Youth Rulez
Last article featured two positions from the Aeroflot Open, which was hosted in Moscow. Grandmaster Le Quang Liem won the event, scoring an impressive 7/9 with 5 wins and 4 draws, and 0 losses. Going into the last round Liem shared...
Chess Tech: A changing of the guard?
At any given moment in time one particular piece of software tends to dominate. In the 1980s it was clearly a combination of Chessbase and Fritz. In the 1990s, other engines emerged to relegate Fritz to a lower tier. The rise of Ribka took chess w...
Untenable Jadedness
I usually set aside time on Wednesday evening to write my weekly column. It has already become a routine, though for such tasks I typically rely on my mood to determine when and what to write and not a schedule. Tonight, I am in no mood to talk t...
How to Get Better at Chess | The Critical Mistake to Avoid
Every day I get a lot of fan mail (thanks, guys!), and many of the messages are dedicated to the evergreen subject “how do I get better in chess?” I am trying to do my best to offer individual advice to everyone. However, there is a ve...
Creating a Study Program
Creating a Study Program Mr. Svorcan asked: I am self-taught chess player. I have read a few books and have some chess software (Fritz, Chessmaster, etc). I play chess regularly on the net but my “real” rating is unknown, however on some website...
Training program for beginners
Chess training program for ratings < 1200 Disclaimer:These advice are taken from my personal (short) experience. They are written by a novice for the novice. I only release my ideas today to the public. Nobody ever tried these programs and I ...
Things That Go Down Your Throat in a Chess Tournament
Unknown asked: What do you think is the best food to be eaten during a big tournament? Dear whoever you are: Actually, this is quite an interesting question! Of course, most people eat all sorts of unhealthy things before an event, but shoul...
Help! I Feel So Lost Without a Plan!
IM DAVID PRUESS asked: I do know a few things about planning-- I even teach “how to plan” to my own students sometimes. But I still come across positions fairly often, maybe one in ten games, where I feel I should have a plan, but can't come up w...
Your Questions Answered 9/14
[Ed: this week, our daily columnists [may] have secretly traded columns. From this Sunday through Friday, read all the columns, and guess who wrote which. Mail your guesses to dpruess at chess.com. A couple prizes will be awarded at random to thos...
10 chess books you don't want to miss
When I was a kid, PCs weren’t that widespread yet, so books were our #1 choice when it came to chess studies. Of course, innovative technologies speed up the process of learning chess, but the old methods shouldn’t be totally neglected too. That’s...
The Cheating Chess Tournament
The Cheating Chess Tournament ©2002 by NM Dan Heisman “That was the third person we caught recently who had a handheld computer with Pocket Fritz!” Chester Nimfield was distraught. As a member of the Hookley Valley Chess Club’s Organizing...
Your Questions Answered By Andrew Martin
International Master Andrew Martin from England presents a regular series of articles to answer any questions that Chess.com readers have about the game of chess. If you want to ask Andrew a question, then send an email to askandrew@chess.com an...
Chess Plan for Improvement.
Study plan. Your strength as a chess player is in close ratio to the time you can play and study the game. Certainly allowances must be made for talent and age but these, if they are a handicap, can be overcome by spending more time on the game. ...
Site Playing Rules: A Guide for the Perplexed
Resource What is it? Is it permitted DURING Turn-Based (and Vote Chess) play? Is it permitted DURING LiveChess play? Asking another person for advice Includes discussing a game-in-progress in the chess.com Forums NO* (except du...
Life and Chess...
Life and chess... I learned how to play chess when I was 19 years of age. Before this, the first time I saw people playing a game called chess was at school, when I was only ten. So, was it a coincidence that I would cross roads again with 'chess...
Chess.com Guide to Computer Settings and Maintenance
Most people don't know how to configure and maintain their computers. And that's OK... until something goes wrong and you want it fixed, and NOW! Trust us - we get dozens of bug reports and problem emails every day, and 90% of them are user-error,...
Linux Topics and Chess
Curious if there is anyone out there interested in starting a chess club that shares common interests like Linux, graphic design, database design or information technology in general. I'm very fond of Ubuntu and open-source software. Any takers?
Practical Chess: Novice Nook
Some chess players have a chess coach. The really lucky players have a good coach. What about the rest of us?Well, there is a ton of material out there from which to study: books, magazines, videos, software, websites, and so on. So, just pick ...
Kings don't like open files
This article is about a game I played about 7 weeks ago. Let me tell you a little background of myself as far as chess is concerned. I live in Lahore, Pakistan and I picked up chess from my cousins. One of my cousin is currently Lahore number 4 pl...
Book Review: Winning Chess Endings
Raise your hand if you hate playing the endgame. That’s what I thought; I’m not alone. OK, well, “hate” might be a bit strong, but maybe “dread” is a better term. Nothing about chess is easy, b...
McChess: Shredder Chess
First, the preamble, in case you missed it from my last McChess article. At the moment, I run OS X and only OS X, so although Shredder Chess comes in Linux and Windows flavours, I won’t say much, if anything, about the alternativ...
McChess: Chessmaster 9000
With any luck, this is the first in a series of chess software reviews. I should state up-front that, at the moment, the only operating system I use is OS X. So, although many of the programs that I will review have versions that run on other oper...
MacHack Attack
In 1957, Alex Bernstein created the first really complete chess program at IBM. It ran on an IBM 704, one of the last vacuum tube computers. It took about 8 minutes to make a move. In 1958, Alan Newell, John Shaw, ...
A Short History of Computer Chess
Chess and computers was a marriage waiting to happen, and when it did, so we had the reality of computer chess. The following; derrived from books and other sources of info, covers some of the earliest roots of computer chess; technol...