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 ...
When Fabiano Caruano was about 12, he and his father Lou, whom I knew casually, approached the TD booth to ask for a bye in one of the Continental Chess Association's big Philadelphia-based open events. I was the fill-in TD and, although I knew h...
One of the first chess books I bought myself was a red little volume in German called Garrik Kasparow - Idol der Jugend by T.Lais. Published in 1983 - when Kasparov was just 20 years old - it contained 60 lightly annotated games played by the late...
GOOD OR BAD? Mordecai10 asked: I have just completed part 1 of your Test Your Chess Understanding articles, and I wasn’t completely satisfied by one aspect of your solutions. In your solution to puzzle 2, you say the following: &lsquo...
"If you had to pick only one legacy to leave to the chess world, what would it be?" Well, I have long given up on any hopes of my campaign to de-emphasize the wonderfully accurate but humanly over-dependent rating system (see Encouraging Tourname...
The Vieux Carré or French Quarter, cradled in the crescent of the Mississippi River, was the original site of La Nouvelle-Orléans. Although during the 19th century New Orleans expanded and become more Americanized eroding the influe...
Million Dollar Fantasy QUESTION 1: Chess.com member Einet890 asked: “If you were to train me for two years to become a GM and had a million dollars on the line, what would the training look like?” ANSWER: This kind of question c...
As many fans of Paul Morphy know, there have been some historical fiction written about him. On my Morphy website I host two short stories about Morphy: "The Best American Chess Player" by Dan Heisman and"The Day Kasparov Played Morphy" ...
"I noticed that the pre-registration for the Open section of the Holly Heisman Memorial (HHM) fundraiser chess tournament on Aug 3 (in Wynnewood, PA just outside Philadelphia) has several titled players. I am only in the 1500's. Is there any way I...
Warning! This is a fairly advanced article. I try to write for players of all ratings, so sometimes I explore basic stuff, and other times I bow to the 1800-and-above crowd. Though the opening in question is too advanced for beginners, I hope that...
There are so many groups on Chess.com that site members can join but which groups are the best, and why? Below, you will find a list of the absolute best groups on Chess.com. #1 Chess.com University Chess.com University is the largest group ...
UPDATE: Video recordings significantly discounted for a limited time. From July 7th-11th, 2014, Chess.com University hosted its first-ever and in fact, the world's first-ever online summer chess camp. This high-profile event gathered instructors...
NM aww-rats free video lessons group Dan Heisman Learning Center If you join and take advantage of what we offer, your chess will improve! It's really no contest if you look at what we offer. No other coaching group compares on all fronts: 1) ...
Unorthodox Chess Players Einet890 asked a few questions, but I will only answer one here, and one other next time I do a Q&A article. Mr. Einet890, I’ll answer this question for everyone, though you’re welcome to use the ans...
We all know tactics are important. As the saying goes chess is 99% tactics, 1% strategy. Whether this statement is over exaggerated or right on the money is controversial, but the fact remains: tactics decide chess games. So, it makes sense that t...
In his fun and instructive book Grandmaster Secrets: Openings (recommended for those 1700+), GM Andy Soltis discusses in some detail why it is not necessary good, and often misguided, that average tournament and club players feel it necessary to p...
Chess has had some difficulty throughout the years in presenting itself as a form of public entertainment. There has been some isolated cases where chess made good TV and even a few instances where chess was limelighted and managed to captiv...
Would you like to play in a weekend tournament (over the next two weekends) with a time control of 90 30 (That's 90 minutes plus a 30 second increment each move) without having to travel? You can do it on chess.com in this historic event. This is ...
In our first look at this pawn structure in Part 3a we explored the piece setups, dynamics, and general plans of the Burn Variation of the French Defense. Though doubling one’s kingside pawns early in the game may look idiotic, the resulting struc...
Many Chess.com University students have had trouble creating, viewing, and editing PGN files. Students have also struggled at installing and using chess engines in Fritz and/or Chessbase. These days, it is very useful to know how to use programs...
As can be seen in the introduction, this article from Schach-Jahrbuch in 1891 endeavored to amass data on the interplay among 32 leading players from the second half of the 19th century. It apparently includes only what the author deemed as...
"I did action X and gained Y rating points so I suggest everyone should do that." This claim came up during the show, raising the question: How helpful it would be for others to follow the suggestion? In order to address this issue, we should sta...
Yet not reading latest Chess Informant 120 Maracana? Seriously? THE PERIODICAL THE PROS USE Book: Paperback, 340 pages, English language. CD: in ChessBase format (with PGN). Our four times-a-year publication aspires to be an arena that gat...
ACO World Amateur Chess Championship Rhodes (Greece) 2014 The ACO World Amateur Chess Championship took place on the Greek island of Rhodes from 7-16 June, 2014. 237 players with ages between 8 to 86 fought for the title of ACO World Champion in ...
