26th time's the charm: Jiri Stocek takes Pardubice trophy

8/16/2019 – GM Jiri Stocek of Czech Republic scored an unbeaten 7½/9 to win Pardubice Open 2019. He finished a half point ahead of a group of nine players who scored 7.0/9. Top seed Czech no.3 Viktor Laznicka finished second due to a better tie-break score, followed by Sergei Movsesian of Armenia. The tournament was a big success as 16 norms were scored in total. RUPALI MULLICK reports from the venue with photos and interview of the champion.

Light summer mate VI

8/16/2019 – In the diagram position Black's king, though somewhat exposed, doesn't seem to be in mortal danger. Yet after 25.Qg4 Qg3, the game will last only three more moves. Can you imagine what followed?

Aronian wins Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz

8/16/2019 – Levon Aronian won the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2019 despite losing the first and last game on the final day. Aronian managed to score only 5 points out of the last nine rounds but that was enough to beat Vachier-Lagrave. MVL's only consolation is that he beat Aronian in both of their blitz encounters. Caruana got his much awaited revenge against Carlsen in round fourteen. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from Saint Louis. | Pictured: Aronian on being just informed by fellow Armenian GM Manuel Petrosyan that he has won the tournament. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

Fast and Furious: Queen's Gambit Declined Exchange Variation

8/15/2019 – In this episode IM Robert Ris will examine the Queen's Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 6...♝d6. The live show at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 1 PM EDT) 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. In the diagram, it's White to play and win!

Endgame Magic with Karsten Mueller and Chris Ward

8/15/2019 – English Grandmaster Chris Ward is Karsten's guest today. Live at 14:30 UTC (16:30 CEST; 10:30 AM EDT) and on-demand for ChessBase account holders. Don't have an account yet? You can register a free 90-day account to watch!

Russian Superfinals: Girya sole leader in the Women's

8/15/2019 – The participants of the 2019 Russian Championships travelled west, as the venue of the Superfinals moved from Votkinsk to Izhevsk, the capital of the Republic of Udmurtia. After four rounds, three players share the lead in the open section — Vladislav Artemiev, Maxim Matlakov and Alexandr Predke — while, amongst the women, Olga Girya is alone on top, as she has so far scored three wins and a draw. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

Deal of the Week: Chess Expertise Step by Step Vol. 1 to 4 for under €10!

8/14/2019 – Grandmaster Efstratios Grivas hosts a four-volume set of video series covering tactics ("Unexpected Tactics"), strategy ("Mastering Strategy"), using rooks ("Rook Handling") and endgames ("Endgame Magic"). The experienced FIDE Trainer provides a foundation for taking the next move higher. This week only you can get all four volumes as a package at an amazing Flash Sale price: a 90% discount!

St. Louis Rapid and Blitz: Aronian clinches, barely

8/14/2019 – Levon Aronian won the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament despite losing his last round game against former leader Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The French grandmaster ended up sharing second place with Yu Yangyi and Ding Liren — the Chinese duo had a strong showing at the blitz, as they got the best scores in the last two days of action (11½ out of 18, the same score obtained by Sergey Karjakin). World champion Magnus Carlsen finished in sixth place but still leads the overall GCT standings. Express report. | Photo: Austin Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

Game of the Week: Vachier-Lagrave vs Rapport

8/14/2019 – 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).

St. Louis Rapid analysis and highlights

8/14/2019 – IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reviews the highlights from the St. Louis Rapid in more depth, paired with video interview clips of the players with GM Maurice Ashley (pictured with Vachier-Lagrave) from the official webcast. | Photo: Austin Fuller

MVL takes sole lead at Saint Louis Blitz

8/14/2019 – Ding Liren and Sergey Karjakin were the heroes of the day as both of them scored 6½/9 on Day 1 of Blitz. Wild cards Richard Rapport and Yu Yangyi also had a fantastic start in the Blitz as they scored 6.0/9 and 5½/9 respectively. Magnus only managed to score 50% while Caruana scored a meagre 1½/9 in Blitz. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN brings you all action from Saint Louis. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

The Weekly Show: Carlsen's latest losses

8/13/2019 – Lawrence is LIVE this week talking about the surprising losses of World Champion Magnus Carlsen in St. Loius. Free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

Vachier-Lagrave and Aronian finish Saint Louis Rapid at the top

8/13/2019 – Carlsen started Day 3 of Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz with a loss against Aronian. The World Champion defeated MVL in the final round of the rapid event, however it is MVL who overcame Carlsen in the FIDE rapid ranking according to live ratings. Vachier-Lagrave remained undefeated on the final rapid day by defeating the former World Championship challenger Caruana in the final round. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from Saint Louis. | Photo: Justin Kellar / Grand Chess Tour

Endgame Magic with Karsten Mueller and Qiyu Zhou

8/13/2019 – Canadian FM Qiyu Zhou is Karsten's guest today. Live at 13:00 UTC (15:00 CEST; 9:00 AM EDT) and on-demand for ChessBase account holders. Don't have an account yet? You can register a free 90-day account to watch!

Tricky knights

8/13/2019 – Knights are tricky, and knight endings usually require precise calculation.

Chess is rocking among the Tyrrhenian Sea rocks

8/13/2019 – As summer begins to wane, fans of southern Italy can look forward to a September holiday destination. DIANA MIHAJLOVA offers a pictoral report with annotated games about the Amantea Chess Festival in Calabria, Italy, which was won last year by GM Pier Luigi Basso. It is meant to introduce a little known but rich chess destination that is Calabria. The actual Amantea Chess Festival will resume its activities, as usual, from the next year, but for now, during its traditional term, 9- 15 September, another Calabrese chess historical town, Cutro, in the Amantea’s vicinity, will celebrate a jubilee 25 year of the International Chess Festival ‘Leonardo di Bona’. | Pictured: The rocky Tyrrhenian coast at a sunset: On the outskirts of Amantea lie the enchanting Isca rocks, supposedly described by Homer in the ‘Odyssey’. All photos: Diana Mihajlova

Making a difference in Africa

8/13/2019 – A New York-based chess instructor and entrepreneur reports on teaching chess in Tanzania. After working in corporate America, doing enterprise sales for the likes of Oracle, EVAN RABIN rekindled his interest in teaching children and formed Premier Chess in September 2017, quickly expanding to 58 programs. | Photo: Paul Njau

Simon Says - Highlights and lowlights from my British Championship

8/12/2019 – GM Simon Williams is back from the British Championship, and naturally the tournament is still weighing heavily on his mind. This episode will look at the good, the bad, and the ugly. Watch live for free (for a limited time) starting at the usual hour: 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST / 12 Noon EDT).

Aronian leads, Carlsen falters, Caruana shines

8/12/2019 – Rapid rounds four to six at the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz yielded no change at the top of the leader board, but Levon Aronian is now being closely pursued by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who won all three of his games on Sunday. Perhaps even more surprisingly, World Champion Magnus Carlsen lost two more of his rapid games, including to world number two Fabiano Caruana. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from Saint Louis. | Photo: Justin Kellar / Grand Chess Tour

Russian Superfinals: Leaders on plus one

8/12/2019 – The strong national tournaments in Russia started on Saturday. Two rounds of the dubbed Superfinals were played both in the Open and Women's categories, with the leaders in the two events currently on 'plus one' (1½ out of 2). Ernesto Inarkiev (pictured) and Kirill Alekseenko are on top in the Open, while Alexandra Kosteniuk, Olga Girya and Natalija Pogonina are sharing the lead amongst the women. Monday is a rest day as the tournament changes venues. Play resumes on Tuesday. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

Levon Aronian leads at Saint Louis start

8/11/2019 – "The chess world is a better place when Aronian is playing well!" These words of Garry Kasparov in 2015 reverberated on day one of the Saint Louis Rapid 2019 as the Armenian GM went on to score wins against MVL, Karjakin and Mamedyarov. Aronian now leads the event with a 6.0/6 score. Magnus Carlsen suffered a shock defeat against Ding Liren but came back to score two wins. We bring you an on-site report by VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN, with photos, player's quotes and analysis.

Chess calendar: August 2019

8/11/2019 – Three strong opens in Abu Dhabi, Netherlands and Latvia kicked off the month, but the main attraction in August will be coming from Saint Louis, where a Rapid & Blitz tournament and the Sinquefield Cup will take place one after another. Strong national championships in Russia and France are also on the menu. You'll find all of these events and more covered in our live games broadcast area Live.ChessBase.com and we'll also be providing News coverage.

MVL: "I was very motivated to get back to winning ways"

8/10/2019 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave staged an impressive turnaround by first reaching the final of the Grand Prix in Riga and then followed it up by winning the Paris leg of the Grand Chess Tour. This, after encountering setbacks in Norway Chess and the Zagreb leg of the Grand Chess Tour. In an exclusive interview with DHANANJAY KHADILKAR, the French Grandmaster and World No. 5 talks about the factors contributing to this turnaround and why he will continue to play the Gruenfeld defense. | Photo: Justin Kellar / Grand Chess Tour

Opening the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz 2019

8/10/2019 – It's the next leg of the Grand Chess Tour, IM VENTKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports on the opening ceremony from the Saint Louis Chess Club on the eve of the rapid tournament. Can Magnus Carlsen be stopped? Sergey Karjakin: “My answer may be primitive, but we (all have) to play very well!” Levon Aronian: “I don't think it is about stopping somebody. It is about achieving more points than the person”.