5/25/2020 – The second pair of mini-matches in the quarter-finals of the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge finished much more quickly than Saturday's encounters. Magnus Carlsen and Daniil Dubov needed only three games to defeat Wesley So and Sergey Karjakin respectively. Dubov in fact won all three games, while Carlsen survived a scare in the second game and saw his opponent agreeing to a quick draw in the third. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / V. Saravanan

5/24/2020 – Back in the 1980s some program authors tried to avoid the problems of the horizon effect by following suspicious lines a few half moves deeper. It became ever more difficult to use the horizon trap on them. The authors were not always forthcoming about their progress, so Frederic Friedel devised a number of test positions to find out more and to find how individual programs worked.

5/24/2020 – Former World Champion Dr. Emanuel Lasker and reigning World Champion José Raúl Capablanca lead at the New York Tournament 1924. However, in round 20 they both were lucky not to lose. But while Lasker managed to win a bad position against Geza Maroczy, Capablanca "only" drew a bad position against Frederick Yates which allowed Lasker to extend his lead. With two rounds to go Lasker is now almost certain to win the tournament: he leads with 14.0/18 and is 1½ points ahead of Capablanca who is sole second with 12½/18. | Photo: Emanuel Lasker

5/24/2020 – This week Robert Ris takes a look at another fascinating new idea by opening expert Daniil Dubov. This time the innovative Russian top GM came up with a novelty on move 6 in the Anti-Meran. The amazing resource is 6...a5!? which gives a new dynamical touch to this heavily investigated opening. "Fast and Furious" is available from 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 15:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/24/2020 – Tests with chess players of various strengths found the "secret" of the good players: the more chess patterns you know the stronger you are. No wonder that studying chess helps you to improve! On his DVD "Mastering Pattern Recognition in the Opening" Robert Ris deals with important patterns in the opening. Davide Nastasio had a look at the DVD.

5/23/2020 – The first mini-matches of the Lindores Abbey quarter-finals went down to the wire, as Hikaru Nakamura and Yu Yangyi got wins over Levon Aronian and Ding Liren in Armageddon tiebreakers. While Yu and Ding drew all four rapid games prior to the sudden-death decider, Nakamura came back from behind to tie the score in the fourth game of regulation. Aronian and Ding will get a chance to bounce back on Monday, when the second pair of mini-matches will take place. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

5/23/2020 – In our fourth logic riddle for chess players we have to deal with a pawn who is not very good with numbers. Similar to the previous logic riddles, the chess theme again carries the logic riddle and should not be taken too seriously. You are more than welcome to write the answer to the riddle and to detail your approach to find the solution in the comments.

5/23/2020 – You've installed Chessbase 15, it's activated and updated. What next? How does a beginner to ChessBase 15 know where to start, or how to access the functions and features of the most sophisticated chess program on the planet. It's actually remarkably simple. Here, Nick Murphy shows you how.

5/23/2020 – After 19 of 22 rounds Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine lead at the New York Tournament 1924. All three won in round 19: Emanuel Lasker won with Black against Edward Lasker, Capablanca refuted Tartakowers dubious King's Gambit and Alekhine defeated Dawid Janowsky. Lasker now leads with 13.0/17, followed by Capablanca with 12.0/17 and Alekhine with 11.0/18. | Photo: Capablanca (left) and Emanuel Lasker (Archive)

5/23/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King takes a look at some games of the legendary Dutch Grandmaster and writer Jan Hein Donner (1927-1988). | Power Play is on air most Fridays at 17:00 UK (18:00 CEST, 11:00 EST) on playchess.com. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

5/22/2020 – In this new series, we ask professional chess players to share the most memorable game from their careers. Anybody who has ever participated in a competitive event knows that the emotional value attached to each contest is vastly more relevant than the pure sportive achievement. In the first instalment, Sam Shankland shares his first-ever victory over a grandmaster, ten years before winning the US Championship. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/22/2020 – In round 18 of the New York Tournament 1924 World Champion José Raúl Capablanca once again showed why he is so hard to beat. After a bad opening he still managed to win against Edward Lasker with strong positional play. Frank Marshall defeated Efim Bogoljubow with a fantastic attack, sacrificing a number of pieces on his way to victory. | Photo: José Raúl Capablanca (Archive)

5/22/2020 – There are a few rules of thumb about opposite-coloured bishops, e.g. "in the middlegame, they favour the attacker" or "endgames with opposite-coloured bishops are difficult to win". But there are also guidelines how to attack in a middlegame with opposite-coloured bishops. In ChessBase Magazine #195 Mihail Marin shows how strong players handle opposite-coloured bishops in complex positions. Have a look!

5/22/2020 – After the successful online event on Playchess in April the Buddhibal Kreeda Trust (BKT) is back with another tournament. The tournament has a prize fund of ₹35000 and is a Fischer Random (Chess960) tournament. The first prize is ₹11000. With rating category prizes and prizes for women, it's a tournament you cannot afford to miss. It will take place on Saturday 23rd of May at 8 p.m. Indian Standard Time (16:30 CEST, 14:30 UTC, 09:30 EST) in Chess960 Tournaments in the "Thematic Chess" room on Playchess.com. Entry is FREE for GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs. For everyone else the entry fee is ₹300. Registration is on.

5/21/2020 – Four players dropped out of the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge after the preliminary single round robin finished on Thursday. Alexander Grischuk was eliminated on tiebreaks despite getting a last-round win over Wei Yi. Wei, Alireza Firouzja and Jan-Krzysztof Duda are also out of contention. The round robin was won by Hikaru Nakamura, who collected 7½ points in 11 games. The quarter-finals kick off on Saturday. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Vladimir Jagr

5/21/2020 – In the diagram position White's bishop a2 fires against the knight e6. The intermediate exchange 31...Rxd1 32.Rxd1 is still okay for Black, however, offering a second rook trade with 32...Rd8?? leads to disaster. Can you see why?

5/21/2020 – The biggest two problems that every beginner faces in a game of chess are - starting out right and not blundering pieces! Openings and Tactics are truly the two most essential cornerstones of becoming better at chess. And there is no one better than WGM Qiyu Zhou to be your trainer! Qiyu is not just a WGM and a former World Under-14 champion, she is also doing her double major in Economics and Statistics, with a minor in Mathematics from the University of Toronto. Zhou is an intelligent and charming presenter and if you are a beginner then these two DVDs are just what you need to improve at chess!

5/21/2020 – Let us remind you: In 1958 the 15-year-old US champion Bobby Fischer had refused to play in the Munich Olympiad, because his demand for board one ahead of Samuel Reshevsky was rejected. After that Fischer represented the United States on first board at four Men's Chess Olympiads. In Varna, Bulgaria, he outplayed world champion Mikhail Botvinnik, and in a winning position blundered it to a draw. He left the hall with tears in his eyes. Can you help GM Karsten Müller to find the win that Fischer missed?