Fabiano Caruana and Javokhir Sindarov drew in the Catalan Opening in a game where White held the initiative. The game lasted 58 moves. Sindarov called today’s draw against Caruana “one of the best defensive games of my life.” C...
Caruana losing his second game in a row to Giri who won his second game in a row! Both players were down to 1 minute on the clock. Move 38. Kg3 — Fabiano Caruana's blunder, dxc6 was preferred. Can you spot Giri’s plan to win? ht...
Sindarov's run at the 2026 Candidates is becoming genuinely historic. Five wins in six rounds, with his only non-win being a draw against Bluebaum in Round 2. His victim list so far: Esipenko, Praggnanandhaa, Caruana, Nakamura, and now Wei Yi &m...
After losing game 8, the world champion was close to losing game 9 and practically the match. Carlsen defended well against Karjakin attack and just escaped with a draw. The critical move was move 39 before the time control, when Karjakin ...
After 7 draws, game 8 is the first decisive game of the match. Karjakin won with black after an exciting game that saw Carlsen taking a lot of risks. There were many critical moves, espcially in the endgame when Carlsen had the chance to save the ...
Games 3 and 4 of the Carlsen-Karjakin 2016 World Championship were more exciting than the first two games, but still ended in draws. In both games, Carlsen reached a winning endgame but couldn't convert after a long and strong defense by Karjakin....
The first two games of the Carlsen-Karjakin 2016 World Championship were quiet draws, as both players were cautious starting the match. We will look at a couple key positions and the critical moves selected there: In game 1, Karjakin with blac...
This looks like a great composed puzzle, but what's interesting, it was actually reached in a real game played in 1991 between two international masters. Unfortunately, white didn't find the winning combination and instead lost in one move!
This is a game I played in a tournament last week against a 2300 master. It seems that now I tend to prefer cold-blooded defense than attacking myself! This was also the theme of my other games at the tournament. I was playing white this game.
The final critical move is from game 9. Anand in a must-win situation, finally played aggressively and had a strong attack, but unfotunate to him, he blundered with 28. Nf1?? and resigned directly due to 28. ... Qe1. Instead, he should have played...
Game 6 is full of critical moves! It's hard to decide which is the most critical. Similar to game 5, Carlsen got a tiny advantage into the endgame and kept putting pressure, taking advantage of Anand slightly inaccuarate moves. As shown from these...
This move from game 5 was more crucial, since it led to the first decisive game of the match. Carlsen had a slight advantage in the endgame and in his typical style, he kept putting pressure and taking advantage of small inaccuracies by Anand unti...
After the quick draws in the first two games, the 2013 World Championship Anand-Carlsen match is getting more exciting. In game 3, Anand with black took the initiative and had winning chances after pushing Carlsen queen to the corner. The game eve...
The second Anand-Carlsen game in the 2013 World Championship match also ended in a quick 25-move draw. This game started with a sharp opposite-side castling Caro-Kann, but then also ended in repetition. The critical move was move 18, where Anand h...
In anticipation of the 2013 World Championship match between Anand and Calsen starting in a couple of days, I was looking at the history of games between the two players. In chessgames.com, I was able to find 62 games between 2005 and 2013, out o...
Last week, I got a chance to play against WGM Ruan Lufei in a simultaneous at Stanford. Ruan is among the top female chess players. Her best known result is reaching the 2010 Women's World Chess Championship final and losing only to World Champion...
Kramnik started the Russian Championship with a double sacrifice and spectacular win!
Yesterday, in the FIDE Grand Prix in Paris, Vassily Ivanchuk resigned in the following position. Black is certainly worse after 33. Ke3, but material is still even. Wasn't it too early to resign?
This move is from today's game in the last round of Sinquefield Cup. Carlsen only needed a draw today against Aronian to win the first Sinquefield Cup, while Aronian had to win. The interesting move was after Aronian played 30. ... Rd4 offering an...
This puzzle is an easy one. It's from today's Sinquefield Cup game between Nakamura and Aronian. The game was heading to a draw, until Aronian played 30. ... Qb5?? Other moves like 30. ... Qc6 would have been an easy draw, but this shows that...
It was Kramnik's turn today to miss the winning move and qualification to the final round. He still have a chance tomorrow though in the rapid games tiebreaks. In a 125 move game, Vachier-Lagrave blundered and gave Kramnik a winning position, but ...
Kamsky lost his game today in the FIDE World Cup and is out of the tournament. Tomashevsky sacrificed a pawn and Kamsky had to defend a complicated position. After a couple of inaccurate moves, the position was lost.
In today's game in the FIDE World Cup, Gata Kamsky sacrificed a piece for an attack, can you see the piece sacrifice in this position? White's position wasn't so interesting till now and positionally it was getting worse, but Kamsky found a ...
Today in the FIDE World Cup, top seed Levon Aronian missed his winning chances to draw and drop out of the tournament after yesterday's loss. The game got interesting after Tomashevsky sacrificed a knight, but Aronian defenede well and reached the...
This nice puzzle, I played in a blitz game today.
