The 14th world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik reflects on his remarkable career, telling David Cox about his championship battles with Garry Kasparov, Peter Leko, Veselin Topalov and Vishy Anand, and why Kramnik finally ran out of motivation for ...
There is a well-known chess joke (or maybe not even a joke!) that it is much more difficult to sacrifice a pawn than a queen. Indeed, in most queen sacrifices you get huge dividends right away, since it is difficult to imagine a player sacrifici...
This month we are pleased to meet Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, known as MVL, the French number 1 and member of world top 5. Chess.com France will follow closely his quest for the world title that will require being qualified for the next Candidate...
What is pawn structure? From my online glossary, I define it as “the positioning of the whole pawn mass. Also referred to as the pawn skeleton. This positioning of the pawns is what usually dictates the types of plans available in a given ...
IM Mateusz Bobula is one of the new coaches on Chess.com. His streams at www.Twitch.tv/matbobula emphasize opening theory and break down critical opening and middlegame structures during and after his games, many that he has pl...
If you are a club player rated around 2000 USCF, then you are probably laughing at the question in the headline. You are probably thinking: "Yes, I would love to be world number-one, but what are my chances to push my rating above Magnus Carlsen?&...
[cover image from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll; illustrated by Peter Newell, 1902 ] ___________________________________________________________________________________________________...
EDIT: Entries for Season 4 are now closed. Check out the fixtures and rules for Season 4 here. Want to represent your homeland in the "Olympics" of chess? The Live Chess World League will soon begin season four on Chess.com with do...
Do you want to improve your puzzle rush score? What a silly question. We all want to improve our Puzzle Rush score. Puzzle Rush is a great way to learn how to quickly spot and calculate common tactical patterns. Improving your Puzzle Rush scor...
The Petrov Defense is one of the most hated openings in chess. Probably only the Ruy Lopez Berlin Defense is hated more by chess fans. Both openings are the weapons of choice in many super tournaments where the main goal of many participants playi...
What is pawn structure? From my online glossary, I define it as "the positioning of the whole pawn mass. Also referred to as the pawn skeleton. This positioning of the pawns is what usually dictates the types of plans available in a given ...
I learned the phrase "a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse" in school when I studied Richard III by William Shakespeare. These days, people use this expression when they want to underline the importance of something. There is a story about a...
Do you find that you sometimes miss opportunities to punish your opponent when leading in development? This week we are proud to release our new Mastery course, Using Time In Chess by GM Simon Williams. GM Williams shows you ho...
This year, Chess.com has been working on new resources to help you connect with the chess community. Our latest project, Top Chess Players, is now in alpha mode, and you can start learning about your favorite players and giving us feedback. ...
Most chess players are bilingual. Besides their mother tongue, they also speak the language of chess. Don't tell me that you have no idea what I am talking about. If you have been playing chess for a long time you can hear how chess pieces talk ...
One of the most promising Dutch junior players of the early 1970s was Roy Dieks from Amsterdam. In the final of the 1972 European Youth Championship, held in Groningen, The Netherlands, Dieks played a crucial game against Tony Miles (who would lat...
"What a stupid question!" I bet this is the natural reaction of many readers once they see the title of this article. Indeed it is a dream of any chess fan to play like Magnus Carlsen. OK, let me rephrase the original question: Should ...
The classical format of our beloved game is under attack. People are complaining about boring games that lead to an abundance of draws in super-GM tournaments. They are trying to change everything: the scoring system (three points for a win, one...
In general, when a very strong player faces a lesser one, the result is usually easy to guess. However, once in a while the “victim” turns the tables and devours the giant. In this article I will give you six games where the little fis...
This month we released Games That Changed Chess History by IM Anna Rudolf. Rudolf is always a dedicated and vibrant presenter, and in this series, she breaks down ten important games which impacted the course of chess. It's a great introducti...
Did you know that Chess.com's interface is available in 54 different languages? Currently most common (and many uncommon) left-to-right languages¹ are supported in Chess.com, but more than 85% of users use Chess.com's interface in English&sup...
I doubt that there is a chess player who never cried after losing a game. We all did it at some point. Why do chess players cry? Usually it is not the loss itself that upsets us the most; it is the sense of injustice and failed expectations. A...
Every day, thousands of chess lovers from all over the world use Chess.com to connect - playing, learning and sharing our favourite game. The chessboard has incredible power to erase differences of language, culture, and age; that's a huge part of...
We all love our ancient game for its beauty and inner logic, but have you thought about what attracts you most to chess? Some people would swear that there is nothing better than Jose Capablanca's positional masterpieces or one of Magnus Carlsen's...
Tactics are short term opportunities to gain material, checkmate the enemy king, or force a draw in an otherwise lost game. Most chess games are decided based on tactics, so it is vital to recognize common tactical patterns in your...