10/13/2020 – It is helpful to know a couple of theoretical endgame positions - they might come up in a practical game or knowing them might help you to win an important or less important blitz game. Centurini's draw is the most important theoretical position in the endgame bishop and pawn against bishop.

10/13/2020 – Alireza Firouzja continues to impress at the Norway Chess Tournament as he beat Levon Aronian in Armageddon to keep the sole lead in the standings. Meanwhile, the main event of the day, Magnus Carlsen versus Fabiano Caruana, saw the world champion defending a tough position in classical chess and winning the Armageddon decider. Jan-Krzysztof Duda defeated Aryan Tari in their classical encounter. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/12/2020 – In this "Simon Says" the Ginger GM shows you how Bobby Fischer used to mate his opponents with the King's Indian Attack. | Watch "Simon Says" for free and on-demand (for a limited time, or forever with a ChessBase Premium account). (Normally 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 14:00). | Photo: Bobby Fischer

10/12/2020 – From October 8 to October 29, the St. Louis Chess Club organizes the U.S. Championships, but this year all Championship tournaments are played online and in rapid format. The series began with the U.S. Girls' Junior Championship, and with a smooth and convincing performance Carissa Yip won the tournament and her third title in a row.

10/12/2020 – Currently, chess legend Nigel Short and the young Czech Grandmaster Thai Dai Van Nguyen, play a friendly 10-game rapid match in Prague. It began October 10, and after six games Short leads 3½:2½. Today, the last four games will be played.

10/12/2020 – In the sixth round, Fabiano Caruana took down former leader Levon Aronian. The beneficiary of the defeat was Alireza Firouzja, who won against Aryan Tari and thus took the lead. Magnus Carlsen bounced back from his loss on Saturday and defeated Jan-Krzysztof Duda — the world champion is in third place. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

10/12/2020 – On Saturday, October 10, the Global Chess Festival was celebrated! The woman behind this vibrant annual gala hardly needs any introduction. The strongest female chess player of all time is the only woman to have ever challenged male hegemony in the sport. Though everyone is familiar with Judit Polgar, the chess player, we thought the world would also do good to know Judit the wife and mother. At the end of last month, ChessBase India's Amruta Mokal conducted an exclusive interview with this remarkable lady. In this article we bring you the full transcript of this candid tête-à-tête. | Photo credit: globalchessfestival.com

10/11/2020 – Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana is the top-ranked chess player in the United States and is second in the world. He was the challenger for the World Chess Championship in 2018. To show appreciation for Caruana, National Master Mike Walder presents a recipe for a dish Caruana might like and annotates one of Caruana’s wins. WIM Alexey Root tells why Caruana is a Grandmaster Chef honoree. | Pictured: Caruana at the 2018 London Chess Classic | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/11/2020 – Endgame expert Karsten Müller keeps finding interesting endgames at the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament. This time around, he looks at the rook and knight versus bishop and knight ending from the Levon Aronian v Fabiano Caruana game from round 5. Hidden tricks abound in these unbalanced positions! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/11/2020 – Round 5 of the Norway Chess tournament saw tail-ender Jan-Krzysztof Duda defeating former sole leader Magnus Carlsen, thus ending a 125-game undefeated streak in classical chess that lasted over two years. In the meantime, Levon Aronian and Alireza Firouzja also collected 3 points each by winning their classical games — Aronian inflicted Caruana’s second straight loss while Firouzja defeated Tari with the white pieces. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/10/2020 – Round 4 of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger saw Levon Aronian and Alireza Firouzja playing an Armageddon tiebreaker after drawing their classical game. Karsten Müller assessed the final phase of the encounter as a “fascinating knight endgame”. The endgame specialist examined the sequence in detail and now shares it with all ChessBase readers. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/10/2020 – The Russian city of Sochi will host the “Higher League” until October 17. Thanks to the large number of strong grandmasters in the country, this qualifying tournament to the Superfinal is heavily contested, so much so that it equals the level of the national championship in almost any other country in the world. Rating favourite Vladislav Artemiev (2716) already gave up a half point in the first two rounds. In the women’s tournament, Valentina Gunina is the rating favourite. | Photos: Eteri Kublashvili

10/9/2020 – Many players believe that Mark Dvoretsky's "Endgame Manual" is one of the best chess books of all time. Recently, Russell Enterprises released the 5th edition of this legendary work. In an interview with Johannes Fischer, Karsten Müller, who edited and revised the 5th edition of the "Manual", talks about his passion for the endgame, why studying Dovretsky's manual is fun and worth the effort, and what makes this book so special.

10/9/2020 – Magnus Carlsen climbed to the top of the standings in the Norway Chess Tournament by beating former co-leader Fabiano Caruana with white in their classical encounter. Meanwhile, Alireza Firouzja and Aryan Tari won in Armageddon, defeating Levon Aronian and Jan-Krzysztof Duda respectively. A misunderstanding with the arbiter meant Firouzja arrived a couple of minutes late to his sudden-death game. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/9/2020 – Modifying the existing rules for chess to make it more dynamic or decisive, needs years of experience and a large numbers of games if we are to assess the quality and appeal of any new variant. The company DeepMind has used their AI technology to evaluate nine variants proposed by former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik in a much shorter period of time. Here are their findings for "Torpedo Chess", where pawns can move two squares forward from anywhere.

10/9/2020 – The first four rounds of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament saw a number of instructive and interesting endgames. Karsten Müller is happy and took a close look at the textbook-endgame between Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Levon Aronian in round 3, which shows why it is sometimes better to have less.

10/9/2020 – Grabbing the opponent's b-pawn in the opening by sending your queen on a killing spree is not always bad, as the Poisoned Pawn Variation in the Najdorf (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6!?) shows. But in the diagram position, Black's greedy 9...Qxb2? is indeed bad. However, to refute the move, White needs to use many a piece. Have fun!

10/9/2020 – The Global Chess Festival, initiated and organised by Judit Polgar, is a treat for chess players all over the world. Traditionally, the festival takes place on the second Saturday of October, which this year falls on October 10, and this year the festival goes online - with a fantastic program and an amazing choice of events, all for free! "Chess Connects Us" is the slogan of the Global Chess Festival, and chess fans all over the world are invited to join the fun!