The 10th world champion, Boris Spassky, was a universal player with a wide opening repertoire. He mostly played classical openings with a healthy aggression. One weapon, which served him well throughout his career, was a rather surprising move: 4....
Get the most important chess news, notes and highlights right here at the ChessCenter episode archive. Watch the current episode for the most up-to-date news or dive into recent chess history: the choice is yours. So who is at the helm? He...
    The following piece was written by Paul Hugo Little,    a rather diverse writer and a chess expert himself.   Many people have probably encountered someone    like the chess expert described in the story below. (The diagrams and Algrbrai...
In my first edition of Cracked Grandmaster Tales, I shared stories about Grandmaster Rosendo Balinas, Grandmaster Igor Ivanov, a tribute to Igor Ivanov by Boris Spassky, a short tale about an unknown grandmaster, and a story about the late Wa...
NEW: Beginning June 2, Titled Tuesday will be part of the Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix as a direct path to qualify for the 2020 Speed Chess Championship. Titled Tuesdays will have a $50,000 prize fund spanning 20 weeks and will take pl...
© 2015, José Diaz Links Interview with José Diaz José Diaz Official Website
If you follow my weekly column, then you probably noticed that I am a big fan of Magnus Carlsen. I like his chess style, his general attitude to play till the very end and his notorious disregard of the opening theory. I grew up at the height...
Officially released on September 16, the biographical thriller Pawn Sacrifice is the latest development in an ongoing chess renaissance. Directed by Academy Award-winning producer and filmmaker Edward Zwick, Pawn Sacrifice offers a ...
Tigran Petrosian, the ninth world champion, gained the title in his 1963 match with Mikhail Botvinnik. Thus the Botvinnik era came to a close, since the automatic rematch clause (which allowed Botvinnik to regain the championship after one year fr...
"At the root of all advances in the science of chess-play lies the necessity of discovering an intelligible system of notation, by means of which the squares of the board may be easily defined and the moves of the pieces recorded." —...
Lists... Everybody loves list! You couldn't ask for a better list as GM (IM at the time) Sam Shankland takes you on a video tour of his personal top 10 moves of all time. In a diverse collection, you will see brilliant attacking thrusts, stunning ...
Even the barest novice can appreciate and learn from the exquisite artistry and logic in the conceptual masterpieces to be found here. Join some of Chess.com's finest teachers on a tour of the most dazzling and instructive ches...
I’ve talked to countless chess fans over the years and though all serious chess players have their favorite chess heroes, many of them aren’t in touch with the human side of the chess legends. This is the first of two articles showing some of the ...
GM Jacek Stopa is here to show you how to win with the aggressive Evans Gambit. Few openings have a more swashbuckling reputation than the Evans Gambit which was even invented by the sea captain, William Evans, in 1827! Jacek is a practitioner of ...
Uncle Yermo is here with commentary on the Baku FIDE Grand Prix! Twelve super grandmasters have been assembled to compete for a spot in the Candidates Tournament of 2016, and Yermo has all the hot takes, highlights, and insights you are seeking. T...
You might have noticed a big change to the Chess.com TV schedule the last few weeks. To bring you the best-possible chess viewing experience, Chess.com launched the #ChessMonday marathon last month, packing each Monday with back-to-back chess show...
"Thank you, GM Serper for this profound statement. I would have never guessed it on my own!" Admit this was your first thought when you read the title of this article. Yes, chess is obviously not checkers and yet, when I was a kid, I heard this ...
The French Defense has been vexing players on the White side since it was first introduced by the Parisians in the historic match between London and Paris in 1834! Black permits White to build a sturdy center, only to devote the remainder of the g...
In every single position — whether opening or endgame, tactical or positional, winning or losing — our priority is to ensure the safety of our king. Indeed, the monarch spends most of the game cowering behin...
One of the tips that you will hear from top-level players over and over again is that you MUST study your own games. Chess.com is here to do some of the hard work for you as the best coaches on Chess.com go over member games. They will highlight t...
Botvinnik had regained the title from Smyslov in their 1958 rematch, but soon he had a new challenger: the fiery Latvian player Mikhail Tal. Tal had appeared out of nowhere, and within a few years went from an unknown young player to a challenge...
What motivated this move? Was that a blunder? How deeply did he calculate in this position? How many candidate moves did she consider? Did he memorize that entire opening? Why did she exchange these pieces and not those? How does he play so fast?!...
I stumbled upon the following article while reading through the March 1903 edition of "Checkmate: Monthly Chess Review." It looked familiar and I was able to determine I had seen it before in "Pollock Memories,"&...
If it feels like we haven't had a Death Match since the early summer, that's because we haven't! Back when GM Maxim Dlugy claimed his title, the days were at their longest and outdoor barbecues were in full swing. But don't fret! As th...
