Most chess players spend their time practicing their calculation, playing chess games, and studying the nuts and bolts of the game. This is all well and good - but today, I want to talk about 3 MENTAL mistakes that are costing you points! Ment...
by Dana Mackenzie, staff writer Because I was in the midst of playing in the U.S. Amateur Team West tournament on Monday, I wasn’t able to write my usual timely coverage of the PRO Chess League. For any California Unicorn fans out there wh...
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 ...
Hello everyone! I am back with the second and final part of my visual blog post series from 2020 Cairns Cup, one of the highest rated all-female tournaments in chess history! The field included reigning world champions of classical (Wenjun), rapid...
Well, my last blitz look at the great Max Euwe seems to have been enjoyed by many. So, without going into my whole life story I decided to post a few more games and pictures while I am at a loose end which will hopefully be enjoyed by those who ar...
Imagine winding up your office work earlier to get back home for a crunchy cup of popcorn, the warmth of a comfortable couch, your family around you and your favorite soccer team in action fighting for, say, the World Cup. When everything seems to...
Hi guys. Welcome back to my blog! I made a commitment last month to post my tournament games on my blog again. Even though the one post I made was on a tournament game, I'm committed to showing all of my tournament games, the good, ...
Hi people of the 64 squares kingdom. Rooks endgames are the most likely to happen in chess, probably because very frequently those are the last pieces we develop. Today we are studying an important endgame in Rook and Pawn vs Rook theory. This is ...
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...
Hi everyone! One of the best tournaments for the top female players from around the world came to an end. And here are 10 best (in my opinion 😊) tactical moments from the tournament. Position No.1 Black to play. Find the best continu...
Hello everyone, I have prepared a new selection of varied exercises to help you progress in chess! In order to make this training efficient, it is absolutely necessary to calculate a maximum of variations and to be sure that the proposed move is...
Hey Everyone! While on site at the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship, the Chess.com team was able to take some live footage of a few select games. I'll be analyzing and then publishing both a video and blog for you over time... I hope yo...
Yesterday I played in the Hungarian League and had a painful loss. I got an extra pawn after a break in the center and instead of going to an endgame, I made an attacking move and overlooked a simple discovered attack to lose an exchange. Today ...
One of the basic endgames that every player should know is a minor piece against pawn and the King. When it comes to the Bishop, usually it is very easy. Bishop has to attack any square in front of the pawn and there is no way that pawn will promo...
With Carissa Yip despatching Ju Wenjun, I decided to check whether there was a club similar to the Chigorin Club (for those who defeated reigning men's world champions). There wasn't one, so there's my humble effort to establish it. The club is na...
One myth that stops many players from developing a Master-Level Opening Repertoire is a lack of self-belief. They reason that only "genius" Grandmasters with photographic memories can memorize long opening lines, and never put in the effort to d...
My previous posts (Part I, Part II ) on this theme are both approaching 1000 views so it is definitely time for another instalment! Read the previous two blogs if you want to know why I think endgame studies are so good ...
As it already was in January, two Titled Tuesday blitz tournaments were organised on February, 4.Results can be found here: https://www.chess.com/article/view/titled-tuesday-what-you-need-to-know Mediocre performances for me, in both events - an...
About four weeks ago I played in my first tournament in two and a half years! My previous tournament was the 2017 US Junior Championship (which is a tournament I am now too old to play in 😅.) For several years I haven't played in too ma...
"... I feel that the main reasons to buy an opening book are to give a good overview of the opening, and to explain general plans and ideas. ..." - GM John Nunn (2006) Our BOOK OF THE WEEK is My First Chess Opening Repertoire for Black by Vinc...
Rawr!!! hehe Hi there. This is Stacia and I hope your attacking spirit is ready for some more action because we are going to continue looking at attacking ideas this month! If you missed the previous post on this topic, fear n...
In a recent article I commented that I really must stop posting losses by Max Euwe. I could say the same about Georg Marco and Vasily Smyslov!! So, with a day of doing nothing here, I decided to add to this series of self indulgencies with m...
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...
by David Pruess, manager Just looking at the lineups for the Eastern and Central divisions this week got me pretty excited, so I wanted to share the perspective of an avid PCL fan (and manager) seeing them. Eastern Division Bulldogs-Eagles ...
One of the most popular openings for White after 1.d4, especially in the last couple of years, was the London System (d4 & Bf4, without playing c4). But it looks that it is a victim of its success - Black has to play against it that many times...