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.

Light squares, dark squares

7/31/2020 – Refuting White's 27.Rxf5 in the diagram position may take time, which Black in this (rapid) game simply didn't have and failed. Not pressed by the clock, can you do better?

Improve your openings skill

7/31/2020 – How would you like to learn to play the King's Indian Defence (KID)? How about a 1½-hour lesson by a 2765 rated super-grandmaster, the number 9 in the world? Azerbaijani GM Teimour Radjabov is one of the finest exponents of the KID in the world, and illustrates this interactive lesson with games from his stellar career.

GM Maurice Ashley on the Tim Ferriss Show

7/30/2020 – For a number of years now, bestselling author Tim Ferriss has hosted a very successful podcast. Chess is a reccurring theme, and people like “Wunderkind” Josh Waitzkin and Adam Robinson (a very close friend of Bobby Fischer’s) have been guests on the show. It is no secret that Tim and Maurice have been friends for a very long time. The podcast episode doesn’t disappoint at all, and we can learn a lot about top commentator and grandmaster Maurice Ashley.

This Saturday: Knighthood Online Blitz Open

7/30/2020 – This Saturday, 1st August, will witness the biggest ever Online Blitz tournament in the history of ChessBase India. The Knighthood Online Blitz will have a total prize fund of ₹1,50,000 and the first prize of ₹40,000! And guess what? All the entry fees will be used for a good cause — to promote and support specially-abled chess players of India. The tournament is sponsored by a chess lover named Sujit Varghese. What's more, India's no.2 GM Vidit Gujrathi is also involved in the event and will play a simul against the age-group winners and specially-abled players on the 2nd of August 2020.

Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: Bishop's Opening

7/30/2020 – In this week's show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris gives all those looking for a simple repertoire with White against 1.e4 e5 a simple solution: to play 2.Bc4. The model games he presents, with Nepomniachtchi, Firouzja and Kasparov marshaling the white pieces, show how dangerous this opening can be. | "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.

Legends of Chess: Svidler qualifies to the semifinals

7/30/2020 – Vladimir Kramnik still had a theoretical chance to get into the knockout stage of the Legends of Chess had Peter Svidler lost to Anish Giri — which he did — and he defeated Magnus Carlsen — in round 9 of the preliminaries. Kramnik could not beat the world champion in the end, which means Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Giri and Svidler are the semifinalists. The four-player knockout kicks off on Friday. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

Biel: Wojtaszek wins triathlon

7/30/2020 – Radoslaw Wojtaszek won the 2020 edition of the Grandmaster Tournament, this year played as a triathlon, in Biel. The Polish grandmaster did it by losing one game in total across all three time controls (he played 28 games!). Pentala Harikrishna came in second place, after getting the highest score in classical chess, winning four games and losing none. Michael Adams finished third. | Photos: Simon Bohnenblust

Historical riddle: Hort vs. Fischer 1970

7/29/2020 – Bobby Fischer obtained an astounding 18½ out of 23 score to win the 1970 Interzonal Tournament in Palma de Mallorca. In round 5, the American genius defeated Vlastimil Hort with black in an opposite-coloured bishops endgame, but it is not clear whether the ending was always winning or not! Endgame specialist Karsten Müller asks for your help.

Game of the Week: Kramnik plays a model game

7/29/2020 – In his “Game of the Week” show Merijn van Delft looks at an instructive win by Vladimir Kramnik. The former world champion showed marvellous understanding from the black side of a Carlsbad structure to defeat Peter Leko! | 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: Amruta Mokal

Biel: Wojtaszek wins!

7/29/2020 – Radoslaw Wojtaszek won the 2020 Grandmaster Triathlon in Biel thanks to his strong performance in all three disciplines — the Polish GM won the Rapid, tied in first in the Blitz and was the second highest scorer in the Classical. Pentala Harikrishna finished in second place, despite getting by far the best score in the Classical (+4). It was his poor showing in the Blitz that prevented him from winning the event. Michael Adams came in third place.

Legends of Chess: Giri secures a spot in the semis

7/29/2020 – Round 8 of the Legends of Chess online tournament was played on Tuesday. Magnus Carlsen won his eighth match in a row, this time against second-placed Ian Nepomniachtchi. Vasyl Ivanchuk defeated Anish Giri in Armageddon, but the latter nevertheless secured a spot in the semifinals. Peter Svidler, in the meantime, beat Vladimir Kramnik in a crucial matchup. | Photo: FIDE

Biel: Three with chances

7/29/2020 – After yesterday's round, three players still have chances of overall victory in the Grandmaster Triathlon in Biel. In the Open it looks like a French one-two. Watch the final round live! Sebastian Siebrecht reports.

The Best In - Armenia

7/28/2020 – Russia, India, USA or China are big countries with extraordinary good chess players. "The Best In..." series takes a look at some of the best players of countries which are far smaller by size and population. Some places are exceptional though, like Armenia. We had the chance to interview one of Armenia's best female players - Lilit Mkrtchian. | Photos: Lilit Mkrtchian

The Weekly Show: Vasyl Ivanchuk, chess genius

7/28/2020 – In his weekly show IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at a great win by Ukrainian star Vassily Ivanchuk, who defeated Ding Liren in style during the Legends of Chess tournament. Referring to Ivanchuk, Lawrence said: "He's one of the very true universal players in the world of chess, maybe the most universal player of all time — him and Spassky come to mind". | 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: Lennart Ootes / World Rapid Championship 2016

Biel: Fighting chess, four ways!

7/28/2020 – After the rest day, the grandmasters showed themselves to be in a fighting mood in the invitational tournament. Harikrishna won the top game of the day, while Vincent Keymer’s balance sheet reads like a binary code: 1 0 1 0 1. Sebastian Siebrecht reports. | Photos: Simon Bohnenblust, Sebastian Siebrecht

Riddle solved: Flohr was winning!

7/28/2020 – Coming from taking first place at the Soviet Chess Championship, Mikhail Botvinnik faced Salomon Flohr in a 12-game match played in Moscow and Leningrad. In one of the games, Flohr showed the chess world how to force a win in the 2B vs 2N endgame. But did he really, or did Botvinnik simply misplay it? We asked our readers to help settle the historical debate. And they helped endgame expert GM Karsten Müller to settle the question. | Pictured: Flohr and Botvinnik in 1935