Wesley So dominates playoffs, wins 2021 US Championship

10/20/2021 – Wesley So beat both Fabiano Caruana and Sam Sevian in the playoffs of the 2021 US Championship to win the national title for a third time, since his transfer to the United States in 2014. A hard-fought tournament saw the three players sharing first place on 6½ points after 11 rounds. A round robin with a rapid time control took place on Tuesday to decide the winner of the national championship. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

Nick Pert wins British Championship

10/20/2021 – This year, the British Chess Federation organised two national championships, an online championship in July/August, and an "Over-the-Board" championship at the beginning of October. Nicholas Pert (pictured) won the Open Championship, Harriett Hunt became Women's Champion. | Photos: John Stubbs (Tournament page)

Superfinals - Round 11

10/20/2021 – All but one game in both sections of the Russian Superfinals finished drawn in Wednesday’s final round, and the one decisive game (which was played in the open section) did not alter the situation at the top of the standings table. Thus, Nikita Vitiugov and Valentina Gunina, who were the sole leaders after the penultimate round, were crowned as the 2021 Russian chess champions. | Follow the action live starting at 12.00 CEST (6.00 ET, 15.30 IST)

Baden-Baden wins Bundesliga

10/20/2021 – Last weekend, Baden-Baden won the German Team Championship, the Bundesliga. Again. In fact, since 2006 the team from Baden-Baden, sponsored by GRENKE Leasing, only failed to win the league in 2016, when Solingen finished first. This year, at the end of a season that due to the pandemic lasted from 2019 to 2021, Baden-Baden was three team points ahead of their closest rivals but securing the title was more difficult than the final result suggests. | Photos: Pascal Simon

Superfinals: Matlakov joins the fight for the title

10/20/2021 – Going into Wednesday’s final round in the Russian Superfinals, both the open tournament and the women’s championship have a sole leader with a half-point edge over two players sharing second place. In the open, Nikita Vitiugov leads, with Maxim Matlakov and Vladimir Fedoseev standing close behind; among the women, Valentina Gunina is the frontrunner, with her closest chasers being Evgenija Ovod and Polina Shuvalova. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

US Championship - Playoffs

10/19/2021 – Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Sam Sevian finished the 2021 US Championship sharing first place on 6½/11 points. A rapid round robin tournament (10 minutes plus 2-second increments) will decide the winner. In case of a tie, blitz and Armageddon will follow. | Follow the action live with commentary starting at 13.00 local time (14.00 ET, 20.00 CEST)

US Championships: Sevian, Caruana and So go to playoffs

10/19/2021 – The last round of the US Championship was played on Monday. The US Champion, however, has not yet been decided, as Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Sam Sevian finished tied on points atop the standings and will play a rapid-chess tiebreak to find the winner of this year’s national event. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

The Weekly Show: Carissa Yip wins US Women's Championship 2021

10/19/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent focuses on the US Championships, especially on Carissa Yip's victory in the Women’s event. The game of the day is Yip's win against Nazi Paikidze. Lawrence will also talk about Pragg’s victory at the Julius Baer challenge, and other events. | Lawrence’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

Pawn race in a rook ending

10/19/2021 – Rook endings often have drawish tendencies, but pawn races usually spice things up. In the diagram position it is Black to move. Should he protect his pawn on g6 or should he attack White's pawn on b3?

Carissa Yip wins the US Women’s Championship at 18

10/19/2021 – With a remarkable 8½/11 score, Carissa Yip won the 2021 US Women’s Championship a bit over a month after turning 18 years old. The Bostonian is the highest-rated U20 woman player in the world and has now joined the top 50 in the live women’s ratings list. The youngster won the national title in style, securing first place with a round to spare and finishing the event 1½ points ahead of second-placed Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

62nd Annual US Armed Forces Open Chess Championship

10/18/2021 – The 62nd Annual US Armed Forces Open Chess Championship was held in Grapevine, Texas, from October 8–11, 2021. Charles D. "Chuck" Unruh and Charles M. Unruh won the Veterans Open Championship and the Armed Forces Open, respectively. Chuck, the father, scored 4½ of 5 rounds to top a 22-player field. Charles, the son, went 5-0 in a 51-player field. | Photo: Danny Fallon

US Championships: Caruana shares the lead, Yip secures women’s title

10/18/2021 – With one round to go at the 2021 US Championship, a number of players still have a chance to become champions. Fabiano Caruana joined the leading pack with a win over Aleksandr Lenderman — he now shares first place with Sam Sevian and Wesley So. In the women’s tournament, 18-year-old Carissa Yip grabbed the title with one round to spare! | Photos: Lennart Ootes

Karsten Müller’s Endgame Magic #166: Endgame highlights from the finals of the Champions Chess Tour

10/18/2021 – In the Endgame Magic Show #166 Karsten Müller Arne and Karsten discuss endgame highlights from the finals of the Champions Chess Tour, which ended in October and was won by Magnus Carlsen. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

Carlsen's 4.c4 in the Caro-Kann Advance Variation

10/18/2021 – At the FIDE World Cup 2021 Magnus Carlsen surprised his opponent Vladimir Fedoseev in the Caro-Kann Advance Variation (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5) with the move 4.c4. Jan Werle analyses this brilliant game in ChessBase Magazine Extra #203 in a video and pays special attention to the opening. Is Carlsen's idea a good attacking weapon against the Caro-Kann? Take a look at an excerpt from Werle's video analysis!
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Superfinals: Vitiugov and Gunina sole leaders

10/18/2021 – With three rounds to go in the Russian Superfinals, Nikita Vitiugov and Valentina Gunina are leading the tournament standings in the open and women’s event respectively. Vitiugov climbed to first place after surviving a lost position against Kirill Alekseenko, while Gunina is undefeated with five wins in eight games so far in Ufa. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

Impressive Praggnanandhaa wins Julius Baer Challengers Tour Finals

10/18/2021 – There was no stopping Praggnanandhaa in the Finals of the Julius Baer Challengers Tour. The 16-year-old from Chennai scored a dominating 3-0 victory in the final match against Christopher Yoo, which means he was a half point away from getting a perfect score in the event — he got 8½/9 points after knocking out Volodar Murzin and Vincent Keymer in the previous rounds.

Annotating in ChessBase: The Basics

10/18/2021 – Knowing the ins and outs of annotating a game in ChessBase is one of the most fundamental and useful skills to have in it. It is vital so you can prepare openings, review your games, and more. Before stating you know all this, ask yourself: can you easily add text before a move, add symbols such as 'with attack', and add a '!' without a mouse? Let's start mastering the tools!

Monarchs and ubersprogs

10/17/2021 – Star columnist Jon Speelman looks at the next generation of chess stars, presenting games from Aleksandra Goryachkina, Andrey Esipenko and Nihal Sarin. Speelman notes that “the interesting thing with young players is not only how well they can play at their peak, but also, and no less important, howe well they can play at their ambient level”. | Pictured: Andrey Esipenko and Zhansaya Abdmualik at this year’s World Cup in Sochi. | Photo: Anastassia Korolkova / FIDE

Challengers Chess Tour Finals - Pragg wins

10/17/2021 – The knockout Finals of the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour are taking place on October 14-17. The 8 top qualifiers from the previous “Challenge” events are participating. Each match consists of four rapid games, with 10 minutes per player for each game plus a 5-second increment. | The action kicks off daily at 16.00 CEST (10.00 ET / 19.30 IST)

Understanding before Moving 49: The beginning of an attack

10/17/2021 – 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 49th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman shows how White conducts a typical attack in the Sicilian. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

Challengers Tour Finals: Pragg and Yoo make it through

10/17/2021 – It was a rather short day at the office for the semifinalists of the Julius Baer Challengers Tour Finals, as Praggnanandhaa and Christopher Yoo only needed three games to knock out Vincent Keymer and Awonder Liang respectively. After an astounding win by Pragg, Vladimir Kramnik was full of praise for his play, even comparing him with Magnus Carlsen. “He’s playing almost like a real world champion, not a future one”, said Kramnik.

Disaster on the diagonal

10/16/2021 – Once you worked out why Black should refrain from opening the diagonal of White's bishop on a2 with 20....cxd3??, you should also know how to refute the move played in the game: 20...Qd7??. Enjoy!

Iniyan clinches La Nucia Open

10/15/2021 – Iniyan Panneerselvam scored an unbeaten 7/8 to win the La Nucia International Open 2021. He had to miss the eighth round game due to his commitments towards the CoinDCX Chess Super League, and still managed to win the tournament in just eight games. He won a trophy and €2.500 as a prize. Iniyan annotated his favourite game from the tournament. | Photo: Valencian Chess Federation

Challengers Tour Finals: Keymer and Liang in semis

10/15/2021 – Vincent Keymer and Awonder Liang made it into the semifinals of the Julius Baer Challengers Tour Finals after beating Leon Mendonca and Nodirbek Abdusattorov respectively. Keymer, who finished the preliminary stage — consisting of four tournaments — atop the overall standings table, had to work hard to take down Mendonca.