When your opponent makes a threat, you have three types of responses, and most players only ever use one of them. The one everyone uses is defense. Your opponent attacks something, you protect it, you move on. That’s fine, and sometimes it&...
Hey Impressive Chessers! Before I get into this blog, I want to say something important: my students are some of the coolest people I know. Let's be honest, chess is a niche hobby. It takes a special kind of person to willingly spend hours solvi...
During the McDonnell matches his boisterous resilience was such that he would follow up a seven-hour struggle by playing for half-a-crown a game against all-comers till long after midnight. G.H. Diggle talking about de la Bourdannais, July 1934 ...
"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."— James Clear Why do some players improve rapidly while others remain at the same level for years despite studying just as hard? Most people assume the ans...
Most players pick openings the wrong way. They copy what their favorite GM plays. Or they grab whatever opening has the most YouTube tutorials. The problem? That repertoire belongs to someone else. This is part 2 of a 3-part series on building ...
Does blindfold chess fascinate you? How about several games played simultaneously by a blindfolded player? On this date (July 16) in 1933, Alexander Alekhine (1892–1946) amazed the world by playing 32 simultaneous blindfold games in a s...
Summer is here and so is a whole bunch of cool new stuff on ChessKid, like a secret agent camp, a brand new bot, and some awesome upgrades to your favorite features. ♟️ChessKid Secret Agent Summer Camp Psst... you've been selected! ChessKid...
Hello again! Welcome to another blog! I have been thinking about what the topic could be today, and a few ideas have come to mind. Ultimately, I decided that now would be a good time for another one of my trademark posts. But what do I mean by t...
Dear Chess Friends! I'm happy to share the highlights from my recent workshop "The Most Dangerous Piece on the Board", where we explored one of the most practical strategic concepts in chess – how to identify the key piece in a position. As...
On July 21, 2023, I managed to reach a ranking of 2400; it has been a long three years to achieve that coveted "top player" status, and I have finally reached an Elo of 2500. Chaturaji is my second favorite game after Four Player Chess; an increa...
The best way to tell the story of the Nottingham 1936 story seems to be as a tale of socialist realism. It features the intrepid young Bolshevik, Mikhail Botvinnik, 24 years old but mature beyond his years, who visits the capitalist countries and,...
Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe. – Hindu proverb Welcome everybody, to another titanic edition of the Osaka Papers. Perhaps you have heard of the Japanese Manga series "Attack on Titan", the stor...
The Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters is back for its fourth edition, with a stellar lineup that features GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Arjun Erigaisi, Alireza Firouzja, Nihal Sarin, Gukesh Dommaraju, Dmitry Andreikin, Hans Niemann, and Pranesh M. The ...
In April, I posted a blog about a line that only I play against the Czech Variation of the Pirc Defense. Only a few brave souls play this line at the master level, but I've found a new key variation and played a pretty game today, so I thought I'd...
Many club players spend hours memorizing long opening lines. Hoping for a small advantage. But here's the thing: in most of your games, you'll never even reach those positions. Let me explain why. This is part 1 of a 3-part series on building a...
The best modern authors, such as Dvortesky and Watson, have offered a more balanced view of middlegame situations and have emphasized the virtues of flexibility and open-mindedness. - John Nunn, Understanding Chess Middlegames p. 9 This is my t...
Here’s something that might ruffle a few feathers: asking “what is my opponent threatening?” is not enough, and it might even be holding you back. Before anyone closes the tab, let me be clear. Asking what your opponent is threa...
Dear Chess Friends! I'm happy to share the highlights from my recent workshop "Rook Endgames: Where Half the Points Are Won and Lost". There is a famous chess aphorism, usually attributed to grandmaster Siegbert Tarrasch: "Rook endgames are never...
As a player, journalist and overall fan of chess, I can definitely say that Daniel “Danya” Naroditsky was the beating heart of all these things. Despite missing my chance to interview him myself, I met him a few tim...
Good evening and welcome to my blog. This is sure to be a sweet treat, as today is World Chocolate Day! Because of this, I thought it would be fun to combine two of my favourite things: Chess and chocolate, as both have a rich history and are very...
Are you a chocoholic? I am! When I was 6 years old, my mom once asked me which cartoon/anime character I would like to be. She probably expected me to say Goku, Ash Ketchum, or Pikachu. My answer? I wanted to be Majin Buu and use my powers to tu...
In this week's blog ECF Home Development Director Yuri Krylov provides some perspectives on Chess in Prisons based on his work with Carl Portman and other volunteers in prisons across England. The Power of Chess in Prisons by Yuri Krylov Followi...
5 simple habits to use your time better and level up your chess Most chess players throw away half their thinking time, on the opponent's turn. You stare, you zone out, you get up and walk around. Once they play their move, you scramble back. You...
Hey Impressive Chessers! Happy 4th of July if you are in the United States like me and even if you are not, I hope that you have a great 4th of July! Back to chess, I wanted to use the 4th of July to help illustrate a strategy that I still stru...
In chess, discovered attacks hold a lot of power. To begin, they always require at least two pieces to launch a coordinated attack. One piece to hide behind another, and then the forward piece leaps out of the way to reveal an attack and create a ...
