As the Professional Rapid Online (PRO) Chess League heads to its second week of matchups, we have already seen some of the top players in the world put up monster performances. This Thursday, Hikaru Nakamura will be making his deb...
CHESS REVIEW Chess Review (from 1933 to late 1969) was without any doubt the best American chess magazine until, in 1961, it ran into a remarkably improved Chess Life. Both tried to beat the other (interest exploded due to the advent of Tal and,...
CHESS LIFE Chess Life, of course, has had its good times and bad times; the late 1970s brought about a cut in the page-count while the Fischer drop in membership forced austerity, including removing many columnists. It never came close to its gl...
Chess as Art had been debated over and over. Whether or not Chess is Art, there does seems to be some affinity between the two disciplines. Marcel Duchamp, a devotee to both, explained that it was the compl...
Every Wednesday at 12 p.m. Pacific Time (8 p.m. GMT), everyone is invited to join the Arena Kings Chess Tournament: where everyone can play but only streamers can win cash prizes! Please read the full rules and eligibility criteria here Schedu...
CHESS LIFE AND REVIEW I was recently thinking about the best U.S. chess magazines ever. There were quite a lot. Two favorites are Joel Benjamin’s magazine, Chess Chow (1991 to 1994), which was hilarious, and Inside Chess, Yasser Seirawan&r...
This article was inspired by Kramnik's 7...Rg8! that led to a devastating attack and quick victory over Levon Aronian in the Candidates' Tournament in Berlin. I quickly recalled several more games, including classics, where a similar move with the...
It is New Year's Eve and millions of people are making their New Year's resolutions. The top two resolutions traditionally have something to do with weight loss and achieving certain financial goals. Nevertheless, I am pretty sure that ches...
There is nothing wrong with your chessboard. Do not attempt to adjust the pieces. I am controlling the moves. If you wish to speak, I will bring up the volume. If you wish to mutter that all of this is insanity, I will tune it to a whisper. I w...
In my article “Efim Geller, Killer on the Chessboard,” I discussed Geller’s pioneering work with the King’s Indian Defense. (Mikhail Botvinnik said, “Before Geller we did not understand the King’s Indian Defense...
Several years ago I was at a coffee shop in Pasadena, California, and started a conversation with a few young (mid-twenties) Taiwanese people. After we chatted about Taiwan, our talk took a turn into various kinds of pop music. I made it clear tha...
The Chess.com member Animaul7 (his real name is Anthony Maulucci) wrote: I’m a 16-year-old who has been stuck at an expert rating for some time now, which I know is pretty normal. One question I have for you is what juniors like myself can...
The Chess.com member LittlePawn988 wrote: Something really bugs me. I often hear players, of every level, talking about the strength of masters of the past and sometimes I find them really arrogant and disrespectful. Even lower-rated players sa...
Holiday shopping season is here, and there's no better time to pick up some over-the-board chess gear for anyone on your list (or even yourself). The holidays are a great time to get together and play some chess, so make sure you stock up ...
Here are six puzzles. They might be tactics, they might be positional, or the puzzle might be about understanding some hidden deep, dark, strategic concept. In other words you need to face real-world problems and figure out real-world solutions....
A few months ago Chess.com introduced an individual version of four player chess called "Free For All." Just recently a second version called "Teams" has been released. Four player chess is hardly a new concept....
Chess.com was thrilled to officially announce its new partnership with Twitch in support of chess streamers, broadcasts, and events. What are some of the best chess channels on Twitch? First, the obvious one: Twitch.tv/chess Longtime fa...
When I answer reader questions, I try to stay (vaguely) in that player’s rating group (two hundred points more or less). Of course, a beginner might feel left out, but I also answer beginner players’ queries. I do my best to give somet...
In August, I wrote an article about the King’s Indian and a game played by The Chess.com member IvnKaramazov. Well, he’s done it again with another exciting KID game. I won’t annotate it since my main focus is going to be the K...
Unless you live under a rock, you know that the 65-year-old librarian James Tarjan beat the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik in the recently concluded Chess.com Isle of Man tournament. Of course Grandmaster James Tarjan is not an ordinary ...
IMPROVEMENT FOR OLD PLAYERS The Chess.com member jayzorac wrote: I have a question for you. Do you think “older” players can still improve to expert and master level? SILMAN: Mr. jayzorac wrote quite a bit about hi...
The Chess.com member Benjamin_Dubuque (rated 1288) wrote: I have a question about calculation. I often miss either simple intermediate moves or very quiet moves in my calculations, especially in complicated messes that I seem to find myself in...
The title of this article might surprise you. Indeed it sounds like an oxymoron. How can such a noble, royal game be barbaric? Well, the traditional definition of chess is a trifecta of art, science and sport. If you are mostly oriented tow...
The Chess.com member Addu_Chess asked: I’ve read How to Reassess Your Chess, and I read about the various imbalances. But what if the position is symmetrical? JS: There are quite a few symmetrical openings, but it’s usually easy ...
