A knight that changes sides

10/29/2019 – Knights are versatile and often cover surprisingly large areas of the board.

European Teams: Russian squads climb to the top

10/29/2019 – After five rounds at the European Team Championships in Batumi, Russia and Ukraine are sharing the lead in the open section, while the Russian female squad is in sole first place with a perfect score in the women's category. Slovenia and Germany are one match point behind the leaders in the Open, while Georgia, Azerbaijan and Serbia are sharing second place among the women. Tuesday is the sole rest day of the tournament. | Photo: Official site

Simon Says: A look at the European Team Championship

10/28/2019 – With the European Team Championship in full swing, GM Simon Williams brings you his top highlight so far in today's show. Watch live for free (or on-demand for a limited time) starting at the usual hour: 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET / 11 EDT). Note: Europe is now on winter time!

World Junior norm makers and closing ceremony

10/28/2019 – Wrapping up our coverage of the World Junior Championship, we bring you all the pictures from the closing ceremony as well as photos of the 17 norm makers. Reporting from one last time are the intrepid team of Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal. | Pictured: Volodar Murzin and Praggnanandhaa — future world title contenders? | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Exploring the history of world chess composition tournaments

10/27/2019 – Closing our three-parter about the most important official chess composition contests (for composers, i.e. solving tourneys would require a separate article), we will need to have a look at the World Chess Composition Tourneys, but mainly from the perspective of endgame studies. Pictured: Genrikh Kasparyan (Soviet Union) composed the 1st place study in the first WCCT (1972-1975): White to move and draw.

Evgeny Shtembuliak and Polina Shuvalova are World Junior Champions 2019

10/27/2019 – The World Junior Championships officially came to an end on October 26th 2019 when players from over 50 countries left for home. Two new World Champions were crowned: Evgeny Shtembuliak in the Open section and Polina Shuvalova in the Girls' section. The silver and the bronze medal in the Open section went to the Armenians, Shant Sargsyan and Aram Hakobyan respectively. In the Girls' section it was Mobina Alinasab from Iran who won the silver and Elizaveta Solozhenkina who won the bronze. We take you to the moments of the final rounds where the six medals were decided in a huge report from New Delhi by Sagar Shah, Amruta Mokal, Niklesh Jain and Angela Franco. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

European Teams: Three leaders per section

10/27/2019 – Three squads in each section, open and women's, have won all their matches so far at the European Team Championships in Batumi. Armenia, Ukraine and Netherlands are on 6 out of 6 in the open, while Georgia, Russia and Italy have won all their matches among the women. We look at some of the highlights of rounds two and three, including Anish Giri's back-to-back attacking victories. | Photo: Official site

Don't mess with Texas

10/26/2019 – Seven students competing in the 2019 Texas Collegiate Super Finals previously represented their home countries in an Open section of a Chess Olympiad. With some of the best chess players in the world matriculating in Texas, the expression “Don’t mess with Texas” applies. Texas is tough on littering and is hard to beat in chess. | Photo: Francisco Guadalupe

Vincent Keymer: Germany's youngest grandmaster of all time

10/26/2019 – Germany's long and illustrious chess tradition has been shaped by top players such as Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch, Emanuel Lasker, Wolfgang Unzicker, Wolfgang Uhlmann or Dr. Robert Hübner. However, the youngest German Grandmaster ever is the 14-year old Vincent Keymer who just got the title at the FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss tournament on the Isle of Man. Thorsten Cmiel had a closer look at Keymer's way to this historic record. | Photo: John Saunders

Britannica: The Evolution of Chess Theory (Part 3)

10/26/2019 – 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. In Part 3: Hypermodernism, the Soviet school, and the pragmatists. | Read Part 1 | Part 2 | 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).

NEW Simon Williams bundle: The London System with 2.Bf4 Reloaded & Tactic Toolbox

10/25/2019 – Introducing the all-new London system series from "Ginger GM" Simon Williams (and now available for Mac!)! Why bother learning hundreds of complex variations when you can play a simple yet deadly opening — the London System with 2.Bf4. And to cement your London skills, let Simon show you all the complications in the London System one has to know as White, giving you the tactical tools for a successful practice with the new "Tactic Toolbox" series. After all, the player who knows the typical motifs has an advantage over the board.

The Power Play Show: Isle of Man

10/25/2019 – Power Play is back! On the show today: GM Daniel King takes you through games from the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. 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...

European Teams: Denmark and Austria stun favourites

10/25/2019 – The European Team Championships kicked off Thursday in the coastal city of Batumi, Georgia. Russia were the favourites both in the open and women's categories, but only the female team kicked off with a win, as Denmark held the top seeds to a draw in the open section. The Russians were not the only ones giving up a match point in round one though, as the second seeds from England also drew, against Austria. | Pictured: The Lithuanian team before their match against Romania. | Photo: Official site

Dark squares, dark intentions!?

10/25/2019 – After 32.hxg6! fxg6 in the diagram, White must prevent Black from using his d6-knight for defensive purposes on f5 or f7. Ideas?

World Juniors Rd 9: Can anyone stop Shtembuliak and Shuvalova?

10/24/2019 – He read the Zurich Interzonal 1953 book written by Bronstein and Gelfand's Positional Decision Making to improve his positional understanding. He goes to the gym and swims every day to stay fit. He is the sole leader in the open section with a score of 7½/9 and has a performance rating of 2783. She won the under-18 world championship 2019. She's sure to go the gym every morning, and she enjoys each and every moment she spends on the chess board. She has an Elo performance of 2585 and is leading the girls section at the World Junior with 8.0/9. That's Evgeny Shtembuliak and Polina Shuvalova for you! These two youngsters are looking unstoppable at the World Juniors 2019.

The "Trainer of the Year" 2018 awards

10/24/2019 – A jury appointed by FIDE, headed by Vladimir Kramnik, has chosen the coaches of the year 2018. The awards go to John Donaldson (pictured), Yu Shaoteng, Michal Konopka, Ramachandran Ramesh and Adrian Mikhalchishin. | Photos: FIDE

Hoogeveen: The Firouzja Express

10/24/2019 – Alireza Firouzja is the world's highest rated junior player and is currently proving his strength at the Hoogeveen Chess Festival. After three games he leads Jorge Cori 3-0. The match between Jan Timman against Zhansaya Abdumalik remains balanced. In the top Open group, 13 year old Javokhir Sindarov is in sole possession of first place with 5½/6. | Photo: Harry Gielen / Official site

World Junior Rd 8: Yet Another Shuvalova queen sacrifice!

10/23/2019 – Polina Shuvalova is on fire at the World Junior 2019. After her pretty queen sacrifice at the World Youth 2019 that went viral, the Russian youngster yet again sacrificed her queen, this time at the World Junior. This one wasn't as deep or beautiful as what we saw in Mumbai in her game against Afonasieva, but to beat a player like Assaubayeva with a queen sacrifice is never easy! In the open section we have two leaders: Shtembuliak drew his game against Shant Sargsyan. This let Miguel Santos Ruiz catch up. The Spaniard beat Praggnanandhaa in pretty fashion to join Shtembuliak at the top. IM SAGAR SHAH brings a detailed report from New Delhi.

Endgame Magic with Karsten Mueller and Merijn van Delft

10/23/2019 – Today's guest in Karsten Mueller's Endgame Show is Dutch IM Merijn van Delft. 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!

Do chess playing children perform better in school?

10/23/2019 – Islam et al’s research paper on “The Effects of Chess Instruction on Academic and Non-Cognitive Outcomes” uses experimental findings to tell us playing chess does, in fact, make one perform better in other academic fields compared to those that do not play chess. However, it is probably not in the way you think. QIYU ZHOU reviews the findings.

World Junior Rd 7: Unstoppable Shtembuliak

10/22/2019 – In 2018 we had Parham Maghsoodloo who made a dash towards the finish line at the World Junior Championships. He won the event with one round to spare. In 2019 it seems like Evgeny Shtembuliak is going to take the honours. Although there are still four rounds left to be played, the Ukrainian GM has beaten some of the strongest opposition in the tournament. In round seven he got the better of GM Aram Hakobyan in a tense encounter. Shtembuliak leads with 6.0/7. He is followed on 5½/7 by Miguel Santos Ruiz alone. In the girls section Mobina Alinasab remained in the lead after her draw against Stavroula Tsolakidou, but she was joined at the top by Polina Shuvalova as well. IM SAGAR SHAH brings you detailed round seven report from New Delhi. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The Weekly Show: Leaders at the World Juniors

10/22/2019 – On the heels of the World Youth, Under-18 winner Praggnanandhaa moved on to the stiffer competition of the World Junior Championship. IM Lawrence Trent analyses his game against the fifth round leader, GM Evgeny Shtembuliak. | Puzzle time: In the diagram below, it's Black 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.

Hoogeveen: Timman and the youth

10/22/2019 – At the 2019 Hoogeveen chess festival, Jan Timman joins a youthful trio for six-game matches from October 20th 26th. The Dutch legend plays against Zhansaya Abdumalik. Alongside them, the second match features Iranian Alireza Firouzja against Peruvian Jorge Cori. The traditional Open tournament runs in parallel. Live games from 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST / 8:00 EDT) | Photo: Hoogeveen chess

Grand Swiss: Wang Hao takes it all

10/22/2019 – The eleven-round FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss finished on Monday, with Wang Hao both claiming first place and getting the spot in the Candidates Tournament. The Chinese grandmaster beat David Howell — who was in a must-win game with the black pieces — to tie perennial co-leader Fabiano Caruana on top of the standings table. His better tiebreak score gave him first place and, of course, the chance to fight to become Magnus Carlsen's next challenger. Round-up show by GM SIMON WILLIAMS. | Photo: Maria Emelianova / chess.com