#viennagambit #brilliancy #fun Click to subscribe to my YouTube channel! I was very very pleased that the first three online games of chess that I played in 2026 were of the wonderful Vienna Gambit! (1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f...
It's the oldest and greatest lament of the chess coach—CASTLE YOUR KING! Time and time again, young students fail to take advantage of the most valuable single move in chess! Castling is the only time you can move two pieces at once. In a si...
Welcome Back To The Chess Brewer, Let's Crack Open Another One! We continue our series on the first chess world championship match in 1886 between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort. I hope you all enjoyed game one, before we get into it...
With very little fanfare, Duolingo has rolled out live chess. It is now available through its player-vs-player (PvP) mode. It previously launched its new chess course in mid-2025. An actual chess game being played in PvP mode on Duolingo (the ...
Dear Chess Friends! I'm thrilled to share insights from my recent workshop "Play Like Paul Morphy", where we delved into the revolutionary style of the 19th-century genius. Morphy’s emphasis on rapid piece coordination and development&mdas...
On December 21, 2025, the MVP Chess K-12 Quads brought together 27 players from Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, and California. The event used a three round G/25 d5 quad format and included a small Swiss section to support a wide range of US Ch...
This is part 2 of my series on how to evaluate middlegame and ending positions. You see part 1 here. The premise is that, once you understand a few core principles and know a few "thematic wins", then you can evaluate all kinds of variants much mo...
A Telugu family from Andhra Pradesh, both husband and wife well settled in life. The father’s name is interesting: Rajinikanth. There is, of course, no way to ask his own father whether the name came from the legendary film star or not. Raji...
The Vienna Game with g3: A Simple and Powerful System for White Hey everyone! Today I’m bringing you a very interesting opening: the Vienna Game with g3! - But wait… g3? Why does this make sense? Because this setup lets us dev...
The first edition of a brand new CCC event, the Charlotte Winter Classic, took place last weekend at the SouthPark Hilton Garden Inn! A total of 246 players participated in the tournament, including three GMs, a WGM, four FMs, and numerous NMs and...
Happy New Year, everyone. Welcome to the first vote of 2026. We have one tiny problem: these two didn't meet in the 80s. When we encountered this problem before—in the Burn-Riemann match (see here)—we compared the players separa...
Every chess player has that one opening. The one that makes your heart sink when it appears on the board. The one you hope your opponents never play against you, especially in high-stake games. It’s your opening nemesis. As we...
In 1927, Alekhine finished distant second at the New York International. After that, he started a streak of nine tournaments and two matches in which he came in first every single time. That had to come to an end eventually, and it finally did at ...
Welcome back to The Chess Brewer—let’s crack open the first championship game ever! Happy New Year first of all! I've decided to try and start blogging again as I've recently started diving deep back into world championship history. ...
The year 2025 has been an unbelievable one, most remarkably because of the outstanding play by elite grandmasters but also because of the amazing statements that they and leading chess officials made last year. Have some fun and see if you can c...
After another year of playing, coaching, creating, and building, there’s been one main takeaway that I’ve come to appreciate more and more as the year comes to an end: the importance of community. Throughout 2025 I did it all in the ...
Over time, many people have contacted me about how I create my thumbnails. I myself have learnt to use new tools as they've evolved as well. So, I thought that I'd document and share some of my methods here. It should be noted that there is no sin...
#quickwins #fishingpole #nye Click to subscribe to my YouTube channel! Welcome to another chess noob Quick Wins! We’re up to #110 and this game also happened to be my LAST game of 2025! I played it in the evening of Ne...
In this episode of The Chess News Podcast I discuss the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships, the Global Chess League, and more. It was the last week of the year and so we had the traditional World Rapid and Blitz, the favorite event of the ...
Welcome everybody, to a special year-end edition of Blitz 'n' Memes... If you're a fan of Blitz 'n' Memes then you have come to the right place, as I have put together a list of the top 5 tactics of 2025, as voted on by me, myself and I. Not to...
Hello, dear readers, and welcome to my final post of 2025! Once again, I achieved my goal of writing two blogs per month. Thank you all for keeping me motivated! First of all, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your family and loved one...
The chess world is ready for a new year and all that it will bring: prestigious tournaments, shocking blunders, rating rises and falls, unexpected winners, crushing defeats. However, what will be the major events that will capture your attention t...
CHECKMATE BEFORE THE FIRST SHOTHello, I am Nicola Nigro Monasterios, President of the Carabobo State Chess Association since 2017. I hold an MBA and am currently a Doctoral Candidate in Management Sciences at the Latin American and Caribbean Unive...
Hello, I am Nicola Nigro Monasterios, president of the Carabobo State Chess Association since 2017. I hold an MBA and am currently a doctoral candidate in Management Sciences at the Latin American and Caribbean University (ULAC). I possess the pri...
Last month I had a chance to play in a tournament that is certainly going to be one of the most memorable events of the year for me - the 2025 FIDE World Corporate Chess Championship. Together with my colleagues from Microsoft we managed to qualif...
