Test your knowledge: which opening did Vladimir Kramnik lean on to equalize his chances as Black in the 2000 world chess championship, where he would eventually defeat the greatest chess player of all time? Fill in the blank: The 2014 world ches...
There are many famous personalities in the history of chess. People talk about them, write books about them and follow their games. But there is an even bigger number of unknown chess players who never achieved any great tournament results or disc...
In part 1 of "The Scandinavian Defense: A History," we learned about the earliest beginnings of the Scandinavian Defense, and also saw some games with the slightly less usual 2...Nf6 in response to 2.exd5. Now we will see how the Scandinavi...
Chess is not a team game. It's an individual struggle between two minds to destroy each other -- at least, over the chessboard. But that doesn't mean chess players have to be loners. It's only natural that passionate chess players are drawn to...
As 2014 draws to a close, it’s a natural time to look back at the best chess of the year. The past year was a good one for fans of the world’s most popular board game. There was an exciting world championship match, several amaz...
Your favorite holiday chess tradition is back! Chess.com is proud to celebrate the holiday season with an all-new puzzler quiz for 2014. UPDATE: The 2014 Holiday Puzzler has ended. Thanks to all who played and commented. O...
Last week, we looked at the history of the Paulsen Sicilian until the late 1950s. Around this time, it was accepted that the c2-c4 plan was not terribly dangerous for Black, whose dark-squared bishop was still unimpeded by the pawn. The li...
With last week's column, we reached the end of my series on endgames, "Without the Lady." It has been an interesting journey through one of chess's most mysterious and underappreciated domains -- but the end has come. I now begin a new column co...
Who is the greatest world chess champion ever? Magnus Carlsen defeated Vishy Anand yesterday in the 2014 world chess championship in Sochi to defend his title. Meanwhile, the All-Time World Chess Championship...
Mary Weiser Bain always seemed to have gotten lost in the shadows of Mona May Karff and Gisela Gresser. But this pioneer of women's chess in the United States played no less a role. While Gresser was home-grown, Mary Bain was born in Hung...
Who is the strongest world chess champion ever? As Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand battle it out for the 2014 world chess championship in Sochi, the All-Time World Chess Championship Tournament continues here on Chess.com. After an e...
Who is the best chess player of all time? Today, World Champion Magnus Carlsen leads Vishy Anand 1.5-0.5 after two games at the world chess championship in Sochi, Russia. Carlsen is the 16th classical world chess champion — mor...
Today, the very top chess players in the world can make good livings from the game. Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand, who will play this month’s world chess championship in Russia, made more than $1 million each of the past two years from ch...
By 1990, Garry Kasparov had done what nobody had done before since the creation of the world championship: defended his title multiple times against the clearly best challenger. All in all, he and Anatoly Karpov played five quite grueling matches ...
Two of the world's most accomplished chess coaches will put down their red pens and fire up their laptops for Death Match 28. GM Giorgi Kacheishvili, coach of this year's U.S. Women's Champion and U.S. Championship finalist, and GM Simen Agdeste...
Most chess players have found themselves lost deeply in a game, so consumed by the position on the board — or the tactics brewing in their heads — that they all but ignore their surroundings. Usually these games are played ...
One of the first chess books I bought myself was a red little volume in German called Garrik Kasparow - Idol der Jugend by T.Lais. Published in 1983 - when Kasparov was just 20 years old - it contained 60 lightly annotated games played by the late...
GOOD OR BAD? Mordecai10 asked: I have just completed part 1 of your Test Your Chess Understanding articles, and I wasn’t completely satisfied by one aspect of your solutions. In your solution to puzzle 2, you say the following: &lsquo...
The Kryptonite Effect Many fans of chess are confused when one player in the world’s top 10 totally dominates another top 10 player in game after game. How does one explain this? In boxing they say “styles make fights.&rdquo...
There is arguably no other game with the timeless staying power and global reach of chess. Unlike most of the other games and sports played today by millions around the world, chess has a history that spans millennia. While chess has change...
One hundred years ago the chess world witnessed one of the greatest chess tournaments of all time, Saint Petersburg 1914. Its storylines were numerous and compelling: Capablanca's early domination, Alekhine's first major international success, Rub...
In my article on chess technique, I wholeheartedly agreed with Frank J. Marshall's affirmation that "the hardest thing in chess is to win a won game." Indeed, tenacious defense is now the norm rather than the exception. Fifty years ago, the fir...
Serious opening preparation is a must for all chess professionals. At times, the preparation is mundane: NORMAL OPENING PREPARATION 1) You decide to play a new opening that had attracted you for years, or you saw something new and exc...
Chess has had some difficulty throughout the years in presenting itself as a form of public entertainment. There has been some isolated cases where chess made good TV and even a few instances where chess was limelighted and managed to captiv...
