Candidates R7: Nepo and Caruana score, again

6/26/2022 – Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana have done it again. For a second day in a row, the frontrunners to take the title scored full points in Madrid. Nepo still leads Caruana by a half point, while Hikaru Nakamura now stands 1½ points behind Caruana in sole third place. It has become hugely unlikely for a player other than the tournament’s two protagonists to bounce back and win the whole thing. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage
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Niemann, Martirosyan and Tabatabaei top seeds at Jermuk youth event

6/25/2022 – In the small Armenian town of Jermuk, a round-robin tournament with a strong field of ten young participants is currently taking place. Among them are Hans Moke Niemann (photo), Nihal Sarin and Alexander Donchenko. After five rounds, these three players are only among the chasers with 2½/5 points each. At the top of the standings is a quartet with 3/5 points each: Armenians Haik Martirosyan, Shant Sargsyan and Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and the Iranian Amin Tabatabaei. Daily rounds will be played until Tuesday. | Photos: Official website
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Study of the Month - A short history of endgame study castling II

6/25/2022 – Free association is an interesting mechanism to make up introductions for articles. Let us try: "Music was my first love and it will be my last", John Miles sang many years ago. The "Children" of Caissa rather would see their "Circle of Life" in Chess, where the WCCT-7 theme might have been predicted by Phil Collins in "Against All Odds" (who also performed the song named in the previous quotation): "Take a look at me now! There's just an empty space!", the bishop in the Kozłowski study might say this. | Photos: Pixabay

Hard to stop

6/25/2022 – In the diagrammed position White just played 35.Qa3!, and after 35...Qxd4 White has a beautiful win - can you find it?
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Endgames from Madrid (2)

6/24/2022 – Eight of the strongest players in the world are fighting in Madrid to get a shot in the next match for the world crown. Deep opening preparation and maximum focus often lead to slightly better (or worse) endgames. GM Karsten Müller aims his attention at the last stage of the game, as he compiles the most salient and instructive endings from the Candidates Tournament. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage
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Daniel King’s Power Play Show: A fascinating Sicilian

6/24/2022 – In his "Power Play Show" Daniel King takes Caruana vs Rapport from the Candidates as his starting point and discusses the fascinating variation of the Sicilian which appeared on the board — one that was also seen in a game by the legendary Ulf Andersson. | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.
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Daniel King Special Live Broadcast: "From Ukraine With Love For Chess"

6/24/2022 – On Friday 24th June at 18.00 CEST (12.00 ET, 16:00 UTC) Daniel King will be hosting a special live broadcast on his YouTube channel to publicise a new book: "From Ukraine With Love For Chess" published by "New In Chess". Daniel will be joined by Ruslan Ponomariov (former FIDE World Champion) and Remmelt Otten (Publishing Director of New In Chess) to discuss the book. Join the broadcast to learn more about the book, Ukrainian chess, and to put your questions directly to Ruslan Ponomariov.
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"The newest trend in the Grunfeld"

6/24/2022 – Each issue of the ChessBase Magazine offers a wealth of information and ideas for players who want to refine and sharpen their opening repertoire. In CBM #208, the next issue of the ChessBase Magazine, which will appear in a few days, GM Dorian Rogozenco offers a video in which he analyses a popular line of the Grunfeld in considerable depth, and in an article he now presents the most important lines and ideas of this variation. Here are the article and the video!
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NYT Games - Daily chess, wordle, and more

6/24/2022 – Last week we shared the announcement of the revival of chess in the New York Times. With no clarification in the NYT article itself, it was assumed this was a weekly contribution. But as we were vigorously disabused, the chess puzzle is a daily fixture in the NYT Games section, but allow us to share more of this quasi-cult section of the venerable newspaper.
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Candidates R6: Nepo and Caruana in a league of their own

6/24/2022 – Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana scored full points in round 6 of the Candidates Tournament. Nepo thus kept his sole lead, while Caruana remained in sole second place a half point back. The latter now has a full-point advantage over his closest chasers, as we near the event’s halfway mark. Thursday’s round also saw Teimour Radjabov missing a major chance to beat Richard Rapport. | Photo: FIDE / Steve Bonhage
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Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: An attacking masterpiece in the King's Indian

6/23/2022 – This week Robert Ris looks at a brilliant attacking masterpiece in the King's Indian, in which Black tried a subtle idea in a well-known line. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
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Lasker’s Double Aces: London 1899 and Paris 1900

6/23/2022 – London 1899 and Paris 1900 are two celebrated events that helped shape the legend of an all-time great and influenced the battles for the chess crown in the 20th century’s first decade. Eugene Manlapao revisits these tournaments on the occasion of their 123rd and 122nd anniversaries respectively.
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Candidates R5: Remarkable draws

6/23/2022 – For a second time in this year’s edition of the Candidates Tournament, all four games in a single round finished drawn at the Palacio of Santoña in Madrid. It was not for a lack of trying though, as Hikaru Nakamura and Ding Liren had good winning chances they could not convert into full points against Ian Nepomniachtchi and Teimour Radjabov respectively. | Photo: FIDE / Steve Bonhage
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Game of the Week #521: Nepomniachtchi vs Firouzja

6/23/2022 – In his “Game of the Week” show #521, Merijn van Delft takes a look at the game Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Alireza Firouzja, played in round 4 of the Candidates Tournament in Madrid, which also was a clash of generations. This time, experience prevailed. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
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ChessBase Magazine #207: Nakamura returns and Rapport arrives - Review by Prof. Nagesh Havanur

6/22/2022 – ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess and it also provides arsenal for the tournament player. This issue offers games from two major events, FIDE Grand Prix and Ukraine Charity Cup. 353 games (37 annotated), 11 opening surveys, lectures and exercises for training. Annotators include Anish Giri, Wesley So, Andrey Esipenko, Grigoriy Oparin and Nikita Vitiugov among others. The icing on the cake is the Larsen Special, a tribute to the Great Dane. Our columnist Nagesh Havanur takes a look.

Cracking the Candidate Code (5)

6/22/2022 – In the June issue of the venerable British Chess Magazine, Macedonian GM Aleksandar Colovic (President and General Secretary of the Association of Chess Professionals) takes a deeper look at the strengths and weaknesses of the eight players fighting for a chance to be the next world champion. In agreement with BCM, ChessBase will publish BCM’s evaluation of the chances of the individual players, concluding today with a discussion of the "unlikely" and the "scarred" candidates – Hikaru Nakamura and Teimour Radjabov. | Photo FIDE official.
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Candidates R4: Nepo beats Firouzja in wild Sicilian

6/21/2022 – Ian Nepomniachtchi beat Alireza Firouzja from the white side of a double-edged Sicilian to grab the sole lead at the Candidates Tournament in Madrid. The three remaining games finished drawn, with Ding Liren failing to defeat Fabiano Caruana from a slightly superior position. Thus, former co-leader Caruana is now in sole second place, a half point behind Nepomniachtchi. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage
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Trent's Tactics - Jan Timman: The Best of the West!

6/21/2022 – The Dutch GM was one of the strongest chess players in the late 70s, 80s, and early 90s. Timman never feared complicated games, which gave him many opportunities to discover some brilliant tactics against players like Kasparov, Kamsky, Karpov, and Anand. Lawrence dives right into the business, and gives us the chance to find the tactical moves ourselves. Furthermore, can we uphold the rating of 2500 in our tactics section, or will something unexpected mess things up?
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Cracking the Candidate Code (4)

6/21/2022 – In the June issue of the venerable British Chess Magazine, Macedonian GM Aleksandar Colovic takes a deeper look at the strengths and weaknesses of the eight players fighting for a chance to be the next world champion. In agreement with BCM, ChessBase is publishing BCM’s evaluation of the chances of the individual players, continuing today with the dark horse from Poland, Jan-Krzysztof Duda (24), and former candidate Ian Nepomniachtchi (31).
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