8/19/2020 – There is probably no other opening as deeply studied as the Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense. It is crucial to know this opening well, if you want to improve your chess skills. But we are lucky because former World Champion Garry Kasparov took a very close look at the Najdorf: on three DVDs he offers more than 10 hours of entertaining and encouraging material to master this opening. This week, all three DVDs are available in a bundle for a reduced price. Moreover, one lucky buyer will win a DVD signed by Garry Kasparov in a raffle.

8/19/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show Merijn van Delft takes a look at a game, in which chess legend David Bronstein demonstrated the power of the pawns. | Merijn's show is freely available at 15.00 UTC (17:00 CEST, 11:00 EDT) for a limited time, and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Eric Koch / Anefo / Dutch National Archive

8/19/2020 – From the small country Aruba comes one of the strongest chess players of the Caribbean Islands - Jasel Lopez. Aruba has roughly 100.000 inhabitants and hardly any chess tradition but Jasel Lopez still managed to become an IM and to reach an Elo-rating of 2416. In an interview he talks about his development as a player, chess in Aruba and his plans for the future.

8/19/2020 – Hikaru Nakamura is one set victory away from winning the Magnus Carlsen Tour Finals against the man himself, world champion Magnus Carlsen. Nakamura won set 5 in Armageddon after winning the second blitz tiebreaker on demand with the black pieces. | Photo: Niki Riga

8/18/2020 – In 1983 rookie chess journalist Frederic Friedel wrote an article for a German magazine, defining and celebrating "Super Grandmasters" – players who were rated 2600 or higher. There were 13 such players, and they were led by World Champion Anatoly Karpov, with a young upstart named Garry Kasparov hard at his heels. The top female player in the world, Pia Cramling, was rated 2355. Today things have changed somewhat – to put it mildly.

8/18/2020 – The "bodycheck" is the most important pattern in the endgame rook against pawn. The term, of course, is borrowed from the game of hockey and it describes the situation when one king takes away an important square from the other king.

8/18/2020 – Magnus Carlsen levelled the score of his tour’s final on Monday after getting a 2½:1½ victory over Hikaru Nakamura in the fourth set. The world champion won game three and drew the rest to even the overall score without needing tiebreaks. The match has now turned into a best-of-3 contest, with both players having obtained the exact same amount of points so far in the final. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/17/2020 – The last logic riddle was really hard, and only a few readers were able to calculate all outcomes and find the correct solution. The riddle today is easier. You have to figure out how to adjust the odds in your favour. Keep in mind, you might not be able to solve the puzzle fully, but maybe your result is good enough to save the life of a grandmaster.

8/17/2020 – Four theories regarding the origins of chess have been presented by Argentine researcher Sergio Negri — that the game came from India, China, Egypt and hypotheses based on myths, legends and the fictional world. Now he introduces theories that consider that chess was conceived by cultural syncretism, with different civilizations contributing to the development of the game. | Photo: Living and extinct chess variants, taken from “Chess – A living fossil” by Gerhard Josten

8/17/2020 – The FIDE Online Olympiad is taking place from July 25 to August 30. All the 163 registered teams were divided into 5 divisions ranked from “Base Division” to “Top Division”. The Top Division kicks off on Friday, with 25 seeded teams, including Russia, China, United States, etcetera, joined by the top three finishers of each pool (A to E) from Division 2.

8/17/2020 – “Yesterday I should’ve won the match and today I should’ve lost the match, so I think all is right in the world”, said Hikaru Nakamura after winning set 3 of the final against Magnus Carlsen. The American is now leading 2:1 in the match played to the best of 7 sets. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

8/16/2020 – This is a two-part piece by star columnist Jon Speelman. First, inspired by a beautiful victory by Ian Nepomniachtchi, he looks at games which include the remarkable ...Bb1 manoeuvre (by Black). Then, he demonstrates the solution to a fantastic problem created by François Labelle: to construct a game ending in 7.Rc7 mate with the black king on d7!