hello
Blogs From Advantage to Victory: How to Convert Winning PositionsFMGertsog|Apr 22, 2026|180|0Dear Chess Friends! I'm delighted to share the recording and key ideas from my recent workshop "From Advantage to Victory: Converting Winning P...
A Century of Chess: Euwe-Alekhine 1935 (Part 1)
The greatest upset in chess history. Alekhine was fresh off a period of complete dominance — he had won 11 of the last 12 tournaments he had participated in and three straight world championship matches — and was playing with a a truly...
Chess Writing GOATs: José Raúl Capablanca
Poor Capablanca! Thou wert a brilliant technician, but no philosopher. Thou wert not capable of believing that in chess, another style could be victorious than the absolutely correct one. - Max Euwe Chess quotes by and about Capablanca&nbs...
Hall of Fame #34: Siegbert Tarrasch
Tarrasch's 'dogmas' are not eternal truisms, but merely instructional material presented in an accessible and witty form, those necessary rudiments from which one can begin to grasp the secrets of chess. – Garry Kasparov Chess Quotes...
A Century of Chess: Margate 1935
With any other great player who had any more glamor, Margate would be a big event in chess history — 23-year-old Sammy Reshevsky leaving the US for the first time as an adult, traveling to Europe, and defeating Capablanca in his first intern...
Loser's POV: Mikhail Chigorin (1880-1889)
Please welcome back @JediGoat whose exile has ended after he correctly chose this match's victor (see here). If this were a more serious tournament, I actually might feel a little bad for Chigorin, as his path through this bracket was stacked. B...
Alekhine-Bogoljubow 1934 WOW!
An unusual match in that led to a permanent damage in reputation for both players. In Bogoljubow’s class, it was clear that he had lost a step from his peak and no longer had any real business challenging for the world championship. This, un...
A Century of Chess: Moscow 1935
In 1925, the USSR’s Moscow tournament demonstrated what a chess heaven the Soviet Union really could be. Not only were the playing halls jammed but so were the streets with spectators jostling to get in. For many of the international masters...
Chess Writing GOATs: Alexander Alekhine
I remember our class working on algebra. All the boys were quiet ... Suddenly Alekhine stood up excitedly, his face radiant ..."Well, Alekhine, did you solve it?' teacher Bachinsky asked him. "I did ... I sacrifice the knight, and the bishop mov...
HoF #36: Carl Schlechter (The Viennese Drawing Master)
[A note for my regular readers: The intro has not changed (except for a new image and accompanying caption that I think is viewer-worthy). Feel free to jump to the Table of Contents or to the Biography, but you should really scroll down to enjoy t...
A Century of Chess: Hastings 1934/5
The peak of British gentlemanly chess. Sir George Thomas was a real throwback player. He may well have been Britain's greatest-ever badminton player, as well as being strong enough at tennis to reach the final rounds at Wimbledon. In 1918 he inher...
All blogs (Feb 11 to Feb 28)
A Century of Chess: Leningrad 1934 kahns |Feb 28, 2026 |97 |3 If there’s a moment when the Soviet era in chess really started — the dominant theme for the next fifty years of chess — it would be this tournament, a US...
All chess.com blogs (Feb 11 to Feb 20)
A Century of Chess: Leningrad 1934 kahns |Feb 28, 2026 |96 |3 If there’s a moment when the Soviet era in chess really started — the dominant theme for the next fifty years of chess — it would be this tournament, a US...
A Century of Chess: Leningrad 1934
If there’s a moment when the Soviet era in chess really started — the dominant theme for the next fifty years of chess — it would be this tournament, a USSR event with two foreign masters, Euwe and Kmoch, invited and memorialized...
A Century of Chess: Syracuse 1934
It’s hard to think of a great player who’s less beloved, and has less of a legend attached to him, than Reshevsky. In the ‘20s he was the twerp in the sailor suit, the boy prodigy terrorizing grown men in simultaneous exhibitions...
Zurich 1934 A Century of Chess:
Zurich 1934A Century of Chess: Zurich 1934 kahns Feb 11, 2026, 6:47 AM | 8It was very well, in the early 30s, to get excited about new talent — Botvinnik, Stahlberg, Lilienthal, etc — but les...
A Century of Chess: Zurich 1934
It was very well, in the early 30s, to get excited about new talent — Botvinnik, Stahlberg, Lilienthal, etc — but lest anybody doubt who was tops Alekhine put in a terrifying performance in a mixed-quality tournament on the heels of hi...
A Century of Chess: Ujpest 1934
Andor Lilienthal made his claim to be one of the best in the world with a convincing victory here, scoring +7 to win by a half-point in a fast field. He had impressed by coming shared second with Alekhine at Hastings earlier that year and done wel...
Century of chess: Hastings 1933/34
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 i...
A Century of Chess: Alekhine-Bogoljubow 1934
An unusual match in that led to a permanent damage in reputation for both players. In Bogoljubow’s class, it was clear that he had lost a step from his peak and no longer had any real business challenging for the world championship. This, un...
A Century of Chess: Ståhlberg-Nimzowitsch 1934
Age mellows everybody — even, apparently, Aron Nimzowitsch — and it’s a great surprise to come across class and grace in Nimzowitsch’s comments to his losing effort in the 1934 Ståhlberg match. Actually, the match mus...
A Century of Chess: Hastings 1933/34
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 ...
A Century of Chess: Botvinnik-Flohr 1933
Actually one of the most significant events in chess history. Here was the state of play in Soviet chess at the time. Chess was a mania in the Soviet Union. Visitors to the 1925 Moscow tournament were astonished at the crowds that spilled out in...
Mexio
Alekhine seated A Century of Chess: Pasadena/Mexico City 1932 kahns Dec 13, 2025, 2:08 AM|2 A couple of new points show up on the atlas of chess history — with the first-ever international tournament in Calif...
A Century of Chess
Alekhine seated A Century of Chess: Pasadena/Mexico City 1932 kahns Dec 13, 2025, 2:08 AM|2 A couple of new points show up on the atlas of chess history — with the first-ever international tournament in Calif...