Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convi...
On Feb. 10, 1996, a computer won a game of chess against a world champion for the first time. The computer was Deep Blue, a machine designed by IBM capable of computing 100 million positions per second. The champion was 32-year-old Russian Grand...
The case of Gaioz Nigalidze, the 25-year-old Georgian chess champion being excoriated as a cheat for having allegedly hidden a mobile phone with a chess program in a lavatory while playing in the Dubai Open, is a peculiar one. On the surface, it’s...
Hi folks. I do like the idea of achievements and goals. In febuary 2018, chess.com announces that were 88 achievements, but I have 90 myself and there are a few more to go. Some seem to be ought too difficult, like ten thousand daily games complet...
Chess addiction is a real thing. As H.G. Wells once put it, “The passion for playing chess is one of the most unaccountable in the world. [ . . . ] It is the most absorbing of occupations, the least satisfying of desires, an aimless excrescence up...
Bobby Fischer once said, “Chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponent’s mind.” And as for his greatest satisfaction, Fischer explained, “I like the moment when I break a man’s ego.” There are few things quite as humiliating as...
No discussion on chess insanity would be complete without mention of Bobby Fischer (pictured left), the legend who descended into paranoia and darkness in his later years. His single-handed demolition of the Soviet chess colossus has recently been...
Playing chess without sight is an amazing feat of memory. Doing it simultaneously against more than one opponent makes it even more awesome. It was once considered so miraculous that in the Middle Ages, one observer thought that a blindfolded play...
Aron Nimzowitsch rescued chess from the rigidity of doctrine that followed Steinitz’s reformation. Nimzowitsch taught the chess world new strategic principles and more creative ways of approaching the game. His theories were ridiculed and mocked a...
Wilhelm Steinitz forever changed the way chess is played with his revolutionary theories, thus earning him the title of the “Father of Modern Chess.” Steinitz did away with the Romantic era of chess—a period when unsound attacks and flashy sacrifi...
In recent years, chess has become a pretty high-stakes game, politically, ideologically, and monetarily. However, that hasn’t always been the case. In fact, the first unofficial world champion would be appalled by the giant prizes dangled in front...
It is not strange that the KGB would be so involved in chess. The game lends itself perfectly to cloak-and-dagger operations. And since the USSR was a chess-crazy country, disguising communications as chess moves was an ideal cover. The KGB actual...
Chess is above all a mind game, and players sometimes go to ridiculous lengths to psych out their opponents. But for sheer insanity, the World Championship showdown between Viktor Korchnoi (pictured left) and Anatoly Karpov (pictured right) takes ...
Chess masters are known to employ strange methods to win their games. Ruy Lopez, the famous 16th-century Spanish priest and chess player, once advised, “Sit your opponent with the sun in his eyes.” Another player named Lucena once recommended, “Tr...
So way back in the 1930’s when Alekhine was the world chess champion, having recently defeated the great Capablance for the world title, he was asked whether any guaranteed winning strategy might ever be discovered for the great engima of the ga...
I would like to say that chess.com should review his arena's pairing systems. The reason I'm sayind that is because some cheaters (sandbaggers, who artificially low their ratings in order to get easier matches) are using filthy tactics. Thus, th...
