WIM Alexey Root, PhD

Alexey Root is a Woman International Master and the 1989 U.S. Women's chess champion. Her peak US Chess rating was 2260. She has a PhD in education from UCLA. You can find her books on chess on Amazon.com.

COVID-19 survivor Irina Krush wins U.S. Women’s Championship

The U.S. Women’s Championship was held online October 21-24, 2020. Organized by the Saint Louis Chess Club, the time control for the 12-player round robin was Game in 25 with a 5-second increment. Grandmaster Irina Krush won the tournament with 8.5 points scored in 11 rounds. It was Krush’s eighth time to win the U.S. Women’s Championship. More 🡢

The Queen’s Gambit and Critical Thinking

I first read The Queen’s Gambit when I was a teenage chess expert, a lesser prodigy than the book’s main character, Beth Harmon. I noticed that what happened to Beth had happened to me too. Like Beth, I had been told that “Girls don’t play chess.” More 🡢

Clubs turn to online chess

The ChessClub and Scholastic Center of Atlantaclosed on March 11 because of the pandemic. Its founders, Karen Boyd and Grandmaster Ben Finegold, are streaming online and planning the club’s in-person re-opening. The Dallas Chess Club vacated its rented location in June. Its staff is running in-person chess tournaments at hotels. WIM Alexey Root tells how each club is dealing with the pandemic. More 🡢

Hand & Brain Chess

Chess variants where one plays with a partner, such as bughouse, tandem chess, or hand & brain, are amusing. In contrast to a standard chess game, where you control each of your moves, your partner may make a move for your team that you didn’t expect. Likewise, parts-of-speech games entertain because of unexpected results. More 🡢

Air Hockey and Chess

Chess is like boxing without brain damage, combative, and a fierce battle. Top chess players used to assemble notebooks—and now create databases—about their opponents’ openings and strategies. More 🡢

The Cunning Cavalry of Chess

Grandmaster Sergey Kasparov has undertaken an ambitious task in his fifties. He is writing one book about each chessman. Published by Russell Enterprises, the “Power of the Pieces Series” began with The Bishop: Danger on the Diagonal. The second book in the series is The Knight: The Cunning Cavalry. More 🡢

Joys and sorrows of over-the-board and online chess

On July 18-19, WIM Alexey Root played in the third annual Queen City of the Prairie Open and Fort Worth Championship. More 🡢

This is why we play chess: Gata Kamsky

Grandmaster Gata Kamsky lives in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and is married to Woman Grandmaster Vera Nebolsina. Kamsky is a former World Chess Championship challenger. In this article, I look at one recent Kamsky win, which he played and commented on live on Twitch. More 🡢