In round 8 of the Vezerkepzo international tournament I played with the young International Master Nath Minh To. He played the e3 variation of the Nimzo-indian defense, which was new for me in a classical game. He played the minority attack, b...
Hey ChessKids! We want to bring in some more awesome fun chess activities for the summer, so in addition to the Summer Clubhouse, we’re holding a puzzle competition! But that’s not all... parents, teachers, coaches, and users can look ...
Patterns, patterns.....a great part of. GM's strength is patterns! This was demonstrated in the following documentary, "My Brilliant Brain" : Recently my good friend Suren (Torfi Leosson), from Iceland, gave me a wonderful gift: John...
Welcome back to the blog! I am going to continue with my tournament recap from the recent IM Norm Invitational that I played in about two weeks ago. If you didn't see the previous round 2 recap then you can check it out here: CLICK ME. Spoile...
The Back Rank checkmate pattern is proof that your own pieces can sometimes work against you and help your opponent achieve their objective! It is the source of a common tactical idea know as a back rank weakness. When you take advantage of a po...
In round 7 of the Vezerkepzo international tournament I played with the young talented Hungarian player Donat Daroczi. I played the London system and he played a tricky move-order to prevent me playing Bg3 after his Bd6. I decided to allo...
Round 6 was the most exciting round of the tournament so far! Like the previous days, I highlight the odds heading into the round, the game recaps, and the odds afterward. Ian, I'm sorry the models don't respect you enough. I know you'll let your ...
Hey ChessKids! These past few weeks have been pretty crazy over in Madrid, Spain, for the 2022 FIDE Candidates. Dive into a quick recap of the ChessKid Simul and the commencement of ChessKid's very own Intercontinental Candidates Tournament! Wan...
Hello Friends! Every week I select 10 positions ranging from easy to difficult across various themes like tactics, strategy, endgame, defense, etc. for you guys to solve and enjoy. For this week, I have selected 10 positions from 3 recent top-leve...
A huge match-up between Hikaru Nakamura and Ian Nepomniachtchi this round. If Hikaru can win, that puts both players at a +1 score. This would be tied with Fabiano Caruana for the lead if he draws his game. Some exciting chess this round! Check ou...
Dear Chess Friends! Do you know that the opening you play defines your pawn structure and, as a result, your future middlegame strategy? Many club players learn only the move order of the opening and are able to play 10-15 moves according ...
Excited for TwitchCon Amsterdam? So are we! Lots of our favorite Twitch personalities from all over the world will be in the Dutch capital between 15-17 July, and Chess.com will be there with our very own booth. There’ll be special Chess.com...
Better late than never… This blog post was written a long time ago, but for some reason I never published it. And although it has been a long time since I returned from Spain, I still decided to share it with you... **************...
Always wanted to test your skills against a titled player? Now's your chance! To celebrate Chess.com's official Discord server reaching over 25,000 users, IM Elliot Papadiamandis is taking on up to 30 challengers at the same time in an exciting si...
The zwischenzug (intermediate move) is a chess tactic in which a player, instead of playing the expected move (commonly a recapture), first interposes another move posing an immediate threat that the opponent must answer, and only then plays the e...
Chessplayers, to varying degrees, live by chess books! Those who “go their own way” and do not seek the advice and accumulated wisdom of other chessplayers, expressed in books, miss the genuine benefits of studying chess by absorbing...
When Calculating moves, there are five steps that I follow: Identify my opponent's threats. Identify the Targets. Identify Piece Relationships. Identify all Active Moves. Identify the continuation. Piece relationships can exist between ...
They say “Pawns are the soul of chess” because they play a significant role from chess opening to the end game. Even losing a single pawn can give your opponent a big material advantage and blunder the entire game. This article is all ...
In round 6 of the Vezerkepzo international tournament I played with the young talented Hungarian FIDE-Master Agoston Juhasz, who has 2 International Master brothers. Strong chess family! He played the Bg5 variation in the Sicilian najdorf. I dec...
In round 5 of the Vezerkepzo international tournament I played with the young Irish player Zalan Nemeth. He played very solidly the english opening. I took risk to attack his king and allowed him to get a strong passed pawn. In the time troub...
Chess is a game of calculation, tactics, endless possibilities growing exponentially each and every move. Some calculations show that there are as many as 72,084 possible positions after the second move. More than 9 million different positions aft...
Wow, wow, wow! What a start to the event we've had. Today's round had a shake-up at the top of the leaderboard. I won't spoil the results for you. In this video, I go through the odds before the games and after. Fabiano Caruana was a big favorite ...
Many chess players have witnessed the excitement during a game when you look at a piece that is placed at a weak spot. But when you attack that piece, you eventually end up losing your piece and that is because you did not calculate your move befo...
Hello there. Welcome to the Lightning Reports! Today we return to my Journey to NM series. Having failed my initial goal of becoming a National Master by May 21st, I am now aiming to get the NM title by the end of 2022, which is a much more reason...
Like the dried cod from the Vikings, the most powerful chess engine in the world today, Stockfish, is made in Norway, then cooked in Italy. His level of genius far surpassed the achievements of the strongest Grandmaster. Since more tha...