Caruana weathers the So storm

8/22/2019 – Ding Liren joined the leaders Viswanathan Anand and Fabiano Caruana at the top of the table with 3 points after a round of hard fought battles in almost all games at the Sinquefield Cup. Nemponiachtchi was the other winner of the round after his opponent Hikaru Nakamura played unevenly to lose a game where he didn't seem to be in his best of form. Anand, Caruana and So demonstrated very sharp opening preparations which made this round the most memorable of the tournament so far. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from the venue. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

How does the Engine Cloud work?

8/22/2019 – If you have ever had a chess engine analysing deeply on your notebook, you'll notice you soon hear the cooling fan rushing, the battery is sucked empty as your push the limits of the hardware. The ChessBase Engine Cloud solves this problem: Current chess engines, installed on high-performance hardware — your wish is their command! Use the cloud's computing power without burdening your notebook or upgrading to expensive hardware. Have top-notch processing power already. Then you can become a supplier! The Engine Cloud is also a marketplace where you can rent engines out to others.

Russian Champions: Tomashevsky and Girya

8/22/2019 – The Superfinals of the 72nd Russian Championship and the 69th Russian Women's Championship concluded in Izhevsk. In the final round Evgeny Tomashevsky won while Vitiugov could only draw giving the 32-year-old from Saratov his second Russian Championship title. Meanwhile, in the Women's, Natalija Pogonina and Olga Girya went all the way to an Armageddon blitz game play-off to decide the championship in favour of Girya. Games and commentary from 9:00 UTC (11:00 CEST, 5:00 AM EDT). | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

Russian Superfinals: Six players can still win the Open

8/22/2019 – The penultimate round of the Russian Championships left two players sharing the lead in the open section, as Nikita Vitiugov and Evgeny Tomashevsky drew their games while former co-leader Ernesto Inarkiev lost against Vladislav Artemiev. In the women's category, Natalija Pogonina got a crucial victory over Valentina Gunina and is now half a point behind sole leader Olga Girya. The final round will be played on Thursday, two hours earlier than usual. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

Game of the Week: Caruana vs Aronian

8/21/2019 – IM Merijn van Delft is live this week and will examine Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's win over Richard Rapport from the St. Louis Rapid tournament. 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 on-demand this week starting at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT).

Caruana joins Anand in the lead

8/21/2019 – The spell of draws was finally broken when Levon Aronian blundered under time pressure handing Fabiano Caruana a well-deserved victory in the only decisive game of the fourth round. All other games ended in draws, as Vishy Anand messed up a complicated calculation to miss a certain win while Magnus Carlsen overlooked another opportunity to grind his opponent down. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Russian Superfinals: Three leaders in the Open, Goryachkina beats Girya

8/21/2019 – The ninth round of the Russian Championships were played on Tuesday at the International Friendship Center in Izhevsk. The only winner of the day in the Open, Ernesto Inarkiev, joined Evgeny Tomashevsky and Nikita Vitiugov in the lead. In the Women's, Aleksandra Goryachkina took down runaway leader Olga Girya and now shares second place with Natalija Pogonina, Valentina Gunina and Alina Kashlinskaya, a point behind the top scorer. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

Exploring stereotype threat

8/21/2019 – In Alexey Root’s first article about FM and WGM Jennifer Yu’s ½ of 9 score in the U.S. Junior Championship, Root speculated about whether research on “stereotype threat” and on the difficulty of second-half “comebacks” could apply to Yu’s performance, which was around 2½ points less than her expected score. In this first follow-up article, WIM ALEXEY ROOT explores stereotype threat in chess. | Pictured: (clockwise from left) Annie Wang, Sarah Chiang, Jennifer Yu | Photos: USChessChamps.com

The Weekly Show: Continental Open

8/20/2019 – Lawrence is LIVE this week with a look at fantastic individual performances from the Continental Open in Massachusetts, USA. Live and free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

Anand still in the sole lead, Nepomniachtchi's woes continue

8/20/2019 – For the second day in succession, it was six draws in Saint Louis at the Sinquefield Cup. That enabled Vishy Anand to continue to lead as the only winner from the first round. The story of the day was the players with white pieces getting good advantages only to fritter them away in a spate of carelessness. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports about all action from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Knight stops pawns

8/20/2019 – If only a few pawns remain on the board the likelihood of a draw increases. Knight endgames are the closest pure pawn endings in terms of the stronger side having winning chances, but as the pawn count shrinks, so does the probability of a decisive outcome.

GM Kaufman speaks about his pet dragon — Komodo 13

8/20/2019 – Some people keep a Komodo dragon in their yard, and some keep it in their living room, safely inside their computer! In this interview with Grandmaster Larry Kaufman, one of the creators of Komodo, the World Chess Software Champion, we gain new insight into the latest release of the popular chess program. Komodo has gained strength both in the standard version, but particularly in the Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS), making the engine a valuable research tool for correspondence games, and openings.

Simon Says - More thoughts on the British Championship

8/19/2019 – GM Simon Williams wraps up his look at the British Championship, focusing on the most brilliant wins of the winner, Michael Adams. Watch for free (for a limited time) starting at the usual hour: 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST / 12 Noon EDT).

Sinquefield Cup: Confessions of the World Champion

8/19/2019 – Whenever we see the pairing of Anand vs Carlsen, it is expected to be nothing short of spectacle. It did not disappoint this time either. Carlsen kept things interesting in both game and his choice words at the confession booth. Mamedyarov and Nakamura had a sharp game which fizzled out to a draw. Caruana missed a good opportunity against Nepomniachtchi. All games in round two ended up in a draw. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Fun and games with Kramnik and kids

8/19/2019 – As we reported last Friday, Vladimir Kramnik is conducting a special training camp in Chens-Sur-Leman, France, for six very talented Indian youngsters. It is sponsored by the Chennai-based company Microsense Private Limited and is well under way. Sagar Shah, CEO of ChessBase India, is looking after the youngsters, aged between 13 and 16, and recording as much as he can of the sessions. He has written an extensive report from which you too can learn — and have a bit of fun in the process. | All photos: Amruta Mokal

Fortune favours the brave

8/18/2019 – There once was a pensioner from Wetzikon, who played at the chess club Pfäffikon. You'll forget those names, but enjoy his games — for Speelman that's sine qua non | Send in your own games! Jon can always use more material 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!

Sophie Milliet seeks French Championship record

8/18/2019 – The 2019 French Championships (Open and Women) are underway in Chartres and in the Women's Championship Sophie Milliet is vying for her seventh title. DHANANJAY KHADILKAR spoke with Sophie on the eve of the tournament about her memories of prior championships and her aspirations for the present one. In the first round Milliet drew with 2177-rated Mathilde Broly. Live games from 13:00 UTC (15:00 CEST / 9:00 EDT).

Anand starts with a win in St. Louis

8/18/2019 – Viswanathan Anand got lucky against Ian Nepomniachtchi when the latter made a one-move blunder and lost his rook which resulted in his immediate resignation — the only decisive game of round one of the Sinquefield Cup 2019. Carlsen would like to improve on his forgettable Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz. Nakamura, Giri, So who are fresh for this event will definitely look forward to making an impact. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from the venue. Photo: Crystal Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

Russian Superfinals: Tomashevsky and Girya on top

8/18/2019 – Seven rounds of the open and women's Russian Superfinals have been completed before the second rest day in Izhevsk. Both tournaments have now sole leaders — Evgeny Tomashevsky is on an undefeated 4½ out of 7 score in the Open, while Olga Girya has taken more of a commanding lead amongst the women with 6 points after seven rounds. Four rounds are still left to go in the Republic of Udmurtia. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

NEW: The nasty Nimzowisch Defence

8/17/2019 – The Nimzowitsch Defence, 1.e4 Nc6, is a lesser-known and by far less popular branch of opening theory from the great strategist Aron Nimzowitsch. Unlike the Nimzo-Indian Defence, which has acquired a reputation as one of the soundest replies to 1.d4, 1...Nc6 as an answer to 1.e4 is generally thought to be one of the least sound replies. The main reason for that lies probably in the fact that Black wilfully blocks his c-pawn as soon as move 1, which more dogmatic players will regard as highly suspicious. There are, however, many other factors besides the mobility of the respective c-pawns, and this video series will explore rather rare, yet fully playable lines for Black.

Brothers in arms

8/17/2019 – Not just grandmasters, but brothers too! Dimitrios Mastrovasilis tied for first in the Francophone International in Paris this week, a half point ahead of his brother Athanasios. DHANANJAY KHADILKAR chatted with Dimitrios (pictured in jacket) and Athanasios (in the black t-shirt) during the tournament for a glimpse of life in a professional chess family. | Photo: D. Khadilkar

Sinquefield Cup 2019 begins

8/17/2019 – The Grand Chess Tour crossed its half way mark with the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz yesterday, and continues with the Sinquefield Cup – one of the only two events with classical time control – tomorrow. Apart from higher point scores up for grabs, this is also the only event where only the 12 players part of the Grand Chess Tour play together, without any wild cards. It also carries a total prize fund of $325000, with a first prize of $90000.

The Power Play Show: Anand and Jobava

8/16/2019 – On the show today: GM Daniel King will be looking through Anand's sublime endgame technique from the Levitov chess week and a spectacular finish from Baadur Jobava from the Abu Dhabi open. 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...

Vladimir Kramnik training six Indian super-talents

8/16/2019 – It is a new development that will boost Indian chess beyond measure: Vladimir Kramnik, the 14th World Champion, has started to work with six talented Indian youngsters in a training camp that will be held in Chens-Sur-Leman, France. It is the first of four sessions and is sponsored by the Chennai-based company Microsense Private Limited. ChessBase India has played a pivotal role in bringing all of the elements of the camp together. IM Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal will be accompanying the youngsters.