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...
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...
What's in a name? Have you seen this famous clip of GM Hikaru Nakamura calculating a deep combination in seconds with his famous "check, check, check...." How can Hikaru calculate that quickly? He's amazing, but it helped that he knew the s...
From 1974 until 1984, the Manhattan Chess Club (MCC) was located at 155 E 55th St. in Manhattan; FM Jeff Kastner, manager of the club during that time, reports that his office was near this old-timey Coke machine: Mark Ginsburg, old MCC, 1983....
Recently I was explaining a concept of a chess X-ray to one of my students. I don't need to do it too often since surprisingly, most chess players, even quite inexperienced ones, know about it. So, I described chess X-rays as a situation where a...
There are many ways to work on your chess improvement. You can study opening variations or typical endgames, solve tactical puzzles, and learn chess strategy. Also, it is extremely useful to analyze the games of the greatest chess players as well ...
What's the most important kind of endgame? While the answer is obvious for many experienced players, most beginners answer incorrectly. The most popular incorrect answer is a rook endgame. While it is statistically the most common kind of an endga...
The 2023 FIDE World Championship was an unusual event. First of all, it is very uncommon to call an event the "World Championship" in the absence of the unquestionable world's number-one player. It is also unusual to see so many hard-fought games ...
GM David Bronstein famously said: “To lose one’s objective attitude to a position, nearly always means ruining your game.” I doubt that anyone would argue with this simple yet very powerful statement. Moreover, this wisdom can be...
Chess is a simple game, really. Queen moves here, horsey moves there, checkmate. Okay not quite, but it is true that the hard part is playing well, not learning how to play. At least, in most cases. Some rules in chess are easy to get wrong&mdas...
My article from last week has caused quite a dispute. Many readers argued that there is nothing wrong with the Bongcloud or any other "junk" opening. Indeed they have a point there: after a long day at work why not unwind and have some fun by play...
Note: As is always the case, but should be stated clearly in this particular context, the views expressed by GM Serper in his articles are his views alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Chess.com. Chess is in the worldwide news aga...
[Note: This article presents our current membership plans. Old premium members might have slightly different plans as we updated our prices and plans on September 1.] There are many ways to have a good time with chess. You can play it, study it,...
Chess.com people are the best! I already wrote in my old article that our fellow members are nice, intelligent and always ready to help you. That's why I never miss your comments, my dear readers, since they are always interesting and I learn a lo...
How will you react if GM Ian Nepomniachtchi defeats GM Magnus Carlsen and becomes the next world champion of chess? Will you have seen it coming, or would it be one of the biggest upsets in world chess championship history? How to watch the 2021...
PogChamps 4 is coming up, starting this Sunday, August 29. If there's anything PogChamps has taught us, it's that you don't need to be a grandmaster to play entertaining chess. You can be an entertainer who plays chess, and there are a countless n...
For many generations of chess players, Aron Nimzowitsch's famous book My System was sort of a chess bible. World Champion GM Tigran Petrosian admitted that as a kid, he kept this book under his pillow. Another world champion, GM Mikhail Tal, regre...
From the very origin of our beautiful game to the current global online chess phenomenon, India has contributed significantly to the world of chess. Historical records show that the 8x8 chessboard dates from the days of Mahabharata and Ramayana. B...
In the introduction to his famous book "Grandmaster Preparation," GM Lev Polugaevsky tells a story that happened on December 17, 1969, when he and ex-world champion GM Mikhail Botvinnik were walking on the streets of Belgrade. Mikhail Botvinnik ...
Stalemate is the biggest miracle in chess—there, I said it. You might disagree and give me dozens of different examples of chess magic and you might be correct too. We all have different definitions of beauty and magic. Yes, when you see o...
The words "quarantine" and "social distancing" are going to be a symbol of the year 2020. People in isolation suffer due to many economical and psychological factors. One of them is boredom. Fortunately, creative minds will always find a solutio...
The novel coronavirus has paralyzed the world, and unfortunately, there is no clear sign of it slowing down. It will take years if not decades to learn the final toll it took on humankind. Needless to say, chess was severely impacted, just like ev...
The question in the title of this article might look stupid to many readers. Indeed, who wouldn't like to study a game annotated by a strong player? Well, I am not sure that I have an answer to this question anymore. When I was a kid, an ann...
2019 was a great year for chess. While many chess fans are ready to jump right into 2020 and the world championship drama, let's take a moment on this last day of 2019 to appreciate the best chess had to offer this year. For much of 2019, the ...
Just like most people who love chess, I have certain favorite players. Notice how many times I've mentioned Mikhail Botvinnik, Mikhail Tal, Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen in my articles and you'll get an idea of my chess prefer...
