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Hand-carved wooden chess set with pieces arranged on the board
The Immortal Game: Chess's Most Dazzling Sacrifice
In 1851, two players sat down for a casual game between rounds of a London tournament — and Adolf Anderssen gave away his queen and both rooks to win what... Read more...
A round wooden chess set with Armenia carved along the rim
Levon Aronian: Armenia's Most Beloved Chess Champion
The life and career of Levon Aronian, from a childhood in Yerevan to two FIDE World Cup titles and the world's number two ranking — and why fans love him... Read more...
Hand-carved walnut backgammon set with a tall ship design across the cover
X-22: The Chess Prodigy Who Became a Backgammon Legend
Meet Paul Magriel, the chess prodigy who became backgammon's X-22 — world champion, legendary teacher, and the man who turned a private 64-player tournament against himself into a lasting nickname. Read more...
A hand-carved wooden chess set with pieces arranged for play
Mikhail Tal: The Magician Who Made Chess Dangerous
Mikhail Tal won the 1960 World Chess Championship with reckless, beautiful attacking play — and remains one of the most beloved champions chess has ever had. Read more...
A small handmade wooden chess set with carved border, pieces set up for play
How Chess and Backgammon Build a Child's Patience and Focus
A chess board and a backgammon set teach children patience, memory, and how to lose gracefully — quietly, without a single lecture. Read more...
Small hand-carved travel wooden chess set with the pieces set up for a game
The Chess Olympiad: How a Board Game Became a Team Sport
The Chess Olympiad turns a solitary game into a team sport. Here's how it began in 1927 London, how the format works, and what it has to do with the... Read more...
A hand-carved wooden chess set with the pieces set up for a game
The Sicilian Defense: Chess's Most Fought-Over Opening
The Sicilian Defense turned a Sicilian priest's 17th-century manuscript into chess's fiercest reply to 1.e4 — and nearly every World Champion has reached for it since. Read more...
A hand-carved wooden chess set with pieces arranged on the board
Gukesh Dommaraju: Chess's Youngest World Champion
How eighteen-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju beat Ding Liren in Singapore to become chess's youngest World Champion — and what the long, patient match says about the game itself. Read more...
Wooden chess set with pieces set up on a carved board resting on bronze legs
Paul Morphy: The Chess Genius Who Walked Away
Paul Morphy beat the best players in the world by his early twenties, played one of chess's most famous games at a Paris opera house — and then walked away... Read more...
Hand-carved wooden backgammon board with a curved arch outline, closed
Backgammon's Ancient Ancestors: From Mesopotamia to Rome
Long before anyone called it backgammon, people were racing pieces around a board in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Rome. Here's where the game actually came from. Read more...
Close-up of a hand-carved wooden chess set with its board and pieces on a table
Why a Hand-Carved Chess or Backgammon Board Outlasts a Factory One
A look at why hand-carved wooden chess and backgammon boards hold up for decades while factory-made veneer boards don't — the joinery, the wood, and the weight that make the... Read more...
Close-up of a hand-carved wooden chess table with pieces set up for a game
The World's Most Famous Chess Cafés, From Paris to New York
From the Café de la Régence in Paris to the concrete tables of Washington Square Park, chess has always found its best home in a coffeehouse. A look at the... Read more...