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

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.

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

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

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.

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?

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

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.

9/8/2019 – A slightly larger column this week as Jon makes up for lost time. A fan of "moba" games sent in some of his (shall we say) "Playchess online battle arena" experiences. | 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!

9/8/2019 – The Polish Team Championship wrapped up this week with eight-time "Extraliga" champions WASKO Hetman Katowice and its star players GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, GM David Navara, GM Bartosz, GM Monika Socko and others winning yet another title. WGM KETI TSATSALASHVILI was there. | Photo: David Llada / ekstraliga2019.pzszach.pl

9/7/2019 – Certainly you have noticed the big "H" in the headline for this post. And indeed, ALINA L'AMI is alive and well, reporting on a chess tournament in the Norwegian village "Hell", which lies about 40 km east of Trondheim. And as always, Alina managed to create magical photos, not to mention the obligatory photo with the providentially humoristic sign; “Gods Expedition” — in fact the archaic spelling for cargo handling. | Photos: Alina l'Ami

9/7/2019 – After organizing one of the strongest elite tournaments from 1978 until 2010, the Spanish city of Linares has not ceased to host important chess events. This year, the VII Ibero-American Tournament took place from the 10th to the 18th of August at the auditorium of "El Pósito". Jorge Cori (Perú), Francisco Vallejo (Spain) and Carlos Albornoz (Cuba) finished the nine-round Swiss tournament tied atop the standings on 7 points. Cori had the best tiebreak score and claimed first place. | Photo: FIBDA