9/17/2020 – World champion Magnus Carlsen took the sole lead of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament after winning all three of his games on the second day of action. Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi share second place a point behind — So repeated his formula from day one, winning a game and drawing the remaining two, while Nepomniachtchi won two and lost against Jeffery Xiong on Wednesday. Three more rapid games will be played on Thursday, before 18 rounds of blitz on Friday and Saturday decide the winner of the online event. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/16/2020 – CBM? It is the ChessBase Magazine! A postscript? A company magazine? A catalogue? All wrong! The ChessBase Magazine has come to life in 1987, when the first issue contained an incredible 1000 games on floppy disk. Now, ChessBase Magazine evolved with training material for club players at every level. All this is highly topical with the latest analyses of several titled players. Plus popular and recurring formats, tournament reports, opening innovations and traps, strategy training, endgame training and top coaches covering a highlight. All information is available on the new ChessBase magazine website and here in the article.

9/16/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a game from the Champions Showdown Chess 9LX Online Tournament: Garry Kasparov's win against Alireza Firouzja, the encounter between the oldest and the youngest participant of that tournament. | 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: Garry Kasparov playing Chess960 in Saint Louis 2018 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/16/2020 – Karsten Müller is the Sherlock Holmes of unsolved endgame riddles, and he passionately searches for the truth in complicated endgame positions. This time, he wants to know whether the famous endgame Benko vs Kortschnoi, Curacao 1962, was indeed won for White. And he needs your help to find the solution. | Photos: Dutch National Archive

9/16/2020 – The 2020 Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz Tournament, this year played online, kicked off on Tuesday. After three rounds of rapid play, Levon Aronian and Pentala Harikrishna are leading on 5 out of 6 (each win is worth two points in the rapid section). Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi are currently a point behind, with the latter having got a win in round 2 after his opponent, world champion Magnus Carlsen, disconnected in an equal position. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/15/2020 – The online presence of chess has only increased throughout the years, and more so during the pandemic. A great medium for an abstract game, the web does not only serve as a place to share moves played in tournaments all over the world but also for people to share their passion for the game. Ben Johnson’s “Perpetual Chess Podcast” serves for the latter purpose, having shared in-depth interviews with top-level players, well-known authors and educators for almost five years — the podcast is now closing on two-hundred episodes!

9/15/2020 – For many years, Germany's premier league, the "Bundesliga", has been one of the world's strongest team events, and players like Karpov, Kramnik, Anand or Carlsen have played in it. But Corona also hit the "Bundesliga" - the season 2019/2020 had to be interrupted and will continue in spring 2021. But now eight teams meet in Karlsruhe to play from September 16 to September 20 "live" for the title of German team champion 2020.

9/15/2020 – Rook endings have drawish tendencies, and sometimes being one or even two pawns up is not enough to win. But despite their drawish tendencies rook endings can be very sharp and full of hidden tactics. Especially, if both sides have far advanced passed pawns.

9/15/2020 – From September 16 to September 2020, the Bundesliga Championship Tournament, an over-the-board round robin with eight teams of eight players, will take place in Karlsruhe, Germany. The winner will be German Team Champion 2020. But which of the many top players, who regularly start in the Bundesliga, will make it to Karlsruhe? Conrad Schormann shares information and insights. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/14/2020 – Publishing chess problems on this news site has a long tradition: especially at Christmas time we publish a set of entertaining puzzles for our readers to solve. But over the years – two decades actually – it became progressively more difficult to find problems that chess engines could not solve in seconds. It became pointless to issue a challenge and provide prizes. So we have taken to giving you problems which cannot be solved by computers. Here are some samples from a collection by Burt Hochberg.

9/14/2020 – Ivan Sokolov is well-known for his stunning attacking games. Most of them originate from middlegames, so no wonder he wrote various books about this topic. We are delighted to now present his "Understanding Middlegame Strategies" Fritztrainer series, starting with Vol.1 - "Dynamic Pawns", and Vol.2 - "Practical Play". While Volume 1 concentrates on several ideas and tips for dynamic pawn play, Volume 2 is focusing on decision taking and creating crisis. GM Sokolov coached the Iranian national team (Alireza Firouzja, Parham Maghsoodloo) for many years, so he is capable of guiding you through the topics professionally and interestingly. Those Fritztrainers will take your middlegame to the next level.

9/14/2020 – Simon Says: Today, we look at some of the most influential opening and early middlegame ideas that have left a major influence on me over the course of my career. Ideas that were unique at the time in history when they were played. | 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: Bobby Fischer 1970