12/9/2018 – The city of Salerno, south of Naples, was the venue for this year's individual championship in Italy. 12 participants fought for the title of Italian Champion in a classical round-robin tournament. The winner was not one of the favourites, but rather IM Lorenzo Lodici, the surprising but not undeserved winner of last year's under-20 national championship. | Photos: FSI

12/8/2018 – Ten days on from the end of the World Championship and the match is still very much in the news. In a previous report, we presented a 31-minute interview with five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand and his take on the games played in London. Sagar Shah of ChessBase India transcribed the highlights of his commentary which we’ve converted to a ChessBase interactive game viewer, so you could easily replay and analyse while listening to Vishy. Today we continue with games 7–12. Learn and enjoy.

12/8/2018 – Macedonia's political, cultural and economic centre, Skopje, is hosting the European Rapid and Blitz Championships. Unlike other events, in this case the blitz section takes place first. After eleven double-rounds, Vladislav Artemiev emerged as the clear winner with an astounding 18½/22 score. Ivan Cheparinov and David Navara finished in clear second and third places, respectively. IVA VIDENOVA sent a complete report, which includes a selection of top-level blunders. | Photos: Patricia Claros Aguilar

12/7/2018 – Everyone talks about the Indian "wunderkinder" Nihal Sarin or Praggnanandhaa, but it's also increasingly possible a future world chess champion will come from Iran. Alireza Firozja is the world's highest rated player born in 2003 (he turned 15 in June), and his style is reminiscent of a famous "magician" from Riga. THORSTEN CMIEL shares this extensive portrait and GM IVAN SOKOLOV explains to SAGAR SHAH why he is reminded of a young Vishy Anand. | Photo: All-Indian Chess Federation

12/7/2018 – Friday at 18:00 CET (17:00 UT) Daniel King will go on air on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer, plus Daniel will be looking at the AlphaZero games vs Stockfish. Puzzle and the live video...

12/7/2018 – In 1925, people in Moscow were so seized by chess fever as a result of an international chess tournament that the famous movie of the same name was created. In Norway, it was almost the same during the World Championship match Carlsen-Caruana. Holger Blauhut reports on a memorable tournament in Fredrikstad. Plus, for your next trip to the capital Oslo, be sure to hit up the new chess-themed bar known as The Good Knight.

12/7/2018 – After 21.Nh4 in the diagram position Black's queen and knight are under fire. What do you make of that — or rather of the liquidation sequence starting with 21...Qxf2+ then? Happy calculating!

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

12/6/2018 – The Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival returns next week for a 5th edition in Sitges, Barcelona, Spain from December 13th to the 23rd. There are still a few places available in the tournament which is rapidly becoming one of the strongest open events in the chess world, and this year will feature Russian GM Dmitry Andreikin, Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk and Indian super-talents GM Nihal Sarin and GM R. Praggnanandhaa. | Photo: Sharath Elumulai

12/6/2018 – The world was watching, but some people saw the spate of draws differently. Does the World Championship need reform? This is a debate that will continue for a while, perhaps until the next World Championship match in 2020. Contributor STEPHEN OLIVER PLATZ offers his opinion on Carlsen vs Caruana match as well as the World Championship format. The thesis? Blame the rules. | Photo: World Chess

12/6/2018 – In northern Germany children last night were polishing boots and setting them outside their front doors, expecting gifts from Saint Nicholas on December 6th. As a northern German company we want to participate in this tradition: today we offer a wonderful new 60 Minutes course by IM Lawrence Trent, The Sizzling Scotch Gambit, to our readers. Just go to the ChessBase Shop and download the course. Today it is fully free of charge!

12/6/2018 – The World Championship Match 2018 ended recently, to mixed reviews: Many thought the match was dull and boring, while other called it one of the best World Championships in terms of quality of play. When it comes to opinions, there can be no one better than five-time World Champion Vishy Anand. The legend has played innumerable matches for the highest title — he has been there and done that! Anand did a 31-minute video interview, in his house in Chennai, with IM SAGAR SHAH, who transcribes the key passages with live diagrams.

12/5/2018 – It was quite a series: 102 matches in a row without a loss by the team of Novy Bor in the Czech League (the 'Extraliga'). Last Sunday, this incredible series ended in defeat. Aneta Vignerova, Miss Czech Republic 2009, opened the competition Moravská Slavia vs Labortech Ostrava. | Photos: Vladimir Jagr

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 CEST (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.

12/5/2018 – Following the example of the massive bi-annual Chess Olympiad, an Under-16 youth version was held in Konya, Turkey, a 9-round Swiss team tournament which took place from November 25th to December 2nd, 2018. The Uzbek team won with 16 points ahead of India and China. Iran's top board, Alireza Firouzja scored 8.0/9 for a performance rating of 2736! | Photo: Official site

12/5/2018 – FIDE has finally announced the venue and regulations for the 2018 World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships. The dates are the same, but the venue, as was widely expected, has changed. It will take place from December 25th (arrival) to 31st (departure) in St. Petersburg, Russia. Magnus Carlsen will play, but it remains to be seen how much of the world elite will join him on short notice. | Pictured: The Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange, Rostral Columns from across the frozen Neva river | Stanislav Kondratiev (Unsplash.com)

12/5/2018 – The 10th edition of the Penang International Chess Open has just kicked off in the Malaysian state of Penang. EDWIN LAM pays tribute to Dato’ Tan Chin Nam, a key instigator of the tournament, who died in October. | Pictured: Dato’ seen here having a game of chess against FM Ignatius Leong. Next to them were FM Geoffrey Borg playing Black against WIM Li Ruofan at the 2007 Malaysia Open | Photo: Edwin Lam

12/4/2018 – The field is complete for the 81st Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee which takes place from January 11th to 27th, 2019. The organisers have announced the final participants — qualifiers from the Association of Chess Professionals. In the top 'Masters' group, World Champion Magnus Carlsen is back and will be fighting to keep his World Number 1 spot against fellow-2800 players Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Ding Liren. The 'Challengers' includes World Junior Champ Parham Maghsoodloo, and other young up-and-comers Praggnanandhaa, Andrey Esipenko and Vincent Keymer. | Photos: Alina l'Ami