11/9/2018 – Do parents name their babies after chess champions? Do you need 10,000 hours of practice to be a chess master? Does chess helps prevent Alzheimer’s? ALEXEY ROOT explores these and other questions. Republished with kind permission of The Conversation. | Pictured: Reigning Chess World Champion Magnus Carlsen, left, from Norway, and American challenger Fabiano Caruana face off in the World Chess Championship, which begins November 9th, 2018, in London. | Photo: Matt Dunham/AP

11/9/2018 – Mikhail Tal was born on November 9th, 1936 in Riga, and died June 27, 1992 in Moscow. He probably would have been happy to know that the World Championship match between Carlsen and Caruana begins on his birthday. Tal loved chess and chess fans loved him for his bold, enterprising play and his stunning combinations. He had a very keen eye for tactics — which sometimes best showed in more light-hearted events. Here are two examples to commemorate the birthday of this great player and tactician. | Photo: Ron Kroon / Anefo [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

11/9/2018 – White's unchallenged bishop on f3 is a huge trump and after 14...Qf5 from the diagram position he ... will get checkmated in 5 moves! Pardon?

11/9/2018 – WATCH LIVE! Thursday afternoon, the two players of the World Championship, Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana took questions in London from a roomful of journalists from various chess and mainstream media outlets. World Chess broadcast the press conference live on its Facebook page and subsequently added it to YouTube. We have highlights, or you can replay the whole event, plus all the details of the match and how to watch. | Photos: World Chess

11/8/2018 – Round two of the 2018 knockout Women's World Championship culminated with a handful of upsets, a few fighting matches and a couple of favourites dominating their rivals. Mobina Alinasab, Jolanta Zawadzka, Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova, Alisa Galliamova and Zhai Mo were the surprising winners in this stage of the event. The tension will continue to rise in round three, as the players know that getting through two more rounds will secure them a place in the Candidates. | Photos: Official site

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

11/8/2018 – Such a strong open with such a unique final result (husband and wife winning, with the main prize decided on Armageddon) deserves a second look. Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Alina Kashlinskaya won the event, but there were so many side-stories that it is hard to cover all of it in daily reports. ALINA l'AMI brings us a behind-the-scenes look into one of the most exciting tournaments of the year. Luckily, a laptop mishap only delayed but did not prevent her from filing her (semi-traditional) photo retrospective. | Photos: Alina l'Ami

11/8/2018 – In a day or two, Fabiano Caruana will challenge Magnus Carlsen. Will there be the new World Chess Champion by the end of the month? Commentator STEPHAN OLIVER PLATZ examines some history of the sixth World Champion, chess legend Mikhail Botvinnik, including select games against Capablanca, Alekhine, Reshevsky and Portisch. | Photo: J.D. Noske, Nationaal Archief, von li: Max Euwe, Vasily Smyslov, Paul Keres, Mikhail Botvinnik and Samuel Reshevsky.

11/7/2018 – Norwegian Twitter translation trafficker Tarjei Svensen strikes again sampling another Carlsen interview, this time with VG. The tabloid newspaper spoke with the World Champ (in his native language) as he wrapped up preparations for the upcoming match with Fabiano Caruana. | Photos: Alina l'Ami Players.Chessbase.com

11/7/2018 – Ideas and strategies in Grandmaster games can be quite instructive. IM Merijn van Delft presents games like these every Wednesday at 20:00 CEST (19:00 UT, 2 pm EDT). On this week's show: An overlooked game from the Isle of Man.

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

11/7/2018 – The annual Kings Tournament which, since last year, is held "in memoriam Elisabeta Polihroniade" is now in its 12th Edition. This time the tournament takes place solely in Bucharest from November 19th-21st. It will be an all-Romanian tournament — including players from the Romanian diaspora — in celebration of the country's centenary — December 1st marks 100 years after Unification Day, a holiday born in 1990 but referring to the unification of the provinces which occurred in 1918 in the aftermath of the First World War.

11/6/2018 – The Chinese are off to a flying start at the Women's World Championship knockout in Khanty Mansiysk. Of the seven players from the East Asian powerhouse who have reached the second round, the three playing white each scored a full point on Tuesday's round opener. The four black players are well positioned after earning draws. Rating favourite Anna Muzychuk scored a win with the black pieces in the top Russia vs Ukraine contest. | Pictured: Mobina Alinasab | Photos: Official site

11/6/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CEST (5:00 pm UK time, Noon EDT) Lawrence Trent brings you the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments. Lawrence is on-demand this week and free for ChessBase Basic account holders for a limited time! (Why not register for FREE in 30 seconds if you don't already have an account?) This week Lawrence starts a fresh look at the Women's World Championship.

11/6/2018 – Endings with bishops of opposite colours tend to be drawish, but endings with bishops of the same colour also tend to be drawish. Precision is needed, however.

11/6/2018 – Only one out of the eleven matches that went to play-offs in the first round of the Women's World Championship needed more than two rapid games to be decided — Ni Shiqun eliminated Natalia Zhukova in the 10+10 "slow blitz" stage. This result meant that all the Chinese representatives — except Sun Fanghui, who was paired against her compatriot Tan Zhongyi — stayed in the tournament. | Photos: Official site

11/5/2018 – Featuring archive photos of Fischer and his co-competitors never before published online, GM ALOJZIJE JANKOVIC takes you through the highlights and the history and previews the 2018 edition. In April 1965, the first Tournament of Peace took place in Zagreb, organised by the representatives of the city together with leading local players. It was a very strong field of 20 players, including reigning World Champion at that time, Tigran Petrosian, competing in a round-robin tournament. Bobby Fischer played in the second tournament of 1970, but after the fourth edition in 1985, the tournament went dark...until now. | Pictured: Bobby Fischer looks towards Teodor Boch (a sponsor) in Zagreb, 1970 | Photo: Erwin Sindik / Croatian Chess Federation

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