I'm the Head of Community for Chess.com. I earned the National Master title in 2012, and in 2014, I returned to my home state of South Carolina to start Strategery: Chess and Games. In late 2015, I began working for Chess.com and haven't looked back since.
You can find my personal content on Twitch , Twitter , and YouTube where I further indulge my love of chess.
Less than two weeks ago, Magnus Carlsen played incredibly on his birthday and won the world championship, but in London, birthdays have been most cruel to the participants. Hikaru Nakamura was defeated by Wesley So on his birthday two days ago, ...
Today Wesley So became the 12th player of all time to break 2800. His win with White over Michael Adams was fluid and representative of the excellent form he has been in for much of 2016. So is making a strong case that the next challe...
GM Hikaru Nakamura won his record seventh Titled Tuesday to close out 2016. His win came in the late Titled Tuesday, which he shared with a large pack of six players on 7.0/9: GMs Laurent Fressinet, Aleksander Shimanov, Daniel Naroditsky, Vidit Gu...
The European Club Cup was loaded with 2700s, and in the end, the team most packed with 2700s claimed clear first. Team "Alkaloid" (Ding Liren, Dmitry Andreikin, Pavel Eljanov, Dmitry Jakovenko, Yu Yangyi, and Yury Kryvoruchko all over 27...
The Saint Louis Chess Club has delivered another innovative tournament in the Champions Showdown, which started today. Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Viswanathan Anand, and Veselin Topalov are playing a five-day standard, rapid, and blitz ...
The European Club Cup has been packed with fighting chess, surprising upsets, and tense matches. After four rounds, only team Alkaloid (fielding 2700s Dmitry Andreikin, Pavel Eljanov, Dmitry Jakovenko, Yu Yangyi, and Yury Kryvoruchko) and Medyni...
UPDATE: Marc Esserman's simul will now take place on Saturday, December 3rd! Please look for Marc's live commentary on chess.com/tv of the games in progress and follow the games live yourself by following username "MEsserman" in live chess. Marc w...
GM Dmitry Andreikin is one of the stalwart heroes of Titled Tuesday. He has finished in the money in 14 Tuesdays, but he has previously only won three events. Today, he upped his victory tally to four and garnered his third clear victory...
GM Dariusz Swiercz won the third Millionaire Chess on Monday in Atlantic City, N.J., triumphing in the Millionaire Monday final against GM Gawain Jones. For first place, Swiercz collected a clean $30,000. Not bad for a college student, a...
GM Olexandr Bortnyk ran the table, scoring a perfect 9.0/9 in a star-studded Titled Tuesday that featured two 2800s as both Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Fabiano Caruana competed. The perfect score (and a bonus Fischer prize of $250) had eluded ...
Ian Nepomniachtchi won clear first at the Tal Memorial with a draw as Black against Boris Gelfand. The final round proved to be anything but simple for "Nepo" as he struggled against Gelfand, who was close to tallying his first win of the eve...
Thus far the Tal Memorial has been a thrilling antidote to some of the more peaceful events of 2016. Unfortunately, the high bar of four decisive games in both rounds five and six could not be maintained. Whereas we dubbed the sixth round "ex...
GM Judit Polgar may have retired from competitive chess, but that doesn't mean she has lost her love of the game. Polgar is still heavily involved in chess and this Saturday (October 8) she will host the Global Chess Festival. The Global Ch...
In the only decisive game of the day, Viswanathan Anand defeated Boris Gelfand in an excellent positional game. Without doubt, Gelfand's opponents and tormentors (Mamedyarov, Giri, Li Chao, and now Anand) have played sterling chess, but tal...
Anish Giri has been on a tear in the Tal Memorial. Today he won his third game in a row (against Peter Svidler) to move to 3.5/4 and hop into clear first. As a bonus, he re-entered the top 10 after a fairly lackluster 2016. Giri hasn't won a sup...
GM Ian Nepomniachtchi began the Baku Olympiad with an incredible 7.0/7 before suffering a defeat at the hands of eventual gold medal winner, GM Wesley So. He seems to have continued his form into the Tal Memorial where he began the ...
This month's "In Other News" is a financial cornucopia featuring a CM who broke Google's bank, the most expensive chess sets, the largest chess set, and taxation with inadequate representation. Join us for an incredible tour of chess news you may ...
IM Alexander Moskalenko achieved the highest point total in Titled Tuesday as he racked up eight wins in nine games to claim clear first place in the early event. Two other non-GMs, FM Ilya Duzhakov and IM Minh Le, shared second with GM Evgen...
Despite a choppy start, World Champion Magnus Carlsen convincingly conquered the reigning World Blitz Champion Alexander Grischuk in a masterpiece of a Blitz Battle. Carlsen now advances to the GM Blitz Battle Championship final, and wil...
Wesley So had all the answers as Black in a Berlin Defense against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. After 47 moves, the players didn't even need to agree a draw. The result was automatic, as there was no material left to mate. The ...
GM Levon Aronian won a critical two-pawn-up endgame against an ill GM Hikaru Nakamura to move into shared second place with one round to go in the Sinquefield Cup. Aronian, GM Viswanathan Anand and GM Veselin Topalov are all at 4.5/8 jus...
Today served as a brutal yet soporific reminder that a well played game of chess is ultimately a draw. By far the most interesting game of the round was GM Fabiano Caruana vs GM Ding Liren. Caruana tried every trick at his disposal for j...
GM Wesley So emerged the winner of an unbalanced, back-and-forth struggle with tournament leader GM Veselin Topalov in round six of the Sinquefield Cup. So's victory allowed him to swap places with Topalov and take the clear lead with three r...
Shaba is love, Shaba is life. The popular GM Alexander Shabalov repeated last year's victory at the U.S. Open (held July 30-August 7), and once again, claimed the coveted spot at the U.S. championship. Shabalov's impressive 8.0/9 score was equal...
