Chess has enjoyed skyrocketing popularity in recent years, in part due to the hit Netflix series, The Queen’s Gambit. Rob Price says the sport of kings is rife with cheating and sexism. For Business Insider he wanted to find out how and why. For the first three decades of my life, I’d had fleeting phases of mild interest in chess, playing the...

Colleagues reportedly called Lucy Letby an “angel of death,” and the prime minister condemned her. But in the rush to judgment, serious questions about the evidence against her were ignored. The incomparable Rachel Aviv on a case that shocked the United Kingdom—but perhaps for the wrong reasons: The case against her gathered force on the basis...

When LSD first hit the counterculture in the 1960, it was ingested via sugar cube or colored tablet. It wasn’t until a decade later that tiny perforated paper squares known as “blotter” became the preferred way to deliver the powerful psychedelic. In this fascinating excerpt from Erik Davis’ book Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium, the journalist...

More than 30 years after its introduction, Magic: The Gathering continues to have a stranglehold on tabletop gamers’ attention and wallets. Nick Zarzycki’s fascinating feature doesn’t just chronicle Magic‘s history and development in a way outsiders (like yours truly) can understand, or explain the economics behind its continuing evolution. Most interestingly...

This story was funded by our members. Join Longreads and help us to support more writers. Ayla Samli | Longreads | May 14, 2024 | 4,420 words (16 minutes) Sometimes the past comes up in unexpected ways, like roots turning up the sidewalk, refusing to stay flat beneath the concrete. The roots insinuate themselves into the present,...

In this open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Matt Zoller Seitz explains why the company’s recent “Crush” ad—which promotes the new iPad Pro—is disturbing, destructive, and a slap in the face to all artists, musicians, and people who (try to) create for a living. Sonny and Cher sing “All I Ever Need is You” as the device destroys some of the most...