There is an interesting story told by GM Mikhail Tal in his book The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal: An amusing episode accompanied the start of this tournament. The day before, on the birthday of one of my friends, by no means a chess player, som...
The recently revealed Chess.com opening database, which contains over 30 billion (that's indeed a capital B!) games, is a real feast for any chess aficionado. Imagine you travel to a completely new city and want to see the real life of the people....
Prophylaxis is unquestionably the most important concept in chess. Chess.com's glossary defines prophylaxis as "seeing what your opponent wants to do and stopping it ahead of time." For less advanced players, a prophylactic move is the one that ...
The 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament is an event a true chess aficionado can only dream about. Exciting chess, a tour de force by GM Javokhir Sindarov, and unprecedented online coverage. And yet, as I watch some games, I feel a quiet sense of sadne...
In one of his games at the 1958 Chess Olympiad in Munich, GM Mikhail "the Magician" Tal, true to his style, sacrificed a pawn. His team member, then world champion GM Mikhail Botvinnik, asked him, "why did you sacrifice that pawn?" "It was in my w...
The passing of legendary GM Jan Timman is a great loss for the chess world. Not only was he an elite player, often called "The Best of the West," but he was also a truly unique personality. When I saw his photos in chess magazines in the 1980s, ...
A long time ago, I watched a comedian who offered simple solutions to everyday problems. They went something like this: Want to impress a girl on a first date? Use a fake French accent—romance guaranteed. Got a bad haircut? Put on sungl...
GM Bent Larsen was not only one of the best players in the world, but also a great thinker and writer. A book of his selected 50 games is one of the most original chess books I've ever read. It is not just a collection of Larsen's unusual openings...
We live in unprecedented times when AI and the Digital Revolution are reshaping how we live. Recently, Elon Musk even suggested that, in 15 to 20 years, work will be optional and money irrelevant. It is difficult to argue with on...
I realize that for many readers, the very question in this article's title may sound absurd. GM Bobby Fischer has long been regarded as the epitome of a chess prodigy. With Fischer's own famous remark, "When I was eleven, I just got good," even as...
We live in an age of world records. Stories about a boy who wins the world title at 18, a girl who becomes World Champion at 16, or a pre-teen who becomes a grandmaster are not surprising anyone anymore. That's why when I read the news about yet a...
One of my first chess books had a very interesting feature: Every three to four chapters, it would present about a dozen short games. Initially, I just enjoyed playing through them, but as I started participating in tournaments, the thought of tra...
One of the greatest features of chess is that we can enjoy the games played decades or even hundreds of years ago. This is something very unique to chess. The best tennis rallies or soccer goals are completely lost for us if they happened before t...
Imagine a situation where your pawn has reached the seventh rank, just one square away from fulfilling its dream of becoming a queen. However, none other than the opponent's king steps in front of the pawn, preventing its promotion. Who is going t...
While I have been playing competitive chess for almost 50 years, the question in the title of this article never occurred to me. It looked so natural: if you find yourself in a completely hopeless situation where you see no way out, then you resig...
Chess is a significant part of human culture, which is why it is often referenced in movies and, especially, in financial advertisements, where it symbolizes intelligence and acumen. I remember watching a kids' show with a famous Russian a...
Recently, WGM Maria Manakova posted an interesting position on her Facebook page. She wrote: "A fun puzzle for third or forth category players." According to the old Soviet chess classification, it refers to people with a US Chess rating somewhere...
With the recent passing of GM Vlastimil Hort, the chess community reflects not only on the loss of a great player and very nice person, but also on the huge chess heritage he left behind. While for most people, Hort is associated with his games, o...
There are many gambit lines known in chess. Some of them are very sharp and dangerous, others are more positional and not even real gambits, like the Queen's Gambit. Today, I want to discuss one of the most dangerous gambits in chess, which you pr...
Many years ago, a young aspiring chess player was planning to play a big tournament abroad, but there was one problem: money! Just like many young players, he couldn't really afford the travel expenses, so he decided to ask for help at the depar...
If you like watching chess videos on YouTube, you couldn't possibly miss the catchy phrase, "Do you even rook lift, bro?" I don't know who came up with this meme, but no doubt a huge credit goes to IM Eric Rosen, who made it popular. Of course, ...
If you are wondering why I would talk about the blockbuster movie from the 1990s on a chess website, don't worry. This article is about the tenth World Champion, Boris Spassky, who passed away on February 27. While I saw Spassky on numerous occa...
Last year, I shared a powerful opening trap, and judging by the comments, you, my dear readers, liked it. Since I got numerous requests for more traps like this, I will share another one, which is even more powerful than the previous one...
I don't like popular disputes where people compare legendary champions from the past to modern players. In my opinion, such discussions are silly and pointless. Besides, there is no way to prove your opinion is right or wrong. That's why I just sm...
The 2024 Champions Chess Tour Finals was an exciting event with many thrilling encounters, combinations, and blunders: everything chess spectators love to watch. In this smorgasbord of "tasty" chess, you could easily miss the following one: Wh...
