5/15/2022 – Yuri Averbakh is no more. Tributes are pouring in from all over the world to the late grandmaster, who had only recently turned 100 and chess fans had celebrated the day. Not many are aware that he wrote his autobiography years before. Our columnist had begun a series on this fascinating work and narrated how it all began. Then came the Ukraine war, and he could not bring himself to write anything in the face of this tragedy. Sadly, the war is continuing, and our columnist has reconciled himself to writing. Importantly, this series is a homage to the life and work of a great player. | Photo: Eric Koch / Anefo

5/15/2022 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the Superbet Chess Classic after outscoring Wesley So and Levon Aronian in rapid playoffs. MVL had caught up with the co-leaders after beating Alireza Firouzja with black in their classical, round-9 encounter. The Frenchman beat both US grandmasters in the rapid-chess single round-robin that followed to claim the title. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/14/2022 – The 2022 International Computer Games Association events are fast approaching: the World Computer Chess Championships (Vienna, July 23-29), the 2022 Computer Olympiad (online, July 23-29), and the 2022 Computers and Games conference (online, November 22-24). The ICGA has distributed full information on all upcoming events.

5/14/2022 – This week Robert Ris focuses on the Bayonet Attack in the King’s Indian Defence. He uses model games from elite players to illustrate the potential problems Black faces when White plays 11.a4 and 12.a5. | “Fast and Furious” is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

5/14/2022 – Four French champions will gather at Blitz Society (pictured), the hip new chess meeting point in the heart of Paris, for a rapid match against four champions from Ukraine. The match will take place on Saturday, May 14, starting at 17.30 CEST. Donations for Ukrainian relief efforts are being collected by UNICEF!

5/14/2022 – The Superbet Chess Classic is being held in Bucharest, Romania at the Sheraton Hotel from May 5 to May 14. It includes all nine full tour players and one wildcard player, Romanian grandmaster Bogdan-Daniel Deac. After tying for first place on 5½/9, Wesley So, Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are deciding who wins the tournament in a rapid-chess playoff. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/11/2022 – Endgame tablebases can only be described as "god chess" as they are perfect information on all positions they cover, and the terms 'better' or 'worse' cease to have any meaning. Marc Bourzutschky has trained and resolved a large number of the 8-piece tablebase positions and shared his results and findings, as well as insights in a video interview.

5/11/2022 – Round 5 of the Superbet Chess Classic saw Fabiano Caruana bouncing back from his loss on Sunday by taking down defending champion Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The US grandmaster thus went into the rest day with a fifty-percent score. The remaining games finished drawn, leaving Wesley So in the sole lead, half a point ahead of a three-player chasing pack. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/10/2022 – In his ‘Weekly Show’ Lawrence Trent focuses on the Superbet Chess Classic currently taking place in Romania. He looks at a fine win by Fabiano Caruana over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. | Lawrence’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

5/10/2022 – When White wants to tackle the Sicilian Najdorf Variation — 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 — very directly, 6.Bg5 is a popular choice. After 6...e6 7.f4 the rare 7...b5, the Polugaevsky Variation, leads to sharp and difficult positions. Petra Papp brings the theory of this variation up to date in her article for ChessBase Magazine #207, explaining typical strategies and motifs for both sides.

5/10/2022 – Sergey Karjakin was born in 1990 in Simferopol, the second-largest city in Crimea – Ukrainian territory that was annexed by Russia in 2014. At 12 he became (at the time) the youngest grandmaster in history. In the past months, Karjakin publicly supported the Russian assault on Ukraine, for which he was banned for six months from all FIDE chess competitions. Now he has sought revenge with a deep-fake call to FIDE Director General GM Emil Sutovsky. The British Chess Magazine reports.

5/10/2022 – On first sight, things look grim for White in the diagrammed position as it is hard to see what he can do against the advance of Black's f-pawn. However, White remembered the rule that pawn endings should be calculated carefully and found a way to get a draw. What did he do?