Chess in the movies: "Critical Thinking" - a fine film by John Leguizamo

9/26/2020 – "Critical Thinking", the directing debut of well-known and successful actor John Leguizamo, is a film about chess, passion, friendship and overcoming the odds. It is based on real events and tells the story of a group of teenagers from an underprivileged neighbourhood in Miami, Florida, who win the 1998 U.S. National Team Chess Championship. The well-made film with a fine cast of actors is a must for every chess player! | Photos and exclusive film clip from "Vertical Entertainment"

Spanish Team Championship, Round 3: Andreu Paterna in the lead

9/26/2020 – Andreu Paterna, the team led by Jorden van Foreest, Francisco Vallejo and David Howell, grabbed the lead of the Spanish Team Championship in round 3, as they comfortably defeated Collado Villalba. Three teams are sharing second place a match point behind, Silla Bosch Serinsys, Solvay and Gros Xake Taldea. Beniaján Duochess, the favourite team rating-wise, is not having the best of tournaments, as they lost a second match in a row on Saturday. | Photo: Spanish Chess Federation

Daniel King's Power Play Show: A bold and provocative king

9/25/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King looks at a provocative, dangerous and entertaining line of the King's Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nc3!? Qh4+ 4.Ke2 which Steinitz, Keres (pictured) and King himself used to play. The march of the king looks crazy but the whole line is surprisingly powerful and dangerous. | 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: Valter Heuer (Archive)

Spanish Team Championship, Round 2: Extremadura upsets Beniajan

9/25/2020 – Duochess Beniajan is the heavy Elo-favourite in the Spanish Team Championship. But the top team unexpectedly lost in round two against Magic Extremadura. The other two top teams managed to win just barely. Shirov worked his magic. | Fotos: FEDA

King in the middle (1)

9/25/2020 – In the diagram position Black just played the provocative 8...Bd6 - but his real mistake after 9.Kh1! was 9...Ne7??. But why is this developing move a serious error?

Throwback Thursday: Two highlights from Leinier Dominguez’s career

9/25/2020 – Leinier Domínguez Pérez turned 37 yesterday, September 23. The Cuban-American grandmaster has been a part of the “2700+ club” since July 2008 and has stood out for his consistent play in top events throughout the years. Now we look back into two of his greatest tournament performances — his first place at the 2006 Ciutat de Barcelona event (8/9 ahead of Ivanchuk, Korneev and Bologan) and his victory at the 2013 Thessaloniki Grand Prix (8/11 ahead of Kamsky, Caruana and Grischuk). | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: Najdorf with 6.Rg1!

9/24/2020 – In this week's show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris presents an interesting line against the Sicilian Najdorf: 6.Rg1. A move that is still underrated but that has the potential to become quite popular. | "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. | Photo: ChessBase India

Spanish Team Championship: first top match ends with a draw

9/24/2020 – The Spanish team championship started yesterday in Linares. In the Division de Honor, eight teams play a round robin tournament for the title. Favourites are the teams Duochess Beniajan, Silla Bosch Serinsys and Andreu Paterna. In round 1 Silla and Paterna drew against each other while Beniajan scored a clear 4½-1½ win against Collada Villalba though top board David Navara suffered a surprising defeat. | Photo: Feda

Handling online chess during lockdown

9/24/2020 – Chess players have had to change their routine in light of the Coronavirus, with online tournaments and practice from home. Not the same as physical, over the board encounters. There are differing ways of adapting to the changes, but chess players will always find a way. We should all remember that no matter how hard it may seem, The Dark Knight always rises. Here's some movie-themed advice from a very experienced player.

US Championships to take place online in October

9/24/2020 – October 2020 will mark an extraordinary chapter in American chess history, as due to the COVID-19 pandemic the Saint Louis Chess Club will host the 2020 US Chess Championships online for the first time. This unique combination of the five top national tournaments will showcase competitors that best represent the past, present, and future of American Chess. The events will take place on October 9-29. | Photo: Austin Fuller

Game of the Week: Erwin l'Ami vs. Fabiano Caruana

9/23/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a game from the Bundesliga Championship Tournament: Erwin l'Ami's fascinating win against Fabiano Caruana. | 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:

Sovereign Chess - 112 chess pieces on 256 squares

9/23/2020 – An 8x8 board with black & white pieces is water under the bridge. We take a step further and play on a 16x16 board with twelve different colours now - thanks to the beautiful "Sovereign Chess" by Mark Bates. Pretty much all the normal chess rules apply, which makes this game even easier to understand for chess lovers. But the most interesting difference is that you can take control of other colours by conquering the same coloured square! | Photos: Mark Bates

Good knight, bad bishop

9/23/2020 – Who is better, the bishop or the knight? It depends. In the endgame, when both sides fight on both wings, the bishop is usually better than the knight. But not always. One such exception is the diagram position. Here, the knight is better than the bishop. But how does Black win?

Wolfgang Uhlmann at 85: An interview

9/23/2020 – In memory of chess legend Wolfgang Uhlmann, who sadly passed away a month ago, we translate the interview he gave to Dagobert Kohlmeyer earlier this year. In the 1960s and 1970s, the grandmaster from Dresden was one of the absolute top chess players in the world. | Photos: Dagobert Kohlmeyer

Guess the child prodigy

9/22/2020 – When was the first time in your life you played chess? Most probably at the age of six to eight years? Whatever the answer is, we have an adorable quiz about young titled chess masters for you. If chess is a big part in your life, which isn't a bad thing at all, you should be able to guess at least seven out of twelve correctly. Here is your challenge!

Gert Schnider wins Diving Chess tournament in Graz

9/22/2020 – "Before you move, take a deep breath to calm down," might be good advice for nervous players, but it was definitely good advice for the 13 chess players who took part in the first "Diving Chess" tournament of the Austrian Company Sports Organisation. After all, in this discipline of chess, you can think about as long about your move as you can hold your breath. | Photo: ÖBSV

Semen Khanin and Anastasia Bodnaruk win Panchenko Memorial

9/22/2020 – The Russian IM Semen Khanin started at the Panchenko Memorial in Chelyabinsk as number 26 on the seeding list, but after nine rounds he finished first on tiebreak. Anastasia Bodnaruk dominated the Women's Tournament and finished clear first with 8.0/9. | Photo: Galina Popova

On the origins of chess (7/7)

9/22/2020 – In the last instalment of a seven-part series, Sergio Negri presents a list of the knowns and unknowns regarding the origins of chess. The Argentine researcher concludes, “For now, it might be better not to know everything yet. [...] A suggestive and primordial mystery continues to haunt us: when did the magical and millenary game of chess appeared on Earth”. | Pictured: Chess Set (Shatranj in Iranian), glazed fritware, 12th century. New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Simon Says: Richard Rapport in the Bundesliga

9/21/2020 – Simon Says: Today, we look at some games the highly original and creative Richard Rapport played in the Bundesliga Team Championship that ended on Sunday. | Watch "Simon Says" for free and on-demand (for a limited time, or forever with a ChessBase Premium account). (Normally 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 14:00). | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Daniel King's Power Play Show: Strategic foresight

9/21/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King looks at a tense strategic battle from the recent Bundesliga Championship, Michael Adams (pictured) vs Vincent Keymer, that culminated in an explosion of tactics. | 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: Ray Morris-Hill

OSG Baden-Baden wins Bundesliga Championship

9/21/2020 – In the last 15 years the OSG Baden-Baden has won the title of German Team Champion no less than 14 times, and in 2020 they won it again. Though it was close. In the dramatic seventh and decisive round of the Bundesliga Championship Baden-Baden only narrowly won the top match against the SC Viernheim 4½-3½. | Photo: Christian Bossert

Outrageous Chess – Solutions

9/21/2020 – Last week we gave you a series of chess problems which cannot be solved by computers, taken from a book called "Outrageous Chess" by Burt Hochberg. Were you able to find the out-of-the-box answers? And do you like this kind of problem? In any case, today we reveal the correct solutions and explain the ideas behind the problems.

Post-mortems and princes

9/20/2020 – Star columnist Jon Speelman reminisces on the days chess players indulged in a post-mortem discussion — across a table — after their game was over. Speelman also talks about the very strongest players never to become world champion, particularly two that he faced repeatedly during his career — Viktor Korchnoi (pictured) and Vassily Ivanchuk. | Photo: Mary Delaney Cooke/Corbis

Grandmaster Chef: Peter Svidler

9/20/2020 – Grandmaster Peter Svidler is an eight-time Russian chess champion. Svidler’s peak rating placed him fourth in the world. National Master Mike Walder annotates one of Svidler’s wins and has a recipe for a dish that Svidler likes. WIM Alexey Root tells why Svidler is a Grandmaster Chef honoree. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili