Watching Norway Chess 2023, I was glad to see that GM Hikaru Nakamura won another super tournament. Just like an American Chess Superman—who had a day job as a reporter and saved the world in his spare time—Hikaru beat the world's top ...
What unites us as chess players? No matter where we live or what we do for a living, we have a game that each of us enjoys. In fact, every chess player is a little bit like Batman: It's not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us. An...
Openings are always a point of discussion (and often a point of contention) for chess players of all ratings. Are you tactical or positional? Do you prefer open positions or closed positions? Knights or bishops? Long castle or short castle?&n...
The age of Mittens is over. The time of Mighty Martin has come∗. June brings new bots, some great new features on the Chess.com app (for iOS and Android users alike), and a host of incredible chess content and events that will keep you busy...
In his book Positional Decision Making in Chess, GM Boris Gelfand describes how excited he got as a boy when his father brought home a new chess book, a collection of the games of Akiba Rubinstein. He read the book cover-to-cover and immediately s...
There are many ways to work on your chess improvement. You can study opening variations or typical endgames, solve tactical puzzles, and learn chess strategy. Also, it is extremely useful to analyze the games of the greatest chess players as well ...
By now you've seen our ranking of every opening move and our ranking of every possible response by Black to 1.e4 from White. Naturally, here comes every possible response by Black to 1.d4 from White. As in the e4 article, moves are given with th...
You sit down at the board or your computer and wait to see how your opponent will start the game. As they reach for the e-pawn, in your mind you roll your eyes and mutter, "Here we go again." With that quick sulk out of the way, it's...
May's Coach of the Month is WGM Jennifer Perez Rodriguez, a titled chess player and coach representing Paraguay. She has won numerous honors as a competitive over-the-board player, and is also known for sharing her love of chess on her Twitch chan...
This month's featured chess content creator needs almost no introduction. He's the most-followed chess account on YouTube and is the recipient of multiple awards including Best Chess Streamer at the 2022 Streamer Awards and Best Content Creator fo...
"Does that even exist?" That was the response I got from my friend and coworker, GM Rafael Leitao, when I asked him to help me with this article about five perfect chess games played by humans. Now, you need to have seen a lot of chess to beco...
What's the most important kind of endgame? While the answer is obvious for many experienced players, most beginners answer incorrectly. The most popular incorrect answer is a rook endgame. While it is statistically the most common kind of an endga...
Chess Played Quick is Chess.com's monthly series of events where top chess streamers complete bounties for prizes. The 2023 Chess Played Quick 960 Speedrun edition takes place on May 29 at 9 a.m. Pacific/18:00 CEST. Streamers do a Chess960...
What is happiness? Some people believe it's finding true love. Others seek it by excelling in their careers. But for those who know what truly moves human nature, happiness lies in playing uniquely satisfying chess moves. Below are the 10 best c...
There are 20 possible first moves in chess: each of the eight pawns can move one or two squares forward, and each of the two knights has two squares it can go to. But not everything that is equally legal is equally advisable as a course of actio...
Another month has gone by, with new champions, new bots, and amazing stories taking place across the chess world. Find out what happened in April, and what the next few weeks have in store. Here's what this monthly update covers: Produ...
The month of May brings with it the Pro Chess League playoffs! An exciting regular season that began with 16 teams is down to eight playoff squads. It is now time to crown a champion, who will receive a $25,000 first-place prize. Of the original $...
You thought chess was all about making the right moves, but you're only half right. The other half—and arguably the most important—is mastering the art of hand positions. If you need proof, look no further than the 2023 Chessable Maste...
The 2023 FIDE World Championship was an unusual event. First of all, it is very uncommon to call an event the "World Championship" in the absence of the unquestionable world's number-one player. It is also unusual to see so many hard-fought games ...
GM Magnus Carlsen won't be the official world champion of classical chess for much longer, but he has proven again and again in events outside of the FIDE-managed classical world championship that he is the best player in the world. Carlsen's re...
GM Ian Nepomniachtchi is making his second attempt at winning the FIDE World Championship and is just three draws away from becoming champion. During last year's Sinquefield Cup, Nepomniachtchi sat down with Chess.com's GM Daniel "Danya" Narodit...
The 2023 Champions Chess Tour (CCT) is the biggest and most important online chess tournament series to date. The tour features six events spanning the entire year and culminates in live in-person Finals. The CCT features a $2,000,000 prize fund...
Chess Played Quick is Chess.com's series of events where top chess streamers complete bounties for prizes. The 2023 Chess Played Quick Bullet Edition happens on April 27 at 9 a.m. PT/18:00 CEST. Top streamers do a bullet speedrun to reach ...
This is the incredible story of Isabelle Choko—the woman who endured some of the worst hardships and, yet, had the willpower to carry on with her life making notable achievements in chess. She survived the Holocaust, extreme famine, and co...
