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 ...
It is not a big secret that I devote a lot of space in my articles to Hikaru Nakamura's chess. The reason is not even that just like thousands of his fans I am rooting for a grandmaster who has a unique, entertaining style of play. Hikaru's tran...
The Chess.com member Kingdom_chess2 asked: “Why is the King’s Indian Attack less popular at the top level? Is there any specific reason?” JS: The KIA (King’s Indian Attack) was explored (by very strong players!) in the 19...
For nearly 20 years computers have dominated chess. These advanced devises not only defeat the best players, but have become indispensable as training tools, analyzing partners and always-ready opponents. &...
The 2017 World Cup is one of the most important events of the year and a real feast for the true chess enthusiast. It is even covered by the mainstream media, which usually ignores chess. Unfortunately the media got interested in chess for the wro...
At the beginning of a game the professional chess player understands the ins and outs of the opening he plays which, of course, has been deeply studied. He knows where his pieces should be, he is well-versed about the pawn structure’s needs,...
I’m back with three more of my favorite Emanuel Lasker games. Remember that they might or might not be his best games. All that matters is that they are games that affected me over the years. Though Lasker was one of the greatest tactician...
Fulgencio Batista, president of Cuba during WWII and again from 1952-1959, backed by the US government as well as by organized crime, enriched himself at the expense of his citizenry. One of his methods of enrichment was to e...
The Chess.com Speed Chess Championship has two world junior champions doing battle today, current world number-two Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, takes on the 16-year-old reigning world junior champion, Jeffery Xiong. Follow the action live at Chess.co...
Challenge yourselves and you will challenge the world. —Garry Kasparov, "Deep Thinking" In last week's article we stated the obvious fact that the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament was effectively ruined for Kasparov by his ext...
IvnKaramazov: I feel like one of my recent games demonstrates my problem quite well. I thought I was gaining a positional advantage and at first glance it seems so: by move 15 I had a bishop pair and an outposted knight (which couldn’t be ...
The St. Louis rapid and blitz tournament was definitely the most anticipated chess event of the year. Even people who remember chess only when they see a puzzle in the Sunday column of their local newspaper were intrigued. Indeed, the retur...
I used to do a lot of reader question columns but, for some reason, I haven’t done it in a long time. Why, I don’t know. However, I’m finally in the mood to discuss some of the Chess.com members' thoughts. THE MAN WHO CAN&rsquo...
When I first came to chess.com, it was to avail myself of its wonderful blogging tools and its chess-centric community. After 6 years of blogging, I chose to devote my time instead to the generally more involved pu...
The question in the title of the article might surprise you. Indeed, what can be easier than pushing your pawn to the back rank and choosing a piece you want it to become? In reality, there are more problems arising from a pawn promotion than...
Everyone has a favorite chess player. People like players that are still alive, like Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov, etc. Or players that are no longer with us, like Bobby Fischer and Mikhail Tal or, going way back, Paul Morphy. My favorite acti...
The question whether to trust computers might sound pointless since we really have no choice in the modern world. Think about it: if a computer of one of the nuclear superpowers goes berserk, then it can potentially end humankind as we know it. Si...
In general, amateur chess players do their best to push their pieces forward and attack. However, sometimes they think they have to retreat due to the opponent threatening something or starting to take over the game (I said “think” bec...
Last week we analyzed the situations where promoting a pawn into a rook, bishop or knight was a logical way to achieve a goal (whether to win or draw the game). Today we'll see the games where underpromotion didn't make much sense and wasn't ...
