There are some ideas associated with certain openings. For example, mention a pawn minority attack to any experienced chess player and he will immediately visualize the Carlsbad Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined. If you ask me to name the...
Sometimes one just needs a chess break — no endgames, opening theory, positional grinds, or problem-solving. Put up your feet, grab a cold one (lemonade anyone?), and prepare to be enthralled by this series on the beauty of chess. Your ...
"A queen sacrifice, even when fairly obvious, always rejoices the heart of the chess-lover." -- Savielly Tartakower (1887-1956). Even the most technical, positional-minded player cannot dispute the accuracy of Tartakower's remark. No matter...
How is chess meant to be played? If you are a serious tournament player -- especially in the U.S.-- when you think of a tournament you might picture sterile, brightly lit ballrooms in hotels. You might picture cramped spaces and crowding. Is th...
Test your knowledge: which opening did Vladimir Kramnik lean on to equalize his chances as Black in the 2000 world chess championship, where he would eventually defeat the greatest chess player of all time? Fill in the blank: The 2014 world ches...
Explore the rise to GM by Ben Finegold in this fun series. Learn how a strong master earns the coveted grandmaster title, experiencing the highs and lows along with GM Finegold himself. You might be surprised by the kind of preparation it tak...
As I’ve often said, when mastering a new concept it’s important to first study the concept’s basic nuts and bolts, look at all variations of that concept, and finally go over hundreds (even better is thousands) of games featuring...
Six Titled Tuesday tournaments are in the books, and the seventh is scheduled for today as the event moves to the first Tuesday of the month. After thousands of master games, tightly packed leaderboards, and thrilling finishes, these event...
The wait is finally over! You have tried every solution to fix those flabby pawn structures. You've cut every processed pawn from your diet. Yet, for some reason, you just cannot get rid of those doubled pawns! Finally, there is a better way! Fa...
The summer of 1992 was the most memorable time of my chess career. Our team just took silver medal at the 30th Chess Olympiad in Manila and I felt like I was on the top of the world. That Olympiad deserves a separate article, since I am absolutely...
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The Introduction: The second half of the 18th century into the early 19th century was marked with cultural changes previously equaled perhaps only by the Renaissance. There were great and important politica...
Topic for next month: Losing (Please start submitting questions concerning the above topic for the next column. Questions outside of that theme should be submitted to other Chess.com departments. If I get the opportunity to answer a different kin...
Last week, we dissected Magnus Carlsen's positional mastery by examining two of his finest strategic victories. However, modern chess demands universality, and it is impossible to become world champion and attain the highest rating in history thro...
In Playing Against The Najdorf: The Adams Attack, we saw how an obscure small move (6.h3) was developed as an answer to another small move (5...a6 -- the Najdorf), which had, paradoxically, become the most popular opening in chess. The so-called...
Modernized: The Open Sicilian by IM Zhanibek Amanov & FM Kostya Kavutskiy This book is the second in the Modernized series, as last year MetroChess released Modernized: The King's Indian Defense&nbs...
Some men and women are clearly champions and reach the pinnacle of their field in an almost predictable manner. Some are champion material, but the fates have conspired against them, keeping them from reaching the ...
In our study of squares we’ve looked mainly at amateur games and how a “tiny” thing like a square is often ignored, while tactics, threats and attacks are always part of the amateur’s mind. This brings up an interesting q...
The sixth Titled Tuesday tournament in Chess.com history is set to kick off today at 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST, 7 p.m. GMT), and it will feature one of the strongest fields ever. With a prize pool that has ballooned to $2,500 (up from the normal $...
The touch move rule is the most basic rule of tournament chess. Even people who don't play chess at all know that when a chess player intentionally touches one of his pieces, he must make a move with this piece (of course if such a legal mov...
At the recently concluded Grenke Chess Classic in Baden-Baden, Magnus Carlsen defeated German grandmaster Arkady Naiditsch in a scintillating blitz playoff for first place. It was the latest success in a dazzling career, an encore to his resoundin...
In recent years, a strange little move has become surprisingly popular in combating the famous Najdorf Defense of the Sicilian: 6.h3. Personally, I have used this move since 2000, when I finally had to admit that it was more correct than the 6.R...
We’ll continue our exploration of squares by showing a couple of different ways one can milk them. Of course, a weak square or hole in the enemy camp can (and usually should) be used as a home for one’s pieces. We will look at that aspect of squa...
The Internet is full of memes and funny pictures for virtually all subjects, including chess. We've already looked at the weirdest chess sets, the best chess GIFs, and the 11 worst chessboard photos. We even found 14 chess couples who fell in ...
