6/10/2019 – In the fifth round of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament in Stavanger, Magnus Carlsen has secured another 1½ points thanks to a couple of safe draws with Black against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Given the fact that Wesley So only drew with White in his Armageddon match-up against Viswanathan Anand, Carlsen now has a 1½-point lead in the standings table. In second place is Yu Yangyi, who benefited from a mistake by Fabiano Caruana in a pawn endgame. Round-up show by YANNICK PELLETIER. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

6/9/2019 – In the fourth round of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament in Stavanger, only one of the five duels was decided in the classical phase: Yu Yangyi won with Black against Alexander Grischuk and is now in third place in the standings table. At the top is Magnus Carlsen — after a draw in classical chess, the world champion (with White) won his Armageddon encounter against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Wesley So is in sole second place, after drawing the Armageddon game against Caruana with Black, thus securing 1½ points for the overall standings. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / norwaychess.no

6/6/2019 – Plenty of fighting chess was seen in (almost) all the classical games of round two at the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Fabiano Caruana were the first ones to pick up two points by winning "slow" games in Stavanger. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen barely saved a draw against Levon Aronian in the Classical, but then went on to win in Armageddon. Wesley So and Yu Yangyi also got 1½ points after winning in sudden death. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Altibox Norway Chess

4/27/2019 – In Shenzehn, China, Pentala Harikrishna defeated Yu Yangyi in the penultimate round to retake a half point lead over Anish Giri. But he had Black in the final round while Giri was White. Could 'Hari' score his first super-tournament victory? It looked like he was headed for a tournament-clinching draw, but a slip-up gave Ding Liren a chance to turn the tables and Giri a golden opportunity to grab tournament victory. | Photo: cca.imsa.cn

4/4/2019 – Today's topic: Thematic sacrifices in Sicilian Najdorf with 6.Bg5, live at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT) The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows.

3/21/2019 – Today's topic: The Janowski Variation (3...a6) of the Queen's Gambit Declined, live at 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET 1 PM EST) The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows.

3/15/2019 – The final round of the 2019 World Team Championships decided silver and bronze medallists in both categories, as the winners had already been decided a day earlier. In the Open, England defeated Sweden and took home silver, while China managed to get bronze after a topsy-turvy event overall. In the women's section, China finished with a perfect 18/18, while Russia tied with Georgia, getting both teams to the podium. | Photo: David Llada / Official site

2/1/2019 – Vladislav Artemiev left no doubt by winning with Black against Yu Yangyi to take clear first and avoid a possible playoff. It's the first time the Gibraltar Masters has had a single player in first place after ten rounds since 2015. Karthikeyan Murali capped a fantastic tournament by beating Maxim Vachier-Lagrave and thereby finishing in sole second place. Tan Zhongyi from China took the top women's prize | Photo: John Saunders

1/31/2019 – Vladislav Artemiev beat David Navara on top board and is back in the sole lead with 7½/9. Maxim Vachier-Lagrave dispatched upstart Kirill Alekseenko and is a half point back along with Yu Yangyi and Karthikeyan Murali. Thirteen players have 6½ out of 9. The tournament will be decided on Thursday with Round 10 and a possible playoff. | Photo: John Saunders

1/24/2019 – Most of the favourites were successful in Tuesday's opening round. Hikaru Nakamura, however, was nicked for a draw with black against his opponent's London system. Yu Yangyi was the only other player among the top twenty in the field not to score a full point and his draw came with the white pieces. After two rounds Wesley So (pictured) is the top player with a perfect score. | Photo: John Saunders

12/28/2018 – In a day full of ups and downs, seven players ended up sharing the lead on 7½ points, with Magnus Carlsen part of the ten-player chasing pack half a point behind. So it is impossible to make any predictions in the open section, as anybody having a good last day will emerge as the winner. On the other hand, amongst the women, Ju Wenjun has kept her lead after winning two and drawing two in the second day of action. | Photos: Maria Emelianova / Lennart Ootes / Official site

12/5/2018 – Ideas and strategies in Grandmaster games can be quite instructive. IM Merijn van Delft presents games like these every Wednesday at 20:00 CET (19:00 UT, 2 pm EDT). On this week's show: A Catalan from China's Yu Yangyi. The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders. To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows.

11/14/2018 – As tournaments go, this was an odd one: with nine draws and one win, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave took the Shenzhen Masters with a mere 5½ points from 10 games. Since Ding Liren and Anish Giri both also scored 5½, but 'MVL' beat Ding in their direct encounter, the Frenchman had the better tiebreak. Giri earned a notable first victory in the final round against Radoslaw Wojtaszek. GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY sends his final thoughts. | Photo: qipai.org.cn

11/12/2018 – After his undefeated streak was rounded off at a hundred games with a loss against Vachier-Lagrave, Ding Liren jumped right back to winning ways with a victory over Yu Yangyi in round eight of the Shenzhen Masters. He now shares the lead with MVL at 4½/8 with two days to go in the double round robin. In round seven, Nikita Vitiugov defeated Radoslaw Wojtaszek and joined the chasers half-a-point behind the co-leaders. | Photo: qipai.org.cn

11/8/2018 – Finally! After four rounds with a total of 12 games without a decision, today the damn burst, the knot burst (or choose your own idiom). GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY explains how the two Chinese grandmasters, Ding and Yu, both won, against Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Nikita Vitiugov respectively. Ding extends the streak to 99 games without a defeat. Can he make it 100? | Photos: Quipai.org.cn

11/7/2018 – No winners in Shenzhen so far. All three games in both the third and fourth rounds ended drawn. Ding Liren was closest to winning in today's contest, with an extra pawn, but he had to settle for splitting the point. GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY checks in and brings the players in for some harsh criticism. But he also herald's Ding's undefeated streak — now at 98 games — noting that "he doesn't play for draws, he just plays good chess his opponents cannot refute". | Photos: Qipa.org.cn

11/5/2018 – In the Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen, six world-class players have played six draws so far. The two top Chinese players Ding Liren and Yu Yangui compete with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri, Nikita Vitiugov and Radoslaw Wojtaszek. With Monday's draw Ding surpassed the undefeated streak of the great Mikhail Tal! Ding's 96 games without a loss can be considered the best undefeated streak in history, if not (yet) the longest. | Photos: Qipai.com

11/5/2018 – Two out of three games in the first round of the second edition of the Shenzhen Masters were hard-fought draws, as only Nikita Vitiugov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave signed a somewhat lifeless ½-½. Ding Liren kept his undefeated streak by drawing with Black against Anish Giri, while Radoslaw Wojtaszek held his own and even got some chances against Yu Yangyi. Things might quickly heat up in the double round-robin with a very attractive line-up. | Photo: Official site

10/18/2018 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen kept fans on pins and needles as he appeared to be losing to Ding Liren which would have dropped him to number two in the world behind Fabiano Caruana (at least temporarily). But Carlsen defended hard and salvaged a critical draw that allowed his teammate Nils Grandelius to win the match for the underdog Norwegian squad of Valerenga. They are now in clear first. ALEX YERMOLINSKY shares his outlook. | Photo: Niki Riga / eurochess2018.com

9/4/2018 – The placid outwardly appearance of the Petroff Defence could easily trick one into believing that he or she could use it to enjoy a quiet draw. It isn't unusual these days to see grandmaster games that drift into this line end in quick draws. But the Petroff has been around since the times of Greco and white players have found their fair share of traps, tactics and attacking opportunities in it. Even in some of the very recent games from master practice, black players have fallen prey to brilliant attacks. So, is the Petroff really as innocuous as advertised?

8/4/2018 – Scoring 4½/7, tournament's top seed, GM Yu Yangyi bagged the title prize of the 9th Hainan Danzhou Super Grandmaster tournament. In the final round, the race for the title was between Yu Yangyi and his countryman Bu Xiangzhi. Going for a comfortable draw in the Petroff, Yu put the onus of catching up on his rival who was half-a-point behind. Bu was never really in a position to win his game but Fedoseev, Bu's opponent, surprisingly pulled out a win at the last moment to score his first win of the event. Le Quang Liem and Wei Yi also scored impressive wins in the finale.

8/3/2018 – Big changes occurred on the leaderboard at the conclusion of the penultimate round at the 9th Hainan Danzhou Masters. Tournament leader, Bu Xiangzhi lost his first game of the event to Jan-Krzysztof Duda. This allowed Yu Yangyi, Bu's closest rival to take over the lead after he won a fine attacking game against Vladimir Fedoseev. Le Quang Liem also scored his first win of the tournament in round six against Sam Shankland.

8/2/2018 – After two exciting rounds at the 9th Hainan Danzhou Masters, draws were agreed on all boards in the antepenultimate round Wednesday. Wei Yi was the only player with any chance of pushing for a win while players battled in fairly balanced positions on all other boards. This is a welcome development for the tournament leader, Bu Xiangzhi, who now has to stay ahead of his rivals for only two more rounds in order to clinch the title.

7/30/2018 – Two wins and two draws were witnessed in the fourth round of the 9th Hainan Danzhou Super Grandmaster Tournament. Interestingly, the downfall of both losers — Vidit Gujrathi and Jan-Krzysztof Duda — began after they moved their pawn to b5. Bu Xiangzhi kept his tournament lead in the meantime with a draw against Wei Yi in a razor-sharp Ragozin. Going into the rest day, he remains ahead of his nearest rival by half-a-point.