10/3/2019 – The World Youth Championships 2019 kicked off on October 2nd 2019 in Mumbai, India. The biggest upset of round one was defending champion Viktor Gazik losing his game to local lad Vedant Panesar. Gazik sacrificed an exchange in the style of Petrosian, but never really had enough compensation. In the past, players like Tiviakov and Andersson have been successful with a similar idea, and IM SAGAR SHAH probes the differences between those sacrifices, plus a brave effort from a girl playing in the Open section. | Photos: Amruta Mokal.

10/3/2019 – Teimour Radjabov bounced right back after his loss in game two against Ding Liren at the finals of the FIDE World Cup. The Azeri knew exactly what to do when his opponent did not play the most accurate move out of a Marshall Attack and went on to show good technique to even the score in Khanty-Mansiysk. The score of the match for third place is also 1½:1½ after Yu Yangyi could not make the most of a superior position against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Analyses by GM YANNICK PELLETIER and IM MERIJN VAN DELFT. | Photo: FIDE

10/2/2019 – The World Cup is headed for a dramatic conclusion, and today IM Merijn van Delft brings you right up to date. The show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows. Merijn is live this week starting at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT).

10/2/2019 – Humpy Koneru is an inspiration to the entire chess community. She was off the chess grid for two years, taking care of her new born daughter Ahana. In this cut throat chess world filled with computer innovations and novelties a break of a few days is enough to make you feel outdated. How did Humpy, who made a comeback after such a long hiatus, manage to not just start playing good chess, but win one of the strongest tournaments in the world - the Skolkovo Women's Grand Prix. How did she manage to improve her game so that she could rise to world no. 3 rankings behind just Hou Yifan and World Champion Ju Wenjun? | Photo: David Llada / FIDE

10/2/2019 – When the World Youth Championships 2019 come for the first time in India, how do you expect the opening ceremony to be? For all those who were present at the Convention center of the Renaissance Hotel in Mumbai, the experience was "electrifying". The dance performances showcased at a glance the myriad culture of India. Players from 64 countries are taking part at the World Youth Championships 2019 in under-14,16 and 18. The Indian challenge at the event is being led by Praggnanandhaa (2567) and Divya Deshmukh (2362). In this article we bring to you the glimpses of the opening ceremony and also tell you about the "How well do you know India" Quiz that was conducted by us with players from across the world!

10/2/2019 – Ding Liren got the first win of the final match-up at the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. The Chinese scored a fine positional victory with the white pieces over Teimour Radjabov, after the latter went for a double-edged variation of the English Opening. Meanwhile, in the match for third place, Yu Yangyi played the Petroff Defence and held Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to a draw in his first game with Black. GM YANNICK PELLETIER analysed both games. | Photo: FIDE

10/1/2019 – Looking south to Spain, IM Lawrence Trent analyses a game from the ongoing Barcelona Open featuring a rising French star. | Puzzle time: In the diagram below, it's White to move. | Lawrence is free on-demand for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

10/1/2019 – October will be yet another action-packed month in the chess world. The main attractions at the elite level will be the Grand Swiss Tournament — a new qualification event for the Candidates — and the European Team Championships. In the meantime, the World Youth and World Junior Championships will take place in India. Also, Hou Yifan will be playing in Cap d'Agde and Magnus Carlsen will face three other players at the newly minted Fischer Random World Championship. | You'll find all of these events and more covered in our live games broadcast area Live.ChessBase.com and we'll also be providing News coverage.

10/1/2019 – Usually, in the endgame rooks are much better than a knight. However, if only a few pawns remain on the board the defender might try to build a fortress. To crack such fortresses rooks often need support.

10/1/2019 – The October rating list is out and with most of the world's best occupied in Khanty-Mansiysk at the World Cup (which is not yet rated), the changes there will only be reflected in November. Therefore the women are in focus this month, as most of the best were busy doing battle on the outskirts of Moscow in the first event of the newest FIDE Grand Prix. A notable exception is China's Zhu Jiner who was busy too, but in her home country, where she quietly slipped into the Top 10. | Pictured: The closing ceremony of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Skolkovo, Russia | Photo: Boris Dolmatovsky

9/30/2019 – Teimour Radjabov and Ding Liren signed a 33-move draw as the final match of the FIDE World Cup kicked off Monday in Khanty-Mansiysk. The players blitzed out no less than 26 moves of theory before simplifying into a completely drawn rook endgame. Meanwhile, a similar story was seen in the match-up for third place, as Yu Yangyi had the white pieces against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave — they played 36 moves of a sharp Grünfeld before splitting the point. IM LAWRENCE TRENT reviewed the highlights of the day. | Photo: FIDE

9/30/2019 – Bring the latest CBM up to date! Simon Williams presents you an opening idea, which goes back to no lesser than Magnus Carlsen. Yannick Pelletier came across a variation in the Semi-Slav at the Chess Festival in Biel, which may turn out to be much better than its reputation. Moreover, there is an excellently filled "Lucky bag", the "Brilliancy game" Tal-Koblencs (1961) in another video, and a huge update for your database.

9/30/2019 – The way we play and improve our chess has increased in complexity. The game is the same, but the information overload from video streaming channels, hundreds of books published yearly, and online sites vying for our attention can be overwhelming to an average chess player. ChessBase Magazine, with its holistic format based on training different parts of the game and its sophisticated interactive Fritz trainer tools, allows every player to learn while having fun. DAVIDE NASTASIO reviews the content of the latest issue and some fundamental positions and games everyone should play, learn from and enjoy.

9/29/2019 – Grandmaster Sergey Fedorchuk won the 28th Sevres Open, a nine round rapid tournament outside of Paris. The 38-year-old Ukrainian is a veteran of the professional tournament circuit, and a two-time Paris Champion. In a look at the typical life of a 2600-GM, Paris-based journalist DHANANJAY KHADILKAR paid a visit and spoke to the top finishers. | Photo: Dhananjay Khadilkar

9/29/2019 – Ding Liren arrived in Khanty-Mansiysk as the top seed and is now set to face Teimour Radjabov in the final match of the 2019 FIDE World Cup. Ding beat his compatriot Yu Yangyi on tiebreaks by drawing game one and getting a win with White in the second 25-minute encounter. Both the final and the match for third place will kick off Monday — the deciding match-ups consist of four classical games and tiebreaks, if necessary. | Photo: FIDE

9/28/2019 – In this second part of an "understanding chess composition competition" trilogy, Study of the Month columnist SIEGFRIED HORNECKER surveys the official FIDE Album, an anthology of the best chess compositions. His selections include a study co-composed by Levon Aronian. | Photo: Arves.org

9/28/2019 – "This tournament is like life — eventually, it has a sad end. Lucky guys leave it quickly, stubborn ones, who fight on their limits — sometimes painfully." Nikita Vitiugov crashed out of the World Cup in the quarter-finals. IM SAGAR SHAH takes a look at two of Vitiugov's masterpieces at the 2019 World Cup and invites you to solve some very interesting positional decisions that were taken by the Russian GM. | Photo: FIDE webcast

9/28/2019 – Teimour Radjabov qualified to the next Candidates Tournament by knocking out Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the classical phase of the World Cup semi-finals. The Azeri grandmaster obtained a clean-cut victory with the white pieces to take down the Frenchman and will have two rest days before the final match begins next Monday. Meanwhile, Yu Yangyi and Ding Liren signed a 30-move draw and will decide their match-up on tiebreaks. GM YANNICK PELLETIER analysed the games. | Photo: FIDE