Could this be the closest match in the 2017 Speed Chess Championship yet? You can throw the seeds out the window as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will face Alexander Grischuk in the first quarterfinal of the championship, the stron...
IMPROVEMENT FOR OLD PLAYERS The Chess.com member jayzorac wrote: I have a question for you. Do you think “older” players can still improve to expert and master level? SILMAN: Mr. jayzorac wrote quite a bit about hi...
All chess players encounter this situation in every single game. You are considering your next move and see numerous tempting opportunities. All the moves look equally strong, so which one should you prefer? What is the best move to play? There ...
The Chess.com member Benjamin_Dubuque (rated 1288) wrote: I have a question about calculation. I often miss either simple intermediate moves or very quiet moves in my calculations, especially in complicated messes that I seem to find myself in...
Magnus Carlsen, the world chess champion, makes his debut in the 2017 Speed Chess Championship in the most anticipated online chess match so far this year. Carlsen will face the qualifier GM Gadir Guseinov in this first-round battle to decide wh...
The Chess.com member Addu_Chess asked: I’ve read How to Reassess Your Chess, and I read about the various imbalances. But what if the position is symmetrical? JS: There are quite a few symmetrical openings, but it’s usually easy ...
For nearly 20 years computers have dominated chess. These advanced devises not only defeat the best players, but have become indispensable as training tools, analyzing partners and always-ready opponents. &...
The 2017 World Cup is one of the most important events of the year and a real feast for the true chess enthusiast. It is even covered by the mainstream media, which usually ignores chess. Unfortunately the media got interested in chess for the wro...
At the beginning of a game the professional chess player understands the ins and outs of the opening he plays which, of course, has been deeply studied. He knows where his pieces should be, he is well-versed about the pawn structure’s needs,...
I’m back with three more of my favorite Emanuel Lasker games. Remember that they might or might not be his best games. All that matters is that they are games that affected me over the years. Though Lasker was one of the greatest tactician...
Strong and weak squares are a cornerstone of chess strategy. The definition of a weak square is very simple: it is any square that cannot be defended by a pawn. Usually such a weak square in our opponent's camp is the ideal place to put our pieces...
Fulgencio Batista, president of Cuba during WWII and again from 1952-1959, backed by the US government as well as by organized crime, enriched himself at the expense of his citizenry. One of his methods of enrichment was to e...
The Chess.com Speed Chess Championship has two world junior champions doing battle today, current world number-two Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, takes on the 16-year-old reigning world junior champion, Jeffery Xiong. Follow the action live at Chess.co...
Challenge yourselves and you will challenge the world. —Garry Kasparov, "Deep Thinking" In last week's article we stated the obvious fact that the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament was effectively ruined for Kasparov by his ext...
The Chess.com Speed Chess Championship fields a highly anticipated battle today as the top-rated chess player in America, Fabiano Caruana, takes on the highest-rated woman in the world, Hou Yifan. The match was easily the favorite...
The Chess.com Speed Chess Championship resumes today with a battle of two closely-matched super-GMs: Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Levon Aronian. Nepomniachtchi is technically the higher seed, starting the Speed Chess Championship with a bett...
I used to do a lot of reader question columns but, for some reason, I haven’t done it in a long time. Why, I don’t know. However, I’m finally in the mood to discuss some of the Chess.com members' thoughts. THE MAN WHO CAN&rsquo...
By Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni If anyone has a claim to be considered the founder of the information age, Claude Shannon does. In his groundbreaking work at the intersections of mathematics, engineering, and computer science, Shannon (1916-2001) ...
Everyone has a favorite chess player. People like players that are still alive, like Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov, etc. Or players that are no longer with us, like Bobby Fischer and Mikhail Tal or, going way back, Paul Morphy. My favorite acti...
I recently told a friend that I had been playing a lot of chess. “How good are you?” she asked. I brightened, interpreting the question as an invitation for a game. “No, I don’t play,” she waved me off. “I&rsq...
One of the best blitz chess players ever will face a young but supremely talented challenger today as GM Alexander Grischuk battles GM Richard Rapport in the first round of the 2017 Speed Chess Championship, the strongest tournament ever...
Dear United States Federal Communications Commission staff members and congresspeople, I’m writing to you, good people of the FCC, fine senators, and upstanding representatives, to ask you to please reconsider your plans to remove Title II...
Most of the classical attacking games have a similar scenario: the winner brings his pieces close to the opponent's king and then sacrifices something to deliver a winning combination. But what can you do if your pieces are far away from your oppo...
There are many openings in chess that were named after chess players who invented or make them popular. But what happens when such a chess player is forced to play against his own opening? How does it feel to fight your own brainchild? It is d...
