Matthew Sadler is a very strong grandmaster (2694 at age 49) and one of the leading computer chess experts. In 2019 he wrote the award-winning Game Changer with Natasha Regan about AlphaZero, and in 2021 he published The Silicon Road to Chess Impr...
I have been using ChessBase products for about 25 years. Every year I buy the updates to Chessbase, Mega Database and the Correspondence database. Yet, I do not like Chessbase: The product: the self-inflicted bugs ('regression') in the softwar...
GM Gawain Jones has released a complete 1. e4 repertoire Coffeehouse Repertoire Volume 1 offers a repertoire against the Sicilian, Caro-Kann Scandinavian and Alekhine Defenses. Volume 2 covers 1... e5 (Scotch gambit and Forcing Italian),...
Larry Kaufman, now 73, has written a memoir about his life: Chess Board Options. Kaufman excelled in 3 areas: chess, chess programming and Shogi. At the age of 60, he became a grandmaster by winning the senior world chess championships. His latest...
Let's assume you are doing the right thing: you play slow games and after every game, you take a moment to look at the critical moments of the game and how you could have improved your opening play. Are you becoming better? Are you no longer repea...
GM Jan Timman has created his own monument: "Timman's Triumphs". The book contains Timman's selection of his 100 best games. Jan Timman (born 14 December 1951) was one of the world's leading players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the p...
Yesterday ForwardChess released Parimarjan Negi's latest book in the Grandmaster Repertoire series: 1.e4 vs Minor Defences for their chess e-reader. It offers a world-class repertoire against the Alekhine, Scandinavian, Pirc, and Modern Defen...
In these times of anxiety, tension, and divisiveness it is great to see selfless cooperation to honor a legendary trainer and provide value to the chess community. Endgame experts Karsten Müller and Alex Fishbein revised the fourth edition ...
Last week, in the Magnus Invitational, Magnus Carlsen used the new move 5.Bc4 in the Open Sicilian first against MVL and a few rounds later against Nepomniachtchi. Position after 5.Bc4 Was this a mouse slip or a deliberate new idea? From...
What do you do when you are a 2600 player and are playing Black against a 16-year-old, 2700-rated rising star, who is an expert in the King's Indian Defence? You beat him with Black using the King's Indian Defence and by finding the novelty of the...
In the game between Anish Giri and Ian Nepomniachtchi at the FIDE Candidates, the players reached the following position after 48.... Qxa2: Anish Giri - Ian Nepomniachtchi after 48... Qxa2 Does White have a fortress or not? Let's have a look ...
In my blog Same stockfish, same depth, different computer, same-evaluation? I used a novelty from Daniil Dubov to illustrate how processing power influences the evaluation given the same analysis depth. Position after 6.... 0-0-0 Un...
GM Larry Kaufman's New Repertoire for Black and White is now also available in the USA. It is the updated version from his 2013 book. There is one major change in the repertoire compared to 2013: with White Kaufman now recommends 1.e4 instead of 1...
If you have a slower computer but give it more time to reach the same depth, do you think the engine will provide you with the same recommendation? When using the Stockfish on a website, like chess.com, do you know the processor speed, or do you m...
Niclas Huschenbeth defeated Arkadij Naiditsch in the first round of the World Cup using an idea in the French Poisoned Pawn Winawer variation from the AlhpaZero - Stockfish match. After the game, GM Niclas Huschenbeth tweeted: It all starts w...
The US Chess Federation asked me to give a presentation on the Steps Method at the US National Chess Open in Orlando this month. The presentation was developed in cooperation with IM Cor van Wijgerden and If you are interested in a copy, then plea...
Many of us spend time every day commuting to work. Content creators like The New York Times, National Public Radio and Bloomberg have created digital recordings of their content, called podcasts, that can be downloaded or streamed any t...
In March 2018 Keep it Simple: 1.e4 was released on Chessable. Chessable’s slogan is ‘bringing books to life’ by taking classic print books and turning them into fully interactive spaced repetition courses. With Keep It...
The book 100 Endgames You must Know by GM Jesus de la Villa was originally published in 2008. The book quickly became an international bestseller and an updated fourth edition was published in 2015. In 2017 it was converted into a course on Chessa...
The Irish International Open 2019 was held in Dublin from April 17 to April 22. Almost 100 players participated in this 9 round Swiss event including 8 GMs After 5 rounds, A.K.A.M.K. (FIDE rating 1522) was taken out of the tournament for c...
On my way to the Irish International Open in Dublin I decided to touch down in New York to play the Marshall Thursday Action tournament. The top players playing in the tournament were Robert Perez (2497) and IM Jay Bonin (2373). The ti...
For many club players studying openings means learning variations. Variations that sometimes seem to be a collection of moves without a collective meaning. At the end of a variation the player often asks himself: ‘And where do I go from here...
At the end of January Vladimir Kramnik announced his retirement from chess at the age of 43. In an interview with Marina and Sergey Makarychev he stated the following: “I felt I could no longer give my all. I still, as before, have a r...
At the end of January New In Chess published the long-awaited book Game Changer by Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan. In the book the authors explain the science behind AlphaZero through interviews with the developers of AlphaZero at Google Deepmin...
The other day a colleague asked me for my hobbies, and I answered that chess was one them. “Ah chess,” he said, “I have not played that game in a long time. I used to play it with my brother in front of the tent when we...
