7/19/2019 – On the show today: GM Daniel King will be examining Grischuk vs Vitiugov 2019 — a classic attack from the Russian maestro. Power Play is live most Fridays at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, Noon EDT) on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free! All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

7/18/2019 – Russia-China duel: This episode of the Fast & Furious show considers the recent mini-match between Ding Liren and Dmitry Andreikin, which has been largely overshadowed by other events. The live show at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT) is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows.

7/12/2019 – On the show today: GM Daniel King will be examining Ding vs Nepomniachtchi Zagreb 2019 — a rich and imaginative attacking performance. Power Play is live most Fridays at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, Noon EDT) on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free! All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

7/6/2019 – Magnus Carlsen still leads the Croatian leg of the Grand Chess Tour, as both he and his only chaser Wesley So got half points in round nine. Carlsen and Levon Aronian played a remarkable, precise 49-move draw while Wesley So was on the brink of defeat but miraculously survived against Ian Nepomniachtchi. The only winner of the day was Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who defeated Vishy Anand with the white pieces. Round ten will see the deciding match-up between Carlsen and So. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

7/2/2019 – The last round before the only rest day in Zagreb saw former sole leader Ian Nepomniachtchi suffering a first loss — against Ding Liren — which allowed Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So to catch up with him on 4 points out of 6. Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian also won, while the only draw of the day was seen in Anish Giri versus Vishy Anand. The action continues on Wednesday, when Nepomniachtchi will have the white pieces against Magnus Carlsen. | Photo: Justin Kellar / Grand Chess Tour

7/1/2019 – A wild round was followed by a quieter one in Zagreb, as five games ended in draws, with most of them not living up to the level of excitement seen on Saturday. Only Ding Liren defeated Anish Giri to bounce back to 50% in the standings table. The other highlight of the day was Levon Aronian not managing to convert a big advantage — which emerged from brilliant play in the early stage of the game — against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Ian Nepomniachtchi defended well against Hikaru Nakamura and still leads. | 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 – From June 16th to 19th, Prague hosted a chess festival featuring two attractive rapid matches: David Navara played against Ding Liren, and chess legend Jan Timman fought Thai Dai Van Nguyen, the best Czech junior. Both matches ended 7:3 with Ding and Nguyen dominating the final day of action to emerge victorious. Here are the highlights. | Photos: Prague Chess Society

6/19/2019 – Prague is a beautiful city and it is a chess city: from June 16 to June 19 Prague hosts the Chess Festival Prague and two attractive rapid matches: David Navara plays against Ding Liren, and chess legend Jan Timman plays against Thai Dai Van Nguyen, the best Czech junior. Both matches go over ten games and after two days and seven games Ding Liren and Nguyen both lead 4-3. Games 8 to 10 will follow today, game 8 starts at 4 pm local time (10 am EDT, 2 pm GMT). Follow the games live. | Picture: Prague Chess Society

6/13/2019 – Ding Liren beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the classical phase of round seven at the 2019 Altibox Norway Chess Tournament. The rest of the games went to Armageddon. Magnus Carlsen drew Wesley So with Black to get his sixth win of the event in sudden death, while Levon Aronian also drew Yu Yangyi with Black to get the mini-match win — the Armenian is now in sole second place, two points behind the world champion. Round-up show by GM DANIEL KING. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / norwaychess.no

6/7/2019 – Magnus Carlsen was close to losing against Levon Aronian in round two of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament, but in round three he appeared to be well-recovered, and won a seemingly effortless game against Alexander Grischuk. With this win Carlsen now leads the field. Aronian also appeared to be well-recovered and defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with Black. Ding Liren won against Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So got the better of Yu Yangyi, and Vishy Anand defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the only match-up that went to Armageddon. Analyses by CONSTANTIN LUPULESCU. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Altibox Norway Chess

6/4/2019 – The 2019 Altibox Norway Chess Tournament officially kicked off Monday in Stavanger. The traditional Blitz Tournament, which takes place in lieu of the drawing of lots, was won by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The Frenchman overpowered Magnus Carlsen in their final round deciding match-up and became the highest-rated player in the blitz ratings list. Levon Aronian and Carlsen shared second place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / norwaychess.no

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.

5/11/2019 – Magnus Carlsen finished all three days of rapid chess in Abidjan with the same result — two wins and a draw. Now he goes into the blitz section with a three-point advantage over Hikaru Nakamura, although each game will now be worth only a point. Besides Naka, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So threaten to take down the Norwegian, as both had a great run on Friday — MVL won all three games, while So got two wins and drew Nakamura. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

5/10/2019 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen is the sole leader of the Côte d'Ivoire Rapid tournament after scoring two wins and a draw for a second day in a row. Hikaru Nakamura could be sharing first place with Carlsen had he managed to convert a winning advantage against Bassem Amin — 'Naka' even lost that game and now stands two points behind the leader. Plenty of exciting chess and missed opportunities were seen on Thursday in Abidjan. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

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

5/1/2019 – On the last weekend of May an unusual tournament will be played in Scotland. Four top players, Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Ding Liren, and a fourth player who is not yet known, will play a rapid tournament in the Lindores Abbey Distillery, once a famous monastery and perhaps the place where Scotch whisky had its origins. | Photo: Lindores Abbey Distillery

4/23/2019 – There's a whole lot of chess going on in Europe at the moment, but we shouldn't forget about the double round-robin tournament taking place to the Far East in Shenzehn, China. Pentala Harikrishna leads the field with 4½ points after his fourth consecutive win in today's sixth round. Anish Giri trails a half a point behind. IM Sagar Shah annotates Harikrishna's latest exploits. | Photos: cca.imsa.cn

4/19/2019 – Ding Liren, Anish Giri and Yu Yangyi are back in Shenzhen, as the trio has participated in all three editions of the six-player double round robin. Pentala Harikrishna is returning to the Chinese city after having played in 2017 but not in 2018, while the newcomers are Dmitry Jakovenko and Richard Rapport. After three rounds, Giri is the only player on a plus score. Harikrishna fell victim to Anish in round two but bounced right back the very next day. | Photo: cca.imsa.cn

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

4/9/2019 – An implacable Magnus Carlsen beat Sergey Karjakin in the penultimate day of action in Shamkir to secure the title with a round to spare. This is the World Champion's fourth triumph in four attempts at the Gashimov Memorial. Alexander Grischuk and Ding Liren also won and now share second place with Sergey Karjakin, a point and a half behind the champion. LAWRENCE TRENT recapped the action of the eighth round. | Photo: Official site

4/8/2019 – The one decisive game of round seven saw Magnus Carlsen defeat his Twitter arch-enemy Anish Giri to take the sole lead in Shamkir. It was a rather flashy win, which means Magnus will arrive in Monday's showdown against Sergey Karjakin in high spirits. With only two rounds to go, it seems almost impossible for any player other than Magnus or Sergey to win the event. Grandmaster YANNICK PELLETIER analysed the games in depth. | 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