I am sure that most chess players at some point faced this awkward situation. You are supposed to play a cute little kid only to find out that the appearance is very deceiving and at the chessboard the little tyke is a real beast. You curse your ...
Sorry guys, I haven't really been able to get on chess.com lately due to the large amount of homework I have to do every night for school. School also prevented me from playing in the Carlsen vs. the World match. However, I always thought the ide...
The English Opening is very flexible for both sides. In many games, the player who is more flexible is the winner. Each move played gives the opponent information and while gaining ground a move can reduce the flexibility of the position. An advan...
What do we know about bishop vs. knight endgames? The bishop is a long range piece, thus it requires an open space on the board. On the other hand, the knight does not need much space for maneuvering, since it is a more flexible piece – able to mo...
The Stonewall Dutch has been part of my Black repertoire for  a long time and I have also used it effectively against various flank openings. It is rock solid and allows some nice kingside attacking possibilities. Here are four examples. ...
We have studied several opening ideas in our past articles. All those plans and those tiny little nuances that we try to understand are all very important, but also important is the question of when to use them exactly and when to neglect them? Th...
Many people seem to think that if an opening is good for Black it is even better for White with an extra tempo. Â In fact, that is not the case. Â The problem with such thinking is that it fails to take into account the fact when you play the openin...
by IM Daniel Rensch To start this "post game review" off right, I would first like to say that I had a lot of fun broadcasting this match, G-Star Raw's World Chess Challenge, Magnus Carlsen vs the World, for all of you here on Chess.com/TV! Ever...
In modern chess it's now wellknown that being an exchange up or down is not that much! Topalov's tendency to sacrifice a rook for a bishop some years ago contributed to that, among other things. Of course you need something in compensations, it co...
Perhaps the most aggressive reply to the Queen's Gambit is the Albin Countergambit 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 3. dxe5 d4. It is sound enough for use in amateur games and has even been used by the pros in Interzonal competition. Here are a few examples with m...
BCG1 asked: As one of our foremost pedagogues I am asking for your advice on students who insist on repeating mistakes over and over and over again. I have pleaded, cajoled and finally, in desperation, resorted to corporal punishment, with some s...
If you ask any chess player (even just a beginner) what is the quickest way to get checkmated, then no doubt you'll hear the correct answer: 1. f3 (or f4) e6 (or e5) 2. g4 Qh4 checkmate. And the fact that this quick checkmate is so well-known...
You have robably already seen the obituary article with Larsen's wins over World Champions, so here are some more examples of his fine play: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Garry Kasparov was born April 13, 1963 in Baku, Azerbaijan, USSR. He began to play chess at the age of six. In 1976, he won the Soviet Junior Championship. In 1980, he won the World Junior Championship. He became a grandmaster in 1980. In 1982, he...
Salomon Flohr was born November 21, 1908 in what is now Ukraine. He lost his parents during World War I and together with his brother was orphaned as a child and relocated to Czechoslovakia, where he learned chess and became a professional chess p...
One of the most popular questions that is asked by amateurs and pros alike is “How many games per year should I play?” Of course, no one in the world knows the right answer. In fact, the one and only solution doesn’t exist since this is highly ind...
Drumdaddy (commenting on an article about the Schliemann) said: I suppose that there are many excellent players who can comfortably read through game moves presented in paragraph form, but I am not one of them and would much prefer active diagram...
When I was a kid, one of my favorite opening set ups was to play 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 (or Nf6) 4. d3 and then jump Bg5 pinning the Nf6. In many cases I was even able to play Nd5 and then using the pin to play Nxf6 or Bxf6 completely dest...
When I was first made aware of the "G-Star" project (basically that we, Chess.com, would be hosting a "Magnus Carlsen vs the World" match) I was pretty pumped. I wanted to find a way to contribue to the event in any way that I could. As most of ...
 Jose Raul Capablanca (pictured) was born in Havana, Cuba on November 19, 1888. He died March 8, 1942. (For reincarnation fans, that is a year and a day before the birth of Robert James Fischer.) While losing no games (1916-1924), Capablanca was...
Last week my intention was to play out an endgame position that I have to present today during the weekend’s tournament in Washington DC. Somehow, I imagined a calm atmosphere, sitting somewhere in a nice restaurant, and playing out an endgame wit...
There have been a few challenge matches in the past that test the solitary genius of one exceptional person against the wisdom of the masses. In these "World v. X" matches, "The World" always comes upon its move by voting: every individual who wis...
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There have been a few challenge matches in the past that test the solitary genius of one exceptional person against the wisdom of the masses. In these "World v. X" matches, "The World" always comes upon its move by voting: every individual who wis...
