The coolest chess gear available has to be from Endgame, The Original Chess Apparel. The company aims to produce chess T-shirts that you would be proud to wear in public; that look cool even to our non-chess playing friends! Now, Endgame are abo...
So you've taken the plunge and bought a premium membership at Chess.com. How can you make the most of your investment?1. Watch Chess Video Lessons (Diamond Members)There are literally hundreds of instructional videos by titled players which are ...
When Boris Gelfand won the Candidates event in Kazan to earn the right to challenge Vishy Anand for the world title it was the pinnacle - to date - of a long chess career. But although Gelfand has been competing at the top level for two decades, ...
Who hasn’t dreamed of being a chess grandmaster? But if you were a Russian chess grandmaster, what would be your name? With sincere apologies to all Russians, not to mention women, now you can find out by following the four easy steps below. ...
So you think you’re a cool chess dude, but is it obvious to everyone else that you’re a chess newbie? Here are 10 pitfalls you need to avoid to help you shed the newbie tag!1. You don’t know all the rulesYes, I’m serious. Who taught you to play c...
I'll say it quietly, but I've heard rumours that some of the members here at Chess.com play chess games with actual physical pieces made of wood or plastic on a real board. Sounds crazy, but hey, it might just catch on! If you are one of these p...
My last blog was about a BBC report on the decision by Armenia to make chess in schools compulsory. In the UK, Malcolm Pein is behind the Chess In Schools And Communities initiative which is campaigning for something similar in UK schools. Malco...
The decision by the Armenian government to make chess in schools compulsory has put chess in the mainstream media headlines around the world for positive reasons for a change. Despite some evidence to suggest that chess helps improve critical and...
Even from the grave, Bobby Fischer can arouse strong emotions. In an analogous way to Godwin's Law, any discussion about Fischer, however benevolent it may begin, eventually seems to degenerate into a pointless debate about his mental health and a...
I'm generally not a great fan of using the game of chess as a metaphor for the 'game of life', but it's always nice to see chess getting some positive coverage in the mainstream media. More power to you Orin "Checkmate" Hudson! (H/T Dan Heisman ...
Macauley Peterson is a "freelance mediamaker" according to his website, and is carving out a reputation for excellent quality chess videos at major events. As an example, Macauley was recently covering the Amber tournament in Monaco and captured ...
Chess stars Almira Skripchenko of France and Dinara Khaziyeva of Canada have qualified for the final of the World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational in Los Angeles. I've no idea how great an achievement this is, but congratulations to both of them...
The new Bobby Fischer Biography "Endgame" by Frank Brady looks like essential reading for chess fans interested in the great champion. Excerpts are available at the US Amazon website, and Garry Kasparov's review in the New York Review Of Books is...
Today is my 40th birthday, and I had a surprise birthday cake which is easily the best cake I've ever had!
'Mate' is not exactly packed with stars, but it has got a Baldwin brother...sadly it's Stephen . However it does also feature cameos by Susan Polgar and Jennifer Shahade, who are also listed as co-producers. Presumably their job was to make sure ...
Sad news for readers of the New York Times chess blog 'Gambit' by Dylan Loeb McClain - it's coming to an end with immediate effect. McClain explains in the comments to his extremely brief final post that he will still be working for The Times, wr...
Japanese neuroscientists have published interesting results about how our brains work, from testing professional Shogi players. The result? Nurture beats Nature. Expertise in any area is the result of long serious training... Which is good news...
The British chess magazine imaginatively named 'Chess' has made a special version of its January 2011 edition available free of charge in electronic format. It's quite a few years since I had a subscription to Chess, but the quality seems as high...
At the age of 23 the Azerbaijani GM Teimour Radjabov has qualified as one of the eight world championship candidates that will face off in Russia in May. Radjabov recently gave an interview to the ExtraTime website in his home country and I am in...
It's rare to find old audio of the great chess champions, let alone film, so it's a special treat that some footage of the great Jose Capablanca (pictured) and Max Euwe has surfaced on the wonderful interwebs YouTube Link here. Other old chess ...
Just before the start of the London Chess Classic, Magnus Carlsen spoke to the Telegraph newspaper about his life. There are some interesting little nuggets of information, and it's always nice to see chess in the mainstream media. You can read ...
There is plenty of media coverage of chess around the world, but many of the juiciest morsels are not in the English language, and automated translation sites like Babelfish or Google Translate are far from perfect. Enter "Chess In Translation". ...
I'm sure he's too modest to post this himself, but Erik has just become a Tough Mudder!!! Congratulations Erik, it must have been really hard work!
I've previously blogged about Battle Vs Chess, first back in March and then in June. Now finally, after some delays, it seems that the release date really is imminent, on 28th September in the US (12th Nov in the UK) for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Th...
