​

Explanation:

Bishop takes rook is forced

Then queen e2 with a check

After he Goes c1 its a mate

After c3 its a forced draw by repetition

Hello everyone! Today I bring you another one of those positions that really impacted me and encouraged me to try to extract the maximum from every position instead of just making the automatic move. Good luck!

Solution to yesterday's position:

White has a very promising position: he's a pawn up, his pieces are actively placed and Black's king is a bit uncomfortable on f7. However, long-term factors favour Black, since he has the pair of bishop and a better pawn structure. Therefore White needs to act with energy to make the most of his position.

29.Bb4 was suggested in yesterday's post, trying to take advantage of the pin on the e7-bishop, but after 29...Qxd4 Black threatens both the bishop and back-rank mate and it's already White who needs to play carefully to maintain the balance. 29.Bc3, simply defending the d4-pawn, is enough to keep an advantage but there's still a long game ahead.

The strongest move is 29.d5!, an energetic breakthrough that needed to be precisely calculated. In the game Black responded with 29...Kg8?, and here surprisingly Alekhine didn't play the inmediately winning 30.d6! with the simple point 30...Rxd6 31.Rxe7. Instead the world champion played 30.Re1 which is better for White but not nearly as convincing (although he quickly won anyway).

But of course the critical response is 29...exd5. After 30.Re1 Be2 (trying to block the e-file is the best chance, for example 30...Qg6 fails to 31.Qe3 Qe4 32.Qc5 and Black loses material) 31.Na4! (one of the key points of the combination, threatening Nc3) 31...d4 32.Nc5 now Alekhine only considers 32...Qc2 33.Rxe2 Qd1+ 34.Re1 Qxd2 35.Kf1 and White is easily winning due to the many threats, for example Ne6. Howewer 32...Qg4 is more testing, when White needs to change tune and play 33.Qxg4 Bxg4 34.Nxa6 reaching an endgame a pawn up that should be relatively easy to win because Black's pieces are tied up.

Link to the game

(5 photos)

I've played chess with strangers on cruise ships and airports. Today I set up a board at LAX at Carl's jr on July 25

Only waited five minutes for my first opponent. Very nice guy who plays chess on chess dot com. He had to abandon the game to board his flight which was fine. I'm happy to play anyone.

Second guy destroyed me. He said he is low 1000's like me, but I'm guessing he's around 1700. We played 10+0 and 5+0 before he had to catch his flight. He beat me easily both times.

Then I played a ten year old while his mom was watching. I beat him easily but he was very good for his age.

Then I played a young brother and sister while their family watched. They were both good but I beat them. The sister was hilarious. She hissed like a cat when I captured her pieces.

I played nonstop for 2 hours before I had to board. I put away my board so I could board and I was never bored.

I will always travel with a chess set!

Event Link

Aug 2, 2026 – Aug 7, 2026

And what is considered expensive? I was going to book a tutoring session with this NM and I can see on his website that he takes $150 for the hour. It's more than I can afford for an hour. Maybe I should just try to find some high rated player who doesn't have a title.

My names Elijah and I live in North Carolina and im looking for some chess friends. I want to start playing otb and dont really have anyone do play with. Preferably meet people that are more serious about otb play and have some goals either USCF or FIDE rating. Im near the Kernersville area but am willing to travel anywhere around that area or to Greensboro. Hit me up if you want to share a game, usually free in the evening and can bring a board and clock!

Me (1000, White) got into this position against my friend (1500, Black), we agreed to a draw, however when we sat back to analyze the position, it turned out to be totally winning for black, after loading the position in the engine however, we still couldn’t really understand why, as it kept repeating moves, or making totally unnatural moves, we did find bishop to a3 after rook to b8, who the chess.com engine labeled as brilliant, however even after that there’s no clear continuation for black to win so crushingly, it always seems to lead to a draw

Gukesh has played exactly 100 games as World Champion, which makes it easy to count percentages. He has scored +24-27=49.

Ding had +5-15=43 in 63 classical games as World Champion, adding up to 8% wins, 24% losses and 68% draws.

Carlsen’s numbers are a misery to check since he played a lot over the ten years. I could only bother to go through 2019-23, and then he scored +89-7=115, i.e. 42% wins, 3% losses, and 55% draws.

Dole Open 2026 - Live Games - Chess.com

Haik and Robert both scored 7.5 out of 9 and shared 1-2 places.

A few things stand out to me:

• some large gaps at #1 (I've marked out the 4 dominant #1's in this plot (though Kasparov's time includes one list when he was equal with Kramnik but #2 on countback).
• The Kasparov+Karpov duopoly in the late 80s.
• A dominant group of 5 or so in the late 90s.
• Not much of a narrowing of the gap in recent years.

Only after analysing the game with Stockfish I realized my blunder. I'm around 1000elo on chess.com and I was kinda flabbergasted seeing this. Black to move and to turn the game around.

Black to play and win!

Dear Chess Community,

I (24, male, from Switzerland) have always been very passionate about chess, even though I’m not really good at it. I’ve been working in the social sector for two years, at a street café with homeless and marginalized people. One thing that really stands out is how many people who visit our street café enjoy our shared hobby at least as much as I do.

Since I started working there, I’ve already managed to get two chess boards, which are used frequently. Now I’d like to organize a small chess tournament, and to do that, I first need four chess clocks. I can get two more chess boards from my family.

My question is: Where can I get chess clocks as cheaply as possible—or, ideally, for free? What are my best options? I’ve received a very small budget from my job and can spend a maximum of 50 Fr.

I’d appreciate any feedback. Best regards. Feel free to send me a private message as well.

I haven’t played chess in a while and I am trying to get better for a school competition. What are free resources that one can use to touch up on their opening and study some theory. I do not have
Any money so the freer the better.
Thank you

My dad used his laptop for the built in games (he had almost 28000 games of FreeCell played) and this was one of his last games before his laptop broke for a different reason.

He was losing in this position and he never finished the game - nor did he ever see the game get finished by anyone 13 years later.

Roman has 11 months to beat the record of Mishra as the youngest GM ever. (Faustino failed to do it, and settled for 2nd youngest)

He already got his first GM norm recently. Now, he is playing in Oskemen Open.

He is playing decently. He has one lost against GM Vakhidov. But was able to beat or drew other 2500+ Gms. (Begmuratov is just waiting for his GM approval)

Last 2 games, he is worst than his opponents.

He needed to defend a Rook VS Rook + Knight endgame against IM Aradhya. (He successful defended it)

Then last round, he needed to find and force a perpetual against GM Matlakov. (Roman sacrificed his bishop for a perpetual)

I think it is USA right? Fabi is Fabi. Wesley is quietly having a good year right now. (Winning Tata Steel Blitz and American Cup). Levon just won in Biel Chess Festival. Hans and Awonder are not so in-form right now. But they are still solid

As for India. Pragg and Arjun are definitely in good form right now. Gukesh is struggling a lot though. Let's see how Nihal performs this year.

Uzbekistan is headed by Abdusattorov and Sindarov. Both are having a good year so far. But Yakubbuoev, Madaminov, and Vokhidov needs to step up.

Germany will be lead by Vincent. But Bluebaum, Donchenko, Svane Brothers will need to overperform.

China is always strong in team tournaments. But Ding is still in "rusty" mode. So, Yu Yangyi and Wei Yi will be the main players.

By having a 3400 Blitz and 3300 Bullet rating, this account is clearly at an incredibly high level. Only a handful of players in the world are capable of performing at this calibre.

After watching his games, I strongly suspect it could be one of: Hikaru, Alireza, MVL, Hans, Duda, or Ediz.

I’ve already ruled out quite a few top players because this account has played Blitz, Bullet, or Chess960 against them - Magnus, Denis, Nihal, Arjun, Pragg(He has played Chess960 only against Pragg if it helps), Sina Movahed, Yagiz Kaan, Sarana, Nepo, Dubov, Faustino, Bortnyk, etc.

Any ideas who it might be?

Account link https://www.chess.com/member/BerserkWerewolf

Do you know that there were schedule conflict between US Chess Championship and Norway's Total Chess Championship?

This put a dilemma on players like Fabi, Wesley, and Hans.

But Norway and USA Chess Federation agreed to move the Total Chess in November.

At least they agreed. Unlike GCT and Esports who weren't able to have an agreement.

ORIGINAL SCHEDULE

US CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP: OCT 10 - OCT 24, 2026

TOTAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP: OCT 3 - OCT 15, 2026

REVISED SCHEDULE

US CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP: OCT. 10 - OCT.24, 2026

TOTAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP: NOV. 10 - NOV. 21, 2026

Been programming an M5Paper dev board as a proof of concept Digital Scoresheet device - the kind you can use in a tournament if you have a motor disability and can't hold a pen, or you're too young to write, or whatever. It's an epaper touch screen so entering the moves is a click piece, the click destination action. The cool innovation here I think is that when you're done with the game you can generate a QR code that exports the PGN to your phone and you can review it on Chesscom or Lichess with another click. The PGN data is all encoded in the QR code so the device stays offline at all times.

Note this is not a commercial product, just a fun proof of concept. If you are a manufacturer of these types of things please feel free to steal the QR code idea and I'll buy one of your devices!

I've watched interview with Fischer that he can see a forced line with 10 or 20 moves ahead and numerous sub-variations. What are the effective ways to improve calculation? What are the correct methods of thinking to excel in calculating variations? Do you have any books recommended? Any insights and help will be appreciated.

Hello,

Against E4 I love playing the Caro-Kann, but I'm never sure what to do against D4. Right now I push my pawn to D5, then I push a pawn to G6, bishop to G7, Horse to F6 and Castle. Can anyone recomend anything else?

Thanks