ChessKid.com, the scholastic extension of Chess.com, has added a flurry of new features in the last few months. Several new members of the programming team have been hard at work delivering the kinds of fun learning features that kids, coaches, an...
The Chess.com member Kurniadigautama said: “I am currently trying to improve my understanding of positional play. The engine told Black to castle kingside while White is threatening to double take on c6. If White does take after Black cast...
Curling, one of the 15 sports of the 2018 winter Olympics, is in the spotlight this week as millions of viewers worldwide tune in to watch the icy game of strategy and dexterity. Curling has been called "chess on ice," and the comparison is a go...
CHESS LIFE AND REVIEW I was recently thinking about the best U.S. chess magazines ever. There were quite a lot. Two favorites are Joel Benjamin’s magazine, Chess Chow (1991 to 1994), which was hilarious, and Inside Chess, Yasser Seirawan&r...
Hi guys! It is been a while since my last post - "Rook Endgame Essentials - Part 2". It is time to enhance our understanding. In this article, we are going to cover the third part of the rook endgame essentials. Let's begin with an example ...
The Giuoco Piano is a popular chess opening from the beginner levels all the way up to grandmaster. Giuoco Piano translates from Italian into the "quiet game". First, let's take a look at the beginning moves that make up this opening. ...
Fianchettos are made by advancing the pawns on the b- and g-files and developing the bishop behind the knight pawn. What are fianchettos? Openings that use fianchettos Key points and ideas 1) What are fianchettos? Fianchetto is an I...
Crazyhouse is a popular chess variant similar to bughouse, but you only need two players to play. The basic premise of crazyhouse is that pieces which you capture from your opponent can be dropped on empty squares on your turn. "Dropping" cap...
Tired of regular chess and all the loads of opening theory? Then try Chess960 or the variant also known as Fischer Random Chess. Play Chess960 The 11th World Champion Robert James Fischer was the most fam...
Chess players taking their first steps are often confused about how to castle. This special move is the only time you can move two pieces in the same turn. Castling only involves the king and the rook (no other chess pieces), and it is believ...
Whew. Let's all sit down and breathe for a minute. It's been an exciting, and tumultuous year. 2017. How did it go so fast? For both Chess.com directors of content, Peter Doggers and this writer, it flew by largely from the window seat, as b...
The Chess.com member Animaul7 (his real name is Anthony Maulucci) wrote: I’m a 16-year-old who has been stuck at an expert rating for some time now, which I know is pretty normal. One question I have for you is what juniors like myself can...
Your favorite annual chess quiz tradition is back for the holidays. Chess.com is proud to celebrate the season with an all-new puzzler for 2017—So enjoy this year's fun (and tricky) edition. Play the puzzler here. The 10...
Chess is a game of dramatic possibility. Within a few moves, the number of potential positions is in the millions. Soon, there are more permutations than a human could count in a lifetime. This is well known; you sometimes hear that there are mo...
In last week's article we learned some of the favorite chess patterns of super-GM Ding Liren. As you probably remember, he loves to play for domination when his opponent's pieces can barely move. His most common recipe to get this kind of a p...
The Chess.com member grepschrop wrote: “Some players told me that it’s not important to know the names of mating patterns. My experience with kids is contrary. What is your opinion?” SILMAN: Though one might think this is easy ...
Holiday shopping season is here, and there's no better time to pick up some over-the-board chess gear for anyone on your list (or even yourself). The holidays are a great time to get together and play some chess, so make sure you stock up ...
A few months ago Chess.com introduced an individual version of four player chess called "Free For All." Just recently a second version called "Teams" has been released. Four player chess is hardly a new concept....
When I was a teenage Sicilian Dragon aficionado, I salivated over the thought that one day I might land in a certain theoretical sub-variation of the Yugoslav Attack where Black sacrifices not one but both exchanges to bust up White’s queens...
The Chess.com member dudejan asked: I always seem to struggle to know where to develop my bishops. For knights the concepts of outposts or placement behind a pawn to double defend certain squares are quite logical for me. But for bishops I don...
It is not a big secret that I devote a lot of space in my articles to Hikaru Nakamura's chess. The reason is not even that just like thousands of his fans I am rooting for a grandmaster who has a unique, entertaining style of play. Hikaru's tran...
Chess is so much more than simple squares, pieces, letters and numbers. But it certainly helps the learning process when you bring the game to life! Below are some of the animated GIFs that ChessKid uses in videos that teach kids how to play and...
Strong and weak squares are a cornerstone of chess strategy. The definition of a weak square is very simple: it is any square that cannot be defended by a pawn. Usually such a weak square in our opponent's camp is the ideal place to put our pieces...
IvnKaramazov: I feel like one of my recent games demonstrates my problem quite well. I thought I was gaining a positional advantage and at first glance it seems so: by move 15 I had a bishop pair and an outposted knight (which couldn’t be ...
