6/30/2019 – There were no decisive results in round four of the Croatian Grand Chess Tour, but not for a lack of trying. Most notably, Magnus Carlsen vs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs Anish GIri were wild struggles which could have gone either way. Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana also fought hard, while fortune continues to smile on Ian Nepomniachtchi, who was in a difficult position against Sergey Karjakin but ended up taking home the half point and still commands the standings table. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

6/29/2019 – Ian Nepomniachtchi was the sole winner in Zagreb for a second day in a row, as he took down Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with the black pieces at the Croatian Grand Chess Tour. The Russian grandmaster now has a one-point lead over Wesley So and Magnus Carlsen, after the world champion finished on the bad side of a draw against world's number two Fabiano Caruana in the stellar match-up of the day. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

6/28/2019 – Round two of the Croatian Grand Chess Tour finished with only one decisive game, but there was no lack of excitement as some big misses led to unexpected results. Ian Nepomniachtchi defeated Fabiano Caruana from a clearly inferior position, Magnus Carlsen could not convert a knight endgame a pawn up against Vishy Anand and Ding Liren failed to make the most of his advantage against Sergey Karjakin. These results left Nepomniachtchi as the sole leader with 2 out of 2. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

6/20/2019 – World Chess has developed a new tournament format for Russian television, dubbed the World Chess Armageddon series. Eight players entered a virtual arena, donned branded clothing and played blitz for $50,000 in prize money. In the end, as if according to script, local hero Sergey Karjakin defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi. | Photos: World Chess

6/4/2019 – On the show today Lawrence will have a look at a class positional display in N. Dzagnidze vs M. Muzychuk - how to squeeze a positional advantage with the two bishops. Live beginning at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, 12 Noon EDT) and free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

5/28/2019 – On the show today, the Lindores Abbey tournament was a fun little show up in Scotland and Lawrence will have a look at a key game plus review the important chess action of the past week. Live beginning at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, 12 Noon EDT) and free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

5/27/2019 – Magnus Carlsen won the fifth tournament of the year 2019. But things were not so simple for the World Champion. He struggled quite a bit in this tournament and was losing against Karjakin as well as Ding Liren in rounds 5 and 6. Through sheer fighting spirit and hanging in there, he was able to win the first place with 3½/6. IM Sagar Shah who was present at the venue, brings you all the action.

5/9/2019 – Three rounds of Rapid were played on Wednesday at the Pullman Hotel in Abidjan to kick off the first leg of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour. World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Chinese prodigy Wei Yi are leading the ten-player field after getting two wins and a draw during the first day of action. GCT defending champion Hikaru Nakamura is the closest chaser and the only player to avoid a defeat against Carlsen. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

4/9/2019 – A third consecutive win in Shamkir meant Magnus Carlsen finished on 7 out of 9, two points ahead of his closer pursuers, with an out-of-this-world rating performance of 2988. His last victim was Alexander Grischuk, who was duly overrun both on the board and on the clock. The rest of the games finished drawn. LAWRENCE TRENT took a closer look at the final encounters of the sixth Gashimov Memorial. | Photo: Official site

4/7/2019 – A theoretical battle ended up with Sergey Karjakin showing great technique to take down Vishy Anand in an endgame, thus catching up Magnus Carlsen at the top of the standings. The other winner of the day was Veselin Topalov, who defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov from the white side of a Ruy Lopez. Three rounds remain to be played in Azerbaijan, with co-leaders Karjakin and Carlsen set to battle on Monday. GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ analysed all the games. | Photo: Official site

4/5/2019 – There were three wins in Round 5. Vishy Anand won against Anish Giri with the help of his strong pawn centre, David Navara benefited from a tactical inaccuracy vs Ding Liren and Alexander Grischuk showed how strong the bishop pair can be against Veselin Topalov. Magnus Carlsen and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov drew as did Teimour Radjabov and Sergey Karjakin. With 3½ out of 5, Carlsen remains the sole leader. GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ examines all the games. | Photos: ShamkirChess.com

4/4/2019 – Five draws — that was the result of the fourth round of the "Gashimov Memorial" in Shamkir, Azerbaijan. As days go, there have been others more exciting. David Navara, who played Black against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, had the best chance of winning. But after more than five hours of play, this game also ended in a draw, leaving Magnus Carlsen with 3 out of 4, as the sole leader. Report with analysis by GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ. | Photo: ShamkirChess.com

4/3/2019 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen looks determined and focused at the Vugar Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir. After defeating Viswanathan Anand in Round 2, he also won in Round 3, beating David Navara with Black through good technique and energetic play. He is now the sole leader with 2½ out of 3 alone. The second win of the day was provided by Anand who bounced back from his prior day's loss to beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The remaining three games ended drawn. Report and analyses by GMs ARYAN TARI and DANIEL FERNANDEZ. | Photos: ShamkirChess.com

4/2/2019 – Four out of five games featured big fights in round two of the 2019 Shamkir Chess Tournament. Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin and Ding Liren were the first ones to score in this year’s edition, while David Navara was on the bad side of a draw for a second day in a row, as Veselin Topalov could not make the most of his position. ARYAN TARI provided expert analysis of Carlsen's win over Vishy Anand. | Photo: Official site

12/23/2018 – Two Indians pre-teeners came very close to breaking Sergey Karjakin's record of the youngest GM in history. Sergey made his final norm back in 2002 at the age of 12 years and 7 months. Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh were the boys that were within a hair of bettering that. Pragg missed the target by three months, and yesterday Gukesh, who had a realistic chance to complete his third GM norm at the Sunway Sitges International 2018, narrowly missed it. In the meantime 11-year-old Bharath Subramaniyam made his first IM norm. | All photos: Rupali Mullick

11/26/2018 – Did you catch the world-class blitz at the Tata Steel tournament in India? For the vast majority the venue, like with so many other events, was just too far away. Thankfully Sagar Shah, who set up ChessBase India, was there and filmed the most interesting games from the best possible angle. You can watch the action at close range, see the players think and react to the opponent's moves, and even analyse on the replay board with engine support. It's highly enjoyable — just ask 1.3 million viewers on YouTube you have watched Praggnanandhaa vs Anand!

11/25/2018 – And then there was one! The World Championship match is headed to a dramatic conclusion after Magnus Carlsen could not score a goal in his last White game. Game 11 ended up as one of the shorter and least interesting draws of the match although it started promisingly enough. The previous Challenger Sergey Karjakin was the surprise guest making the ceremonial first move and he got a smile out of both players by starting with 1.b4 for Magnus. Carlsen opted not to take Karjakin's suggestion to heart and played into a critical line from the Petroff preparation of Caruana — a line shown in the training video accidentally leaked before Game 4. Guest analysis by GM BORIS GELFAND and IM LAWRENCE TRENT. | Photos: World Chess

11/18/2018 – With the long-awaited World Championship match between World Champion Magnus Carlsen and his Challenger Fabiano Caruana finally underway, GM LARS BO HANSEN was inspired to revisit some analyses from the previous World Championship match in New York between Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin in November 2016. As most readers will recall, the reigning World Champion survived a scare in the regular games before eventually dominating the rapid playoff. What conclusions can we draw and how might that impact the 2018 contest? | Photo: Albert Silver

11/16/2018 – The strongest chess event on Indian soil was held from November 9th to the 14th, 2018 with three days of rapid chess and two days of blitz. Hikaru Nakamura had already won the rapid section with a dominating performance. In the blitz event, the American GM was racing ahead on the first day with 6½/9. It seemed as if Nakamura would take home both the titles, but Vishy Anand had other plans. The 48-year-old former World Champion showed his class as he notched up one win after another. By scoring 7½/9 on day two he tied with Nakamura for the top spot. We then had a blitz playoff in which Anand triumphed and won the Tata Steel Chess India Blitz 2018. IM SAGAR SHAH and AMRUTA MOKAL provide pictures, videos, game analysis from Kolkata.

11/14/2018 – The Tata Steel Chess India 2018 Rapid came to an end on November 11th with American GM Hikaru Nakamura taking home the first prize with 6.0/9. Nakamura played the event as per the demands of the situation — calm on first and third days and three victories on day two! It was excellent news for Indian fans that Harikrishna managed to fight back with two wins against Levon Aronian and Vidit Gujrathi in last two rounds to finish second. Levon Aronian had to settle for the third spot. IM SAGAR SHAH brings you six things that happened on the last day of the rapid and reflections on the first super tournament held in his native India! Of course, one mustn't forget the small sensation — Vishy Anand was beaten by his former second Surya Sekhar Ganguly in the final round.

10/25/2018 – All kinds of games were seen in the fifth round of the Chess.com Isle of Man International Tournament — short draws, theoretical battles, upsets, a checkmate with two knights against a queen, and so on. Jeffery Xiong and Abhijeet Gupta beat Richard Rapport and Vidit Gujrathi, respectively, to join Wang Hao and Arkadij Naiditsch in the lead with 4½/5. Meanwhile, Hikaru Nakamura and Sergey Karjakin won impressive games to up their tallies to four points. | Photos: John Saunders

9/25/2018 – It's a historic moment for Indian chess. The country will be hosting its first super tournament this November — the Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz. Bigwigs like Aronian, Nakamura, Karjakin, So and Mamedyarov will be seen crossing swords with Anand, Harikrishna, Vidit and others. Prodigies, Nihal Sarin and R Praggnanandhaa will also be seen matching their wits with some of the absolute best in the world. Here's all you need to know about the event.

9/21/2018 – It was none other than Vladimir Putin, who dropped in at the training camp in Sochi. There he spoke to the men and women team members, about the importance of Russia regaining their dominating role in chess, about young talents and talent schools — like the one initiated by former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. "Sirius" has already produced a number of children's champions. Watch this 1TV report — it is in Russian, but we provide a rough transcript for you to read.

8/28/2018 – The sixth edition of the Sinquefield Cup had an unprecedented finish. Levon Aronian defeated Alexander Grischuk in a memorable game, while Magnus Carlsen got a 97-move victory over Hikaru Nakamura. Therefore, Aronian, Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana tied for first — in points and in all tiebreak criteria! The rules stipulated that a drawing of lots would decide which two players would go to the playoff — Carlsen objected, as he thought it to be 'ridiculous'. Finally, the players and organisers decided all three would be declared co-winners! V. SARAVANAN reports. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Lennart Ootes