Abhimanyu Mishra becomes the youngest IM in the world

11/14/2019 – A lot of young talents like Praggnanandhaa, Sindarov, Abdusattorov, Gukesh etc. have tried their best to break Sergey Karjakin's record of becoming the youngest GM in the world at the age of 12 years and 7 months. But they all missed it by a small margin. Who has the best chance to break this record now? Well, it's a 10-year-old American boy of Indian origin who lives in New Jersey. Meet Abhimanyu Mishra, the youngest IM in the world. The youngster achieved this feat on November 8th 2019, at the age of 10 years 9 months and 3 days, thereby eclipsing Praggnanandhaa's record of the youngest IM by 17 days. Learn more about the youngster through this article and have a glimpse of his chess skills through the annotated game that he has sent us!

Hamburg GP: Duda in the final

11/14/2019 – The second finalist at the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg is Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The Polish grandmaster will be facing Alexander Grischuk starting Friday to decide who will become the champion in the second-largest city of Germany. Duda defeated Daniil Dubov in rapid tiebreaks despite losing the first encounter against the Russian. | Photo: Official site

Can chess playing computers be conscious?

11/14/2019 – In the past decade brute force programs became stronger than any human chess player, and now self-learning artificial intelligence programs like AlphaZero, Leela and Fat Fritz take these skills even further. What this all means is of great interest, and chess is simply the first area in which we are acutely feeling the impact of Artificial Intelligence. Thankfully computer experts, philosopher, and thinkers are beginning to discuss the subject seriously — as in this fairly profound podcast with Judea Pearl and Sam Harris, who use the chess paradigm extensively in their discussion. Definitely worth listening.

Endgame Magic with Harikrishna

11/13/2019 – Today Karsten welcomes Indian GM P Harikrishna, the current world number 27, and a 2700-rated Grandmaster. Can Karsten stump him? On-demand for ChessBase account holders. Don't have an account yet? You can register a free 90-day account to watch!

Tata Steel Chess Rapid and Blitz 2019 Press Conference

11/13/2019 – With the Superbet Rapid and Blitz in the books, the race for the Grand Chess Tour finals in London is becoming clear. Sergey Karjakin, by virtue of tying with Aronian for first is out of the running. Since Vachier-Lagrave is finished with his tour events, Viswanathan Anand is looking to qualify for London, and 6th place in Kolkata should be enough to close the gap. The new Chess960 World Champion Wesley So will be there too. Can you guess what is veiled with blue velvet below?| Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Hamburg GP: Grischuk scores crucial win

11/13/2019 – Alexander Grischuk knocked Maxime Vachier-Lagrave out of the Grand Prix in Hamburg by beating him in the second classical game of the semi-finals. Grischuk thus massively increased his chances to reach the 2020 Candidates Tournament through the series. Meanwhile, Daniil Dubov got a slight edge against Jan-Krzysztof Duda, but could not make much of it — their semi-final match-up will be decided in tiebreaks. | Photo: Valeria Gordienko

The Weekly Show: Edouard at the ECC

11/12/2019 – This week IM Lawrence Trent checks out the Euro Club Cup and specifically a win with black by French GM Romain Edouard. | Puzzle time: In the diagram below, it's White to move! | Lawrence is live for free and 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.

The Mechanics and the Eade Foundation: Building communities through chess

11/12/2019 – The newest chess foundation in the world was announced during a Twitch broadcast from the oldest chess club in the United States. The new chess foundation is the Eade Foundation, with FIDE Master James “Jim” Eade serving as its Chairman, CEO, and President. The oldest chess club in the United States is the Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club, which is reaching out to new communities through online broadcasting. WIM ALEXEY ROOT reports. | Pictured: Paul and Jay Whitehead in 1973 | Photo: Mechanics' Institute Chess Club

Hamburg GP: Equality

11/12/2019 – The first classical games of the semi-finals at the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg ended in draws. Both games went into theoretical lines that led to draws in less than thirty moves. In Tuesday's rematch games, Alexander Grischuk and Daniil Dubov will have the white pieces against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, respectively. | Photo: Valeria Gordienko

Simon Says: An overview of the Budapest Gambit

11/11/2019 – GM Simon Williams is a fan of gambits and lately he's been looking at the Budapest. Get a 1-hour overview on this exciting opening from the "Ginger GM". Watch live for free (or on-demand for a limited time) starting at the usual hour: 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET / 12 Noon EST).

European Club Cup 2019: Favourites begin with easy wins

11/11/2019 – The European Club 2019 is taking place in Montenegro from the 10th to the 16th of November 2019. Team Alkaloid is the top seed in the open section and Kyiv Chess Federation is the strongest team in the women's section. Altogether 66 teams in the open and 14 teams in women have taken part. The first round was quite an easy one for all the top seeds. We acquaint you with the teams and also tell you about what you can expect in the next rounds.

Hamburg GP: Dubov knocks out Svidler

11/11/2019 – The one match that went to tiebreaks at the second round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg saw Daniil Dubov getting the better of Peter Svidler. Svidler had the upper hand in both 25-minute encounters, but could not convert any of his good positions into a win. Dubov, on the other hand, made the most of his good position in game three of the rapid play-offs. | Photo: Valeria Gordienko

In a choke

11/11/2019 – In a pure endgame a rook is usually much better than a bishop but winning often still requires good technique.

GCT: Aronian snags Superbet Rapid & Blitz

11/11/2019 – Levon Aronian only finished in 5th place with 10 points from 18 games in this weekend's blitz tournament, but when combined with his 10 points in the rapid, his total tally tied him for first place with Sergey Karjakin, who won the blitz portion jointly with Le Quang Liem scoring 11/18. In the resulting playoff, Aronian scored a full point in the second game to snare the overall victory in the Romanian capital, Bucharest. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Grand Chess Tour: Superbet Rapid & Blitz to Aronian

11/10/2019 – Levon Aronian and Sergey Karjakin surged in the final day of blitz to finish joint first in the overall standings in Bucharest. Aronian won a two-game rapid playoff to be declared the winner of the Superbet Rapid & Blitz. Live games and commentary from 13:00 UTC (14:00 CET, 8:00 AM EST). | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Hamburg GP: Grischuk and Vachier-Lagrave to meet in semis

11/10/2019 – Only one match-up will be decided in tiebreaks at the second round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg, as Russians Peter Svidler and Daniil Dubov drew for a second day in a row and will be playing rapid and blitz on Sunday. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexander Grischuk and Jan-Krzysztof Duda secured their spots in the semi-finals in the classical phase, thus getting one extra point at the overall GP standings. | Photo: Nadja Wittmann

Korobov leads Superbet Rapid and Blitz in Bucharest

11/9/2019 – With an Elo rating of 2670, the Ukrainian GM Anton Korobov is currently number 68 in the classical world rankings. However, he is ranked sixth in the world in rapid chess at 2798! Korobov demonstrated his mastery of this format in the rapid portion of the Superbet tournament of the Grand Chess Tour in Bucharest. He finished Day 3 with a two point lead over the field. | Photos: Grand Chess Tour / Lennart Ootes

In focus: Chess in Germany

11/9/2019 – Today, November 9th, 2019, Germany marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, a major geopolitical event in 1989 which set the stage for German reunification. Germany is one of the most important chess countries, cultivating chess culture for about 1000 years. With over 2300 clubs almost 100,000 chess aficionados are actively engaged. The country has 100 grandmasters and some of the most important chess tournaments. Walter Rädler has produced a nice video vignette.

Hamburg GP: Vachier-Lagrave strikes first, again

11/9/2019 – The quarter-finals of the Hamburg Grand Prix kicked off at the Theater Kehrwieder on Friday. The only winner of the day was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who beat Veselin Topalov with the black pieces and only needs a draw in the rematch game to advance once again without needing tiebreaks. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, David Navara and Peter Svidler drew with Black against Yu Yangyi, Alexander Grischuk and Daniil Dubov respectively. | Photo: Nadja Wittmann

Sarana, Bellahcene triumph in Cap d’Agde

11/8/2019 – Russian Grandmaster Alexey Sarana (pictured) won the Karpov Trophy while Algerian GM Bilel Bellahcene emerged victorious in the classical Grand Prix tournament at Cap d’Agde in southern France. Eight Grandmasters participated in Karpov Trophy, a 14-round rapid tournament. The top four finishers qualified for the knockout stage. In the semifinals, Sarana got the better of Indian GM Nihal Sarin while Bassem Amin defeated French GM Etienne Bacrot. In the final, Sarana won both the rapid games against Amin to win the title. | Photo: Pierre Textoris

The Power Play Show: FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss

11/8/2019 – Power Play plays on! On the show today: GM Daniel King takes you through games from the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. Power Play is live most Fridays at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, Noon EDT) 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...

Asking for it

11/8/2019 – In the diagram position White had just played 12.Rac1 which didn't really threaten anything ... until Black replied 12...f6?? How would you take advantage of the new situation?

Hamburg GP: Dubov, Grischuk, Navara and Yu Yangyi go through

11/8/2019 – A pair of rapid games were enough to decide three out of four tiebreaker match-ups at the third leg of the Grand Prix in Hambrug. Daniil Dubov eliminated Teimour Radjabov only when the blitz phase was reached, while David Navara, Alexander Grischuk and Yu Yangyi dispatched their opponents after playing two 25-minute games. Nikita Vitiugov, Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Dmitry Jakovenko were knocked out of the competition. | Photo: Valeria Gordienko

GCT Superbet Day 1: Anish Giri takes the early lead

11/7/2019 – Anish Giri started well among ten world-class players, at the Superbet Rapid Tournament of the Grand Chess Tour in Bucharest: He is in the lead after the first three rapid games with 2½ out of 3, half a point behind them are Vishy Anand, Anton Korobov and Levon Aronian on positions two to four. | Photos: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour