Magnus Carlsen drew strong reactions in Norway today by creating a new chess club that offers free membership to the first 1,000 members, with Carlsen paying the federation fees himself.
Carlsen said the club was made to help new players and strengthen Norwegian chess. Critics, however, said the club is designed solely to influence an upcoming vote on a contentious sponsorship deal in the Norwegian chess federation.
Carlsen also clarified his stance that he may not play the 2020 world championship...
The 2020 PRO Chess League season is just around the corner, and with more teams than ever interested in qualifying for the world's only global rapid online chess league, the league will be expanding the number of qualifiers to four.
The first qualifier is scheduled for this September, with the other three to follow in October and November.
For the first time in league history, select teams will have multiple opportunities to qualify and take center stage each week in front of thousands...
The classical format of our beloved game is under attack.
People are complaining about boring games that lead to an abundance of draws in super-GM tournaments. They are trying to change everything: the scoring system (three points for a win, one point for a draw), the time control and even the traditional tournament format.
One of the latest attempts was made in the recent Norway Chess super-tournament in Stavanger. To put it mildly, the result failed to impress.
Not only were there a lot of draws;...
Chess games often hinge on the results of a single move, so it's important to take your time to calculate during critical moments. Learn how to know when to take that extra step in calculation to check your tactics.
Many of us spend time every day commuting to work. Content creators like The New York Times, National Public Radio and Bloomberg have created digital recordings of their content, called podcasts, that can be downloaded or streamed any time and many commuters listen to podcasts during their travels.
In 2016 Ben Johnson was not happy with the offering of chess content and decided to create The The Perpetual Chess Podcast. Two and a half years later Ben Johnson has recorded 132 episodes...
Coming back from a four-point deficit hadn't been seen in the history of speed chess matches on Chess.com until Valentina Gunina defeated Alexandra Kosteniuk 16.5-14.5 in Sunday's Women's Speed Chess Championship semifinal.
Gunina will now face Elina Danielian in the final on June 27.
A former world champion in classical chess, Kosteniuk is also known as a strong blitz player. She was perhaps the slight favorite in this match and was leading by a margin of four points after 10 games—and...
What is pawn structure?
From my online glossary, I define it as "the positioning of the whole pawn mass. Also referred to as the pawn skeleton. This positioning of the pawns is what usually dictates the types of plans available in a given position due to open files, space, pawn weaknesses, etc."
It’s normal to develop pieces, put a rook on an open file and make threats. Normal stuff, but not very exciting. Others get a few pieces out and go for an attack. That’s probably more...
Group B of the PRO Chess League Summer Series kicked off with major upsets in both Live Club Matches. Barcelona announced their return to the PRO Chess League by burying Baden Baden in their match, which was followed by a strong showing in the Knockout Battles. In the biggest surprise of the day, the Reykjavik Puffins proved they belonged in the competition by throttling the Pittsburgh Pawngrabbers after a 471-day PRO Chess League absence.
Determined to make an opening-week statement, GM...
I learned the phrase "a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse" in school when I studied Richard III by William Shakespeare. These days, people use this expression when they want to underline the importance of something.
There is a story about a man who was about to sign a document that would finalize his very painful divorce. Eager to leave the nightmare behind, the guy exclaims: "a pen, a pen, my kingdom for a pen!"
Sometimes we have a similar situation in chess when a knight ("chess horse")...
