Hello, guys! Welcome to another blog! I will not make any mystery regarding what the topic is because it's already been written up there, but would you like to know why I decided to write about it and where the idea came from? Okay, I can't kn...
Playing against a Grandmaster (GM) as an amateur can feel like stepping into a storm. Even when the first moves look normal, you quickly realize you’re being pulled into something you can’t control. The pressure is constant, the mistak...
Dear Chess Friends! Every chess player dreams of reaching a situation where the ultimate, decisive combination will result in an immediate triumph. These "final combinations"—the tactical strikes at the end of a game—are critical for...
Carlos Torre was born in 1904 in Mérida, Mexico. When he was six he pulled the Capablanca trick of learning the rules of chess from watching his brothers play. At 11, the family moved to New Orleans and Torre’s talents were quickly no...
Today I had a 40 minutes calculation session later I had a 20 minutes session when I played a game and analyzed it. You can watch the calculation session: I played with the Serbian International Grandmaster Vladimir Raicevic. He playe...
Your move! You stare at the position, the clock ticking. Should you trust your gut feeling pulling you toward that knight sacrifice, or calculate every variation to be sure? We've all been there – caught between intuition and calculation. ...
Today I decided to take time every day to improve my own chess. This way I will also gain more experience how adult improvers can use well their limited time. I will share the ways I study, my games with annotations and all ideas which you can a...
Hi everyone! It’s been a while since my last blog post. At some point, I wondered if anyone was really interested in reading them anymore. But recently, I felt the urge to write again, even if just briefly. Over the past couple of years, ...
CCC24 Bullet will round out the final event in the CCC24 series. We've just had a taste of 1+1 time control in the Bullet Brawl: Spring 2025, which is our bi-annual rating event. For the first time since Torch's release, Torch has won an event bea...
Oh, boy, I got myself in trouble again. Where to start? Well, with the King's Indian Defense. But where does the name come from? We have all sorts of "Indian" Defences....King's Indian, Queen's Indian, Nimzo-Indian, Bogo-Indian, etc.... It's a...
Have you heard of the Improvers Club? It's the official club for players at all levels who want to embark on an exciting journey of chess growth. Members can also take part in the Chess Improvement Challenge to help support each other reach their ...
From April 16 to 20, 2025, the Charlotte Chess Center hosted our 34th GM/IM Norm Invitational tournament, featuring a GM norm section and two IM norm groups. Some of the CCC's most notable players (including one of our coaches!) participated in th...
Me and meditation? Bad relationship.We just didn’t click. I tried the apps.Tried the gurus on YouTube.Dropped $500 on a fancy gadget, which I threw away after two weeks.Even went to a temple in Thailand, and sat with monks. Peace never c...
Welcome everybody to another, "oh no, did I just hang mate-in-one?!", 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 alwa...
I’ve been on a mission to find a chess study plan that will work for adults. The challenge is to figure out something that 1) actually works and 2) people will do. Combining these factors turns out to be harder than it seems, but I think Eli...
The 22nd edition of the Bangkok Chess Club Open concluded with the undisputed victory of Macedonian GM Evgeny Romanov. Facing the young FM Ern Ang from Malaysia with the Black pieces, Romanov quickly obtained a promising position in which...
I fell ill again while writing this post. My first sickness of the year happened during part 1, and now my second is here. If this post feels rushed, it's because this event is literally cursed (akin to a haunted idol from a mysterious island) and...
Dear Chess Friends! I want to share insights from a recent workshop I conducted titled "Attack on Immobile Pawns." This strategic theme is typically subtle, but mastering it can dramatically improve your positional play and boost your chances &n...
#chessarama #nintendoswitch #gamereview #chesschats Do you like puzzle games? If so, you might like Chessarama, a cute and very slick production by Minimol Games, a Brazilian indie game development studio with expertise in making chess-...
The tournament entered its final stretch and dying hours as this penultimate round will be followed in quick order by the dreaded 9:00 game on Monday morning. The game on board 1 between the leader Evgeny Romanov and Babu Lalit was wrap...
In a first this year around, the top three boards had six GMs battling it out today. Battling being the operative word: no grandmasterly draws here, Sir! On board 1 Evgeny Romanov uncorked a deep and powerful combination to bring dow...
Lady Gaga set the music world and chess community on fire with how she used a chessboard and its pieces to bring a dramatic musical performance to life at the 2025 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Lady Gaga and the white queen ponder ...
Afternoon everyone. Sadly we have just lost one of the good guys of chess - Fridrik Olafsson. A man who took on the job of FIDE president to try to make things better for chess players. Back when I did my articles on Malcolm Barker I intended ...
The blitz final was won this Thursday night by outsider IM Michael Concio ahead of the two Ukrainian rating favourites, GM Bernadskiy and IM Danylenko. In spite of a commendable score of 13.5/15, the sole grandmaster in the field was left...
Hey Impressive Chessers! In this blog we are going to time travel back to the prehistoric ages of the early 2000s. So as some of you know I’ve been teaching/coaching chess for almost a quarter century! I started teaching chess in 2001, a f...
