Zagreb GCT: A second win for Nepomniachtchi

6/28/2019 – Round two of the Croatian Grand Chess Tour finished with only one decisive game, but there was no lack of excitement as some big misses led to unexpected results. Ian Nepomniachtchi defeated Fabiano Caruana from a clearly inferior position, Magnus Carlsen could not convert a knight endgame a pawn up against Vishy Anand and Ding Liren failed to make the most of his advantage against Sergey Karjakin. These results left Nepomniachtchi as the sole leader with 2 out of 2. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Ernst Karl Falkbeer and his countergambit

6/27/2019 – With Falkbeer's Countergambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 e4!?) Black tries to spoil the fun White wants to have in the King's Gambit. A number of top players have tried this countergambit which led to entertaining games. Today, the line is only rarely seen but today, June 27, 2019, Ernst Karl Falkbeer, who gave the countergambit its name, would have celebrated his 200th birthday.

Fast and Furious: Sicilian Rossolimo with 3...e6

6/27/2019 – Looking for a great attacking weapon against the Sicilian Rossolimo? You better come and watch this episode of the Fast & Furious show! The live show at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 2 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.

NEW: ChessBase Magazine 190

6/27/2019 – ChessBase Magazine is the most comprehensive and most sophisticated chess magazine there is. World class players analyse their brilliancies and explain the ideas behind the moves to you, opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and offer exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in the fields of tactics, strategy, and the endgame show you the tricks and techniques a successful tournament player needs! Here are the highlights of this new DVD with several hours of video + booklet.

Chess at the Jewish Museum of Vienna

6/27/2019 – Simon Wiesenthal (1908- 2005) is well-known for hunting Nazi war criminals. Originally he had been an architect. One of his last designs was for a lavish coffee house and included a chess room. The drawings are for the first time on display at the Jewish Museum in Vienna. | Pictured: Porcelain chess set of Viennese artist Arik Brauer | Photos: Stefan Loeffler (unless indicated)

Zagreb GCT: A red-hot start

6/27/2019 – Four players opened the Croatian leg of the Grand Chess Tour with a win. Most eyes were on World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who continued his astounding year with an inaugural win in Zagreb over Anish Giri. Carlsen's latest challenger, Fabiano Caruana, also won, after taking advantage of a blunder by Hikaru Nakamura, while Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi got full points as well, with victories over Ding Liren and Vishy Anand. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Game of the Week: Luke McShane vs Pavel Eljanov

6/26/2019 – This week IM Merijn van Delft turns his training eye on the recent game between Luke McShane and Pavel Eljanov played at the ongoing Netanya Masters in Israel. The live 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 at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT).

Closing out Norway Chess with music

6/26/2019 – The Norway Chess tournament ended not only with a Carlsen win but with music. At the prize giving ceremony Jason Kouchak and Juga di Primo showed off their grandmaster-class musical skills. Both musicians have dramatized chess motifs in their compositions and are great chess fans themselves.

Become a Lumbeerjack with the Torre Attack!

6/26/2019 – These days there's no shortage of information on opening theory. Everyone, even an amateur, with a bit of study can play main line theory like a pro GM. In such circumstances, perhaps it's all the more salient to question to our opponents using openings which are sound, but less mainstream. That's what Simon Williams sets out to do in his latest DVD on the Torre Attack, and DAVIDE NASTASIO has the review.

The Weekly Show: Summer Classic

6/25/2019 – The focus this week is on the St. Louis Summer Chess Classic tournaments where I take a look at a game — and a novelty — by another young hope from the USA: Brandon Jacobson. Free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

McShane with the best start in Netanya

6/25/2019 – The Netanya Chess Festival (June 23 to July 2) features a GM round-robin and an open. In the GM tournament, possibly the strongest tournament in Israel ever, five world-class grandmasters take on five Israeli GMs. The prize fund is $100,000, while in the open it is just under $50,000: Luke McShane started with two wins. Watch Round 3 LIVE! | Photos: Yoav Nisenbaum / imt.chess.org.il

"Chess makes you smart": Huge scholastic tournament in Bremen

6/25/2019 – Marco Bode is a German football legend, famous for his fair play and his loyalty to his club, Werder Bremen. Bode is also a passionate chess player who is keen to teach young kids the game and to make chess a subject in schools. Last week, Bode's efforts led 1,000 primary school students to play a huge tournament in the center of Bremen. | Photos: Pascal Simon/ Rainer Woisin

Stop passed pawns or let them run?

6/25/2019 – Rules of thumb are just that — rules of thumb. They are often a good guideline but sometimes they are made to be broken and only concrete calculation helps.

Nyzhnyk nabs National Open

6/24/2019 – Grandmaster RUIFENG LI reports and annotates games from Las Vegas as Ukrainian GM Illya Nyzhnyk won the newly lengthened 9-round National Open. Nyzhnyk's five wins and four draws were good enough for clear 1st place and the USD $8,000 prize. Alejandro Ramirez was the best scoring US player. Pictured: Organizers Janelle and Alan Losoff, with the new National Open Champion. | Photo: Tim Hanks

Simon Says — Highlights from the Summer Chess Classic

6/24/2019 – In this Simon Says we take a look at some of the highlights from the Summer Chess Classic in St Louis. Concentrating on the top section, where David Howell and Jeffrey Xiong are leading, Simon will show you the best (and worst!) moves that have been played.

Half time at the Summer Chess Classic

6/24/2019 – The three tournaments of the "Summer Chess Classic" at the Saint Louis Chess Club will start in their second half today with five of the ten rounds in the books. Sunday was the tournaments' sole rest day. In the A tournament there was a draw between co-leaders Jeffery Xiong and David Howell, allowing Sam Shankland to move closer to the top with his win against Dariusz Swiercz. The encounter between Gawain Jones and Le Quang Liem ended in a draw. | Photo: Xiong vs Howell (webcast)

Can a roulette wheel decide the game?

6/24/2019 – It is something little hard to imagine but yes, in the history of chess there was one occasion when FIDE had no certain type of play — such as Armageddon — to decide the winner in case of draw. For those who are unaware of the format, Armageddon is the ultimate form of tie-breaker in chess, where time-odds are there and Black just needs to draw the game to win the match and White must win the game to advance or be declared as the winner of the match.

Hersonissos: Stress management for the soul

6/23/2019 – An instant fix for a thalassophile (a person who loves the sea) with the sounds and shades of sunset waves. It's just impossible to get bored on the Lyttos Beach (pictured). IM ALINA L'AMI sends her photo reportage of another picturesque chess holiday destination that will have you dialing your travel agent. Don't miss her instructive annotated games and game fragments!

Proposing a new system for top tournaments

6/22/2019 – Entrepreneur, trainer, and Grandmaster Miguel Illescas puts down some thoughts on how to make elite chess touranments more fan friendly. Inspired by the Norway Chess Armageddon experiment, he offers a proposal to improve the format with tweaks to the scoring and time control. We encourage you to offer feedback in the comments below.

What chess can learn from racing

6/22/2019 – Annually, sponsors spend over five billion dollars per year on motorsports. Millions of fans watch motorsports, such as Formula One, IndyCar, and NASCAR. In this first article of a two-article set, WIM ALEXEY ROOT explores what chess can learn from racing after interviewing — and playing chess with — race car driver Kory Enders (pictured) at the Texas Motor Speedway. | Photo: Louis A. Reed Jr.

The Power Play Show: Maria Muzychuk v. Aleksandra Goryachkina

6/21/2019 – On the show today: GM Daniel King be looking at the game that won the brilliancy prize at the Women's Candidates' tournament, Maria Muzychuk v. Aleksandra Goryachkina. 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...

Light summer mate I

6/21/2019 – From the diagram, the pawn sac 6.Nb5!? a6 7.Nd6+ Bxd6 8.Qxd6 (Bxe4) gives White the typical dark-squared compensation. The catastrophe to follow shortly after was of course not forced but, some might feel, not completely unexpected either.

ACM: American chess in the melting pot

6/21/2019 – Home run: Grandmaster and former U.S. Champion JOEL BENJAMIN muses on the effect of immigration on the US chess scene in an opinion piece reproduced with kind permission from American Chess Magazine #11. Plus ACM's reviewer FM CARSTEN HANSEN gives Yannick Pelletier's latest video series on an Anti-London repertoire the maximum five stars! It's one of "many interesting new titles and many more on the way", writes Hansen.

Summer Classic: Howell and Xiong on top

6/21/2019 – The Summer Classic 2019 in Saint Louis consists of three tournaments with six players each held from June 18th to 28th. Sam Shankland is the top seed in the A group, but lost his first round game to the tournament leader David Howell. Another 'Sam' — Sam Sevian — heads the B group but Surya Ganguly is off to a strong start with 2½/3. | Pictured: Swiercz vs. Jones via commentary webcast with GM Jesse Kraai and Caleb Denby