If you have seen the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, you may remember one of the Washington Square Park hustlers who held a sign offering a photograph or a game with the man who beat Mikhail Tal. Just like most of the movie's chess...
At one time there were no official titles in chess. In 1950 FIDE created the Grandmaster, the International Master and the International Women Master titles. The first two sets of titles weren't based on rating...
I am sure that you've encountered the situation where your opponent played an opening move that breaks all known chess rules. What is your second thought when this happens? (I assume that the first thought is usually: "You gotta be kidding me!")...
Making forecasts is not one of my best skills. Actually it is quite the opposite: Usually my predictions of the future are quite bad. Yet one of my forecasts was a no-brainer, since I couldn't possibly have gone wrong with it. Almost four ...
What is pawn structure? From my online glossary, I define it as "the positioning of the whole pawn mass. Also referred to as the pawn skeleton. This positioning of the pawns is what usually dictates the types of plans available in a gi...
Are you looking to participate in a community league? Community Leagues provide great opportunities to represent your nation, state, city and communities in many different types of chess, including daily chess, vote chess, live chess formats, an...
Destiny makes its urgent way to the mighty and those who do violent deeds. This is the beginning of Stefan Zweig's famous Die Weltminute von Waterloo (The World Minute of Waterloo). While this short novel describes the decisive moment of the his...
The 14th world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik reflects on his remarkable career, telling David Cox about his championship battles with Garry Kasparov, Peter Leko, Veselin Topalov and Vishy Anand, and why Kramnik finally ran out of motivation for ...
This month we are pleased to meet Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, known as MVL, the French number 1 and member of world top 5. Chess.com France will follow closely his quest for the world title that will require being qualified for the next Candidate...
What is pawn structure? From my online glossary, I define it as “the positioning of the whole pawn mass. Also referred to as the pawn skeleton. This positioning of the pawns is what usually dictates the types of plans available in a given ...
[cover image from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll; illustrated by Peter Newell, 1902 ] ___________________________________________________________________________________________________...
I learned the phrase "a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse" in school when I studied Richard III by William Shakespeare. These days, people use this expression when they want to underline the importance of something. There is a story about a...
One of the most promising Dutch junior players of the early 1970s was Roy Dieks from Amsterdam. In the final of the 1972 European Youth Championship, held in Groningen, The Netherlands, Dieks played a crucial game against Tony Miles (who would lat...
Did you know that Chess.com's interface is available in 54 different languages? Currently most common (and many uncommon) left-to-right languages¹ are supported in Chess.com, but more than 85% of users use Chess.com's interface in English&sup...
Every day, thousands of chess lovers from all over the world use Chess.com to connect - playing, learning and sharing our favourite game. The chessboard has incredible power to erase differences of language, culture, and age; that's a huge part of...
Anish Giri tells David Cox about the multicultural upbringing that shaped his chess talent, why social media has been huge for the game and the moments when he’s believed he can become world champion. As the current world number-four, Anis...
WHO ARE THEY? Everyone wants to win a brilliancy prize, but few get to experience it. In this article, I’ve found several “unknown players” who actually were able to grasp that dream. Can you solve these positions? If you ...
The Introduction The U.S.S.R team totally demolished the U.S.A. team in a Radio Chess Match played from Sept.1-4, 1945. Not only did this event shine a glaring spotlight on the Soviet chess advancement, but it sp...
Magnus Carlsen is off to a hot streak to begin his 2019 chess season. Carlsen won the Tata Steel masters tournament (9/13), Gashimov Memorial (7/9) and Grenke Chess Classic (7.5/9). Carlsen's performance ratings at the three events we...
Chess board dimensions aren't as simple as one might think. The basic geometry of the chess board isn't difficult to grasp, but chess board dimensions also include the size of the squares on the board. One of the most important aspects...
Chess has a long and storied history. The game has changed quite a bit from its earliest forms in India. The modern iteration we enjoy today wasn't known until the 16th century. There were no clocks, and the pieces were not standardized until...
As in attics where things once used get stored out of sight and mind, old articles have a way of burying themselves under the weight of those that follow, becoming lost and forgotten. Sometimes it pays to put on an apron and gloves, wall...
In the early 1800s, competitive chess was a time commitment, with games lasting 8-10 hours. Players would often try to stall and exhaust each other. One infamous match between Howard Staunton and Pierre St. Amant in 1843 reportedly ...
Chess has been fascinating players and spectators for nearly 2,000 years. With the technological revolution of the last 100 years, computers have become an increasingly important part of our lives, and their effect on chess has been substantial. ...
