Become a Chess Puzzle Guru

5/19/2020 – The acronym “AMA” stands for “American Medical Association” or “Ask Me Anything.” Another AMA acronym means “Ask Me Another,” a National Public Radio show featuring Puzzle Gurus. National Master Jeff Ashton is an aspiring Puzzle Guru, selecting and creating chess puzzles for his students. WIM Alexey Root shares Ashton’s efforts.

The Nihal Challenge

5/18/2020 – Here's a very interesting analysis task for you during this lock-in days: imagine you have reached a fairly complex position where you spot a beautiful queen sacrifice. Before you play it you have to analyse all the lines, in your mind, and come to the conclusion whether it wins, holds a draw or loses. Try it with our challenge position. You can move pieces on the analysis board, but must not consult an engine. Have fun, test your analysis skills.

Simon Says: Improve your Attacking Play

5/18/2020 – In this Simon Says we will look at some typical attacking patterns and test you in some complex situations. Attacking is, after all, one of the most exciting aspects of chess! | Watch 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).

Guess the movie: a chess movie film quiz (2)

5/18/2020 – As we promised in our last article, we now proceed to another round of guessing the movie stills. This time we take a look at films which are exclusively from the 1960s. The films are "From Russia with Love", "The Fire Within", "Becket" and "The Thomas Crown Affair". Once again, you are very welcome to participate in our little movie guessing quiz, where you have to guess which chess board still is from which movie.

New York 1924, Round 14: Capablanca wins against Dr. Lasker!

5/18/2020 – Capablanca against Lasker, that was the top encounter of the 14th round of the tournament in New York 1924. The game was exciting, but the circumstances were even more dramatic. Lasker lost and afterwards claimed that the clock had a defect. However, tournament director Norbert Lederer said that the clock was fine but Lasker had forgotten to press the button to stop his clock from running. A bitter controversy ensued. | Photo: Capablanca (left) and Lasker at a previous occasion (Photo: media2-web.britannica)

Carlsen and Lagno win FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial

5/18/2020 – Kateryna Lagno and Magnus Carlsen won the FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial in the women's and open sections respectively. Lagno defeated Lei Tingjie in the Armageddon tiebreaker after both finished the tournament on 12 out of 18. Carlsen scored the same amount of points, but in his case that was enough to secure tournament victory with a round to spare. | Photos: David Llada / Lennart Ootes

Reginacide: The art and the pleasure of sacrificing your queen

5/17/2020 – Our author looks at three games that included a queen sacrifice ('reginacide' means 'the murder of the queen'), and shows a particular case in which a "mad rook" can be neutralized. | Send in your own games! | Jon welcomes submissions from readers. If your games are selected for the Agony column, not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!

New York 1924, Round 13: Five wins, no draws

5/17/2020 – Five decisive games, no draws – the 13th round of the New York Tournament 1924 was entertaining. Tournament leader Dr. Emanuel Lasker won with a fine pawn sacrifice against Bogoljubow, Edward Lasker scored his first win and defeated Tartakower, Capablanca easily outplayed Maroczy, Alekhine blundered and lost against Reti, while Marshall calculated better than Janowsky. Dr. Lasker now leads with 9½/12, followed by Reti with 8.0/12 and Capablanca with 7.5/12. | Photo: Library of Congress

Steinitz Memorial: Lagno and Dubov grab the lead

5/17/2020 – Russians Kateryna Lagno and Daniil Dubov have taken the lead at the women's and open sections of the FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial respectively. The sensation of the day was Dubov's win over Magnus Carlsen, leapfrogging the world champion atop the standings table. Carlsen kept up the pace with the Russian and is now in sole second place a half point back. | Photos: FIDE

Does your rating even matter?

5/16/2020 – Online chess has become very popular in the last couple of years and more and more people participate and try to win games and achieve a higher rating. Rating matters so much that it can turn into an obsession. Ratings appear to represent the value of the person. We take a closer look at how the ego can become the curse of the rating system and how we feel about it.

New York 1924, Round 12: Lasker wins after stubborn defense

5/16/2020 – In round 12 of the tournament in New York Emanuel Lasker won again and he again won a bad position. In the course of his career Dawid Janowsky had a lot of promising positions against Lasker and he has spoilt most of them. In New York he continued this "tradition". For a long time Janowsky was clearly better but found no way to overcome Lasker's stubborn defense, and in the end he blundered and lost. Lasker now leads with 8½/11 and is 1½ ahead of Alekhine who drew with Capablanca and Reti, who won brilliantly against Bogoljubow.

Steinitz Memorial: Kosteniuk and Carlsen lead after day one

5/16/2020 – The FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial kicked off Friday with six rounds played both in the open and women's sections. Alexandra Kosteniuk had the best performance overall, getting a commanding lead after scoring 5½ points on day one. In the open, Magnus Carlsen is the sole leader on 4 out of 6. Three players stand a half point back — Bu Xiangzhi, Daniil Dubov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. | Photos: FIDE

Daniel King's Power Play Show: The King's Gambit

5/15/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King takes a look at the King's Gambit and presents old and new games with this still fascinating opening. | 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.

Help to make Sultan Khan a Grandmaster!

5/15/2020 – At his peak Mir Sultan Khan was one of the best players in the world. He was a three-time British Champion, and beat top players like Capablanca, Rubinstein, Yates or Tartakower. However, FIDE has never made him a Grandmaster while many other players were given the title. A petition now asks FIDE to honour Mir Sultan Khan and his achievements with the grandmaster title.

FIDE Trainers Online Seminar

5/15/2020 – Would you like to learn the art of chess training from the Russian national team coach, or from the coach of the former Women's World Champion? Or would you like to learn from a former World No. 3? How about all of them? Wouldn't it be too expensive? No! From 29th to 31st of May 2020 you can do it, online. The seminar is open to trainers, and players (!), world-wide. A great opportunity.

Final result: 2-2!

5/15/2020 – This is a pleasantly tricky position! After 19...Bxe4 20.fxe5 Black needs to calculate precisely: two key lines win for Black, two key lines win for White. Can you find these lines and do you see how Black can win?

New York: Dr. Lasker leads at halftime

5/15/2020 – After 11 of 22 rounds Emanuel Lasker leads the New York Tournament 1924 with 7½ points out of ten games. But the eleventh round was not a Lasker-round. Emanuel had some trouble against Frederick Yates and could be happy about a draw while Edward missed a trick against Frank Marshall and lost. Otherwise, everybody else here is talking politics. | Photo: Edward Lasker (with White) and Frank Marshall

Grischuk wins "Play for Russia" charity event

5/15/2020 – Alexander Grischuk won the three-day online "Play for Russia" charity tournament after beating Vladimir Kramnik and Evgeny Tomashevsky in the knockout phase. Kramnik, the main initiator of the event, showed he still has what it takes to face strong active grandmasters by clearly winning the round-robin section and only losing to Grischuk in the Armageddon tiebreaker of the semi-final.

Darkness on the Horizon (1)

5/14/2020 – Take a look at the position in our picture. How can White draw? Impossible, of course: you capture the knight, the black king moves to d4 and then the pawns win the game. However, against early computers there was a way to save this position. In our first historical article, describing the early days of chess programming, you will learn how computers could fall into the horizon trap.

The $1m Magnus Carlsen Tour: A new era for chess

5/14/2020 – In a press release World Champion Magnus Carlsen today revealed his $1 million vision for a new online chess tour designed to cement the game’s future in the public eye. Four super-tournaments culminating in a Grand Final in August will become the new "majors" for online chess, the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour. It follows the breakout success of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational which shattered all records for online viewership and now serves as the first leg of the Tour. Carlsen believes carrying the momentum into an online Tour presents the opportunity to establish chess permanently as a mass media sport.

New York 1924, Round 10: Lasker crushes Reti

5/14/2020 – Two clear wins, three draws and many missed chances - that was the result of round 10 in New York. Emanuel Lasker crushed Reti and Bogoljubow made short work of Yates, but Capablanca squandered the advantage he had easily secured against Marshall. Tartakower, too, had chances against Janowsky and Alekhine was lucky not to lose to Edward Lasker. | Photo: Emanuel Lasker

On the origins of chess (3/7)

5/14/2020 – In September 2017, in the city of Buenos Aires, Sergio Negri, a researcher specialized in chess of Argentine origin, completed a thoroughly detailed and thought-provoking treatise on the origins of chess. We now present part three, which focuses on the theories that consider that chess originated in China. | Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The old riddle of Fischer vs Taimanov

5/13/2020 – The endgame of the fourth game of the famous candidates match Vancouver 1971 is very instructive. But one question has remained puzzling. Was the adjourned position already lost or was Taimanov's 42nd move a decisive mistake? Once again we invite you to debate this question with leading endgame experts, including our own GM Karsten Müller. With the help of chess engines you can win the analytical duels and show them where history needs to be corrected.

Game of the Week: Yu Yangyi vs Wesley So

5/13/2020 – In this show Merijn van Delft takes a look at one of the best and exciting games from the FIDE Nations Cup: Yu Yangyi vs Wesley So. | Merijn's show is available at 15.00 UTC (17:00 CEST, 11:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.