Tired of the same old chess openings? Chess960 (also known as Fischer Random) is the game for you. Learn how to play this fun variant that shuffles the starting positions every new game. IM Daniel Rensch shows you the rules, basics and tips to play.
In one of the most anticipated rematches in Chess.com history, Team Chess.com, comprised of GM Robert Hess and IM Danny Rensch will square off against team Chessbrah, starring GM Eric Hansen and GM Aman Hambleton. You can watch the epic rematch this Wednesday, July 24 at 5 p.m. PDT (8 p.m. ET, 1 a.m. CEST) on www.Twitch.tv/chess and on ChessTV. After their first encounter which saw Chessbrah emerge victorious, Team Chess.com, led by Rensch, will be seeking...
Destiny makes its urgent way to the mighty and those who do violent deeds. This is the beginning of Stefan Zweig's famous Die Weltminute von Waterloo (The World Minute of Waterloo). While this short novel describes the decisive moment of the historic battle of Waterloo, my inner chess geek cannot help but see the uncanny similarity with a historic chess battle between Bobby Fischer and Bent Larsen. It was one of Fischer's last defeats before his vertical ascent to the chess summit. This is...
If you've followed the Tarrasch lessons so far, you know that it's a serious opening with many important variations. In this video, learn how to play the main line with the exchange of pawns on c5.
Couple months ago I was preparing for the NATO Chess Championship. I wanted to try new openings so I decided to play in rapid tournament near my hometown. I won first game without any problems. In the second game, I got good position after the opening (I was playing black): Black followed all opening principles: pawns are in the center, king is castled, pieces are developed. Such a pawn structure is called Carlsbad. The most famous plan in Carlsbad structure is 'minority attack' - black attacks...
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov started with an impressive win against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the FIDE Grand Prix in Riga, Latvia. The Frenchman needs to win tomorrow to stay in the match. So far MVL had played a flawless Grand Prix in Riga. The first sign of weakness quickly led to his first loss of the tournament. Strong preparation once again formed a big part of Mamedyarov's win, like in his white game with So. He pointed out that it wasn’t exactly the same situation;...
The 14th world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik reflects on his remarkable career, telling David Cox about his championship battles with Garry Kasparov, Peter Leko, Veselin Topalov and Vishy Anand, and why Kramnik finally ran out of motivation for the game. After more than two decades at the top, Vladimir Kramnik shocked the chess world earlier this year by announcing his retirement at the age of 43. A prodigy, and former student of Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school, Kramnik went on to...
The new world number-10 Leinier Dominguez Perez managed to maintain his narrow lead to win first place in the 47th Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting with 4.5/7. Just a half-point behind Dominguez were four players, all at 4/7: Ian Nepomniachtchi, Teimour Radjabov, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, and Richard Rapport. Ulrich Krause, the president of Germany's chess federation, makes the first move in the final-round game between Wojtaszek and Dominguez. | Photo: Georgios...
There is a well-known chess joke (or maybe not even a joke!) that it is much more difficult to sacrifice a pawn than a queen. Indeed, in most queen sacrifices you get huge dividends right away, since it is difficult to imagine a player sacrificing his queen just to get (for example) a good square for his knight. Therefore, it is relatively easy to predict the outcome of many queen sacrifices, like the next one: From the other side, most pawn sacrifices are done for positional gains and so it...
