Learning Chess

Interested in learning chess? This suite of articles will help you understand the game, improve your skills and ultimately master it.

Jennifer Shahade: Play Like a Champion

Two-time U.S. Women’s Champion Jennifer Shahade’s latest chess book is Play Like a Champion: Chess Tactics from the Greats. Its 700 chess positions have answers that range from checkmate in one move to checkmate in 13 moves. More 🡢

Grind Like a Grandmaster: Magnus Carlsen

The Champions Chess Tour Finals (CCT Finals) was the closing event of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, run by Chess.com. Eight players met in Toronto from December 9 to December 16. They played for a $500,000 prize fund. The pre-tournament favorite was former World Chess Champion GM Magnus Carlsen. In the finals, Carlsen defeated GM Wesley So to win the 2023 Champions Chess Tour. More 🡢

Chess Endgames: Pawn Principles

Chess endgames with passed pawns have many principles. A previous article explained the opposition. In this article, a game between two top grandmasters demonstrates two other principles: passed pawns must be pushed and the square of the pawn. More 🡢

College chess clashes at U.S. Open

The 2023 U.S. Open ran from July 29 to August 6 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It offered nine-day, six-day, and four-day schedules, which merged in round 7. Two University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) students, Grandmasters David Brodsky and Rahul Srivatshav Peddi, participated. More 🡢

The London System Compared to the c3 Colle

The c3 Colle is suitable for beginners. It establishes a d4-pawn in the center and has easy to understand plans. Like the c3 Colle, the London System is an opening system. Opening systems are good for beginners because they do not often require adapting to opponents’ moves. Still, White must always be paying attention to Black’s moves. More 🡢

Alexey Root receives trophy from Director Tom Crane

Chess Research: Monetary Awards for University Students

The Chessable Research Awards promote chess research by undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty research sponsors. Chessable plans three cycles per year of monetary awards. Applications for the first cycle are open until October 1, 2022. Chessable is also known for spaced repetition, which is a helpful technique for memorizing chess openings. More 🡢

Do favorites win World Chess Championship qualifiers?

Earlier in this World Chess Championship cycle was the 2021 World Cup. Its top two finishers earned spots in the 2022 FIDE Candidates Tournament. To pair its single elimination matches, the World Cup ranks each of its participants by their chess ratings. Thus, the World Cup provides data for the question, “Do ratings favorites win World Chess Championship qualifiers?” More 🡢

The $10,000 Puzzler Hunt, Chess, and Thank You Notes

Can you solve mind-bending puzzles? Then you might win $10,000 from a contest, still active at the time I am writing this, that began May 3, 2022. The contest introduces a book which contains, among other puzzles, several chess puzzles. That book’s author, along with another author, deserve thank-you notes from me. More 🡢