9/17/2019 – Women's world champion Ju Wenjun is the sole leader of the Skolkovo Grand Prix after six rounds. A three-player chasing group is close behind though, with Kateryna Lagno, Humpy Koneru and World Championship challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina all standing at a half-point distance. The twelve participants are having a rest day, before the final five rounds take place through next Monday. | Photo: David Llada / FIDE

9/17/2019 – IM Lawrence Trent turns his attention to another high-profile event going on in Russia for today's show . Lawrence is live and free on-demand for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

9/17/2019 – This wild endgame features a pawn race full of twists and turns that is as fun to watch as it is to win (or draw if you're playing White)!

9/17/2019 – The round of 32 of the FIDE World Cup began on Monday, with seven players getting the lead in their mini-matches. The three biggest underdogs — all with ratings in the 2500s — are amongst those needing a win to bounce back after a loss, as Alexander Grischuk, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov defeated Xu Xiangyu, Eltaj Safarli and Daniil Yuffa respectively. IM LAWRENCE TRENT recapped the action of the day. | Photo: FIDE

9/16/2019 – The Berkeley Chess School, in Berkeley, California, hosted an unusual (by USA standards) International Master Norm Tournament (August 16th-20th). Unusual because it was for women only. GM Irina Krush won the tournament after a playoff with IM-elect Annie Wang. WIM AGNIESZKA MATRAS-CLEMENT was among the contenders and sent us this first-hand review. | Photos: Berkley Chess School

9/16/2019 – GM Simon Williams selects key moments from the World Cup so far, plus a few more puzzles on the theme of under-promotion. Watch for free (for a limited time) starting at the usual hour: 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST / 12 Noon EDT).

9/16/2019 – The pairings for round three of the FIDE World Cup are set, as the last fifteen (out of thirty-two) spots were decided on Sunday's tiebreaks. The rapid and blitz play-offs saw the first Armageddon battle of the event: the score in Anish Giri vs Evgeniy Najer remained tied after eight games — Giri got the black pieces and won the sudden-death encounter to get his pass to the next round. The other lengthy match-up of round two saw Daniil Yuffa knocking out Luke McShane. Round-up show by GM ERWIN L'AMI. | Photo: FIDE

9/15/2019 – Hans Ree was the fourth chess player born in the Netherlands to receive the Grandmaster title from FIDE after Max Euwe, Jan Hein Donner and Jan Timman. Following his active years as a player, he became one of the most important chess journalists. Today Ree celebrates his 75th birthday. | Photo: Dutch National Archive

9/15/2019 – Hikaru Nakamura and Ernesto Inarkiev were knocked out by nominally weaker players — Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Xu Xiangyu respectively — after game two of the second round at the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. Besides these two underdogs, fifteen other participants secured their place in round three. Meanwhile, Wei Yi and Eltaj Safarli bounced back with wins after having lost on Friday to reach the tiebreaks. IM LAWRENCE TRENT recapped the action of the day. | Photo: FIDE

9/14/2019 – An ongoing topic of scientific inquire of interest to chess fans is whether and to what extent chess can delay or mitigate the effects of aging. An Australian study aimed to prove that chess champions have a higher life expectancy than the average population. Grandmasters from Eastern Europe should therefore have a life expectancy of up to 14 years. PETER MUENDER dealt critically with the study results.

9/14/2019 – The chess world has a new power couple: Last Friday, the Hungarian Grandmaster Gabor Papp and the German national player WGM Sarah Hoolt tied the knot. Congratulations! | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

9/14/2019 – Round two of the 2019 World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk saw 11 out of 32 match-ups starting with a decisive result. The upsets of the day were achieved by David Anton and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, who defeated Wei Yi and Hikaru Nakamura respectively. Meanwhile, the youngest player in the field, Nihal Sarin, won a third classical game in a row, this time showing great positional feel to take down Eltaj Safarli. Round-up show by IM LAWRENCE TRENT. | Photo: FIDE

9/13/2019 – The top echelons of chess are obviously getting younger and younger. The World Cup features some of the world's strongest young players looking to make their mark against current elite. THORSTEN CMIEL introduces the young savages and their tasks. Three out of four have advanced to the second round.

9/13/2019 – White's 33.Bd7 in the diagram is a desperate attempt to create counterplay which Black definitely should not have ignored — his game continuation 33...a2? throws away victory. Can you see why?

9/13/2019 – A number of upsets were in store at the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, as round one concluded after twenty-three matches were decided on tiebreaks. Most play-off encounters finished after the first pair of rapid games, while only two of them reached the third stage of tiebreaks. From the top quarter of the tournament bracket, besides Radek Wojtaszek and David Navara — who were knocked out in the classical phase — Bu Xiangzhi and Sam Shankland were eliminated before round two. | Photo: FIDE

9/12/2019 – Bobby Fischer is a legend, so much so that even people who knew him sometimes find it difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction when they hear stories about Fischer. Vlastimil Hort knew Fischer and played against him. Recently, Hort rediscovered a letter Fischer had sent him and this letter evoked memories of the controversial chess genius. | Photos: Wolfgang Betzen (Schachclub Wangen)

9/12/2019 – In this episode IM Robert Ris takes a romp through the Sicilian Rauzer. The live show at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 1 PM EDT) 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. In the diagram, it's White to play and win!

9/12/2019 – It is inspired by the remarkable Google/DeepMind development that shocked the world: AlphaZero. Using the open source code of Leela we generated a neural network based on millions of auto-play games — but also added millions of high level human and computer-vs-computer games, and endgame tablebases. The result: a program that strong GMs are experimenting with — and they are fascinated with the ideas our engine produces. Even very young chess geniuses are fans of Fat Fritz. | Photo Frederic Friedel