Enlightened Chess
The Introduction: The second half of the 18th century into the early 19th century was marked with cultural changes previously equaled perhaps only by the Renaissance. There were great and important politica...
Pandolfini's Mailbag: Teaching Stuff
Topic for next month: Losing (Please start submitting questions concerning the above topic for the next column. Questions outside of that theme should be submitted to other Chess.com departments. If I get the opportunity to answer a different kin...
The Touch Move Rule
The touch move rule is the most basic rule of tournament chess. Even people who don't play chess at all know that when a chess player intentionally touches one of his pieces, he must make a move with this piece (of course if such a legal mov...
Great Early Chess Libraries of the United States
Once again I'm indebted to my dear friend Deb for finding this. We were searching for the whereabouts of a certain chess board and chess set that once belonged to E. B. Cook and was used when Frederick Perrin, Thomas Frere and Willard Fiske...
The Best Chess Books Ever
Lately I’ve gotten several letters from chess fans who want to know what kind of chess books I like, and what books I consider to be the best of all time. That kind of “best-ever” list is very much a matter of taste, and a smal...
Q&A: Opening Prep And Troll Attacks
QUESTION: Taylor_chess85 asked: “I would like to understand the type of games I am interested in playing. I am a beginner, and I thought that maybe I might make a database of every game certain people played with a certain opening. My idea is to...
A Potpourri of Traps
Why study traps? There are several good reasons why studying traps might be considered important. First, of course, to avoid becoming a victim of one. Second is to recognize when the opportunity of gaining a quick victory appears. But the ...
A Chess Engine Is NOT Your Friend!
Several years ago I was visiting a friend and he was online looking at live games in a team match event. One game was between a grandmaster (who had the Black pieces) and an international master. A zillion people were using a zillion chess engin...
Review: The Sicilian Najdorf 6 Bg5
If you were to ask a hundred grandmasters to name the most difficult chess variation about which to write an opening book, my guess is that the 6 Bg5 Najdorf would be the frontrunner. It is perhaps the most analysed line in chess history, the pi&e...
The Greenwich Village Gambit
Manhattan, early '60s -- a place and a time. One of the few sources of insight into this particular chess scene comes to us through the pages of the March-April, 1964 issue of Frank Brady's mar...
Chess.com University's Prodigy Program - Final Details and Announcements
This is a fully detailed article regarding Chess.com University's Prodigy Program. Please read this post in its entirety whether you have already registered for the Prodigy Program or are reading about it for the first time. Want your child to...
How Do I Get That 1800 Into A Fried Liver?
"Is the Fried Liver Attack good to play against players rated 1800-2000?" This was one of the questions in this month's Chess.com TV show "Q&A with Coach Heisman. My answer: "Well, yes, but that's not the problem (and I get a similar question...
Chess.com University's College-like Chess Courses
Chess.com University's courses offer a college-like chess learning experience. Unlike in Chess.com University seminars, only 10% to 15% of instruction in courses is delivered live. Previously taught courses are available in the independent-study f...
277 hours to learn to think like a Chess Master?
How much time do you have for chess? What is the best way to study? These are questions I pose in my Video Lesson 001 on YouTube. I created this video right before I became active at chess.com. Since that time, I have nearly 500 public videos avai...
Connect with Chess.com University on Social Media and Make Money!
Did you know that you can use social media and make money doing it? No? That's because you couldn't until now! There is a new social media network in town that looks and functions just like Twitter, has some features from Facebook, and gives back ...
NEW: Chess Informant 121 Midnight Sun
Chess Informant 121 Midnight SunPaperback, 348 pagesProduct page (book/CD) WONDERFUL OLYMPIAD Just as chess fans all over the world were excited by the goings-on at the recent Chess Olympics, so were the staff at Chess Informant...
Q&A with Coach Heisman Oct 3, 2014
"If you had a choice of seeing the future or reading your opponent's mind as they apply to a chess game, which one would you do?" I never had that question before! If I could see the future (not with regards to the game), there are some options ...
Incredible chess.com groups to join!
I've belonged to many groups in my 2.5 active years here, but these are the best on chess.com for what they offer you, the valued member of chess.com. The first two groups are far and away the best coaching groups on chess.com, and our satisfied ...
Q&A with Coach Heisman Sep 12, 2014
"When you start a game, how do you get into the mood of concentrating from move 1?" "If you are in a bad mood, how do you prevent this from negatively affecting your play?" Those are good questions, and they are not completely unrelated. It only...
Official 2014 Mind Games Tournament Rules
Chess.com's Mind Games Tournament Details & Schedule: Starting September 15th | Round 1 of 2014 Mind Games Begins: Round 1 of the tournament will start on September 15th Must be a member of the Mind Games group here http://www.chess.com...
RIP Thomas Elberling
This article will be extremely brief yet necessary. I just got news that Thomas Elberling, a very promising young player from New Jersey, was fatally shot by his father. He was #5 in the US for his 11 year olds and I have seen him around at tourna...
Review: The Secret Life of Bad Bishops
A former team member of mine has a favourite phrase which he likes to sing during blitz sessions with a big grin on his face: "gute Läufer, schlechte Läufer!" Referring to the legendary German grandmaster Wolfgang Uhlmann's similarly titled 1980's...
Two Gold Medal Winners in Death Match 27
After a brief summer break, Chess.com's Death Match returns less than three days from now with a battle between two gold medal winners. GM Wang Yue (China, FIDE 2713) will take on GM Aleksandr Lenderman (USA, FIDE 2584) in D...
Arizona Scorpions Win USCL Opener
By Steve Farmer My favorite time of year is finally here; cooler weather, football season under way, the World Series is around the corner... as is basketball. But above all else, the US Chess League has already started! Chess.com hosted the US ...