8/13/2022 – The gold medal at the Chess Olympiad in Chennai was decided in one game: the duel between rising stars Dommaraju Gukesh and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The 16-year-old Indian grandmaster had a better position after the opening and, in fact, was winning at some point. But then the game gradually slipped out of Gukesh’s hands, and a final blunder decided the game in Abdusattorov’s favour. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/13/2022 – Over 650 games were played daily at the record-breaking Chess Olympiad in Chennai. GM Karsten Müller attentively followed the games, looking for instructive endings. Naturally, all sorts of setups and typical patterns showed up with so many encounters running concurrently. Go over our in-house expert’s analyses, and you are sure to find something to learn or, at the very least, something to enjoy! | Pictured: Praggnanandhaa beats Javokhir Sindarov after converting a tough technical endgame. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/13/2022 – After ten games in the World Championship match in Reykjavik, 1972, the score was 6½-3½ for Challenger Bobby Fischer. The match seemed virtually over – in the last eight games Boris Spassky had only managed to score 1½ points. In game 11 Spassky took on the Poisoned Pawn variation of the Najdorf Sicilian. "Fighting with the desperation of the doomed: he sensationally crushed his opponent in the 11th game" (Kasparov). In the twelfth he held Fischer to a comfortable draw. And then came the 13th round. Fischer played, for the first time in a top-level game, the Alekhine Defence. It turned into one of the most exciting battles of the match, and is beautifully annotated by GM Robert Byrne.

8/13/2022 – In the diagram position, White has yet to react properly to the black queen's check, then he may happily start searching for mates - feel free to join!

8/12/2022 – Lawrence has prepared some stunning tactics, played by the German legend Wolfgang Uhlmann. The French Defence expert was a masterful chess player for ages, and beat Bobby Fischer in 1960, with this very opening. We continue with our journey to reach a rating of 3000. Meanwhile, we are comfortably sitting around 2550.

8/12/2022 – In his "Power Play Show" Daniel King features games from the Olympiad. Apart from the usual puzzles, Daniel will take close look at Nihal Sarin versus Sebastian Bogner, a masterful performance by the gold-medal winner on board 2 for India 2. | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

8/10/2022 – In the absence of Russia and China, the young Uzbek team surprised everyone by winning the gold medal at the Chess Olympiad in Chennai. The victory comes at the right time, as the 2026 Chess Olympiad will be held in Tashkent, reports FIDE. But gold for the best individual performances on board 1 and 2 went to Gukesh D. and Nihal Sarin from the team of India 2. | Photos: FIDE (Lennart Ootes, Stev Bonhage)

8/10/2022 – Do you know the Hippopotamus Defence. It is a series of irregular chess opening systems in which Black moves a number of pawns to the sixth rank, and keeps his pieces on the seventh rank. Many experts considered it basically losing, but it has maintained a solid fifty percent for Black, even at the highest level of competition. In the British Chess Magazine Raymond Keene reviews the book The Hippopotamus Defence by Italian IM Alessio de Santis on the subject. | Picture Samuele Giglio, Unsplash

8/9/2022 – The record-breaking 2022 Chess Olympiad came to an end in Chennai, India. After a fighting eleventh round, Uzbekistan and Ukraine were crowned champions in the open and women’s sections respectively. Armenia and India 2 got silver and bronze medals in the open, while Georgia and India completed the podium in the women’s tournament. It was a unique competition, which saw how much of a difference an enthusiastic, diligent organization can actually make! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/9/2022 – For some time now, we’ve known that the strongest chess engines like to push their flank pawns up the board. This has led to an interesting system, with which we can meet the Grunfeld and the King’s Indian. Studying the mainlines is time consuming, and it is possible that our opponents may know the typical plans in those openings better than us, right? Therefore, it is a great idea to take Grunfeld and King’s Indian players out of their comfort-zone right from the start!

8/9/2022 – In 1982, when he was 15 years old, Simen Agdestein won the Norwegian Championship for the first time and became the youngest Norwegian Champion of all time. Three years later, in 1985, he became a Grandmaster, the first Norwegian ever to secure the title. Now, in the 2022 Norwegian Championship, which took place in mid-July, Agdestein set another record: The 55-year-old won the tournament with 8 out of 9 to become the oldest player ever to win the Championship. | Photo: Anniken Westby

8/9/2022 – A piece that is attacked does not have to move - that sounds like a trivial little piece of wisdom but it is good to keep it in mind. In the diagrammed position Black just attacked White's rook with 49...Ke5, apparently forgetting that attacked pieces do not have to move. How should White react to Black's attack?