Independence Day

7/4/2020 – In our review of the movie The Coldest Game in March we also mentioned the cult classic science-fiction film "Independence Day". What's a better time to take a look at the chess game played in that movie than the Fourth of July - Independence Day?

Chessable Masters Final: Carlsen clinches

7/4/2020 – Magnus Carlsen won the Chessable Masters online tournament by scoring a third consecutive straight-set victory in the final against Anish Giri. In Saturday’s second set of the deciding matchup, Carlsen got an impressive win in the first game, while Giri missed chances to tie the score in games 2, 3 and 4. This was the third event of the Magnus Carlsen Tour — and the second one that sees the world champion taking first place. Full report to follow shortly. | Photo: FIDE

Chessable Masters Final: Carlsen wins close first set

7/4/2020 – A thrilling first set of the Chessable Masters Final saw Magnus Carlsen clinching a crucial win by defeating Anish Giri in the second blitz game of tiebreaks. Giri played enterprising chess throughout, getting what at some point seemed to be an unlikely win in game 4 to tie the score and take the set to 5-minute games and a potential Armageddon. The Dutchman now needs to win on demand on Saturday to keep his chances alive. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Bamberg 1968, Round 11: Miss Mar del Plata and a bank robbery

7/3/2020 – At the Bamberg jubilee tournament, the arrival of Boris Ivkov's wife Olga Kesic (pictured), Miss Mar del Plata 1955, and a bank robbery in nearby Nürnberg provided opportunities for conversation. The bank robbers in Nürnberg were soon caught but Ivkov lost his game. Lothar Schmid fared better.

Daniel King's Power Play Show: Magnus Carlsen and the King's Indian

7/3/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King takes a look at some tricky pawn endgames but the main focus of the show is on the remarkable King's Indian that Carlsen played against Ding Liren in the Chessable Masters. | 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: Lennart Ootes, Archive

Create your Virtual Room on Playchess.com in seconds

7/3/2020 – It is possible to create your personal room on Playchess.com in just a couple of seconds. With your Virtual Room you are able to organise your own chess tournaments, have club events, give teaching courses and play simuls. In a short video we show you how easy it is to create the room.

Checkmate in seven moves!

7/3/2020 – This is the second part of Stuart Rachels' constructed puzzles which include all four solutions from the first part. Checkmate in six moves! took off with over 50 analyses, ideas, approaches and solutions in the comment section so far. Jonathan Speelman for example made a live stream with all of his constructed solutions and was even able to "cook" one of the puzzles by half a move!

Queens as targets

7/3/2020 – White's 16.Ng5 in the diagram position threatens 17.Bd5+ and doesn't look too bad, but Black ... is Tal! Can you shine like the 8th World Champion?

Chessable Masters: Giri takes down Nepomniachtchi

7/3/2020 – Anish Giri defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi in three sets to reach the final of the Chessable Masters. Giri and Nepomniachtchi traded wins in the rapid phase of the third set, but the Dutchman was stronger in the blitz tiebreakers. The final, in which Giri will face world champion Magnus Carlsen, starts on Friday. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Bamberg 1968, round 10: Keres dominates, Petrosian is lucky

7/2/2020 – Paul Keres continues to dominate the Bamberg tournament. In round 10 he defeated Heikki Westerinen in the endgame, while World Champion Tigran Petrosian was lucky to get a draw against Lothar Schmid. With five rounds to go, Keres is now on 8.5 out of 10, 1.5 points ahead of Borislav Ivkov and Petrosian.

Martinovic wins Croatian Championship

7/2/2020 – Sasa Martinovic is the new Croatian national champion. He won the championship - the first national championship since the coronavirus lockdown to be held as a "real" chess tournament - with 7.0/11, ahead of Zdenko Kozul, Robert Zelcic, Hrvoje Stevic and Ante Brkic who all finished on 6.5/11. | Photo: Tournament Website

Chessable Masters: Carlsen in the final, Nepomniachtchi bounces back

7/2/2020 – Magnus Carlsen beat Ding Liren twice with black on Wednesday to secure a spot in the final match of the Chessable Masters. Meanwhile, Ian Nepomniachtchi levelled the score in his matchup against Anish Giri thanks to a 2½:1½ win in the second set. Carlsen’s opponent in the final will be decided on Thursday. | Photo: Crystal Fuller

Game of the Week: Ding vs Nakamura

7/1/2020 – The quarterfinals of the Chessable Masters were very exciting, with Carlsen knocking out Caruana, Nepomniachtchi beating Artemiev and Giri eliminating Grischuk. Ding Liren won his match against Nakamura and in his "Game of the Week" show Merijn van Delft will study Ding Liren's phenomenal handling of White's side of the King's Indian. | 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. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

FIDE announces Online Olympiad 2020

7/1/2020 – The International Chess Federation just announced the FIDE Online Olympiad 2020. The international team event, in which all federations affiliated to FIDE, have the right to participate will be held between July 22nd and August 30th, 2020.

Bamberg 1968, Round 9: Unzicker wins brilliantly, Ivkov could have won brilliantly

7/1/2020 – Round 9 of the Jubilee Tournament in Bamberg brought a number of exciting games. Wolfgang Unzicker played the move of the day against Laszlo Szabo, and Borislav Ivkov could have played the game of the day if he had found a hidden tactical possibility against World Champion Tigran Petrosian. | Photo: Wolfgang Unzicker | Photo: Roger Rössing, Deutsche Fotothek.

Getting the most out of ChessBase 15: a step-by-step guide #7 – Databases

7/1/2020 – ChessBase 15 is a most sophisticated chess software. But today we are gonna take it right back to the original function of ChessBase: the very reason that ChessBase was developed in the first place – Chess Databases. Nick Murphy takes you through this beginner's guide to chess databases.

Nostos Festival 2021 Sneak Peek

7/1/2020 – Did you miss it? The Summer Nostos Festival, an international, multidimensional festival that gives us a week bursting with art, conversation, ideas, music, dance, performances, entertainment, and sports, for visitors of all ages, last Saturday streamed a preview of next year's edition. Watch it all, or just the in-depth discussion with Garry Kasparov and Judit Polgar.

Chessable Masters: Fair play

7/1/2020 – Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri kicked off their semifinal matchups with wins of different nature. While Giri got a clean 3:1 victory over Ian Nepomniachtchi, Carlsen played an eventful mini-match against Ding Liren — the Chinese disconnected and lost a drawn position on time in game 1, to which the world champion responded by politely resigning on move 4 in the next encounter! Two draws followed, and Carlsen won the set by scoring 1½ points in hard-fought blitz tiebreakers. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

The Weekly Show: Giri impresses at Chessable Masters

6/30/2020 – In his weekly show IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at Giri’s performance vs Grischuk at the Chessable Masters, with a special focus on Giri's win with Black in game four of their second match. But Lawrence will also give a more general roundup of the action. | 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: Alina l'Ami (Archive)

Bamberg 1968, Round 8: Eight wins, one draw

6/30/2020 – Round 8 of the Jubilee Tournament in Bamberg saw bitter fights and eight of the nine games ended with a decision. Paul Keres won the top encounter against Borislav Ivkov and with 6½/8 he is now sole leader. The best German players are Wolfgang Unzicker and Lothar Schmid with 5.0/8 each. | Photo: Marketplace in Bamberg

10 years Houdini

6/30/2020 – Chess engines are programs with character and each engine has its own way of playing. That is why it makes sense to analyze with different engines and that is how grandmasters get the maximum out of the engines. Houdini is an engine with a marked character and on the occasion of its 10th birthday Stephan-Oliver Platz takes a look at its development. @StockfishLegalNotice

Arkady Dvorkovich: World Championship Match will be postponed to 2021

6/30/2020 – In an interview with the Russian news agency TASS, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich has announced that the match for the World Chess Championship will be postponed until 2021. Originally it was supposed to take place in Dubai at the end of the year. | Photo: FIDE/ Alexander Scherbak (TASS)

No road to Rome

6/30/2020 – Pawn endgames are the foundation of endgame theory. Knowing the importance of "opposition" and "key squares" is the key to master pawn endgames - and it helps to save a lot of points.

Chessable Masters: Ding knocks out Nakamura

6/30/2020 – Ding Liren will play Magnus Carlsen in the semifinals of the Chessable Masters after taking down Hikaru Nakamura in three sets. The Chinese ace had won the first set and, after losing the second mini-match in Armageddon, scored a convincing 2½:½ victory in Monday’s decider. The semis kick off on Tuesday. | Photo: Lennart Ootes