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.

Magnus Carlsen Invitational: Nakamura knocks out Caruana

5/2/2020 – Hikaru Nakamura is the first finalist of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational. The American defeated his compatriot Fabiano Caruana 4:2 after drawing in the four-game rapid section and winning both blitz tiebreakers. Nakamura will face either Carlsen or Ding Liren, who will play the other semi-final on Saturday. Round-up show by GM Yannick Pelletier. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Daniel King's Power Play Show: Carlsen's King's Gambit

5/1/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King takes a look at pawn endgames and the King's Gambit Magnus Carlsen tried against Ding Liren in the Magnus Carlsen Invitational. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (Archive) | Power Play is on air most Fridays at 18:00 UK (19:00 CEST, Noon EST) on playchess.com. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

May FIDE ratings

5/1/2020 – The lockdowns prompted by the coronavirus outbreak have created a sense of timelessness for those staying at home day in and day out. Time does go on, however, and FIDE continues to update the ratings lists every first day of the month. We will keep sharing the lists as they are published.

Alexander Tolush (May 1, 1910 – March 3, 1969): Attacking player and successful coach

5/1/2020 – In the middle of the 20th century Alexander Tolush was one of the best Soviet players but was rarely allowed to play abroad. He was famous for his combinations and his brilliant attacking play but he is best remembered as a coach. He was trainer of Paul Keres and Boris Spassky and helped Spassky to become World Champion. Today, May 1, 2020, Tolush would have celebrated his 110th birthday. | Photo: Alexander Tolusch, right, in a game against Fridrik Olafsson