Start of the GAMMA Reykjavik Open

4/10/2019 – The 33rd Reykjavik International started at the Harpa Concert Hall (pictured) in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik on Monday. The two sometime-2700s Gawain Jones and Nils Grandelius have both dropped half points, leaving two GMs, an IM, a class A and even a class B player (!) as the only perfect scores through three rounds. Highlights and live commentary of Round 4 (from 17:00 UTC / 19:00 CEST / 13:00 EDT) | Photo: Lennart Ootes / ReykjavikOpen.com

New and exciting, and still essential

4/10/2019 – There's a new edition of our very popular compilation of opening knowledge — but it's more than an update. Naturally, the Opening Encyclopaedia 2019 has been extended to include all the latest lines and trends, but it has also been redesigned to enhance its usability for fast and easy access to your favourite openings. It has hundreds of opening articles by leading experts, and high-class opening videos to enhance your understanding. Is there a better way to keep abreast of openings theory?

Shamkir, Round 9: Magnus makes it five

4/9/2019 – A third consecutive win in Shamkir meant Magnus Carlsen finished on 7 out of 9, two points ahead of his closer pursuers, with an out-of-this-world rating performance of 2988. His last victim was Alexander Grischuk, who was duly overrun both on the board and on the clock. The rest of the games finished drawn. LAWRENCE TRENT took a closer look at the final encounters of the sixth Gashimov Memorial. | Photo: Official site

Baden-Baden wins German League

4/9/2019 – The last weekend of Germany's Premier League, (a.k.a. the Bundesliga), brought the perennial champions OSG Baden-Baden another success. With a 7-1 victory against Düsseldorf, Baden-Baden (pictured) once again became German Team Champion, securing their 13th title in 14 years. 14-year old German talent Vincent Keymer narrowly missed his third and final GM norm. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

The Weekly Show: Reykjavik Open kickoff

4/9/2019 – In the Reykjavik Open a young Icelandic kid beat GM Andrew Tang with Black. IM Lawrence Trent shows you the game and what it can teach us about playing much higher rated opponents. Each week, Trent brings you the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments every Tuesday at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, 12 Noon EDT). Free to watch on-demand for a limited time with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

Shamkir Chess 2019: Round 9

4/9/2019 – By winning his fifth game in Shamkir, Magnus Carlsen, who had already won the tournament, finished with a stratospheric 7/9 score, a full two points ahead of his nearest rivals. Carlsen's Elo performance was nearly 3000! Wow! All other games were drawn. | Games and video from 11:00 UTC (12:00 CEST / 6 AM EDT) and daily round-up show at 20:00 UTC (21:00 CEST / 3 PM EDT)

Bring your opponent into a fist-fight from the off!

4/9/2019 – Caro-Kann players like their solid structure. As White the question is how to dismantle such solidity, and rampage the Black territory. That's the topic of this review article from DAVIDE NASTASIO and the hour-long intense theoretical training one can find on the "60 Minutes" video series from IM Lawrence Trent. Don't miss this chance to add a new weapon to your own repertoire and create chaos in the Caro-Kann player's camp!

Where to go with the rook?

4/9/2019 – Rook endings are difficult to win and difficult to draw. The following position is a typical example.

Shamkir, Round 8: Carlsen clinches

4/9/2019 – An implacable Magnus Carlsen beat Sergey Karjakin in the penultimate day of action in Shamkir to secure the title with a round to spare. This is the World Champion's fourth triumph in four attempts at the Gashimov Memorial. Alexander Grischuk and Ding Liren also won and now share second place with Sergey Karjakin, a point and a half behind the champion. LAWRENCE TRENT recapped the action of the eighth round. | Photo: Official site

A chess celebration in Puerto Rico

4/8/2019 – At the end of March, San Juan, the capital and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, hosted what was depicted as the biggest chess event of the island in the last thirty years. Cuban grandmaster Yuri González (pictured) won the main section, finishing ahead of his compatriot Reynaldo Vera and American veterans Alex Yermolinksy and Alexander Shabalov. CRISTÓBAL VEGA ADORNO wrote a full report, while GM ALEX YERMOLINKSY sent expert analysis of two games. | Photo: Puerto Rico Chess Academy

Simon Says — A 'greatest games' potpourri

4/8/2019 – In this Simon Says, Grandmaster Simon Williams will take a look at various exciting ideas, starting with Magnus Carlsen's great win over Anish Giri from Round 7 of the Shamkir Chess (Gashimov Memorial). He will then move onto a game of the late Eva Moser and some tactical problems, and finish with a look at some of the greatest games of chess that have ever been played. Live today at the usual time: 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST / 12 Noon EDT).

19th Bangkok Chess Club Open begins with upsets

4/8/2019 – Nigel Short (pictured, right) was held to a draw by local 2025-rated FM Poompong Wiwatanadate (left). Babu Lalith drew with 13-year-old Filipino rising star (with a great chess name!) Alekhine Nouri. This another news from the early rounds of the Bangkok Open courtesy the press release by GM IAN ROGERS | Photo: BangkokChess.com

Shamkir, Round 7: There's no stopping Magnus

4/8/2019 – The one decisive game of round seven saw Magnus Carlsen defeat his Twitter arch-enemy Anish Giri to take the sole lead in Shamkir. It was a rather flashy win, which means Magnus will arrive in Monday's showdown against Sergey Karjakin in high spirits. With only two rounds to go, it seems almost impossible for any player other than Magnus or Sergey to win the event. Grandmaster YANNICK PELLETIER analysed the games in depth. | Photo: Official site

Amateur vs Grandmaster

4/7/2019 – JON SPEELMAN returns after a week off, with a trio of simul games played by an expert against a Grandmaster. 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!

Shamkir, Round 6: Karjakin beats Anand, catches Carlsen

4/7/2019 – A theoretical battle ended up with Sergey Karjakin showing great technique to take down Vishy Anand in an endgame, thus catching up Magnus Carlsen at the top of the standings. The other winner of the day was Veselin Topalov, who defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov from the white side of a Ruy Lopez. Three rounds remain to be played in Azerbaijan, with co-leaders Karjakin and Carlsen set to battle on Monday. GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ analysed all the games. | Photo: Official site

Inspirational studies for tournament players

4/6/2019 – Recently a new book on endgame studies was published, written by IM Yochanan Afek. He belongs to that very rare breed of composition grandmasters, with more studies to his name than we have seen elsewhere. His book is a treasure trove that provides insights into how, on occasion, the games Afek or others have played gave him the ideas for his study compositions. Review by Frederic Friedel.

Harnessing the future of Asian chess

4/6/2019 – Waskaduwa beach in Sri Lanka is fast becoming the Colosseum of Asian junior chess battles. Now it's hosting the Asian Youth Chess Championships 2019. EDWIN LAM and KK CHAN check in from on site. | Pictured: The tournament hall where 571 kids from around Asia battle wits against one another | Photo: KK Chan

IM Raghunandan and GM Indjic perfect at Dubai Open 2019

4/6/2019 – The Dubai Open has been a source of excellent opportunities for players all across the world to play in a strong open event for 21 years now. Some of the readers may remember Magnus Carlsen getting his final GM norm at one of the earlier editions of this event in 2004. This year we have 163 players with some exciting talents. After four rounds we have two leaders with a perfect 4.0/4: IM Raghunandan KS (2370) and GM Aleksandar Indjic. NIKLESH JAIN, who is present at the venue, brings you detailed report.

Five years after his death, Vugar Gashimov's games still live on

4/5/2019 – The Shamkir Chess 2019 in the memory of GM Vugar Gashimov has a rest day, and so we remember the tournament's namesake. 27-year-old Vugar Gashimov left us on January 11th, 2014. Above his grave is a picture of a position from his game against Daniel Stellwagen from the European Team Championship 2009. What exactly was so special about the game that it deserved a place in Gashimov's grave? Indulge in the drama and excitement of October 30th 2009 and get to know about the most thrilling game of Vugar Gashimov's life. Gashimov's contribution to the game of chess has been mammoth. A tribute to the great player by IM Sagar Shah.

Magnus Carlsen's first game in the Mega Database

4/5/2019 – Magnus Carlsen played his first traditional international tournament in October 2000 in Bad Wiessee against FM Ingo Cordts. It was the first game that made it into our Mega Database from the future World Champion. Talking to Thorsten Cmiel, the German FIDE master remembers this memorable encounter of almost twenty years ago.

The Power Play Show

4/5/2019 – Friday at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, Noon EDT) Daniel King will go on air 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...

Young Carlsen's zigzag mate

4/5/2019 – In the diagram position Black's attacked bishop must retreat onto the right square. 29...Bd7 or 29...Be6 — what would you have played against the future world champion?

Training with ChessBase 15: Creating interactive training tasks

4/5/2019 – ChessBase 15 offers a lot of training tools. An effective and powerful training method is to work with interactive training tasks. Part 3 of our series with ChessBase tutorials shows how to create interactive training tasks, how to save them in training databases, and how to create work sheets with training tasks.
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Shamkir, Round 5: Anand, Navara and Grischuk with wins

4/5/2019 – There were three wins in Round 5. Vishy Anand won against Anish Giri with the help of his strong pawn centre, David Navara benefited from a tactical inaccuracy vs Ding Liren and Alexander Grischuk showed how strong the bishop pair can be against Veselin Topalov. Magnus Carlsen and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov drew as did Teimour Radjabov and Sergey Karjakin. With 3½ out of 5, Carlsen remains the sole leader. GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ examines all the games. | Photos: ShamkirChess.com