Albert Silver

Although I only began working full-time as an editor and journalist in chess in 2010, for over 25 years I have been involved in just about every aspect there is to the royal game, for which I am unapologetically passionate.

In the late 80s, living in France, as a teenager I worked for the famous Parisian chess store, “Librairie St. Germain” (later to become the “Librairie Games”) during my summer vacation, as a salesman, or at the tournaments running a stand. When I went to college in the US, appalled by the lack of chess activity in Madison, Wisconsin at the time, I undertook to give free chess classes to children every Sunday at the local bookstore/coffeehouse. The idea was met with great success, covered by the state newspaper in a feature article, and leading to classes at the local YMCA.

In the 90s I moved to Brazil, where I developed further as a player, winning the Rio de Janeiro Championship, as well as team competitions, winning the State Championship as well as coming in second in in the Brazilian National League. During this period, I achieved a peak rating of 2240 FIDE.  

From 1999-2002, I worked as a software interface designer for the Russian company Convekta (now rebranded ChessOk), where I integrated online playing functionality with advanced database and analysis features for the first time. While unheard at the time of the release of Chess Assistant 6, it has since become a standard feature in online playing programs.

In 2010, after a series of emails and talks with Frederic Friedel, one of the founders of ChessBase, I was brought into the company, now as editor and writer of ChessBase News, which has been my full-time job until the present. I am also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications. For samples of my work, be sure to visit my Flickr page.

Recent news

Inside the (deep) mind of AlphaZero

12/7/2018 – It was a long time coming, but the wait is over. After nearly a full year, being ping-ponged from one peer reviewer to the next, the final paper on AlphaZero is out, shedding light on a number of hitherto unknown or misunderstood elements in its construction, not to mention some clarifications and corrections. These include sample code to help implement their work and all the games of the match against Stockfish, of which 20 were specially chosen by GM Matthew Sadler. | Graphic: Deep Mind

Americans playing for the title: Wilhelm Steinitz

6/30/2018 – For the less historically enlightened, the first official American to become World Champion was the great Bobby Fischer, but the native New Yorker can only claim to be the second as the title of first goes to the father of modern strategy: Wilhelm Steinitz. Read on to find out more on the great champion with annotations by Garry Kasparov. | Photo: Steinitz vs Lasker, 1894, public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Komodo MCTS: the boa constrictor approach

6/15/2018 – The inclusion of the new Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) version of Komodo has had many users surprised, confused, and even describing it as a gimmick. However, its value is not to be underestimated, and it allows the astute user to find resources the very best engines are completely blind to. GM Karsten Mueller has helped illustrate this with some finely chosen examples in the following article. Read on to see what makes Komodo MCTS so special!

May 2018 FIDE Ratings

5/1/2018 – It was a month in which the two best players 'explained' once more to the world, why they are the best. Magnus Carlsen came storming through the second half of the Gashimov Memorial to win it, while Fabiano Caruana won the Grenke Classic, and came second in the US Championship with a plus five score. Sam Shankland enjoyed the greatest result of his career with a huge US Championship win, and a 2701 rating to boot. Here are the ratings and report for your perusal. | Photo: Shamkirchess.az

Gashimov Memorial: Magnus Carlsen is third time winner

4/29/2018 – The writing was on the wall, and the last round clash between Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren remained somewhat anticlimactic as they drew after just 27 moves. To be fair, Magnus never gave his opponent a chance to liven things up. The one decisive game of the last round was Sergey Karjakin’s win over Veselin Topalov. A great tournament victory for the World Champion with signs of what is to come. | Photo: Shamkir Chess

US Championship: Shankland and Wang sprinting to gold

4/28/2018 – On the surface, the round was a quiet one, with eleven draws out of the twelve games in both events, but things were not so simple. More than a few games seemed likely to leave a body behind, but this was not counting the defenders desire to not lose. Sam Shankland had a promising position against Fabiano Caruana with an extra pawn, but never quite built it up enough to win. Both Women’s leaders Nazi Paikidze and Annie Wang were dead lost in their games, but lived to fight another day. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Leela Chess Zero: AlphaZero for the PC

4/26/2018 – It might sound like a joke, but it is not: the revolutionary techniques used to create Alpha Zero, the famous AI chess program developed by DeepMind, are now being used to engineer an engine that runs on the PC. This project has now been underway for about two months, and the engine, Leela Chess Zero, is already quite strong, playing at 2700 on good hardware, and is freely available. As will be seen, just about every aspect of this new engine is revolutionary and breaks all the paradigms that had dominated the field until now.

US Championship: The one that got away

4/23/2018 – On the surface, the round was a quiet one, with eleven draws out of the twelve games in both events, but things were not so simple. More than a few games seemed likely to leave a body behind, but this was not counting the defenders desire to not lose. Sam Shankland had a promising position against Fabiano Caruana with an extra pawn, but never quite built it up enough to win. Both Women’s leaders Nazi Paikidze and Annie Wang were dead lost in their games, but lived to fight another day. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

US Championship: Caruana suffers shock loss

4/22/2018 – It was a rather astonishing day, with the headline involving Fabiano Caruana once more. This time it was because he ended up losing to the caboose of the tournament after overpressing. This in turn opened it up to others, and Sam Shankland joined the lead with a win over Ray Robson. In the women’s event, it was a gripping day with some great wins such as the marathon 106-mover by 15-year-old Annie Wang, and the power attack display by Nazi Paikidze, both who lead with 3½/4. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

US Championship: The leaderboard takes shape

4/21/2018 – Round three of the US Championship saw the leaderboards begin to take shape, with a hint of what is to come. Wesley So had a scare as he escaped a dangerous position against young Awonder Liang, while Fabiano Caruana continues to steamroll as he defeated Jeffery Xiong. In the Women’s event, Nazi Paikidze and Annie Wang lead. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Grenke: Black strikes back

4/3/2018 – The third round of the Grenke Classic seemed headed to a very dull series of draws, but somehow things changed before the games ended. Carlsen tried very hard to lead young Bluebaum astray, but no luck, while Caruana final scored a win after a fairly sharp game against Meier. Finally, Hou Yifan lost a tough game against MVL. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Americans playing for the title: Samuel Reshevsky

4/2/2018 – Samuel "Sammy" Reshevsky was possibly the greatest player ever to never be a full-time chess professional, even as he vied for the no.1 spot during his prime. He was also one of the greatest prodigies of his day, conducting master level simuls around the world as a child. He played in many World Championship cycles, including the 1948 World Championship tournament. We bring you photos and a historic game commented by Reshevsky himself! | Photo: Kadel and Herbert

April 2018 FIDE Ratings

3/31/2018 – There were plenty of interesting results this last month, and the Candidates was but one of the contributing factors. There can be no discussion about calling Fabiano Caruana 'Man of the Month', but fascinating moves abound, from the rise of Iranian youth (watch out Batumi!), to Anand's ascension to world no.3 in Rapid. See all, read all, in this month's ratings report! | Photo: World Chess

Americans playing for the title: Frank Marshall

3/30/2018 – Fabiano Caruana’s victory at the Candidates not only promises an exciting match, but will also be the first title match by a player born in the USA in 46 years, since Bobby Fischer’s famous bout against Boris Spassky in 1972. However, theirs were hardly the only ones by US players. The very first was by Frank Marshall in 1907 against none other than Emanuel Lasker. Here is a look at that chess legend and his title match with annotations by Garry Kasparov! | Photo: Chicago History Museum

Ivan Saric is 2018 European Champion

3/29/2018 – Overshadowed by the Candidates tournament held in Berlin, the European Championship was still the fascinating event it has always been, with a field that is absurdly rich in grandmasters and titled players. This hard-fought affair brought many famous names, but it all went down to the wire with Ivan Saric emerging the sole victor in a huge win over David Navara in the last round. | Photo: Sophie Nikoladze

Candidates: Drama, drama! Karjakin takes the lead!

3/24/2018 – Round twelve had everyone reeling as the event was stood on its head. Sergey Karjakin beat Fabiano Caruana in a powerful game with a superb exchange sacrifice, and now shares the lead with a better tiebreak. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov lost to Ding Liren, who won his first game and thus joins the group a half-point behind the leaders. Read the report and enjoy the analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky! | Photo: World Chess

6-piece Endgame Turbo 5: why you need it

3/21/2018 – The new Endgame Turbo 5 represents the ultimate tablebase collection available and can be used simply by sticking it into a USB port on your computer. It contains the full 3-4-5 and 6-piece tablebases on a pen drive so that neither hard disk space or SSD drive are required to take advantage of them. However, the big question is what is so special about them and why you need them. Read on and find out!

Endgame tablebases: A short history

3/16/2018 – One of the keystones to improving our understanding of the endgame is the endgame tablebase, a sort of oracle that first came into existence over 40 years ago. This revolutionary technology, that first saw light in the chess world thanks to computer scientist and pioneer Ken Thompson, has evolved a great deal since then. Here is a look at its beginnings and what each generation brought.
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