10/14/2018 – In the second day of play in Porto Carras, the big teams once again took down their opponents with little collateral damage. While the real fight between clubs is only about to start, some individual encounters were in the spotlight on Saturday — Magnus Carlsen defeated Vladimir Potkin from an apparently innocuous position and Peter Svidler opened his tournament with a loss against Aleksandar Indjic. Calrsen's Valerenga will play second seeded AVE Novy Bor in Sunday's round. | Photo: Niki Riga / eurochess2018.com

10/13/2018 – Have you ever been in the right place at the right time? That is precisely what happened to DIANA MIHAJLOVA, who reported from the Paris Championship in the midst of a citywide bash: France had just won the FIFA World Cup! The longstanding tournament organised in the ‘City of Light’ was won by the talented youngster Jules Moussard. Let’s dive into the pictorial report filled with anecdotes, places and faces. | All photos: Diana Mihajlova

10/13/2018 – Less than a month before the World Championship match begins in London, Magnus Carlsen flew to Porto Carras to represent Valerenga Sjakklubb at the European Chess Club Cup. The Norwegian expectedly rested on day one, when all the favourite teams comfortably swept their lower-rated opponents by wide margins. Only in the women's section we saw a surprise, as Caissa Italia Pentole Agnolli had to settle for a draw against the Russian SSHOR. | Photo: Niki Riga / eurochess2018.com

10/12/2018 – Kings that go walkabout on a full board are rare but charming. At the Chess Olympiad 2018 in Batumi such wandering kings could be admired in two interesting games. In Mamedov vs Shankland (pictured) the voyage of the king was defensive, in the game Hillarp Persson vs Laurusas, which won the brilliancy prize in Batumi, the white king joined a mating attack against the black king. Both games have historical predecessors. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/12/2018 – Recently we've seen Chess960 being actively discussed as a way to play chess while avoiding opening theory, testing our opponent's mind from the start. However, for the amateur, playing tournaments on the weekend, there are so many possibilities in the opening theory that it is nearly impossible to cover all of them decently. Many already have adopted setups like the London system, or the King's Indian Attack (KIA) so they don't have to study opening theory. Gareyev proposes an attacking alternative in the Trompowsky, a lesser known opening which can oblige Black to think from the first moves while creating plenty of tactical problems. DAVIDE NASTASIO takes a look in this interactive review that encourages the reader to try out key middlegame and endgame positions against an engine. Get your daily training here and now! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/12/2018 – Having traded the enemy fianchetto bishop, White has managed to land the queen on h6 ("a beast on h6"). His first move in the diagram position might be obvious, but can you also guess which piece will become the true hero of his attack? Enjoy!

10/11/2018 – Tomorrow an impressive team tournament gets underway — this year's European Cup — and among those in action will be World Champion Magnus Carlsen who plays for the "Valerenga Sjakklubb" from Oslo. The Elo favourite is the team of "Alkaloid" with an average rating of 2741 and Ding Liren among the players. Another 2800 player, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov leads the Azerbaijani team Odlar Yurdu. | Photo: European Chess Union

10/11/2018 – The organisers of the 2019 Altibox Norway Chess tournament have unveiled a new format aimed at reducing the rate of draws. It's either "innovative" or "bizarre" depending on who you ask but is sure to be an interesting subject of debate in the months leading up to the June, 2019, tournament. We explain the new idea and check in on the Twitter reaction. Plus, have your say in our reader survey! | Photo: Lennart Ootes / NorwayChess.no

10/11/2018 – David Bronstein was certainly one of the most creative players in the history of chess. In 1951 he drew a World Championship match against Mikhail Botvinnik who thus narrowly defended the title. Vlastimil Hort remembers encounters with "my David Ionovich", including how a promise to play the King's Gambit in 1970 came back to haunt him 24 years later!

10/10/2018 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen returned to Hamburg yesterday evening with the fourth "Play Live Challenge", a clock simultaneous against twelve amateur, beginners and club players who are users of his Play Magnus mobile app. Carlsen, who has never yielded even a half point in prior editions of this event, won easily 12-0 and then gave each of the players some chess lessons in front of the live audience. ChessBase snagged him for a brief chat. | Photo: Lisa Meinen

10/10/2018 – 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: More excitement at the Olympiad! Featuring Caruana vs Mamedyarov!

10/10/2018 – The Black Sea coastal city of Sochi held the Russian Rapid & Blitz Championships from October 5th to 9th. The Russian players that participated in the Olympiad were not able to attend — except Nepomniachtchi, who arrived in Sochi for the Rapid Team Championship. The star of the events was Vladislav Artemiev, who won both the Rapid and Blitz Championships and led Ladya to first place in the team event. Polina Shuvalova, Alina Bivol and Ugra won the women's tournaments. | Photo: Russian Chess Federation