10/20/2022 – Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov reached the final of the Aimchess Rapid online tournament after outscoring Magnus Carlsen and Richard Rapport in Wednesday’s semis, respectively. Duda and Shakh finished first and third in the preliminary stage, and enter the deciding match of the event as much-deserving finalists.

10/19/2022 – Judit Polgar's Global Chess Festival was held in Budapest, Hungary, on the 8th of October this year. Among other things, the current edition of the annual gala hosted a study composing cum exhibition event called Chess Artistry Adventure. The artful program in memory of the late Pal Benko has received fourteen original studies from some of the best composers in the world. In an article we published last month, four of these were explained in detail. Today, as it were, we venture deeper into the forest and tackle some more from the rest of them. What follows is some high-class chess, with difficulty ranging from the guilefully complex to the tortuously analytical—nothing remotely facile, nothing for the faint-hearted!

10/19/2022 – There are periods of quiet in competition and periods of nonstop excitement, and readers have been treated to the latter of late. The Meltwater series now running the Aimchess event with World Champion as well as stars on the rise, has seen great battles left and right. Many of these led to mindboggling endgames which our resident (as in global) expert Karsten Mueller shares a few.

10/19/2022 – Going into Wednesday’s final round, Fabiano Caruana and Irina Krush are sole leaders in the open and women’s sections of the U.S. Championships, respectively. Ray Robson, Leinier Dominguez and Awonder Liang still have chances of catching Caruana in the open, while Jennifer Yu and Thalia Cervantes stand a half point behind Krush and will face each other in the thirteenth round. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/19/2022 – Three long-standing elite GMs defeated younger opponents in the quarterfinals of the Aimchess Rapid online tournament, as Magnus Carlsen, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Richard Rapport knocked out Arjun Erigaisi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Gukesh Dommaraju, respectively. The one exception to this rule was Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who got the better of Vidit Gujrathi. By reaching the event’s semifinals, Carlsen secured overall tour victory with one tournament to spare!

10/18/2022 – The Lex Fridman Podcast has over two million subscribers on YouTube and is considered one of the most exciting, challenging and best podcasts in the world. It explores topics such as artificial intelligence, technology, history, consciousness, love and power. In the most recent episode of the podcast, Lex Fridman had Hikaru Nakamura as his guest. The American Grandmaster and streamer showed his "Immortal Game" and talked about "the best player of all time", crises and setbacks, Magnus Carlsen, the Hans Niemann case and revealed that for him love is "the most important thing in life".

10/18/2022 – The successful series "How does a chess professional analyse with ChessBase" with Regina Pokorna had shown the final episode on Sunday on the German ChessBase YouTube site. On the other hand, "How to prepare for a tournament like a professional chess player" with Lilit Mkrtchian has just started. In the first episode she shows us how she creates an opening repertoire, and has accumulated almost a terrabyte of opening data over the decades. Martin Fischer now shows us the version that ChessBase originally intended, so that amateur players also have an easier time starting their own repertoire.

10/18/2022 – Following on from ‘Part 1: Understanding The Dragon’ where important themes and concepts were explained, now it’s time to delve into the theory that has shaped this exciting opening over the years. From reasons why once popular variations are no more (but with revival suggestions!) to coverage of the more modern systems currently deployed by the World’s elite, this two-parter has it all!

10/18/2022 – Nine out of fourteen games finished decisively in round 11 of the U.S. Championships. In the open, Fabiano Caruana continues to lead, with Ray Robson a half point back, while Leinier Dominguez and Sam Sevian both won to climb to shared third place. In the women’s event, Jennifer Yu leads Irina Krush by a half point after both contenders for first place won their games with the black pieces. Yu will have white against Krush in their round-12 direct encounter. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/18/2022 – After six of eleven rounds, Frederik Svane leads the field in the Junior World Championship. The only German player in the open has the best tiebreak in a group of four players with 5.0/6. | Photo: Tournament page

10/18/2022 – One of the most surprising discoveries in the 6-piece tablebase concerned the endgame Q+g+h pawn vs queen, which often is a theoretical draw when the defender is well placed. However, in a practical game with limited time, the endgame is usually too difficult to hold. The diagrammed position occurred in a game between M. Carlsen and G. Meier, played at the Chess Olympiad 2022. Black lost, but he could have drawn. How?

10/18/2022 – The final three rounds of the Aimchess Rapid preliminaries were played on Monday. Eight out of sixteen players moved on to the knockout, with Jan-Krzysztof Duda the top scorer in the single round-robin. Suspense regarding who would make it through was limited to two players, as Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi entered the fifteenth round with chances of getting the coveted eighth spot in the knockout. In the end, it was Vidit who advanced to the quarterfinals, mainly thanks to Arjun Erigaisi’s victory over Giri.