Trash talk is a rich part of chess culture. Born in the coffeehouses and parks where real chess is played, where real men (and women battle) and only cowards turn down a sacrifice, and no one pays a mite of attention to the elements. Here are se...
In 1939/1940, Max Euwe and Paul Keres played a "friendly" match which the chess world followed enthusiastically in light of the current turmoil in the world championship situation. In 1937, Euwe had lost his rematch with Alexander Alekhine, whil...
Paul Keres' baptism by fire was the 1935 Warsaw Olympiad. There the young Keres played greats such as World Champion Alexander Alekhine, Savielly Tartakower, and Salomon Flohr. He lost to these chess giants, but he did score a respectable 12/19, i...
Paul Keres is a fascinating player with a fascinating history. Winner of the star-studded 1938 AVRO tournament, he was a presumed challenger to Alexander Alekhine when WW II intervened. After the war, his native Estonia had been subsumed by the So...
Castle, castle, castle and develop, develop, develop. Sometimes being a chess coach is easy You just tell your students to do the same things over and over again until they do it! Except they never do it. Maybe that's just my experience though 🤷 ...
It's rare that the Soviets were out-prepared, but in a game preceding our featured game against Yasser Seirawan, Anatoly Karpov found his prepared piece sacrifice (likely prepared by Efim Geller) refuted over the chess board in fine fashion. You c...
Anatoly Karpov rarely entered full-on "Tal-mode," but in this magnificent attack against the German grandmaster, Robert Huebner, he does just that! An extremely speculative bishop sacrifice on g7 leads to extreme pressure, but accurate and creativ...
There's a certain additional thrill and electricity in games from the world chess championship. With tensions high, two magnificent players at the height of their game battle for a month, trying to break their opponent's sturdy defenses. Tension...
Anatoly Karpov rarely played speculative attacking chess, but in this famous brilliancy against Gyula Sax, he ventured the thrilling 18.Rd5!? The ensuring attack is extremely difficult to meet as a relentless Karpov pins down the black king while ...
Anatoly Karpov is one of my favorite chess players. He demonstrates perfect harmony in his chess games and thrives at one of my weak points: anticipating his opponent's ideas. In this game against Jan Timman, he finds a brilliant prophylactic move...
Hi chess players I recently opened a Twitch channel at twitch.tv/samcopeland and am streaming puzzles, tournaments, 4-player chess, and whatever else piques my and the viewers' interest. Here's a highlight from a recent stream with a tense...
"Is my child ready for a chess tournament?" As a chess coach, I get this question all the time. My answer is invariably yes! If your child knows the rules to chess and enjoys the game, they are quite ready to try their first tournament. Every ...
Note: This piece is a blog. The opinions are the author's. So are the errors The World Open is a uniquely American tournament. Held this year for the 45th year (which a little math dates back to 1973), it is always held over the 4th of July wee...
Blindfold chess is becoming quite trendy these days. GM Timur Gareyev has been a big promoter of the discipline and is ramping up for a blindfold world record attempt. Currently, FM Marc Lang holds the record at 46 boards (played in 2011...
How did it come to be that, in chess, stalemate is a draw?! In the most ancient known forms of chess, such as shatranj and chaturanga, stalemate was a win. Today in the (arguably) most played form of chess, Xiangqi, AKA Chinese Chess, stalema...
Last night I fell victim to a unique and pretty trap from a young opponent in the South Carolina State Championships. I don't want to preface the combination too much so I'll simply ask this... In the below position, I intended 22.fxe5 fxe5 23. d...
I don't know about you, but I constantly get chess earworms stuck in my head. Sometimes these are simply popular chess sayings such as "Patzer see check; patzer give check." or "Every Russian school boy knows." Other earworms include chess phrases...
I would like to take a moment to celebrate Topalov's piece play. Veselin Topalov is a player who doesn't always receive the admiration he is due. In his career, Topalov has been ranked number 1 in the world for 27 months, longer than any players b...
As I write this, GM Peter Svidler and GM Sergey Karjakin are perparing to do battle on the finals of the 2015 chess World Cup. In my opinion, winning the World Cup is one of the most impressive achievements in chess in any given year. There are so...
Magnus just voiced his support for a knockout World Championship format via Facebook (post). It's an incredible position for the World Champion to take, and whatever one thinks of the notion, one must admire the integrity of the World Champion in ...
Congratulations to each of the South Carolina representatives at this year's Denker, National Girls' Invitational, and Barber (crosstables linked)! They each performed admirably, and crafted many interesting, fighting games, inspiring young player...
The first three rounds of the Denker and National Girl's Invitational have been generally promising for South Carolina players. Rounds 2 and 3 of the Denker each featured moderate upsets from SC players. Neha Dias scored a draw in round 3 against ...
For non-US players, the Denker, National Girls Invitational, and Barber are tournaments to which the top K-12, K-8, and top female players, respectively, from each state are invited. Usually, they win their spot at their respective state scholasti...
Cheating in chess is widely deemed to be the greatest threat to the future of chess. Many amateurs and even many professionals regularly state that cheating is rampant. Accusations pervade every level of chess from the lowest levels of online ches...
Like many, I'm a huge fan of cinema. Last year, I completed a personal challenge to watch all of the Best Picture winners from 1927-today  The best? I unoriginally stand by "The Godfather". The worst? Unquestionably 1933's "Cavalcade" - there is a...
