European Women's Ch: Kashlinskaya tops five-way tie

4/22/2019 – Inna Gaponenko took a half point lead into the final round, but she was stopped by former Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanofa, who scored a clutch win to join a five-way tie for first with the finally tally of 8.0/11 along with Alina Kashlinskaya, Marie Sebag, and Elisabeth Paehtz. | Photos: Kasia Selbes Photography / eiwcc2019.tsf.org.tr

Grenke Classic: Magnus grinds a second win

4/22/2019 – Another epic battle ended up with Magnus Carlsen on top at the 2019 GRENKE Chess Classic — his victim on Sunday was Francisco Vallejo Pons, who was not able to withhold the world champion's pressure in a complex endgame. Veterans Vishy Anand and Peter Svidler also won in round two to reach 1½/2 and stand half a point behind the leader. Vishy will have the black pieces against Magnus on Monday. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

European Championship Round 11

4/22/2019 – The last round is played today. Inna Gaponenko from Ukraine has the best chance of winning the title, but Marie Sebag from France and Alina Kashlinskaya from Russia could have a say. Even Elisabeth Paehtz, who is fifth in the final round, is still eligible for a medal. Live games and commentary by GM Ioannis Papaioannou & IM Can Arduman from the European Women's Championship in Antalya. Play begins at 8:00 UTC (10:00 CEST / 4 AM EDT). In all 130 players are on the starting list but only the top 14 finishers will qualify for the World Cup. The top seeds are Aleksandra Goryachkina (Russia, 2534) and Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia, 2513). Official site: eiwcc2019.tsf.org.tr

Grandmasters can make enormous blunders too

4/21/2019 – JON SPEELMAN is currently fighting with the English team at the Senior World Team Championship in Rhodes, but he sends this column with games courtesy of a senior American who spent his career as a maths teacher. 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!

Vidit's clever line in the Caro-Kann

4/21/2019 – Looking for something new to surprise your opponent in your next tournament game? Vidit Gujrathi, a 2700+ grandmaster and one of the brightest young players around, shows you a line that few opponents will expect. And here's the deal: you invest three minutes listening to Vidit, and then you can try out the line, right there in your browser, against an engine that matches the playing strength of you potential opponents. Thirty minutes of training that will get you some extra rating points!

Grenke Classic: Carlsen wins marathon

4/21/2019 – All eyes were put on the game that faced young Vincent Keymer against world champion Magnus Carlsen in the first round of the 2019 GRENKE Chess Classic. And they did not disappoint — after over six and a half hours and a host of twists and turns, Magnus defeated the new kid on the block. The rest of the games finished drawn, which makes Carlsen the sole leader in Karlsruhe. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Grenke Open: Iranian star hands free point to Israeli

4/20/2019 – After starting off with two straight wins at the GRENKE Chess Open, Iranian prodigy Alireza Firouzja decided to forfeit his third round game as his opponent was an Israeli national: FM Or Bronstein (pictured). The laws of Iran forbid Iranian players from playing against Israelis. Had Firouzja played, he would have risked facing sanctions back in his home country. But forfeiting a game also cost him dearly — as ADITYA PAI reports from Karlsruhe — Firoujza seemed to have lost his composure in the next round as he simply left his rook en prise against 1945-rated Antonia Ziegenfuss (pictured). Surely one of the biggest upsets we'll see this year!

Easter fun: Grenke Classic and Grenke Open

4/20/2019 – The Grenke Open began Thursday with over 900 participants in the A-Open. Today, some of the world's best players take centre stage at the Grenke Chess Classic. Round 1 features #1 Magnus Carlsen against #10 Vincent Keymer who's rated 336 points below the World Champion. Live games and commentary (from 13:00 UTC / 15:00 CEST / 9:00 AM EDT) with GM Peter Leko and GM Jan Gustafsson

Yermo's Travels: The USA in Rhodes (part 1)

4/20/2019 – Hot on the heels of the European Senior Championship in Rhodes, the World Senior Team Championship for players aged over 50 and 65 is underway. ALEX YERMOLINSKY reports on the progress of the top-seeded USA team. | Pictured: Captain Alexander Shabalov and Yermolinsky decided to take a few days to be chess tourists in advance of the competition

European Women's Ch: Gaponenko catches Kashlinskaya in the lead

4/20/2019 – Two straight wins with Black allowed Ukrainian IM Inna Gaponenko to catch up with Alina Kashlinskaya in the lead of the European Women's Championship. Five players are half a point behind, including former women's world champion Anna Ushenina. The co-leaders are paired against each other in Saturday's ninth round. The long event is set to finish on Monday and it is still too early to make any sort of confident prediction. | Photo: Kasia Selbes Photography / eiwcc2019.tsf.org.tr

Focus on the Bahamas

4/20/2019 – On the FIDE Federations list The Bahamas are on place number 162 and the ten strongest players in the country do have an average rating of 1734. But the island has a striving, charming and strong chess community as diplomat and chess fan TED CROSS found out. | Pictured: The Old Fort Bay Club on the Bahamas | Photo: Old Fort Bay Club

Anish Giri leads Shenzhen Masters after three rounds

4/19/2019 – Ding Liren, Anish Giri and Yu Yangyi are back in Shenzhen, as the trio has participated in all three editions of the six-player double round robin. Pentala Harikrishna is returning to the Chinese city after having played in 2017 but not in 2018, while the newcomers are Dmitry Jakovenko and Richard Rapport. After three rounds, Giri is the only player on a plus score. Harikrishna fell victim to Anish in round two but bounced right back the very next day. | Photo: cca.imsa.cn

Karpov's last bullet

4/19/2019 – After White's 49.Rd7 in the diagram position Black must find the right move with his attacked knight h7 to clinch victory. 49...Nf8 or 49...Ng5. What would have been your choice against a reigning World Champion?

European Senior Championships conclude in Rhodes

4/19/2019 – The 2019 edition of the European Senior Championships for men and women over 50 and over 65 was played between the 6th and the 14th of April. The organizers decided to reschedule the event earlier than initially announced, which complicated some of the logistics. Elena Fatalibekova, Tatiana Grabuzova, Jens Kristiansen and Zurab Sturua took home gold medals. The Amateur Championships for players U-1700, U-2000 and U-2300 took place concurrently. | Photo: Official site

Studying openings with the ChessBase Magazine, II: Creating a repertoire database

4/18/2019 – The second part of the opening tutorial shows how to create a repertoire database and how to import games from the ChessBase Magazine and other sources to your repertoire database to save a lot of time and effort. | Drawing: ChessBase
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Fabiano Caruana live Q&A

4/18/2019 – On Thursday at 15:00 UTC (17:00 CEST / 11 AM EDT), join us for a live question and answer session with world number two Fabiano Caruana, who will tackle ChessBase reader questions for about 30 minutes. Post your question in the comments section below and you'll be entered into a contest for a new Opening Encyclopedia autographed by Fabiano!

Fast and Furious: New developments in the Italian

4/18/2019 – Today's topic: The Italian with 4.c3 ♞f6 5.d4 exd4 6.e5, offers both sides dynamic chances. In this show IM Robert Ris will review GM games to illustrate the main plans and help you learn about the thematic attacking ideas in the ensuing pawn structure. 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.

European Women's Ch: Kashlinskaya takes the lead

4/18/2019 – Alina Kashlinskaya is the sole leader of the Women's European Championship after her victory over Pauline Guichard. Both had been leading the field after five rounds. Marie Sebag is in second. Wednesday was the tournament's one and only rest day. | Pictured: Alina Kashlinskaya and Marie Sebag | Photo: Kasia Selbes Photography / eiwcc2019.tsf.org.tr

Game of the Week: Carlsen-Grischuk

4/17/2019 – Ideas and strategies in Grandmaster games can be quite instructive. IM Merijn van Delft presents games like these every Wednesday at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT). On this week's show: Magnus Carlsen's win over Alexander Grischuk from the last round of Shamkir. 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.

8-way tie in Reykjavik

4/17/2019 – After an eventful final round, eight players finished the Reykjavik Open tied with 7 points. Constantin Lupulescu had the best ranking on tiebreak and was declared the winner of the tournament ahead of Alireza Firouzja. Gawain Jones cracked the 2700 mark. | Photos: Fiona Steil-Antoni

Endgame Magic with Karsten Mueller and Fabiano Caruana

4/17/2019 – Karsten is joined by world number two Fabiano Caruana and this week's show will focus on his endgames. Join Karsten and Fabiano live at 14:00 UTC (16:00 CEST, 10:00 AM EDT) and FREE to watch on-demand (for a limited time)!

A Short swing through Atlanta

4/17/2019 – In the beginning of March 2019, FIDE Vice-President GM Nigel Short, came to Atlanta for a brief visit to his daughter. Unfortunately his daughter had a big movie project in Greece, so he found himself stranded in Atlanta! But there was a happy ending: thanks to the Atlanta Chess community, he had a warm welcome in the Peach state. Kudos to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Atlanta (from now on abbreviated as CCSCATL) it was possible to organize a lecture, and a simul in record time! DAVIDE NASTASIO was there.

Apropos illegal castling

4/16/2019 – In the third round of the Women's European Championship, an unusual incident involving illegal castling occurred in the game Gevorgyan vs Cornette, causing a stir. Although rare, this type of offence is not completely new, not even within official FIDE tournaments. We recall a famous case from 1995.

The Weekly Show: Reykjavik winds down

4/16/2019 – This week IM Lawrence Trent presents a key game from the Reykjavik Open, between Firouzja and Lupulescu which allowed the latter to take over the lead in Round 7. Free to watch on-demand for a limited time with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.