8/29/2018 – Wednesday at 19:00 CEST (17:00 UT) 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...

8/29/2018 – Following the Sinquefield Cup 2018 in Saint Louis, Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana were working overtime: they played a tiebreak to determine who would participate in the London Chess Classic, the Grand Chess Tour final KO event for the top four finishers. Caruana won the match by taking the second rapid game to score 1½-½. V. SARAVANAN files one more report. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes

8/29/2018 – The VIII IBCA World Team Chess Championship for the blind and visually impaired took place in Sofia, Bulgaria from July 20th to 31st, 2018. The event was played in a novel format and witnessed some really exciting games all the way through. At the conclusion of an intensely fought final round, Russia emerged on top of the field by beating Poland by a razor-thin margin. | Photo: Sagar Shah

8/28/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CEST (5:00 pm UK time, Noon EDT) Lawrence Trent goes on air on Playchess.com. In his show, Lawrence will be dealing with the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments. This week Lawrence takes a look at the Russian, French and Spanish Championships!

8/28/2018 – The sixth edition of the Sinquefield Cup had an unprecedented finish. Levon Aronian defeated Alexander Grischuk in a memorable game, while Magnus Carlsen got a 97-move victory over Hikaru Nakamura. Therefore, Aronian, Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana tied for first — in points and in all tiebreak criteria! The rules stipulated that a drawing of lots would decide which two players would go to the playoff — Carlsen objected, as he thought it to be 'ridiculous'. Finally, the players and organisers decided all three would be declared co-winners! V. SARAVANAN reports. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Lennart Ootes

8/28/2018 – The victory of Tigran Gharamian (photo) at the French Championships 2018 in Nimes turned into a marathon affair as the Armenian-born French grandmaster claimed the title only after two sets of tiebreaks culminating in an Armageddon game. The Women's Championship was clearer: Pauline Guichard won the title with 7½ out of 9. Second place went to Sophie Milliet, who scored 6½ points. | Photo: Amruta Mokal (archive)

8/28/2018 – Normally the rook against knight without pawns is a draw when the knight is near his king. But there are two important exceptions. Do you know them?

8/27/2018 – Live games and commentary from Saint Louis! Fabiano Caruana, Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian tied for first place, while Caruana also tied for fourth place in the Grand Chess Tour standings with Wesley So, forcing a playoff match to be held on Tuesday. | Graphic: Saint Louis Chess Club

8/27/2018 – Everything looked set for a day full of fireworks when the eighth round of the Sinquefield Cup had just begun — Grischuk opened with 1.f4, Karjakin and Nakamura went into what seemed to be a sharp Catalan and Carlsen surely was in the mood to avenge his Biel loss against Mamedyarov. The players did try to fight, but the final result was, once again, five drawn games. Curiously, with one round to go, all the GCT "regular" players still have chances to qualify to the final stage in London. V. SARAVANAN reports. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Lennart Ootes

8/27/2018 – The Sinquefield Cup 2018 is not over yet but that does not stop the Saint Louis Chess Club from announcing its next big event: in about two weeks, from September 11-14, ten top players will battle it out in Chess960. Garry Kasparov is one of them! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/27/2018 – We often hear the advice to replay classical games played by World Champions in order to improve our chess understanding. What if we could unite the fun of learning a new opening with improving our chess? Yes, the Tarrasch Defence answers both these conditions. Many World Champions played it throughout their careers in very crucial moments, when a win would define their own existence as chess players. Now we can learn it from a top GM, who adds his own wisdom to the theoretical knowledge we can find in books.

8/26/2018 – The much-awaited encounter between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana took place on Saturday in Saint Louis. The World Champion faced Caruana's Petroff and obtained a decisive kingside attack, but was not able to round off the game to a win. The rest of the games also finished with draws, so the World Championship challenger remains the sole leader with two rounds to go. V. SARAVANAN tells us all about the big clash. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Lennart Ootes