9/15/2020 – Rook endings have drawish tendencies, and sometimes being one or even two pawns up is not enough to win. But despite their drawish tendencies rook endings can be very sharp and full of hidden tactics. Especially, if both sides have far advanced passed pawns.

9/15/2020 – From September 16 to September 2020, the Bundesliga Championship Tournament, an over-the-board round robin with eight teams of eight players, will take place in Karlsruhe, Germany. The winner will be German Team Champion 2020. But which of the many top players, who regularly start in the Bundesliga, will make it to Karlsruhe? Conrad Schormann shares information and insights. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/14/2020 – Publishing chess problems on this news site has a long tradition: especially at Christmas time we publish a set of entertaining puzzles for our readers to solve. But over the years – two decades actually – it became progressively more difficult to find problems that chess engines could not solve in seconds. It became pointless to issue a challenge and provide prizes. So we have taken to giving you problems which cannot be solved by computers. Here are some samples from a collection by Burt Hochberg.

9/14/2020 – Ivan Sokolov is well-known for his stunning attacking games. Most of them originate from middlegames, so no wonder he wrote various books about this topic. We are delighted to now present his "Understanding Middlegame Strategies" Fritztrainer series, starting with Vol.1 - "Dynamic Pawns", and Vol.2 - "Practical Play". While Volume 1 concentrates on several ideas and tips for dynamic pawn play, Volume 2 is focusing on decision taking and creating crisis. GM Sokolov coached the Iranian national team (Alireza Firouzja, Parham Maghsoodloo) for many years, so he is capable of guiding you through the topics professionally and interestingly. Those Fritztrainers will take your middlegame to the next level.

9/14/2020 – Simon Says: Today, we look at some of the most influential opening and early middlegame ideas that have left a major influence on me over the course of my career. Ideas that were unique at the time in history when they were played. | 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 1970

9/14/2020 – This is our second philosophical riddle, and they will continue to jump in to our logical riddle series every now and then. The first philosophical riddle was a paradox and unsolvable. This riddle takes the same route, and if you haven't heard of it before, it will make your head steam. We also offer the solution of logical riddle number 8.

9/14/2020 – Before the third and final day of the Champions Showdown Chess 9LX Online Tournament Levon Aronian was sole first but he scored only 1.0/3 from his last three games, and that allowed Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura to pass the Armenian and to share first place. On Tuesday, September 15, Nakamura and Carlsen will continue they rivalry in the Rapid & Blitz tournament.

9/13/2020 – On Sunday, 1 p.m. CDT (8 p.m. CEST), the Chess 9LX 2020 tournament goes into its final stage. The Chess 9LX tournament is a Chess960 round robin at rapid time controls (20+10) with ten top players: Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiana Caruana, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez, Peter Svidler, Alireza Firouzja and Garry Kasparov(!). Follow the event and the games live, with commentary – live transmission will begin about ten minutes before the start of round 7.

9/13/2020 – With a run of three consecutive wins Levon Aronian has taken the lead on the second day of the 20+10 online tournament "Champions Showdown Chess 9LX". At this tournament, organized by the Saint Louis Chess Club, the Armenian grandmaster, with his now 4.5/6, has a half-point-lead on Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura. Former world champion Garry Kasparov, on the other hand, is towards the bottom of the standings after an underwhelming second matchday.

9/12/2020 – Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world size-wise and the sixth biggest by population. It brought us famous football stars like Pele, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Romario and Neymar. Chess-wise, Brazil is a bit more of an underdog. Juliana Terao on the other hand won the Brazilian Woman's Championship five times in a row (2015 to 2020), and sticks out with achieving a rating of over 2300 in 2017, which no other Brazilian woman has ever reached before. In our interview with the FM and WIM, we talk about chess in Brazil, why her middle-name is "Sayumi", and how she and other South-Americans deal with the coronavirus situation.

9/12/2020 – Yesterday, the 20+10 online tournament "Champions Showdown Chess 9LX" of the Saint Louis Chess Club started with the first of a total of three matchdays. Ten world-class grandmasters play against each other in a round robin tournament of "Chess 960". The difference to regular chess is that the starting position varies each game. After three rounds, world champion Magnus Carlsen and Leinier Dominguez Perez share the lead in the standings with 2.5 points each. Former world champion Garry Kasparov is also doing well with 1.5/3.

9/11/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King looks at a brilliancy prize win from Jan Timman that he featured in his latest book 'Timman's Triumphs - My 100 Best Games'. | 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. | Photo: Frans Peeters