Is Chess a Sport?

10/10/2022 – It never fails; in time with Magnus’ chessploits, the debate in Norwegian newspapers’ commentary fields rages red hot over whether chess is a sport or athletics, with no surprising conclusions: one agrees to disagree, definitions do not diminish or lessen Magnus’ performances and ‘you can’t compare apples and oranges.’ Study by Rune Vik-Hansen.

U.S. Championships: Yu sole leader in the women’s event

10/10/2022 – Fabiano Caruana and Jennifer Yu are the sole leaders in the U.S. Championships going into the first rest day of the 13-round event. In round 5, Caruana drew birthday boy Wesley So with the white pieces, while Yu defeated Sabina Foisor with black in what was her fifth consecutive decisive game of the tournament. | Photo: Bryan Adams
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Novy Bor and ASVOe Pamhagen are the European Club Cup champions

10/10/2022 – A 3½-2½ victory over Asnieres allowed Novy Bor to end the European Club Cup (open section) with a perfect 14/14 score. The team led by Pentala Harikrishna thus won the tournament in style. Clichy and Viernheim scored wins in the final round to get second and third place respectively. In the women’s cup, ASVOe Pamhagen drew on Sunday to grab clear first place in the final standings. | Photos: Fiona Steil-Antoni
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Understanding before Moving 94: Backgrounds of structures (4)

10/9/2022 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 94th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to discuss structures that are typical for 1.e4 e5 openings. | Photo: Pascal Simon
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Lilit Mkrtchian (1) - How to create an opening repertoire with ChessBase for the rest of your life

10/9/2022 – Welcome to our new series with Lilit Mkrtchian - "How does a chess pro prepare for a tournament?". Very recently, the Armenian IM played quite superb tournaments at the Olympiad, and the European Women's Championship. We wanted to ask a professional chess player, how they prepare for a tournament, so you at home can get some ideas, tricks, and inspiration for your next tournament. We start off with one of the keys for a good prep - building an opening repertoire. Perhaps not as ChessBase intended it, but it seems to work wonderfully for Lilit!
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European Club Cup - Final round: Live

10/9/2022 – The European Club Cup is taking place on October 3-9 in Mayrhofen, Austria. Open and women’s tournaments take place concurrently. A number of elite players are participating, including Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand. The venue of the tournament is the Europahaus. | Follow the games live starting at 14.00 CEST (8.00 ET, 17.30 IST)
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U.S. Championships: Caruana beats Niemann to take the lead

10/9/2022 – The two top seeds in the U.S. Championship won in Saturday’s round 4. Wesley So bounced back from a loss by beating Sam Shankland, while Fabiano Caruana became the first sole leader of the event after taking down Hans Niemann. Aleksandr Lenderman also scored a full point, as he defeated Christopher Yoo. In the women’s event, Jennifer Yu and Tatev Abrahamyan grabbed wins to join Alice Lee in the lead. | Photo: Crystal Fuller
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Frederic's mates - How I met Boris Spassky

10/8/2022 – Boris Spassky was the fourth of the twelve World Chess Champions whom Frederic met. In our new weekly series he tells us how he met and befriended the top players, and the adventures they experienced together. Frederic has written a new book, together with Professor Christian Hesse, with fascinating chess stories from the last 50 years. It appeared (first in German) in October.

Passed pawns are powerful

10/8/2022 – White has active pieces and a powerful passed pawn on d6 while Black's back rank is weak. In the diagram position you are probably itching to find the decisive move that defeats Black. But can you calculate everything in your head until the knockout comes five moves later?
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European Club Cup: Vidit on fire!

10/8/2022 – Novy Bor, the well-known Czech chess club, is very likely to win the open section of the European Club Cup, as it has a 2-point lead going into Sunday’s final round. Playing on board 2 for the Czech team is Vidit Gujrathi, who has scored six wins in as many games in Mayrhofen. In the women’s cup, Pamhagen, representing the host country, also has a 2-point lead in the standings. | Photos: Fiona Steil-Antoni
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U.S. Championships: Caruana scores, Yoo wins two in a row

10/8/2022 – Three decisive games were seen both at the U.S. Championship and the U.S. Women’s Championship in Friday’s third round. In the open, Fabiano Caruana and Awonder Liang scored their first wins of the event, while Christopher Yoo grabbed a second victory in a row. Among the women, Tatev Abrahamyan, Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova and Ruiyang Yan collected full points. | Photo: Austin Fuller
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Conference: Chess in the process of a preschooler’s development

10/8/2022 – Grandmaster Smbat Lputian, chairman of the Chess and Education Commission of the International Chess Federation (EDU FIDE), informs us that an International Online Conference entitled “Chess in the Process of a Preschooler’s Development” will be held on December 10, 2022. The goal of the conference is to discuss different approaches of teaching chess to preschoolers mainly considering chess as an educational tool for a child’s development.
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Ossip Bernstein (September 20, 1882 – November 30, 1962): The Last Star of Chess’ Golden Age

10/7/2022 – Ossip Bernstein had a turbulent life: Born in 1882 in Czarist Russia he was a successful lawyer in Moscow until he had to flee from the Bolsheviks. He emigrated to Paris where he rebuilt his successful law firm but then had to flee again when the Nazis occupied France. After the war, Bernstein returned to Paris. Apart from his career as a lawyer and businessman he was also a successful chess player and at his peak he was one of the world's best players. Eugene Manlapao takes a look at the life and career of this brilliant amateur player.

Trent's Tactics - The Moscow Master: Evgeni Vasiukov

10/7/2022 – Evgeni Vasiukov was considered one of the strongest players in the world, but never represented the Soviet team in the Olympiads. Remarkable was also, that he learned to play chess at the age of 15! Over decades, he won several tournaments from 1960 to 1991. In this time, he played some remarkable games with tough tactics. Lawrence found two jawbreakers.
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U.S. Championships: Yoo upsets So

10/7/2022 – The two players who kicked off the U.S. Championship with losses bounced back immediately by winning their round-2 games in Saint Louis. Elshan Moradiabadi defeated Awonder Liang, while Christopher Yoo got the biggest win of his young career as he took down Wesley So with the black pieces. Meanwhile, in the women’s event, three players still have a perfect score — Jennifer Yu, Alice Lee and Megan Lee. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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Surprise succeeded!

10/6/2022 – The last time Alexei Shirov chose the Moscow Variation in the Semi Slav, Jorden van Foreest was just 13 years old. This June - and thus ten years later - the two players met for a mini-match over four classical games. The veteran, who had played the Botwinnik Variation over all these years, came up with a surprise and resorted to the Moscow Variation for the first time against the top player from the Netherlands. In the new ChessBase Magazine Extra #209 Shirov reviews this game in a 50-minute video. You can watch an excerpt here!

Svitlana's Smart Moves - Guess the surprising, unexpected smart move!

10/6/2022 – If you ever asked yourself what Svitlana's favourite "Smart Moves" theme is, we have a clear answer - fantastic, unexpected moves. And you can try to guess them in this video. In our 50th show, Svitlana has surprising examples from real games with Le Quang Liem, Pavel Eljanov, Jonathan Levitt, Mikhail Tal, and Arshak Petrosian (No, not the world champion Petrosian). Many of you might know the famous games already, but for those who don't know them, you are in for a treat.

European Club Cup: Novy Bor beats Offerspill, grabs the lead

10/6/2022 – The Novy Bor Chess Club grabbed the sole lead at the open section of the European Club Cup after taking down Offerspill in Thursday’s fourth round. Wins by Vidit and Markus Ragger more than made up for Harikrishna’s loss on board 1 against Magnus Carlsen. In the women’s event, co-leaders Superbet and Pamhagen drew their direct encounter to remain atop the standings. | Photos: Fiona Steil-Antoni
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20 years ago: "Brains in Bahrain", Vladimir Kramnik vs Deep Fritz

10/6/2022 – 20 years ago, on 4 October 2002, a very special duel began in Manama, in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The reigning World Champion Vladimir Kramnik played against a PC chess programme - Deep Fritz. Dagobert Kohlmeyer followed the match in Bahrain and shares memories of this remarkable event.

U.S. Championships: Niemann wins, claims he will not back down

10/6/2022 – Hans Niemann and Sam Sevian kicked off the U.S. Championship with wins, as they defeated Christopher Yoo and Elshan Moradiabadi in the first round of the 14-player event. True to his style, Niemann was laconic in the post-game interview, noting that “chess spoke for itself” and that the game was so beautiful he did not even need to describe it. In the women’s event, four players scored full points, including Alice Lee, who is playing her first national championship. | Photo: Crystal Fuller
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Game of the Week #536: M. Carlsen vs A. Naumann

10/6/2022 – In his “Game of the Week” show #536 Merijn van Delft looks at a fascinating game Magnus Carlsen played in round 2 of the European Club Cup in Mayrhofen, Austria. The World Champion had White against the German Grandmaster Alexander Naumann and impressed with surprising maneuvers in the opening and a couple of pawn sacrifices for positional compensation. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

European Club Cup: Six teams still perfect in the open

10/6/2022 – After three rounds, six teams in the open section of the European Club Cup have won all their matches in Mayrhofen. The top scorers on individual boards are Silla Valencia (Korobov, Santos), Offerspill (Carlsen, Tari) and Viernheim (Kryvoruchko, Kuzubov). In the women’s event, Superbet (Bulmaga, Saduakassova) and Pamhagen (Danielian, Ushenina) have collected 6 match points in the first three rounds. | Photos: European Chess Union
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Improve your tactics!

10/5/2022 – That's how chess can be: You cheerfully let the knights rush forward and threaten everything that's standing there. The dear pawns lash out so much that it's a real joy - and suddenly the cerebrum announces: T-R-A-P. Unfortunately too late. That doesn't have to be. With the tactics app in your ChessBase account, you can work on your tactics at any time: Solve tasks at your level without time pressure, measure yourself against others in the tactics fight or compete against the clock in the tactics sprint. In the second episode of his account tutorial, Martin Fischer explains how best to use the tactics app. So that you don't fall into a trap again...
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Wall Street Journal: “Niemann ‘likely cheated’ more than 100 times”

10/5/2022 – A few hours ago, the Wall Street Journal published a lengthy article sharing the findings emerging from an investigation conducted by chess.com. According to the piece, chess.com asserts that Hans Niemann “likely received illegal assistance in more than 100 online games, as recently as 2020”, including in many tournaments with prize money on the line. Niemann did not respond to requests for comments.