Macauley Peterson

Macauley is Editor in Chief of ChessBase News in Hamburg, Germany, and producer of The Full English Breakfast chess podcast.

He was an Associate Producer of the 2016 feature documentary, "Magnus".

Previously, Macauley served as the Content Director for chess24.com (April 2013 — June 2017), founded Chess Digital Strategies LLC (2010) which provided media production, consulting and web services for companies and organizations involved in professional chess, and worked as a media specialist for the Internet Chess Club (2007-2010).

In 2007, he was voted "Chess Journalist of the Year" by the Chess Journalists of America. His written work has appeared in Chess Life and uschess.org (U.S.A.), New in Chess (Netherlands), Schach (Germany), "64" (Russia), Chess (U.K.), and Jaque (Spain) and a few other places.

In 2006, he completed work as an editor on Adam Nemett's independent feature film, "The Instrument", which appeared at the 2005 Dances With Films festival, in L.A., and was part of New York's Anthology Film Archives' New Filmmakers series, and he has produced the DVD releases of A Turnpike Runs Through It (2008), and Excess Hollywood (2006), for the Princeton Triangle Show.

Education:
Princeton University - A.B. Philosophy, 2001
University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) - M.A. Film Studies, 2007

Recent news

December ratings: Carlsen retakes rapid #1

12/1/2019 – The December rating list is out, with Magnus Carlsen back at number one in rapid, in addition to classical chess. Hikaru Nakamura, however, remains atop the world blitz rankings. They pair will have a chance to clash in both rapid and blitz formats later this month in Moscow. Alexander Grischuk (pictured) is now nearly sure of a 2020 Candidates qualification spot after his win in the Hamburg Grand Prix tournament. | Photo: Valeria Gordienko

GCT: Aronian snags Superbet Rapid & Blitz

11/11/2019 – Levon Aronian only finished in 5th place with 10 points from 18 games in this weekend's blitz tournament, but when combined with his 10 points in the rapid, his total tally tied him for first place with Sergey Karjakin, who won the blitz portion jointly with Le Quang Liem scoring 11/18. In the resulting playoff, Aronian scored a full point in the second game to snare the overall victory in the Romanian capital, Bucharest. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

November ratings: World Cup and Grand Swiss

11/1/2019 – The November rating list is out and reflects the performances of two of the most important tournaments on the calendar this year: The World Cup and the Grand Swiss, both qualifying events for the 2020 Candidates tournament which attracted a massive turnout of elite players. Every member of the top 40 was in action in the rating period except for the retired Vladimir Kramnik, Richard Rapport and Veselin Topalov. | Pictured: World Cup winner Teimour Radjabov, runner-up Ding Liren, third place finisher Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and fourth placed Yu Yangyi at the close of the Khanty-Mansiysk festivities. | Photo: FIDE

October ratings: Women's Grand Prix in the spotlight

10/1/2019 – The October rating list is out and with most of the world's best occupied in Khanty-Mansiysk at the World Cup (which is not yet rated), the changes there will only be reflected in November. Therefore the women are in focus this month, as most of the best were busy doing battle on the outskirts of Moscow in the first event of the newest FIDE Grand Prix. A notable exception is China's Zhu Jiner who was busy too, but in her home country, where she quietly slipped into the Top 10. | Pictured: The closing ceremony of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Skolkovo, Russia | Photo: Boris Dolmatovsky

Chess in The Atlantic

9/27/2019 – The American magazine The Atlantic has published an interview with the Hungarian chess players Judit Polgar and Anna Rudolf in its series "The Friendship Files". Once Judit Polgar was Anna Rudolf's idol; now they are both friends. Earlier this week the magazine also featured a short film by Jenny Schweitzer Bell, and produced by Jennifer Shahade, called "Kid Chess Champions Share Their Secrets" which features a dozen cute kids who participated in the massive National Scholastic Championship in the USA. | Photo: Anna Rudolf

Advantage Humpy at the Women's Grand Prix

9/21/2019 – Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun faced her World Championship rival Aleksandra Goryachkina today in Skolkovo at the FIDE Women's Grand Prix. A long battle ended in a draw, leaving Humpy Koneru alone at the top of the standings heading into Sunday's final round. But Ju has her fate in her hands as she's Humpy's opponent in what could be a thrilling finale. | Photo: David Llada / FIDE

September ratings: A 2800 trio solidifies

9/1/2019 – The eleven rounds of the Sinquefield Cup have already been incorporated into the latest FIDE rating list, published today. World Champion Magnus Carlsen continues to reign supreme at number one in the world rankings with 2876 Elo points, and Fabiano Caruana (2812) and Ding Liren (2811) remain in second and third places respectively. The gaps have narrowed, however: Carlsen and Caruana each lost 6 Elo points in the Sinquefield Cup, while Ding Liren ticked up the same amount. | Pictured: Garry Kasparov gives remarks at the Sinquefield Cup prize giving, one of five players in this frame who are or have been over 2800. | Photo: Austin Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

August ratings: Carlsen at all-time high

8/1/2019 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen hit an Elo rating of 2882 in May 2014. Five years later, he's back at that exact same number on the official August list, and arguably stronger than ever, following a string of successes in the first seven months of 2019. Alireza Firouzja and Jeffrey Xiong are two top Juniors now over 2700, and Ju Wenjun has narrowed the gap between herself and Hou Yifan to 59 points. | Photo: Justin Kellar / Grand Chess Tour

Tari takes Norwegian Championship

7/16/2019 – Grandmaster Aryan Tari won his second Norwegian Championship title last weekend after narrowly edging GM Jon-Ludwig Hammer on tiebreak. Both players scored 6½/9. The tournament saw several top players withdraw in opposition to a controversial sponsorship proposal, that was eventually rejected by the Norwegian Chess Federation's Congress delegates. | Photo: Larvik Chess Club Facebook page

Maghsoodloo masters Leon 2019

7/11/2019 – Three young players plus Vassily Ivanchuk gathered in Leon for this year's "Masters" rapid and blitz fest over three days. Ivanchuk deftly dealt with the Indian prodigy Nihal Sarin to reach the Final, but there he met his match in World Junior Champion Parham Maghsoodloo. The Iranian dispatched Jaime Santos in his semifinal, and dominated the final, winning two of the four games. | Photo: José Luque / Luque Fotografía León

July ratings: Goryachkina vaults to world #3

7/1/2019 – Our monthly look at the FIDE ratings for July2019 with a focus on the outcome of the Women's Candidates tournament won by 20-year old Russian phenom Aleksandra Goryachkina (pictured). In blitz, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has taken the #1 spot away from World Champion Magnus Carlsen thanks to his Norway Chess blitz win. And 58-year old GM Igors Rausis continues his improbable climb up the raking list by bashing much weaker players. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

June ratings: Carlsen in striking distance of all-time peak

6/3/2019 – Our monthly look at the FIDE ratings for June 2019 starts with World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who has a chance to break his own all-time rating record this month. That would go a long way towards cementing a claim on the greatest-of-all-time honours. Pictured, however, is Cuban-born Leinier Dominguez, who now plays for the USA, and after a long hiatus is now knocking on the door of the Top 10 at 2760, just 8 points shy of his personal peak rating. That was set back in May 2014, when he briefly hit 2768. Do you know who else was at his peak that month five years ago? Magnus Carlsen! | Photo: Justin Kellar / Saint Louis Chess Club

Anish Giri entertains

5/11/2019 – Anish Giri is one of the more extroverted Grandmasters on the professional circuit. He can be quite witty, and always has something interesting to say. He's also one of the more proactive social media presences on "chess Twitter" where he can be biting at times. He's been making the interview rounds following his win in the Shenzhen Masters in China last month. A few months ago he gave an entertaining blindfold simultaneous at his sponsor's office, Optiver in Amsterdam, which has recently published video of the event.

May 2019 FIDE Ratings

5/1/2019 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen has gained 40 Elo points in the 27 games of his last three tournaments. But the Grenke Chess Classic unfortunately did not make the cut-off for FIDE's May ratings. Still, at 2861 he's put considerable distance between himself and #2 Fabiano Caruana. Hou Yifan and Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun retain a huge lead in the Women's World rankings as the upcoming Candidates tournament for the next challenger is set to start at the end of May. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Shenzhen: Giri does it!

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

FIDE updates and the World Championship cycle

4/26/2019 – Today FIDE has released new regulations for the upcoming World Championship cycle (both Open and Women). The overall championship match is being extended from 12 to 14 games, and draws will no longer be permitted before move 40. Players can qualify to the Candidates Tournament via the revised Grand Prix, now a series of knockout tournaments, and a new "Grand Swiss" to be held in October on the Isle of Man.

European Women's Ch: Kashlinskaya tops five-way tie

4/22/2019 – Inna Gaponenko took a half point lead into the final round, but she was stopped by former Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanofa, who scored a clutch win to join a five-way tie for first with the finally tally of 8.0/11 along with Alina Kashlinskaya, Marie Sebag, and Elisabeth Paehtz. | Photos: Kasia Selbes Photography / eiwcc2019.tsf.org.tr

April 2019 FIDE Ratings

4/3/2019 – April ratings came out like clockwork on Sunday night. Our own internal PlayerBase update — not so much. Apologies for the delay in our monthly tour through the Elo lists. Of special interest on the April list: 28 players from the Top 100 exhibited rating swings of +/- 10 Elo points or more — a rare occurrence. Pictured: Ju Wenjun, David Anton Guijarro, Jan Krejci, winners at the Prague Challengers. | Photo: Macauley Peterson
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