Lindores Abbey Final: Nakamura storms ahead

6/2/2020 – Hikaru Nakamura stormed ahead in the first leg of the $150,000 Rapid Challenge final today. The American, fresh from toppling World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the semi, showed all his cool, calm skills to race into a 2:0 lead almost without breaking a sweat. After four games Nakamura was leading 2½:1½. Tomorrow, former World Rapid Champion Daniil Dubov will be back gunning to turn the match around. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

LetsUp Blitz Grand Prix + YouTube records

6/1/2020 – The Maharashtra Chess Association is organizing the LetsUp Blitz Grand Prix 2020, which starts on June 3rd, 2020. Every Wednesday from June 3rd to July 1st five Blitz Grand Prix Open events will take place on Playchess. Participants are fully ID-ed, which reduces cheating attempts to a minimum. The tournament is open to anyone across the world – a lot of very strong players have already registered. You can too. Or you can watch some ChessBase India YouTube videos – like 100 million viewers before you!

Oscar Panno: “Chess is cruel”

6/1/2020 – Oscar Panno was born on March 17, 1935, in Buenos Aires, and was one of the greatest chess players from Argentina. He won the World Junior Championship in 1953 and went on to play the 1956 Candidates Tournament. He came third at the 1955 Interzonal in Gothenburg, ahead of strong players such as Efim Geller, Tigran Petrosian or Boris Spassky. In this extensive, unpublished interview from 2005, the Grandmaster tells his story and touches on universal themes related to chess, such as its educational value in society. | Pictured: Panno at the 1956 Candidates in Amsterdam | Photo: Joop van Bilsen / Anefo

Solution to the historical riddle: Kramnik could have defeated Fritz!

6/1/2020 – Last week we asked you to help us solve a historical riddle. In November 2006 World Champion Vladimir Kramnik played a match against the computer program Deep Fritz. Kramnik lost the match 2:4 and did not win a single game. But in the very first game he had a favourable endgame. Could he have won? Until today that remains unclear. We asked you for help in solving this riddle. With some very energetic analytical work of our readers we have come to a firm conclusion.

Constantin Lupulescu: My most memorable game

5/31/2020 – Getting a spot in the World Cup is a major accomplishment for chess players. For those born in Europe, qualifying through their continental tournament is particularly difficult, given the amount of strong grandmasters in the region. Back in 2014, Constantin Lupulescu found himself in a tough spot, lagging behind in the standings with two rounds to go. Facing a higher-rated opponent, he decided to give the French Defence a go. | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni

Lindores Abbey SF: Nakamura knocks out Carlsen, reaches final

5/31/2020 – Hikaru Nakamura bounced back from a 0:3 loss in the first mini-match of the semi-finals by winning the next two rubbers to knock out world champion Magnus Carlsen from the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge. The third mini-match went down to the wire, with Nakamura choosing black in the Armageddon decider and beating Carlsen after the latter first achieved a favourable position and then blundered away the game. Nakamura will face Daniil Dubov in the final, starting Monday. | Photos: Austin Fuller / FIDE

The unknown soldiers I

5/30/2020 – Study of the month columnist Siegfried Hornecker starts to explore the works and backstories, in as much depth as the sources allow, of composers that have created one or only a few studies. Theodorus Cornelius Louis Kok, Anatoly Tichonovich Motor, Johann Sehwers and former women's world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk are some of the composers that appear in this first instalment. | Pictured: Kok and Sehwers

Stranded in Budapest – but rewarded by the world's best! + Anand returns!

5/30/2020 – Two months ago, just before his 14th birthday, Indian super-talent (Elo 2452) Leon Luke Mendonca played in the 1st Saturday tournament in Budapest, Hungary. He was scheduled to fly back on the 18th of March, but the Indian government closed the country on the 19th, when the flight was supposed to arrive. So for over two months now Leon and his father Lyndon have been separated from their family in Goa. Only comfort: they are stranded in what Lyndon called "one of the most beautiful cities in the world." And they got to meet a wonderful lady who inspired the young chess player deeply. Latest: yesterday five-time World Champion Vishy Anand was able to fly bacck to India after being stranded for over three months in Frankfurt, Germany.

An interview with Jason Kouchak

5/30/2020 – The famous French musician, pianist and composer Jason Kouchak is an avid chess fan. During the time of the Corona lockdown he spends his time playing chess or watching online tournaments. But actually he wanted to be at the Holland Park Chess event, to give a live chess performance with his friend, actress Helena Bonham Carter, as white queen.

Wesley So wins Clutch Chess Champions Showdown

5/30/2020 – The first edition of the Clutch Chess Champions Showdown, organized by the Saint Louis Chess Club, concluded on Friday. Wesley So became the winner on tiebreaks after he and Fabiano Caruana scored nine points each throughout the twelve games. The first criterion to break the tie was the number of wins in "clutch games", with So getting two wins to Caruana's one. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Lindores Abbey SF: Nakamura levels the score

5/30/2020 – Hikaru Nakamura beat Magnus Carlsen in the second mini-match of their semi-final at the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge, scoring a win in the first encounter and drawing the remaining three games. The match will be decided in Saturday's third rubber. Meanwhile, Daniil Dubov defeated Ding Liren for a second day in a row to secure a spot in the final. | Photos: Niki Riga / Lennart Ootes

Clutch Chess: Wesley So wins on tiebreaks

5/29/2020 – The Clutch Chess Champions Showdown is an online blitz tournament in which the four best US Grandmasters — Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So and Leinier Dominguez — compete in a knockout event. The tournament is organized by the St. Louis Chess Center and features a new format: Clutch Chess. In the semifinals Caruana clearly won against Dominguez while So narrowly defeated Nakamura. After day 1 of the finals So leads 4½-3½. Will Caruana be able to stage a comeback? Watch the games live and with commentary. Transmission starts at 22:00 CEST (16:00 Eastern Time, 15:00 CST).

Daniel King's Power Play Show: A classic exchange sacrifice

5/29/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King takes a look at classic exchange sacrifice in the King's Indian/Benoni, played recently in a game between Dubov and Karjakin. | 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.

The ChessBase Replayer explained

5/29/2020 – The ChessBase replayer helps you to enjoy live transmissions, reports about old tournaments or portraits of famous players even more. You can replay the games, you can analyse them, load them into your Fritz Engine, copy them to a database or add them to your cloud. Here's a short video about the many options of the replayer.

"There are no excuses. You always have to be the best." A CNN interview with Magnus Carlsen

5/29/2020 – Magnus Carlsen is famous for his will to win. In a recent interview with CNN that compares the World Champion to iconic basketball star Michael Jordan, Carlsen talks about competitiveness, his approach to chess and discusses how ruthless you have to be to win. | Photo: Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Parham Maghsoodloo wins 10. Unity chess event

5/29/2020 – With a rating of 2676 Parham Maghsoodloo is currently number 61 on the FIDE world ranking list and number one in Iran as Alireza Firouzja now plays under the FIDE flag. But at the moment Maghsoodloo can only improve his online rating. Which he likes to do in the Unity chess event, a regular online tournament that is also a favourite of Elshan Moradiabadi. | Photo: Parham Maghsoodloo | Photo: Amruta Mokal

A quick finish

5/29/2020 – In the diagram position Black is totally winning but it is hard to see that White is soon caught in a mating net. What is Black's quickest way to victory?

Clutch Chess Final: A one-point lead for So

5/29/2020 – Each of the finalists of the Clutch Chess Champions Showdown won a game on day one of the deciding match, but Wesley So goes into day two with a one-point lead over Fabiano Caruana thanks to his win in the second "clutch game" of the day. The winner of the tournament will be decided on Friday, when six more games will be played, with the last two worth three points apiece. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Lindores Abbey SF: Carlsen and Dubov take the lead

5/29/2020 – The first rubber of the Lindores Abbey Challenge semi-finals were played on Thursday. Magnus Carlsen displayed enterprising chess to obtain a commanding 3:0 victory over Hikaru Nakamura, while Daniil Dubov v Ding Liren seemed to be headed to Armageddon when the Russian made good use of Ding's inaccurate play in a rook endgame to win the mini-match before reaching the tiebreaker. | Photos: Amruta Mokal / Lennart Ootes

The Silkway Cup - Part two of the top-class online blitz tournament at playchess.com

5/28/2020 – The Silkway Cup is an online Blitz Tournament to celebrate Azerbaijan's Republic Day and Independence Day in Georgia. Top players such as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Ivan Cheparinov, Rauf Mamedov, Baadur Jobava and many others start in this event. Part one was played on May 26, part two starts today, on May 28, 16:00 CEST (Central European Summer Time).

Marcin Tazbir wins FIDE Online Cup for Players with Disabilities

5/28/2020 – The 1st FIDE Online Cup for Players with Disabilities was played on May 21, on Playchess. About 40 players took part and after five rounds Swiss Elo-favourite Marcin Tazbir was first. Sander Severino finished second. | Photo: FIDE

Historical riddle: could Kramnik have defeated the computer?

5/28/2020 – In November 2006 World Champion Vladimir Kramnik played a match against the computer program Deep Fritz. The venue was the National Art Gallery in Bonn, Germany, the prize fund one million dollars. It was the last big man-vs-machine match. Kramnik lost 2:4 and did not win a single game. But in the very first game he had a favourable endgame. Could he have won? Until today that remains unclear. Can you help GMs Yasser Seirawan and Karsten Müller resolve this question?

Clutch Chess: Caruana and So move on to the finals

5/28/2020 – In matches of different nature, Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So advanced to the finals of the Clutch Chess Champions Showdown organized by the Saint Louis Chess Club. Caruana won eight of twelve games to beat Leinier Dominguez by a landslide, while So scored three consecutive wins at the start of day two to take down Hikaru Nakamura. The finals will be played on Thursday and Friday. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Brand new: Komodo 14!

5/28/2020 – The program Komodo 13 was consistently one of the three rating leaders in all computer lists – in fact it was often on place number one. Now we are releasing a new version, Komodo 14, which is even stronger (more than 40 Elo points). But apart from pure strength this program displays superb positional play. And it can be set to different playing styles: aggressive, defensive, active, positional, endgame, beginner and human. This allows you to optimize your analysis: switch the engine over to “aggressive” whenever you suspect that the position offers enough attacking potential for a win!