GM Vinay Bhat bounces in and out of the chess universe, but he may have finally found his perfect home. Unlike many American grandmasters, who either permanently leave the game after adulthood or grind it out for a lifetime without any steady empl...
FIDE recently announced that GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu has accrued enough points to win the 2025 FIDE circuit and earn a spot in the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament, the final step of the world championship qualification cycle. With Praggnanand...
I realize that for many readers, the very question in this article's title may sound absurd. GM Bobby Fischer has long been regarded as the epitome of a chess prodigy. With Fischer's own famous remark, "When I was eleven, I just got good," even as...
By now you've probably heard that Chess.com Chief Chess Officer Danny Rensch just released his new memoir, Dark Squares: How Chess Saved My Life. He insists: "This is not a chess book." And indeed, well more than half of the material deals with hi...
For anyone serious about chess improvement, Chessable is the premier place to learn the game. Chessable has hundreds of courses for all levels, from beginner to Lifetime Repertoires that even grandmasters study. With so much content, it can be tri...
GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu's dramatic come-from-behind win at the UzChess Cup was his third major tournament victory of the year, along with prior wins at Tata Steel and the Superbet Chess Classic. This win expanded his already strong lead in th...
Welcome to Prodigy Watch! This page shows the young stars whose current ratings stack up best against the top players of all time at their same age. This is a permanent landing page, where the most recent Prodigy Watch update will always...
Ken Rogoff is a very hard person to pin down. He's both a GM and has a doctorate in economics. He's drawn Magnus Carlsen, Mikhail Tal, and Tigran Petrosian, yet he is better known as the former Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund. ...
Even the world's best players go through challenges. For GM Anish Giri, a brutal stretch of losses was more than just a slump. It was a defining moment, the grandmaster shared in a new documentary. The 30-year-old has been ranked among the world...
There aren't many chess players who are featured in the New York Times, have met former U.S. presidents, and have had their book sold to a major Hollywood studio. Tani Adewumi did all of that before he became a teenager! With the recent news of ...
Not many chess careers are as long, as varied, and as successful as GM Susan Polgar has crafted. Not only was she the first woman to become a grandmaster via norms, the eldest of the famed Polgar sisters later became an Olympiad gold medalist, a w...
If you are wondering why I would talk about the blockbuster movie from the 1990s on a chess website, don't worry. This article is about the tenth World Champion, Boris Spassky, who passed away on February 27. While I saw Spassky on numerous occa...
The first official World Chess Championship occurred in 1886, with the first Women's World Championship following in 1927. The World Rapid Championship and World Blitz Championship are much more recent developments. FIDE held a one-off World Rapid...
His family envisioned a career as an accountant for him, but GM Wesley So defied expectations to become a chess world champion and one of the strongest players in the world. In a new Chess.com documentary on So's life, the 31-year-old grandmaste...
From 1974 until 1984, the Manhattan Chess Club (MCC) was located at 155 E 55th St. in Manhattan; FM Jeff Kastner, manager of the club during that time, reports that his office was near this old-timey Coke machine: Mark Ginsburg, old MCC, 1983....
Have you heard of the 2025 Chess Improvement Challenge? It's a massive group of chess players supporting each other and working on their goals for the year. Members gain access to our Improvers Club, study guides, and year-round content. They...
GM Koneru Humpy won the 2024 FIDE Women's World Rapid Chess Championship, her second time winning the world-class event. The 37-year-old also finished ninth in the Swiss portion of the FIDE Women's World Blitz Chess Championship 2024, just barely ...
GM Gukesh Dommaraju recently became the youngest ever undisputed classical chess world champion, at just 18 years old. He joins a long line of amazing chess prodigies dating back more than a century. You may have seen this famous photo of a young ...
Are you a dedicated chess player? If so, meet Darryll Alke, whose commitment to online chess might just leave you in awe. With more than 180,000,000 people from every corner of the world on Chess.com, we occasionally come across someone whose ac...
On November 25, World Champion Ding Liren will aim to defend his title in a match against GM Gukesh Dommaraju. IM Rakesh Kulkarni has analyzed the match and its place in chess history. Here's what we can look forward to. Match Details The 2024 ...
Credit for this article goes to Pavel Lint, a senior developer at Chessable. The article is part of a series on Garry Kasparov, the rest of which is available at the Chessable blog. You know what’s interesting about GM Garry Kasparov? Ever...
The 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest featured 381 teams, but only one winning country. India totally dominated the event, winning both the Open and Women's sections with an unprecedented performance. A very impressive double gold achievement by...
In a heartwarming meeting, GM Judit Polgar welcomed the nine-year-old British chess prodigy WFM Bodhana Sivanandan to her home city, Budapest, for a day of lessons and mentorship. Bodhana, currently among the world's highest-rated players und...
The 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad runs September 11-22 in Budapest, Hungary. In many ways, this is the biggest chess event of the year with 1,893 players representing a record 381 teams across the Open and Women's sections of the competition! IM Rakesh...
Credit for this article goes to Torsten Blass, a professional data analyst who runs The Data Digest, a YouTube channel. You can visit his channel at https://www.youtube.com/@TheDataDigest. The weekly Chess.com event Titled Tuesday has long...
