Grandmaster Chef: Alexander Grischuk

10/31/2020 – To honor Grandmaster Alexander Grischuk on his 37th birthday, October 31, National Master Mike Walder shares a recipe for a dish that Grischuk might enjoy. Walder also annotates one of Grischuk’s favorite wins, over Grandmaster Vugar Gashimov. WIM Alexey Root tells why Grischuk is a Grandmaster Chef honoree. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Blitz Challenge with top female players

10/31/2020 – On Wednesday (October 28), we had a special event. Two top female players played against amateurs for 1½ hours on Playchess. The games were commented on by host Sagar Shah, and you could hear the two discussing what to play. A wonderfully entertaining – and instructive -- session. If you missed it live you can watch it all on YouTube. And replay the games they played, following the moves with an engine running in the background. It's fun, and you can learn a lot. The girls are thoroughly delightful.

Wesley So wins U.S. Championship 2020

10/30/2020 – By scoring two quick draws on the last day of competition, Wesley So secured first place at the 2020 U.S. Championship. The Filipino-born grandmaster had a great run from start to finish and took home the $40,000 first prize after obtaining a remarkable 9/11 score. Jeffery Xiong also had a great performance, finishing in sole second place on 8½, while Ray Robson took third place after collecting 7½ points.

Daniel King's Power Play Show: Structural thinking

10/30/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King presents a nice chess problem, takes a look at an endgame, and explains the pros and cons of an important structure that arises in many openings. | Power Play is on air most Fridays at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, 13:00 ET). All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

Sophisticated

10/30/2020 – If White plays 12.Bh1 in the diagram position to keep the fianchetto bishop the white king on g1 is boxed in and this might lead to trouble, especially in view of the powerful bishop on h3. But does Black really have a way to raid White's position!

Happy birthday Xie Jun!

10/30/2020 – For many years Chinese women have dominated the chess scene, and since 1991 no less than six Chinese have been Women's World Champion. The the first one was Xie Jun who celebrates her 50th birthday today. In a short interview Xie Jun answers questions about her career.

U.S. Championship 2020: Live!

10/29/2020 – The 2020 U.S. Championship is an elite national championship event, featuring 12 of the strongest chess players in America. Over the course of eleven rounds, these competitors will battle for $150,000 in prize money and the title of 2020 U.S. Chess Champion. The 12-player single round-robin is being played on October 26-19. The action kicks off daily at 13:00 local time (18:00 UT, 19:00 CET). Read the report on Day 3 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: a fascinating opening battle

10/29/2020 – In this week's show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the fascinating opening battle that occurred in a game between Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Aryan Tari from the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament. | "Fast and Furious" is available from 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET / 16:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

U.S. Championship: A one-point lead for So

10/29/2020 – Wesley So continues his amazing run at the 2020 U.S. Championship, played online this year on October 26-29, as he has a one-point lead going into the last two rounds after having scored 8 points in the first nine rounds. Despite his great performance though, there are still two players who have chances to catch up with him on Thursday — Ray Robson and Jeffery Xiong, both currently on 7/9. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

ChessBase Magazine 198: Out now!

10/29/2020 – ChessBase Magazine is the most comprehensive and most sophisticated chess magazine there is. World class players analyze their brilliancies and explain the ideas behind the moves to you, opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and offer exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in the fields of tactics, strategy, and the endgame show you the tricks and techniques a successful tournament player needs! DVD with several hours of video + booklet. Also available for download including the booklet in pdf!

Solution of the Endgame Riddle Smyslov vs Benko

10/29/2020 – About a week ago, Karsten Müller invited readers to analyze a fascinating rook endgame that occurred in a game between Vassily Smyslov and Pal Benkö from 1975. Smyslov was an endgame specialist but he still failed to grasp the hidden depths of this tricky endgame. But after taking more than one close look and with the help of the ChessBase readers, Karsten Müller and Zoran Petronijevic are now closer to the truth. | Photo: Dutch National Archive

U.S. Championship: So keeps the lead

10/28/2020 – GM Wesley So continued his excellent form at the 2020 U.S. Championship, scoring 2½/3 today to end with 5½/6 after the second day of play. GM’s Jeffery Xiong and Ray Robson have also been in excellent shape so far as they are tied for second with 5/6, a full two points ahead of the rest of the field.

Game of the Week: Wesley So vs Darius Swiercz

10/28/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a highlight from the U.S. Championship: Wesley So's fine attack against Darius Swiercz in round 5. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Alina l'Ami (Archive)

The Queen's Gambit - A review

10/28/2020 – Netflix recently released the new mini-series "The Queen's Gambit" portraying a female chess prodigy who rises to the top. What really stands out is how every single element comes together to make it the best chess-related movie or series to grace the screen, from the tour de force performance by Anya Taylor-Joy to the gorgeous cinematography. Read this review or skip it and run to Netflix to see it! (Image: Neflix)

Blitz Challenge with top female players

10/28/2020 – Today, Wednesday October 28, at 4:30 p.m. Ukrain time (3:30 in Europe) three young ladies will take on members of the Playchess community in a special Blitz Challenge. They are GMs Anna and Mariya Muzychuk, who are joined by former World Junior Girls Champion IM Elisabeth Pähtz. The games will be commented by host IM Sagar Shah, who will also be analyzing them with the three masters afterwards. You too can play against them too, or simply watch and learn.

The Weekly Show: Awonder Liang vs Ray Robson

10/27/2020 – In his weekly show IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at the U.S. Championship, and focues on the game between Awonder Liang and Ray Robson, an entertaining, theoretically and tactically interesting encounter. | Lawrence’s show is available at 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET, 14:00 ET) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Pantzar leads Uppsala Young Champions tournament

10/27/2020 – The Uppsala Young Champions tournament — taking place for a seventh time this year — is an elite chess event for players under the age of 20. After 6 rounds, Swedish IM Milton Pantzar is leading the standings table with 5 points. Four players stand a half point behind — Jakub Kusa from the Czech Republic, FM Siem van Dael from the Netherlands, FM Hampus Sörensen from Sweden and FM Vignir Vatnar Stefansson from Iceland.

U.S. Championship: So leads with perfect score

10/27/2020 – Wesley So scored three wins in as many games to take the sole lead of the 2020 U.S. Championship. Ray Robson and Jeffery Xiong are sharing second place a half point behind, while Sam Sevian is the only other player with a plus score, currently in sole fourth place with 2 out 3 points. The tournament, taking place online, is a 12-player single round-robin. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Getting the most out of ChessBase 15: a step-by-step guide #11 – Database search basics

10/27/2020 – We have looked at the fundamentals of databases, and how they are a collection of related information. Like a telephone directory is a database of phone numbers. Chess databases are collections of chess games, and that is all they are. But where they come in useful to people like you or I, is that they are SEARCHABLE. Today we are going to look at the basics of searching chess databases.

Too much distance

10/27/2020 – Sometimes keeping distance is a good idea but in chess isolated pawns are usually weaker and more vulnerable than connected pawns. The diagram position is a good example. What did Black play?

Simon Says: Karpov's Best Moments

10/26/2020 – In this "Simon Says" the Ginger GM takes a look at the many skills of Anatoly Karpov, World Champion from 1975 to 1985 and widely considered as one of the best players of all time. | Watch "Simon Says" on-demand and with a ChessBase Premium account). (Normally 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET / 14:00 ET). | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Autumn Series 2020: Blitz tournament on Wednesday, October 28

10/26/2020 – The "Autumn Series 2020" offers Playchess Premium Members tournaments, in which the participants play under their real names. The next tournament will start on Wednesday, October 28, 20.00 CET (19:00 UTC, 15:00 ET). It is a nine round Swiss with a time-limit of 3+2 and offers attractive prizes: 90 minutes online training with GM Yannick Pelletier or an online chess party with GM Nicholas Pert.

Jesús Medina Molina talks to Eric van Reem about ‘Urban chess’

10/26/2020 – “Let’s talk about chess” is a podcast hosted by Dutch writer and photographer Eric van Reem. After reading an article entitled “Bringing chess to public spaces” in a FIDE newsletter, Van Reem decided to invite Jesús Medina Molina, the man who initiated a national program in the Netherlands which promotes the placement of public chess tables in open spaces.

A must-watch: The Queen’s Gambit

10/26/2020 – On Friday, October 23, Netflix started the "The Queen's Gambit", a new series, in which chess plays a major role. The series is based on the novel of the same name by Walter Tevis, and caused enthusiastic reactions from chess players and non-chess players alike. Conrad Schormann has collected some of them.