Janis Klovans was born April 9, 1935 and died October 5, 2010. He was Latvia’s champion nine times from 1954 to 1986. He competed in the Soviet Championship a number of times. In 1997, 1999, and 2001 he won the World Senior Championship. In 1976,...
Rashid Nezhmetdinov was born on December 15, 1912 to a peasant family then living in the Kazakh town of Aktyubinsk. Both his parents died when Rashid was very young and it was left to his elder brother to care for him. He learned chess by watch...
The World Chess Olympiad. Intrigue, unpredictability, a holiday for all the participants. The strongest team tournament, held every two years, identifies the number one team in the world. It is a must-follow for any chess fan. This year's host of...
Louis Paulsen was born at Nassengrund, in Germany, on January 15th, 1833 and at an early age he learned chess from his father. In 1854 he immigrated to America and was the number one player when Paul Morphy wasn't playing. He was a resident of Dub...
Promoting chess and helping other people is very important to me. That’s why I reply to lots of messages every day and give many interviews. Of course, many of the questions are getting asked over and over again. To avoid acting like a parrot and ...
Amos Burn born on the 31st of December 1848 in Hull, Yorkshire, England, was one of the world's leading players at the end of the 19th century, and a chess writer. He became apprenticed to a firm of ship-owners and merchants. He only learned chess...
Erich Eliskases born February 15, 1913 in Innsbruck, Austria, was a leading chess player of the 1930s and 1940s who represented Austria, Germany and Argentina in Olympiads! He played for Austria in 1930, 1933 and 1935, for Germany in 1939 and for ...
People often ask me whether they will be able to become a grandmaster. Another question that derives from it is: “How much will I be making?” Young guys are especially pragmatic, so for many of them the choice between getting a job in the office a...
You have robably already seen the obituary article with Larsen's wins over World Champions, so here are some more examples of his fine play:
Garry Kasparov was born April 13, 1963 in Baku, Azerbaijan, USSR. He began to play chess at the age of six. In 1976, he won the Soviet Junior Championship. In 1980, he won the World Junior Championship. He became a grandmaster in 1980. In 1982, he...
Salomon Flohr was born November 21, 1908 in what is now Ukraine. He lost his parents during World War I and together with his brother was orphaned as a child and relocated to Czechoslovakia, where he learned chess and became a professional chess p...
One of the most popular questions that is asked by amateurs and pros alike is “How many games per year should I play?” Of course, no one in the world knows the right answer. In fact, the one and only solution doesn’t exist since this is highly ind...
When I was first made aware of the "G-Star" project (basically that we, Chess.com, would be hosting a "Magnus Carlsen vs the World" match) I was pretty pumped. I wanted to find a way to contribue to the event in any way that I could. As most of ...
Jose Raul Capablanca (pictured) was born in Havana, Cuba on November 19, 1888. He died March 8, 1942. (For reincarnation fans, that is a year and a day before the birth of Robert James Fischer.) While losing no games (1916-1924), Capablanca was...
Isaac Kashdan born 19 November (like Capablanca!) of 1905 in New York was a phenomenally gifted American chess grandmaster and chess writer, who was spoken of as a possible contender against Alekhine during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Alekhine...
In August the traditional Russia-China match took place. It is held every year, usually shifting the venue from Russia to China and vice versa. The 2010 edition happened to be the 7th one. For Russia this friendly chess match is a nice opportunity...
Reuben Fine, born October 11, 1914, had a greater natural gift than Reshevsky; he is considered one of the most brilliant natural players in history. He is the only player who has an overall positive score in his games with world champions! But he...
Samuel "Sammy" Reshevsky was born November 26, 1911 in Poland. Following the events of World War 1, Reshevsky immigrated to the United States in 1920 where he came into prominence as the most remarkable of all child prodigies! He learned the moves...
Mendel Najdorf was born near Warsaw, Poland April 15, 1910 and died in Malaga, Spain July 4, 1997. He was instructed in chess by Dawid Przepiorka and Savielly Tartakower. For links to my articles on Najdorf’s teachers see: http://www.chess.com/art...
Domenico Ercole del Rio (c. 1718 - c. 1802) was born in Guiglia, Italy, and wasa lawyer and author. He published a legendary chess book in 1750 under thepseudonym "Anonymous Modenese” which was the basis of a work by Giambattista Lolli thirteen ye...
The 2010 US Junior Championship concluded a week ago. The tournament was held in St. Louis, side by side with the US Women’s Championship (for more on that event, check out WFM Zenyuk’s articles). The event was very well organized, as has beco...
Vera Menchik (16 February 1906—27 June 1944) was born to Czech (father) andEnglish (mother) parents, in Moscow. She was a British chess player who gainednotoriety as the world's first women's chess champion. From 1927 until her death she was women...
Géza Maróczy (3 March 1870-29 May 1951) was a leading Hungarian chess master and also a practicing engineer. He learned to play chess at the age of fifteen, and soon acquired the skill of a master in competition with the best players in the Intern...
Milan Vidmar (22 June 1885 – 9 October 1962) was a Slovene electrical engineer,chess player, chess theorist, philosopher, and writer born in Ljubljana, Austria-Hungary (now Slovenia). He won renown especially in the field of electrical engineering...
