Stealing His Thunder
© 2017, José Diaz Links Interview with José Diaz
The Lonely Knight Checkmate
After my very first lesson at the chess club of the Pioneer Palace, our coach gave us a simple checkmate-in-three-moves puzzle. Immediately our most advanced players started shouting that it is an absolutely impossible task. Some 40 years later ...
The Fun Of Pros And Cons (Again)
Many years ago I wrote a Novice Nook column, "The Fun of Pros and Cons." This column was directed at the many players who play way too fast in long time-control games. The column and its sequel "Chess is Decisions" have proven very helpful as refe...
Advance to Ventnor II
1941 The 1941 Ventnor City Invitational took place on the Municipal Pier from July 5-13. Of those initially invited, Jack Collins, Harry Morris and Olaf Uvestad couldn't accept and were replace...
Mamedyarov's Secret For Classic, Modern Chess
When I read the recent news that the Azerbaijani GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov crossed the magic 2800 mark, I wasn't surprised. Well, actually I was surprised that it didn't happen many years ago. You see, while it is difficult for me to tell wh...
America's Got Talent: 8 Kids Crowned National Champions
From June 2-4, 42 of the most talented chess kids in the U.S. competed in the ChessKid Online National Invitational Championship (CONIC), held for the sixth consecutive year on Chess.com. The purpose of this event is to allow the young talents the...
The Day They Killed Magnus Carlsen's Dream
The clock now shows 12:18 am where I am sitting in Oslo. 19 minutes past a devastating day. I just got home from a very eventful day at work, and my initial plan was to pour a glass of wine and finish off the second article in this column. It la...
More Of Bisguier's Greatest Hits
Grandmaster Arthur Bisguier was born in 1929 and he died in April 2017. The purpose of this two-part series is to let you enjoy the attacking genius of one of America’s most talented players (you can find part one here). My goal is to put ...
Celebrity Chess: Hutch vs Urschel
UPDATE: The event has been moved to Wednesday, July 5 at 3 p.m. Pacific (6 p.m. Eastern.) The fast-growing world of eSports streaming meets professional football as the popular Twitch streamer "Hutch" will face the Baltimore Ravens guard John...
Follow Hikaru Nakamura's Advice
As the saying goes, a talented person is talented in everything. Therefore I wasn't really surprised when I saw Hikaru Nakamura's tweet about making a killing in the stock market. $LULU with the big miss as my puts go deep into the mone...
PRO Chess League Qualifier Official Rules
Below you will find the official rules of the PRO Chess League's Annual Qualifier tournament: Fair Play and Observation: Teams must choose a trusted and impartial arbiter to be present for the qualifier. This arbiter must be approved by Leag...
Bisguier's Greatest Hits
Though I played the late, great grandmaster Arthur Bisguier in Canada a long time ago (he beat me), I didn’t really know the man. Photo courtesy US Chess. However, knowing a man is one thing, but knowing his chess is quite another! Thoug...
Advance to Ventnor I
Introduction Ventnor City is a charming resort community on New Jersey's Absecon Island, snuggled between Margate City and the more famous Atlantic City. In the Spring of 1939 Richard W. Wayne...
Should You Gamble In Chess?
Many chess tournaments have taken place in casinos, and many famous grandmasters have left the lion's share of their prizes at the playing tables. I personally know a guy who won a good prize in the Knock-Out World Chess Championship in Las Vega...
The Amazing Argentinian Chess Tragedy
The Gothenburg Interzonal (Sweden) in 1955 was a 21-player round robin that was held from August 15 to September 21. The top group was the Soviet players (in no particular order): David Bronstein, Efim Geller, Paul Keres, Tigran Petrosian, Bori...
How To Watch So vs Giri Today: Speed Chess Champs
The top chess player in the United States will be in action today on Chess.com as Wesley So battles the Dutch number-one Anish Giri in the first round of the 2017 Speed Chess Championship, the strongest tournament ever held online. Cou...
How To Watch Karjakin vs Meier Today: Speed Chess Champ...
The 2017 Speed Chess Championship continues with an exciting doubleheader this week, and two of the world's most solid chess players kick it off today as the 2016 world championship challenger Sergey Karjakin faces the online chess stalwart...
More Lessons From Master Games
Last time, we started to analyze the old game Charousek-Alapin and learned a useful trick that can be used in variety of openings. As a rule, you can learn more than just one idea from a game played by a strong player. Let's see w...
More Of My Favorite Classic Chess Games
This series is all about the classic games that affected me in a profound manner as a young teen (15 years old). In general, they were positional games, since for a kid that grew up on attacking chess and combinations (12 to 14 years old...
How I Learned My 1st Chess Openings
When I began playing chess, I had no idea how to begin a game. I would stare at the row of pawns, wondering which one I should order forward, without an idea of why. Or I’d hop a knight into the open board and hope for the best. There are ...
The Amazing Chess Coincidence
In his book "School of Excellence: Endgame Analysis," IM Mark Dvoretsky analyzes two very similar endgames. He writes: "The game Sultan Khan-Tartakower, played in 1931, was indeed almost completely identical to Dolmatov's [game played in 1988]. ...
Closing In On A Master Rating
The Chess.com member mnuwan wrote: "I’m a middle-aged guy who has taken up chess again seriously after a hiatus of many years. I currently have a USCF rating of 2100, and I am trying to get the master title. These days, I read a few che...
My Secrets About Magnus Carlsen
First let me introduce myself: My name is Kaja Snare. I am a sports journalist from Norway. When asked by Chess.com if I can write this column, I said yes, because 1. It is great to be able to share with you my experiences following chess—...
War Games: Reshevsky-Kashdan
In the latter part of 1941 the USCF, only three years old, started finalizing its plans for the 1942 performance of its crown jewel, the U.S. Championship. But in December the unthinkable happened and the United St...