The year was 1985 and I was playing a tournament where I had an opportunity to get my first master norm. At that time, tournaments with master norms were very scarce in the Soviet Union. In fact, we had only one such tournament per year in my ho...
HOW TO START OUT I get many, many players (rated 800 to 1200) asking me what their style is, why do they lose when they had a better game, are their opponents cheating, how to get good fast, or simply how to get a higher rating. All thes...
Looking for a great way to kick off your school's chess club in the fall? The Fourth "Hour of Chess Week" is the first time we will host the event outside of the spring! This back-to-school edition still gives you a chance to win 500 gold m...
I love reading member comments to my articles! It is a pleasure to see how smart and intelligent our chess community is. Unlike commenters in many internet forums, Chess.com members are polite and helpful. Take for example one of my most re...
Judit Polgar (@JuditPolgar), unarguably the greatest female player of all time and one of the greatest attacking players of all time, will play 20 fortunate opponents on Chess.com as part of the Global Chess Festival Online. This simultaneous disp...
"All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray..." Serendipity: As you look for one thing, you often find all sorts of interesting items in the process. I had been searching through California newspaper a...
The regular readers of my column know that I hate political correctness. In my old article I explained it is probably the biggest threat to Western civilization. Very soon people will stop expressing their true beliefs out of fear that the...
Grab your popcorn for this article! We are going to take a look at chess in the movies. Chess fans everywhere have their favorite chess movies. Here are our top seven picks. Make sure to share your favorite chess films in the comments! Searchi...
Most amateurs run into the same problems: undefended pieces, being unaware of their opponents' best moves, falling victim to simple tactics, etc. Those things are common. However, once in a while you’ll see a player making one specific ...
Here you'll find updated standings and leaderboard information for the Arena Kings Streamers Championship Season 2. Season 2 press release and announcement. FINAL Standings as of December 13 Rank Player Points Twitch Channel Name /...
One of the most important things in chess is willpower (a branch of chess psychology). Most players glance at a possibility, shrug it off as too risky or just plain bad or boring, and toss out some generic move instead. This, of course, is...
Chess aficionados love to debate about the best chess player of all time. As I mentioned in my old article, this is the question that has no answer. Indeed, it is very difficult to guess who would have won the world championship match Fisc...
Chess is played everyday around the world and brings people of different cultures and backgrounds together. Let's take a look at the top 10 benefits of learning and playing chess! Brings People Together Teaches You How To Win And Lose Hel...
After sharing positional puzzles to the raging masses, I thought that it was only right to offer tactical puzzles and sharp attacks. However, there’s a tiny blip: All these games won brilliancy prizes. Anyway, whether you solve it or not,...
If you've ever felt a little bit silly after allowing your opponent to take your queen or after missing a mate in one, I have good news for you. It could be much worse. Stop feeling guilty whenever these things happen to you. The chess world is ...
Chess is a rich game, dating back over a millennia. On Chess.com alone, over 2,000,000,000 games have been played! Which games are the very best ever played? No one can answer that conclusively, but we are going to give you Chess.com's opinion. ...
The day my daughter was due was approaching. There was not much to do but wait. Another day passed. I couldn’t concentrate on work. Another day, and then another. I couldn’t write; my words were blocked. I couldn’t sleep. Another...
Welcome again to another learning chess experience. You will look at eight positional puzzles and, as you finish each one, you will click the question mark (“?”) underneath the board next to the light bulb. This will allow you to se...
If numbers don't lie, then this next Speed Chess Championship match is a draw. But since ties aren't possible in Chess.com's blitz and bullet series, we're going to play it out anyway. On Tuesday, August 7, GMs Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alexander G...
In last week's article, we discussed chess players' behavior. The big questions were if trying to flag your opponent in a dead-drawn position or playing out a completely lost position or some other perfectly legal things are ethical. Judgin...
A well-known saying states that all is fair in love and war. Our beloved game is actually both love and war. While it is pretty obvious that chess is a war on 64 squares, what about love? Well, check the Twitter hashtag #WhyILoveChess and...
I’ve done positional puzzles twice. Since a lot of people enjoyed them, I’ve decided to do it again, and perhaps again and again. It’s certainly a good way to learn positional ideas. Here are the original two articles: ...
Some 20 years ago I had a conversation with a grandmaster who grew up in a bad neighborhood. He was recollecting his youth years when street fighting was pretty common. I don't remember much from his stories, but one of his phrases has stu...
The Game of the Century is one of the greatest chess games in all of chess history and likely the greatest game ever played by a junior. The 26-year-old international master Donald Byrne took on the young, 13-year-old Bobby Fischer in what wo...
