Blitz Challenge on Playchess

8/7/2020 – Like to try your luck in a three-minute blitz game against a 14-year-old? Against a boy who became a grandmaster at the age of twelve? Here's your chance to take up the challenge, on the Playchess server, on Friday at 12:30 p.m.. The young GM will analyse each game after it was played. You need to be a premium member to challenge Gukesh, but just an ofdinary member to follow the games. You can also watch the action on Youtube.
Live Tournaments
Round 6: finished
Chess24 Legends of Chess
Carlsen 2881, Ding 2836
Round 2: finished
Chess24 Legends of Chess Final 4
Round 3: finished
POL-ch Women MOKATE 2020
Live Training
August 07 18:00 Power Play Show
Learn chess insights with GM Daniel King. View the new video!
August 10 19:00 Simon Says
Attacking chess and fun ideas with GM Simon Williams. View the new video!
Live Ticker
9m
13m
29m
34m
42m
1h
1h
1h
1h
1h
2h
2h
3h
4h
5h
5h
5h
5h
6h
6h
6h
6h
6h
7h
7h
7h
7h
7h
7h
8h
8h
8h
8h
8h
8h
23h
1d
1d
1d
1d
2d
2d
2d
3d
3d
3d
4d
4d
4d
4d
4d
4d
4d
5d
5d
5d
5d
5d
6d
6d
6d
6d
6d
6d
6d
6d
7d
7d
7d
8d
8d
8d
8d
8d
8d
8d
8d
9d
9d
9d
9d
10d
10d
10d
11d
11d
11d
11d
11d
11d
11d
11d
11d
11d
11d
12d
12d
12d
12d
12d

Amateur versus professional: a theoretical duel

8/6/2020 – In the mid-1970s Helmut Pfleger, who today, August 6, celebrates his 77th birthday, was one of the top 50 players of the world. But he was a doctor by profession and despite all his successes in chess he always remained an amateur. So he often had a hard time against the professionals when it came to opening theory. Nevertheless, in a theoretical duel against one of the greatest opening experts of the time, he won one of the most important games in the history of the Chess Olympiads. | Photo: Helmut Pfleger | Photo: Hartmut Metz

Jay-Z is King, Beyoncé his Queen

8/6/2020 – "Black Is King" is a new film - or "visual album" - by pop star Beyoncé that is based on Disney's animated film "The Lion King" from 1994, which has inspired not only the third-longest-running musical in Broadway history but also a 2019 remake. Rapper Jay-Z, chess fan and husband of Beyoncé, plays a prominent role in "Black Is King" and added some chess flavour to the movie. Which is entertaining to watch but not always in line with the rules and customs of chess. In the online magazine "Slate" Matt Guthrie took a closer look at the film and its chess scenes. | Photo: Screenshot of Jay-Z in "Black Is King" (Disney+)

Riddle solved: Hort could have held!

8/5/2020 – Bobby Fischer was the star of the show at the 1970 Interzonal Tournament in Palma de Mallorca, before starting an amazing run that led him to challenge Boris Spassky for the World Championship title in Reykjavík 1972. But was he always winning in the endgame he played against Vlastimil Hort? Or could have Hort defended? We asked our readers to help settle the historical debate. And they helped endgame expert GM Karsten Müller to settle the question! | Drawing of V. Hort: Otakar Masek

Game of the Week: Carlsen vs Nepomniachtchi

8/5/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show Merijn van Delft takes another look at the fascinating Legends of Chess tournament. Magnus Carlsen won the tournament by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final but to honour Nepomniachtchi's creative performance Merijn will study one of "Nepo's" wins against Carlsen. | Merijn's show is freely available at 15.00 UTC (17:00 CEST, 11:00 EDT) for a limited time, and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Niki Riga (Archive)

Carlsen loses, Carlsen wins

8/5/2020 – When Magnus Carlsen plays, there is never a dull moment. Most of the time he wins, but sometimes he loses. On his YouTube Channel Daniel King (now with a beard, but it's him) presents two remarkable encounters between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Magnus Carlsen from the final of the Legends of Chess Tournament.

How good is my opening, ChessBase?

8/5/2020 – In the last two decades I have probably played about 100.000 games online, most of them in blitz and bullet. And I have often wondered about my win/loss ratio in certain openings: Is my personal anti-sicilian system 2. c4 really working so well? How often do I win with 1...e5? Did I really win more than 50% of my games with my favourite opening, the Naselwaus Gambit? ChessBase knows the answer to these questions!

Magnus Carlsen dominates Legends of Chess online tournament

8/5/2020 – It was a dominant performance by the world champion. Magnus Carlsen won the ‘chess24 Legends of Chess’ tournament without losing a single set, and finished his impressive run with a clear 2½:½ victory over Ian Nepomniachtchi on Tuesday. Carlsen won three out of the four events played so far in the tour that bears his name, thus giving the two best-performing players that did not win any event a chance to play in the Grand Final that kicks off on Sunday. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

A game against Larsen and a simul: Fischer's visit to Copenhagen 1962

8/4/2020 – After sensationally winning the Interzonal Tournament 1962 in Stockholm Bobby Fischer travelled to Copenhagen to play a TV exhibition game against Bent Larsen - which was relatively easy - and a simul against 41 Danish players - which was difficult. Tom Skovgaard knows more. | Photo: Jørgen Hvenekilde

The Weekly Show: Nepomniachtchi on the attack

8/4/2020 – In his weekly show IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at the tournaments that either came to an end last week or are about to finish — the Polish Championship, the Georgian Women's Championship and the final of the Legends of Chess online event. | Lawrence' show is available at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST, 13:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Pascal Simon

Legends of Chess Final: Carlsen wins

8/4/2020 – The fourth tournament of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour is taking place from July 21 through August 4. Six illustrious players from the previous generation are in the mix — Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, Vassily Ivanchuk, Boris Gelfand, Peter Leko and Peter Svidler — and are joined by Magnus Carlsen, Ding Liren, Anish Giri and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Action kicks off at 16:00 CEST (14:00 UTC, 10:00 ET). Read the report on the first set of the final! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Mighty pawn wave

8/4/2020 – Far advanced connected passed pawns are often very dangerous in the endgame.

Legends of Chess: Sharp games, Carlsen wins first set

8/4/2020 – It was a thrilling first set in the final of the ‘chess24 Legends of Chess’ tournament. Ian Nepomniachtchi played the same sharp line against Magnus Carlsen’s Sicilian the three times he had the white pieces, winning once and losing twice. In the end, Carlsen got a 4:2 victory after winning both blitz tiebreakers. | Photo: Lennart Ootes