Ideas, Openings & Improvement

Six frames of videotape, a quarter of a second, and a silence that lasted three years. Inside the most quietly devastating rules controversy in modern chess.

One disputed venue announcement. Two rival "World Champions." Thirteen years before anyone managed to put the title back together.

Karpov led. Kasparov had just won two games in a row and was building real momentum. Then FIDE's president stopped the match entirely, and declared no winner at all.

Seven months after his first title match was stopped with no winner, Kasparov came back, fell behind again, and won the title by the narrowest possible margin.

The moment a machine first defeated a World Champion in a match. All six games, the psychology behind them, and what it meant for chess.

Kasparov had been dismissive of women's chess for years. In Moscow in 2002, Judit Polgar gave him the most direct possible answer, over the board.

Fischer, Kasparov, or Carlsen? The GOAT debate in chess, the case for each, the metrics that matter, and why the question might be unanswerable.

144 games, five matches, ten years. The Karpov–Kasparov rivalry was the most intense in chess history, a clash of ideologies, personalities, and chess styles.