Here are six puzzles. They might be tactics, they might be positional, or the puzzle might be about understanding some hidden deep, dark, strategic concept. In other words you need to face real-world problems and figure out real-world solutions....
A few months ago Chess.com introduced an individual version of four player chess called "Free For All." Just recently a second version called "Teams" has been released. Four player chess is hardly a new concept....
Chess.com was thrilled to officially announce its new partnership with Twitch in support of chess streamers, broadcasts, and events. What are some of the best chess channels on Twitch? First, the obvious one: Twitch.tv/chess Longtime fa...
Recently a chess player asked me a simple question: "I have no chess talent, so should I spend my time on reading chess books and studying chess games?" I am sure that at some point (usually after a disappointing game or a tournament) many peopl...
When I answer reader questions, I try to stay (vaguely) in that player’s rating group (two hundred points more or less). Of course, a beginner might feel left out, but I also answer beginner players’ queries. I do my best to give somet...
It's the top-rated blitz player on Chess.com against the number-one classical chess player in America today as Hikaru Nakamura takes on Fabiano Caruana in the quarterfinals of the 2017 Speed Chess Championship. These two play...
Very few things in life are scarier than being stared down by a chess player moments before they beat you. A spooky glance from your opponent can inspire fear, intimidation, and sometimes, pure horror! But some looks are more fierce than others,...
From time to time I learn about strong players from the past that are generally forgotten now. I wrote about one such player in this old article. Today I would like to talk about another master who is pretty much forgotten today. Have you hear...
While the traditional two-player chess that we know and love today has become the most popular way to play, there have been hundreds of variations of chess created by imaginative fans of the game. One of the earliest and most notable variants of...
In August, I wrote an article about the King’s Indian and a game played by The Chess.com member IvnKaramazov. Well, he’s done it again with another exciting KID game. I won’t annotate it since my main focus is going to be the K...
When I was a teenage Sicilian Dragon aficionado, I salivated over the thought that one day I might land in a certain theoretical sub-variation of the Yugoslav Attack where Black sacrifices not one but both exchanges to bust up White’s queens...
An all-Russian battle awaits fans in the quarterfinals of the 2017 Speed Chess Championship today, as the last world-championship challenger is now the favorite to advance in the bracket. GM Sergey Karjakin, who lost to Magnus Ca...
Could this be the closest match in the 2017 Speed Chess Championship yet? You can throw the seeds out the window as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will face Alexander Grischuk in the first quarterfinal of the championship, the stron...
By now, you know GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and GM Alexander Grischuk. Or, maybe you don't. There's more to them than tactics and novelties. Sure, in round one of the 2017 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship, you saw the Frenchman squash the world...
The Chess.com member dudejan asked: I always seem to struggle to know where to develop my bishops. For knights the concepts of outposts or placement behind a pawn to double defend certain squares are quite logical for me. But for bishops I don...
"Do you know who that is"? whispered the tournament leader and nodded toward the door where an elderly man in jacket, black shirt and purple tie slowly with the support of his cane of copper came into the room and settled down at one of the beauti...
Unless you live under a rock, you know that the 65-year-old librarian James Tarjan beat the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik in the recently concluded Chess.com Isle of Man tournament. Of course Grandmaster James Tarjan is not an ordinary ...
IMPROVEMENT FOR OLD PLAYERS The Chess.com member jayzorac wrote: I have a question for you. Do you think “older” players can still improve to expert and master level? SILMAN: Mr. jayzorac wrote quite a bit about hi...
All chess players encounter this situation in every single game. You are considering your next move and see numerous tempting opportunities. All the moves look equally strong, so which one should you prefer? What is the best move to play? There ...
The Chess.com member Benjamin_Dubuque (rated 1288) wrote: I have a question about calculation. I often miss either simple intermediate moves or very quiet moves in my calculations, especially in complicated messes that I seem to find myself in...
Magnus Carlsen, the world chess champion, makes his debut in the 2017 Speed Chess Championship in the most anticipated online chess match so far this year. Carlsen will face the qualifier GM Gadir Guseinov in this first-round battle to decide wh...
The title of this article might surprise you. Indeed it sounds like an oxymoron. How can such a noble, royal game be barbaric? Well, the traditional definition of chess is a trifecta of art, science and sport. If you are mostly oriented tow...
The Chess.com member Addu_Chess asked: I’ve read How to Reassess Your Chess, and I read about the various imbalances. But what if the position is symmetrical? JS: There are quite a few symmetrical openings, but it’s usually easy ...
It is not a big secret that I devote a lot of space in my articles to Hikaru Nakamura's chess. The reason is not even that just like thousands of his fans I am rooting for a grandmaster who has a unique, entertaining style of play. Hikaru's tran...
