Amidst all the hype around the multi-million player website, it may be surprising when I say that I think that Chess.com is actually going backwards. What I mean is this: in its heyday (say, 2014-15, around the time when chess streaming really sta...
In Winner's POV, we take a look at tournaments from the 19th century and see the games that allowed the top player to prevail. Some tournaments will be known and famous, others will be more obscure - in a time period where competition is scarce, I...
Winning against Hikaru Nakamura, or any other top-level chess player, is a difficult task that requires a high level of skill and preparation. Here are a few general tips that may help you to improve your chances: Study his games: Analyze Hik...
Time and again, we turn to Chess Quotes. Just consider what the quotes bring to us. There are comments about the game of chess--some serious and full of wisdom; others...not so much! Some are humorous. They point out aspects or foibles or streng...
I was afraid to talk about this. I’m still afraid. Many will not understand.Many will laugh. But I don’t care. I drank lion’s milk today. This is my biggest secret for productivity, high focus, and achievem...
My career as an author did not come completely out of the blue. I have always loved writing, but there was another important argument that I gained from the practice of teaching chess. After I started providing courses for club chess players an...
ChessKid Coaching teams up with the best chess coaches and connects them with players looking to advance their chess skills. All coaches offering lessons on ChessKid undergo an extensive background check, ensuring ChessKid recruits not only great ...
Rotating a concept in your mind’s eye allows you to see it from all angles and think about a topic much more deeply, from vantage points you never considered, recognizing subtleties you did not realize existed. Aspects like pawn structures i...
Within the recent six months, 4 of my students, who intensively play online chess, have increased by 1000 points taken in sum. How did this happen? There are a few specific reasons. In this article, we’ll speak about a method called 9 game...
The travels of Oldrich Duras in 1913 precipitated a pair of quadrangular tournaments - one in St. Petersburg in April and another to accompany Duras’ visit to New York in September. Both tournaments had little at stake except to take advanta...
Sometimes, I try to reflect on my chess growth. Where I was years ago vs. where I am right now. As you can see from the caption, the guy on the left was a naive 14-year old playing their childhood friend in a scholastic tournament at a local libra...
Hello there, welcome to the Lightning Reports! Last week I played in the 2023 Charlotte Open to compete against much stronger players and attempt to steal their rating points. Going into the event I am rated 2127 USCF, and I have been stuck for ab...
I am Rashad Babaev International Grandmaster since 2007, winner of many International Chess Tournaments, Champion of Azerbaijan among men 2009 Trainer of Azerbaijan Youth Chess Team 2003-2006 Trainer and consultant of National team of Azerba...
I think the most important is to have a balance of studying new things and playing games to try out the new ideas. I suggest you use at least 50 % of your time to study new things and the rest of the time to play games and analyze your games to ...
Dear chess community, On December 31, we had seven million active members on Chess.com in a single day for the first time. On January 20, we had ten million active members. Traffic on Chess.com has nearly doubled since the beginning of December,...
In Winner's POV, we take a look at tournaments from the 19th century and see the games that allowed the top player to prevail. Some tournaments will be known and famous, others will be more obscure - in a time period where competition is scarce, I...
2023 Daily Chess Championship Recently, I decided to take part in the 2023 Chess.com daily chess championship. I was put in group 2163 with 11 other players, and our group finished all our games this week. Most of the games, admittedly were just...
"His games reveal the beauty of chess and make you love in chess not so much the points and high placings, but the wonderful harmony and elegance of this particular world." "In Nezhmetdinov, more than in anybody else, you can see the difference ...
Last time round I posted a picture of the back of Zagoriansky's head!! That reminded me of two rare and historically significant pictures I had been meaning to share - I have not seen them anywhere else. With apologies for the disorganised and s...
Hello, my fellow blitz lovers, and welcome to another edition of Blitz & Memes. If you're a fan of tactics taken from amateur online blitz tournaments, then you have come to the right place, because that is what I do. As always the puzzles h...
Welcome to the wacky world of chess, where pieces move in bizarre and mysterious ways! Today, we're going to talk about a move called en passant, which literally means 'in passing' in French. This move is all about capturing pawns as they ...
If you want to improve your chess skills you need to do 3 things: 1. First you need to study something new 2. Then you need to play games to try our your new knowledge 3. After the games you need to analyze how you used your new knowledge an...
It’s wrong to think of tactics successfully occurring because of super-clever moves in genuinely equal positions. For a winning combination to be possible, there must be something wrong with the other side’s position. In chess, you can...
“That’s a brilliant technique! You should write an article on this, Avo.”,- James Altucher, author of the bestseller “Skip the Line,” where he teaches different nice techniques for max speeding learning. And h...
You are playing Black. It is White to move though - should you be afraid of Qxg8 followed by h7, with what looks like an inevitable queen? Or is Black winning, as long as you find some key resources?