5/19/2020 – The whole chess community plays only online. The whole chess community? No. Five brave players from Vienna met in a park to play a tournament. In strict adherence to the Covid-19 rules. Stefan Löffler was one of the players.| Photos: Joe Wallner

5/19/2020 – Knights can fork king and queen but in endgames they are often helpless against king and pawn. Knights often seem to be slow but then they suddenly catch pawns that are close to queening. No wonder knight endings are tricky - and often fun.

5/19/2020 – Round 15 of the New York Tournament 1924 was a lively affair and the spectators in the Hotel Alamac saw five wins. Capablanca won against Janowsky, the strategist Reti was defeated by the tactician Marshall, Alekhine won against Yates, Bogoljubow outplayed Tartakower in the endgame and Maroczy defeated Edward Lasker. Emanuel Lasker had a bye and with 8½/13 he now shares first with Capablanca who has 8½/14.

5/19/2020 – The acronym “AMA” stands for “American Medical Association” or “Ask Me Anything.” Another AMA acronym means “Ask Me Another,” a National Public Radio show featuring Puzzle Gurus. National Master Jeff Ashton is an aspiring Puzzle Guru, selecting and creating chess puzzles for his students. WIM Alexey Root shares Ashton’s efforts.

5/18/2020 – Here's a very interesting analysis task for you during this lock-in days: imagine you have reached a fairly complex position where you spot a beautiful queen sacrifice. Before you play it you have to analyse all the lines, in your mind, and come to the conclusion whether it wins, holds a draw or loses. Try it with our challenge position. You can move pieces on the analysis board, but must not consult an engine. Have fun, test your analysis skills.

5/18/2020 – In this Simon Says we will look at some typical attacking patterns and test you in some complex situations. Attacking is, after all, one of the most exciting aspects of chess! | 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).

5/18/2020 – As we promised in our last article, we now proceed to another round of guessing the movie stills. This time we take a look at films which are exclusively from the 1960s. The films are "From Russia with Love", "The Fire Within", "Becket" and "The Thomas Crown Affair". Once again, you are very welcome to participate in our little movie guessing quiz, where you have to guess which chess board still is from which movie.

5/18/2020 – Capablanca against Lasker, that was the top encounter of the 14th round of the tournament in New York 1924. The game was exciting, but the circumstances were even more dramatic. Lasker lost and afterwards claimed that the clock had a defect. However, tournament director Norbert Lederer said that the clock was fine but Lasker had forgotten to press the button to stop his clock from running. A bitter controversy ensued. | Photo: Capablanca (left) and Lasker at a previous occasion (Photo: media2-web.britannica)

5/18/2020 – Kateryna Lagno and Magnus Carlsen won the FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial in the women's and open sections respectively. Lagno defeated Lei Tingjie in the Armageddon tiebreaker after both finished the tournament on 12 out of 18. Carlsen scored the same amount of points, but in his case that was enough to secure tournament victory with a round to spare. | Photos: David Llada / Lennart Ootes

5/17/2020 – Our author looks at three games that included a queen sacrifice ('reginacide' means 'the murder of the queen'), and shows a particular case in which a "mad rook" can be neutralized. | 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!

5/17/2020 – Five decisive games, no draws – the 13th round of the New York Tournament 1924 was entertaining. Tournament leader Dr. Emanuel Lasker won with a fine pawn sacrifice against Bogoljubow, Edward Lasker scored his first win and defeated Tartakower, Capablanca easily outplayed Maroczy, Alekhine blundered and lost against Reti, while Marshall calculated better than Janowsky. Dr. Lasker now leads with 9½/12, followed by Reti with 8.0/12 and Capablanca with 7.5/12. | Photo: Library of Congress

5/17/2020 – Russians Kateryna Lagno and Daniil Dubov have taken the lead at the women's and open sections of the FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial respectively. The sensation of the day was Dubov's win over Magnus Carlsen, leapfrogging the world champion atop the standings table. Carlsen kept up the pace with the Russian and is now in sole second place a half point back. | Photos: FIDE

5/16/2020 – Online chess has become very popular in the last couple of years and more and more people participate and try to win games and achieve a higher rating. Rating matters so much that it can turn into an obsession. Ratings appear to represent the value of the person. We take a closer look at how the ego can become the curse of the rating system and how we feel about it.

5/16/2020 – In round 12 of the tournament in New York Emanuel Lasker won again and he again won a bad position. In the course of his career Dawid Janowsky had a lot of promising positions against Lasker and he has spoilt most of them. In New York he continued this "tradition". For a long time Janowsky was clearly better but found no way to overcome Lasker's stubborn defense, and in the end he blundered and lost. Lasker now leads with 8½/11 and is 1½ ahead of Alekhine who drew with Capablanca and Reti, who won brilliantly against Bogoljubow.

5/16/2020 – The FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial kicked off Friday with six rounds played both in the open and women's sections. Alexandra Kosteniuk had the best performance overall, getting a commanding lead after scoring 5½ points on day one. In the open, Magnus Carlsen is the sole leader on 4 out of 6. Three players stand a half point back — Bu Xiangzhi, Daniil Dubov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. | Photos: FIDE

5/15/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King takes a look at the King's Gambit and presents old and new games with this still fascinating opening. | 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.

5/15/2020 – At his peak Mir Sultan Khan was one of the best players in the world. He was a three-time British Champion, and beat top players like Capablanca, Rubinstein, Yates or Tartakower. However, FIDE has never made him a Grandmaster while many other players were given the title. A petition now asks FIDE to honour Mir Sultan Khan and his achievements with the grandmaster title.

5/15/2020 – Would you like to learn the art of chess training from the Russian national team coach, or from the coach of the former Women's World Champion? Or would you like to learn from a former World No. 3? How about all of them? Wouldn't it be too expensive? No! From 29th to 31st of May 2020 you can do it, online. The seminar is open to trainers, and players (!), world-wide. A great opportunity.