Play the Rossolimo Sicilian with GM Jan Werle

10/21/2020 – In this day and age, it is not so important to get an opening advantage - it is more important to get a playable position that you understand better than your opponent. With the Sveshnikov all the rage at the top, and the Open Sicilian no longer guaranteeing White his birthright opening advantage, top players have moved on to exploring lesser known but sound systems, and one such opening is the Rossolimo. Almost all the top players play this opening with both colours, its chief advocate being the American No.1 Fabiano Caruana. Jan Werle recently authored a DVD on the subject, and Tanmay Srinath takes a closer look at the Dutch GM's debut offering for ChessBase, along with a brief interview with the author about these DVDs.

The Weekly Show: Joel Benjamin vs Patrick Wolff

10/20/2020 – In his weekly show IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at the U.S. Senior Championship, which was won by Joel Benjamin. Lawrence will particularly focus on the game between Benjamin and Patrick Wolff, a "nice old school grind!". | Lawrence’s show is available at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST, 13:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

U.S.-born grandmasters’ educational attainment, careers, and advice

10/20/2020 – There are 40 living U.S.-born grandmasters listed by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) as playing for the USA. WIM Alexey Root and IM John Daniel Bryant researched their educational backgrounds and careers. They also asked the grandmasters to give advice to today’s high-rated high school players. | Pictured: John Harvard statue at Harvard University | Photo: Jessica Williams

Checking distance

10/20/2020 – Rook endgames have drawish tendencies. One reason for this is the fact that the rook of the defending side can often harass the enemy king with a series of checks. However, if the king is too close to the rook, this ressource usually fails.

Play blitz and win prizes on playchess.com!

10/20/2020 – Playchess.com offers Premium Members a number of attractive blitz tournaments. The tournaments are played with real names and you will know whether you play a real life GM or IM. The winners receive 90 minutes of online training with world-class coach GM Rustam Kazimdzhanov, GM Sebastian Siebrecht or GM Yannick Pelletier, or they can take part in a virtual chess party (an online blitz tournament with GM Nicholas Pert). Details...

Joel Benjamin wins U.S. Senior Championship

10/20/2020 – GM Joel Benjamin made history today after winning the 2020 U.S. Senior Championship, becoming the first trifecta (U.S. Junior, U.S. Championship, and U.S. Senior) champion in US Chess history. The win came after scoring a solid 2/3 during the final day of action, finishing with 6½/9, a clear 1½ points ahead of the rest of the field. Benjamin’s main contender, GM Igor Novikov ended up tied for second place with GM Gregory Kaidanov and GM Dmitry Gurevich, all with 5/9.

Simon Says: Lessons from recent Endgames

10/19/2020 – In this "Simon Says" the Ginger GM takes a look at a number of interesting endgames from recent tournaments. | Watch "Simon Says" on-demand and with a ChessBase Premium account). (Normally 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 14:00).

Maksim Chigaev and Valentina Gunina win Russian "Higher League"

10/19/2020 – The Russian "Higher League" is a qualifying tournament for the "Superfinal" of the Russian Championship, and this year it was played in Sochi. Maksim Chigaev won the "Open" section with 6½/9, while Valentina Gunina dominated the "Women's" tournament and won with 8.0/9. The five best players from both groups qualified for the Superfinal that will take place in December. | Photo: Alina l'Ami (Archive)

The science behind combinations

10/19/2020 – GM Vishnu Prasanna, the trainer of the second youngest GM in history, D. Gukesh, recently launched a new chess blog. In it he discusses various themes, like the positional background of combinations, which players use to win or defend themselves against impending doom. How and when can you spot a combination, how can you improve your combinational vision? Vishnu picks up from the scientific musings of Wilhelm Steinitz.

U.S. Senior Championship: Benjamin in the sole lead

10/19/2020 – Despite starting off with a loss in the first game of the second day, GM Joel Benjamin managed to bounce back with two straight wins to take the sole lead with 4½/6 going into the final day tomorrow. Trailing Benjamin by half a point is the previous co-leader GM Igor Novikov, who drew all three games today; while GM Gregory Kaidanov, GM Patrick Wolff, and GM Dmitry Gurevich are still within range with an even score after six rounds. | Photo: IBM Archives

CBM 197: Magnus and his rivals

10/18/2020 – This issue offers coverage of three major events, Chessable Masters, Legends of Chess and Biel Chess Festival. 733 games, 11 opening surveys, demo lectures and exercises for training. It also includes games annotated by Boris Gelfand, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Peter Heine Nielsen, just to mention a few. Our columnist Nagesh Havanur takes a look. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

When 3 is greater than 5

10/18/2020 – Star columnist Jon Speelman explores the exchange sacrifice. Speelman shares five illustrative examples to explain in which conditions giving up a rook for a minor piece is a good trade. “As a general rule and in fact (almost all?) of the time you need other pieces on the board for an exchange sacrifice to work.” | Pictured: Mikhail Tal and Tigran Petrosian following a post-mortem analysis at the 1961 European Team Championship in Oberhausen | Photo: Gerhard Hund

Novikov and Benjamin lead U.S. Senior Championship

10/18/2020 – The 2020 U.S. Senior Championship kicked off today with a field packed full of legends that includes five former U.S. Champions with a combined total of 13 national titles. Leading the field at the end of the first day is GM Igor Novikov and GM Joel Benjamin, who both finished the day on 2.5/3 points. GM Gregory Kaidanov and GM Patrick Wolff are a half-point behind with 2.0/3, while the rest of the players are surprisingly all tied with 1.0/3! | Pictured: Igor Novikov, Alex Yermolinsky, Alexander Shabalov, Joel Benjamin and Jaan Ehlvest

Celebrity chess tournaments

10/17/2020 – In 1988, eight Hollywood celebrities, including Erik Estrada and William Windom, played in a Los Angeles chess tournament. Although Michał Kanarkiewicz had never heard of that 1988 celebrity chess tournament, he created the 2019 “Chess Championship of the Stars” in Poland. WIM Alexey Root tells how both celebrity chess tournaments, 31 years and thousands of miles apart, promoted chess. | Pictured: Michał Kanarkiewicz with Anatoly Karpov at the airport in Warsaw

Norway Chess: Aronian beats Carlsen, Firouzja secures second place

10/17/2020 – The 2020 Altibox Norway Chess tournament came to an end on Friday. Magnus Carlsen had secured tournament victory with a round to spare, but finished the event with a loss to Levon Aronian. 17-year-old Alireza Firouzja came in second place thanks to a final-round win over Jan-Krzysztof Duda. In the only matchup that went to Armageddon in round 10, Fabiano Caruana defeated Aryan Tari. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

The second leg of the Candidates Tournament is postponed to the spring of 2021

10/16/2020 – The second leg of the Candidates Tournament was supposed to resume on November 1 in Yekaterinburg, but due to the “concern related to the well-being of the players in the midst of the second wave of the pandemic”, FIDE has decided to postpone the resumption of the event until the spring of 2021. “We understand this announcement might be a disappointment for the chess community. However, it is FIDE’s responsibility to ensure [...] the safety of the players and their general well-being during the tournament”. | Photo: FIDE

Daniel King's Power Play Show: Caruana surprises Carlsen

10/16/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King looks at the game Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen played in round 7 of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament. Caruana came up with a strong novelty in the Rossolimo Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5) that put Carlsen under pressure. | Power Play is on air most Fridays at 17:00 UK (18:00 CEST, 11:00 EST) on playchess.com. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Altibox Norway Chess: Live!

10/16/2020 – World numbers one and two are both present at the over-the-board Altibox Norway Chess tournament taking place on October 5-16. Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana are joined by Armenian star Levon Aronian, Polish number one Jan-Krzysztof Duda, wunderkind Alireza Firouzja and local representative Aryan Tari. All rounds start at 15:00 UTC (17:00 CEST, 11:00 ET). Read the full report on Round 9. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Wednesday, October 21: Team Blitz on Playchess.com!

10/16/2020 – New on playchess.com: a Swiss team blitz tournament! Wednesday, October 21, on playchess! Teams of four play 8 rounds Swiss with a time limit of 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment per move. The winning team will be rewarded with an online training session with Yannick Pelletier or an online club blitz tournament with GM Nicholas Pert or other attractive prizes. Details…

Norway Chess: Carlsen clinches with a round to spare

10/16/2020 – Magnus Carlsen has secured first place at the Norway Chess Tournament with a round to spare after beating Alireza Firouzja in classical chess. The youngster first gave his opponent chances from what seemed to be destined to end in a draw; Carlsen then made a mistake and the position was balanced again; and finally Firouzja blundered horrible in a king and pawn endgame to lose the game. Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana won in Armageddon. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

The other day in the Playchess Café

10/16/2020 – With 18.Qb5 (diagram), White has just attacked the black pawn on d5. Can you work out why 18...Rfe8! is a very relaxed way of dealing with this threat?

John Burke is U.S. Junior Champion 2020!

10/16/2020 – In one of the most thrilling finishes ever, GM John Burke managed to win the 2020 U.S. Junior Championship after getting the best of GM Jeffery Xiong in an Armageddon playoff that ended with the U.S. #5 ranked player losing on time in a winning position. The final game took place after the players both finished with 6.5/9 points during the regular event, leading to a two-game rapid playoff match that was also tied. IM Kostya Kavutskiy reports.

Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: Carlsen's 4...a6 against the Queen's Gambit

10/15/2020 – In this week's show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the Armageddon game between Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen from round 1 of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament. Against Aronian's Queen's Gambit Carlsen tried the Janowski variation, 4...a6!?, which led to a sharp fight and theoretically interesting complications. | "Fast and Furious" is available from 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 15:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Passed pawns are powerful

10/15/2020 – The less pieces on the board, the more complicated it is. Queen endings are especially complicated. On day 3 of their rapid match in Prague, Dai Van Nguyen and Nigel Short had to play a complicated queen ending, and with limited time they did not always find the best moves. Karsten Müller had more time and analysed this tricky and instructive endgame in more detail.