What a difference a day makes at the 2019 Sinquefield Cup! After most players in this elite round-robin started with four consecutive draws, the field decided to make the tournament an "open" with all kinds of fun in round five.
Both Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren got their first wins, while Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin played yet another draw, but unlike any of the ones seen at their 2016 world championship match. Karjakin stalemated himself with 10 pieces left on the board.
And...
With an open qualification process that began in April, the FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship continues the final qualification phase as it plays down to the final six players who will qualify for the quarterfinals in early October.
The third of six knockout qualifiers will be hosted on Chess.com this Thursday, Aug. 22, featuring some of the strongest players in the world including 2016 world championship challenger Sergey Karjakin, who will be playing during the rest day of...
NM Bojan Lukajic's (@lasker_fiverr) notes on Chess.com are an incredible testament to the affection and appreciation of his students. Probably no coach on Chess.com has so impressed his students with such dedication and effort. NM Lukajic truly cares about his students and has helped many significantly improve their games. If you are looking for an affordable chess coach, you can't go wrong with Bojan!
Readers seeking private instruction can contact NM Lukajic via his Chess.com profile (@lasker_fiverr)...
As you learn the basics of Fischer Random chess, you will begin to find some big differences between the game and regular chess. GM Yasser Seirawan shows you how even the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, can struggle with these important distinctions.
We're continuing on with the ChessPathways Chess Openings series with the most content-packed video to date!
If you've ever wanted to learn all the essentials of the French Defense, this video is for you. We'll cover:
The Exchange Variation - and how black can avoid the boring main lines and play for a win!
The Advance Variation - Know how to handle those locked center positions!
The Classical and Winawer variations with 3. Nc3 - some of the most exciting lines in the French
The Nuanced...
Levon Aronian said before the 2019 Sinquefield Cup that he wanted to be the first to win both it and the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz in the same year. He took care of the first part of business last week, but in round four of the classical event, an elementary blunder gifted a point to Fabiano Caruana.
The American's win was only the second of the entire event and ties him with Viswanathan Anand for the lead. All other games ended drawn. Anand, who has been all alone in first since the event concluded...
If you have seen the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, you may remember one of the Washington Square Park hustlers who held a sign offering a photograph or a game with the man who beat Mikhail Tal.
Just like most of the movie's chess characters, this guy really existed. His name was Josif Israel Zilber.
Vasek Simek as Josif Israel Zilber in the 1993 film Searching for Bobby Fischer.
Here is what the movie's Wikipedia page says about him:
The Russian player in the park...
Puzzle Rushers, rejoice! For today we added two new modes! You can think of them as time controls for Rush!
Puzzle Modes
3 min
Don't have time for a 5-minute Rush? No problem! Now you can start working on your high score in the new 3-minute format! Otherwise, it's the same as the "classic" 5-minute Rush. You can just fit in a few more games during your coffee break!
Survival
Well, if 3-min means MORE "rush," this format goes in the other direction: Take all the time you want! The Survival...
When we talk about blitz chess, we usually think about tactics, blunders and opening surprises that force our opponents to spend their precious seconds. I doubt that many people would mention good endgame technique as an integral element of blitz.
Indeed, most times when a blitz game reaches an endgame, both players have just seconds on their clocks and usually have only two rules to play by: Do not lose on time and do not blunder too much.
Here is a very recent example. Just watch the last...
