News & Blog

First to six wins, no game limit: 48 games, five months, and a 5-0 lead that never became a title.

Ganges Grandmasters upset defending champions Alpine APL Pipers 7-5 to win their first Global Chess League title in Bengaluru.

Chess is believed to have begun as chaturanga in India around the sixth century, then spread through Persia and Europe.

In 1989, Ivan Nikolić and Goran Arsović played 269 moves over 20 hours — and still couldn't settle it.

In 1770 an automaton dressed as a Turk beat chess masters across Europe for decades. The catch: it was never a machine.

From the Immortal Game of 1851 to the day a computer beat a world champion: five games you should recognize.

Four beginner-friendly chess openings explained simply: the first moves, why each suits new players, and how to learn them the right way.

In 1923 Nimzowitsch beat Samisch with a quiet little pawn push that left White no move worth making.

Short, careful portraits of five giants of the game: Steinitz, Tal, Fischer, Kasparov, and Carlsen.

Bxh7+ looks like a blunder until you see the mate. Learn the famous king-hunt that Greco described 400 years ago — and the five checks before you play it.

For five months, Karpov and Kasparov ground through 48 games and 40 draws — then FIDE stopped it before a champion was crowned.

In 1770 a Hungarian inventor unveiled a chess "automaton" that beat Napoleon — by hiding a chess master inside. For 84 years, nobody proved how.

Hypnotists in the front row, coded yogurt at the board: the strangest world title match in chess history, Baguio 1978.

One little 1895 endgame study explains why a queen can be the wrong promotion — and why Saavedra's rook made him famous.

In nineteen moves on May 11, 1997, IBM's Deep Blue did what no machine had done before: it beat world champion Garry Kasparov.

More possible games than atoms in the universe, a word that means "the king is helpless," and chess played in space.

On June 9, 1970, cosmonauts on Soyuz-9 played chess against Earth via radio. It was the first board game ever played in orbit — and it ended in a draw.

From a 19th-century agreement between two players to FIDE's modern match cycle: how the world title is decided.

The 46th Chess Olympiad opens in Samarkand today, the first ever held in Central Asia, with a record field chasing India's Budapest double.

How one quiet pawn move — 25...h6 — put a top-1920s grandmaster in a trap with no good move on the board.

Set up the board, learn what each piece does, and understand check, checkmate, castling, and en passant.

In 1970, ten of the world's best chess players took on the Soviet machine in Belgrade. Forty games later, it came down to half a point.

A fake chess-playing 'robot' beat Napoleon and Franklin and fooled Europe for 84 years. Its secret, and the fire that ended it.

In 1970, ten grandmasters flew to Belgrade to break the Soviet chess machine. They fell one point short — and changed chess forever.

Trade a bishop for a pawn and drag the castled king into the open. Here's when the Greek Gift sacrifice works and when it just gives wood away.

In 1923, Nimzowitsch beat Sämisch by making the obligation to move itself fatal. A masterclass in paralysis and prophylaxis.

The joke club invented in 1929 to mock Vera Menchik ended up honoring her — the world champion who never lost her title.

How Bobby Fischer ended 24 years of Soviet chess domination in a cold-war showdown that the whole world watched.

Learn the short, sharp ideas that win material: forks, pins, skewers, and counting exchanges before you trade.

Checkmate against a lone king is simpler than it looks. Learn the queen and rook mates, why some pieces can't, and the opposition.

Seventy years ago today, 13-year-old Bobby Fischer played the queen sacrifice that became chess's most famous game — and the lesson it still teaches.

In 1999, Garry Kasparov played the whole world online and nearly lost. What that four-month game teaches about openings, endgames, and crowds.

The 1972 Cold War showdown in Reykjavik nearly ended before the first move — a restless Fischer, two forfeits, and the game that crowned a new champion.

For most of chess history, the queen was its weakest piece. In 1475, a Valencian poem turned her loose — and changed the game forever.

An old, 'boring' Ruy Lopez line helped Kramnik beat Kasparov in 2000 without losing a game. Here's what it still teaches.

A mocking joke in 1929 founded a club for masters who lost to Vera Menchik. Its first member was the man who invented it.

In 1978 the world title was decided in a Philippine mountain resort, with a hypnotist in the champion's front row.