The second semifinal of the Chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship will be played today between GM Alexandra Kosteniuk and GM Valentina Gunina, both from Russia. The winner of the Women's Speed Chess Championship will qualify for the general 2019 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship and also for the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss in October in Isle of Man. Today we'll find out the opponent for Elina Danielian in the big final of this first Women's Speed Chess Championship to be played on June...

This Saturday, Europe will make its debut into the PRO Chess League Summer Series, as three Central Division sides look to make their impact in Group B. The "group of life" nickname means that any of the four teams can find themselves in the next round, so fans will likely play a big factor. Baden-Baden, the Central Division champion and PRO Chess League finalist, is certainly the favorite to win the group, but bitter PRO Chess League memories from the Pittsburgh Pawngrabbers, Barcelona Raptors...

What is pawn structure? From my online glossary, I define it as "the positioning of the whole pawn mass. Also referred to as the pawn skeleton. This positioning of the pawns is what usually dictates the types of plans available in a given position due to open files, space, pawn weaknesses, etc." It’s normal to develop pieces, put a rook on an open file and make threats. Normal stuff, but not very exciting. Others get a few pieces out and go for an attack. That’s probably more...

You wouldn't believe some of the ways you can use a subtle tactic in a chess game. Find out how to seal up the king so it can't move—and use this technique the next time you play Puzzle Rush.

Hi Chess Friends, I've recently been reading through Game Changer, a book about AI chess engine AlphaZero, the strongest chess entity to date. Obviously no person can play at the level of the machine, but we can pick up a few of its preferred techniques. The following game featured plenty of mistakes, but I enjoyed the ending and got to try out a few common AlphaZero techniques. 1. AlphaZero loves to push it's rook pawns as far as possible, often reaching h6 as part of a mating attack. 2. AlphaZero...

Elina Danielian defeated Harika Dronavalli 15-13 on Thursday in the first Women's Speed Chess Championship semifinal. On Sunday, the other semifinal will be played between Alexandra Kosteniuk and Valentina Gunina.  She did it before, and she did it again. After eliminating the top seed Kateryna Lagno, Danielian knocked the fourth-seeded Harika out of the Women's Speed Chess Championship, to reach the final that is played on June 27. Danielian, the lowest seed in the tournament bracket,...

I learned the phrase "a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse" in school when I studied Richard III by William Shakespeare. These days, people use this expression when they want to underline the importance of something. There is a story about a man who was about to sign a document that would finalize his very painful divorce. Eager to leave the nightmare behind, the guy exclaims: "a pen, a pen, my kingdom for a pen!" Sometimes we have a similar situation in chess when a knight ("chess horse")...

The Chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship continues today with the first semifinal of the competition between GM Harika Dronavalli (India) and GM Elina Danielian (Armenia). The winner of the Women's Speed Chess Championship will qualify for the general 2019 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship and for the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss in October in Isle of Man. After a number of Junior Speed Chess matches we're back with the women's tournament this week. Today the first semifinal will be played,...

Do you find that you sometimes miss opportunities to punish your opponent when leading in development? This week we are proud to release our new Mastery course, Using Time In Chess by GM Simon Williams.  GM Williams shows you how to smell opportunity knocking and take the pawn by the horns. Learn how to speed up the game and punish your opponents for their incautious play! Try This Course Course Outline This course features four lessons dissecting different aspects of tempo it...