Written by Alexey Zakharov In the last hundred or so years, Russia became almost synonymous with chess. The country in its many incarnations—Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and now “just” Russia—produced more grandmasters a...
The 2021 World Chess Championship between GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Ian Nepomniachtchi is fast approaching. It takes a lot of talent, work, and dedication to play for the world championship. These players are always the best of the best, whether th...
The FIDE Candidates Tournament will finally resume exactly a week from now, on April 19, 2021. What have the eight participants been up to in the past 13 months? And how have they performed? The story is known: on March 25, 2020, the FIDE Candid...
March 15, 1921 in Havana, Cuba—it was like looking into a mirror for Emanuel Lasker. His opponent opened with 1.d4 and he replied with 1...d5. Exactly 27 years prior, it was the 25-year-old Lasker who had White, facing 58-year-old Wilhelm St...
The phrase "unsung hero" may sound melodramatic to some, or even cliche, but I can't think of a better way to describe Gyula Breyer. His peers and colleagues, the hypermodern pioneers Aron Nimzowitsch and Richard Reti, both lived long enough to ce...
The recent Tata Steel tournament was a huge success. The organizers did an outstanding job creating a mixed field of players who are known for sharp, "take no prisoners" kind of chess. Yet, in my opinion, the main reason for the success of this to...
The Queen's Gambit has become more than "a chess show." The seven-episode Netflix miniseries has captured the attention of audiences worldwide and was the #1 show in over 12 countries. It has introduced or re-ignited viewers' interest in the royal...
The chess media has used a lot of ink and pixels to lavish praise on the greatest chess players of all time. We've got articles for the best world champion ever, the five most dangerous players ever, the 10 best players of all time, the best che...
There are many well-known world champions, challengers, candidates, world-class players, national champions, and grandmasters in chess circles. The best players our game has ever seen are constantly celebrated and for good reason! However, there a...
Chess is a “theoretical” game, and books on chess theory are plentiful. It is also a very “practical” game because chess theory has to be worked out in practice—on the chess board! This splendid book builds on the suc...
"Every strong chess player should have his own opening theory which is different from the mainstream theory." This is one of the most important rules I learned from World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik as a student in his famous Botvinnik-Kasparov s...
Who are the strongest chess players of all time? There are nearly as many opinions on the relative strength of great chess players as there are chess players. Opinions have been based on dominance, career longevity, brilliance of play, and numer...
We want to know your opinion! Which is the best game in history? We are pleased to announce Chess.com's "Best Chess Game" tournament. We've identified 16 of the greatest and most acclaimed games ever and seeded them into our tournament bracket. ...
Siegbert Tarrasch was born in Germany, March 5, 1862. Parents always dream that their children will be super-special, but Tarrasch really was! He excelled in school and, after that (in 1880), he moved to Halle, studied medicine and opened up his o...
Our beloved game of chess has had many legends, world champions, challengers, world-class players, and grandmasters. The games of these masters delight, inspire, and teach us the ways of the royal game. It is common to discuss the greatest playe...
Sixty-four is too easy for a chess article, so here are sixty-seven chess quotes you may not have seen before. Or maybe you have... Some stand on their own, some have a bit of commentary, and all are hopefully interesting. Enjoy! Jose Capablanca...
In 1843 Andrei Alexandrovich Ascharin was born in the Estonian coastal town of Pärnu. His parents were of mixed origins: Alexander, of Russian extraction and Louise, of German extraction. This was common amo...
In the late 1860s, the legendary Paul Morphy had almost entirely retired from chess. He was not the same young genius that he once was. But he still managed to introduce an important opening idea which hadn't been seen in chess before. After the...
Your favorite annual chess quiz tradition is back for the 2019 holidays. Enjoy this year's quiz, and see if you can win one of our prizes for a top score. Play the puzzler here. Update, Jan. 13, 2020 with answers and results. Answers: 2....
This began many years ago as an experimental type of entry in the chess.com forums. Originally conceived to be an examination of the development of chess throughout the entire 19th century, since it never garnered the i...
@Jed1w1zard writes: I am a club-level chess player. I was wondering if you could clear up an issue for me that I have repeatedly been encountering in my games. When I play as White, I typically like to play the London System since it’s a ...
When I was a student of famous Botvinnik-Kasparov school, the two living legends didn't just teach us how to play chess; they also taught us how to work on chess. The homework that each student would get by the end of a session was invaluable! O...
GM Larry Kaufman's book Kaufman's New Repertoire for Black and White is now available in Europe in all formats, and in the United States as an e-book. It will soon be sold worldwide in all formats, including as an e-book from Forward Che...
Something Old Deep into the 19th century chess was still characterized by match play. The idea of tournaments was slow to catch on. Prior to the London International Tournament of 1851 (the...
