Botvinnik — chess genius and hard worker

11/8/2018 – In a day or two, Fabiano Caruana will challenge Magnus Carlsen. Will there be the new World Chess Champion by the end of the month? Commentator STEPHAN OLIVER PLATZ examines some history of the sixth World Champion, chess legend Mikhail Botvinnik, including select games against Capablanca, Alekhine, Reshevsky and Portisch. | Photo: J.D. Noske, Nationaal Archief, von li: Max Euwe, Vasily Smyslov, Paul Keres, Mikhail Botvinnik and Samuel Reshevsky.

Carlsen: "If it's tiring for me, it will be even tougher for Caruana"

11/7/2018 – Norwegian Twitter translation trafficker Tarjei Svensen strikes again sampling another Carlsen interview, this time with VG. The tabloid newspaper spoke with the World Champ (in his native language) as he wrapped up preparations for the upcoming match with Fabiano Caruana. | Photos: Alina l'Ami Players.Chessbase.com

Game of the Week: A positional masterpiece

11/7/2018 – Ideas and strategies in Grandmaster games can be quite instructive. IM Merijn van Delft presents games like these every Wednesday at 20:00 CET (19:00 UT, 2 pm EDT). On this week's show: An overlooked game from the Isle of Man.

Shenzhen Masters — a dozen draws

11/7/2018 – No winners in Shenzhen so far. All three games in both the third and fourth rounds ended drawn. Ding Liren was closest to winning in today's contest, with an extra pawn, but he had to settle for splitting the point. GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY checks in and brings the players in for some harsh criticism. But he also herald's Ding's undefeated streak — now at 98 games — noting that "he doesn't play for draws, he just plays good chess his opponents cannot refute". | Photos: Qipa.org.cn

Romanian Kings Tournament celebrates national centenary

11/7/2018 – The annual Kings Tournament which, since last year, is held "in memoriam Elisabeta Polihroniade" is now in its 12th Edition. This time the tournament takes place solely in Bucharest from November 19th-21st. It will be an all-Romanian tournament — including players from the Romanian diaspora — in celebration of the country's centenary — December 1st marks 100 years after Unification Day, a holiday born in 1990 but referring to the unification of the provinces which occurred in 1918 in the aftermath of the First World War.

Women's World Ch: Favourites fright

11/6/2018 – The Chinese are off to a flying start at the Women's World Championship knockout in Khanty Mansiysk. Of the seven players from the East Asian powerhouse who have reached the second round, the three playing white each scored a full point on Tuesday's round opener. The four black players are well positioned after earning draws. Rating favourite Anna Muzychuk scored a win with the black pieces in the top Russia vs Ukraine contest. | Pictured: Mobina Alinasab | Photos: Official site

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

11/6/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CEST (5:00 pm UK time, Noon EDT) Lawrence Trent brings you the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments. Lawrence is on-demand this week and free for ChessBase Basic account holders for a limited time! (Why not register for FREE in 30 seconds if you don't already have an account?) This week Lawrence starts a fresh look at the Women's World Championship.

Strong bishops and weak pawns

11/6/2018 – Endings with bishops of opposite colours tend to be drawish, but endings with bishops of the same colour also tend to be drawish. Precision is needed, however.

Women's World Ch: Quick play-offs

11/6/2018 – Only one out of the eleven matches that went to play-offs in the first round of the Women's World Championship needed more than two rapid games to be decided — Ni Shiqun eliminated Natalia Zhukova in the 10+10 "slow blitz" stage. This result meant that all the Chinese representatives — except Sun Fanghui, who was paired against her compatriot Tan Zhongyi — stayed in the tournament. | Photos: Official site

Zagreb Tournament of Peace rises again

11/5/2018 – Featuring archive photos of Fischer and his co-competitors never before published online, GM ALOJZIJE JANKOVIC takes you through the highlights and the history and previews the 2018 edition. In April 1965, the first Tournament of Peace took place in Zagreb, organised by the representatives of the city together with leading local players. It was a very strong field of 20 players, including reigning World Champion at that time, Tigran Petrosian, competing in a round-robin tournament. Bobby Fischer played in the second tournament of 1970, but after the fourth edition in 1985, the tournament went dark...until now. | Pictured: Bobby Fischer looks towards Teodor Boch (a sponsor) in Zagreb, 1970 | Photo: Erwin Sindik / Croatian Chess Federation

All tied at Shenzen Masters

11/5/2018 – In the Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen, six world-class players have played six draws so far. The two top Chinese players Ding Liren and Yu Yangui compete with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri, Nikita Vitiugov and Radoslaw Wojtaszek. With Monday's draw Ding surpassed the undefeated streak of the great Mikhail Tal! Ding's 96 games without a loss can be considered the best undefeated streak in history, if not (yet) the longest. | Photos: Qipai.com

Shenzhen Masters: Fighting draws

11/5/2018 – Two out of three games in the first round of the second edition of the Shenzhen Masters were hard-fought draws, as only Nikita Vitiugov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave signed a somewhat lifeless ½-½. Ding Liren kept his undefeated streak by drawing with Black against Anish Giri, while Radoslaw Wojtaszek held his own and even got some chances against Yu Yangyi. Things might quickly heat up in the double round-robin with a very attractive line-up. | Photo: Official site

Speelman's Agony #86

11/4/2018 – This week Jon examines two games from the top scorer for Sri Lanka in the Batumi Chess Olympiad. As the coach of the team, he was impressed by the play of the youngest member, fifteen-year-old Harshana Thilakarathne (pictured). But continue sending 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! | Photo: Panagoda Buddhi

Women's World Ch: A warm welcome in freezing Khanty-Mansiysk

11/4/2018 – The 64-player knockout tournament that will result in a second 2018 Women's World Champion took off on Saturday. The Ugra Chess Academy received yet another strong event and showed the usual high-calibre organisation. The first games of round one left few clear upsets, but did include many results that will very likely produce interesting return matches — games where the clear favourite only got half a point, and close match-ups where one of the players is now in a must-win situation. | Photos: Official site

Penang Chess Festival turns ten

11/3/2018 – One month from today, and a decade after the inaugural Penang International Chess Open in June 2009, the 10th edition of the Open returns in the Malaysian state of Penang! It is bigger and richer. How much richer? How about USD $12,000 in total prize money! | Pictured (left) Penang has been recognised as a World Heritage site since the year 2008 / (right) Filipino GM Darwin Laylo is one of the registered grandmasters. | Photos: Penang Chess Association

Fischer vs Karpov in 1975: Who would have won?

11/3/2018 – In the USA, chess fans are eagerly awaiting the World Championship match to see how Caruana fares as the first American to challenge the undisputed World Champion since 1972. But what about that other eagerly awaited contest that never was: Fischer-Karpov, 1975. It was a match that the whole chess world would have loved to see. Who can say what beautiful ideas the players would have shown us in their games? And who would have won? With statistical modelling, we can at least talk about the likely outcome of the match. Dr. MATTHEW WILSON, economics professor at Truman State University, takes a crack at it. | Artwork: Unknown (via Quora)

CBM 186: From Atalik to Zaitsev

11/2/2018 – ChessBase Magazine 186: 535 Games, annotations by Ian Nepomniachtchi, Mikhail Golubev, Peter Heine-Nielsen, Michal Krasenkow, Mihail Marin, and a major contribution by Suat Atalik. 10 Opening surveys from the Spanish to the English Opening. Two under the microscope in review by Prof. NAGESH HAVANUR | Pictured: Kasparov, Karpov and Timman in 1987 | Photo: Bart Molendijk / Anefo [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Start of the Women's World Championship 2018

11/2/2018 – November is shaping up to be another massive chess month. There are super tournaments starting soon in China and India and of course the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana is now just a week away. But that's not even the only World Championship happening! In Khanty-Mansiysk, the Women's World championship — a knockout with 64 players — gets underway. Among the competitors is the reigning World Champion Ju Wenjun who, if she fails to win, will have had a scant five months with the crown. | Photos: FIDE

Central mate trap

11/2/2018 – Following 46.e6+ in the diagram position, Black must choose the right king move to keep the game going. 46...Ke7 or 46...Kf6. What would be your choice?

CBM 186: A summer of Carlsen, Caruana and Mamedyarov

11/1/2018 – ChessBase Magazine 186 featured star analysis from World Number 3 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, but reflecting on the most recent issue, Professor NAGESH HAVANUR chooses to focus his review in large part on the games featuring Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana who will take centre stage next week. In that light, his highlights are worth reviewing even if you're familiar with the games from our contemporaneous coverage this past summer. Enjoy!

November 2018 FIDE Ratings

11/1/2018 – The vast majority of the world's best players were active in October thanks to the Batumi Chess Olympiad, the European Club Cup and the Chess.com Isle of Man International. So there's a lot to get to in this month's ratings update. Of course noteworthy is the closeness of the combatants in the upcoming World Championship, and Radoslaw Wojtaszek made good use of his 24 games played as he gained 22 Elo points to move back into the Top 20. Here Radek is pictured alongside his wife Alina Kashlinskaya who jumped 30 points and entered the Women's Top 20! | Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com Isle of Man

Pieces, pawns and squares

11/1/2018 – Do you manage to execute your plan at the board, only to watch an advantage slip away? Are you able to convert a strategic idea into concrete moves, but in the end cannot convert the win? This is the essence of technique and GM Adrian Mikhalchishin faces this esoteric subject head-on in his latest FritzTrainer. Through examples from the games of great players past and present, he details their plans, catalogues their mistakes, and demonstrates how they transformed ideas in their minds into plans over the board. In this review, DAVIDE NASTASIO says you will learn a lot from this video series, and eventually be able to apply such knowledge to your own games.

Edgar Allen Poe's diatribe against chess

10/31/2018 – On this All Hallows Eve, we examine the chess connections of one of literature's great spooky storytellers, the American author Edgar Allen Poe. (See part one!) Poe was curiously dismissive of chess, comparing it unfavourably to both draughts and the classic English card game Whist. In the process, he attempted to weigh the relative importance of calculation and analysis, and while he clearly misunderstood the game by our modern estimation, his work carries tremendous literary weight and influenced generations, including writers who would also use chess for its metaphorical powers in their stories.

The Game of the Week

10/31/2018 – Ideas and strategies in Grandmaster games can be quite instructive. IM Merijn van Delft presents games like these every Wednesday at 20:00 CEST (19:00 UT, 2 pm EDT). On this week's show: An overlooked game from the Isle of Man.