It's 6th December 1980. The 14th round of the Malta Chess Olympiad has begun. India, then considered a nascent chess country, was facing Mexico. However, all eyes were on one man, named Mohamed Rafiq Khan. He was battling against the Mexican playe...
The second round of the BCC Open’s Masters tournament started with a slight delay, due to the enhanced security and anti-cheating measures implemented by the organisers. No metallic object, telephone, smartwatch nor, much less so, suspicious...
March 2026: Progress You Can Trust March wasn’t a perfect month. There were strong wins, frustrating losses, and more time trouble than I’d like to admit. But when I step back and look at the full picture, this month represents some...
There are many books, videos, and courses on common topics like the opening, middlegame, and endgame. We also have an amazing collection of games by the legends of the game. However, there is very little literature on the practical aspects of ches...
“Undinal songs urge the sailors on,Till lured by the sirens’ cry” * Following a memorable 22nd edition on the bank of the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok last year, the BCC Open set its sails to the Western shore of the Gulf of Th...
Tarrasch's 'dogmas' are not eternal truisms, but merely instructional material presented in an accessible and witty form, those necessary rudiments from which one can begin to grasp the secrets of chess. – Garry Kasparov Chess Quotes...
How is it that we humans are so smart, that we learned to build airplanes and rockets, computers and AI, split the atom and land on the moon, but we didn't learn to be happy? I grabbed this question and went to my wise coach Rao Srikumar, whom I...
Hello and welcome to my first blog as a Top Blogger! I began writing on Chess.com over two years ago. This has been a dream of mine ever since. Now that I'm here, I want to sincerely thank every single person who has supported me. It's appreciat...
Some of my most improved students over the past 12 years have one thing in common, and it’s probably not what you’d expect. It’s not that they solved the most puzzles, or that they studied endgames religiously, or even that they ...
A Position Where You Don’t Need the Perfect Move… You Need a Plan This is a position Brian (one of my newsletter subscribers) sent me. White is better, but what’s the right plan here? The Real Question There are proba...
Dear friends, Before I move on to the main topic of this post, I would like to share some good news. As many of you will know, I recently received the Top Blogger badge on Chess.com, which obviously made me very happy. This was only possible t...
INTRODUCTION Simen Agdestein had one of the most unique careers in chess history. It's hard enough to be elite at one thing and make a difference in it. But to master two skills and create a lasting legacy in both is almost unheard of. Yet t...
Dear Chess Friends! I'm excited to share highlights from my recent workshop "Open Files: Highways for Your Rooks", where we explored one of the most powerful strategic weapons in chess: controlling open files with your rooks. An open file is lik...
It all comes down to this. While I don't agree with every single match result, I'm at least happy that these two made the final, as I also think they were the two best players of the decade (yada yada "excluding Steinitz" and so on). Zukertor...
The spring season of the 2026 India College Chess Championship has ended with Shri Ram College of Commerce winning the event for the first time. The team took home a cash prize of ₹3,00,000 (approximately $3,384). Three-time winner SRM bagged seco...
Out of Sindarov's 5 wins in the first 6 games of the World Championship Candidates 2026 event, there is a common theme running in 4 of them - his propensity to centralize a minor piece above other considerations. He can give up material to establi...
The Babson task is one of the most celebrated ideas in the chess composition field. Accomplishing the theme is always challenging but especially so in the orthodox genres, and successful renditions can become instant classics. The task requires a ...
Picture this. You settle in for a film, there is a chessboard on screen, two characters are about to square off in what the director clearly intends to be the most intellectually charged scene in the entire movie. You lean forward. And then one of...
Following our two-week schedule, we meet again to continue the personified stories of each chess piece. After uncovering the knight’s code in the last blog, we now approach the halfway point, as the bishop is about to take center stage....
In the era of big social changes in Eastern Europe and fall of communism and Berlin Wall, state didnt support chess anymore in an organized manner, so work with youth started to suffer even in countries with huge tradition. So, enthusiasm o...
Hey Impressive Chessers! I’m back with some great advice for y’all. If you consistently apply these four ideas, you’ll be well on your way to reaching the sweet waters of chess improvement. Why four? Because we are entering t...
Good afternoon everyone. back with part two. As said, I have not posted everything I have and still more to find, but you have to stop somewhere. That's the thing with doing proper primary source research stuff ( not the modern world go to the c...
After surveying what might well have been over 1M could-be respondents with detailed, intrusive, and voluminous questionnaires, followed up by individual sessions where time and willingness allowed, science and statistics (not to be confused with ...
Once again a major news media has honored one of Chess.com’s own. Time magazine announces in its April 1 edition that it has selected IM Danny Rensch as the recipient of its inaugural Pawn of the Year designation. The magazine salutes Rens...
