Mark's Chess Blog

The most common continuation of the French Defense is 2.d4 d5. Black accepts a restricted Bishop and less space in return for a solid position which is not easily breached. ... Read More

We often use our forum to spotlight press releases and to invite comment. • Here's the press release : U.S. Chess Championship (March 2006); 'The U.S. Chess Championship returns to San Diego from 1 ... Read More

Everyone loves a winner and the Bulgarian press has been having a field day with new World Chess Champion Veselin Topalov. Here is a selection of English language reports from ... Read More

One of the many qualities that determine a good chess game is a surprising sacrifice. The 2005 FIDE World Championship at San Luis, Argentina, was full of excellent sacrifices. Here ... Read More

In Creating a WWII Chess Set, Mjermom says, 'I would like to create a World War II theme chess set. However, I know nothing about chess and only basic facts about WWII. ... Read More

The year end holidays are fast approaching and it's time to start thinking about gifts. Let's have some recent product and service news. Here are announcements from Kozmo Games, eBay, ... Read More

Remember blue ribbons? Those humble, yet elegant, badges denoting first class and excellence? When it comes to chess books, we give blue ribbons to books that have shown outstanding commercial ... Read More

First we talked about it. Now let's establish a consensus. Vote in our new poll : Should resignation be forbidden by the rules?

Congratulations to the new FIDE World Chess Champion, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, winner of San Luis, Argentina! After cruising through the first half of the eight-player event with a blistering +6-0=1 score, ... Read More

A popular response by Black to 1.d4 is the Queen's Gambit Declined (often abbreviated QGD) : 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6. The game usually continues 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5, which pins the ... Read More

In Aladdin Brings Chess to Life, smtalim points to a post in his blog (satishtalim.blogspot.com) and wonders 'whether this is really the right approach one should follow to teach chess to one's ... Read More

It's getting serious!. Reuters reported the story, CNN picked it up from Reuters, and now it seems like everyone is knocking it around. • Chess boxing: Brain and brawn: 'Bulgarian boxer Tihomir Titschko's ... Read More

World Chess Championship candidates are generally players in or near the world's top-10. We recently reviewed books that focus on two players -- Miguel Najdorf and Andras Adorjan -- who ... Read More

Forum contributor IMJP likes posing provocative questions. A few months ago, in Forbid resignations?, he proposed that resigning games should be outlawed. Now, in Pairings of junior family members, he proposes 'forbidding all pairings ... Read More

The FIDE World Chess Championship started without a hitch on 28 September in San Luis, Argentina. The first round saw two wins by the Black pieces -- Veselin Topalov beat ... Read More