How To Solve A Chess Mystery

How To Solve A Chess Mystery

GM Gserper
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Last week, we learned about two friends, Dave and Detective Ron Miller, who were trying to stop a crime by a madman. While we don't know if they managed to solve the maniac's puzzles (I hope they did!), let me show you how they could easily do i...

How Ding Liren Let Me Down

How Ding Liren Let Me Down

GM Gserper
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Just like most people who love chess, I have certain favorite players. Notice how many times I've mentioned Mikhail Botvinnik, Mikhail Tal, Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen in my articles and you'll get an idea of my chess prefer...

More Questions From Chess Players

More Questions From Chess Players

IM Silman
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@Jed1w1zard writes: I am a club-level chess player. I was wondering if you could clear up an issue for me that I have repeatedly been encountering in my games. When I play as White, I typically like to play the London System since it’s a ...

Coach Of The Month: IM Levy Rozman

Coach Of The Month: IM Levy Rozman

NM SamCopeland
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Chess.com's newest coach of the month is IM Levy Rozman. Rozman is familiar to streaming fans, as his Twitch.tv/gothamchess channel is one of the largest and most successful on Twitch. Rozman brings a unique wit, humor and troll-shaming to the p...

Can You Solve The Perfect Chess Crime?

Can You Solve The Perfect Chess Crime?

GM Gserper
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"Darn it!" Dave couldn't hide his frustration as the ringing doorbell distracted him from Sam Loyd's chess puzzle. "Whoever is there, please leave." Dave was whispering while still trying to solve the tricky checkmate in two. But the doorbe...

OK, Boomer: The Best Chess Players Of A Generation

OK, Boomer: The Best Chess Players Of A Generation

Pete
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The generational meme wars are heating up as "OK, boomer" (often with the necessary comma omitted) is now a catch-all reply to trump any disagreement between the young and old. This unstoppable meme has made its way across the Internet, all over...

First You Smile, Then You Resign

First You Smile, Then You Resign

GM Gserper
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Chess is a very complicated game that requires utmost concentration. Therefore most of the time chess players have a very serious facial expression. I doubt that a fianchettoed bishop or a semi-open file would make many people laugh. Yet th...

Samuel Reshevsky's Prime Years

Samuel Reshevsky's Prime Years

IM Silman
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How strong was Samuel Reshevsky in his prime? Well, he won the U.S. championship eight times, the same number as Bobby Fischer. Reshevsky also played eight times in the Chess Olympiads (six times on first board).  Was he good enough to b...

Capturing Pieces

Capturing Pieces

CHESScom
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The reigning Computer Chess Champion is Leela Chess Zero, the neural network heir to AlphaZero. Check out a selection of Lc0's greatest games! Try The Challenges! Not what you're looking for? Go back to the video guide. The Value Of The ...

How To Learn From Chess Masters' Mistakes

How To Learn From Chess Masters' Mistakes

GM Gserper
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When I was a student of famous Botvinnik-Kasparov school, the two living legends didn't just teach us how to play chess; they also taught us how to work on chess. The homework that each student would get by the end of a session was invaluable! O...

My Best Game

My Best Game

CHESScom
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Check out the best chess games of strong players! How can you beat a World Champion? How can you beat Hikaru Nakamura with a quiet opening? How should you sacrifice two exchanges and win? Check out these brilliant games and more! Try The Challen...

How To Win With The Halloween Gambit

How To Win With The Halloween Gambit

Pete
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The Halloween Gambit is surely the spookiest way to start a chess game. If you're a conservative chess player who doesn't like to give away pieces, it may indeed be "2 spooky 👻4 u." Could this early knight sacrifice be a legitimate opening? No, ...

Do Chess Arbiters Intervene Too Much?

Do Chess Arbiters Intervene Too Much?

GM Gserper
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As we discussed in the previous article, people love chess for a variety of reasons.  Our favorite game is a sport, art, science, fight and more, all at the same time! One of my favorite features of chess was well described by the great Ema...

The Brilliant, Young Samuel Reshevsky

The Brilliant, Young Samuel Reshevsky

IM Silman
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Samuel Reshevsky was born in Poland on November 26, 1911 and started to play chess at the age of four. He came to the U.S. permanently at age nine (1920). From 1924 to 1931 he quit chess completely to get an education in the U.S., and graduated...

What If Fischer Had Played Karpov in 1975?

What If Fischer Had Played Karpov in 1975?

ColinStapczynski
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IM Cyrus Lakdawala contributed to this article. In 1975, Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov were set to play for the world chess championship. Fischer, the reigning world champion, argued with the world chess federation (FIDE) over the format fo...

Are Bad Openings Good For Your Chess?

Are Bad Openings Good For Your Chess?

GM Gserper
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In past articles we've discussed why people play bad openings and how to deal with such dubious lines.  Are these openings really that bad for your chess? While the answer might seem quite obvious, the reality is not that simple. Let me giv...

5 Sports Plays That Are Like Chess

5 Sports Plays That Are Like Chess

Pete
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Sports commentators love to mention chess during their broadcasts of football, basketball and baseball games, but often these shallow metaphors don't show a true understanding of chess. IM Daniel Rensch recently observed, while watching a sports...

Something Old, Something New

Something Old, Something New

batgirl
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Something Old      Deep into the 19th century chess was still characterized by match play.       The idea of tournaments was slow to catch on.  Prior to the London International Tournament of 1851 (the...