For more than 50 years now, chess players have been statistically rated and ranked based on their record of wins, losses, and draws. These ratings give us a nice set of historical statistical data to use for various purposes. Sometimes, that purpo...
Do you still remember when you were bitten by the chess bug? Followed by that feverish desire to improve in the game? Only to realize that you started “too late” to amount to anything? In this era of prodigies and 12-year-old grandma...
There have been many attempts to estimate ratings of chess players, both past and present, by looking at their game scores and comparing the moves with a top engine's choices, including one notable study here on Chess.com in 2017. These at...
Who is the best? It's a question we ask about almost every competitive endeavor, and chess is no exception. For many years, we here at Chess.com have bestowed the Chess.com Awards at the end of every year. But it's time to think with longer timesc...
The game of chess didn't have a world championship until 1886. It took an additional 41 years for there to be a women's world championship, first held in 1927. Despite the shorter time period, there have been as many women's champions, 17,...
If you've enjoyed our previous data visualizations of the most accurate chess players over time and the countries with the most grandmasters over time, then you'll want to check out our latest: The top women over time! With the 2023 FIDE Women's...
GM Magnus Carlsen won't be the official world champion of classical chess for much longer, but he has proven again and again in events outside of the FIDE-managed classical world championship that he is the best player in the world. Carlsen's re...
GM Ian Nepomniachtchi is making his second attempt at winning the FIDE World Championship and is just three draws away from becoming champion. During last year's Sinquefield Cup, Nepomniachtchi sat down with Chess.com's GM Daniel "Danya" Narodit...
GM Ian Nepomniachtchi entered the 2023 FIDE World Championship as the number-two player in the world. You don't get to that position or win two Candidates Tournaments in two years (2021 and 2022) by only playing mundane moves. Sometimes you have t...
With the 2023 FIDE World Championship coming up soon, what better time to look at some of the two challengers' best games against each other? GM Ian Nepomniachtchi has a small lifetime score advantage over GM Ding Liren in all time c...
The 2023 FIDE World Championship will take place in Astana, Kazakhstan, and runs from April 7 through May 1. The match will decide who will be the next world chess champion—GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (Nepo) or GM Ding Liren. In 2021, the ...
Edited April 3, 2023: Happy April Fool’s Day, everyone. Stay safe! Hello, chess world. This is the first of a 25-article series proving why GM Anish Giri is the best person in the history of all humanity. I am writing this article series n...
Our celebration of Black History Month continues with another interview. I sat down with FM Joshua Colas, the superstar who made headlines in 2010 after breaking the record of youngest African-American to become a US national master. Though his re...
During black history month, we recognize pioneers that changed the game as it was before them and made a way for those after them. Though chess becomes a more global and diverse game each year, representation at the highest levels (and FIDE titles...
GM Daniel Naroditsky, Chess.com's lead commentator, is known for his career as a strong player (2647 peak rating) and his ability to break down the game for audiences of all levels. From writing instructive articles to commentating on elite chess ...
Today we bring you the players who won the most prize money in the major international chess events of 2022. Back in August, we revealed which chess players had won the most prize money throughout history for their performance in major matches and...
The recently concluded World Team Championship is in the history books already. China again demonstrated its enormous chess potential by winning the tournament, even without the presence of its top players. Uzbekistan was another hero of this even...
Other than a world championship match, there is arguably nothing that excites the chess world more than a promising young player. From 1956, when 13-year-old future GM Bobby Fischer's "Game of the Century" was reprinted around the world and began ...
Few would question that, in an ideal world, the best chess player would be the world champion and vice versa. We can agree that GM Magnus Carlsen, who has been world number-one by rating since 2010 and world champion since 2013, is both. But at so...
GM Bobby Fischer, the 11th world champion of chess, is arguably the most controversial person to play the game. He was a great fighter, and some will claim he's the best who ever lived after winning the greatest world championship match in hi...
GM Magnus Carlsen made waves with his recent decision not to play in the 2023 World Championship. However, he is hardly the first world champion to quit or criticize the championship system, or otherwise tire of the role or leave its acquisition t...
In honor of the 44th Chess Olympiad, we at Chess.com asked the question: If you could put every country's best five players ever on the same team, how good would those teams be? Now there are many arguments, and not just in chess, about how good...
A child prodigy destined for greatness, GM Boris Spassky was an exemplary sportsman and a stoic character. The young Soviet fulfilled his prophecy in 1969 when he defeated none other than GM Tigran Petrosian to become the world champion. Facing ...
GM Bobby Fischer is a legendary and mysterious chess figure—the boy from Brooklyn who single-handedly took down an empire. A chess genius, a champion, and a troubled mind, Fischer was undoubtedly a unique character. Fischer etched his name...
Tuesday, July 11, 1972, 5 p.m. local time. The 1,800 spectators at Laugardalsholl applaud as GM Boris Spassky, the reigning world champion, enters the stage. He sits down, makes his first move (1.d4), and arbiter GM Lothar Schmid starts the clock....
