As everyone knows, all professional sportsmen have to stay sharp or their fitness and skills will quickly decay. In chess, a few months away from the game is enough to leave you out of sync. So it’s hard for me to understand how Henry Ern...
World Champion Magnus Carlsen is back to star in week three of the Pro Chess League. Be sure to watch all the action this Wednesday, starting at 8 a.m. Pacific, on Twitch.com/prochessleague. Carlsen's Norway Gnomes face off against t...
Some time ago my friend complained about his stock market misfortune: "Whenever I buy a stock it immediately starts going down! Greg, it almost feels like somebody is watching me. The stock could go straight up for years, but once I buy it, i...
In April 2016 I wrote an article called "Dancing With Yourself." After looking at a lot of amateur games (on Chess.com and also in tournaments)—and at those by titled players—I see (sadly) that most people are still dancing with them...
Magnus Carlsen is a genius. I doubt that many people would argue about this well-established fact. It is a totally different question why we call him a genius. Is it because he is the world champion? I don't think so. Max Euwe was the world cha...
CHESS REVIEW Chess Review (from 1933 to late 1969) was without any doubt the best American chess magazine until, in 1961, it ran into a remarkably improved Chess Life. Both tried to beat the other (interest exploded due to the advent of Tal and,...
The third world chess champion Jose Raul Capablanca once famously said : "In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before anything else; for whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middlegame and th...
In one of my recent articles, I asked readers to share their goals for 2018. Despite my explicit warning that the goal of gaining rating points can be counterproductive, this is exactly what majority of our members wish. Well, your wish is ...
CHESS LIFE Chess Life, of course, has had its good times and bad times; the late 1970s brought about a cut in the page-count while the Fischer drop in membership forced austerity, including removing many columnists. It never came close to its gl...
Cryptocurrency mania is surely upon us. Interest in these digital assets has soared like great blooming tulips, and prices have grown even higher. You can't turn on CNBC for more than a few minutes without seeing someone talking excitedly about ...
Hi guys! It is been a while since my last post - "Rook Endgame Essentials - Part 2". It is time to enhance our understanding. In this article, we are going to cover the third part of the rook endgame essentials. Let's begin with an example ...
About a hundred years ago, the third world chess champion, José Raúl Capablanca, expressed concern about the death of chess due to its drawish tendences. He said that in times when there were no computers claiming "0.00" and when che...
It is New Year's Eve and millions of people are making their New Year's resolutions. The top two resolutions traditionally have something to do with weight loss and achieving certain financial goals. Nevertheless, I am pretty sure that ches...
Whew. Let's all sit down and breathe for a minute. It's been an exciting, and tumultuous year. 2017. How did it go so fast? For both Chess.com directors of content, Peter Doggers and this writer, it flew by largely from the window seat, as b...
In my article “Efim Geller, Killer on the Chessboard,” I discussed Geller’s pioneering work with the King’s Indian Defense. (Mikhail Botvinnik said, “Before Geller we did not understand the King’s Indian Defense...
Listening to music while playing online chess is natural, and may even improve your play. If it's good enough for the world's top players, it's good enough for you. Hikaru Nakamura bobs his head to AFI and The Offspring during his Speed Chess Ch...
It's a chess book like no other, a visual tribute to the royal game. The book is 208 pages of Fedrigoni paper filled with tension in the eyes of silent protagonists. Club players, Olympic members, world champions. All focused, deep in thought, ...
The Chess.com member Animaul7 (his real name is Anthony Maulucci) wrote: I’m a 16-year-old who has been stuck at an expert rating for some time now, which I know is pretty normal. One question I have for you is what juniors like myself can...
The games played by Jose Raul Capablanca have been analyzed in countless chess books, magazines and videos. Today, I want to show you two of his less famous games. Both were played against the strong American master Alexander Kevitz, and both de...
The expression "Dean of American Chess" officially refers to specific individuals whose contribution to American Chess deserves special recognition and, as such, the title is considered the highest honor the national organizat...
"Nobody knows, even roughly, how many people play chess, and nobody should pretend to know." -- Edward Winter1 Is chess the most popular game in the world? While no one can say for certain, here are some estimates of the numbers of chess playe...
The 2017 Speed Chess Championship is down to its final four combatants, and today the semifinals begin with a matchup of two decorated champions. The world chess champion, Magnus Carlsen, will take on the three-time world blitz c...
GM Magnus Carlsen has been beating anything with a heartbeat in November. First he won by the largest margin in the Champions Showdown with a day to spare, then he scored the most game points ever in a Speed Chess Championship match. You can throw...
The Chess.com member grepschrop wrote: “Some players told me that it’s not important to know the names of mating patterns. My experience with kids is contrary. What is your opinion?” SILMAN: Though one might think this is easy ...
