Chess Puzzle 1-19-19
Black to play in this puzzle! What should he play? I will reveal the answer in about 30 hours from the time this was posted!
FLchessplayer & chess traps. (#2)
I already have a long blog on chess traps. (Click here to see it - and you should really check it out! It is full of links ... and I won't reproduce all that info {again} in this blog.) My first blog on chess traps has generated many e-mails, PM's...
Bikfoot's prime number prize arena
Greetings chess.com! The last prime prize number that was held was a massive success. Because of that, I've decided to hold ANOTHER one this Sunday! So if you are interested in winning FREE Diamond Memberships, make sure to read the rest of...
How to excel in Blitz - the Magnus Carlsen way
This article will you give some advice on how to excel in blitz. Blitz specialist Maxim Dlugy published an article series in New In Chess called the Blitz Whisperer and my recommendations are based on his articles, an analysis of the World B...
Chess.com Staff Profiles! Introducing Kisha "Kayt!"
In this edition of Staff Profiles we check in with Kayt from the support team who will be celebrating a birthday on Sunday! What is your name? My name is Kisha. My friends call me Kayt. Where do you live? I'm an American ...
"I think she's a man!" The unbelievable story of Lyubov Scherbina
In the 1970s, a young talented girl named Lyubov Scherbina emerged in the Crimean region. She qualified to the 1972 Soviet women's championship, where performed poorly (7/19, 18th place out of 20), but soon her career was on the rise: in 1975, she...
Ding Liren Gives a Master Class from the Black Side of the Ruy Lopez!
There are two openings you must master if you want to be a World Champion: The Ruy Lopez and the Queen's Gambit. If you look at the great World Champions, all of them could play these openings extremly well from either side! In round 5 of the Ta...
Tata Steel Masters Rd 1-5: "Black is OK!"
Wijk Aan Zee is not just a tournament. It is a festival, a chess bonanza of sorts. Different categories, different strengths, make it the perfect way to start any year. It's long tradition saw it's names changing from Hoogovens to Corus to Tata St...
How I beat a stronger opponent
Hello everyone. I wrote once some tips to beat stronger opponents. In this post I bring a game where I faced a higher rated player, and things were good for me. I wrote some comments and tried to explain some lines. In some way I just got ...
Harry the H-Pawn in the London
Here are two fun games from the Australian Junior Chess Championships, where Harry the H-Pawn gets involved in some thematic London System attacks. Two rounds later... And you thought the London System was just a quiet way to ...
My Favorite Game Of. Number 17. Paul Morphy.
A cheery 'Good Morning' to those of you joining me for some more of the innumerable chess games that I have floating around my head. I have taken time off from annotating games for the second part of the Charousek article to add one of Morphy's ...
Game 7 for the Grandmaster title - Victory against the King's indian
This was a game which I played in the year opening tourney in Budapest. My opponent was an old gentleman, an International Master Jevgenyij Boguszlavszkij. In our last game he palyed the Bogo-indian defense and safed the end...
Kotronias-Gufeld...A Work of Art!
Looking for inspiration, to see if I play in the Icelandic Chess Club Championship at the end of February, I find myself looking at Gufeld's games.... And then I found this jewel! I know, I know, beauty is a subjective thing....but when I went...
Beating the Draw Line in the Sicilian! Nezzy Classic!
If you want to go straight to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1oVpCt_EcY&t=1s Win like Rashid Nezhmetdinov! An amazing player who never became GM. When I first saw this game, I thought wow I would love to find such a strong ...
Day 5 at TATA steel chess - The draw I didn't deserve
Dag allemaal! Do I really need to write this blog? Do I? These are the things I'm wondering to myself right now, because I played and absolutely HORRIBLE game from the opening which I never deserved to draw. At one point in the game I was even&n...
Miniature #1: Playing the Scandi... as White!?
This is the first in a new series I've been wanting to do for awhile where I will analyze interesting quick or blitz games played solely for the purpose of learning. In this 3/2 game on chess.com I play 1. e4 and face something interestin...
Giri Strikes Again! Wins with Black Against Rapport!
In round 4 of the 2019 Tata Steel tournament, Anish Giri scored another victory with the Black pieces, this time against Richard Rapport.
Bestuzhev Index for Tata Steel
Predictions for @tatasteelchess based on "Bestuzhev index" (percentage of points in classical games against each other, as per chessgamescom data). @lachesisq is the only player to have classical games against all 13 opponents, and has best poin...
Saturday Chess (#1)
For many years now, a gentleman by the name of Josh Stewart has been running a chess group for children. Originally, I went with my oldest daughter, Ailene. (She is now 22.) Now I am going with my youngest daughter, Angel. (She is a Senior in High...
Day 4 at TATA Steel chess - Won again!
Greetings! Day 4 at TATA steel chess was a good one for me! I won my game, had dinner with legends and appeared on the official broadcast joining IM Lawrence Trent and IM Anna Rudolph! More on that later in this blog. Day one at TATA...
Chess Masterpieces: Keres vs. Smyslov, 1939
Paul Keres defeated more world champions (9!) than any other chess player. That list includes every world champion from Jose Capablanca through Bobby Fischer. Here is his very first recorded win against a future world champion, Vassily Smyslov. ...
Week 2 Preview v. the Roos
With one loss in the books, we turned our attention to the second week's match against the Australia Kangaroos. They don't have the star power of Ding Liren or Caruana+So, but they definitely have two young stars worth keeping one's eyes on: Alexe...
The Spirit of (Re-)Discovery: Soviet Chess of 1930s
Been reading through the old issues of 64 (many of them are available for free at the Russian Chess Federation website) and other Soviet chess publications recently. This gave me, among other things, two excellent pieces on women's chess...
So chess is...
This blog isn't exactly on chess... I've just started searching for chess paintings and images in the web. I've found many many great posts with beautiful collections, some thematic, some with reconstructive intentions of the displayed chess posit...
Tactical Themes: Clearance (+ Video)
Hello everyone. As you already know, tactics is a very important aspect of the game if you want to raise your level. In this post, I’m going to explain 5 selected puzzles, where you have to win using Clearance Tactical Theme. We talk about...