Patience in chess is not a decorative virtue. It is a technical condition. It does not matter whether we are in a tactical position, in a thicket of variations, with a clear advantage from the opening, or in an apparently dry endgame. In any ser...
Anthony Miles (1955-2001) was not only the first UK-born grandmaster but also one of the most interesting characters that ever appeared in the English chess scene. His win against Anatoly Karpov as Black in 1980 using the move 1...a6 is legendary,...
Before you make your first move against a higher-rated player, the rating gap is already doing work on you. You’ve seen the pairing sheet. You know their number is bigger than yours. And somewhere in the back of your head, a little voice sta...
Dear Chess Friends! I'm excited to share highlights from my recent workshop "Domination: When Your Opponent Has No Moves", where we explored one of the most satisfying yet subtle ways to win a chess game: not by a flashy sacrifice or a direct at...
About 30 years ago, when I was at the beginning of my chess career, I was crazy about opening ideas. I loved exploring strange systems and weird-looking positions, trying to understand what was actually going on. Back then, I would usually spend...
One thing I’ve noticed very often when working with club players is that they start calculating almost immediately after reaching a middlegame position. Three moves deep. Five moves deep. Sometimes even deeper. But later, when we go thro...
There are only two weeks remaining in the North American Corporate Chess League's regular season, and the playoff-caliber teams are finally beginning to distance themselves from the rest of the pack. Jane Street and Capital One have been battling ...
The opening is over. The familiar patterns are gone. And suddenly you’re on your own. You look at the position, and nothing stands out clearly. There are plenty of moves, but none of them feel convincing. - IM Attila Turzo When the...
ECF Home Director Yuri Krylov reports on the recent 24 hour online Marathon in support of MacMillan Cancer, which took place on chess.com on the 18th and 19th April 2026. Following the deeply felt losses of IM Adam Hunt and GM Jonathan Haw...
We pick up at the halfway point with the score once again even. Alekhine dominated the early stages of the match, holding a three-point lead after Game 9. Alcoholism is the favorite explanation for what happened from there, with Alekhine losing a ...
When I was a teen through age 19, I studied chess more or less obsessively and earned the National Master title. While my progress was pretty fast, relatively speaking, I was spending almost all of my time studying chess. In high school this meant...
Why 1.g6: An Anti-Systems Opening I find 1.g6 to be quite a smart fighting weapon in today's information age of Chessable, where players of all levels are booked up. There are simply TOO MANY London, Jobava-London, Colle, and Torre players to...
A Conversation with FM Stephen WillyBy Ken Lee At 16 years of age, FM Stephen Willy has packed a lot of chess and competition in his life. I sat down with Stephen recently to discuss how a blend of home schooling, a competitive streak and ...
One thing I notice a lot with club players is that they often don’t lose because of one terrible move. The position just slowly gets worse. A move here.Another move there.Nothing dramatic. And then suddenly, ten moves later, everything...
Chess is not for the timid. - Irving Chernev Chess Quotes - Chess This is my take on the greatest chess authors of all time...and some who didn't quite check the box. Today I present the fourth in this new series, presented one at a time and...
The Poisoned Rook is an English adaptation of an original interactive mystery thread written by Jorge Corrales on Twitter in 2022. A few years later, after reading an original chess-mystery blog post by VOB96, I thought it would be interesting t...
The Vigevano International Open Tournament is back!After an outstanding 2025 edition that brought together hundreds of players from all over the world, the 2026 edition returns bigger than ever!!The format stays the same with two tournaments, an O...
Dear Chess Friends! I'm excited to share highlights from my recent workshop "Pawn Breaks: The Moves That Change Everything", where we explored one of the most powerful tools in chess strategy: the humble pawn break. In closed or semi‑closed posi...
You probably know this feeling. The opening ends, nothing dramatic has happened, and the position looks… fine. Not winning, not losing. Just a normal game. And then you play a move. Not because it’s clearly the best one.Just s...
At the halfway point of the North American Corporate Chess League regular season, defending champion Capital One has taken sole possession of first place. IM Craig Hilby, Capital One's superstar from season's past, leads all players in the individ...
Good afternoon everyone. I am back with more Spielmann. No game notes today as I am throwing this together in a hurry, so feel free to ask any questions about the games in the comments, and I will help you out there when I have time. Cheer...
When the Opening Ends and You Lose Your Compass There’s a moment in almost every game where things start to feel uncertain. The opening is over.The familiar patterns are gone.And suddenly you’re on your own. You look at the posit...
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back March ended with me hitting a new peak: 1675 USCF. April ended with me back down to 1589. So yes, the title basically wrote itself. April was one of those months that reminds you chess improvement is not a strai...
On April 18, 2026, the MVP Chess K-12 Quads were held at Stratford Landing Elementary School after a last-minute venue change due to circumstances outside our control. Despite the adjustment, 18 players from Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia ...
If chess is art, his creativity creates a stunning canvas. If chess is science, his original ideas and intuitive play question many hypotheses. And if chess is a sport, his fighting spirit and passion over the board brings the adrena...
