The Austrian chess master Heinrich Wolf (1875-1943) is not exactly a household name for most chess players these days. Yet he is father to one of the most profound concepts in modern opening theory. If people have heard of Wolf at all, it is usu...
The recently concluded Tata Steel chess tournament was very memorable for the U.S. grandmaster Sam Shankland. From now on he will be forever remembered as a chess player who the beat the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik in his last profess...
In a continuation from the last article, Is Classical Chess Dead From Draws, we will be comparing different time controls in the Grand Chess Tour (GCT). Mike Klein just wrote a recent piece highlighting the new 2019 format and the players on...
The Bullet Chess Championship will run from April 3-7, and will be broadcast live on www.Twitch.tv/Chess. The total prize pool is $15,000. Below you will find a breakdown of the rules, prizes, confirmed players and the complete schedule. ...
Yes, I did another “Little Things” article (highlighting IM Cyrus Lakdawala again). Why another? Because I think it’s very instructive. See (and understand) a ton of these and your chess IQ should skyrocket. Once again, I am...
A couple of months ago, I wrote an article about Puzzle Rush. Even though I could see its educational value right away, to me at that time it was mostly a new and very addictive toy. These days it is a must-have training tool for all my stude...
David Cox speaks to GM Hikaru Nakamura as he begins a year he hopes will land him a place in the 2020 Candidates' tournament. Sometimes outspoken, and certainly never conventional, the American super-GM Hikaru Nakamura has always been an in...
In my experience teaching, playing, and hanging out at the local chess club, I have come across many players who succeed in reaching a level in the 1600-2000 range but get stuck, often for life, trying to get beyond that and become an expert or ma...
Last year, I wrote an article intended for players rated below 1000 on Chess.com. Judging by your response, the article was helpful for people just starting at chess. Of course there were many comments that can be summarized like this: "I am rat...
The PRO Chess League is an international online rapid chess league featuring 32 teams from around the world competing for $50,000 in prize money and the title of 2019 PRO Chess League champion. This season features stars like Fabiano Caruana, Hika...
In our last “Little Things” article, I made use of specific moments in IM Cyrus Lakdawala’s games to teach you how to deal with common, instructive situations. I am giving you another five rich puzzles. But please understand th...
Of all the death notices for Paul Morphy, the following transcription from the New Orleans Times-Democrat, Sunday, July 13th, 1884, written by Charles de Maurian and graciously supplied by WilhelmThe2nd, is by far the best. &n...
The end of 1970s and the beginning of 1980s were definitely the peak of Anatoly Karpov's chess career. He was larger than life in the Soviet Union! His wedding with Irina Kuimova (you see, 40 years later I still remember the name of Karpov...
Here you'll find updated standings and leaderboard information for the Arena Kings Streamers Championship for season three. You can read the season three announcement here for complete details. Standings as of February 19 Rank P...
Prearranged draws are the reality of chess. You might hate it, you might fight it, but if two players want to make a draw, they will find the way to do it. Sometimes such players just agree to a draw before the game and when the game starts they...
Bobby Fischer is easily the most famous chess player of all time. When Bobby spoke about chess naturally people listened! Here are ten of his famous quotes. 1. "1.e4 - Best by test." You can find a few games where Fischer started the game...
I am going to do something a bit different. I am going to look at the games of the most prolific (and nicest), chess writer in the world: IM Cyrus Lakdawala. Of course, Fred Reinfeld, who died in 1964, wrote more than 100 chess books. That will be...
Chess.com is excited to announce our international club tournament series for Spanish, Russian, French, Portugese, Turkish, and Polish users. To celebrate our international communities and streamers, we'll be doing a club tournament series between...
The 2018 world chess championship between world champion Magnus Carlsen and the challenger Fabiano Caruana last month saw the top two classical players in the world battle it out in 12 classical chess games. There is always tremendous buzz an...
In one of my recent articles I shared a story of how I became a lucky owner of an amazing book that really helped my chess development. This is how that article ends: "It might be a pure coincidence, but the next year after I bought The Test ...
In the "King of the Hill" chess variant, the goal of the game is to get your king to the fourth rank in the center as quickly as possible. But have you ever seen a white king on g3 after just eight moves in normal chess? Well, that's exactly what ...
In last year's article about chess insults, I mentioned a funny episode that happened in the game between two chess legends, Tarrasch and Nimzowitsch. The game barely started when GM Tarrasch loudly announced: "Never in my life have I ha...
Time flies. That's always the feeling when another year comes to an end—and it was definitely a great year for chess. Caruana winning the Candidates' (and a few more tournaments!), Nakamura winning the Grand Chess Tour (and the Speed Chess...
Most lower-rated players want to improve their game, but many just want to slug it out in blitz and have a great time. I certainly understand that! However, for those that want to be as good as they can be, they'll have to work hard. Play oppon...
A little over 5 years ago I published an article called Lesser Known Games of Prince Dadian in which I presented 29 games absent from all of the databases I consulted. I had found them in and transcribed them from va...