9/5/2019 – Public appearances by Garry Kasparov are often notable, even more so at chess events and especially if the ex-world champion is coaxed into playing chess himself. At the "Champions Showdown" from the Saint Louis Chess Club, Kasparov faced Fabiano Caruana in a 'Fischer Random' match from Monday to Thursday. Although the final score is clearly one-sided in favour of Caruana, the world champion showed he still has what it takes to play against an active player of the elite. In the other match-ups Wesley So and Peter Svidler got comfortable wins over Veselin Topalov and Leinier Dominguez, while Hikaru Nakamura bounced back from a lousy start to finally beat Levon Aronian. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/5/2019 – The third day of the Champions Showdown Chess 9LX almost continued on the same lines of the previous two days. Fabiano Caruana has already defeated Garry Kasparov in their match with a day to go, with a score of 14½:3½, while Wesley So too has almost crossed the threshold against Veselin Topalov at 13:5. Leinier Dominguez showed a fightback against Peter Svidler to narrow the trailing margin to 7:11. Kudos to Hikaru Nakamura who narrowed Aronian's lead to a point before the last day of 8 blitz games. Aronian leads 9½:8½. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/5/2019 – From ChessBase Magazine #191: International Master Robert Ris shows you the structure arising after 3..g6 4.Bxc6 dxc6. He concludes that the ensuing structures offer Black great dynamic chances. Even when the engines prefer White, the good news for Black is that he is never without counterplay.

9/4/2019 – Join IM Merijn van Delft live for a look at his favourite game of the week: Anish Giri's last round win at the Sinquefield Cup over Ian Nepomniachtchi. The 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 this week starting at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT).

9/4/2019 – The Champions Showdown 9LX continued on the same lines as the first day, with Garry Kasparov and Hikaru Nakamura suffering more heartbreaks and continuing to trail their opponents with scores of 3:9 and 4:8 respectively. Peter Svidler and Wessley So gained further ground on their opponents. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVAN reports all action from the venue. Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/4/2019 – As we reported last week, Vladimir Kramnik conducted a special training camp in Chens-Sur-Léman, France, for six very talented Indian youngsters, all in their early teens, but already GMs or close to winning the title. The camp was sponsored by the Chennai-based company Microsense Private Limited and ended last Saturday. ChessBase editor Frederic Friedel visited the camp and watched the interaction between the kids and the former World Champion. | Photos: Amruta Mokal and Frederic Friedel

9/3/2019 – Garry Kasparov has a very steep climb ahead if he wants to get back into contention in his Champions Showdown match versus Fabiano Caruana. He arrived several days early to participate in the now traditional post-Sinquefield "Ultimate Moves" exhibition. Presumably he found some time to practice before taking on super-GM Fabiano Caruana. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN has been in St. Louis throughout, reporting all the action from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

9/3/2019 – This week IM Lawrence Trent covers a player who has flown a bit under the radar: Niclas Huschenbeth. Lawrence is on-demand this week and free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

9/3/2019 – While those in the United States had an "unofficial end-of-summer" holiday during Labour Day, Garry Kasparov was back to work at the Champions Showdown event in Saint Louis. The former world champion had it rough, though, as he ended up losing his last three games against world number two Fabiano Caruana. Levon Aronian and Peter Svidler also racked up comfortable advantages over Hikaru Nakamura and Leinier Dominguez respectively, while Wesley So will kick off day two with a 4:2 lead over Veselin Topalov. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/3/2019 – Usually the pawnless ending rook and bishop against rook results in a drawn position. But if the attacker's pieces are well-placed he or she can sometimes even win against material superiority.

9/3/2019 – The 21st "Vienna Chess Open" relaunched this traditional tournament in the Austrian capital Vienna after a four-year hiatus. The tournament was a major chess event: Nearly a thousand players from more than fifty countries fought for points for a week in the magnificent Great Hall of the Vienna City Hall. The A-Open won the Italian GM Alessio Valsecchi with 7½/9. As part of the A-Opens also the Austrian Champion was determined: The title went to GM Nikolaus Stanec. | Photo: Wiener Schachverband / Betti Plach

9/2/2019 – Baadur Jobava of course! GM Simon Williams will peruse some of the recent games by this entertaining Georgian grandmaster. Watch for free (for a limited time) starting at the usual hour: 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST / 12 Noon EDT).