A Month Of Major Events (And Free Chess Courses)
There are amazing events happening this July—and some of them are already underway!
Check out the latest news, catch up on last month's most exciting content, and learn how much a petabyte is below.
Here's what this monthly update covers:
The last month saw multiple updates and optimizations to improve your Chess.com experience, and we have an update on massive upgrades to our engineering capacity in 2023.
- You may have noticed the new pack of canine companions ready to take on all challengers.
- We have made lots of improvements to Game Review including a redesigned evaluation graph, new loading tips that display during analysis, and animations to celebrate your great and brilliant moves on the web platform!
- The team has also completed multiple updates and optimizations including:
- Fixing an issue that was preventing tournaments from starting automatically
- The 'Click Squares' move setting will no longer allow you to accidentally drag a piece
- The visual indication of the disconnect timer will no longer reset when the board is flipped
- Conditional moves in daily games will no longer replace the actual game move list
- The low-time sound warning will no longer play when toggled off
Meanwhile, our engineering team has been working to scale with the massive growth and interest in chess. Here's a peek at the numbers since January 2023:
- 100+ new servers
- 13,000+ new CPU cores
- 36.5 TB new RAM
- 2+ PB new storage (note: a petabyte is 1,024 terabytes!)
- 1,000+ bugs fixed
We are truly grateful for the opportunity to support the chess community and Chess.com.
If you are in tech and would like to join our team, we are hiring!
Events
From dog champs to PogChamps, the strongest ever Bullet Chess Championship field, NFL players competing for chess supremacy, the women's world championship, and more.
- You read that right: it's back. PogChamps 5 will take place later this month, with some of the internet's biggest creators flexing their chess skills.
- In a final loaded with stunning tactical play and amazing counterstrikes, GM Gukesh D. defeated GM Raunak Sadhwani by a seven-point margin to become the 2023 Junior Speed Chess Champion.
- BlitzChamps II featured an impressive display of skill and tactics from NFL players. Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill won the event after a brilliant queen sacrifice against last year's winner, Chidobe Awuzie.
- GM Alexey Sarana won the inaugural Olympic Esports Series 2023 Finals chess event after defeating GM Maksim Chigaev with a perfect 3-0 score in the final match.
- The FIDE Women's World Championship is underway in Shanghai, as reigning champ GM Ju Wenjun takes on GM Lei Tingjie.
- This year's Bullet Chess Championship (July 17 to 21) features the strongest line-up ever, with defending champion GM Hikaru Nakamura seeking to retain his title against a host of challengers including GMs Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja, and more.
- The 2023 Summer Season of the Collegiate Chess League is starting soon, featuring some exciting Bullet and Bughouse action.
Community
Chess.com is in Paris for TwitchCon, and we're happy to announce new ways for you to be part of the chess community (whether online or offline).
- TwitchCon Paris takes place on July 8 and 9, 2023, and Chess.com will be there (along with some of your favorite chess content creators).
- In case you missed it, there's now an official Chess.com Community Twitter account. Get tips, updates, contests, and news on your social media feed!
- We've also launched the Official Chess.com Community club on Chess.com, with a membership granting you entry into special events like the weekly Community Bullet Brawl.
- Did you miss last month's State of Chess update with Danny? Don't worry, we've got the full recording for you right here.
Content
June featured interesting articles, behind-the-scenes insights into the FIDE World Championship, and a special distinction for Chess.com (and chess in general).
- Knowing the favorite opening of another player sheds light on their strengths and weaknesses, their personalities, and their tendencies both on and off the board. So, what does your favorite chess opening say about you? Find out in this guest article by Lularobs.
- What’s it like to be in the middle of the action at the FIDE World Championship? Check out our interview with WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili, who moderated the event!
- Chess.com has been named in TIME’s prestigious 100 Most Influential Companies of 2023 list, showing the huge impact chess is currently having across the world.
- In case you didn't watch the video above, we strongly recommend watching some of the world's top grandmasters solve puzzles at superhuman speeds.
Chessable
There have been some big-name releases on Chessable over the last few weeks, with new courses by GM Anish Giri, GM Ben Finegold, and more. Check out some of the free samples below to structure your learning and get guidance from some of the world's best coaches.
- Get tips and instruction from GM Anish Giri as he shares his 1.e4 opening secrets in this free 'Short & Sweet' sampler course.
- More of a 1.d4 player? GM Ben Finegold has got you covered with his Short & Sweet: Finegold's 1.d4 course.
- Short & Sweet: Hammer's Nimzo-Indian lets you hammer 1.d4 using ten of the best possible lines, as explained by three-time Norwegian champion GM Jon Ludvig Hammer.
ChessKid
ChessKid remains the best place to develop the future generation of chess talents, and the best platform for all kids who want to enjoy the game of chess.
- ChessKid superstar FM Alice Lee will soon officially be IM Alice Lee, after she secured her third and final IM norm (and a 2400+ rating) with a stellar showing in the Canadian Transnational tournament.
- ChessKid's annual 'King of Puzzles' event is back for the month of July, as thousands of young chess players compete to solve as many rated puzzles as possible.
- Kids enrolled in any Magnus Academy chess camp this summer will have the opportunity to join GM Magnus Carlsen on a live Zoom call on Sunday, July 30!
Fair Play
As always, the Fair Play team is working hard behind the scenes to keep Chess.com a safe and fair place to play.
Fair Play stats for June:
- 75,470 Fair Play closures (including 16 titled players)
- 159,000 mute actions
- 141,000 accounts muted
- 131,000 abuse closures
Support
The Chess.com Support Team is always working to resolve your issues as quickly and effectively as possible. Here are the stats for June:
- Average Time to First Response: 30 hours
- Total Requests Received: 93,468
- Average Quality by Member Rating: 94%
- Total Ratings: 7,428
As always, thank you for making Chess.com such an amazing place, and thank you for the comments you leave on these updates. Stay tuned—your thoughts might be featured in one of these updates soon...
