As the only winner in round seven among the top 12 boards, Levon Aronian swapped places with Wang Hao to join Fabiano Caruana in the lead at the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss in Isle of Man. There are four rounds to go.
You can follow the games here as part of our live portal, Chess.com/events. There's daily coverage by GM Daniel King and IM Anna Rudolf, joined by WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni for interviews, on Twitch.tv/chess.
The show starts daily at 14:50 local time, which...
The sixth round of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss started with seven leaders, but of those just Fabiano Caruana and Wang Hao won their games today. The two are on 5/6 going into the only rest day in Isle of Man.
You can follow the games here as part of our live portal, Chess.com/events. There's daily coverage by GM Daniel King and IM Anna Rudolf, joined by WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni for interviews, on Twitch.tv/chess.
The show starts daily at 14:50 local time, which...
Something Old
Deep into the 19th century chess was still characterized by match play.
The idea of tournaments was slow to catch on. Prior to the London International Tournament of 1851 (the first international tournament), the number of tournaments could have been counted on one hand with fingers left over. London 1851 was a clumsy match-tournament, but a catalyst nonetheless. The decade-plus between the 1851 and the second international...
The King's Gambit is supposedly a not-so-serious opening. But if it was good enough for the legendary world champion Boris Spassky, perhaps it's worth another look. Find out how Spassky used the King's Gambit to defeat another famous player, David Bronstein.
Welcome to the second part of our planned 4-part series on the infamous Blackmar-Diemer Gambit. Our aim is to find a Black response that gives us the most "bang for our buck". In the first part we covered some of the "declined" options, 3... e5 (the Lemberger Counter-Gambit), 4... Bf5 (the Vienna Defense) and 4...Nbd7 (the Lion Defense).
See part 1, HERE.
Today, we're going to look at two very common "accepted" options, 5...e6 (the Euwe Defense), and 5...Bg4 (the Teichmann Defense).
5. 5...e6...
Luke McShane had Fabiano Caruana on the ropes in round five of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss, but after six hours and 41 minutes, Caruana "did a Magnus" and got away with a draw.
Seven players are now sharing the lead with 4/5.
You can follow the games here as part of our live portal, Chess.com/events. There's daily coverage by GM Daniel King and IM Anna Rudolf, joined by WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni for interviews, on Twitch.tv/chess.
The show starts daily at 14:50 local...
When we learn the rules of chess and start playing, we never ask ourselves the question in the title of the article.
We just enjoy the process of playing, that's all! But almost any person who has played chess for a long time is going to ask: "What is chess?"
The answer depends on the time this question is asked. For example, after last year's world championship tiebreak, Fabiano Caruana might have answered something like: "What is chess? Magnus don't hurt me, don't hurt me no more."
Fabiano...
Fabiano Caruana and Wang Hao drew their game in round four of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss and were joined in first place by Parham Maghsoodloo and Luke McShane. Magnus Carlsen was lost but miraculously escaped vs. Vladislav Kovalev.
You can follow the games here as part of our live portal Chess.com/events. There's daily coverage by GM Daniel King and IM Anna Rudolf, joined by WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni for interviews, on Twitch.tv/chess.
The show starts daily at 14:50...
One of the first things everyone learns playing chess is that the queen is the strongest piece on the board.
Her power is amazing! She's worth nine pawns; she's majestic, extremely agile and has seemingly unlimited powers. Then, however, comes the big disappointment: It's actually unwise to move the queen early in a chess game.
Don't move the queen too early! Develop your knights and bishops first, occupy the center, bring the king into safety, and only then start thinking about your queen. This...
