chess

Lots of kids learn chess in school Chess programs have spread all across the country. Parents perceive that chess provides their children with competitive advantages. Chess excellence leads to prestige, advancement opportunities, and special recognition. It didn't take long for administrators to...

Latvian Mikhail Tal's (1936–1992) health troubles kept him from performing at peak efficiency after 1960. Mikhail Botvinnik once said, "If Tal would learn to program himself properly, he would be impossible to play." Tal won the world championship title from Botvinnik in 1960 but lost the return...

José Raúl Capablanca was world champion from 1921 to 1927. Many people considered him the strongest player in the world prior to 1921, but he was unable to arrange a match with the then-champion, Emanuel Lasker. When public sentiment became overwhelming in demand of a match, Lasker simply tried...

Although Garry Kasparov eventually eclipsed Anatoly Karpov, no one would dream of leaving Karpov off this list. Karpov won the championship by default when Bobby Fischer refused to defend his title. Many people considered this a black mark on Karpov's record because Karpov never actually won the...

Alexander Alekhine was single-minded in his pursuit of the world championship, and his drive eventually, in 1927, overcame José Raúl Capablanca's skill. Alekhine's results were never as dominating as those of the players higher on this list, but he still managed an impressive run. From 1921...

Setting up your chessboard Setting up your chessboard is the first step in playing a game of chess. Take your time setting up the board until you’re confident that you know where everything goes: Set the rooks (the pieces that typically look like tiny castle towers) on the corner squares...

The Queen’s Gambit is more than the name of the latest Netflix mega-hit. It’s one of the oldest and best openings in the game of chess and the one Beth, the main character in The Queen's Gambit, uses (spoiler alert!) to defeat Russian grandmaster Vasily Borgov to become the world’s top chess...

Mikhail Botvinnik won seven consecutive major tournaments from 1941 to 1948, including the tournament held to determine the champion upon Alexander Alekhine's death. There's little doubt that he would have defeated Alekhine, and it seems certain that he was the best player of the 1940s...

In 1971, Robert James Fischer (nicknamed Bobby) shocked the chess world by winning 19 consecutive games against an extremely high level of competition. This feat has been compared to throwing back-to-back no-hitters in major league baseball. During his peak playing period, from the mid 1960s...

Value your pawns and pieces Each pawn or piece has a numerical value. The pawn is the basic unit of chess and is assigned a numerical value of one. The other pieces are evaluated in those same terms. Therefore, if a pawn is worth one point, a knight is worth more: three points. In other words...