Krush and Wang top Berkeley IM tournament

9/16/2019 – The Berkeley Chess School, in Berkeley, California, hosted an unusual (by USA standards) International Master Norm Tournament (August 16th-20th). Unusual because it was for women only. GM Irina Krush won the tournament after a playoff with IM-elect Annie Wang. WIM AGNIESZKA MATRAS-CLEMENT was among the contenders and sent us this first-hand review. | Photos: Berkley Chess School

Simon Says: More under-promotion and the World Cup

9/16/2019 – GM Simon Williams selects key moments from the World Cup so far, plus a few more puzzles on the theme of under-promotion. Watch for free (for a limited time) starting at the usual hour: 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST / 12 Noon EDT).

FIDE World Cup: Giri beats Najer in Armageddon

9/16/2019 – The pairings for round three of the FIDE World Cup are set, as the last fifteen (out of thirty-two) spots were decided on Sunday's tiebreaks. The rapid and blitz play-offs saw the first Armageddon battle of the event: the score in Anish Giri vs Evgeniy Najer remained tied after eight games — Giri got the black pieces and won the sudden-death encounter to get his pass to the next round. The other lengthy match-up of round two saw Daniil Yuffa knocking out Luke McShane. Round-up show by GM ERWIN L'AMI. | Photo: FIDE

Hans Ree: A veteran turns 75

9/15/2019 – Hans Ree was the fourth chess player born in the Netherlands to receive the Grandmaster title from FIDE after Max Euwe, Jan Hein Donner and Jan Timman. Following his active years as a player, he became one of the most important chess journalists. Today Ree celebrates his 75th birthday. | Photo: Dutch National Archive

FIDE World Cup: Two underdogs go through

9/15/2019 – Hikaru Nakamura and Ernesto Inarkiev were knocked out by nominally weaker players — Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Xu Xiangyu respectively — after game two of the second round at the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. Besides these two underdogs, fifteen other participants secured their place in round three. Meanwhile, Wei Yi and Eltaj Safarli bounced back with wins after having lost on Friday to reach the tiebreaks. IM LAWRENCE TRENT recapped the action of the day. | Photo: FIDE

Do chess players live longer?

9/14/2019 – An ongoing topic of scientific inquire of interest to chess fans is whether and to what extent chess can delay or mitigate the effects of aging. An Australian study aimed to prove that chess champions have a higher life expectancy than the average population. Grandmasters from Eastern Europe should therefore have a life expectancy of up to 14 years. PETER MUENDER dealt critically with the study results.

A new chess pair

9/14/2019 – The chess world has a new power couple: Last Friday, the Hungarian Grandmaster Gabor Papp and the German national player WGM Sarah Hoolt tied the knot. Congratulations! | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

FIDE World Cup: Upsets by Anton and Nisipeanu

9/14/2019 – Round two of the 2019 World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk saw 11 out of 32 match-ups starting with a decisive result. The upsets of the day were achieved by David Anton and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, who defeated Wei Yi and Hikaru Nakamura respectively. Meanwhile, the youngest player in the field, Nihal Sarin, won a third classical game in a row, this time showing great positional feel to take down Eltaj Safarli. Round-up show by IM LAWRENCE TRENT. | Photo: FIDE

Attack of the youth at the World Cup

9/13/2019 – The top echelons of chess are obviously getting younger and younger. The World Cup features some of the world's strongest young players looking to make their mark against current elite. THORSTEN CMIEL introduces the young savages and their tasks. Three out of four have advanced to the second round.

Drawing threat!?

9/13/2019 – White's 33.Bd7 in the diagram is a desperate attempt to create counterplay which Black definitely should not have ignored — his game continuation 33...a2? throws away victory. Can you see why?

FIDE World Cup: On to round two

9/13/2019 – A number of upsets were in store at the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, as round one concluded after twenty-three matches were decided on tiebreaks. Most play-off encounters finished after the first pair of rapid games, while only two of them reached the third stage of tiebreaks. From the top quarter of the tournament bracket, besides Radek Wojtaszek and David Navara — who were knocked out in the classical phase — Bu Xiangzhi and Sam Shankland were eliminated before round two. | Photo: FIDE

Hort stories: A lost letter from Bobby Fischer

9/12/2019 – Bobby Fischer is a legend, so much so that even people who knew him sometimes find it difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction when they hear stories about Fischer. Vlastimil Hort knew Fischer and played against him. Recently, Hort rediscovered a letter Fischer had sent him and this letter evoked memories of the controversial chess genius. | Photos: Wolfgang Betzen (Schachclub Wangen)

Fast and Furious: Rockin' the Rauzer

9/12/2019 – In this episode IM Robert Ris takes a romp through the Sicilian Rauzer. 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!

FIDE World Cup: Bouncing back

9/12/2019 – More than half the matches of round one at the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk already have a winner, with most of the top twenty in the initial ratings list set to have a rest day before round two. That is not the case of Radoslaw Wojtaszek, however, who was eliminated by Johan-Sebastian Christiansen, while Yu Yangyi, Hikaru Nakamura and Dmitry Andreikin still have to defeat their lower-rated opponents on tiebreaks if they want to go through. Do not miss the round-up show by GM ERWIN L'AMI. | Pictured: Gawain Jones, who qualified to round two. | Photo: FIDE

Endgame Magic with Karsten Mueller and Erwin l'Ami

9/11/2019 – Thursday: It's a special early morning Endgame Magic! Dutch GM Erwin l'Ami is Karsten's guest. Live at 7:30 UTC (9:30 CEST; 3:30 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!

Game of the Week: Huschenbeth vs Harikrishna

9/11/2019 – Join IM Merijn van Delft live for a look at his favourite game of the week: The duel between Niclas Huschenbeth and P. Harikrishna in the Polish League. 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).

FIDE World Cup: A few upsets

9/11/2019 – The most anticipated tournament of the year kicked off in Khanty-Mansiysk. Most of the favourites started with a win, with eleven out of the sixteen top seeds getting a full point on Tuesday. The biggest surprise rating-wise was given by Norwegian Johan-Sebastian Christiansen, who beat Radoslaw Wojtaszek with Black. But Christiansen was not the only young player to have a good day, as Alireza Firouzja, Nihal Sarin, Andrey Esipenko and Nodirbek Abdusattorov also got off to a good start. Do not miss the round-up show by IM Lawrence Trent. | Photo: FIDE

A chess and wine holiday weekend

9/10/2019 – The region of South Tyrol beckons European tourists in the autumn with beautiful hiking and other outdoor adventures. For chess fans who prefer to stay indoors, (in this case even subterranean) there is also the small and unique weekend tournament held in the wine cellar of Kaltern am See from October 18-20. | Photos: Gerhard Betrtagnolli

The Weekly Show: The World Cup begins

9/10/2019 – The start of the bi-annual World Cup is the focus of the chess world this week and with IM Lawrence Trent jumps on the first round action in today's show. 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.

Retreat to advance

9/10/2019 – When fighting against a bishop in the endgame the defender often tries to create a fortress on the squares which the bishop cannot reach. However, one should not believe too much in fortresses.

The World Cup returns to Khanty-Mansiysk

9/9/2019 – A central event of the 2019-2020 World Championship cycle is about to begin in Khanty-Mansiysk, as the Western Siberian city will host the 2019 FIDE World Cup. In the single-elimination tournament, 128 players will be fighting to get one of the two tickets on offer to next year's Candidates Tournament. The lengthy event will run through October 4th, and will be the main focus of chess fans around the globe. | Photo: FIDE

Simon Says: Under-promotion

9/9/2019 – It doesn't often happen, so when it does it tends to be notable. GM Simon Williams looks at examples of under-promotion. Fun instruction ensues. Watch for free (for a limited time) starting at the usual hour: 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST / 12 Noon EDT).

Edouard's 'Magic Years' with Topalov

9/9/2019 – GM Romain Edouard, Editor-in-Chief of Thinkers Publishing, recently came out with a book of his own, a memoir on his years working as a second for Veselin Topalov, years in which the Bulgarian former FIDE World Champion was at the peak of his powers. He shares some perspective in this brief interview. | Photo: Vladimír Jagr

Get nasty with the Nimzowitsch Defence

9/9/2019 – We often hear that in order to make chess more interesting we need to shorten the time controls, as it would magically shift the interest of the masses from sports like soccer, football, basketball or tennis, while at the same time it will increase their chess understanding! But this new FritzTrainer proves there is a side of chess that cannot be appreciated and consumed like fast food, as we witness the development of a fluid repertoire in which each master put his personal fingerprint. The goal is to disorient the opponent and bring him out of his comfort zone.