The Weekly Show: The Spanish Team Championship

8/27/2019 – Lawrence is LIVE this week covering the Spanish Team Championship, plus a brief ode to Pal Benko. Live 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.

Ding and Nepomniachtchi score crucial wins

8/27/2019 – Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi showed their guts to rise to the occasion and score crucial wins in the ninth round of the Sinquefield Cup, to jointly jump into the lead with 5½ points. Vishy Anand once again enjoyed a clear advantage against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who fought back admirably to draw the game. World Champion Magnus Carlsen failed to capitalise on chances offered to him by Aronian and drew yet again. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports all action from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Opening an Abyss

8/27/2019 – Even in the endgame direct mating attacks do occur. White to move and win.

Pál Benkö dies at 91

8/27/2019 – He was a world-class grandmaster, twice World Champion candidate, friend of Bobby Fischer (whose participation in the 1972 World Championship match he directly enabled), inventor of the eponymous Benko Gambit and the 1.g3 Benko Opening (which he used to beat Fischer and Tal). He is also known as the composer of some of the finest endgame studies and chess problems we have ever seen. Pál was also a loyal friend who provided us with countless articles over the last decade. He will be deeply missed. | Photo Diana Mihajlova.

Lagarde, Guichard bag French national titles in thrilling finale

8/27/2019 – The 2019 French Championships concluded on Sunday in Chartres, capital of the Eure-et-Loir department. Both the open and women's categories were decided on tiebreaks. In the end, Pauline Guichard got her second consecutive national title after taking down six-time champion Sophie Milliet, while Maxime Lagarde became French champion for the first time after beating Laurent Fressinet in the blitz phase of the play-offs. DHANANJAY KHADILKAR reports. | Photo: Fédération Française des Échecs

Jobava juggernaut at Abu Dhabi Masters 2019

8/27/2019 – The former Georgia no.1 Baadur Jobava won the 26th edition of Abu Dhabi Chess Festival by scoring 8.0/9. Jobava finished sole first, a full point ahead of the runner-up young Uzbek GM Nodirbek Yakubboev at 7.0/9. Eight player tied for the third place at 6½/9, current World Junior Champion Parham Maghsoodloo secured the second runner-up position due to a better tie-break score. | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Simon Says - Tactics Training

8/26/2019 – It's tactics time! GM Simon Williams will run you through a (fun) gauntlet of puzzles sure to exercise your mind. Watch for free (for a limited time) starting at the usual hour: 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST / 12 Noon EDT).

Nepomiachtchi and Karjakin join the lead

8/26/2019 – The spell of draws was finally broken but the leading pack became a jumbo five-men crowd as Karjakin and Nepomniachtchi joined them at 4½ points from 8 rounds. While erstwhile joint leaders Fabiano Caruana and Viswanathan Anand drew their mutual encounter after a long fight, world champion Magnus Carlsen waged a spirited battle against Ding Liren but was forced to settle for a draw too. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports all action from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Magnus and his rivals

8/26/2019 – In his last review of ChessBase Magazine 190, Nagesh Havanur dealt with the report on the recent European Women’s Championship in our magazine. In this review he deals with the rest of the magazine: Nepomniachtchi's gains in the Grand Prix, Magnus versus Maxime, and more...

Anand with an agonizing miss against Ding

8/25/2019 – The seventh round of the Sinquefield Cup followed the same pattern of the previous day – all draws and status quo continued in tournament standings, with another heartbreak for Vishy Anand who once again missed converting a clearly better position. Thus, Anand along with Caruana and Ding continue to lead the tournament jointly with 4 points. But other games almost didn't show the fighting content worthy of a top tournament, though most of them were decently fought out. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports all action from the venue. Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Nyzhnyk cruises to US Open victory

8/25/2019 – The 2019 edition of the massive US Open took place from August 3rd to 11th in Orlando, Florida. GM ELSHAN MORIADABADI was there and chose the gruelling six-day schedule, much like eventual champion Illya Nyzhnyk. Elshan sent us a behind-the-scenes report, which naturally includes the lead-up to the Armageddon match-up that decided which American player will participate in next year's US Championship. Can you guess who qualified? | Photos: John Hartmann

Anand, Caruana and Ding continue to lead

8/24/2019 – Vishy Anand missed a great opportunity to finish off Anish Giri while holding the upper hand — many times during the game — to settle for a heart-breaking draw in the sixth round. He continues to share the lead with 3½ points along with Fabiano Caruana and Ding Liren after another all-draw round at the Sinquefield Cup. Caruana versus Vachier-Lagrave was a fantastic fight from a razor sharp Sicilian Najdorf, showing the depth of the players' opening preparation and boldness. Other games contained relatively less fighting content. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Made in Taiwan

8/24/2019 – The second edition of the CTCA International Open took place in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where modern technology and ancient traditions meet. Not only did ALINA L'AMI manage to take some remarkable photographs for this report, but she also finished the tournament in second place. Let us get to know this unique culture through the eyes of a chess explorer.

The Power Play Show: Yu Yangyi v. Magnus Carlsen

8/23/2019 – On the show today: GM Daniel King will be looking through Yu Yangyi vs Magnus Carlsen from the St Louis blitz tournament. Power Play is live most Fridays at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, Noon EDT) 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...

Igors Rausis: How to quit chess in one move

8/23/2019 – A photo of a chess player using a mobile phone in a toilet during a tournament game made international headlines for the sport and rekindled fears of cheating in chess. Igors Rausis, the grandmaster caught in the act, says that it was his chance to quit the world of chess in one move. ANDRIS TIHOMIROVS spoke to the accused. | Photos: Playerbase

Jack in the box

8/23/2019 – After 14.Nc5 Bxc5 15.Rxc5 in the diagram, Black hit the white rook with the centralizing 15...Ne4? Can you spot the drawback of this move?

Girya and Tomashevsky are the 2019 Russian champions

8/23/2019 – The 2019 Russian Championships came to an end this Thursday in Izhevsk. Olga Girya won the women's section after defeating Natlija Pogonina in the Armageddon phase of the play-offs, while Evgeny Tomashevsky clinched the open title thanks to a final round victory over Kirill Alekseenko. This was Tomashevsky's second national triumph, while Girya won the championship for the first time. | Photo: Dmitry Kryakvin

Deal of the Week: Master Class bundle for less than 30 euro!

8/23/2019 – The ChessBase "Master Class" series allows anyone to learn from the greatest players in chess history! The games of world champions like Alexander Alekhine, José Raúl Capablanca and Anatoly Karpov are presented by a team of grandmasters and international masters: Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Oliver Reeh, Dr. Karsten Mueller and Niclas Huschenbeth. This week only you can get the 3 DVD-bundle for just EUR 29.90 instead of the regular price of EUR 89.70!

Caruana weathers the So storm

8/22/2019 – Ding Liren joined the leaders Viswanathan Anand and Fabiano Caruana at the top of the table with 3 points after a round of hard fought battles in almost all games at the Sinquefield Cup. Nemponiachtchi was the other winner of the round after his opponent Hikaru Nakamura played unevenly to lose a game where he didn't seem to be in his best of form. Anand, Caruana and So demonstrated very sharp opening preparations which made this round the most memorable of the tournament so far. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from the venue. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

How does the Engine Cloud work?

8/22/2019 – If you have ever had a chess engine analysing deeply on your notebook, you'll notice you soon hear the cooling fan rushing, the battery is sucked empty as your push the limits of the hardware. The ChessBase Engine Cloud solves this problem: Current chess engines, installed on high-performance hardware — your wish is their command! Use the cloud's computing power without burdening your notebook or upgrading to expensive hardware. Have top-notch processing power already. Then you can become a supplier! The Engine Cloud is also a marketplace where you can rent engines out to others.

Russian Champions: Tomashevsky and Girya

8/22/2019 – The Superfinals of the 72nd Russian Championship and the 69th Russian Women's Championship concluded in Izhevsk. In the final round Evgeny Tomashevsky won while Vitiugov could only draw giving the 32-year-old from Saratov his second Russian Championship title. Meanwhile, in the Women's, Natalija Pogonina and Olga Girya went all the way to an Armageddon blitz game play-off to decide the championship in favour of Girya. Games and commentary from 9:00 UTC (11:00 CEST, 5:00 AM EDT). | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

Russian Superfinals: Six players can still win the Open

8/22/2019 – The penultimate round of the Russian Championships left two players sharing the lead in the open section, as Nikita Vitiugov and Evgeny Tomashevsky drew their games while former co-leader Ernesto Inarkiev lost against Vladislav Artemiev. In the women's category, Natalija Pogonina got a crucial victory over Valentina Gunina and is now half a point behind sole leader Olga Girya. The final round will be played on Thursday, two hours earlier than usual. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

Game of the Week: Caruana vs Aronian

8/21/2019 – IM Merijn van Delft is live this week and will examine Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's win over Richard Rapport from the St. Louis Rapid tournament. 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 on-demand this week starting at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT).

Caruana joins Anand in the lead

8/21/2019 – The spell of draws was finally broken when Levon Aronian blundered under time pressure handing Fabiano Caruana a well-deserved victory in the only decisive game of the fourth round. All other games ended in draws, as Vishy Anand messed up a complicated calculation to miss a certain win while Magnus Carlsen overlooked another opportunity to grind his opponent down. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour