's also great when you can communicate using words. In light of Chess.com's newly announced partnership with Duolingo, this article will teach you chess-related vocabulary in multiple lang...
Some chess games played by legendary players featured such impressive new concepts that they instantly became iconic. As time passed, these concepts turned into chess axioms. According to Wikipedia, "In classic philosophy, an axiom is a statement ...
Chess Clash, the ultimate strategy battle between chess and Clash creators, is almost upon us. The event will feature a mixture of chess, Clash of Clans, and Clash Royale challenges, so there's really no telling which team is going to win. But w...
There have been many attempts to estimate ratings of chess players, both past and present, by looking at their game scores and comparing the moves with a top engine's choices, including one notable study here on Chess.com in 2017. These at...
It was on July 17, 2019, that I lost all faith in humanity. That was my first loss to the shameful Englund Gambit, which left me wondering what type of person does this. Why would someone play a dubious opening trap that either gives them a quick ...
