10/12/2024 – Sports psychology knows that you play best when you play relaxed, but sports psychology also knows that ease does not come easily when you absolutely want to win. As May Li, the young heroine in Kyla Zhao's entertaining new book "May the Best Player Win" has to learn. "May the Best Player Win" has just been published, but has already received a number of enthusiastic reviews. In a wide-ranging interview with ChessBase, Kyla Zhao talked about her book, her interest in chess, her career, writing books, gender equality in chess and much more.

11/9/2023 – Wally and Käthe Henschel were twins, born in Hamburg on 09.09.1893. In the 1920s and 1930s they were among the best players in Hamburg, and in 1930 Wally even beat Vera Menchik at the Women's World Championship Tournament in Hamburg - the only game Menchik ever lost in a Women's World Championship Tournament. But after the Kristallnacht pogrom on 9 November 1938, the twins, who came from a Jewish family, decided to flee to the USA, where they went on to play in the U.S. Women's Championships and where Wally may even have played against Bobby Fischer. | Photo: The Henschel family

8/9/2023 – The 2023 U.S. Open ran from July 29 to August 6 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It offered nine-day, six-day, and four-day schedules, which merged in round 7. The U.S. Open Champion is GM Andrew Tang. WIM Alexey Root attended meetings, visited the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, and interviewed the U.S. Open Champion (and the champ’s father). | Photo: Daniel Day / U.S. Chess Federation

7/19/2023 – I bought an airplane ticket for the same July 13th flight that my husband Doug took to St. Louis for the 2023 U.S. Senior Championship. But I didn’t join Doug on that flight. ‘Chess’ (the musical) was in St. Louis and my son William wanted to see it. | Photo: Municipal Theatre Association of St. Louis

3/31/2023 – John Foley is the Director of the 2023 London Chess Conference. Stefan Löffler was involved as a facilitator and was the founding director of the conference in 2013. Here they report from a breakthrough edition which established how chess enhances 21st century skills, interest in STEM subjects and even pre-school education. | Pictured: Rita Atkins, John Foley and Dana Reizniece-Osola | Photo: John Yip

12/14/2022 – The history of the U.S. Women's Chess Championships contains a wealth of information about chess in America and countless fascinating stories about champions from all walks of life. A groundbreaking work about the U.S. Women's Chess Championships and the 29 women who won the title between 1937 and 2020 has been published by McFarland. Johannes Fischer wanted to know more and interviewed Alexey Root, the author of the book.

11/23/2022 – Day 3 of the World Team Championships saw four teams leaving the competition as the preliminaries came to an end in Jerusalem. South Africa and the Netherlands did not make it through in Pool A, while Israel and the United States were eliminated in Pool B. Poland barely qualified, after tying in match points and individual points with Israel — a better tiebreaker score allowed the Polish team to move on. | Photo: Mark Livshitz

8/9/2022 – By tying for first in the 2022 U.S. Open, Grandmaster Elshan Moradiabadi won a qualifying spot to the 2022 U.S. Championship. Then he lost an Armageddon playoff chess game with Grandmaster Aleksey Sorokin for an extra $200 and the U.S. Open title. Moradiabadi and Sorokin spoke to WIM Alexey Root, who also reports on U.S. Open committee meetings and awards. | Photos: Alexey Root

8/4/2022 – New York won the state versus state championship at the national tournaments of state chess champions held July 30–August 2, 2022. Each state could send five representatives, and each representative played six games. Individual champions were also crowned. Woman International Master Alexey Root reports from the Rancho Mirage, California site, which also hosts the U.S. Open. | Photos: Alexey Root

3/17/2022 – Studying "Black to play and defend positions" teaches chess students how to recognize and stop threats. For example, coaches may ask beginners to find ways to stop a back rank mate or the Scholar’s Mate. Flipping the board may also help with high-level analysis. National Master Jeffrey Ashton explains how to create positions where the Black chessmen are on the bottom of the diagram, which gives Black’s perspective.

2/22/2022 – The Master Section of the 13th Annual Southwest Class Championships, February 17–21, ended in a tie for first between International Masters Christopher Yoo and Zurab Javakhadze, with 7.5 out of 9. Woman International Master Alice Lee made an International Master norm. Alexey Root reports from Fort Worth, Texas. | Photo: Courtesy of the Lee family

1/26/2022 – With Omicron on the rise and social gatherings discouraged, leasing 2,000 square feet for in-person chess seems risky. Yet the gamble paid off for the Texas Chess Center, which attracted 67 players to its grand opening on January 22, 2022. WIM Alexey Root reports.| Photo: Christopher Tetzlaff

1/21/2022 – Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. are the drivers of the legendary Scuderia Ferrari in Formula One. Lewis Hamilton is not the only self-confessed chess fan among Formula One racing drivers. The two Ferrari drivers also love the royal game and even engaged in a rapid chess challenge.

12/13/2021 – When Beth Harmon defeated a series of top male grandmasters, and then went on to wrest the title from Russian world champion Vasily Borgov, it was not real life. It happened in the Queen’s Gambit, a Netflix series that did more for chess than anything else in 2020. In reality, today there is not a single active female player in the top 100. But FIDE wants to change that, as the Guardian reports.

10/18/2021 – The 62nd Annual US Armed Forces Open Chess Championship was held in Grapevine, Texas, from October 8–11, 2021. Charles D. "Chuck" Unruh and Charles M. Unruh won the Veterans Open Championship and the Armed Forces Open, respectively. Chuck, the father, scored 4½ of 5 rounds to top a 22-player field. Charles, the son, went 5-0 in a 51-player field. | Photo: Danny Fallon

8/26/2021 – What is it that separates chess from a game like baseball? One answer is “the statistics”. While baseball fans have a dazzling variety of stats to pore over, chess reporting has tended to focus on the individual games and events rather than overall numbers. With a new book on the U.S. Women’s Champions on the horizon, it’s a good time to look at the records of this tournament series. | Pictured: Mona May Karff playing White against Mary Bain at the 1956 Pan American Championship. | Photo: Nancy Roos / Collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame

8/17/2021 – The John G. White Collection of Chess and Checkers is the largest and most comprehensive collection of printed material on chess. While its physical location is Cleveland, Ohio, chess researchers and aficionados may also view parts of the collection online. On July 21, 2021, Woman International Master Alexey Root visited the Cleveland Public Library, which houses the collection. | Photos: Alexey Root

8/10/2021 – Grandmaster Aleksandr Lenderman won the U.S. Open with 8½ points out of 9 rounds. Mike Walder annotates Lenderman’s wins over Grandmasters Hans Niemann and John Michael Burke. Alexey Root reports on the awards presentations, book signings, and meetings held at the U.S. Open’s Cherry Hill, New Jersey site. | Photos: Alexey Root

8/6/2021 – By a score of 23–22, Northern California triumphed over Texas at the national tournaments of state chess champions held July 31–August 3. Each state could send five representatives, and each representative played six games. Individual champions were also crowned. Woman International Master Alexey Root reports from the Cherry Hill, New Jersey site, which also hosts the U.S. Open. | Photos: Alexey Root

7/30/2021 – Alongside the U.S. Open are five tournaments of state chess champions, for different age and grade categories. Each state affiliate may nominate one player for each tournament. Participants in the five tournaments compete together in blitz. Woman International Master Alexey Root previews the state champions tournaments from a Texas perspective. | Photos: Niki Riga / Texas Chess Association

5/23/2021 – Today, on 23 May, Anatoly Karpov turns 70! The 12th World Champion is still very active and on 31 May 2021, he will give a simul at the Karpov Children’s Cup, an event supported by FIDE. Which made Alexey Root remember a remarkable Karpov simul in Austin, Texas, back in 1994. | Photo: V. Savostianov, Novosti Press (via D. Griffin)

4/18/2021 – Comparing the average ratings of the U.S. Championships and U.S. Women’s Championships from 1972–2000 shows a 300+ point difference between the former and the latter, as detailed in part one of this two-part series. In this part two, Ashley Yan and Alexey Root offer a possible explanation for this gender-based ratings gap.

4/10/2021 – In this article, part one of a two-part series, Ashley Yan and Alexey Root compare average ratings in the U.S. Championships and the U.S. Women’s Championships held between 1972 and 2000. The United States Chess Federation’s 20th-century ratings and the gender distribution of its membership is also discussed. | Photo: Chess Life Magazine, November 1984 (from the Chess Life and Chess Review Archives)

4/2/2021 – Australia’s Gold Coast metropolitan region is known for sandy beaches and surfing. And a simul. International Master Alex Wohl took on 20 chess players in an outdoor simultaneous exhibition. Woman International Master Alexey Root and Wohl report on chess activity at the Gold Coast’s Burleigh Market. | Photo: Kgbo [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons