World Youth Rd 8: Pragg beats Iniyan

10/10/2019 – In Mumbai, Praggnanandhaa beat Iniyan to join Aryan Gholami in the lead in under-18 open section. Hans Niemann is unstoppable in the under-16 open. The American chalked up yet another victory. Shuvalova maintains her lead in under-18 girls, while there is very little to choose between Nurgali and Garifullina who are both winning their games in girls under-16. IM SAGAR SHAH reports. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Britannica: The Evolution of Chess Theory (Part 1)

10/10/2019 – A Britannica Special Feature: ChessBase has received special permission from Encyclopaedia Britannica to highlight several sections from the classic article by Grandmaster ANDREW SOLTIS on chess, aimed at newcomers to the game. Chess theory consists of opening knowledge, tactics (or combinations), positional analysis (particularly pawn structures), strategy (the making of long-range plans and goals), and endgame technique (including basic mates against the lone king).

Start of the "Grand Swiss"

10/9/2019 – The annual Isle of Man Open has become a top tournament in recent years and has now been "promoted" by FIDE into the "Grand Swiss", a tournament that is now one of the qualification routes for the 2020 Candidates Tournament. The elite field is led by World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Today is the opening ceremony, while Round 1 starts Thursday.

Game of the Week: Bacrot vs Iturrizaga

10/9/2019 – Today IM Merijn van Delft covers the latest on the Caro-Kann, featuring a win by Etienne Bacrot. The show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). Merijn is on-demand this week starting at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT).

World Youth Rd 7: An 1830-rated player performing at 2568!

10/9/2019 – Russia came to the under-14 open section with two medal hopefuls Volodar Murzin (2433) and Andrey Tsvetkov (2382), but both were beaten by the same Indian player — Abinandhan R. His rating? Just 1830! IM SAGAR SHAH shows you how in this report from Mumbai, plus Hans Neimann's fine win over Rudik Makarian in under-16 open and Aryan Gholami's victory to snatch sole lead in under-18 open. But that's not all — the game of the day was definitely Polina Shuvalova's rook and queen sacrifice! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The Weekly Show: Spanish Team Championship

10/8/2019 – Still in Spain (virtually speaking), IM Lawrence Trent analyses highlights from the Spanish Team Championships, specifically one from the inimitable Vassily Ivanchuk. | Puzzle time: In the diagram below, it's White to move. | Lawrence is 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.

Endgame Magic with Karsten Mueller and Jan Werle

10/8/2019 – Today's guest in Karsten Mueller's Endgame Show is Dutch GM Jan Werle. 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!

World Youth Rd 6: Just 14 and already a pro?

10/8/2019 – A professional chess player at just 14 years of age? IM SAGAR SHAH has the details in his latest report with pictures and analysis from Mumbai. Other sole leaders after round six in the event are Leya Garifullina at 5½/6 in the under-16 girls and Rudik Makarian with 5½/6 in the under-16 open. | Photos: Amruta Mokal

A powerful "zwischenzug"

10/8/2019 – The duel rook against bishop and knight is often fascinating and full of hidden details. In the diagram position White can use the bad position of Black's knight.

Magic Extremadura win Spanish League with perfect score

10/8/2019 – Eight teams travelled down to Melilla, in the north coast of Africa, to participate at the Honour Division of the Spanish Team Championship. Four teams arrived as clear favourites, but Magic Extremadura from Mérida were the ones that got first place, getting seven team victories in the same number of rounds. Gros Xake Taldea and Beniajan Duochess finished second and third respectively. | Photo: Patricia Claros / FEDA

Alexander Donchenko prevails in Barcelona

10/7/2019 – 21-year-old German grandmaster Alexander Donchenko achieved the best result of his career so far as he finished in sole first place at the "Ciutat de Barcelona" Masters. Donchenko scored six wins and three draws, thus collecting 7½ points, leaving Gata Kamsky and Tigran Gharamian a half point behind in the final standings table. Argentine IM Tomas Sosa won the eight-round blitz event that was held after round three. | Photo: Official site

CHESS: London news

10/7/2019 – An editorial from CHESS Magazine's executive editor IM MALCOLM PEIN announcing the 11th London Chess Classic, the latest news from Chess in Schools and Communities, thoughts on the FIDE calendar, and the standings of the Grand Chess Tour.

Solving with Nunn – the solutions

10/7/2019 – Problem solving is a challenging field, with young participants generally dominating. There is one exception. Year after year a British mathematician, grandmaster and chess writer gives the strongest and brightest a run for their money. This year 64-year-old John Nunn finished a close second, and reported on this success. Today he presents, in his own inimitable style, the solutions to seven of the problems he had to solve at the 43rd World Chess Solving Championship in Vilnius. Our picture shows John Nunn winning the silver medal at the WCCC2019 in Vilnius and composing a chess problem, in the mid 1980s.

Speelman's Agony: "Excruciatingly insipid, and duly punished"

10/6/2019 – GM Jon Speelman analyses three d4 games from a class A player for your instruction and amusement. | 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!

World Youth Rd 5: Top players begin to dominate

10/6/2019 – As often happens in tournaments, the first few rounds are filled with upsets, lower rated players stunning their higher rated opponents. However, once the rounds progress and the dust settles you begin to see the stronger players with higher rating begin to call the shots. This is what is happening at the World Youth 2019 as players like Praggnanandhaa, Shuvalova, Garifullina, Makarian, Suleymanli, Rakshitta are in the lead. IM SAGAR SHAH brings you the most interesting moments of the day along with analysis of some selected attacking games, endgames and study like positions. | Photos: Amruta Mokal

World Youth Rd 4: Srihari beats top seed Sreeshwan in under-14 open to claim sole lead

10/6/2019 – At the end of the fourth round of the World Youth 2019, we have one section where a sole leader has emerged. In under-14 open, Srihari LR (pictured) claimed the pole position by beating top seed Sreeshwan Maralakshikari. The game was so good that it was given the "ChessBase Game of the day prize"! Divya Deshmukh, the top seed in under-14 section lost her game to a player rated over 400 points below her. Rudik Makarian, Aronyak Ghosh in under-16 open and Leya Garifullina and Nazerke Nurgali in under-16 girls are the four other players on a perfect score of 4.0/4. IM SAGAR SHAH brings you a detailed report with pictures, game, analysis from the Hotel Renaissance in Mumbai. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

25 years as a chess organiser: an interview with Hans-Walter Schmitt

10/5/2019 – The Chess Classic tournaments in Frankfurt and Mainz are legendary. Organiser and driving force behind these tournaments was Hans-Walter Schmitt (pictured in 2004 with supermodel Carmen Kass), a tireless chess promoter. But after 25 years of organising chess events he now invites to a last spectacular event: a double simul with Vishy Anand and Vincent Keymer who both play on 40 boards. | Photos: Hartmut Metz

Teimour Radjabov is fully back, wins the 2019 World Cup

10/5/2019 – Azerbaijani Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov defeated rating favourite Ding Liren in tiebreaks at the final match of the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. After draws in all four rapid games, Radjabov got victories in both blitz encounters to take home the title and USD 110,000. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave prevailed in the match for third place with a commanding 2:0 victory over Yu Yangyi. IM LAWRENCE TRENT sent a video recap of the play-offs. | Photo: FIDE
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World Youth Rd 2-3: Exchange French, Pawn Endgames and some brilliant play

10/4/2019 – A double-round in a day always speeds up an event. After the first day, we had two rounds on the second day of the World Youth 2019. In all the sections we have five or fewer players on perfect score. In the under-18 girls section we already have a sole leader! IM SAGAR SHAH analyzes the win of Honorata Kucharska, the sole leader in girls under-18 and try to improve our understanding of the Exchange French. We also have two very interesting games by the highest rated player in the event Shant Sargsyan (2580) and lastly we look at two pawn endgames that were complex enough for strong players to solve them over the board! | Pictured: Polina Shuvalova and Alexandra Obolentseva share some light words before the game | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Who will play the 2020 Candidates?

10/4/2019 – Fabiano Caruana is already qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2020 and Ding Liren too de facto. They should now be joined by two World Cup finalists. Instead, the situation is less clear. Anish Giri is banking on a rating spot freed up by Ding's new qualification. Radjabov is also in, if he wants it, but that is very much an open question. CONRAD SCHORMANN explains. | Photos: FIDE

Haste makes waste

10/4/2019 – After 23...exd4 in the diagram, White is never going to recapture this pawn in the game — he just has better things to do! Have you spotted his leitmotif?

World Cup: Radjabov wins World Cup in blitz!

10/4/2019 – Teimour Radjabov qualified to the next Candidates Tournament by knocking out Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the classical phase of the World Cup semi-finals, which meant he had an extra rest day heading into the final match against Ding Liren. In parallel, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is facing Yu Yangyi in the match for third place. Live games and commentary from 10:0 UTC (12 Noon CEST / 6:00 AM EDT). | Photo: FIDE

Niclas Huschenbeth recommends...

10/4/2019 – If Niclas Huschenbeth recommends something, you might want to listen. On his Facebook page the reigning German champion, national team and World Cup participant gives his verdict on the recently released three-volume video series from Fabiano Caruana: "This is massive".

FIDE World Cup: Final Friday

10/3/2019 – First and third places of the World Cup will be decided Friday in Khanty-Mansiysk, as the classical phase of the deciding matches ended with 2:2 scores. Ding Liren and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had the white pieces in the last "slow" games of the match-ups, but could not get last-minute victories to avoid the rapid play-offs. Teimour Radjabov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will kick off the tiebreaks with the white pieces. Round-up show by GM YANNICK PELLETIER. | Photo: FIDE