Sinquefield Cup Highlights

8/29/2021 – The Sinquefield Cup concluded on August 26 with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave scoring 6/9 points and winning clear first ahead of three Americans: Fabiano Caruana, Leinier Dominguez, and Wesley So. So scored 2½/3 in the early rounds and played a very solid tournament, which brought him the 2021 Grand Chess Tour title. Joshua Doknjas takes a look at 4 interesting games from the event. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Aimchess US Rapid: Aronian sole leader

8/29/2021 – The first five rounds of the Aimchess US Rapid preliminary stage were played on Saturday. Levon Aronian ended the day as sole leader after scoring 4 points, with wins over Le Quang Liem, Eric Hansen and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Magnus Carlsen and Vladislav Artemiev are sharing second place a half point back. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

First Muzychuk Sisters’ Cup

8/28/2021 – “One of my biggest wishes in recent years was to host a tournament and contribute to the development of chess in our region and our country (Ukraine),” writes Anna Muzychuk. She and her younger sister Mariya, who was the 2015 Women's World Chess Champion, succeeded in holding the first Muzychuk Sisters’ Cup. Pictorial report from Anna.

Poised to strike

8/28/2021 – In the diagram position, White has two aggressive knights on the e-file and a mobile queen behind them - a constellation that is just crying out for a combination. Your call!

Carlsen heads impressive lineup at Aimchess US Rapid

8/28/2021 – The last ‘regular’ tournament of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, the Aimchess US Rapid, begins on Saturday. This is the final qualifying tournament to the grand finale, which is scheduled to start on September 25. The 16-player lineup is topped by Magnus Carlsen, with the likes of Wesley So, Levon Aronian and Wesley So also in the mix.

CBM 202: Nepo wins, Caruana shines and a Timman special

8/27/2021 – ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess, and it also provides arsenal for the tournament player. This issue offers 456 games from 3 major events, Candidates’ Tournament, New in Chess Classic and the Russian Team Championship. It also includes games annotated by Ian Nepomniachtchi, Boris Gelfand and Anish Giri, to mention a few. The icing on the cake is a tribute to Timman who turned 70 this year, with 25 annotated games. Prof. Nagesh Havanur takes a look. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / FIDE

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: Beating the London System

8/27/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at an instructive game in the London System. German GM Alexander Donchenko sacrificed his pawn on b7 to develop a massive initiative. | “Fast and Furious” is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Interview with IM Sophie Milliet

8/27/2021 – In an exclusive interview with Tatiana Flores, 6-time French women’s champion Sophie Milliet talks about the benefits chess has brought her, some of her most important tournaments and games, her efforts to support female players in chess, and much more.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave wins the 2021 Sinquefield Cup

8/27/2021 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave got clear first place at the Sinquefield Cup after all five games finished drawn in round 9 — i.e. none of the chasers managed to catch up with him in the last hurdle. Thanks to his performance in Saint Louis, MVL returned to the top 10 in the world ranking and grabbed second place in this year’s Grand Chess Tour. Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana and Leinier Dominguez finished a half point back. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

U.S. Women’s Championships: Stats and records

8/26/2021 – What is it that separates chess from a game like baseball? One answer is “the statistics”. While baseball fans have a dazzling variety of stats to pore over, chess reporting has tended to focus on the individual games and events rather than overall numbers. With a new book on the U.S. Women’s Champions on the horizon, it’s a good time to look at the records of this tournament series. | Pictured: Mona May Karff playing White against Mary Bain at the 1956 Pan American Championship. | Photo: Nancy Roos / Collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame

Rapid chess in a Bordeaux wine chateau

8/26/2021 – The region of Saint Emilion near Bordeaux is renowned for producing some of the world’s finest wines. Hundreds of hectares of vineyards belonging to different domains dominate the landscape. One of these enchanting wine estates was the venue of a rapid chess tournament held on August 22. The 77 participants played the nine-round event in the midst of giant metal tanks and hundreds of wine barrels at the Château Montaiguillon. | Pictured: Maxime Lagarde and Mathieu Cornette | Photo: Thibault Plaire

Sinquefield Cup - MVL wins

8/26/2021 – After a quick draw against Mamedyarov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the 2021 Sinquefield Cup, securing clear first place after his closest rivals were unable to catch him in the ninth and final round. MVL is the first two-time clear winner of the event, having also taken first place in the 2017 edition. For his efforts, Vachier-Lagrave earns $90,000 in prize money, as well as a bonus $50,000 for finishing second in the overall Grand Chess Tour. | Photo: Crystal Fuller

Sinquefield Cup: MVL still leads, So wins Grand Chess Tour

8/26/2021 – With all five games drawn on Wednesday, Vachier-Lagrave is leading the Sinquefield Cup, half a point ahead of Caruana, So, and Dominguez heading into the final round. At the same time, American Grandmaster Wesley So has clinched first place in the 2021 Grand Chess Tour, securing a minimum of 7 GCT points from the Sinquefield Cup. He can no longer be mathematically caught in the overall tour standings. For his efforts, So earns the $100,000 first place bonus prize. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

The Weekly Show: Wood Green Invitational

8/26/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent focuses on the Wood Green Invitational, a 10-player single round robin played in Stafford, England. Ravi Haria impressed by winning the event with a phenomenal 7½/9 score. | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

Iturrizaga and Vega are the 2021 Spanish champions

8/25/2021 – The Spanish Individual Championship took place on August 16-24 in Linares. Eduardo Iturrizaga won the event in his first try, as he switched federations earlier this year. The 31-year-old star from Caracas also won the rapid tournament played before the classical event; Paco Vallejo won the blitz. Among the women, Sabrina Vega won her eighth title with a round to spare. Vega stunned by also winning the women’s sections in both the rapid and blitz national tournaments. | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

Game of the Week 478: Xiong stuns Caruana

8/25/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft analyses Jeffery Xiong’s victory over Fabiano Caruana from the fifth round of the Sinquefield Cup. The game was fairly messy — an oft-seen feature in modern-day chess. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Kasparov live in ChessBase India!

8/25/2021 – The legend, the 13th World Champion, and arguably the greatest chess player ever, Garry Kasparov, is coming to ChessBase India for the 18th episode of Grandmaster Chess. The livestream will take place on the 25th of August at 6.45 p.m. (3:15 p.m. European time, 9 a.m. New York). Dont't miss it – you can see Garry in relaxed banter with chess amateurs. And he is doing this for a second time! Take a look at how the first session went.

Sinquefield Cup: Vachier-Lagrave grabs the sole lead

8/25/2021 – In yet another action-packed round in Saint Louis, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave grabbed the sole lead at the Sinquefield Cup by beating Jeffery Xiong from the white side of a Berlin Defence. Fabiano Caruana, who had lost against Xiong in the previous round, bounced back by defeating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in a double-edged encounter. In the remaining decisive game of the day, Peter Svidler obtained his first win of the event as he got the better of Dariusz Swiercz. | Photo: Bryan Adams

Starting Thursday: European Championship in Reyjkavik

8/24/2021 – The 2021 European Individual Championship is set to take place from August 26 to September 5 at the Hotel Natura (pictured) in Reykjavík, Iceland. A field of 184 players will fight to get a share of the €100,000 prize fund and one of the 23 spots at the FIDE World Cup that are in offer. Gawain Jones, Gabrial Sargissian and David Navara are the rating favourites.

Sinquefield Cup: Fighting draws

8/24/2021 – For the first time in this year’s tournament, all the games in the Sinquefield Cup at the Saint Louis Chess Club ended drawn, with Peter Svidler missing a ‘hidden’ winning opportunity against Leinier Dominguez. With three rounds to go, Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Leinier Dominguez are sharing the lead with 4 points each, while Fabiano Caruana remains half a point behind. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Rubinstein Memorial: Shevchenko and Navara tie for first

8/24/2021 – The 57th Rubinstein Memorial was again held as a big chess festival in Polanica Zdroj, Poland. Kirill Shevchenko and David Navara finished the GM tournament tied on points (6 out of 9). Shevchenko was declared the tournament’s winner since he had the better tiebreak score — direct encounter. Kacper Piorun and Pawel Teclaf finished a half point behind. | Photos: Rafał Siwik

Hidden resources

8/24/2021 – When defending difficult positions you often have to decide whether to search active counterplay or to hope for the best with passive defense. Often, this is a difficult choice and even the very best can go wrong. In the diagram position, which is from a game A. Firouzja vs M. Carlsen, Black is in trouble but has a way to draw. What should Black play?

EU Youth Chess Championships in Kouty nad Desnou

8/23/2021 – The 19th edition of the European Union Youth Chess Championship took place on August 14-22 at the Hotel Dlouhe Strane in Kouty nad Desnou, Czech Republic. Boys and girls in each category played in the same tournament. Once the event came to an end, girls were evaluated separately to find the winners in the girls’ categories. | Photos: Official site

Sinquefield Cup: Xiong beats Caruana, MVL bounces back

8/23/2021 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is again sharing the lead at the Sinquefield Cup after beating Dariusz Swiercz in Saturday’s fifth round. MVL tops the standings together with Wesley So and Leinier Dominguez. Fabiano Caruana, who went into round 5 as a co-leader, was defeated by Jeffery Xiong (pictured). | Photo: Lennart Ootes