The battering ram

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.

October ratings: Women's Grand Prix in the spotlight

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

FIDE World Cup: Theoretical face-offs

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

NEW: CBM Extra 191 with Simon Williams and Yannick Pelletier

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.

Inside CBM 191: Improvement and training

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.

A practical approach to rapid tournaments

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

FIDE World Cup: Ding Liren reaches a second World Cup final in a row

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

FIDE Albums: The official anthology for chess composition

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

So near yet so far: Vitiugov's World Cup

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

FIDE World Cup: Vachier-Lagrave falls just short

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

Chess in The Atlantic

9/27/2019 – The American magazine The Atlantic has published an interview with the Hungarian chess players Judit Polgar and Anna Rudolf in its series "The Friendship Files". Once Judit Polgar was Anna Rudolf's idol; now they are both friends. Earlier this week the magazine also featured a short film by Jenny Schweitzer Bell, and produced by Jennifer Shahade, called "Kid Chess Champions Share Their Secrets" which features a dozen cute kids who participated in the massive National Scholastic Championship in the USA. | Photo: Anna Rudolf

The Power Play Show: World Cup II

9/27/2019 – On the show today: GM Daniel King takes you through games from the World Cup. 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...

A new generation of FritzTrainers: for Windows and (now) Mac and iOS!

9/27/2019 – The Ruy Lopez is a perennially popular opening and all World Champions have played it, with White or with Black or with both colours. Studying it will improve your chess understanding — and your results! On three new FritzTrainer DVDs Fabiano Caruana, World Championship Challenger 2018, now explains the intricacies and attractions of this opening, offering White a complete repertoire. These FritzTrainers also impress with a technical novelty: they run on Macs, iPad, Android, and Windows!

Cool Norwegian

9/27/2019 – 19...g6 in the diagram attacks the queen on f5 — but doesn't this spoil Black's position to a draw if White just replies 20.Bxh8 now?

FIDE World Cup: Semi-finals kick off with draws

9/27/2019 – After Wednesday's dramatic tiebreaks, things cooled off at the start of the semi-finals in Khanty-Mansiysk. Ding Liren had White against Yu Yangyi but was the one slightly under pressure before finding a repetition, while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Teimour Radjabov played 31 moves before splitting the point. A win in game two will give any of the semi-finalists a spot in the next Candidates Tournament. Round-up show by GM DANIEL KING. | Photo: FIDE

Bobby Fischer 1970 (II): Moody, friendly, generous

9/26/2019 – The report about Bobby Fischer's forgotten simul in Münster 1970 evoked memories. Günther Langhanke played in the simul but he also picked up Fischer from his hotel in Siegen and brought him to Münster. Not an easy task. Langhanke shares his memories of the eccentric American who was moody, friendly and generous. | Photo: Norbert Rauch

NEW Fabiano Caruana: Navigating the Ruy Lopez

9/26/2019 – A very special Deal of the Week! Our latest in elite GM training! The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings which continues to enjoy high popularity from club level to the absolute world top. In this video series, American super GM Fabiano Caruana, talking to IM Oliver Reeh, presents a complete repertoire for White.

FIDE World Cup: Blunders abound as Aronian and Vitiugov are knocked out

9/26/2019 – The play-offs of the quarter-finals at the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk showed how much knock-out events are about keeping one's head together, as Levon Aronian and Nikita Vitiugov were eliminated after blundering horribly from completely winning positions. While Maxime Vachier-Lagrave knocked Aronian out in the second rapid game, Yu Yangyi and Vitiugov decided their match-up in Armageddon. GM YANNICK PELLETIER reviewed the highlights of the day. | Photo: FIDE

Game of the Week: Grischuk vs Dominguez

9/25/2019 – The World Cup is in focus, and IM Merign van Delft looks at Grischuk's win over Leinier Dominguez, before both said goodbye to Khanty-Mansiysk. 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).

Have engines led us to lose respect for elite GMs?

9/25/2019 – Alexander Grischuk and Ding Liren sat opposite each other in the fifth round of the World Cup 2019. The game was followed with great excitement by chess players all across the world. In their first game, after 13 moves, Grischuk made a move that led the engines to give an evaluation of nearly -3 points. Online kibitzers went wild, criticizing the players. IM SAGAR SHAH reflects on whether this is an unfortunate trend. | Photo: FIDE

FIDE World Cup: Ding and Radjabov are in the semis

9/25/2019 – Ding Liren and Teimour Radjabov won with White on Tuesday to qualify to the FIDE World Cup semi-finals in Khanty-Mansiysk. The Chinese arrived in Siberia as the favourite and eliminated Alexander Grischuk, while Radjabov got the better of Jeffery Xiong, who came from getting impressive match victories over Giri and Duda. Yu Yangyi v Nikita Vitiugov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave v Levon Aronian finished drawn and will be decided on tiebreaks. GM DANNY KING recapped the highlights of the day. | Photo: FIDE

The Weekly Show: More Women's Grand Prix

9/24/2019 – Continuing on last week's theme, IM Lawrence Trent analyses a game from the winner of the Women's Grand Prix in Russia, won by Indian GM Humpy Koneru. | Puzzle time: In the diagram below, it's White to move. | Lawrence is live and 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.

Triangulation

9/24/2019 – Even apparently simple pawn endings can be tricky.

FIDE World Cup: Hard-fought draws

9/24/2019 – The scores of the four quarter-final matches at the FIDE World Cup are tied, as hard-fought draws were seen on all boards on Monday. Ding Liren and Yu Yangyi did not shy away from shedding material while playing Black against Alexander Grischuk and Nikita Vitiugov; Levon Aronian had a very slight edge in his white game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave; while Jeffery Xiong and Teimour Radjabov signed a 'correct' draw after 30 moves. IM LAWRENCE TRENT reviewed the highlights of the day. | Photo: FIDE