Fast and Furious: The Queen's Gambit Declined with 5.Bf4

5/7/2020 – Robert Ris takes a look at the Queen's Gambit Declined with 5.Bf4 that poses Black a surprising number of problems and has been tried by players such as Ding Liren (pictured) and Magnus Carlsen. "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. | Photo: Niki Riga

Chogue - half chess, half rogue

5/7/2020 – Pippin Barr and Jonathan Lessard are the makers of the unique chess variant "Chogue". It combines the normal chess game with a rogue-like theme. After you have played your first move with the white pieces, the black king escapes into a deep dungeon, where you have to follow and check-mate him. We had a chance to interview the makers about their game idea, intention and future projects.

New York 1924, Round 3: Lasker beats Alekhine!

5/7/2020 – The top game of the third round of the New York tournament in the Alamac Hotel was the clash between the 31-year-old Alexander Alekhine and the 55-year-old former World Champion Emanuel Lasker. Alekhine has good chances to become the next challenger of World Champion Capablanca and is famous for his dynamic play and ferocious attack but against Lasker's magic he was helpless. | Photo: Emanuel Lasker

Nations Cup: China still on top, Aronian impresses

5/7/2020 – Europe had a tough first day, losing to China and drawing Russia, but are now well in the fight for first place after winning both their matches on Wednesday at the FIDE chess.com Nations Cup. Levon Aronian was the star of the Europeans, as he got impressive back-to-back wins over Vidit Gujrathi and Leinier Dominguez. China remain in the sole lead nevertheless, two match points ahead of chasers Europe and United States. | Photos: FIDE

Game of the Week: Carlsen vs Nakamura

5/6/2020 – Merijn van Delft takes a look at the dramatic final of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational match where Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura showed their skills in rapid chess. | 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.

Petrosian could have held!

5/6/2020 – The Fischer-Petrosian Candidates match of 1971 in Buenos Aires was the third and final round in the eliminations to determine the challenger for the World Championship. Former World Champion Tigran Petrosian was considered undefeatable, and the match started 2½-2½. Then in game six Fischer scored a superb win that turned the match. Since then chess experts have discussed the question: could Petrosian have defended the game to a fateful draw? No conclusive answer was reached. Now endgame expert GM Karsten Müller – together with our readers – made a new attempt – has made a new attempt. And: we have a solution!

New York 1924, Round 2: Alekhine wins with the Alekhine

5/6/2020 – The second round of the Grandmaster Tournament New York 1924 saw only one decisive game. After a bold opening experiment Alexander Alekhine won with Black against Geza Maroczy, and with 2 out of 2 he is now sole first. The duel of the World Champions between Emanuel Lasker and José Raúl Capablanca ended in a bloodless draw but the game between Edward Lasker and Efim Bogoljubow was an interesting fight and gave Edward Lasker the opportunity to show why even the best players in the world make mistakes. | Photo: Alexander Alekhine (Archive)

Nations Cup: China lead after day one

5/6/2020 – Day one of the FIDE chess.com Nations Cup saw China getting the sole lead after winning both his matches, over Rest of the World and Europe. The Chinese squad got 3:1 wins in both matches, with Yu Yangyi scoring full points both times. United States are in second place on 3 match points, after drawing India and beating Europe. Fabiano Caruana led the American team by getting two victories in close to equal endgames. | Photos: FIDE

The Weekly Show: Carlsen, Alekhine, and the Nations Cup

5/5/2020 – In his weekly show IM Lawrence Trent talks about New York 1924, recaps the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, and looks forward to the Online Nations Cup. | Lawrence' show is available at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, 12 Noon EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (Archive)

Kovalenko's cavalry

5/5/2020 – Usually in endgames rooks are much better than knights - a rook is as mobile as a bishop and unlike the bishop it can go to squares of both colours. But believe it or not, sometimes the defending side can build a fortress.

The unpublished games of Nigel Short

5/5/2020 – Before the era of digital boards and computers, the only way to keep a game safe was to save the physical score sheet. While most of the games are available on Mega Database, there are a few games of strong players which are not published anywhere. Some of the games of Nigel Short were discovered by the man himself. We decided to compile all games of the former World Championship finalist and current FIDE Vice-President which are unpublished in Mega Database along with a few photos of his score sheets. | Pictured: Short playing Tigran Petrosian in a simul. | Photo: Ottawa Chess Club

New York 1924, Round 1: Alekhine starts with a win against Yates

5/5/2020 – The Grandmaster Tournament in New York, one of the strongest tournaments in the history of chess, has started. Favourites are the current World Champion José Raúl Capablanca, the former World Champion Emanuel Lasker, and the young Russian Alexander Alekhine. In the first round, two of the five games ended with a decision: Alekhine won against Frederick Yates after Yates missed a golden opportunity, and Savielly Tartakower won against Efim Bogoljubow with an unusual line of the King's Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Be2!?. | Photo: Alexander Alekhine

Simon Says: Powerful pattern recognition

5/4/2020 – In this Simon Says we will look at how you can improve your game by incorporating concepts that you notice in games, puzzles, analyses or anywhere else into your own play. Come and see how you get on! | 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).

World class tournament in New York about to start

5/4/2020 – Finally! After many years, New York can look forward to a world class tournament. Current world champion José Raúl Capablanca will take part, Emanuel Lasker, world champion from 1894 to 1921, and Alexander Alekhine who many consider to be Capablanca's next challenger. Plus eight of the world's best players. The tournament will be played in the Hotel Alamac in Manhattan, ChessBase will transmit the games live and will report regularly.

Chess in the Caravansaray

5/4/2020 – The Great Silk Road – from its very beginnings more than two millennia ago this most famous of all ancient trades route has been synonymous with adventure, mystery and wonder. Even today, more than five centuries after the last caravan traversed its full length, the very name invokes time-dimmed images of robed figures and camels heavily laden with exotic trade goods plodding endlessly through a wilderness of sand and danger. And what did the travelers do at the resting spots on the long caravan trails. You guess.

Speelman's Agony: A beautiful attack

5/4/2020 – For the first time, star columnist Jon Speelman gets to have a discussion with the protagonist of his Agony column, Belgian engineer Yves Surmont, an attacking player. | 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!

Magnus Carlsen Invitational: Carlsen beats Nakamura to take first prize

5/4/2020 – The first Magnus Carlsen Invitational was won by none other than world champion Magnus Carlsen. The Norwegian defeated Hikaru Nakamura 2½:1½ in a closely disputed final match. The confrontation was highly technical, as all the games went relatively deep into the endgame. Nakamura almost tied the score in the fourth game, but failed to make the most of his advantage. Round-up show by GM Yannick Pelletier. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Magnus Carlsen Invitational: Carlsen vs Nakamura Live!

5/3/2020 – The final match of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational features the world champion facing quick-play specialist Hikaru Nakamura. They first play a four-game rapid match with a time control of 15 minutes + 10 seconds. In case of a tie, two blitz games with a time control of 5'+3" will follow. If these do not break the tie, an Armageddon game will be played. The action kicks off at 14:00 UTC (16:00 CEST, 10:00 EST). | Photo: Lennart Ootes

The future of chess books (2)

5/3/2020 – So I am being pressured to publish a book, a collection of articles that have, in the last twenty years, appeared on our news page – especially those describing encounters with famous players. And the ones that showed entertaining puzzles and games. They were very nice on a computer monitor, where you can replay and analyse everything – but transfering them onto very thin slices of tree? Nobody fetches a chessboard and pieces to replay moves anymore. Ahh, but there's a solution to this problem. Let me show you. And please help me evaluate this approach.

Valentin Rudenko's cosmic heights

5/3/2020 – Besides becoming Grandmaster for Chess Composition at age 42, Valentin Rudenko helped in the development of "threemovers", created the Rudenko Paradox and the Rudenko Theme, and won the World Chess Composition Tourney. One of his problems was also the first one to go into space. Our columnist Siegfried Hornecker tells us the story.

Magnus Carlsen Invitational: Carlsen wins dramatic semi-final

5/3/2020 – The second semi-final of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational was a tension-filled affair. Carlsen and Ding Liren traded one-move blunders in games two and three, before the Chinese rejected a threefold repetition and ended up losing in the fourth encounter. Carlsen will play online-blitz specialist Hikaru Nakamura in Sunday's final, when US$25,000 will be at stake — the winner gets 70K and the loser 45K. IM Lawrence Trent recapped the action of the day. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Holistic programs: Combining music, storytelling, chess and tai chi

5/2/2020 – US Chess National Master Jerald Times is sheltering-in-place in New York City, the center of the coronavirus pandemic. Times writes about being Director of Chess at Success Academy and describes holistic chess programs that combine music, storytelling, chess and tai chi. WIM Alexey Root interviews Jerald Times. | Photo: Success Academy Charter Schools

Who is the chess player on Mars?

5/2/2020 – A “Mars opposition” occurs when planet Earth passes in between the Sun and planet Mars. It happens every 2 years and 2 months – 779.94 Earth days to be precise. Then Mars becomes a beautiful red jewel in the night sky, full of mystery. On the one hand a Martian invasion may be imminent. On the other we are able to discern human images carved on the Mars surface. In 2003 one was discovered that looked eerily familiar.

Is the Benoni really back in business? A review by Roven Vogel

5/2/2020 – The Benoni Defence is a very double-edged weapon, well suited to play for a win but also dangerous. On his recently released DVD Rustam Kasimdzhanov, one of the world's most renowned opening experts, claims that "The Benoni is back in business". Roven Vogel took a close look at Kasimdzhanov's DVD to check this claim.