antaz/chess

Chess Resources

List of Chess Resources

This list is not necessarily meant to be fully comprehensive, but just to shed the light on the piles of hidden resources for those who are interested in the game of kings

Servers

• Lichess lichess.org
  The Free & Open source GOAT of chess playing websites
  • Learn the basics lichess.org/learn
  • Watch them fight lichess.org/tv
  • Tactics puzzles lichess.org/training
  • Analysis lichess.org/analysis
  • Study lichess.org/study
• Chesscom chess.com
  All the best players in the world play here. lots of chess lessons and courses.
  • Play chess.com/play
  • Lessons etc chess.com/learn
  • Tactics puzzles chess.com/puzzles
  • Explorer chess.com/explorer
• Chess24 chess24.com
  Live coverage of major chess events and a nice UI overall
• Chess Tempo chesstempo.com
  Tactics puzzles and SRS for openings
• Worth mentioning are also some of the deprecated online chess servers
  • ICC Internet Chess Club https://www.chessclub.com/
  • FICS Free Internet Chess Server https://www.freechess.org/

Learning & Courses

• Chessable chessable.com
  Contains a lot of chess courses by great players. mostly paid but it has some very good free courses.
• iChess ichess.net
  The main website has paid courses, but lots of free contents on their youtube channel
• Chess Lessons - Learn with Online Courses https://www.chess.com/lessons

Books

• Logical Chess: Move By Move - Irving Chernev
• My System - Aron Nimzowitsch
• My 60 Memorable Games - Bobby Fischer
• How to Reassess Your Chess: Chess Mastery Through Chess Imbalances - Jeremy Silman
• Zurich international chess tournament, 1953 - David Bronstein
• Amateur to IM: Proven Ideas and Training Methods - Jonathan Hawkins

Youtube

• Saint Louis Chess Club https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM-ONC2bCHytG2mYtKDmIeA
  • Beginner level PL by Varuzhan Akobian, Ben Finegold, Yasser Seirawan et al https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBBG_tnDz_o&list=PLVWaFpMwtaGgJy03_4RtTAmLSCAonR8ww
  • Opening Traps | Kids’ Class - GM Alejandro Ramirez https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XETFf3k6xUU
  • Johnathan Schrantz PL for openings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB7BmQ92kME&list=PLVWaFpMwtaGgJ4IFHRSsU9-0Gq3y4Gopg
  • Eric Rosen PL for endgames, tactics and analysis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcGRwjlkQJ0&list=PLVWaFpMwtaGjcbaQEMd2sJGJTTcaAnnaB
  • Two Bishops in the Middlegame - GM Eric Hansen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoaLgbniSpw
  • A History of Chess Openings - GM Yasser Seirawan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5sn-435KFg
  • In-Between Moves and Zwischenzugs - WGM Jennifer Shahade https://youtu.be/CeJBdm5Q5rI
  • Popular Beginner Openings - WGM Tatev Abrahamyan https://youtu.be/Xtty2zk3n9o
• Chesscom @chess
• Lichess @LichessDotOrg
• iChess @iChess
  • Mastering Piece Placement with GM Daniel Naroditsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVXcfQVOcRc
  • Attacking Chess Tactics with GM Nigel Short https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-hGq9t_T7U
• Chess-Network (Jerry) @ChessNetwork
  • Beginner to Chess Master PL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSA9se6t82I&list=PLQsLDm9Rq9bHKEBnElquF8GuWkI1EJ8Zp
  • How to solve puzzles PL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAVSyYhdo7k&list=PL542BA724CC5A1A3B
• Daniel Naroditsky @DanielNaroditskyGM
  • Master Class Speedrun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WPNVHZmYE8&list=PLT1F2nOxLHOefj_z54LNBpnASnIROm43e
• Chessbrah (Eric Hansen, Aman Hambleton, Yasser Seirawan et al) @chessbrah
  • Learning How to Attack with GM Yasser Seirawan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwg7Jk0Gjoc
  • Pawn Structures Explained by GM Yasser Seirawan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2YN73eCfhc
  • Studying the Games of the World Champions with GM Yasser Seirawan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzcggELVpKw
  • The Chess Elements Explained by GM Yasser Seirawan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2CK5FKC5Zs
• Chessfactor @Chessfactor
• thechesswebsite @chesswebsite
• Eric Rosen @eric-rosen
• John Bartholomew @JohnBartholomewChess
• GothamChess (Levy Rozman) @GothamChess
• Hikaru Nakamura @GMHikaru
• BotezLive (Alexandra & Andrea Botez) @BotezLive
• Ben Finegold @GMBenjaminFinegold
• Blitzstream (Kevin Bordi) @VideosEchecs FR
• chess24 @chess24de DE
• Khatibo Fish (Ahmad Al Khatib) @Khatibo_Fish AR
• Chesscom Arabic @ChesscomArabic
• Mohtaref El A’wal (First Pro) @user-ml6sc4xm9u AR
• Chess Lawyer @chesslawyer1279 AR
• Hewat Shatranj (Chess Amateurs) @chess_amature AR

Twitch

• Chesscom @chess
• Lichess @lichessdotorg
• Hikaru Nakamura @hikaru
• Chessbrah (Eric Hansen, Aman Hambleton et al) @chessbrah
• Andrew Tang @penguingm1
• Daniel Naroditsky @GMNaroditsky
• Eric Rosen @imrosen
• Jerry (ChessNetwork) @chessnetwork
• Magnus Carlsen @maskenissen (The champ himself sometimes streams here)

Podcasts

• C-Squared Podcast (Fabiano Caruana & Cristian Chirilă) @csqpod
• Perpetual Chess Podcast (Ben Johnson) https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/

Events & Results

• Lichess Broadcasts https://lichess.org/broadcast
• 2700chess https://2700chess.com/
• chesscom Events & Tournaments https://www.chess.com/events
• chess-results http://chess-results.com/

Official

• FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation https://www.fide.com/
• World Chess https://worldchess.com/
• US Chess Federation https://new.uschess.org/
• RU Chess Federation https://ruchess.ru/en/
• Indian Chess Federation https://aicf.in/

News

• chessbase https://en.chessbase.com/
• chesscom news https://www.chess.com/news
• r/chess subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/

Variants

Fischer Random (Chess960)

The pieces on the back rows are shuffled while keeping the two bishops on opposite square colors and the king placed between the rook to retain castling permissions

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer_random_chess
• Chess960: Fischer Random Chess Explained | Magnus Carlsen and Lex Fridman

Crazy House

Like actual chess, but captured pieces can be dropped back to board

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazyhouse
• Skype Crazyhouse Chess - GM Yasser Seirawan vs JannLee (Series 6)
• Crazyhouse variant - Blitz Chess w/ commentary

Bug House

Similar to crazy house, but with 4 players and 2 boards. captured pieces are passed to the partner to be dropped on board

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bughouse_chess
• Bughouse Chess with Grandmasters - GM Hikaru and helmsknight vs GM Yasser and JannLee

3-Check

Same rules as normal chess, except 3 checks to the king during the entire game is considered checkmate

• https://lichess.org/variant/threeCheck
• Three-check chess games

Software

• SCID https://scid.sourceforge.net/
  Free and platform-dependant (Windows)
• SCID vs PC https://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/
  Free and open source and cross-platform Started as a bug-fix for the computer-vs-player feature of SCID then grew as an alternative
• ChessBase https://shop.chessbase.com/en/categories/chessbase-cb
  Proprietary and platform-dependant (Windows)
• Tarrasch Chess http://www.triplehappy.com/
  
• ChessX
  Free Chase Database https://chessx.sourceforge.io/
• PyChess https://pychess.github.io
  A chess client for windows/linux

Engines

• Stockfish https://stockfishchess.org/
• Leela Chess Zero https://lczero.org/
• Komodo https://komodochess.com/

Databases

• chessgames https://www.chessgames.com/
• 365chess https://www.365chess.com/
• Chesscom database https://www.chess.com/games

Tools

• OpeningTree openingtree.com
  Dangerously good tool for preperation, including game exports and statistics

Movies & Shows

• The Queen’s Gambit https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10048342/
  This series is the first of its kind. very popular and it has been reviewed by Garry Kasparov.
• Magnus 2016 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5471480/
  A Documantary about the life of Magnus Carlsen
• Pawn Sacrifice 2014 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596345/
  Drama and Biography of the legendary Bobby Fischer

Notable games

• The Game of the Century - D Byrne vs Fischer, 1956 https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1008361
• The Immortal Game - Anderssen vs Kieseritzky, 1851 https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1018910
• The Brisbane Bombshell - Anatoly Karpov vs Garry Kasparov,1985 https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067175
• Albert Einstein vs Robert Oppenheimer,1993 https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1261614
• Notable Chess Games of All Time https://www.chessgames.com/perl/goat.pl

Research

• Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm
  This was the beginning of an era of ML based computer chess engines with AlphaZero chess.
• Programming a Computer for Playing Chess
  The original paper about the design of chess playing computers by Claude E. Shannon
• Aligning Superhuman AI with Human Behavior: Chess as a Model System
  The maiachess project can be found here https://maiachess.com/
• Do Variants Help You Play Better Chess? Statistical Evidence
• lichess.org open database
  Lichess games and puzzles publicly available in different formats. The Related Projects sections contains interesting projects using the database.

Humour

• r/AnarchyChess
• Amateur Challenges Chess Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen | WSJ