Game of the Week 477: F. Caruana - S. Shankland, Sinquefield Cup 2021

8/18/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft takes a look at Fabiano Caruana's fine attacking win against Sam Shankland in the first round of the Sinquefied Cup 2021. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Endgame Riddle: Reti vs Rubinstein, Gothenburg 1920

8/18/2021 – At the height of his career Akiba Rubinstein (1 December 1880 - 15 March 1961) was considered a possible challenger for World Champion Dr. Emanuel Lasker, but the two never played a World Championship match. Rubinstein was considered to be particularly strong in the endgame, and Rubinstein's victory over Richard Reti in the tournament in Gothenburg 1920 is regarded as a typical example of his endgame skills. Karsten Müller has now taken a closer look at this endgame to find out whether and when the position was actually won for Black. And invites ChessBase readers to join him in his search for the truth about this fascinating endgame. | Photo: Deutsche Schachzeitung 1908

Sinquefield Cup: Caruana’s brilliant win

8/18/2021 – Exciting chess continues to be the norm in Saint Louis, as the Sinquefield Cup kicked off with a number of thrilling games on Tuesday. Fabiano Caruana, Leinier Dominguez and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won their first-round games and are the early leaders of the event. Caruana’s victory over Sam Shankland was particularly attractive. | Photo: Crystal Fuller

New - Mihail Marin: The Catalan vs. the Semi-Slav, Chebanenko and Triangle

8/18/2021 – The Semi-Slav, the Chebanenko system and the Slav triangle are solid and flexible weapons for Black against 1.d4. On this DVD Mihail Marin offers players with White a repertoire that meets these systems in a provocative way that promises White the initiative and a lot of play.

The Weekly Show: Rapid and Blitz in Saint Louis

8/18/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will take a look at the action from the St Louis Rapid and Blitz. The featured game will be Caruana-Svidler from round 19. | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

John G. White Collection of Chess and Checkers

8/17/2021 – The John G. White Collection of Chess and Checkers is the largest and most comprehensive collection of printed material on chess. While its physical location is Cleveland, Ohio, chess researchers and aficionados may also view parts of the collection online. On July 21, 2021, Woman International Master Alexey Root visited the Cleveland Public Library, which houses the collection. | Photos: Alexey Root

Fortress building

8/17/2021 – In the diagram position White is a pawn down and Black's king is threatening to enter White's position. However, White can hope to save a draw if he manages to build a solid fortress. In the diagram position it is White to move - what would you play?

The Sinquefield Cup, the final event of the GCT, begins today

8/17/2021 – The final event of the Grand Chess Tour’s sixth edition, the Sinquefield Cup, will begin on August 17th, immediately following the conclusion of the 2021 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz. The event will feature ten top-ranked international players competing for a total prize fund of $325,000, and will determine the winner of the 2021 Grand Chess Tour, who will take home the additional $100,000 prize. | Pictured: Jeffery Xiong at the opening ceremony | Photo: Austin Fuller

Keymer edges out Liang to win Kramnik Challenge

8/16/2021 – Two wins and a draw on the fourth day of action granted Vincent Keymer tournament victory at the Kramnik Challenge for young stars. Most importantly, Keymer beat Awonder Liang in the penultimate round — Keymer and Liang would end the event tied in points, and the result in their direct encounter was the tiebreak decider that gave the German prodigy first place.

Karsten Mueller’s Endgame Magic #156 - with Svitlana Demchenko

8/16/2021 – Svitlana and Karsten discuss endgames and Svitlana's forthcoming ChessBase products. Svitlana also presents endgames from her own games and solves a study by Karsten. | "Endgame Magic" is on air most Mondays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

Dominant victory for Hikaru Nakamura in Saint Louis

8/16/2021 – In a remarkable exhibition of speed and control, Hikaru Nakamura won the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz Tournament with three rounds to spare, going through 27 rounds undefeated against a field completely made up of 2700+ rated players. Fabiano Caruana and Richard Rapport finished second and third respectively. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Donchenko scores six wins in a row, gets clear first place at RTU Open

8/16/2021 – A win with black over Igor Kovalenko in round 9 gave Alexander Donchenko tournament victory at the RTU Open in Riga. In the end, Donchenko was the only player to score 7½ points, so he did not even need to bother with tiebreak-criteria calculations. After losing in round 3 against a lower-rated opponent, Donchenko sensationally won six games in a row to win the event! | Photo: Anna Shtourman

Initiating fission

8/15/2021 – In this week’s column, Jon Speelman looks at the dichotomy between energy and matter in chess. While some players choose material, others go for dynamism. To illustrate his points, Speelman analyses two recent wins by Magnus Carlsen and an early game by Mikhail Tal, in which he was able to recover and win from a material disadvantage “of a mere two knights”! | Pictured: Tal at the 1964 Amsterdam Interzonal | Photo: Harry Pot / Anefo

Understanding before Moving 40: The Critical Move (3)

8/15/2021 – 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 40th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman travels down memory lane and takes another look at critical moves. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

St. Louis Rapid & Blitz - Nakamura wins

8/15/2021 – Hikaru Nakamura continued to impress on the first day of the blitz section in Saint Louis. The 5-time US champion has remained undefeated in the event, and entered the fifth day of action with a 2½-point lead over Fabiano Caruana. | Follow the games live with expert commentary. | Photo: Bryan Adams

RTU Open: Final round - Live!

8/15/2021 – Alexander Donchenko won a fifth game in a row on Saturday to join Igor Kovalenko and Narayanan in the shared lead on 6½ points at the Riga Techinal University Open. The German grandmaster will have the black pieces against Kovalenko in Sunday’s final round. The action begins at 10:00 CEST (4:00 ET, 10:00 UTC). Follow the games live. | Photo: Anna Shtourman

Kramnik Challenge: Liang sole leader

8/15/2021 – 18-year-old American grandmaster Awonder Liang collected 3½ points in Saturday’s four rounds to climb to sole first place at the Kramnik Challenge for young stars. Former co-leader Nodirbek Abdusattorov stumbled against Zhu Jhiner and now stands a full point behind, while Vincent Keymer kept up the pace and also scored 3½ points on the third day action — the German grandmaster is in clear second place with three rounds to go. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

RTU Open in Riga: Donchenko joins the leaders

8/14/2021 – Alexander Donchenko won a fifth game in a row on Saturday to join Igor Kovalenko and Narayanan in the shared lead on 6½ points at the Riga Techinal University Open. The German grandmaster will have the black pieces against Kovalenko in Sunday’s final round. The action begins at 10:00 CEST (4:00 ET, 10:00 UTC).

St. Louis Rapid & Blitz: Nakamura grabs the lead

8/14/2021 – Yet another action-packed day at the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz Tournament saw Hikaru Nakamura grabbing the sole lead before entering the blitz section of the event. Nakamura beat Fabiano Caruana in their all-important direct encounter to leapfrog him in the standings table. The top scorer on Friday was Richard Rapport, who is now sharing second place with Caruana. | Photo: Crystal Fuller

Kramnik Challenge: Liang and Abdusattorov top the standings

8/14/2021 – Awonder Liang and Nodirbek Abdusattorov leapfrogged Vincent Keymer on day 2 of the Kramnik Challenge to take the lead with seven rounds to go in the online tournament. Liang kicked off the day with three consecutive wins and temporarily grabbed the sole lead, but a loss against Polina Shuvalova in round 8 allowed Abdusattorov to catch up with him on a 6/8 score. | Photo: Eric Rosen / FIDE World Cup

Nepomniachtchi at work

8/14/2021 – In the diagram position, which is taken from a rapid game between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Levon Aronian, White used his three pieces to get access to Black's weakened king and to finally hunt it down. What did the World Championship Challenger 2021 play?

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Lightning strikes twice - a deadly sac you need to see

8/13/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King takes a look at two wins by Wesley So featuring the same crushing sacrifice, in the same opening, against the same opponent. Apparently lightning does strike twice. | 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.

News Review - How many professional chess players enjoy playing chess?

8/13/2021 – Lawrence and Arne predict the winners of the Kramnik Challenge, RTU, St. Louis Rapid, and the EIWCC. While doing so, they start philosophizing about how many professional chess players actually love their job. While the elite players can mostly make a living, if they win many chess games in tournaments, thousands of GM's have to struggle their way through chess life. Or not? Is chess a sport so far away from golf or football, that they shouldn't even be compared with each other at all? This, and other interesting topics, are being discussed in the last episode of August. "ChessBase News Review" will continue in September.

St. Louis Rapid & Blitz: Caruana beats Dominguez and So, leads

8/13/2021 – Fabiano Caruana climbed to sole first place at the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz Tournament after bouncing back from a loss against Sam Shankland with back-to-back victories over Leinier Dominguez and Wesley So on Thursday. Hikaru Nakamura is in sole second place after drawing all three of his games on day 2. | Photo: Bryan Adams