The Chess.com member alaskan asked: “I would like to focus more on understanding rather than on lines, but almost all the opening books I can find focus on lines rather than on general ideas, so where to get this understanding from? ...
One of the most common questions educators have is, "Where can I find research studies devoted to the educational value of chess?" More studies are being conducted every year, but this article is a compilation of some of the past research d...
My favorite episode from The Prince And The Pauper happens towards the end of the story: "Speak up, good lad, and fear nothing," said the king. "How used you the Great Seal of England?" Tom stammered a moment, in a pathetic confusion, the...
Learning a new opening can be a challenging but rewarding task. Once you have gotten used to a certain variation (e.g. the French Defense or the Catalan), it can be difficult to switch to playing something else, but at the same time it will e...
Preface: An official U.S. Women's Chess Championship has existed for nearly 80 years. The USCF lists 1937 as the first year. There have been many strong and important women players over the early year...
It may not be a game of inches, but chess often comes down to a slight advantage. Sometimes, we have to take initiative to create opportunities, which is often the case in king and pawn endgames. If your skills are raw in this common scenario, ref...
Grandmasters Magesh Panchanathan and Arun Prashad are two of the best chess coaches teaching today. In this incredible series of articles, they take deep dives on all sorts of topics, from classic openings, to unique patterns, chess history, and m...
How Do I Get Listed At Chess.com/Blogs? "Top Blogger" status can only be awarded by Chess.com staff. Bloggers making regular, positive, high-quality contributions to the Chess.com community are given this stamp of approval and time on Chess.com'...
Shamkir 2014 brought tons of excitement to the chess community, including the first loss for our World Champion in almost a year. Watch as GMs Yermolinsky and Shabalov bring you more incredible analysis form the best rounds. Not what ...
Sometimes, the point score doesn't tell the whole story. A queen and a pawn might add up to ten, but it's not always equal to two rooks. In this series, IM Daniel Rensch and GM Ben Finegold explore the many variations of unbalanced material a...
The Accelerated Dragon may be a more positional style than other forms of the Sicilian, but it's equally effective against White. In this series, GM Melik Khachiyan offers a deeper insight into this popular opening for Black. Not what...
Is it true? Is the Catalan an easy way for White to jump out ahead? In this series, GM Georg Meier explores the depths of the Catalan for both White and Black. Will you find interesting ideas for Black up an extra pawn or just a positional co...
It's never easy to critique yourself. After all, how can you know where you went wrong? Revisiting your own games, looking for areas to improve is a difficult task. In this series, we've employed our most self-depreciating experts to show you the ...
Get the most important chess news, notes and highlights right here at the ChessCenter episode archive. Watch the current episode for the most up-to-date news or dive into recent chess history: the choice is yours. So who is at the hel...
In this series, watch as IM Thomas Rendle faces off against some of Chess.com's strongest blitz players. He'll provide in-depth commentary into each position and his strategies moving forward. A great piece of learning material here. Don't miss ou...
Winning in blitz, yeah... it's that important. Our next compilation is brought to you by GM Maxim Dlugy. There's an art to be being a blitz master, but there's also a secret. This series unveils the strategy and technique behind a prominent blitz ...
Chess fanatics dream about our famous GM Blitz Battles. These exciting, fast paced showdowns include commentary from the pros to analyze every variation. Watch as some of the world's greatest blitz players go head to head for the ultimate bragging...
I recently noticed an article that tried to clarify what a pattern is. I found it quite agonizing since the writer didn’t understand patterns but was trying hard to isolate exactly what it was (a noble try but quite futile). Unfortunate...
Statistically, just eight percent of people achieve their New Year's resolutions. That doesn't seem so great, but if we all resolve to become grandmasters, maybe eight percent of us can make it. More realistically, New Year's resoluti...
Preface: An official U.S. Women's Chess Championship has existed for nearly 80 years. The USCF lists 1937 as the first year. There have been many strong and important women players over the early year...
I recently received a question from one of our fellow Chess.com members. Since I've heard this question many times, I decided to share my opinion on the subject. The question goes like this: "I am 25 years old and know only basic chess rule...
This week we’re going to look at the games of the Chess.com member Mockingbird2, who is majoring in chemical engineering but thinks he can become a chess master in another two years. At the moment he’s 1900 USCF, 2143 in Chess.com...
During the last five years or so, most of the time that I have spent on chess has been devoted to creating things that have helped other players improve: videos, books, articles, courses and whatever else comes along. Undertaking this direc...
Everyone agrees that knowledge of typical chess patterns is one of the main requirements for a chess player to become really strong. In our weekly column, we regularly analyze typical positional and tactical patterns. But imagine a position&n...
