The Winning Academy 24: The most suitable moment for a pawn break

10/2/2023 – How do you win a stage of the Tour de France? As well as endurance and cycling skills, a rider needs to be able to think strategically. It is an art to choose the right moment to break away from the peloton. If you break too early, you may lose your energy before the finish. If you wait too long, someone else might take the chance instead of you. Timing is also very important in chess, for example when planning a pawn move. | Photo: Hilmar Buschow, Pixabay

Marc'Andria Maurizzi wins World Junior Championship

10/2/2023 – Marc'Andria Maurizzi is the third French U20 World Champion after Joel Lautier and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. On Sunday, he won the World Junior Championship in Mexico City with 8.5/11. Maurizzi shared first place with three other players, but won the tournament on tiebreak. Candela Francisco from Argentina won the women's event. | Photo: Susan Polgar

European Chess Club Cup - Live!

10/2/2023 – The 2023 European Club Cup is taking place at a resort in Durrës, Albania, from 30 September to 7 October. Magnus Carlsen is playing for the Norwegian club Offerspill, while Superchess from Romania have the highest rating average, with Vishy Anand and Richard Rapport playing on the top boards. | Follow the games live with computer-assisted analysis starting daily at 15.00 CEST (9.00 ET, 18.30 IST)
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FIDE ratings October 2023

10/2/2023 – There was little movement at the top of the Top 100 list, as most of the top grandmasters were mostly active only in online chess. Magnus Carlsen remains the world's number one, ahead of Fabiano Caruna, Ding Liren and Hikaru Nakamura.

Understanding before Moving 145: Chess history in a nutshell (27)

10/2/2023 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 145th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and continues to take a look at the ideas and games of Alexander Alekhine. | Photo: Pascal Simon

Euro Club Cup: Easy wins for the favourites

10/2/2023 – The favourite teams in both sections of the European Club Cup had little trouble beating much lower-rated opposition in the first round of the seven-day event. In the open, none of the five top seeds (individually) — Magnus Carlsen, Vishy Anand, Richard Rapport, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave — played in round 1. | Pictured: Nino Batsiashvili (Superchess) | Photo: Sandra Schmidt
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Jon Speelman: Trusting your hand

10/1/2023 – A little over a week ago, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura did battle in the Speed Chess Championship. Over three hours, they battered each other at 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1 until Carlsen emerged the victor by the narrowest possible margin. It was a great spectacle, and the thing I liked most of all was how these two great players, when things are going well, ‘trust their hands’. Their autopilots can outperform most people even at much slower time limits, and there were a few decisions which I particularly admired. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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Instructive endgames from the Armageddon Series

10/1/2023 – The Grand Finale of the Armageddon Series took place on September 14-20 at the World Chess Club in Berlin, with Jan-Krzysztof Duda eventually emerging as the winner. GM Karsten Müller found instructive endgame positions to share with us. Replay his analyses and you are sure to learn and enjoy! | Photos: World Chess

World Junior Championships - Round 11 Live!

10/1/2023 – The World Junior Championships are taking place from September 21 to October 1 at the Hotel del Prado in Mexico City. Two US representatives, Hans Niemann and Carissa Yip, are the top seeds in the open and the women’s section, respectively. | Follow the games live with computer assistance, starting at 0.00 CEST (18.00 ET, 3.30 IST)
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Hypermodern games of chess

10/1/2023 – Control of the centre has been considered to be the heart of chess strategy from time immemorial. As José Raúl Capablanca pointed out, the fundamentals remain the same, though application may change in the course of time. The Cuban world champion wrote: “In chess the tactics may change but the strategic fundamental principles are always the same”. | GM Sundararajan Kidambi analyses three ‘hypermodern’ games.
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Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: Bartel scores crushing win

9/30/2023 – In the latest edition of his Fast & Furious series, Robert Ris shows Mateusz Bartel’s spectacular win over Aryan Tari from the Polish Ekstraliga. Bartel only needed 18 moves to force his opponent’s resignation. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Dominoes: Youth Composing Challenges

9/30/2023 – Possibly readers would enjoy a little bit of behind-the-scenes information on how chess composers work together. As always, this will be supplemented by endgame studies.| Photo: Midjourney
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The Isle of Man’s grand chess spectacle

9/30/2023 – The Isle of Man plays host once more to the chess world's crème de la crème, as the 3rd FIDE Grand Swiss and 2nd FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss tournaments are set to launch on 25 October. The return of these prestigious world championship qualifying competitions to the Isle of Man marks a momentous occasion. Over the course of 12 days, from 25 October to 5 November, the island in the Irish Sea will emerge as the epicentre of the chess world, hosting an elite assembly of top-tier players fighting for the prizes, prestige and a spot in the 2024 Candidates.
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MVL beats Carlsen twice, wins AI Cup

9/30/2023 – With a remarkable performance, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave got to beat Magnus Carlsen in two consecutive matches to win the AI Cup, the sixth and final ‘regular’ event of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour. Carlsen had defeated MVL in the final of the winners’ bracket, before the Frenchman gained the right to a rematch by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the losers’ bracket.
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Patent continuation

9/30/2023 – In the diagram position, the white king has not managed to castle. Time for Black to strike - I wish you massive pleasure!

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Checkmating attacks from Mexico

9/29/2023 – In his new Power Play Show, GM Daniel King examines games from the World Under 20 Championship taking place in Mexico City. All of these games feature checkmating attacks — some were found, some were missed! | 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.

Carlsen and Anand to play in European Club Cup

9/29/2023 – The 2023 European Club Cup will be held at a resort in Durrës, Albania, from 30 September to 7 October. Magnus Carlsen will play for Norwegian club Offerspill, while Superchess from Romania have the highest rating average, with Vishy Anand and Richard Rapport playing on top boards. Over 80 teams have registered to participate in the open, while the women’s cup counts with 25 teams so far.
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AI Cup - Grand Final Live!

9/29/2023 – The AI Cup is the sixth and final ‘regular’ event of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour. The tournament, which takes place on September 25-29, featured three divisions, each a double-elimination knockout, where losing one match drops the player to a lower bracket — from where he/she can still win the tournament. | Follow the games live with expert commentary from 18.00 CEST (12.00 ET, 21.30 IST)
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World Senior Team Ch: USA and Germany Lasker GK grab gold medals

9/29/2023 – Drama and excitement dominated the final round of the World Senior Team Championship. In the end, the United States (pictured), England and Iceland reached the podium in the S50 section, while Germany Lasker Schachstiftung GK, England and Slovakia finished in the top three spots in the S65 category. | Photo: Mark Livshitz
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