11/17/2018 – The tiebreaks of the semi-final match between Kateryna Lagno and Mariya Muzychuk took place on Saturday in Khanty-Mansiysk. Lagno won both rapid games to take down a visibly exhausted Muzychuk, who came from playing a demanding series of tiebreak games against Zhansaya Abdumalik. The victory for Lagno means she will have a shot at winning her first World Championship in the final — set to take off on Monday — against Ju Wenjun. | Photos: Official site

11/17/2018 – The Women's World Championship 2018 knockout in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia runs through November 23rd. The format is a 64-player knockout. Round 5 is from November 15th to 17th, starting at 11:00 CEST (10:00 UT / 6:00 AM EDT) with live commentary by GMs Pavel Tregubov and Alexander Morozevich. | Graphic: FIDE

11/17/2018 – The deadlock is yet to be broken. The sixth game of the World Championship match saw Magnus Carlsen use 1.e4 for the first time and, predictably, Fabiano Caruana responded with the Petroff Defence. What seemed to be a boring position that would unavoidably lead to a draw turned into a real fight when Caruana opened the centre. Carlsen ended up suffering to secure a draw after sacrificing a piece for two pawns. EFSTRATIOS GRIVAS and LAWRENCE TRENT analysed the game. | Photos: Nikolai Dunaevsky / World Chess

11/16/2018 – Defending champion Ju Wenjun (pictured) qualified for the final at the 2018 Women's World Championship knockout. With a safe draw in the second game of the semi-final, the current World Champion won her mini-match 1½-½ over Alexandra Kosteniuk. In the second match of the semi-final, Kateryna Lagno and Mariya Muzychuk also drew and therefore have to play a tiebreak match Saturday for the remaining spot in the final. | Photos: Official site

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.

11/16/2018 – The moment we've all been waiting for! Live games (for Premium members) from the 2018 World Championship match in London. Every two games will be followed by a rest day until Game 12 (if necessary) on November 26th which will be preceded by an additional rest day. All rounds start at 15:00 UT (London time) / 16:00 CEST / 10:00 EST. If needed there would be a rapid tiebreak match on Wednesday, November 28th.

11/16/2018 – White's 17.Qh5 threatens checkmate on h7, and after 17...h6 he wants to strike with 18.Nxf7. Flying colours or flop? What would you predict?

11/16/2018 – Magnus Carlsen noted in the post-game press conference that "obviously 6.b4 wasn't new to me" and former World Champion VISWANATHAN ANAND agrees in his analysis of Game 5 for the next ChessBase Magazine. Here's a sneak peek and also a candid video interview with Anand on his victory in the blitz tournament of Tata Steel Chess India after a tiebreak match. | Photo: (left) World Chess / (right) Amruta Mokal

11/16/2018 – In today's 5th game of the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, the two players honoured Georgian champion Bukhtuti Gurgenidze with their opening selection and after a mild-mannered struggle, the game ended in a draw. (The 2017 World Junior Champion GM ARYAN TARI annotates.) The press conference, however, was once again lively. When asked which player Carlsen most admired from the past, he brought down the house with the original reply, "myself from three or four years ago". | Photo: Nikolai Dunaevsky / World Chess

11/15/2018 – Last week saw the birth anniversary of Mikhail Tal, (1936-1992) 8th World Champion and legendary player. Few players captured the imagination of the chess world as he and Bobby Fischer did. We offered him a small tribute and here is another by our columnist who also draws our attention to a slim volume that deserves to be better known. | Photo: Riga greets Tal

11/15/2018 – In this tutorial, learn all about "replay training", a new feature of ChessBase 15 that invites you to guess the moves in games — a well-known and powerful way to improve. Correct proposals are rewarded with points which allows you to measure your progress. "Replay training" is a nice feature that you can use for light-hearted fun and playful challenges but also for some serious training. Give it a try! | Drawing: ChessBase

11/15/2018 – ChessBase is a personal, stand-alone chess database that has become the international standard for top players, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. The latest version, ChessBase 15, has now been released. It brings you spectacular new training features, all geared to improve your playing strength in the most enjoyable way possible. The program also generates beautiful ray-trace chess movies you can post on social media. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy your chess even more.