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...
In my view, evaluating positions accurately is one of the most valuable skills you can develop as you climb the rating ladder in chess. Some players may be surprised to learn that there are simple methods they can follow to improve their evaluatio...
Welcome everybody to another relaxing edition of Blitz 'n' Memes. If you're a fan of puzzles taken from amateur online blitz tournaments, then you have come to the right place, because that is what I do. As always, the tactics have been select...
I hope everyone had a good Christmas, and this weird purgatory before New Years isn't too disorienting. Let's do some housekeeping before we get going. Gunsberg won the vote against Mackenzie (see here), however Santa has confirmed that the biog...
When the long-anticipated revival of Chess: The Musical on Broadway was confirmed—and confirmed with an utterly stellar cast in Lea Michelle, Nicholas Christopher, and Aaron Tveit—I knew I would have to make a trip to New York to see t...
The Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival once again proved why it is considered one of the most special and complete chess events on the international calendar. Beyond the strength of the competition, what truly sets Sunway Sitges apart is i...
Have you seen the term “farming” in reports about chess players or chess tournaments and wondered what it means? Although the term is not new, it seems to be used more frequently. Here’s what you should know about farming in ches...
#englund #queensac #winning Click to subscribe to my YouTube channel! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 🎄🎁🥳 One of the interesting things with living in Australia is that with a time zone of GMT+11 in Sydney du...
If you know nothing about Coffee Zee Chess, I suggest that you check out my original blog post here: https://www.chess.com/blog/ThePawnSlayer/the-best-place-in-london-to-play-chess We meet every Friday from 6-9pm at Coffee Zee just off Holloway ...
