Can there ever be a consensus when the word "greatest" is used? Start a conversation about the greatest chess player ever or the greatest player of any sport, and you will get 15 opinions from 10 people. Still, the chess world is pretty unanimous ...
Mikhail Tal's 1961 victory over Fridrik Olafsson looks like a simple (though pretty) smashing attack, but in fact, great complexity and beauty lurks in the variations. In his own analysis in "Life and Games of Mihkail Tal," he showed the best defe...
Alireza Firouzja has a dynamic, attacking style, and while it's hard to say how his style may evolve in future, as a young player his games recall Fischer's, Tal's, and Kasparov's more so that Carlsen's. One of his youthful openings has been the...
Alireza Firouzja and Parham Maghsoodloo are two of the greatest chess prodigies on the planet, and as it happens, they both hail from Iran. Today's video features two exciting struggles between these talents from the Iranian Championship. First,...
There are a lot of great chess books I can recommend to improve your chess (Here are 25 of my favorites...), but today I felt like answering a more pointless question: "What are the most expensive chess books out there?" Speaking only of my own ...
In the same year as his immortal double-bishop sacrifice against Bauer, future world chess champion, Emanuel Lasker, played a wonderful game against Jacques Mieses. The game shows Mieses violating several opening principles (flank pawn advances,...
Jan Timman and Loek Van Wely are two of the greatest Dutch players of all time. In 1998, when they were separated by just over 10 Elo, they played a 10-game match in which Timman won a very memorable miniature against his younger compatriot. The...
Mikhail Tal made many thrilling queen sacrifices in his career - some complex and some simple. His sac against Roman Toran Albero bears fruit almost immediately, but closer investigation reveals how precisely Tal played to force and exploit errors...
In 1851, London held the "Great Exhibition" to showcase British technology and culture. Concurrent with the event, Howard Staunton organized the world's first international chess tournament. This 16-player knockout invited all of the greatest play...
It is rare for two players that one has not heard of to play a masterpiece, but that is what happened in the game Schmidt vs. Kuligowski. This game, played in Poland in 1979, won the best game prize in the Informant issue of it's quarter. The vict...
Prior to his 1960 game with Mikhail Tal, Miguel Najdorf challenged Tal to play like Tal and promised that he would accept all of Tal's sacrifices. Quite a gutsy play from Najdorf to challenge one of the greatest attacking players of all time in su...
The great chess strategist Aron Nimzowitsch notched the most magnificent triumph of his career when he created zugzwang in only 25 moves against Friedrich Sämisch." Saemisch had his chances in the game as Nimzowitsch did not play the openin...
Today's game is the most brilliant chess game I'd never seen until just recently. As a massive Alexei Shirov fan (His "Fire on Board" is one of my FAVORITE books.), I couldn't believe I'd missed this rapid game against Boris Gelfand which features...
In their first decisive chess battles, Mikhail Tal won all four games against Bobby Fischer in the 1959 Candidates' tournament. His success was actually a huge part of why he won the Candidates' tournament and the right to play a world championshi...
The 2010s were an AMAZING decade for chess. Magnus Carlsen dominated the majority of the decade and made a strong case that he is the greatest chess player of all time. If he is as dominant in the 2020s as he was in the 2010s, there will be zero d...
Wei Yi's masterpiece against Lazaro Bruzon Bautista is one of the greatest chess games of all time. Wei Yi's initial Rxf7!! sacrifice is merely the prelude to a dazzling series of quiet moves that inexorably close the net against a slippery king. ...
The greatest revolution in chess in the 2010s is the introduction of neural network chess engines. Not only has Google Deepmind's AlphaZero proven itself stronger than traditional engines, it also plays an entirely new type of chess! AlphaZero (...
In the 2018 Candidates' tournaments, Vladimir Kramnik made one last run at the World Chess Champion title. In his game against Levon Aronian, he started hot with a fantastic strategic and tactical victory in the Berlin Defense! Top 10 Games of t...
Hikaru Nakamura is one of the best King's Indian Defense players of all time. With magnificent victories against stars like Viswanathan Anand, Boris Gelfand, and Wesley So in the 2010s, he established his reputation in this modern romantic opening...
In 2017, Ding Liren launched himself into the top 10 of the chess world, but it was little later that many really took notice as he won the following game against Bai Jinshi. Many have called this an "immortal game"; do you agree? Top 10 Games o...
The 2010s were the decade of Magnus Carlsen. Nearly from start to finish, he was the undisputed #1 player in the world. However, in my #9 game of the 2010s, Levon Aronian (always a fierce Carlsen rival), catches Carlsen in a spectacular opening li...
16-year-old Alireza Firouzja JUST finished second in the 2019 World Rapid Chess Championship, and he is sure to be a force to reckon with in the 2020s. This year, he played my 10th favorite game of the decade with a dazzling Sicilian miniature. ...
Akiba Rubinstein's masterpiece against Rotlewi from 1907 concludes in likely the greatest chess combination of all time as Rubinstein offers nearly all of his pieces for a dazzling array of checkmates supported by the finest pair of bishops you wi...
In a little-known game against Egor Chukaev, Mikhail Tal concocted a beautiful finish that presaged Magnus Carlsen's incredibly famous Qxh6+!! played in the 2016 World Chess Championship. Prior to the pretty conclusion, the game featured a nice ...
In 1970, the U.S.S.R. and the Rest of the World played an epic match narrowly won by the U.S.S.R. by the score of 20.5-19.5. On first board, Boris Spassky won a stunning victory over Bent Larsen in round two, defeating the great Dane in only 17 ...
