WWII and the Soviet Era

Max Euwe: Only amateur to hold the title which is only fair because he played a sort of the best possible version of “coffeehouse chess” where you make goofy little attacks.

Mikhail Botvinnik: If Alehine took chess seriously, Botvinnik turned into an industry. Made the Soviet Union a chess… Read more

Something cool to note: Table Tennis, both in the US and internationally, use a rating system based off of the chess rating system. For reference, I’m around 1600 and an advanced tourney player would be 2000+ Read more

Next, can you please talk about how fucking CRAZY the organizers of international chess is? FIDE is run by absolutely nutcases and makes FIFA look like the Johnsons next door. Read more

What an excellent primer, great work Ben! Read more

Now go try Really Bad Chess and throw out 90% of this article. Read more

Similarly, a person who is triumphantly claiming that they stroll through life like a chess Grandmaster, thinking multiple moves ahead of everyone else, is generally just showing us the Dunning-Kruger effect in action. Read more

I like this article.
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Another chess fun fact: Bobby Fischer invented Chess960, wherein the rows of pawns are set up the same, but the back rows of pieces are randomized (with some restrictions). This eliminates the memorization of openings and forces players to play creatively from the get-go. Read more

To give you a little sense of the history of the game and different styles a player might have (FUN FACT: Every notable American player of the last 50 years is described as playing like Bobby Fischer. They almost certainly don’t.)
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Chess always seems like I game I think I should be playing because smart people play it before I go back to blasting aliens in Doom.
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Any excuse to post the Maurice Ashley vs a Chess hustler video.

Yea but what about the complete guide to 4D Chess? Bill Mitchell’s Twitter has told me that’s what the President specializes in. Read more

This thread of “Complete Guides to ___” is awesome. Keep it up. Read more

Nice overview. Read more

I found the lessons on the chess.com app were extremely helpful. They start off incredibly basic but quickly move up to key principles and then a series of elaborate opening and defenses. I had played a bit and was okay but this helped a lot. Read more

At what point does one yell “Yahtzee!”? Read more

I’m sorry I didn’t finish this but I’d never heard of en passant before and at that point in the article decided I was just too stupid to continue. Read more

“Meatbag chumps.” Read more

King me! Read more