Candidates Round 4: Draws

3/21/2020 – All games of round four at the Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg finished peacefully, which means Wang Hao, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are still sharing the lead on 2½ out of 4. Caruana pushed his h-pawn against Nepomniachtchi's Grünfeld but could not convert his slight advantage, while Grischuk entered his usual excessive time trouble while defending a complicated position against Vachier-Lagrave — in the end, he managed to hold the balance. Expert analysis by GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ and IM LAWRENCE TRENT. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / FIDE

The Coldest Game

3/21/2020 – "The Coldest Game" is a spy movie which came out exclusively on the streaming service Netflix. Fortunately for all chess lovers, it includes a couple of very interesting chess games which consist of some analysis. Although this movie is fictional, some real events and politicians are part of it, like the Cuban crisis, President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. The fictional chess games also follow real examples and it is a joy to replay some of the beautiful combinations the film cites.

New York Times on cheating

3/20/2020 – In baseball trainers used a live video feed to decipher the signs of opposing catchers, and then banged on a trash can to signal the next pitch to the batter. Smartphones, buzzers, even yogurt — chess has nearly seen it all in both live and online tournaments. And just as in baseball, technology only makes it harder to root out. | Image: New York Times

The Power Play Show: The Candidates and a Fischer-Spassky classic

3/20/2020 – Grandmaster Daniel King was supposed to be in Yekaterinburg now, but will instead take a look at the Candidates from home in London. Power Play is live most Fridays at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, Noon EST) on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free! All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

The Candidates and Corona in tweets

3/20/2020 – The coronavirus changed the world and has slowed social life down. But the Candidates Tournament still takes place, despite all concerns. A controversial decision. Here's a short collection of twitter posts that show how chess players feel about the Candidates and Corona. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Researching age-related decline

3/20/2020 – Vaci, Gula, & Bilalić (2015) found that “the more able players deteriorated more quickly” after their peak, but that their decline started to stabilize earlier in middle adulthood. The authors claimed the validity of Simonton’s (1997) model of career trajectories for chess players, and highlighted the beneficial influence of tournament practice in old age. They doubted the appropriateness of the FIDE database for scientific studies, and instead recommended the German database. It is now shown why Vaci et al.’s model led to drastically incorrect results, and how it has to be changed to work correctly. Chess trajectories are characterized by a long plateau phase and a gradually increasing decline. Playing more or fewer games does not affect the rating in old age.

Bernstein's brilliancy

3/20/2020 – White's 48.Rcc8! in the diagram position starts the mate finale even if 48...Qe4 gives the black king an escape square on g6. Enjoy!

Candidates Round 3: Ding bounces back, beats Caruana

3/19/2020 – The battle between pre-tournament favourites Ding Liren and Fabiano Caruana ended up favouring the Chinese, who responded convincingly to Caruana's provocative play in the opening to get his first win of the tournament after back-to-back losses in the first two rounds. The remaining games finished drawn, which means Wang Hao, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are sharing the lead on 2 out of 3. Expert analysis by GMs STEPHEN GORDON and DANIEL KING. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / FIDE

"Chess keeps us sane"

3/19/2020 – All sports events in the world have been cancelled to contain the spread of COVID-19. The only big event that currently takes place is the Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg. Ivan Ljubicic (@theljubicic), the coach of tennis star Roger Federer, wants to follow Caruana & Co. and recommends: "Stay home everyone. Chess keeps us sane." | Photo: Ivan Ljubicic

A virtual club room: create your own online club

3/19/2020 – Every club, school or trainer can open a virtual playing room on the ChessBase server. Everything is possible: casual games, tournaments, online training, simultaneous events, etc. Everything on "your" chess server! The best alternative to keep the club evening running, and a good (virtual) meeting point to play chess together. Creating a virtual club room is easy. Have a look!

NEW: Charlie Storey: The White Sniper

3/19/2020 – Charlie Storey is an FM from England, English Chess Federation Academy Coach and U18 Team Coach. His second FritzTrainer is a follow-up to the popular release "The Sniper" a club player's weapon for Black. The White Sniper is characterised by three moves against any black setup: 1.g3 2.Bg2 and 3.c4 though not necessarily in that order. Think of The White Sniper as a Hyper-Accelerated Sicilian Dragon against anything that Black plays.

Candidates: Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave score

3/18/2020 – The second round of the Candidates Tournament sees top seed Fabiano Caruana defeating Kirill Alekseenko in 34 moves, while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated second seed Ding Liren in 37. Anish Giri was in deep trouble against Wang Hao, but managed to miraculously save a draw in the end. Four players are now sharing the lead, as the tournament goes into the last round before the first scheduled rest day. Expert (and thorough) analysis by GMs STEPHEN GORDON and SIMON WILLIAMS. | Photo: Maria Emelianova / FIDE

Game of the Week: Wang vs Giri

3/18/2020 – The biggest sports show on earth at the minute may be the FIDE Candidates Tournament, and it also is the focus of IM Merijn van Delft's attention. | The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). Merijn is live this week starting at 19:00 UTC (20:00 CET / 4 PM EST).

Online tournaments at playchess.com!

3/18/2020 – Covid-19 keeps the world grounded. Uncomfortable as that may be it is a chance to play some chess. To help you cope with the "stay-at-home-challenge" we organised a number of tournaments on Playchess! You can win membership-days on the server. Download the Windows Client, which is included in programs such as Fritz, Komodo or Houdini and ChessBase ! Then check the tournament schedule!

Magnus Carlsen on Forbes "30 under 30" list

3/18/2020 – The renowned American business magazine "Forbes" is famous for its lists and rankings. Recently, the magazine released its "30 under 30" list, naming 30 people under 30 years of age who have made a significant impact on modern life as entrepreneurs, sport stars, activists, artists or in other fields. Magnus Carlsen is one of them! | Photo: Magnus Carlsen by Alina L'Ami

US Championship postponed, but former champions' romance blossoms

3/18/2020 – COVID-19 is cancelling or postponing tournaments left and right. The most recent casualty is the U.S. Championship which the Saint Louis Chess Club would be postponed indefinitely on Tuesday. The 2017 U.S. Women's Champion Sabina Foisor was recently profiled along with her fiancée GM Elshan Moradiabadi on their city's local TV news. In the face of adversity, a heart-warming story.

The games of round 1: deep analysis by Malcolm Pein

3/18/2020 – The first round of the Candidates Tournament was very exciting: the audience saw four complex games and two of them ended with a win – for Black. Malcolm Pein took a close look. | Photo: FIDE

Candidates: Wang stuns Ding, Nepomniachtchi beats Giri

3/17/2020 – The long-anticipated Candidates Tournament kicked off with two surprising results, as both Ding Liren and Anish Giri lost with the white pieces, against Wang Hao and Ian Nepomniachtchi respectively. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave v Fabiano Caruana and Alexander Grischuk v Kirill Alekseenko were hard-fought games that finished drawn, with Grischuk going into his usual extreme time trouble. Video round-up by GM SIMON WILLIAMS and GM BORIS GELFAND analysed the all-Russian clash. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / FIDE

St. Patrick's day of chess

3/17/2020 – It is St. Patrick's day today, if you didn't know already. This St. Patrick's day is different from all the others we had so far. The coronavirus disease makes us stay home to avoid social contacts as much as possible. So what to do? How about checking out some of our greenest chess trainings?

The WinChain — a new ChessBase feature

3/17/2020 – You might not believe it but if you played any competitive chess in your life you probably would have good chances to win should you ever play against Carlsen, Caruana or another top player. Well, sort of! Don't believe us? Try the ChessBase WinChain! | Photo: Public Domain via Pixabay

The Weekly Show: World Senior Teams and Candidates preview

3/17/2020 – IM Lawrence Trent checks on the recent World Senior Team Championship and offers his thoughts on the Candidates tournament. | Puzzle time: In the diagram, Did Black miss a shot here? | Lawrence is on-demand his week from 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, 12 Noon EST) and free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can always register a free 90-day account to watch.

The Royal Path

3/17/2020 – Pawn endings require precise calculation. White to play and win.

Reviewing ChessBase Magazine 194

3/17/2020 – Do you know what is the Centurini's rule? Do you have an Anti-Reti in your opening repertoire? Would you like to have an IM pose some interactive questions, and test your tactical vision? Do you know how to evaluate a position with no minor pieces, but with queens and rooks on the board? Are you aware of common opening traps in the Caro-Kann, Philidor, English and Sicilian? Do you want to update your opening repertoire with the latest recommendations? If these topics have you intrigued, and interested in knowing more, ChessBase Magazine could become your addictive chess reading while as you self-isolate!

Scachs d'amor: The poem that first portrayed the modern rules of chess

3/16/2020 – A poem written in Valencian by Francesc de Castellví, Bernat Fenollar and Narcís de Vinyoles was the first literary work to describe a game with the modern rules — the queen could move multiple squares in all directions and the scope of the bishops widened importantly. SERGIO NEGRI tells us the story. | Image: A chessboard illustrated in Jacobus de Cessolis' "De ludo scachorum".