Team Tal: Epilogue

2/2/2019 – The story of Tal can never be finished and his fans always want more. Only this series has to end for now. In the concluding installment here our columnist offers his final observations on Team Tal, the last testament of Valentin Kirillov. | Photo: chesspro.ru

February 2019 FIDE Ratings

2/1/2019 – February ratings are out with changes resulting mainly from the Tata Steel Chess tournament. Gibraltar ended just past the cutoff time, so this month's update is, to a certain extent, already out of date. Carlsen is, of course, still first on all three lists. He is at his highest point since November 2016. Anish Giri, at 2797, is just one point shy of his career best, and Jan Nepomniachtchi has set a new career peak for himself at 2771. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

Artemiev atop Gibraltar Masters

2/1/2019 – Vladislav Artemiev left no doubt by winning with Black against Yu Yangyi to take clear first and avoid a possible playoff. It's the first time the Gibraltar Masters has had a single player in first place after ten rounds since 2015. Karthikeyan Murali capped a fantastic tournament by beating Maxim Vachier-Lagrave and thereby finishing in sole second place. Tan Zhongyi from China took the top women's prize | Photo: John Saunders

Shirov impressive in Arica

2/1/2019 – A large ten-round Swiss tournament was organised at the Chilean port city of Arica. Players from seventeen countries arrived in the northernmost city of the Andean country. Top seed Alexei Shirov took first place after finishing with an undefeated 8½/10 score. Peruvian IM Renato Terry surprised by ending up second and Farrukh Amonatov clinched third place on tiebreaks. Full pictorial report provided by club "Jaque 64".

The vulnerable third

2/1/2019 – In the diagram White's softened king position far outweighs the hanging rook on d8. Yet precision is still required. Your (black attacking) move, please!

Game Changer: AlphaZero revitalizing the attack

1/31/2019 – AlphaZero became a worldwide sensation when it defeated the world's strongest chess engine in a long match just hours after being fed the rules of the game. At the time, Garry Kasparov said that it had shaken chess to its roots. In the opinion of Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan, the authors of the book 'Game Changer: AlphaZero's Groundbreaking Chess Strategies and the Promise of AI' this all-new silicon monster developed by DeepMind has helped us discover that there is lots of fresh potential in chess. ADITYA PAI spoke with the authors about their book, the impact AlphaZero has (and will have) on our royal game and whether chess will be solved one day in the light of such technological advancements.

Gibraltar Masters 2019 Round 10

1/31/2019 – The Gibraltar International Chess Festival 2019 takes place from January 21st to 31st at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. The Masters is always incredibly strong and this year there are 14 players Elo rated over 2700. Traditionally, many of the world's best women players also take part and this year World Champion Ju Wenjun is among them. Live games and commentary on Round 10 by IM Jovanka Houska and GM Simon Williams from 10:00 UTC (11:00 CET, 5:00 AM EST).

Gibraltar: Artemiev is the man to beat

1/31/2019 – Vladislav Artemiev beat David Navara on top board and is back in the sole lead with 7½/9. Maxim Vachier-Lagrave dispatched upstart Kirill Alekseenko and is a half point back along with Yu Yangyi and Karthikeyan Murali. Thirteen players have 6½ out of 9. The tournament will be decided on Thursday with Round 10 and a possible playoff. | Photo: John Saunders

Game of the Week: Vintage Kramnik

1/30/2019 – Ideas and strategies in Grandmaster games can be quite instructive. IM Merijn van Delft presents games like these every Wednesday at 19:00 UTC (20:00 CET, 2 pm EST). On this week's show: A classic Kramnik game from 1993 against Vassily Ivanchuk. 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.

Monte Carlo instead of Alpha-Beta?

1/30/2019 – Until now, chess programs mostly worked according to the so-called alpha-beta pruning search algorithm. The spectacular Deep Mind project Alpha Zero is based on the Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS). The Komodo developers, too, are now increasingly relying on this method — with success. STEPHEN OLIVER PLATZ explains the difference and shows the progress. | Photo: (Komodo Dragon) Ryan Vaarsi, CC BY 2.0

Reviewing the new-look ChessBase Magazine

1/30/2019 – Daily training to improve and keep us in shape has to be fun as well as intellectually enlightening. We need to keep up our interest in order to perform well in tournaments. Reviewer DAVIDE NASTASIO likes to do that by engaging with a variety of learning tools. This time he turns his training eye on the new ChessBase Magazine. CBM encompasses different training methods covering all areas, from theoretical opening articles, to tactical and endgame training with video feedback. CBM 187 is a great way to translate your training time into practical success. Here's an overview with examples.

The Weekly Show: Kramnik

1/29/2019 – IM Lawrence Trent brings you the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments ever Tuesdays at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, Noon EST). This week he looks at a highlight from the career of Vladimir Kramnik. Free to watch on-demand for a limited time with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

Vladimir Kramnik to retire

1/29/2019 – Vladimir Kramnik announced his retirement at an event in the Netherlands following his last-place finish in the Tata Steel Masters. He says he had already made the decision a few months ago and will focus on chess projects related to scholastic education, but that he may return to the board for an occasional rapid, blitz or simultaneous event. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess

Gibraltar: All fun and games and now a sole leader

1/29/2019 – After seven rounds at the Gibraltar Chess Festival, we finally have a sole leader in Russian GM Vladislav Artemiev, who took down Hikaru Nakamura on Monday. | Pictured: David Navara looks a bit desperate searching for a move during the annual "Battle of the Sexes" — which the women won — but in the tournament, he's in second place. | Photo: Gibraltar Chess Festival / Niki Riga

Tricky knight and Stamma's mate

1/29/2019 – When a knight moves, it always moves to a square of the opposite colour and, in this sense, cannot lose a tempo. This is what makes "zugzwang" so crucial. It's black to play and draw...

Gibraltar: Masterclasses with Adhiban and more

1/28/2019 – One of the most popular side-events of the Gibraltar Chess Festival is the evening "masterclass", in which top stars are invited to give a moderated lecture from the live webcast studio. It's a relaxed atmosphere and a lot of fun, but also instructive. This year's guests have been Hikaru Nakamura, Sarasadat Khademalsharieh and — on Monday evening — Indian GM Adhiban Baskaran.

A training camp with Sergei Tiviakov

1/28/2019 – Sergei Tiviakov, grandmaster, diligent author and busy chess trainer, added new opening DVDs to his ChessBase oeuvre last week. Earlier this year, he ran a training camp in Belarus and described his impressions to the Belarus Chess Federation. We're giving his interview here in translation from Russian. | Photo: André Schulz

Tata Steel Chess: Carlsen wins his seventh title

1/28/2019 – Magnus Carlsen won his seventh Tata Steel Chess title after holding a draw against Anish Giri despite all of the latter's attempts to keep the game going. Peace was signed after 30 moves as Anish contented himself with the second place. There was a three-way tie for third between Ian Nepomniachtchi, Ding Liren and Vishy Anand, who all scored 7½/13. In the Challengers, Vladislav Kovalev took the title with a staggering 1½ point margin after beating Stefan Kuipers in the final round. GM MIKHAIL GOLUBEV provided expert analyses of the most exciting games. | Photos: Alina l'Ami / Official site

Share games with ChessBase 15

1/27/2019 – Sharing can be fun — and sharing chess games can be fun but also helpful and instructive, e.g. if you teach chess or work with a trainer. In any case, sharing games with ChessBase 15 is easy. Here's a short tutorial covering your options. | Drawing: ChessBase
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Tata Steel Chess - Round 13 Round-up

1/27/2019 – The 81st Tata Steel Chess Tournament takes place from January 12th to 27th in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands (and two "on tour" locations). The "Masters" has an average Elo of 2753. The "Challengers" weighs in at 2582. Both are 14-player round-robin tournaments. Round-up show live at 20:00 UTC (21:00 CET, 3:00 PM EST) Live commentary by IMs Sopiko Guramishvili and GM Robert Hess from 12:30 UTC (13:30 CET, 7:30 am EST) | Photo: TataSteelChess.com

Tata Steel Chess: Carlsen and Giri to battle for the title

1/27/2019 – At the conclusion of the penultimate round of the Tata Steel Masters, it became clear that the race for the title will be only between Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri. With a win over Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the twelfth round, Carlsen has taken the sole lead. Giri remained half-a-point behind the World Champion after avoiding defeat thanks to a sudden draw offer by Teimour Radjabov. Other wins of the round were scored by Vladimir Kramnik (over Vladimir Fedoseev) and Sam Shankland (over Ian Nepomniachtchi), while the game between Vishy Anand and Ding Liren ended in an exciting draw. | Photo: Alina l'Ami / Official site

Tata Steel Challengers: Kovalev out in front

1/26/2019 – Vladislav Kovalev has won three in a row and takes a half point lead into Sunday's final round. Maksim Chigaev and Andrey Esipenko remain undefeated and a half point back. But Kovalev has the easiest pairing in Round 13 — White against the bottom seed Stefan Kuipers — while the young Russians both have Black against tougher opponents. We take a closer look at the past week in the Challengers. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

Check Czech Chess IV: Oldřich Duras

1/26/2019 – "Study of the Month" author SIEGFRIED HORNECKER returns to his deep dive into Czech chess composers with a fascinating column on Oldřich Duras. The fourth column in this mini-series builds upon his research from the second half of 2018. See also: Part 1: Prokop’s poetry, Part 2: Prokeš from Prague and Part 3: Miroslav Havel. Of course, don't miss the instructive studies!

Tata Steel Chess: "A hallucination of some sort"

1/26/2019 – A completely unexpected resignation from Sam Shankland allowed Anish Giri to catch up with Magnus Carlsen in the standings. A half point behind, the only chaser is Ian Nepomniachtchi, who grabbed an important win over Vladimir Fedoseev. In other news, Vladimir Kramnik got his first victory this year, while Vladislav Kovalev won the only decisive game of the Challengers and joined Maksim Chigaev at the top of the standings. Full report by ALEX YERMOLINKSY. | Photos: Alina l'Ami / Official site