Jay-Z is King, Beyoncé his Queen

8/6/2020 – "Black Is King" is a new film - or "visual album" - by pop star Beyoncé that is based on Disney's animated film "The Lion King" from 1994, which has inspired not only the third-longest-running musical in Broadway history but also a 2019 remake. Rapper Jay-Z, chess fan and husband of Beyoncé, plays a prominent role in "Black Is King" and added some chess flavour to the movie. Which is entertaining to watch but not always in line with the rules and customs of chess. In the online magazine "Slate" Nitish Pahwa took a closer look at the film and its chess scenes. | Photo: Screenshot of Jay-Z in "Black Is King" (Disney+)

Riddle solved: Hort could have held!

8/5/2020 – Bobby Fischer was the star of the show at the 1970 Interzonal Tournament in Palma de Mallorca, before starting an amazing run that led him to challenge Boris Spassky for the World Championship title in Reykjavík 1972. But was he always winning in the endgame he played against Vlastimil Hort? Or could have Hort defended? We asked our readers to help settle the historical debate. And they helped endgame expert GM Karsten Müller to settle the question! | Drawing of V. Hort: Otakar Masek

Game of the Week: Carlsen vs Nepomniachtchi

8/5/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show Merijn van Delft takes another look at the fascinating Legends of Chess tournament. Magnus Carlsen won the tournament by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final but to honour Nepomniachtchi's creative performance Merijn will study one of "Nepo's" wins against Carlsen. | 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: Niki Riga (Archive)

Carlsen loses, Carlsen wins

8/5/2020 – When Magnus Carlsen plays, there is never a dull moment. Most of the time he wins, but sometimes he loses. On his YouTube Channel Daniel King (now with a beard, but it's him) presents two remarkable encounters between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Magnus Carlsen from the final of the Legends of Chess Tournament.

How good is my opening, ChessBase?

8/5/2020 – In the last two decades I have probably played about 100.000 games online, most of them in blitz and bullet. And I have often wondered about my win/loss ratio in certain openings: Is my personal anti-sicilian system 2. c4 really working so well? How often do I win with 1...e5? Did I really win more than 50% of my games with my favourite opening, the Naselwaus Gambit? ChessBase knows the answer to these questions!

Magnus Carlsen dominates Legends of Chess online tournament

8/5/2020 – It was a dominant performance by the world champion. Magnus Carlsen won the ‘chess24 Legends of Chess’ tournament without losing a single set, and finished his impressive run with a clear 2½:½ victory over Ian Nepomniachtchi on Tuesday. Carlsen won three out of the four events played so far in the tour that bears his name, thus giving the two best-performing players that did not win any event a chance to play in the Grand Final that kicks off on Sunday. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

A game against Larsen and a simul: Fischer's visit to Copenhagen 1962

8/4/2020 – After sensationally winning the Interzonal Tournament 1962 in Stockholm Bobby Fischer travelled to Copenhagen to play a TV exhibition game against Bent Larsen - which was relatively easy - and a simul against 41 Danish players - which was difficult. Tom Skovgaard knows more. | Photo: Jørgen Hvenekilde

The Weekly Show: Nepomniachtchi on the attack

8/4/2020 – In his weekly show IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at the tournaments that either came to an end last week or are about to finish — the Polish Championship, the Georgian Women's Championship and the final of the Legends of Chess online event. | Lawrence' 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. | Photo: Pascal Simon

Legends of Chess Final: Carlsen wins

8/4/2020 – The fourth tournament of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour is taking place from July 21 through August 4. Six illustrious players from the previous generation are in the mix — Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, Vassily Ivanchuk, Boris Gelfand, Peter Leko and Peter Svidler — and are joined by Magnus Carlsen, Ding Liren, Anish Giri and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Action kicks off at 16:00 CEST (14:00 UTC, 10:00 ET). Read the report on the first set of the final! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Mighty pawn wave

8/4/2020 – Far advanced connected passed pawns are often very dangerous in the endgame.

Legends of Chess: Sharp games, Carlsen wins first set

8/4/2020 – It was a thrilling first set in the final of the ‘chess24 Legends of Chess’ tournament. Ian Nepomniachtchi played the same sharp line against Magnus Carlsen’s Sicilian the three times he had the white pieces, winning once and losing twice. In the end, Carlsen got a 4:2 victory after winning both blitz tiebreakers. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Simon Says: Ulf Andersson with the Black pieces

8/3/2020 – In this "Simon Says" Simon continues to look at the games of Swedish Grandmaster Ulf Andersson who is famous for his endgame technique and his smooth solid play. The show is an extension of Simon's previous show, but this time Simon looks at Ulf's play with the Black pieces. | Watch "Simon Says" for free and on-demand (for a limited time, or forever with a ChessBase Premium account). (Normally 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST / 12 Noon EST). | Photo: Ulf Anderssen at the Hoogovenschaaktoernooi, Wijk aan Zee 1971 | Photo: Bert Verhoeff / Anefo / CCO

Getting the most out of ChessBase 15: a step-by-step guide #9 – Backups

8/3/2020 – One thing is certain – if you work with computers, data loss is not a matter of IF, but WHEN. However careful you are, there is no way to guarantee that you are safe. The answer is simple - back up your work. Or as we say in chess – “back up your chess databases”. This week Nick Murphy takes you through the thrilling world of backing up in ChessBase 15.

Kacper Piorun wins Polish Championship

8/3/2020 – The 28-year old Polish Grandmaster Kacper Piorun is five-time World Champion in problem solving but also a very strong over-the-board player. At the end of July he won the 77th Polish Championships in Warsaw. This year, the Polish Championship was a knockout tournament and in the final Piorun won against Daniel Sadzikowski. But the match was close and was only decided in the Armageddon game. | Photos: Polish Chess Federation / Krzysztof Ćwik

The anatomy of Agony

8/3/2020 – Star columnist Jon Speelman tells a story from the old days, when Soviet tournaments were long and inordinately slow. In it, he mentions Leonid Yurtaev, a fierce attacking player who in 1996 became Kyrgyzstan’s first-ever grandmaster and sadly died in 2011 aged just 52. Speelman then goes on to analyse two of Yurtaev’s finest efforts. | Pictured: The city of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Legends of Chess: Nepomniachtchi to face Carlsen in the final

8/3/2020 – Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi moved on to the final of the ‘chess24 Legends of Chess’ online tournament. While Carlsen made quick work of Peter Svidler, beating him in straight sets, Nepomniachtchi missed chances in the second set and only got the victory over Anish Giri in the blitz tiebreakers of the third. The final will be played from Monday to Wednesday (or Tuesday, if someone wins the first two sets). | Photo: Niki Riga

Daniel Gormally’s take on lockdown life

8/2/2020 – Near the end of March, the world came to a halt — even FIDE had to cancel the second half of the Candidates Tournament, the last sporting event taking place amid the corona crisis. It’s been four months and the chess world has almost turned completely to online events. Great conditions have been given to those at the very top of the rating ladder, but how has this impacted the rest of chess professionals? Daniel Gormally sent us his take in his usual painfully honest, self-deprecating style. | Photo: John Upham / British Chess News

August FIDE ratings

8/2/2020 – The virus is not gone, but here and there chess players have ventured out of domestic isolation and played a few games “over the board”. The International Chess Festival in Biel/Bienne only ended a few days ago. The changes in the world ratings list published by FIDE on August 1st compared to the one published on April 1st are nevertheless still minimal - but they do exist! Pentala Harikrishna [pictured] gained 13 points, while Alexander Donchenko is now the higest-rated German player. | Photo: Simon Bohnenblust

Birthday columns and puzzles

8/2/2020 – What do you get when you celebrate a birthday? What happens when it is an especially auspicious birthday, e.g. one marking that you have made it to 3/4 of a century? Champagne, gifts, family party with the grandkids (in pandemic times in the garden). Chess friends have special things in store. They will write you a column in a national newspaper, or compose "number problems" for the years you have reached.

Nino Batsiashvili wins Georgian Women’s Chess Championship

8/1/2020 – Despite losing in round 3, Nino Batsiashvili showed great form at the end of the tournament and won the 77th Georgian Women’s Chess Championship with a 7/9 score. Bela Khotenashvili and Meri Arabidze each collected 6½ points in the single round-robin event. The championship took place at the Chess Palace in Tbilisi. | Photos: Georgian Chess Federation

Legends of Chess: Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi in the zone

8/1/2020 – Both Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi won the first sets of their semifinal matchups in three games (each set consists of four rapid games and an Armageddon in case of a tie). Carlsen defeated Peter Svidler, while Nepomniachtchi beat Anish Giri. The semifinals are played to the best of three sets. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

What on Earth is 5D chess?

7/31/2020 – Just last week a new chess game launched on the Steam client — 5D chess. The term 3D stands for third dimension, while 4D includes “time” plus the three spatial dimensions. 5D chess boldly claims to go even beyond that as it mixes chess, as we know it, with a multiverse time-travel function. And this is where my mind starts to go a bit crazy! | Photos: 5D Chess press kit

Power Play Show: A World Champion squeeze

7/31/2020 – In this Power Play Show, grandmaster Daniel King shows the solution to last week’s mate-in-two problem, presents a new problem, and takes a look at an exciting game between Ding Liren and former world champion Vishy Anand. | 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: Austin Fuller

Donchenko and Tomilova win ACP Knockout Tournaments

7/31/2020 – Alexander Donchenko won the ACP-ChessBase Knockout Tournament, which took place in the Emanuel Lasker Arena of the PlayChess server. In the final, the young German grandmaster defeated two-time British champion Gawain Jones 3:1. In the women’s section, penultimate seed Elena Tomilova from Russia stunned by winning the event after beating Anastasia Bodnaruk in the final.